1076
top 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Now you understand why God has to give all those kids cancer. Do you want even more people to starve?

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

The internet has warped my mind.

Yesterday, I heard a story about a torture prison in Assad's Syria that was using a press to do horrible things to human beings.

My mind immediately thought:

"TODAY, ON ZE HYDRAULIC PREZZ CHANNEL..."

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 94 points 1 week ago
[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 67 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wasn't there a Star Trek episode about this?

We're the bad planet that the Federation has an existential crisis over helping.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 57 points 1 week ago

Strange New Worlds s1e6 "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach." Heavily adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 3 points 1 week ago

i read Catwings when I was a kid and cried at the ending

...and learned decades later she write science fiction. who is this woman.

[-] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

She's one of the treasures of English literature.

Her children's books are as good as her science fiction themes calling out the fundamental problems we have to face as a civilization.

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 10 points 1 week ago

..she invented the "ansible", a communication tech achieving faster than light travel, which would later be used by Orson Scott Card and other science fiction authors, mumbles away with book

[-] Infynis@midwest.social 5 points 1 week ago

I think it would be faster to list the episodes that weren't about this

[-] Rozauhtuno 55 points 1 week ago

Was the city's name Omelas?

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

We are all the ones who walk away from Omelas on this blessed day.

[-] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

Speak for yourself!

...I haven't read the book yet.

[-] SkyeStarfall 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's just a short story that's like a 10 min read

[-] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

I didn't know that! Thanks!

[-] SkyeStarfall 6 points 1 week ago

If it was at least it'd be good to live in it

Meanwhile our real world is still a hellscape even with the child sacrifice

[-] Squorlple@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago

Can somebody with art skills make a comic of a Make-A-Wish kid wanting to spend their wish on shooting a health insurance CEO as vengeance for bankrupting the kid’s parents for the cancer care? Maybe a panel or two of Make-A-Wish refusing and the kid saying something about how they’re gonna die soon anyway so the deterrent of penal punishment would be useless against them? Cyanide & Happiness could probably pull this off

[-] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 28 points 1 week ago

Oh wow, they made a live-action version of the Witcher 4 trailer!

[-] SoleInvictus 4 points 1 week ago

It took a second before it clicked. Nicely done.

[-] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 28 points 1 week ago

That's a wild but accurate take.

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 22 points 1 week ago

how funny would it be if the kid was dying of a preventable disease and couldn't afford the treatment

[-] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Don't worry. If you live if the USA, that time is coming under Trump and RFK, Jr.

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 6 days ago

Invest in Iron Lungs. You'll need them once the first generation of kids ain't getting that polio vaccine.

[-] icdmize@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago
[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 1 points 1 week ago

Treating immune-mediated aplastic anemia involves suppression of the immune system, an effect achieved by daily medicine or, in more severe cases, a bone marrow transplant, a potential cure.[31]

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 20 points 1 week ago

What does it cost to do this?

Maybe it should just be a thing.

[-] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The sad thing is when you can get actual numbers on what the costs of things are to the state and federal governments to keep things the way they currently are it's really bonkers that policy is setup the way it's setup.

The United States spends on average about $72,500 per year per incarcerated individual, which given the number of people who are in prison due to circumstances of poverty is a lot more than it would cost to simply have the funds available to individuals to intervene before they make the choices that land them in prison. For context the median individual income in the US is $37,585

Medicaid has an median cost per enrollee of $9,108 which is about the same unsubsidized cost of private health insurance, except Medicaid has no deductible, no copays (I believe some medications do have pretty low copays but that's all that I've seen during periods where we did qualify or for my special needs child who's on a special Medicare plan for children with disabilities) and generally means you simply receive the care you need without paying a dime to the medical facility. In other words, Americans could feasibly collectively pay the government exactly what they already pay private insurance companies in premiums and receive better coverage for less cost than under the current system.

The average cost per homeless person (this is primarily a cost in extra social services to support their existence) is $35,500 per year in the US. The average annual cost of rent in US is $20,400. The US could simply pay to rent every homeless person an average apartment in the country and save $15,000/year per person in social services, and that's before even considering more creative options such as public housing, or providing subsidies/incentives to house the housing insecure in lower cost regions of their respective states (which might well save small town America, given most small towns are consistently shrinking in population)

The unavoidable conclusion is that American politicians simply choose to burn unthinkable billions of dollars every year to perpetuate human suffering

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 1 points 4 days ago

Thank you for digging up those numbers.

I have been struck for years at how out system isn't intentionally built. It just happened due to millions of decisions.

[-] 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

it is intentionally built. it's purpose is to do what it does. the system is intentionally built to make people suffer.

[-] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 17 points 1 week ago

Almost nothing relative to the us budget.

[-] Antiproton@programming.dev 9 points 1 week ago

An aircraft carrier costs almost nothing compared to the US budget. That's not a useful metric.

[-] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Less than it would cost for you to sell your body for sex? More than the cost of a single elephant? Less than 500 lbs of tulips during the crypto boom accounting for inflation.

[-] Cheems@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Much less than an aircraft carrier how about that

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 2 points 1 week ago

And this wasn't the USA government. It was a city or Make-A-Wish. (I just have the tweet to work from.)

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 1 week ago
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
1076 points (100.0% liked)

Microblog Memes

6027 readers
1083 users here now

A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.

Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.

Rules:

  1. Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
  2. Be nice.
  3. No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
  4. Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.

Related communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS