You know that meme that came out of the pandemic? “We are the virus.” I’ve thought about it and I don’t agree. We’re not a virus, we’re more like a large asteroid impact.

Periods of rapid climate change are often associated with mass extinction events. Earth could experience a mass extinction event like the one that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs, as a result of this period of extremely rapid climate change that we’ve created.

No, we’re not a virus, we’re a natural disaster on par with some of the worst to ever befall this planet.

It really depends on how you define “successful.” If your measure of success is based on how closely these societies resemble Western, liberal, capitalist societies, then, yeah, you’re probably not going to see a whole lot of “success,” but that’s not what these revolutionary movements were trying to achieve. I would say that first and foremost what essentially every communist movement was striving for was just autonomy and independence, and many have been successful in that regard. Vietnam is an independent nation, instead of a French colony. China, similarly, is no longer under the thumb of the British. You may not like what these nations do with their autonomy, but that is what they were striving for and they have achieved it.

…a strategy that limits fossil fuels in the short term or encourages people to limit consumption is “doomed to fail”.

Maybe, but the world has to reduce global carbon emissions by half, within a relatively short amount of time, to have any chance of limiting warming to a level that gives us the best possible chance of not passing critical climate tipping points, and the only way to do that is to significantly reduce our use of fossil fuels. Carbon capture will likely also be necessary, and maybe so will be geoengineering (god help us), but there is no possible strategy for limiting warming and hopefully avoiding passing critical tipping points that doesn’t involve rapid and dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use. So, if that’s doomed to fail, then the world not passing critical climate tipping points is also doomed to fail. I think a lot of people just figure that’s a foregone conclusion at this point, and maybe it is, but if that’s the case then let’s just be honest and say that what we’re facing in the latter half of the 21st century, and possibly sooner, is significant catastrophe.

I think that’s a good idea, but, unfortunately, if put to a vote, I’m confident the American people would vote against it.

I’m not surprised that this is how the second Trump administration has started. This level of stupidity is exactly what I was expecting. What does surprise me, though, is that many tens of millions of people voted for this. Honestly, it’s shaken my commitment to democracy. Maybe the people shouldn’t be making important decisions.

What other legal way is there that doesn’t require you to pay full price for the game?

Because the American upper classes feel it’s worth it for them to pay for a large, advanced military and surveillance state, but they don’t think it’s worth it for them to pay for “other people’s healthcare.” They’re not enlightened enough to recognize that we all benefit when we all contribute to the health of the nation. The same is true of education, housing, and other universal necessities. I hope that enlightenment will one day come to the United States, but it’s not looking good.

Why can’t you use the Deck for streaming?

Oh, I do, and it works very well, overall. I’m just hoping that someone will release a device that does streaming even better. I would like a better screen (I have a regular LCD Deck, not the OLED), that’s 1080p with a 16:9 aspect ratio. I have a 16:9 monitor for the PC, and I would just prefer that the aspect ratio on the handheld screen matched my PC monitor, so I don’t have to fuss with that. I would also prefer a lighter device, with better controller layout. I think the sticks could be improved, I might need to replace one of mine after a few years because of drift. Also, I don’t like the Deck’s D-pad, and I don’t like where it’s positioned. These are relatively minor things, but I think they would make the experience even better.

Yeah, as long as I can get low enough latency that I don’t have to worry about input lag, I prefer having my PC do the heavy lifting. The games look much, much better, but the battery on the handheld lasts much longer. I am really hoping that someone will release a great streaming handheld. When that happens, I will finally replace my Steam Deck.

If you want to (legally) play Nintendo games, obviously buy a Switch 2. You don’t have any other option. If Nintendo games aren’t that important to you, and/or if you already have a large Steam library, a Steam Deck is a great option.

Personally, I love my Steam Deck, but I’m looking forward to a Steam Deck 2, or maybe a third party handheld, running SteamOS, that has a nice, big, 1080p screen, better controls, and better battery life. More power would be nice, but not if it comes with a louder fan and poor battery life. Honestly, I’d even be ok if the device was focused on local streaming, from my PC.

There are a lot of philosophical questions that this whole situation brings up. They’re not new questions, people have been pondering and theorizing for a long time on these matters, but I think they remain uncertain. What is the end result of wealth and economic development? Where does it end, where does it take a society, and the world?

The US was a manufacturing superpower. Those manufacturing jobs lifted a lot of people out of poverty and into the middle class. Average wealth and living standards increased significantly. Then things stagnated, and those manufacturing jobs moved to other countries where people were poorer and thus willing to accept lower wages than the American workers. The US transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a consumer economy.

The manufacturing jobs were replaced with service jobs. Now, instead of working in a factory you worked in a retail store, or a customer support center, or for a financial institution, or a software company, etc. All well and good, I suppose, but it was still stagnation for a lot of people. Many people stopped getting wealthier and their living standards stopped improving. Some people did get much, much wealthier, but many others actually started getting poorer.

