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[–] 196 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Pokémon Universal Basic Income?!

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  • [–] 52 points 10 months ago

    Pokemon Smash

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  • [+] 49 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I hope they release Pokemon guillotine next

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  • [–] 106 points 10 months ago (17 children)

    The declining birthrate is a feature, not a problem to be solved. We do not need more people. Capitalism needs more people. We don't.

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  • [–] 33 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I mean, it absolutely can become a problem if an entire population turns elderly and Theres no young people to take over businesses, care for the elderly, maintain critical infrastructure.

    Say what you want about the capitalist ideals that hold this time important,if the birthrate hit 0% we would be facing societal collapse

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  • [–] 46 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    if the birthrate hit 0% we would be facing societal collapse

    Bit strawmanny that. Nobody considers 0% a reasonable target.

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago

    I mean... That societal collapse may be necessary at some point sooner rather than later- we need to downsize, we can chose to do it on our own terms or just run out the clock and smash into a brick wall. Maybe it's not a bad thing.

    I'm semi serious. This isn't working out. I don't think so, and many with me don't think so. We can't keep doing things just because the system demands it, we should be doing what we decide is good and necessary first and then work towards those goals, instead of just doing more of everything and hope that it will magically turn out for the best.

    I am aware of the problem space here and the high cost and risk of dramatically changing course and our way of governing societies, but if we don't, those problems will not be solved or diminish and we'll have to deal with it anyway. Capitalism will not save us.

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  • [+] -17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 children)

    We do not need more people. Capitalism needs more people. We don’t.

    Weird issue to pin on capitalism: seems more of an economic growth issue regardless of type. From Bars, Pride and dating apps: How China is closing down its LGBT+ spaces

    At the same time, China’s population growth and economy are slowing. “The current population growth couldn't support economic growth,” explains Hongwei, meaning there has been a push to encourage heterosexual couples to have larger families to ensure an abundant future workforce.

    Hence, the Chinese crackdown on LGBT+.

    The ban on Grindr could be put down to China’s wider dislike of Western apps, which are often accused of being vehicles for foreign influence. But removing Blued and Finka, which were both developed in China, represents a “seismic change in government attitudes towards homegrown LGBT apps”, says Hongwei.

    Before targeting Blued and Finka, the Chinese authorities led a campaign against authors of the “Boy's Love”, or Danmei, same-sex romance stories, some of which feature explicit love scenes between men.

    Several Danmei writers, most of whom are female, have reported being arrested and questioned by the authorities, and in recent months two major Danmei sites have either shut down, or drastically reduced and toned down their content.

    Today, “officially, those Three No’s are still in place, but we are seeing evidence that the space for LGBT+ communities is starting to shrink”, says Marc Lanteigne, associate professor of political science at the Arctic University of Norway.

    Shanghai Pride shut down in 2020, and one year later the government shut down student LGBT+ accounts for “violating internet regulations”. Grindr disappeared in 2022, and in 2023 the Beijing LGBT Centre closed its doors after 15 years.

    In June 2024, the Roxie, Shanghai's last officially lesbian bar, was forced to close “under pressure from the authorities".

    “The authorities have been slowly chipping away at those spaces that were open previously,” says Hildebrandt.

    With the closure of so many physical spaces, online networks had become “really the only places in which many members of the LGBT+ community could express their sexuality openly” he adds.

    But in contemporary Chinese politics, “the Maoist principles about equality have more to do with uniformity,” says Hildebrandt. “You gain equality by being more like everybody else. You don't gain equality by being diverse.”

    In a bid to create greater conformity within the population, “there has been a push in China to reinforce traditional family values and, in some cases, traditional masculine values,” adds Lanteigne.

    Since the Covid pandemic, “the Chinese government has endorsed nationalist discourse and LGBT culture is seen as very politicised siding with Western ideologies”, says Hongwei.

    “There's the impression that LGBTQ communities are by default connected to the West and could be seen as destabilising forces,” adds Lanteigne.

