Everything was sticky, too. Sometimes you’d put your quarter in the rim above the existing quarter, then after like an hour and half a pizza later, you’d realise your family was alone in the place and nobody had approached the machine. You’d go back and try to pick up the quarters, but the placeholding one was basically glued to the glass by coke and who knows what, obviously having been there for weeks.

Kind of amazing the coin slot didn’t glue itself shut.

?

I’m not defending anything. You seem too defensive for this conversation, if that’s what you think. (Judging by you downvoting my comments before you even reply, that’s becoming obvious.)

Can you actually define the words you’re using, even to yourself? Or are you lashing out at me based on what you feel they mean?

I’m willing to talk to you, but only if we can agree upon what words like ‘socialism’ mean. If not, we’ll only talk past each other, and I think you’ll agree that will waste both of our time.

Of course. Many nations have been 2 of the three. But nobody has ever been all 3, because 2 are antithetical to one another.

e: obv the USSR was communist and authoritarian. Who said they weren’t?

I’m not defending anything like that, but:

1. Authoritarian != communism. Authoritarianism applies equally to communism and fascism. The latter two describe ideology, where ‘authoritarian’ describes scale. Your sentence is like if I said I I use reds, not apples, in my pies. It sort of makes sense, but not really.

2. You said: ‘I don’t seem to understand why democratic social ownership is considered a worse alternative’ yes, exactly! That’s socialism, which is an economic – not a political – system. You can combine that with democracy or communism or fascism.

I really recommend you learn what all these terms mean, because it’s not only super fascinating, but we can each understand and communicate better when we can build upon common concepts.

Yes. And communist, fascist, and dictator mean 3 very different things. I used to think they were synonymous, too, but they’re not.

Communist and fascist are polar opposites. Authoritarian is the extremes of both sides. A dictator can exist at any point in the spectrum, and isn’t unique to any side.

It really does help if we can agree what words mean.

I mean, have you met art?

He got the shit batch of bargain worms from Wish. He can’t even play the Holophoner.

By all rights, this kid should be in prison. Since we couldn’t do that, shunning him relentlessly will have to do.