I'm going to be flogged for saying this as well, but I don't understand why you're being down-voted.
I lost a lot of money being furloughed and was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, and many old friends of my father in India died in that global cluster-fuck. Granted, there were many environmental benefits for our ailing biosphere, and I found many moments of peaceful solace as a result of not having to be in public, but average people were eviscerated by that virus on many levels.
I agree: despite the inevitability of another one, to wish for another pandemic is, at best, an idiotic, selfish, and angsty teenage opinion. Along with the obvious health risks, people now have even less trust in institutional health and scientific organizations, leading me to predict that the next one will be even worse because people refuse to think and learn nothing from the past.
Even worse, people regard their unbridled skepticism of expert opinion, research, and their own scientific ignorance as a virtue. We experienced the Dunning-Kruger effect at a global scale and will do so again because the average person despises humility and thinks they know everything about anything.
Kind of like a bunch of bratty teenagers.
~~deuce~~ douche
Ah yes, "insert'Muh'MemeLanguageHere" argument/excuse that we all heard a bajillion times
The message to ~~Democrats~~ neo-libs and neo-cons, is clear: you must dump ~~neoliberal economics~~ corporatism.
Elon Musk is an authoritarian masquerading as someone who values free thought, inquiry, and action. What he means when he says "freedom" is for the ultra-wealthy to have "freedom" from accountability to an "authoritarian" government or the "whims of the unwashed masses" and do as they please with impunity.
The British Government is an authoritarian police state which punishes thought-crimes against their contemporary monarchist/corporatist zeitgeist with impunity.
Both things can be true, and I argue they are.
Depends.
Protected by the first amendment, one can legally advocate for the dissolution of the Union ~~through bicameral ratification outlined constitutionally~~ by constitutional amendment. To advocate for armed insurrection or violent overthrow of the federal government is sedition and considered quite illegal.
Or maybe the DNC refuses to speak to, let alone execute an agenda regarding the needs of the working class, election after election. Of course they'd be trounced after effectively revealing themselves as controlled opposition.
My forlorn hope is a massive repudiation of the DNC establishment in the next round of primaries.
Armed revolution in the face of predator drones with hellfires and 5th generation multi-role fighter aircraft is a fool's errand for suicidal rubes.
Tankies and MAGA-types will never acknowledge or are incapable of comprehending that many "opposing" political and economic philosophies (e.g., socialism, communism, capitalism, republicanism, etc.) are all historically liberal philosophies that find their roots in The Enlightenment.
Authoritarians (i.e., tankies, monarchists, corporatists, theocrats, fascists, statists, totalitarians, and anyone else who says "I'm in charge forever") of every stripe are assholes and should rightly be distrusted, ridiculed, and held in deep contempt by anyone who values free inquiry and thought and the principle of "consent of the governed".
The supposedly "PC" left is full of fucking obnoxious and annoying brats who don't know anything about morality, anthropology, history, political theory, and basic statistics. They demonize white men en masse incessantly and condescend to any who challenge their half-baked fan-fictions or propose some sort of nuance to their premises. Many of them base their entire personalities on their mental illnesses and grievances.
But I still voted for Harris because, fundamentally, that's better odds of survival for the environment, unions, women's autonomy, protections for whistleblowers, antitrust measures, counters to Russian and CCP aggression, and basically everything else that actually matters to the survival of the species and our federal republic. IT DOESN'T REQUIRE A GRADUATE DEGREE TO FIGURE THAT OUT, TIMMY, YOU BALD CUCK.
Adults don't abandon their principles because of some dumbasses "on their side". And by the way, Harris was a dogshit corporatist establishment candidate that I'd NEVER vote for if given different circumstances.
I make DNNs (deep neural networks), the current trend in artificial intelligence modeling, for a living.
Much of my ancillary work consists of deflating/tempering the C-suite's hype and expectations of what "AI" solutions can solve or completely automate.
DNN algorithms can be powerful tools and muses in scientific endeavors, engineering, creativity and innovation. They aren't full replacements for the power of the human mind.
I can safely say that many, if not most, of my peers in DNN programming and data science are humble in our approach to developing these systems for deployment.
If anything, studying this field has given me an even more profound respect for the billions of years of evolution required to display the power and subtleties of intelligence as we narrowly understand it in an anthropological, neuro-scientific, and/or historical framework(s).
The world is largely full of masochists ruled by sadists.
Never underestimate people's desire for servility in the name of stability.
The vast majority of people have an exceedingly high tolerance for their own subjugation if it means they don't have to think or act to avoid pain or responsibility.
Okay, I admit that I basically said the same thing 3 times with different wording. Personally, I just hope that I'm not as docile as I fear that I am.