The way it was presented (not just in OP’s article, but also in news reports earlier) made me think it’s intentional and is some form of a very novel protest.

Glad I was wrong, I guess?

Full-blown Musk off, huh?

They’re out and out being Proud Boys™, good for them, I guess? Bad for everyone deemed undesirable, of course.

I reacted to a comment to a meme about parents having the power and the right to withhold what their children’s privileges relating to some trauma I’ve got.

The comment I replied to went:

We take away what each kid values the most. Works well. If they complain or don’t stop whatever got them in trouble we start adding days.

In hindsight, taking the context, it’s kinda reasonable, but I was triggered by the “what each kid values the most” remembering a painful part of my childhood, which lead me to be way less open to my mother.

I commented:

Wouldn’t that end up with a kid who values nothing, not even their own life?

My mom used a similar technique to get me to do what she wants me to do, and I ended up, well, the way I am right now. I hide a lot of things from her, and if necessary, only pretend to show interest in things I don’t give a damn about just to have a semblance of a personality. Worse, even if I‌ die right after this comment, I wouldn’t mind one bit.

Admittedly, that last part is totally unnecessary.

That response became my most controversial and downvoted for understandable reasons.

Saglit lang! Sino po sila? (A moment please! Who are they?)

Lol! Yes!! That’s exactly it! I never really thought much about it until this post. It’s one of those things people just do, without thinking much about it.

some cultures need visitors to declare themselves human when knocking at your door.

I didn’t think that much about it until this post. People here, me included, basically call out “(I’m a) human!” while knocking on the door.

That last paragraph of yours just made things click for me.

I’ve been wondering what kind of government will potentially do this. While it’s a pretty good idea in general, I don’t think any government will be able to shoulder the costs while earning the ire of the companies (media companies, etc.).

I mean, yeah, I also dislike having to restrict access, but I’ve just accepted it as a fact that such an institution must face. The decision on those restrictions would fall on the library/archives institution, so long as they are not running afoul of laws. So, I guess in the US, it’d be on the Library of Congress or in the case of the UK, the British Library.

Of course, it doesn’t do a thing to address your concerns, which as far as I am concerned, is very valid. And this is why I think piracy should exist, to keep such institutions honest. Sure, the national library here won’t allow me to research xyz, but other sources exists.

In a more philosophical POV, such institutions existing along with other entities (pirates, or what have you) allows for a check, and provides future historians a means of verifying information.

To be clear, I also fundamentally disagree on the concept of restricting access to information. And I think a lot of librarians and archivists agree with both of us. But for such an institution with such a service to exist, restricting access might be an evil they’re forced to accept.

I guess, to be honest, I don’t think such an institution will be allowed to exist, even with such restrictions in place.

EDIT: Typos and minor changes.

This would have been the job of the national archives and/or the national library.

Where I live, the government has a law stipulating that one copy every published material has to be submitted to the national library. I suppose a similar law exists for a lot of other countries, and extending this law to non-print media (like movies and TV shows) shouldn’t be controversial.

Regarding material deemed harmful and/or illegal, I think it should still be collected, but access would be restricted. If need be, access could be restricted to “premises-only” like what is done in a lot of university libraries.

Having this online library of material doesn’t have to mean that pirates have to be stamped out. I think this works best with the pirates keeping the government-sponsored media library honest.

However, what I think would be more plausible is an offline library of all the media that country has produced, with limited off-premises access afforded to researchers and others. That much, I think, would be allowed by the real powers that be.

Thanks! I am currently listening to the news while doing something else and I might have missed the crowd estimates.

I was talking to my mom about this earlier. I pointed out that each local church chapter is incentivized (even if central church authorities have not said anything, in private or in public) to bring as many people as they can as a show of “good church stewardship” or whatever.

I fully expected them to fill up the venue, even expecting some spill over, and the coverage on that church’s TV network has emphasized the size of the crowds.

That said, I wonder what’s the peak crowd numbers have been. I fully expect it to have peaked around 4pm earlier.

Edit: typos, spelling and other minor mistakes.

