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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • qwamqwamqwam@sh.itjust.workstoTechnology@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    Fascism is well-defined? With all due respect, this is the kind of statement that betrays a lack of knowledge of the field. Fascism is notorious in political science for being poorly defined both as a system of government and as an ideology.

    What constitutes as a definition of fascism and fascist governments has been a complicated and highly disputed subject concerning the exact nature of fascism and its core tenets debated amongst historians, political scientists, and other scholars ever since Benito Mussolini first used the term in 1915. Historian Ian Kershaw once wrote that “trying to define ‘fascism’ is like trying to nail jelly to the wall”.

    For convenience, we can use the Wikipedia definition, which clearly signposts the oppression of political and social minorities as key parts of the definition of fascism.

    Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement,[1][2][3] characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

    “Paradox of tolerance” does not justify literally any oppressive act.

    And yeah, if a plane with 20 people on board is on a glide path towards a stadium, I’m going to be pretty skeptical of anybody who’s just champing at the bit to shoot it down. If we’ve got the time to talk about it, we can evacuate the stadium, or get in contact with the pilot, or scramble a jet to take a look inside and confirm if the occupants are incapacitated, or nudge a wingtip so that it glides into a less populated area. All of which have a better chance of success and are less disruptive than firing an armed missile within civilian airspace. Your unwillingness to consider less extreme options will inadvertently end up empowering authoritarians and enabling the very abuses you nominally wish to prevent.




  • I originally wrote this for [email protected] but it works pretty good for me too:

    NATO Astronaut 1: It never gets old, huh?

    NATO Astronaut 2: Nope.

    Astronaut 1: It kinda makes you want to…

    Astronaut 2: Break into a song?

    Astronaut 1: Yep.

    I love the trenches,

    I love the roadside mines,

    I love blown bridges,

    I love when turrets fly.

    I love the whole world

    And all its sights and sounds.

    Boom-de-yah-da, boom-de-yah-da (twice)

    I love my plane-fus,

    I love nuke submarines,

    I love logistics,

    I love democracy!

    I love the whole world

    And all its craziness

    Boom-de-yah-da, boom-de-yah-da (twice)

    I love dictators

    (I like to watch em hang)

    I love Three Gorges

    I love when things go bang!

    I love the whole world

    It’s such a brilliant place

    Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da (repeating until fade)



  • There was a Politico article about this last week:

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/08/08/age-law-online-porn-00110148

    The public is also on her side. “You poll this, it’s like an 85-15 issue,” explained Jon Schweppe, the policy director for the socially conservative think tank American Principles Project. Age-verification for porn is not his think tank’s only priority, but when they poll it against other priorities in swing states, age-verification blows the rest out of the water, with 77 percent in support and 15 percent opposed.

    Here’s a Pew survey suggesting that the majority of Americans consider porn harmful:

    A large 70%-majority of Americans reject the idea that “nude pictures and X-rated videos on the internet provide harmless entertainment for those who enjoy it”; only 27% agree; in general, opinions about pornography have become slightly more conservative over the past 20 years. Currently 41% agree that “nude magazines and X-rated movies provide harmless entertainment for those who enjoy it,” while 53% disagree. The number saying such material is harmless has fluctuated, declining from 48% in 1987 to 41% in 1990 and then varying by no more than four percentage points thereafter. The pattern is more mixed for other values related to freedom of expression.

    Note that trends in this space are getting more conservative, rather than less. This tracks with my experience with Gen Z.

    Admittedly, I have not seen any polling about specific legislation. It hasn’t been long since these bills were passed, and I don’t know if it’s a priority for pollsters. But if nothing else, just look through the thread. Lemmy leans way further left that the general public, and even here most people’s problems with it are about execution rather than intent.