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The Demoralization is just Beginning

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Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#501

Post by sgt101 »

Rhapso wrote: post #391
KaiserPro wrote: post #349

Going back to a gold standard will limit the money supply. This means that there will be less capital for building $thing. A gold standard means that when the economy gets overheated it pops, then contracts and you get deflation. This makes crashes last longer and harder. It requires greater fiscal discipline to overcome. The problem with the USA "empire" is that for a trading empire to work you need a plan, and stic…

If you are trying to pin a currency to a standard, gold isn't great. Its value is almost entirely speculative and it lacks meaninful intrinsic value at this point. If you demand to leave fiat currency, an aluminum or steel standard might make more sense. Rare earth metals, or even just petroleum would be my proposal. Maybe someday we will have a duterium pinned currency.

I think this shows the problem of non fiscal pegs - the value of rare earths or duterium is going to be impacted by technical change. For example let's say that a new processing technique means that a rare earth can be extracted at 20% of the current cost, or a new deposit is discovered. The whole economy is now flexed around this change... which has nothing to do with the economy.

I don't think that there is a fixed asset that could be suitable as a proper peg.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#502

Post by fwn »

dudefeliciano wrote: post #488
emsy wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s true for Germany. There recently was a case of a podcaster whose acquaintances were tapped and was apprehended while walking with his 1yo for posting memes. An AfD politician was fined 6000€ for posting crime statistics. A man had his house searched for sharing a meme of calling a politician something along the lines of „idiot“. There’s also the 60 minutes interview where prosecutors brag about confiscating devi…

ok but I was asking for some reliable sources, not a paragraph of anecdotes. I could go google each one myself, but I don't even want to imagine in what kind of hellhole websites I will end up in if I do that.

I'm not the parent, but one reference they made but didn't link was this 60 Minutes clip "Policing the internet in Germany, where hate speech, insults are a crime". It was a bit of a meme in Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMzFDpfDwc

Still, the author of the original article has some pretty polarising and crude views, and I think it's valuable to keep that context in mind. The key is not to be lazy and just dismiss everything that doesn't come from the smoothest PR media personality.

For me, it felt like reading a frustrated author arguing against over-reliance on the service sector as an economy, given the dependencies it creates. There is certainly nationalism, realism/geopolitical views and a somewhat raw criticism of the current monetary system in the mix. The author sprinkles a lot of cultural references all over it and concludes with a tongue-in-cheek hint at an accelerationist strategy.

.. based on that random blogpost I probably still wouldn't buy any gold just yet.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#503

Post by wahnfrieden »

dudefeliciano wrote: post #488
emsy wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s true for Germany. There recently was a case of a podcaster whose acquaintances were tapped and was apprehended while walking with his 1yo for posting memes. An AfD politician was fined 6000€ for posting crime statistics. A man had his house searched for sharing a meme of calling a politician something along the lines of „idiot“. There’s also the 60 minutes interview where prosecutors brag about confiscating devi…

ok but I was asking for some reliable sources, not a paragraph of anecdotes. I could go google each one myself, but I don't even want to imagine in what kind of hellhole websites I will end up in if I do that.

German police raid homes of activists for making anti-Israel social media posts https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-police-raid-prop...

(Trump also just tweeted that activists will be imprisoned)

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#504

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

emsy wrote: post #478
dudefeliciano wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is there any reliable source for that "going to jail in europe for posting memes"? I keep seeing this argument in online arguments, but can not find a credible source

It’s true for Germany. There recently was a case of a podcaster whose acquaintances were tapped and was apprehended while walking with his 1yo for posting memes. An AfD politician was fined 6000€ for posting crime statistics. A man had his house searched for sharing a meme of calling a politician something along the lines of „idiot“. There’s also the 60 minutes interview where prosecutors brag about confiscating devi…

The only people who are in jail for political reasons in the UK are fossil fuel company protestors, who were jailed for planning a protest during a Zoom meeting. Others have been jailed for relatively minor but high profile actions, such as throwing paint at paintings (protected behind glass).

People have been jailed for racist rioting and planning racist riots, but not many people in the UK see that as a bad thing.

The climate change prisoners are getting a lot more support.

The US imprisons countless black people every year for the flimsiest reasons with questionable due process, in for-profit prisons, some of which have been caught operating with kickbacks for judges.

