Corrective: Socialism and Solidarity

Apparently there are jackasses everywhere…even in Sweden.  Darn.  Since Mr. Angst has a “righteous, rude and restless” pop-up requiring a login to Twitter which prevents me from posting a comment in response, my response to a few of his asinine conclusions are below:

socialism is incompatible with solidarity.

Fundamentally, this is because socialism doesn’t fight poverty. Socialism fights wealth.

Monetary wealth is a proxy for purchasing power.  Purchasing power is relative.  There is no monetary wealth without monetary poverty.  Fighting monetary wealth fights monetary poverty.

Filesharing, copyrights, libraries, oh my!

UPDATE:  from http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/riaa-and-isps-to-police-your-traffic-starting-july-12.ars?comments=1&start=40#comment-22664142

Stupid question:

doesn’t [sic] that mean that we should all have free, unlimited access, to every single song, movie, tv show, book, etc? Well of course that sounds awesome! But is it right?

Smart, well-informed response [emphasis mine]:

It’s a _very_ old idea. It’s called a Public Library. Fans will _still_ support content _creators_.
RIAA and MPAA are not _creators_, they are obsolete middlemen.

Apparently, the myopic and stubborn **AA (RI and MP both) are feeling threatened by their own inevitable obsolescence, as are “content providers” such as Comcast.  Policing internet traffic is their rather draconian way of stalling their inevitable downfall…but it reality it will only piss people off, raise awareness and hasten their downfall.   Cue the caustic laughter…

Full story here: http://arst.ch/swz

I am sick and tired of hearing that people who file-share “copyrighted materials” are thieves. That they break laws. That what they are doing is wrong. They aren’t, they don’t, and it isn’t. Here’s why…

Veganism, pt 2

a follow up cross-post to my previous entry on veganism:

“I also like to tell people who are pro-life, that they’re not truly pro-life if they eat meat. OH ZING!”

Vegans eat the unborn young of trees, shrubs, herbs and other plants. They must not be pro-life. (what the hell do you think seeds and nuts are?) Vegans eat the tender young (shoots) of plants.

by the logic of the original post, vegans must have a deep-seeded (no pun intended) hatred of every non-animal living thing. because by eating them, they can’t possibly love them. you all must be incapable of loving trees, young shoots and sprouts, flowers, fungi, bacteria, etc. it’s inconsistent and ridiculous. we MUST love all of it, and yes, we MUST eat some of it.