I’d argue teeth aren’t skeleton because they’re not made of the same substance as bone - the outside is enamel and dentin whereas bones are collagen, protein and minerals (mostly calcium). Kinda like how hair and nails don’t count because they’re made of keratin.

Yeah, as are NT and QLD. My comment was stating that all bicameral parliaments in Australia have proportional representational voting; not that all parliaments in Australia are bicameral.

Utterly insane that elections are held on weekdays. I’m so thankful we have mandatory voting, easy early voting, voting by mail, elections on weekends, and protections for employees who need to vote on the day they if they’re working in Australia. We also already have ranked choice voting by single transferable vote as well as proportional representative voting in most jurisdictions (all bicameral parliaments).

It might be a bit naïve to assume that wasn’t the initial plan. I’m not sure which is the case, but I wouldn’t put it past the right-wing coalition parties to be knowingly creating an enemy to have them attack you so you can attack back with the force of a thousand suns. It’s a pretty smart plan, they’ve just bungled what they thought would be the international response because the West has always backed Israel 100% without a hint of criticism.

Capitalism isn’t necessary; a new economic system that takes some aspects of capitalism is necessary. If you have to strip capitalism of all of its core features to make it work, you’re no longer dealing with capitalism but rather a different economic model.

I think it’s even better to compare the US with other federated nations - Canada, Australia, Russia, Brazil, India, Argentina etc. as they’re all constitutional nations of federated states with separations of power between the federation and the individual states.

Australia is in the process of passing a law that criminalises wage theft - very much looking forward to our government taking actual theft seriously. I’m looking forward to seeing unscrupulous bosses and CEOs in handcuffs, even though I know it’s going to be extremely rare.

I feel as though there’s a lot of one-upmanship in the capitalist class that prevents them from working in their own long-term best interest, coupled with a sense of infallible invincibility. Many capitalists believe they have what they have because they deserve it, and any moves to redistribute wealth that would maintain the status quo become untenable because of that constant drive to have more than your neighbour.

True, but capitalism incentivises wanting beyond what you can possibly use. Billionaires could never genuinely spend all of their money on themselves. It’s human to want what you don’t have; it’s inhuman to want to amass more than you could use by taking it from the mouths of others.

¿Por que no los dos?

Capitalism seeks to squeeze every dollar out of every person by every means all the time.

I’ve always been partial to fuck@you.com

While not a legal argument, look up Alexei Navalny in Russia. He’s been the leader of the country’s opposition party for some time and beyond his attempted assassination, he’s become a political prisoner and has been trying to maintain political status from gaol. He absolutely should be able to run and would objectively be a better president for the average Russian than Putin is.

While it’s not an American example, it’s a general example of why people who are technically criminals (in his case, a political prisoner) should be able to run for office - even from gaol.

It’s one of those situations where a protection needs to be in place that, sadly, can also be abused by bad actors.

Add a dash of oil and a sprinkle of crushed almonds to that masterpiece and you’ve got yourself one tasty word salad. Yum yum.

Satire? Maybe. Karma mining? Not on a platform like Lemmy. There’s no value to karma on Lemmy - no one wants to buy a Lemmy account with a bunch of Karma to start shilling from - the user base is still just too small to be worth it.

“Anybody. I would be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans, maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy], but the others that are running would be acceptable to me. I would be happy to vote for them. I would be happy to vote for any of the Democrats too. I mean it would be an upgrade from, in my opinion, Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden,” Romney said.

The senator added: “I like President Biden. I find him a very charming and engaging person, there’s some places I agree with and most places I disagree with him. I think he made all sorts of terrible mistakes, but I would like to see someone else run.”

Smart man. If I were a Republican, I’d probably say the same. He seems to see things right down the line. It’s a shame he didn’t manage to make it to become the 45th president; echoing his sentiment it, would have been a far greater alternative.

I’d argue that a group of new-tech employees is a specifically atypical example of the general population. They’re very likely tertiary qualified (minority), they’d all be earning more than six figures (minority), they’re likely on the lower end of the age bracket, and I doubt they’re representative with regards to gender and cultural background as that’s a known issue in tech. I’m not sure that cohort is in any way representative of the general population.

I’m not trying to take a stand here; I have no dog in this fight. I’m just trying to elucidate why making such an assumption might not be wise. As I’ve said before; it may be true, but I (and you) have no idea if that’s actually the case, so assuming it serves no real value.

J O N K E R

Sure, but the answer to a lack of an informed public is not reverting away from democracy; it’s trying to inform the voters. Very many people vote against their best interests on a regular basis in a political sphere, and we shouldn’t revoke their right to vote as a result. Democracy, as a principle, should still prevail.

I don’t think it’s fair to infantilise people you’ve never met in the way that you are. What evidence do you have that the people who signed on to this letter didn’t read it? What evidence do you have that they’re either naïve or easily manipulated? I think they’re unfair assumptions. They may be true, but I have no idea if that’s the case.

I mean, isn’t this just an attempt to instil democracy in their workplace? If the vast majority of employees want something, whether or not it is objectively in their best interest, shouldn’t leadership listen to them? Isn’t this just what unions do on the regular?

I have no dog in this fight, I don’t know who’s a good person and who’s bad, but I believe in democracy even when it doesn’t produce the best result. I wish all companies acted upon the wishes of their employees rather than their shareholders, customers or consumers; that would make for far more cohesive and productive workplaces.

I think a better solution is one year of global revenue (not profit) as it’s really hard to determine damages in cases like this. That way, it’s legitimately a death sentence regardless of the size or scale of the company. If you set the fines at an amount not linked to profit or revenue, all you’re doing is making it extremely hard for the little guy but less hard for the big corporations - the ones you really want to go after.