Also, Aaron Swartz.

And multiple arrests of journalists.

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-arrested-in-...

The idea that the US is some kind of utopian beacon of free speech while the rest of the world is authoritarian and repressive is utter nonsense.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#505

Post by dudefeliciano »

acatton wrote: post #484
dudefeliciano wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is there any reliable source for that "going to jail in europe for posting memes"? I keep seeing this argument in online arguments, but can not find a credible source

There are multiple cases in Germany (where I live). I cannot find them all, but "Pimmelgate" is a famous one where one guy on twitter (that's what it was called at the time) told a local politician " Du bist ein Pimmel " (in English: "You're a dick") and the next day the police showed up at his apartment and searched it. The issue is the harassment. Most of these cases are baseless and get dropped once presented to t…

My question was specifically about being jailed for expressing their opinion? Is this something that happens all the time in Germany (from what you wrote I would say no. It's a hassle but at most you get a fine that you can appeal, right?). Americans seem to think that people post a meme and end up in an american style max-security federal prison or something, while actually the offender gets a minor slap on the wrist.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#506

Post by ZeroTalent »

hermitcrab wrote: post #468
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: Is George qualified to be making statements concerning economic outlook?

It does say at the bottom of the page "A home for poorly researched ideas". So I don't think even he is very confident in what he is saying. I assume they are just trying to be provocative. Judging by the number of comments here, it worked.

This is called lamphshading.

Lampshading is when someone acknowledges a flaw or controversial aspect upfront, often humorously or ironically, to deflect criticism or give the appearance of humility or openness.

Saying something like "A home for poorly researched ideas" while actually propagating extremist, controversial, or misleading content is a tactic intended to: disarm critics, avoid accountability, and create plausible deniability.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#507

Post by kibwen »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #482

The gold standard makes no sense whatsoever, you want the money supply to be able to grow with the economy. Printing loads of money is bad, but a deflationary spiral due to a fixed money supply is even worse.

These chuckleheads have had their brains reduced to scrambled egg by decades of propaganda telling them that inflation is solely caused by "printing money", while failing to apply even the Econ 101 lesson that the value of a dollar is subject to supply and demand, and holding supply constant means that the value will vary based on demand.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#508

Post by riehwvfbk »

flyinglizard wrote: post #410
foven wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More to the point, when you write an article like this foretelling the doom of the american economy, why would you think you are able to brain drain any country? What stops the countries you are trying to drain from offering better incentives to stay?

At this point in time, US is the global leader in personal freedoms, culture and financial opportunities. These are the things people are looking to immigrate towards. Personal freedoms can't be manufactured. They are a product of the underlying system governing a country. The US has very strong institutions and legal framework in the form of the constitution (again, at this point in time; I expect the current admin…

The cultural dominance is ending quickly. Most American TV shows are re-hashes of British shows from the year prior. Today's hip hop for non-geezers is called Phonk, and it doesn't come from the US. Hollywood is making Yet Another Comic Book Movie, over and over again. The source material for these is almost 100 years old.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#509

Post by llamaimperative »

jmyeet wrote: post #456
RivieraKid wrote: post #440

This started out interesting but then the red flags started to pop up. Going to jail in Europe for posting memes, gold standard, salivating over doing something that benefits the US and hurts countries that are already poorer than the US. He has strong opinions on economics, but doesn't understand it. His points about economics are partially true but either subtly incorrect or interpreted incorrectly.

It didn't even start out interesting. The main product of the US is weapons not "the dollar". Electricity generation is a metric for what exactly? China's popoulation is rapidly urbanizing. That's all that shows. But the killer is the gold standard. The author seems to be confusing this with fractional reserve banking. Interestingly, they're anti-crypto, which is kinda odd because most gold bugs became crypto bros. C…

A lot of people think we didn’t have fractional reserve banking when we had the gold standard. Alas: we did.

Re: The Demoralization is just Beginning

#510

Post by ruszki »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #503
dudefeliciano wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok but I was asking for some reliable sources, not a paragraph of anecdotes. I could go google each one myself, but I don't even want to imagine in what kind of hellhole websites I will end up in if I do that.

German police raid homes of activists for making anti-Israel social media posts https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-police-raid-prop... (Trump also just tweeted that activists will be imprisoned)

Your link doesn’t state that.
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