If I understand what you’re saying correctly we are largely on the same page about this… class mobility upward is almost impossible. Classes are usually discriminatory against other classes (sometimes even towards higher classes). This makes actual class mobility very hard. People have to mask as having always belonged to a certain class by acquiring the correct signifiers.

What I am not sure I agree with, or maybe I just don’t understand it, is the point about dimensions of class. People are more than just the job they do. An aristocrat who is living off inheritance has about the same amount of actual working experience that a low class individual who can’t get a job has. They both don’t work, but since the aristocrat has a bunch of capital which the low class person doesn’t have they are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Idk why you were getting those downvotes. I’ll check out Fussel if I get the chance.

Not saying caste system is better, both are terrible. We should strive to abolish both.

But to your point about class mobility: You can always move down in class, up is neigh impossible. Thinking that money will help you move up is only a carrot that the upper class dangles in front of the poor. Class is not only determined by wealth, it is determined by capital. Capital encompasses not only financial and economic capital, but also social capital, intellectual capital, cultural capital, etc. To move up in class you will have to acquire enough of all of these, just money isn’t enough. If you don’t have the same manners, vocabulary, friends, status symbols and don’t consume the the same media you will never be accepted and only be considered a nouveau rich and a gaudy buffoon. Your lifestyle will be better than that of the rest of your class, but the higher class will never accept you as one of their own. Your kids might be able to move up, if you put them in the right school so they can absorb some of that social capital and learn the language, acquire the correct manners and make the right friends. But you will very likely be forever stuck in the same class that you were born in, unless you move down.

There is a Philosopher called Hanno Sauer who wrote a book about this. I don’t agree with his conclusion that we cannot overcome class, but he does make some good points about its nature.

Happy birthday haha

The article doesn’t call the dead woman the client of her boyfriend, it calls the boyfriend the client of the defence attorney.

Shit will basically work by itself, we just gotta give it a little push.

The Sacklers handled the opioids already and China is supplying plenty of fentanyl… Even the bio-warfare is bound to be more effective than before with all the antivaxxers over there.

Fair enough, those are good points. In principle I agree with both of you. I just think that all of these factors are secondary to the right geographical and meteorological conditions. There are plenty of countries that have the capacity to invest, but don’t care about medals at the Winter Olympics because they don’t have a culture in winter sports because they don’t have proper winters.

I also think the example of Italy vs Spain was not ideally chosen to make the argument.

We’re splitting hairs here… infrastructure will obviously only be where good winter conditions are. If no one considers your conditions good for winter sports they won’t come/invest so there will be less infrastructure.

Also, if you’ve never seen real ice outside, you’re less likely to get really into hockey or skating or bobsledding.

You are correct that there are also factors like culture, heritage in winter sports, infrastructure, financial backing, etc. But those are all dependent on having good mountains and winters in the first place. Northern Italy has them, Spain not so much.

Edit: To make a better case for your argument you could have picked a Caucasus Nation. Azerbaijan have great mountains with lots of snow, but are way less successful because of lack in funding, infrastructure and a culture around winter sports.

Italy includes most of the southern alps and specifically Alto Adige with the Dolomites, which is one of the most popular regions for alpine sports, be it winter or summer. Most of the Italian athletes are from that region of Italy, not from Puglia or Sicily.

Spain has mostly the Pyrenees, which are lower, have less snow on average, no glaciers and worse infrastructure. Sierra Nevada is tiny in comparison to what the Italian alps ca offer, albeit it’s an option for glacial skiing.

Your example actually shows that the other poster was right.

Interesting to read this in the telegraph. If I recall correctly they were pro leave during the campaign leading up to the referendum.

Always feel conflicted blocking guys like this… I wanna keep seeing them so I can downvote, but they also are just fucking annoying and toxic.

I hope they are planning on giving the room some sound treatment. Their square box rn is gonna fuck with the sound so much that they won’t even notice the fancy gear that they have.

I feel like there were already plenty of lines crossed. What makes you think they wouldn’t this time?

I personally know a few people who do similar stuff or use it as therapist. It’s anecdotal of course but I don’t think many people using AI for personal connections and interactions is very surprising. Before AI people used chat boards, blogs, social media and google to talk about and commiserate about their problems, now it’s AI. There was an “AI” called Eliza in the late 60s and people already were using that as a therapist and attributed intelligence and real emotions to it.

This whole thing says more about the availability and demand for real human connection and therapy than it does about the individuals who use it.

First they made the m&m less sexy and now this -.-

This is a frequently repeated quote attributed to the late philosopher Frederic Jameson. On its own it doesn’t make a statement about capitalism or what it is at all. (If you wanna know more about Jamesons theories on capitalism you can read about it in his books)

Jameson’s quote points out that people often find it easier to picture possible world ending doomsday scenarios, than it is for them to think about alternatives to living in a capitalist world to try to avoid these scenarios.

You can even test this yourself. Ask people around you about the end of the world and many will point out reasons like climate change, demographic changes, environmental destruction, pollution, world wars, nuclear holocaust, asteroid impacts (shoutout Roland Emmerich) and even biblical scenarios for an eventual end of the world as we know it.

But ask them if they think there are other ways to live, so that those things won’t happen and usually they will just give you a version of “this is just how things are, not much you can do about it” or “the world could be different, but there is no use in trying because this is just a utopia and I have no idea how to change stuff anyways”.

Regarding your last paragraph, imo this kinda misses the point. I agree, there are structures that exist parallel to what most people consider capitalism, but ask people in most self described capitalist societies and they will not really recognise the difference and will just see it as an anomaly at best.

Btw, this is all coming from a European perspective, albeit heavily informed by US media.

It is so much easier and comfortable to just close your eyes to the troubles of the world, but it also means that you won’t see what’s coming and will not be able to act. So this sort of sensory overload with negativity and craziness is kinda the point. The more people are tuned out and overwhelmed, the easier it is for assholes like Musk and Trump to push their agenda through. It’s also talked about in 1984, where the quote comes from

I feel like the original quote applies here pretty well, no real need to change it…

War is peace

Freedom is slavery

Ignorance is strength

Another company Microsoft bought and ran into the ground. It’s really incredible that they managed to get their lunch stolen. They had basically a monopoly and gave it away without a fight. Hell, the colloquialism for video calling someone was to Skype them for a looong time.

And then one small competitor comes along and it’s all gone. How can you fuck up this bad? Especially during the pandemic, in which they should have further entrenched their monopoly…

Don’t be daft. These people dream of making movies and love doing it. They know if they don’t do it under the terms the studio demands, the movie doesn’t get made. They have no leverage and will be replaced by someone willing to work on the studios terms if they don’t agree.

So they can either work in a field they are very passionate about and be exploited, or do some soul crushing bullshit job in an office like the rest of us.

That is the German name for flea markets. It’s when people sell old stuff they don’t want or need anymore in their garden/some square/the street.

Guess the creators are Germans…