Just because they have different amplexus preferences from you doesn’t mean they’re misdirected.

I’m not sure that link does have good info.

That’s a 0 point comment on ask historians, from 11 years ago, with no sources listed, no details and little explanation. The follow-up comments have a little more info but only from 1870, and even then it’s only talking about land not wealth. Also the only source linked is a NY Review of Books article that 404s.

I think it’s fairly safe to assume that wealth inequality was lower before industrialization. That really supercharges the power of capital, encouraging and rewarding larger and larger accumulations of capital. Before that it’s also much harder to get reliable data.

Aristotle in the politics mentions a plan to cap wealth inequality at 1:5. Once you have more than 5 times the poorest citizen, your wealth is redistributed. He thinks it too radical, but could you imagine anyone talking about capping CEO pay at 5 times the janitor? That’s unthinkable to us.

Yeah the total number of SSNs already used would be higher than the current population, I would think. It didn’t seem to me that poster was trying to estimate SSNs used/left, just provide some important numbers as relevant context.

It’s been going since 1936 so ~90 years, and they reckon ~70 years left, so we have roughly 45% duration remaining. I’m guessing the rate of use speeds up over time and that has been accounted for, so probably we have more than 45% of the actual numbers left? I think I’d guess 450 million total used ssns.

Increasing wealth has only ever been observed to fuel greater inequality.

I don’t see any evidence that the value that increasing automation is bringing will be distributed more evenly.

We produce enough food for everyone and still let people starve - equal access to AI is even harder to justify than equal access to food.

Yep, another great example. When you have as few rules and as tightly focused a scope as lasers and feelings, every single situation the rules can generate is going to be on theme.

every ttrpg has had rules that can be exploited and abused

That’s true for games in the tradition of D&D/F20/Trad, but not all ttrpgs. Fewer rules, a tighter scope and more elegant design make it much easier to rule out the kind of bad interactions or edge cases that lead to rules that run counter to the game’s purpose.

My Life with Master, Fiasco and Fall of Magic are all games i’ve played, where exploitation or abuse of rules is just not possible. Unbound is a tactical combat rpg without any room for abuse of rules.
John Harper’s rules-lite DW hack World of Dungeons is probably too elegant for abuse to be possible.

That’s the first few that I can think of, but i’m sure there are plenty more.

Buying a 10 year old civic will always be more environmentally responsible than buying a brand new EV

I hear so few people talking about this fact. The middle and upper class don’t want to hear about any solution unless it involves buying status symbols.

Proving you’re morally superior to the poors is definitely the most important part of combating climate change.

I’m a hard determinist, so I’d disagree with the “you choose” part, but basically I agree.

You are whoever you are in the moment, there’s no fake self to hide behind and no real self lurking unrealized.

There’s no core real you, no true deep down self.

We’re social mammals and the immediate social situation were in is one of the many factors that determine our behavior from moment to moment.

Go running.

You know when you build something up in your head to be really awful, then you try it and it’s exactly that awful?

You can find isolated examples from western cuisines (often rich people food) but mixing savoury and sweet is still an exception. You don’t get things like how palm sugar is used in so many savory staples from SE Asian. Applesauce or quince paste aren’t as ubiquitous in western food as chutney is in Indian.

I’ve also just met way more westerners who talk about salty/sweet mixes being gross. Raisins in rice, pineapple on pizza and fruit in salad are all things I’ve heard (mostly americans or australians) react strongly to.

You know that feeling you get when you look into your dog’s eyes? The same parts of your dog’s brain became active, so they’re probably feeling similar emotions at that moment.

I always think of white people as the ones complaining about raisins in food. So many delicious savory dishes with raisins from the Middle East or India provoke strong reactions from western pallets used to food that only does 1 thing, rather than combining multiple flavours.

Some people love to dry hump strangers on a crowded bus or train, is that more like it?

I have to admit I don’t understand what connection this has with paying for music apps.

I’m pretty sure if you’re paying for it, that’s not love.

Didnt we already know that elon opened starlink to the russians? I thought he announced after that call with putin?

Peep Show also has that joke - “Slaves, Jeremy” VS “Whips, Rimmer”.

But there’s a good chance that the answer wasn’t slaves, but well paid, hard-drinking work-units, organized along the lines of boat crews, all working together during a public festival and overseen by well trained specialists.

Yep! In my experience it’s awful and it stays awful for ever.

But just like with going to work, over time you come to accept that existence is suffering.

“Chinese” mummies is a bit misleading. The Tarim Basin has a long history of Chinese rule/influence, but not that far back.

These mummies are from a unique population that descended largely from Ancient North Eurasians, a group who contributed smaller percentages of ancestry to Northern Chinese people, Europeans, Siberians and Native Americans.

So these cheese enthusiasts are less Chinese and more like distant foreign relatives to the Chinese who adopted dairy-heavy pastoralism after it expanded through the steppe.

The funny thing is that actual chinese snake oil was incredibly effective at alleviating things like joint pain or some skin conditions. It has higher concentrations of omega 3s than fish oil and has even been shown to help mice learn mazes faster.

That’s why grifters selling fake medicine all claimed it was snake oil - people already wanted snake oil because they knew it worked.