#capitlism

[sataniccapitalist]

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Possibility of ‘sharp market correction has increased’, says Bank’s financial policy committee

““On a number of measures, equity market valuations appear stretched, particularly for technology companies focused on artificial intelligence. This … leaves equity markets particularly exposed should expectations around the impact of AI become less optimistic.””

[env0writes]

Before the Fall 6.13.23 “Single Bedroom”

These beige walls bounce my whispered words Only the ones, to myself, I say I say… If I squeeze My eyes shut Just hard and long enough To finally see For once, some color

@env0writesC.Buck Ko-Fi & Venmo: @Zenv0 Support Your Local Artist! Photo by @env0

[whatwasoverwrought]

A Deadly Education thoughts:

I have to say, when I read the premise of this deadly school where students are constantly at risk of death, I thought it was a bit much, but I really like Uprooted and enjoyed Spinning Silver, so I gave the book a try.

It turns out there are very justifiable reasons for why students are constantly at risk. Spoiler: teenage wizards are like fish in a barrel for monsters, or “mal”s, but they’re still better off in the school than out of it. The school itself still seems to be unusally malevolent in addition to the mals, but if the school (and magic itself) is based in belief, it makes sense that a cynical character like El who believes everyone and everything is out to get her actually has a lot of stuff out to get her.

El’s spiky personality is not for everyone, but I liked it. I have a soft spot for prickly characters, like the Dragon in Uprooted. It’s entertaining to read the constant stream of belittling insults when you know it’s all bark and no bite. As much as I love Uprooted, the power dynamic between an older male mentor who is verbally abusive and a young female is a bit problematic—not wrong itself, but reminiscent of all the ways similar relationships could fo wrong. I thought it was refreshing to take that dynamic and turn it on it’s head and have the female half of a couple be the prickly methodical one and the male half be the ditzy prodigy.

This book is a great allegorical critique of capitalism and I feel called out by it. I’m of two minds. I feel that El’s mom could have compromised her morals a bit for the well-being of her child, but at the same time I admire her and El’s decision to withdraw from participating in enclaves. It’s not very realistic (we can’t all live in yurts in communes and not charge anything for services and be spirit-whole), but capitalism is built on inequality and oftentimes we’re too busy trying to get a little bit ahead to stop and think “actually the whole system is fucked.”

As a teacher, I can appreciate the digs at education as well (lectures which often don’t count for much except for a few things worth an ordinate amount on quizzes). There’s definitely some great satire in that.

Also, as an Asian woman, I liked how the protagonist was half-Asian and how she allied with two other Asian women. Yes, Orion is White (which fits with his obliviousness to the privilege he holds), but of the 4 main characters, over half are Asian! There’s also a lot of female representation as a whole, with Orion’s mother, rather than his father, being the important Magister and the valedictorian being female. It makes sense that El, as a female, tends to gravitate towards other females and that girls would have a stronger connection to their mothers (and in Liu’s case, grandmother) than their fathers.

Of course, I know there’s criticisms (one famous one in particular that I will address in a separate post) of the way race and language are depicted in the book. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions, so here’s mine: while Naomi Novik, as a white woman, does write some microagressions into the book, it’s not blatantly racist—definitely not to the point of cancelling it. People can read or not read what they want, especially for fun, but as an ethnically Chinese person who thinks about ethnic identity and racism and representation a lot, I was not offended by it. It probably helped a lot that I actually liked the book. There’s hardly anything under the sun that’s not problematic in some way, after all. We are more likely to excuse problems if there are merits too. Overall, this book may have tried too hard to have token representation, but I do feel that El, Aadhya, and Liu are well-developed characters of color.

In any case, this book is not really about race. It’s about class: “Wizards tend to mix a lot more, since we all get jumbled in here together during out formative years, and the distinction that matters is between the enclavers and the rest of us have-nots” (Ch. 4 of A Deadly Education).

[shedontlovehuhself]

First and foremost fuck that bitch Candace Owens. She ain't shit but the biggest pick me there is.

The third person's response tho. They really have the mentality that because life saving vaccines are FREE they aren't shit but not asking themselves why insulin and cancer treatments are leaving people fucking destitute??!!! Like the answer is right there my dude.

People in the US have been so indoctrinated to believe that free healthcare = bad. That government assistance = spying while they complain on their smart phones and other devices that track everything we fucking do, like.🤷🏿‍♀️

[socialjusticecleric]

[audsthoughts]

You know what y’all should do?

Go apply for the jobs. Go and get the free iPhone, the free breakfast sandwich, the free bullshit they’re trying to bribe you with.

And then when they offer you a position, decline.

[mentallyrecovering]

Billionaires arguing about who’s a real astronaut on their million dollar space flights pissed me off! You can literally end homelessness feed a starving baby pay off someone’s medical debt and you instead spend it to go into space? Why? And then you flaunt that “anyone can do it in the future” like it’s some easily grasped thing and not a million Fucking dollars a flight. How innovative of you to waste money on a fucking space flight and pretend your some amazing intellectual and you can’t even figure out how to feed starving children

If I had a billion dollars I’d pay off my family’s debt and literally help pay for peoples dumb ass cost of medication because I know how it feels to be in medical debt and have to pay hundreds of dollars a month for one stupid medication but no these assholes go to fucking space and act like they are inspiring people to do better In life Bitch the only thing you are inspiring me to do is raise your taxes

[demosthenes-w]

A Defense

A common reason people use for the defense of Capitalism is “Communism won’t work because it is human nature to be greedy.” That same logic needs to be applied to Capitalism, a constant issue with Capitalism is that the rich own the means of production and the rich rule the world, money is power. The people on top stay on top because they control the means of production. Greed is a factor in both, Communism and Capitalism, however one provides social mobility, and the other one does not in the slightest. One will end the world, one is the only way to survive.