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Goodguy  12hr ago (text post)   Edited 9hr ago   4106 thread views

Midterms Megathread

Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.

The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.

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Sure but this is a macro issue across the vast majority of the developed world right now and Left-leaning parties in charge are relying on essentially the same comms. Left-side parties might be able to promise more gibs than Right-side but still gotta actually fund them.

Nearly every party in power is suffering. The right is winning in Europe maybe primarily because the left is in charge.

Eh... There's truth to the argument that the problems the west is struggling with are bigger than either party or political options, and real solutions are not feasible in a democracy... but come on, that war was retarded.

…specifically because it hurt the US economy, no?

I think almost every gripe boils down to not enough resources, and every serious gripe boils down to not enough basic resources. People want food, housing, medical care, and some luxuries, without spending the majority of their awake life on an intolerable job.

This is obviously not easy, but I’m sure we could do a better job allocating resources than now. We have LLMs automating white-collar work and robots automating blue-collar work, though not eliminating, making workers more productive, so they should be able to work less. We could maybe direct corrupt beneficiaries and aspiring entrepreneurs to robotics, logistics (reducing food waste etc. with cool new AI to make it more interesting), and encouraging people to live…not sacrificing anything they really care about (eating meat is OK)…more sustainably.

(…but no, every party in power has to focus on the more direct route of boosting their culture, which backfires as it gets associated with the stalled economy…)

No problem, the left will issue national debt to pay for gibs. Voters are pleased, in the short-term.

You mean exactly like the rightwing have been doing?

I think Israel got most of the gibs this round.

Essentially every party has to finance the Gibs juggernaut now. Atleast Right Wing parties give some slight nods and contemplation of potentially alleviating parts of it.

Homeboy, Trump literally promised $5k debt financed cash free and clear if the Republicans won. The gibs are out of control.

This, at least the Dems have a semblance of shame in how they hand out their gibs and don't make it look like naked prima facie bribery.

I'm not sure that's good. I would have thought you'd appreciate having this stuff in the open where people can get mad about it, rather than buried in the bottom of a balance sheet about providing teddy bears for orphans.

I think shame is a good thing, and there are merits to both approaches.

The tribute that vice pays to virtue?

Desperate flailing that he probably knew he had effectively zero chance of ever actually being in position to pay out.

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