Ah, what I was referring to as a pitch for a benevolent dictator overlord is the part after the ellipsis in my paraphrase:

Predatory governance is a thing because politicians are more interested in their political survival. Even if political survival hinges on them doing their jobs, they will do their absolute minimum for them to ‘do more’ when reelected. Therefore, if we give our politicians infinite power and infinite time to sort out the mess we’re in, without having to think of their political prospects, then maybe, just maybe, someone can take us out of this mess.

The implication that someone could use this fact as a pitch is what I was pointing out.

There’s other ways we can get out of this mess, but my mind inevitably wandered off to possible examples we can use, which led me to the question in the last sentence.

My thinking is that we need to lift up our people out of poverty, out of needing to rely on the government aid programs, out of needing to rely on politicians for their sudden big expenses (pa-ospital, pa-libing, etc). Basically, if people are in a good enough situation, then maybe we won’t be prey to this predatory government we have. But maybe I’ve got things the wrong way around: without a predatory government, people can be in a good condition… Or maybe we’re stuck in a vicious spiral.

Anyways, I haven’t really looked at the instagram reel closely, and maybe I should. But it’s Instagram, so I am not at all comfortable with it. There’s also a link given in the post: https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/files/wcfia/files/898_jr_predatory.pdf but even without reading it, I’m leaning towards “yes, we have a predatory government,” but my question would be “how can we get rid of it and install a government that functions for the good of the people, and not for the good of its people?”

Edit:

I’ve managed to watch the entire reel (it resets whenever I try to alt-tab away from it, or even moving tabs to a different window, but it’s a me problem). I am not sure if I got everything it meant to say though.

Another edit:

I’ve scanned the paper, mostly focusing on the discussion of the results and the takeaways from the model. I think I’ve been wrong: the predatory government model, as the paper puts it, is limited to autocracies and dictatorships. The Marcos Sr. regime was also given as an example. Moreover, the paper’s final sentence goes like this:

Predatory states seem to only arise in non-democracies and it seems likely that the types of institutional transitions that occur with democratization inhibit in the use of such socially undesirable strategies as the ones I have modelled.

Of course, there’s another discussion on whether or not the Philippines is a democracy, and in what sense.

Let me see if I’ve got it correctly. Predatory governance is a thing because politicians are more interested in their political survival. Even if political survival hinges on them doing their jobs, they will do the absolute minimum in order for them to “do more” when reelected…

Did I get that correctly?

This sounds like a pitch for a “benevolent dictator overlord”. “Give me infinite power and infinite time and I can fix the country!”

But that’s the path a lot of our neighboring states went through. Minus the benevolent part.

And I’ve been thinking. Was there any country that kept their democracy, didn’t exploit another one, and yet developed their economy enough to get from the “third world” to the “first world”?

I guess we’re free to make those? Not that I have anything though.

Maybe some kind of a DAE (does anyone else…) or “Ask a Pinoy” kind of post? (The latter has to come from a non-Pinoy though.)

Normally those kinds of posts are low quality and are discouraged, but idk…

I’m glad it somehow helped you IRL. Best of luck to you!

I know myself enough that I’m likely to let that absolute power absolutely corrupt me and hence, make things absolutely worse for everyone around me.

I’m not that good of a person to be able to be sure that I won’t abuse that power, nor am I wise enough to know what to do in order to use that power for the good of everyone. Worse, I’d fall under the delusion that I’m the only person with the will and power to able to do good, and that my ideals are the only ones that count.

So, unfortunately, no. I must decline.

Thanks for the reply! If you don’t mind another follow up question, you mentioned you were limited by the lack of coding knowledge in that End dimension mod, and thus are not able to make one at the moment. This brings to mind another question: What do you think is the hardest part of the modding process? Or rather, what is your process for making mods, and what is the hardest part in that process?

What is your favorite Minecraft mod that you didn’t make? how about among your creations? Why is it your favorite?

As a follow-up, what (Minecraft) mod would you like to make, but couldn’t for some reason?

Touché! I didn’t expect this. What are the nipples made of? Are they lactating? Just for display? Also, are they erogenous?

I don’t think they have ever left. They’re probably not as influential and as powerful as the South Korean Chaebols, but they pretty much never left.

EDIT:

Clarified confusing double negative.

I wish that no life in the entire universe has and will ever attain civilization.