    Broader political and social forces may be at work, but the result is a real loss of liberty for gay and queer people in China. Hildebrandt says: “There is a real sense that it’s become a more difficult environment to be openly gay."

    older discussion

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Implies Capitalism is not at fault, proceeds to outline precisely why State Capitalism is melting down over declining birthrate. This comment is so ironic it cured my anemia.

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  • [–] -2 points 10 months ago*

    If every economy is capitalist no matter degree of government planning, regulation, & control, then by your standard non-capitalist economies are a myth.

    Demand for population growth is a general problem of economic growth rather than type of economic system. Even before capitalism, subsistence farmers would bear more children for the additional labor.

    Central planning economies can be as or more destructive than the more capitalist ones: type of economy seems to have little bearing there, too. The USSR aggressively industrialized & would consistently pursue economic growth (to raise standards of living). It comes up in the Soviet constitution of 1977:

    • labor, free from exploitation, as the source of growth
    • continuous improvement of their living standards (art. 39)
    • steady growth of the productive forces (art. 40).

    Despite their command economy, their pollution was proportionately worse than the US's

    Total emissions in the USSR in 1988 were about 79% of the US total. Considering that the Soviet GNP was only some 54% of that of the USA, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the USA per unit of GNP.

    Their planners considered pollution control

    unnecessary hindrance to economic development and industrialization

    and

    By the 1990s, 40% of Russia's territory began demonstrating symptoms of significant ecological stress, largely due to a diverse number of environmental issues, including deforestation, energy irresponsibility, pollution, and nuclear waste.

    And this generously glosses over the extent of water contamination, hazardous dumping of toxic & nuclear waste into oceans, etc.

    The dependence on labor, capacity for environmental destruction, and demand for economic growth are not particular to any type of economy: they're general.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    China isn't a communist country really. A state capitalist country would be better way to describe it, maybe. They participate in the markets and allow private ownership of companies. For instance BYD the fast coming EV manufacturer isn't majority owned by their federal government, but is subsidized by it.

    People can argue if it is or isn't capitalism, but in the end that doesn't say communism. I'm no expert but I'd say maybe a social programs injected into a authoritarian capitalistic state.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Ehh, the capitalist class doesn't call the shots in China though, the party does. And their private corporations don't simply have shareholders, it has party representation embedded in the control structure making "ownership" moot because ultimately the party can veto or seize production at moments notice.

    That being said, when Xi starts claiming socialism is inevitable, he does so to delay it's implementation.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago*

    Yeah companies like BYD have investors like Berkshire and Blackrock but the key is Wang Chuanfu who is in the party, and is the CEO and largest owner apparently. So he gets a lot of say in making himself richer apparently. Sounds like what Musk would have wanted for Tesla if he could have got MAGA off the EV hate

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    That just sounds like a reframing of "the party are the capitalist class" though.

    If the party either controls the corporations or has the ability to seize control if their priorities aren't met, where does one group begin and the other end?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Wouldn't that have made the USSR capitalist as well? I think a key distinction is how authority within a party is established. If authority is derived from ownership then that is clearly capitalist. If authority is derived from the party itself, then that is something else.

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  • [–] 25 points 10 months ago

    Did you know that Vaporeon....

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Hey guys, did you know that in terms of male human and female Pokémon breeding, Vaporeon is the most compatible Pokémon for humans? Not only are they in the field egg group, which is mostly comprised of mammals, Vaporeon are an average of 3”03’ tall and 63.9 pounds, this means they’re large enough to be able handle human dicks, and with their impressive Base Stats for HP and access to Acid Armor, you can be rough with one. Due to their mostly water based biology, there’s no doubt in my mind that an aroused Vaporeon would be incredibly wet, so wet that you could easily have sex with one for hours without getting sore. They can also learn the moves Attract, Baby-Doll Eyes, Captivate, Charm, and Tail Whip, along with not having fur to hide nipples, so it’d be incredibly easy for one to get you in the mood. With their abilities Water Absorb and Hydration, they can easily recover from fatigue with enough water. No other Pokémon comes close to this level of compatibility. Also, fun fact, if you pull out enough, you can make your Vaporeon turn white. Vaporeon is literally built for human dick. Ungodly defense stat+high HP pool+Acid Armor means it can take cock all day, all shapes and sizes and still come for more

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago

    Pikachu, I fuck you!

