@kkarhan @BrexitBin I know TERF but the other acronym is just a childish joke in my brain. What's it stand for?

@atomicpoet You sound like #OneOfUs!

#ActuallyAutistic

@n69n @thomasfuchs I hope they get rescued. But I also hope they are expected to pay for all the resources being used to find them and save them from their own costly and dangerous choices. They are human beings, and so, like all human beings, their lives have value. But they are also profoundly privileged and the rest of us should not be expected to foot the bill.

To everyone: If you ever come across an interesting insight into #language, #epistemology, #MachineLearning, or #PhilosophyOfMind, I'd love it if you'd tag me in a reply to make sure I see it. Also, if anybody wants to discuss these things, or even tangents to them, I'm probably going to be really excited to hear what you have to say. Thanks in advance!

@atomicpoet And this is the bottom line. You just summed up everything that's wrong with the model of capitalism that America follows, in one thread.

Imagine if instead of having an IPO to get their payday after building a business, the founders instead sold the company to the workers or customers, and it was converted to a co-op. Suddenly the motive from start to finish becomes building value for the community, period. No more shady manipulations, where customers are frogs in a warming pot, becoming nothing more than resources to mine.

Imagine if all businesses either stayed privately owned or went this route. No more swinging, crashing stock markets. No more billionaire oligarchs living on financial rent. No more treating human beings like livestock milked for their money by strangers so far removed that they can't remember the humanity of those they are exploiting.

It's expensive to be poor. It's ironic but true. You get charges and fees for everything. Higher interest rates. Overdraft fees. Late fees. Having only enough to buy what you need right now instead of buying in bulk. Losing your job because you can't afford to get your car fixed. Losing your car because you don't have a job. Even your mental faculties are drained, as you are forced to continually eat low-nutrition foods, "sleep" in miserable conditions, and be exposed to toxins and lack of medical treatment. The lack of liquidity wipes you out. Life really does kick you while you're down.

You can't tell someone trapped in that vicious cycle to "just" get a job or "just" make responsible decisions. Sometimes, no amount of good decision-making can stop the vortex sucking them down. So the next time you are tempted to place moral judgment on someone who lives in poverty, think twice.

Signed, someone who has been both a Have and a Have-Not.