Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 29, 2026, 06:45 AMOr are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

Can't say I've asked many questions about Uyghurs, no. As far as not knowing the difference between communism and authoritarianism, well, we all have our specialties. Political distinctions are interesting to some I suppose, not sure why, but to each their own. My specialty pays quite well. Do you get paid well for knowing nuances of various political definitions/organizations, or is it just a hobby to one-up other politically involved hobbyists?

Quote from: RE on Apr 28, 2026, 06:19 PMGranted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.

Both of those conditions are likely to be true, you didn't tell any jokes, just threw out those little laughs on occasion as though you had, and I didn't say anything worth remembering.

I was there to see if the money you were investing in that little SUN exercise had any chance of being something. You did put significant resources into it if memory serves. After it was all over, the videos of your drunken scooter/ebike excapades, the commentary on the size of the liquor bill for the sales pitch on local political "intelligentsia" (otherwise known as "southern crackers" perhaps?) all seemed a bit...pricey for the final result.

Wendy gave me the impression that the entire exercise was designed to find support for a theme park showing people how great it would be to live Amish or something similar. As though taking a trip to Amish country wouldn't suffice?

Quote from: REI do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

I've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time. And you never asked me to identify myself, I certainly wasn't about to hand you a business card knowing your propensity for cyber stalking. Although Haniel was gone by then I believe and you hadn't found a tech replacement to do your MIB routine on Diner members.

QuoteAnd now the Communists have forced labor camps for the Uyghurs

Following ethnic rioting, and a series of deadly terror attacks within and outside Xinjiang which Beijing blamed on Uyghurs, President Xi Jinping launched a "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism" in 2014 that framed Uyghur identity as a security threat.

Seems that their supreme leader is responsible for their camps.  Communism would not have a supreme leader.  Communism has soviets.  Or are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

Granted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.  I do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

RE

Quote from: RE on Apr 27, 2026, 10:11 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 27, 2026, 07:03 PMYou just haranging on what you harang on doesn't give much in the way of clues.

You need clues to figure out if something is funny?

I met you before, you pretending to not remember being irrelevant. You had a habit, of saying something, then having this dry little laugh as though what you said was amusing enough to warrant it. I didn't laugh at all, as it was just conversation, and you weren't being funny. It was just some mannerism. You do it in your videos as well.

I don't need clues to figure out what is funny. It is an easy thing, you know it when you see it. In person, or in your videos, you see it everywhere. I do not.

Quote from: REIt's not detective work, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes.

RE

Nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. I didn't laugh when you were yucking it up over....whatever...in Inman either.

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 27, 2026, 07:09 PMDismissing "communism" as a failed utopian dream misses the essential point.

I didn't dismiss it that way. I just compared RE's perspective on it to the reality of it. Theory and practice are two different things.

Quote from: K-DogMarxism isn't an abstract wish list.  It is a materialist analysis of how society actually works. Your terrible outcomes weren't inherent to socialism itself, but were the consequences of specific historical circumstances and political errors.  Bureaucracy degenerated workers' power, and sabotaged the international workers revolution.  But that was then, and this is now.

Sure. And now the Communists have forced labor camps for the Uyghurs, are making sure that Hong Kong folks aren't so thrilled with their switch from capitalism to being ChiComs again, want to make sure that the capitalists in Taiwan, doing quite well for themselves, are brought to heel and properly....educated...and Tibet certainly understands that difference betweem being free or being...under someone elses bootheel.

China is certainly a long way from Mao killing off 10's of millions in food experiments, so in your mind are they "proper" socialists nowadays? The kind you would happily give up your 4 wheeled status symbols for?

Quote from: K-DogThe core socialist aims collective control over production to end class exploitation remain fundamentally sound, and are analytically necessary.

In theory. And if we are talking socialism like Scandanavian countries as compared to China and North Korea, I'd pick Scandanavia for sure.

Quote from: K-DogThe question isn't whether socialist goals are desirable (they are), but how can these goals be consciously achieved by the working class.  Using democratic means.  Avoiding the pitfalls and errors that lead to authoritarianism.

Having not asked a question, but just responded to RE and his enthusiasm for a particular socio-economic system, the results of which are already in the history books.

And I think we are currently in some form of mismanaged oligarchy more than anything else. And the oligarchs are going to do their best to keep it that way.

I wouldn't count on this lowering the price of oil anytime soon.  Down the line some though, Demand Destruction could do that.  It will however make the whole energy market more volatile and less predictable.

RE

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 27, 2026, 07:03 PMYou just haranging on what you harang on doesn't give much in the way of clues.

You need clues to figure out if something is funny?  It's not detective work, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes.

RE

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 27, 2026, 05:31 PMYeah, I didn't think you'd be able to handle the main gist of my post, the entire "communism is good!" angle is just too easy to offset by pointing out...WHAT communism has done, rather than what hopes and dreams would have of it. 

Dismissing "communism" as a failed utopian dream misses the essential point.

Marxism isn't an abstract wish list.  It is a materialist analysis of how society actually works. Your terrible outcomes weren't inherent to socialism itself, but were the consequences of specific historical circumstances and political errors.  Bureaucracy degenerated workers' power, and sabotaged the international workers revolution.  But that was then, and this is now.

The core socialist aims collective control over production to end class exploitation remain fundamentally sound, and are analytically necessary.

The question isn't whether socialist goals are desirable (they are), but how can these goals be consciously achieved by the working class.  Using democratic means.  Avoiding the pitfalls and errors that lead to authoritarianism.

Quote from: RE on Apr 27, 2026, 05:42 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 27, 2026, 05:31 PMsurely you could have done better than your normal littany of anti-establishment rhetoric to combat it?

Personally, I thought that was very funny and nothing like my normal littany of anti-establishment rhetoric.  Your problem is that you lack a sense of humor.

A possibility. Another one is that humour is something easier to interpret in person, involving expressions, tone of voice, more subtle physical clues, etc etc.

You just haranging on what you harang on doesn't give much in the way of clues.