So, where do we go from here? Trump thinks we just need to bring back the manufacturing jobs and that will fix everything, and he’s not alone. Many people, across the political spectrum, think that’s the solution. But, I don’t think it is. Don’t get me wrong, a good manufacturing job is a god send for someone who needs the work and for whom the job will improve their economic situation, but for the rest of us, and I think that’s most of us, it doesn’t mean much. So, what does? More desk jobs?

I think that once you reach a high enough level of economic development, your goals change. It’s no longer about getting out of poverty, it’s about something else: freedom. I think people ultimately want freedom. Freedom to pursue the things that bring them joy and fulfillment. But, how? Because people also want security and a decent standard of living. A hobo might be “free” in many ways, but he’s not free from poverty. So how can we be free, to pursue the things that bring us joy, while also having a good place to live and raise a family, in safe, clean neighborhoods, a good education, and healthcare, etc? How? Or, are those two things mutually exclusive? It seems to me, the only way you can have both freedom and security is to be independently wealthy, but that’s just not possible for everyone. In fact, I don’t think it’s possible for the majority of people. So, what? Where do we go from here?

Everything’s stupid and nothing matters.

The American people are idiots, our leaders are idiots, we’re just a country of idiots.

And it’s because of pride. We came to believe in our supposed exceptionalism with religious fervor. We were certain that we knew better than everyone else, because we were better than everyone else. The rest of the world didn’t have anything to teach us. We already knew everything. We became incapable of learning, incapable of growing, progressing, or adapting.

If you’re going to start a war, you better know for a fact that you can win. Trump thinks he knows, but he doesn’t know shit.

The US has a terminal disease: hubris. This is what it’s like to live in an empire in decline.

The US and allies control WTO, and China was only allowed trade on WTO terms after they accepted to follow the WTO standards, basically designed by USA

That means nothing, anymore. Those standards are meaningless, China holds most of cards, now. Any attempts to reign in China have been half hearted at best, and often undermined by the US itself. As tough as people have tried to sound in their rhetoric about China, the fact is American corporations and consumers continue to do business with them because it’s just too good of a deal for them.

and American politicians have openly stated how they need to prevent China from expanding their influence.

Well, they have failed, spectacularly, and that was true LONG before even Trump’s first term, let alone these tariffs.

This is the stupidest article I’ve read about the tariffs, and that’s saying something because I’ve read some doozies.

The author makes it sound like the US and the rest of the world were building a coalition to take on Chinese control of the global economy, before Trump’s tariffs came along and ruined everything. That’s horse shit.

The article even mentions Vietnam specifically. Do they not know that Vietnam is also a Marxist-Leninist state? Vietnam has taken many cues from China. Vietnam is trying to become a manufacturing hub, similar to China, and the relationship that Vietnam has been building with the US is one of trade that is similar the relationship the US has with China: they (China/Vietnam) make the stuff, we (the US) buy the stuff.

Unfortunate that the entertainment and digital goods and services industries have not been able to create enough good union jobs to replace those lost from offshoring manufacturing, especially in the “rust belt” areas.

Here in Britain this remains a cornerstone of the junction between politics and economics. Most of the world still believes in comparative advantage. It is the intellectual core of globalisation.

Globalization did not result in each country of the world sharing in the production of the world’s goods, and sharing equally in the growth and improvements in living standards, it resulted in China becoming the world’s producer, making them much wealthier and elevating them to the status of a super power.

The economic “might” of the US over the past half century has been based on the fact that we have the defacto world reserve currency and still have the world’s largest military. We don’t produce very much. We import a lot. If one of our companies does develop some important new technology, the products themselves are more than likely produced in China, or in some other foreign country. Advanced semiconductors are fabricated in Taiwan, using high tech lithography machines developed by a Dutch company. The only thing we specialize in is financial speculation and buying a whole lot shit, most of which is imported.

“The people that think that’s toxic don’t understand the start-up game, and they’re just wrong,” he said. “The game is intense. And by the way, if you don’t do that, eventually, you’re out of a job.

For those who disagree, working at a startup is a choice, Hoffman insisted.

But the reward on the other side is second to none; the 100 or so first employees at LinkedIn don’t need to work anymore, he added. Microsoft purchased the professional networking platform for $26.2 billion in 2016.

That’s good for the 100 or so first employees at LinkedIn, but I’m certain that the VAST majority of employees who bust their ass trying to help get a start-up off the ground don’t have anywhere near that end result. I’m sure it isn’t worth it for 99% of employees of start-ups.

But if you want to take on the challenge, hoping that maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones, go for it, but don’t fucking drag a spouse/significant other, or children into that nightmare. If you want to commit your entire life to a start-up, then fucking commit.

I agree, rebuilding a US manufacturing base will require competent planning and management, but those are bad words here in the US, when it comes to the economy. To many Americans, competent, central economic management, direction, and planning is tyrannical rule by elites. To those Americans, Trump is the antidote. You might point out that there is significant irony in that. I agree, it is ironic, but that irony is completely lost on many millions of Americans.