Manni
Schrödinger's PratIf a giant flaming meteor was coming to wipe out all life on earth and, through some magical convoluted and utterly insane mechanism, the only way to stop it was for everyone on earth to buy one fewer sock each year, we'd be instantly flooded with thousands of people proudly bragging on the Internet about how they're now going to buy hundreds of socks *right now* because the libs can't tell them what to do.
BeeCycling@Rhodium103 I was thinking recently about the pushback against compulsory seatbelt laws we had, and thinking about how if this was happening now, we'd have people deliberately getting themselves flung through their windscreen to own the libs.
The Doctor@beecycling @Rhodium103 I find it difficult to want to dissuade people who would be inclined to do such a dumb thing.
Peter Kraus@beecycling @Rhodium103 I was having a discussion with someone in their later 60's on how it's not the job of the government to dictate what kind of heating can be installed in new properties. The market can regulate on price alone. I'm sure once all the coal fanatics will die of CO poisoning, the market for that tech will shrink...
Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫@Rhodium103
There's definitely a kind of person for whom life has been reinterpreted as a shallow game where money is points, arbitrary signifiers of status are trophies, people you don't personally know are NPCs and if you're harming them you're winning.
All the real ways we benefit from all of us thriving are not part of the game and don't count towards your high score.
Also the game is rigged and pay-to-play: most players only get to earn the cruelty achievements, not the yacht money.
@petealexharris @Rhodium103 > Also the game is rigged and pay-to-play: most players only get to earn the cruelty achievements, not the yacht money.
They know they'd never get the money, so they shoot for what they actually enjoy.
Richard Michael Blaber@Rhodium103 Er... the whole point of liberalism is that liberals believe people should be free to do whatever they want, provided it doesn't hurt others. At least that's the original - & European - definition of the word. Americans got rather confused about what it meant. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism.
Oblomovthere was a classic cartoon by, IIRC, Gary Larson about the drift in the meaning of the word liberal
Resuna@oblomov @rmblaber1956 @Rhodium103
Ask a Republican what "republic" means some time. :(
Joe W@oblomov @rmblaber1956 @Rhodium103 There's also the saying about the US having a conservative party - and a reactionary one...
𝓳𝓸𝓱𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓮🏴@Rhodium103 OFF OF MY COLD, DEAD FEET!
Geoff 🏴@Rhodium103 Recently re-watched Don't Look Up for the first time. Found myself rooting for the asteroid from the very beginning.
David J. Atkinson@Rhodium103 This seems like a testable theory.
Abram Kedge🏴🇨🇦@Rhodium103 I've noticed that there are people who would proudly starve themselves and their own families, if it meant that one person they didn't approve of didn't get a free meal.
Matt T.@Rhodium103 There would also be thousands of people writing op-eds about how socks are typically sold in packs of two, and it is simply unrealistic to expect people to buy TWO fewer socks each year; more in sorrow than in anger, they would accuse the anti-meteor crowd of being elitist and out of touch with real earthlings, and insist that the only possible solution is direct sock capture (current technology being capable of removing one sock from the world per week, but only when fueled by twenty other socks purchased for that purpose)
Angus McIntyre@Rhodium103 What if I give up my extra sock, and it turns out the meteor isn’t even real? WHAT THEN?
lp0 on fire 
@Rhodium103, that would be an instant “we're doomed” on the grounds that (from what I've seen) socks aren't sold individually.
What number do I start with: how many socks have I bought this year so far, or (better) how many last year? (Answer: I don't remember, but probably not many pairs.)
What happens in the year after I buy no socks? Do I start selling them, one in the first year, two the next year… who buys them?
Mark Otway@Rhodium103
It wouldn't be long before there was a significant profit-making market where people could sell their bare feet so, that others could buy additional socks and "offset" them.
Of course, eventually everyone would realise that all the people selling their bare feet were actually wearing brand new socks after all, and the whole initiative was a massive scam.
LordWoolamaloo@Rhodium103 by that analogy the Red Hot Chili Peppers are saviours!! 😋😁
Thomas =:-)@Rhodium103 @cstross aren’t you vastly overstating the impact of the „Anglophone“ in you scenario? There’s only about 6% of you, including Canada and Ireland, who surely would be smarter.
Killa Koala@Rhodium103 I only wear socks in winter, so I've already halved my sock purchases!
Oliver Busch@Rhodium103 Don’t Look Up!