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I didn’t fuck my Vaporeon. I didn’t cum on my Vaporeon. I didn’t put my dick anywhere near my Vaporeon. I’ve never done anything weird with my Eveelutions. I promised myself I wasn’t going to make apology videos after last years thing so I’m just trying to be as short and honest with this as possible.

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    My "I didn't fuck my Vaporeon" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by the T-shirt.

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  • [–] 28 points 10 months ago

    Fuck Pokémon.

    Interpret that how you wish, lol

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    TIL there's a game called Pokemon Sleep. My life will never be the same.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    Gotta poke 'em all!

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Unclear if you want:

    Pokemon Fuck

    Or

    Pokemon Monk

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    It's only a problem for our species. And, only for future potential members of our species. The declining birth rate isn't going to hurt anyone alive today. Not even billionaires, not in any way that matters.

    Overall, the Earth would be much happier and peaceful without us. We're not special, we're just selfish.

    Finally, probably, even in the worst human-caused catastrophe, at least some pockets of humanity would survive. Again, though, not that it really matters.

    TLDR; Don't worry about it. It's no one's problem to solve. We didn't ask to be born, and none of us owe our species anything.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago* (3 children)

    The declining birth rate isn't going to hurt anyone alive today.

    Having a top heavy age demographic means less tax revenue will be split between more required services. There will also be fewer labourers with more labour requirements. The only ones it won't hurt are the billionaires.

    It's probably a good thing in the long run that human population is stabilising, but it's going to be problematic until we get to that stable state.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 10 months ago

    This is only a problem under capitalism. We are immensely more productive than we used to be and can provide for everyone. A great majority of our labor is just wasted on increasing shareholder value and producing frivilous shit we don't need.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Agreed. It will require careful redistribution of labor and resources to ensure stability with a declining population.

    But nations typically want to hoard their resources, and the value of labor is measured only in overall utility to the billionaire class, so I don't believe it will be a graceful decline for the majority of the world in practice.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago

    Pokémon GO: touch grass ✅ Pokémon Sleep: touch pillow ✅ Now we just need Pokémon Rent so we can afford kids 😂

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Pokemon x Luigi crossover?

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago
    [–] 9 points 10 months ago*

    Pokemon Create and every time you take a photo of a new newborn baby with the app, and send your genetic samples for verification, you have a chance to collect a rare pokemon

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  • [+] 8 points 10 months ago* (1 child)
  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Pokemon Hump

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Time to make Pokémon Give Money To Nintendo

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Is pokemon sleepy real thing?

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, Pokemon Sleep is a phone app

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    There are already plenty Pokémon porn games

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago
    [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    If you wanna increase birth rates, take 100% of all the billionaire's money (not a "reasonable tax amount" and spread it to everyone else.

    I'm more than willing to just let them be literally penniless (and disqualified for welfare) if the world will benefit from it. And it will.

    They don't deserve an honest living, they deserve a solitary confinement cell.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I’m open to them having social welfare after being stripped of their assets. I think I just expect that our prisons should provide its inmates with a humane standard of living of which they would of course have access to from their cell.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    They can have a minimum wage job.

    And hopefully after capping them at the knees (power and influence-wise), we can move to a society that actually has universal health care, even for minimum wage.

    I'm not ok with them benefiting from what society at large has been breaking their backs to fund.

    At least not outside of an emergency. I don't wanna actually have them die because of actual medical issues in the mean time.

    Unless they make spectacles of themselves complaining about their new station in life. That can effectively qualify them to be cut off. Sunny nobody got a right to whine about not getting to use human sacrifice to their benefit anymore.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Sapphire Safari is sorta like that. It's basically Pokemon Snap, but porn.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I legitimately think that we could do a tremendous amount of social good with a pokemon dating app.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Pokemon Daycare......because we all know what happens in the daycare and how those eggs are made

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    pokemon abort?

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Pokemon rawdog

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I mean what was Mr mime doing there

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