Void_Reader

joined 1 year ago
[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was in the same position until a few weeks ago; mainly used YT for podcasts, downloading videos to watch while travelling etc.

If you have an Android phone, get the NewPipe app from F-Droid. It has pretty much everything that YT Premium offers, but free. It's been working really well for me.

 
[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

what's your favourite type of bollard and why?

 
[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

You're welcome!

I'm not an expert by any means, but did Politics and Economics as my undergrad and did decently well in it; am happy to share my knoweldge. Also wanted to apologise if parts of my previous post seemed a bit condescending, wasn't my intention.

Would be happy to debate/discuss more at any point if you're interested.

Figure I might as well drop some more reading recommendations:

Specific to the topics of the discussion:

Chapter 14, from 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang This basically expands on the meme, and explains the connection between liberal economics and 'pro-rich' economics, in only 9 pages. Not very in-depth, but quite good and readable - although note that this book is very much a pop-economics polemic, and Chang is an Institutionalist economist and very skeptical of 'free market' economics. He's fairly controversial among economists, but not super radical or anything. Link to pdf of this chapter only. The whole book is free to borrow on Archive.org.

Chapter VIII 'Monopoly and the Social Responsibility of Business and Labor', from Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman. For a free-market take on monopolies, although a bit of an outdated take (the data has changed a lot, but the general arguments are still relevant). Free on Archive.org

Are markets efficient or do they tend towards monopoly? The verdict is in, by Joseph Stiglitz Pretty short article that expands on our discussion about monopolies in the modern world. Link to article

Chapter 2, Section 3 of 'The Poverty of Philosophy' by Karl Marx This is basically Marx arguing against Proudhon, so a lot of it is weird out of context, but does sum up Marx's views on monopolies. As with most Marx, not super easy to read, but very interesting. Link to text from Marxists.org

Chapter 2, 'Liberalism and Liberal Thinkers', from 101 Great Liberal Thinkers by Eamonn Butler A summary of liberal ideas, written by a self-described (neo)Liberal and founder of the Adam Smith Institute. Freely available from the American Economic Association

More Generally Relevant / In-Depth Stuff:

The Wordly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner Is a nice and readable intro to the history of economic thought, would recommend for an enjoyable read and broad overview. Available to borrow on Archive.org

Economics: The Users Guide by Ha-Joon Chang This is somewhat of a 'pop-economics' text so is quite readable, but also has solid knowlege. Chapter 4 has a nice summary of some of the major schools of thought, and there's a lot of interesting economic history in here as well. Available to borrow on Archive.org

Market Reasoning as Moral Reasoning: Why Economists Should Re-engage with Political Philosophy by Michael Sandel Short article with interesting arguments about the limits of economics as a field, especially in considering the moral implications of allocating resources using markets. Freely available from the American Economic Association

Chapter 3, 'The Nature of Heterodox Economics' from 'Essays on the Nature and State of Modern Economics' by Tony Lawson Although this one is very academic, chapter 3 is only about 20 pages long and has a fairly good summary of some of the assumptions and criticisms of 'modern mainstream economics' vs 'heterodox economics'. The rest of the book is excellent as well, it's focused on a critique of modern economics and its attempts to be a 'hard science' by using lots of maths and models, with questionable results. Link to a pdf here.

Chapter 'The Place of Liberty' from An Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff Especially recommend the section on problems with liberalism Available to borrow on Archive.org

The Economy by Core Economics This is just a textbook, not exactly light reading but it's free and written by some pretty high-profile (mainstream) economists. It's what I was mainly taught from so if you're interested in what they teach at mainstream econ courses but want to skip the whole 'paying massive tuition fees' part, here it is. Link to the textbook on their website.

Also, Marginal Revolution has good stuff on econ on their YT channel and website; they are very pro-free market.

Hope this is interesting and/or useful, have a nice day!

