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When in American history have we had more free time for civic participation?

Probably never, except maybe during the period when only white male landowners could vote and so the "we" was a much smaller and wealthier group. Voter turnout is pretty high these days though.

https://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present


Young people seem to have plenty of free time to march around the streets protesting, chanting and banging drums (which has pretty much zero effect on policy), but they aren't able to find the time to attend a city council meeting, or even vote, for that matter.

Pretty sure the young people protesting are the ones also voting. But that’s only a small fraction of the total young people.the rest are too busy on TikTok :/

I think the problem is more like:

When in American history have we had more things that are more engaging¹ competing with civic participation for our free time?

¹: and I think the terrifying answer might be:

    LOL, never, so? Hurry up and die.

In the latter half of the 20th century, while many things were much worse than they are today, it was genuinely possible to support a family on a single minimum-wage job in many parts of the country.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone used the extra time for civic participation, but when you compare that to today, when far too many people have to work two or three jobs per adult just to keep the lights on, I think it's fair to say that there was more free time.


July 2020.

around May, 1886

and a lot more after


yes?


This is also a crutch. Take the time to learn the kludgier tool. It will make you a better developer.

/s (I'm a big fan of fish)


Terminal emulators are a crutch you kids are spoiled by. In my day we had to create programs on punch cards. Copy a file from one directory to another? fifteen cards full of custom assembler code. Print out a file listing on the teletype? Ten cards... uphill... in the snow... both ways.

/s (no, not really)


It's not that Linux is "bad" when the hardware is incompatible, it's not "Linux's fault". It's that, at a certain age, I don't want to spend my precious few hours of free time working _on_ my computer, I just want it to work.

(big fan of MacOS, and esp. third-party Mac software, the quality of which simply does not exist on any other platform)

(Also, I have huge affection for Linux. I used Linux exclusively for years personally, and any place I could sneak it into my work environment)


Sure. But if it doesn’t work then _return the hardware_. It’s the manufacturer’s fault.


"big capital" does not have the monopoly on violence (except in a dictatorship, through connections to the "big man").


I've been around a while, VSCode is a goddamn miracle.


> I think the fanboys self select for above-average risk tolerance

As an admitted FSD fanboy, I think this is correct. You know within a couple of days (or as some have mentioned, one drive) your comfort level with the technology. My wife has no patience for even a single aberration, I'm comfortable with the occasional hitch or wrong lane choice. On the highway or going home from a night out however, she's more amenable to the robot driving.

I don't have an investment (monthly subscriber), I've driven with it for years, and I am everyday impressed.


> If you can't bear to pay back even a tiny, tiny fraction of what you've been ~~given~~earned then you shouldn't have it at all.

FTFY


Money is earned when you lift crates for an hour and get $10 for it. 2 billion? Well, I can't imagine how many crates you'd have to lift to actually *earn* something like that.

Corporations are only allowed to exist with consent of the public. Break the social contract and get fucked at your own peril.


What happens if I lift crates for an hour, get $10, then lend that $10? I risked my hard earned money by lending it, have I "earned" the interest?


I'll grant that the marketing oversells the capabilities of the system, but (as I have commented repeatedly in these FSD threads): anyone using it knows within a couple days their comfort level. I'm utterly unconvinced that any user is actually confused about the capacity of the system just because it's named "Autopilot" or "Full Self Driving" is not telling the truth.

The fact of the technology is that while imperfect, it is absolutely a marvel, and incredibly useful. I will never drive home again after having a beer after work, or when I'm tired after a long day. I can only attribute the angry skepticism in the comments to willful ignorance or lack of in-the-seat experience. I use it everyday, it drives me driveway to parking with only occasional interventions (per week!).

I'll throw in that my wife hates it (as a passenger or driver), but she has a much lower tolerance for any variance from expected human driving behaviour (eg. lane choices, overly cautious behaviour around cars waiting to enter traffic, etc).


> I can only attribute the angry skepticism in the comments to willful ignorance or lack of in-the-seat experience

Next to "the latest version really fixed it, for realsies this time", the "anyone who doesn't like it is ignorant or has irrational hate for Tesla" must be the second most sung hymn among a small but entirely too vocal group of Tesla owners. Nothing brings down a conversation as quickly as someone like you, trying to justify your purchase by insulting everyone who doesn't agree with your sunk-cost-fallacy-driven opinions.


> Nothing brings down a conversation as quickly as someone like you, trying to justify your purchase by insulting everyone who doesn't agree with your sunk-cost-fallacy-driven opinions.

I don't have any sunk cost in FSD. The car, sure, but it's a fine electric car that I got when there weren't many options (especially at a reasonable price).

I felt I was being generous. My inclination is that animosity to Musk's odious politics clouds the rational judgement of many critics (and they've mostly have no first-hand experience with FSD for any length of time).


> I use it everyday, it drives me driveway to parking with only occasional interventions.

Let's hope you never become statistic.

I am happy that FSD is not permitted where I live. I would be concerned to drive close to one. Call it willful ignore if you prefer.


Writing as a conservative, the marketplace is also a huge win. I have an employer-subsidized plan I got through healthcare.gov.


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