I just came up with a thought the other day! This would be a decades long approach and I have no idea if it would work. The idea is for generic American cities, that have a few sky scrapers in a downtown and then the burbs.

Start with 3-5 square blocks in the heart of downtown and close the roads. Make them permanently pedestrian only. These roads are typically very wide, so allow food trucks/vendors to occupy a portion of the center. Add bike lanes, and add really good reliable public transit around this area. Let that marinate for a few years, then add another chunk of the same size.

I think you would see this portion of the city become a very popular residential area. Businesses will figure out how to provide amenities where people gather. By starting small you are not requireing people to get rid of their cars, just not use them in certain areas. As this expands you will have a larger and larger portion of the population that finds it inconvenient and expensive to own a car once their needs are met in this ever expanding bubble.

I doubt you could ever get this done, but it’s an idea!

Usually described as a coup.

Is that the same story as the movie by the same name?

Captain, we’re going to need a new tactic. Operative 15 has found a gaping flaw in our capabilities.

Always warms my heart to see the amount of respect these athletes have for their competitors. Sometimes people are awesome!

Thanks for keeping us on topic, Chief. We almost stopped thinking about sex for a min.

I’m sure there have been minor incidents, but as far as I know Sikhism comes to mind as a religion that doesn’t have blood on its hands.

It’s a monarchy… So yeah…

Cat probability: 98.3%

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Is this the same Bob Ballard that found the Titanic and the Bismark?

I agree, we all have search engines and if someone doesn’t understand a word or phrase they can learn it on their own. Brilliant write up!

Was this the root cause??? Hahahaha

They had that then, trains.

Recently learned this is a double exposure image. They took an exposure in an unlit room for the lightning, then put Tesla in there reading a book and took the second exposure.

Topo maps are super complicated…

In reality capitalism is one of the most authoritarian systems in history.

This statement is pretty disingenuous. First, authoritarian is a political system, not an economic one, but for the sake of argument let’s call authoritarian “the lack of personal choice or opportunity”. I feel like this definition captures the sentiment of the original post.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many flaws with the inequalities of capitalism, but it does provide much more freedom of opportunity than feudalism and substance farming in terms of economic systems. Those two have been the staple of civilization since its inception. Personally, I would choose the system where the deck is stacked against me, rather than the system where I don’t get delt a hand.

So no, I don’t think capitalism ranks as one of the most authoritarian systems in history. There are many changes we can make to reduce inequality and make the world “less authoritarian” though. Might be a better to push those ideas of improvement rather than pretending that we live in the worst time in history.

“It is hard to remember that people can be both victim and perpetrator at the same time.”

We try often try to assign one group as the good guys and the other as the bad guys. It doesn’t work like that.