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CoggyMcFee

@CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world

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CoggyMcFee ,

Vote more Democrats into Congress

CoggyMcFee ,

I’m hearing this a lot lately too. Not from the Biden campaign, mind you. Just as a straw man in memes and comments in spaces like this.

CoggyMcFee ,

No, but it’s telling that you’re so small-minded that you figure this is a good assumption.

CoggyMcFee ,

Calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party is a right-wing pejorative

CoggyMcFee ,

How often do you see toppled democracies get replaced with something awesome? That seems like a pretty big risk.

EA wants to place in-game ads in its full-price AAA games, again (www.techspot.com)

EA has tried this before, with predictable results. In 2020, EA Sports UFC 4 included full-screen ads for the Amazon Prime series The Boys that would appear during 'Replay' moments. These were absent from the game when it launched, with EA introducing the ads about a month later, thereby preventing them from being highlighted in...

CoggyMcFee ,

*Babbage’s’s

CoggyMcFee ,

It's the container that count, not the content

That’s not what Mr Rogers taught me

Tesla’s in its flop era (www.theverge.com)

When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs...

CoggyMcFee , (edited )

I think you make a valid point that it’s extremely difficult to avoid buying from companies or CEOs you disagree with on political or moral grounds.

However, in the case of Tesla, I’ve lost faith in the product. If I bought a Tesla, I don’t know if I will discover that corners were cut, that features will be removed over the air, or that the company has suddenly crashed and burned.

So, the erratic, narcissistic CEO is the reason I won’t buy a Tesla anymore, but it’s not a sacrifice because I consider it to be the pragmatic choice as well.

CoggyMcFee ,

CRICKET THROUGH THE AGES

CoggyMcFee ,

If that dude’s outfit was animated and played noise, and the guy jumped in front of whatever I was looking at and wouldn’t go away, and sometimes he put random shit in my pockets or got me sick, then I’d hate that guy just as much as internet ads

CoggyMcFee , (edited )

Here is the nuance that is missing:

First-past-the-post voting systems inevitably trend to two-party systems over time. We see it play out in election models and we see it play out in real life.

One reason this happens is because, in this sort of system, voting for a third party candidate that aligns more closely with your views rather than the best choice of the major party candidates statistically increases the likelihood that the candidate furthest from your views will win. A significant, sustained third party that is more to your liking than the Democratic Party would ensure easy GOP victories for as long as all three parties ran their own candidates, even if the GOP never won an actual majority of votes. (We saw Bill Clinton win both elections in the 90s with much less than 50% and no candidate getting 50% due to a major third party candidate).

Another reason is that even if societal circumstances lead to a third party doing well enough to win it all, what you would end up with is having one of the existing major parties collapse, you’d be back to two parties, and the new third party would become watered down into ultimately the same thing it replaced. We’ve also seen this in American history.

In summary, there is tremendous systemic pressure that causes the two-party system. It’s not that our politicians are tricking us and politicians in Europe under different election systems can’t or won’t do the same. If we changed our voting system to e.g. Ranked Choice, not only would third parties be possible, they would be inevitable. But if we don’t change the system, then voting third party is like forcing two strong magnets together that are trying to repel. Even if you’re able to do it briefly, it’s completely unstable and will correct itself as soon as possible.

The oversimplified version of all this is “voting third party is voting for Trump”. I can see why it’s frustrating because it’s not literally true — however, anyone who is interested in maximizing their best interests, i.e. by having the winner be someone as good as possible, is statistically increasing the chances of the worst candidate winning by voting third party over preferred major party, while our voting system remains in place.

So ultimately, a slight rephrase to “voting third party instead of Democrat helps Trump win” is true.

CoggyMcFee ,

My post exactly decried a broken system. I called it a systemic problem! And in fact, it is the people who try to solve it by voting third party who are not realizing the system is broken such that doing so only hurts themselves. The only way to fix it is to figure out a way to have a new voting system. I even gave an example of an alternative one!

I think your response really underscores how we got to the situation where everything in politics is just soundbites and insults and pithy slogans. Actual reality can be wordy to talk about, but people like you can’t be bothered to read it! And then you reply with a new pithy insult like “Blue MAGA”. Take a second to think before you react!

Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores (gizmodo.com)

Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.

CoggyMcFee ,

Let us know what you find out

CoggyMcFee ,

I mean, certainly he gets more credit than deserved. But I find it hard to deny the major impact he had. When he was hired back as CEO in the late 90s, Apple already had talented engineers, but there was no coherence or direction in what they were working on, and the next gen OS was never going to happen. Back then, CEO Michael Dell was asked what he’d do if he were in charge of Apple and he said he’d shut it down. Apple was a punching bag in the industry.

Jobs immediately made radical changes at the company, eliminating most of their product line which was superfluous and confusing, shutting down software projects that were “neat” but didn’t fit into a vision, putting them on the path to release OS X (which his company had envisioned and developed the basis for while he was away from Apple), changing their marketing strategy, making the most clear-cut product line I’d ever seen, and turning conference keynotes into must-see TV. And in addition to that he pushed Apple towards the iMac, the iPod and the music store, and the iPhone.