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Sure, real economists don't explicitly hold those views. But the kinds of metrics and models liberal economists are fond of using basically lead to that flowchart.

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I appreciate you trying to answer a question in good faith, but you're conflating 'liberal' with 'vaguely left-leaning', and none of what you've said makes any sense outside of current US political 'discourse' where 'Liberal' means 'slightly left-wing'. 

What you describe as liberal economics is closer to Keynsianism or Social Democracy. 

In economics, the 'Liberal' school of thought is generally against regulation and interference in the market, seeing it as being 'self-regulating'. In economic terms, Reagan and Thatcher were Liberals - hence them being associated with 'Neoliberalism'. 

The whole thing you said about Capitalism tending towards monopoly is actually a very Marxist/Socialist idea - Liberal economic theory tends to argue that monopolies form because of government and that they wouldn't occur in a truly free market (although its more nuanced than that, there's major disagreements over 'Natural Monopolies' etc. within the Liberal school). Source: look up any Liberal economist/thinker and their view on monopolies. E.g Friedman, J.S Mill.

Capitalism being an economic system doesn't make it apolitical. 'In theory' Liberalism and Capitalism are very very closely intertwined, it's not implicit, it's absolutely explicit if you read any Liberal political or economic theory. 

Economics is inherently political.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/#Libe Sections 3 and 4 of this are a decent starting point.

Also the idea of slightly changing our voting systems as the way to drive change is quite hilarious. Sure, moving away from FPTP would probably help a bit, but it's not like countries with other systems are doing fine. These issues are more fundamental. And historically, fundamental change has never occured through small technical adjustments to political systems.

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Sharktopus, bad in a fun kind of way though

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Love my USDDB cables, the built-in kettle function is a big plus 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think the difference here is paying for a single newspaper vs having to get recurring subscriptions that are a pain to cancel. With print media, if I want to check multiple sources' take on an issue, I could go out and buy 5 different newspapers, and that's it. But with online news, I'd have to spend like an hour cancelling all the subscriptions after I'm done and if I forget to cancel any i'll realise when I'm down like £50 6 months later.

Also don't like having to enter personal details into so many websites.

Thank god for Archive.org.

I wonder why no news company has tried the 'buy today's digital newspaper for £1 and that's that' approach. I could be wrong and maybe someone has, haven't seen it though.

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Spin-offs in other cities would have been cool

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ah this show was wonderful! Ahead of its time with the AI and mass surveillance stuff (IIRC it called it before the Snowden leaks).

 

The Youtuber Perun has a bunch of videos about politics/corruption and the Russian military, and he refers to words in the Russian language. I was wondering to what extent he uses them correctly, and also am curious about origin/etymology and cultural background.

Here's his definition of 'Vranyo': "It's a pattern of lying that is usually expressed in a scenario wherein you know that I'm bullshitting, I know that you know that I'm bullshitting, but I'm going to go ahead with it anyway and deliver it with a straight face.." at 4:41 in this video

And for 'Ochkovtiratelstvo': "That is yet another Russian word for lying, usually used when you're lying to make something sound a lot better than it is, often yourself. " at 1:07:05 in this video.

Any insight from Russians or Russian speakers would be appreciated.

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We should crowdfund some Lemmy ads

[–] Void_Reader@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Like tears in rain

1
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Void_Reader@lemmy.world to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
 

"Tell ~~Ea-nasir~~ spez: Nanni sends the following message: When you came, you said to me as follows : “I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality ~~copper ingots~~ shitposts.” You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ~~ingots~~ shitposts which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!” What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my ~~money~~ memes (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through ~~enemy~~ advertiser territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one mina of ~~silver~~ data which I owe(?) you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of ~~copper~~ data, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of ~~copper~~ data, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas. How have you treated me for that ~~copper~~ data? You have withheld my ~~money~~ meme bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore it to me in full. Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any ~~copper~~ platform from you. I shall (from now on) select and take the ~~ingots~~ instances individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.”

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