Sure, but that argument is specious as hell, right? Like, if everyone in the United States decided to give you a $5 bill, does that instantly make you a bad person who exploited labor to get where you are?

"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism" is simply a rhetorical device to outline the flaws in the system. It completely breaks down when used as justification to villainize someone.

Your position could be equally stated as, "anyone who has more money than me is a worse person than me, and anyone with less money than me is a better person than me." It's a misuse of the "no ethical consumption" idea on its face.

A fair point. It's been a while since then. I didn't recall that.

That said, he's just an easy example. There's a few other people who could be used. There's a billionaire who was an early Bitcoin adopter for example.

And it certainly would have been possible for Notch to become a billionaire without hiring people. The company only had 25 employees in 2014, and was doing $330million in revenue every year. There's certainly a path he could have tread to still becoming a billionaire without hiring anyone.

It would have been harder, taken longer, and not been as profitable for sure, but doable.

Sure, but if that's the argument, then everyone who has ever bought a laptop that shipped with Windows on it is equally guilty.

Perhaps even moreso. Those people are giving money to Microsoft. He took a billion dollars away from them.

But like, this is classic motte and baily. Your initial position was "all billionaires exploit labor for profit," but when under scrutiny you just retreat to "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, so he's guilty by virtue of simply participating in the system."

You're moving the goalposts though, you realize that right?

Your initial position was that you have to have exploited people to be worth a billion dollars (with an implicit "directly exploited," since if you can't make any money without indirectly exploiting people, which would make your point even more pedantic than I'm being.)

Other people later exploiting others to profit off your product is irrelevant. Hell, it'd be irrelevant if you made your billion dollars and then started exploiting people yourself. You still would have, in fact, become a billionaire without exploiting people to do so.

He could have known Notch, though that guy doesn't seem the climbing type, lol.

Notch is a billionaire. He made Minecraft as a solo project, it became what it was, then he sold it to Microsoft.

Not saying that most billionaires didn't get there via exploitation, but I don't think it's a strict prerequisite.

Why not just compare the model 3 to an 18-wheeler then? Those weigh way more. Would have made his point better.

And it's a completely meaningful comparison, as long as you throw away the fact that different vehicles are used for different things.

A model 3 to an f150 is absolutely apples and oranges.

Fun fact, whether this meme is pro-Israel or pro-Palestine is 100% decided by what date you consider the "start" of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna defend the guy who got shot here. According to the article he was a real piece of work, and it seems like he was a credible threat to the life of the officer he put in the headlock.

I don't think the officers did anything wrong in this one. Broken clock twice a day and all that.

For context so other people don't have to dig into it like I did.

This is the Alabama state HoR. Not the National HoR.

This is the Alabama 10th district, which is suburban Huntsville (more PhD's per capita than any other city in the union).

That said, it's been pretty 50/50 in past elections, and this was a 66/33 split in the Democrat favor, which is a pretty enormous swing.

So, Alabama's going to be an interesting watch. I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot more flips come November.

In the Bibles defense, it didn't just rain:

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. Genesis 7:11

So, like, most of the water probably came from underground, not from the rain. Though I'd imagine both were pretty bad.

Not saying the story is true or anything. Just pointing out the straw man, since the Bible doesn't claim all the water was from rain.