It took amazing engineers and a lot of work and pain to actually deliver these products. And Jobs does get more credit than deserved. But I think he does deserve a whole lot of credit.

CoggyMcFee ,

moderation of disinformation and illegal content

Those are strange names for yachts

CoggyMcFee ,

It’s not a perfect take, but I’ve seen so many takes insanely worse than this one that I am genuinely unsure what evoked such a strong reaction to it. (Particularly since you provided no explanation.)

CoggyMcFee ,

If you want to be pedantic, I also didn’t say it was the worst take, and you didn’t actually say it was the dumbest

CoggyMcFee ,

Well that plus my last comment where I straight up said “I didn’t say it was the worst take”. I feel like you’ve gotten totally confused

CoggyMcFee ,

Re-read the thread. CAREFULLY.

CoggyMcFee ,

I like to remind those without kids that they were kids themselves and got an education.

CoggyMcFee ,

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/internet-of-lies/

sundray , to Comic Strips
@sundray@mastodon.social avatar

@comicstrips This debate will never end

Too Much Coffee Man by Shannon Wheeler for March 15, 2024 - GoComics https://www.gocomics.com/toomuchcoffeeman/2024/03/15Too Much Coffee Man by Shannon Wheeler for March 15, 2024

CoggyMcFee ,

The centaur could surely find something for putting on pants at Aubesians & Such over on 57th.

anders , to Memes
@anders@rytter.me avatar

Brute force protection

@memes

CoggyMcFee ,

And women

Amazon's Hidden Chatbot Recommends Nazi Books and Lies About Amazon Working Conditions (www.404media.co)

An Amazon chatbot that’s supposed to surface useful information from customer reviews of specific products will also recommend a variety of racist books, lie about working conditions at Amazon, and write a cover letter for a job application with entirely made up work experience when asked, 404 Media has found.

CoggyMcFee ,

It’s because the AI has no idea what reality is. Note also that Elaine’s praise took on the perspective of the wearer.

CoggyMcFee ,

What if you bought an ice cream cone and it was so cold that you had to get skin grafts to repair the damage to your lips? And not only that, but the owner of the store instructed the employees to make it that cold?

The McDonald’s woman’s risk calculation was probably “if this spills, it will hurt” and not, “if this spills, it will do permanent, significant damage to my body”.

Why would anyone prefer living in a world where some property of any item you buy could intentionally be set to dangerously extreme levels?

CoggyMcFee ,

Won’t someone think of the poor coffee snobs who want their coffee just so, but don’t want to have to make it themselves at home? We can’t sacrifice their ideal coffee temperature at public establishments just to save some people from horrific burns — people who are probably wearing the wrong pants anyway, and therefore are kind of at fault too, when you think about it.

CoggyMcFee ,

No, it’s just that your response was absurd. You didn’t answer my question, rehashing some points that I had already addressed and not answering my question. I found your response repetitive, uncurious, and selfish to the point of parody.

I was starting to write a different kind of answer, and I thought, why am I indulging this person who isn’t even taking the time to process what I’ve already written?

196 Stands with Palestine, but those of you in the US should still vote in the general election.

I've been seeing a lot of anti-voting sentiment going around. Can't believe I have to say this, but you need to vote. Not only is there more to the election than just the president. (State policy, Senate, house), but not voting is not an act of protest. C'mon guys

CoggyMcFee ,

The entire spoiler or dividing vote hoax is based on this false assumption that the voters carry the responsibility for not voting for a "lesser evil" candidate when that burden of responsibility should instead be on the nominee for not doing enough in their power to win over votes

No, that’s just plain incorrect. The spoiler vote phenomenon is an inevitable consequence of our first-past-the-post election system. Whatever you start from, this voting system trends to two parties over time. You can model this and watch it play out. It’s not a hoax. We even saw Ross Perot make a serious run at the presidency in the 90s, and he ended up with zero electoral votes, and 4 years later he did much worse and his Reform party fizzled out and nothing came of it. Because it is absolutely suboptimal in our voting system.

CoggyMcFee ,

Poe’s Law makes it impossible to know how to vote this comment

CoggyMcFee ,

There are always many reasons to stay home in any election. Most of them are selfish or deluded

CoggyMcFee ,

Yes, it definitely makes sense in context, especially if I figure the person isn’t a native speaker. If I thought the person was a native speaker, I might double check with them on that one

CoggyMcFee , (edited )

No problem as long as everyone’s memory is perfect. If I lived there I’m sure people would get it wrong or get confused very frequently. I definitely have people I know whose street name I remember, but can’t recall for certain if it is “st” or “rd” or “dr”

CoggyMcFee ,

They did say “most”, so I’m not sure what you’re trying to call out here

CoggyMcFee ,

And of course we can rest assured that nobody profiting off bitcoin is morally questionable

CoggyMcFee ,

I’m not saying that, rather I’m saying that I don’t see how either thing is clearly morally superior.

CoggyMcFee ,

The i-pronunciation is commonplace enough that some feminists who want to avoid the word “men” spell “women” as “wimmin”, i.e. the phonetic spelling.

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