Perhaps this is what Musk means when it says that empathy is bad.

If your goal is to maximise your own personal wealth, then empathy really is a hindrance. But I put to you that maximising money is not a goal worth devoting a lifetime to. And perhaps not scamming dumb people is a valuable way to act regardless.

(This is essentially what motivated the Quakers to push for set prices for goods rather than constant bartering. They believed that dump people should still be able to go to a shop and buy stuff without getting ripped off. I’d say that moral position has made the world a slightly better place.)

But that will never happen, because electromagnetic forces haven’t learned the power of friendship and co-operation. Gravity always works together, but the other fickle fundamental forces just can’t decide if they are pushing or pulling or whatever.

That’s true, but there is far more energy to gain by fusing hydrogen compared to carbon. I’m not sure how it compares to uranium though. I suspect it might be similar. (I mean, obviously in practice you wouldn’t / couldn’t actually get the energy from fusing carbon - but we can still compare hypothetically. … also, I’m sure we could get a clear answer by looking it up; but this is one of those things where thinking about it is probably more interesting than knowing the answer.)

I was thinking the same thing. It’s unfair compare chemical energy to nuclear energy. Coal still kind of sucks, but the hydrogen in the others could definitely be used in fusion…

I don’t think Trump’s plan had anything at all to do with helping America. The tariffs are about wielding power, making threats, creating fear and division, etc.

Trump can pull the tariffs away at a time of his choosing to curry good-favour when he needs it. And since he has that control, and knows the broad effect on stock-prices, he can also use it as a self-enrichment exercise too.

It really is pretty weird. … and interesting. I don’t necessarily think the existence of filibusters is a bad thing, but it definitely a very weird thing.

Here is a recent Lemmy post highlighting some of the issues that women commonly face in US universities. It’s largely about inclusivivity. Lots of good progress has been made in recent times to fix problems of that type, but there is still some way to go.

Unfortunately, the new US president is strongly against that kind of progress. He has gone out of his way to roll back and block anything that might look like an inclusivity boosting program. Quite clearly, the USA is now moving backwards in these issues.

So that’s what the comment in the post is about. Note that we’re just reading some random guy’s off-hand comment about an advertisement. So it isn’t an in-depth analysis. It’s a highly simplified message. But I hope you can at least see what we’re talking about.

Do you honestly not get it, or are you just trying to push back against a message you don’t like?

The footage of this meeting is truly remarkable and worth watching.

I think it’s important to watch uncut unedited footage of meetings like this from time to time, to see the behaviour of leaders first hand. Otherwise it is too easy to just get swept up in the narrative of whatever social bubble you interact with.

In this meeting Trump demonstrates a total disinterest in any past events or context for current decisions; but he becomes quite animated and angry at the end of the video. Apparently he felt criticised and wanted to hit back. But he didn’t seem to be paying much attention at all to what was being said.

Zelenskyy is calm throughout, but has clear frustration as Vance and Trump speak over the top of him. Trump accuses Zelenskyy of total disrespect, and says he is ‘gambling with World War III’.

Really, it is worth watching. See how leaders of the USA behave.