That is going to be the issue of this century. And how it will play out is unpredictable. Traditionally, the overthrow and decline of those hoarding the wealth brings about a major change in society. Rome went from Republic to Empire. France dropped one thousand years of aristocracy and became the most sharply modern state of that time. Whatever happens to our economic system within our lifetime, I doubt we'll go back to something mirroring what we had in the 20th century. The golden age of liberal capitalism is done; it isn't coming back any time soon. What happens next... shit, that's the unnerving part.

What happens next... shit, that's the unnerving part.

My money's on either the Mad Max scenario or the Anthem one. Too early to tell which quadrant of the post-overthrow-madness compass we'll end up with, but I'm betting on those two corners, because I'd like to think I'd die during their establishment and not have to deal with any of that shit.

Worst case is that Tumblr takes over, because then I'll only die several years into the post-apocalypse, and likely because of blood pressure, assuming I'm not drained of all my damn dirty testosterone and indoctrinated until I die on the inside instead...

I don't think it will be so melodramatic. Just my two cents on what comes next.

Best case scenario is Star Trek. The next overthrow is done with some level of forethought and organization, technological improvement continues to make human labor less important, and we create some workable form of socialism that makes sure the basics of life are guaranteed so that our competitive spirit is saved for better things than cooking fries. Success is measured by what you actually do rather than what paycheck you are pulling. This is incredibly idealistic but, considering how quickly society has evolved in the last two hundred years, it isn't necessarily impossible. This is the one that we want to happen even if it is a long shot.

The next mild one is a "Western Spring" movement. We work within our own governments, society doesn't change a whole lot, and all we do is bring down the especially wealthy. This seems like it would be asking for another set of ultra-wealthy plutocrats further down the road, and it doesn't really answer the looming long-term problem of technological unemployment, so I guess this could be classified as the situation where we don't really have a dramatic revolution on a societal level.

Another possibility is that we will revert somewhat. The overthrow happens, involving a revolutionary pattern likes those of the early twentieth century, so that the world economy is broken up again. Everything having fallen back, nationalistic fervor and all the room for growth created by the "collapse" pushes for a quick period of regrowth and re-industrialization. This is the world with the largest threat of World War 3, but what that looks like in the context of nuclear weapons is hard to say. We could see a replay of the cold war, but with very different factions. This one feels more likely, but it doesn't mesh historically. Revolutions usually don't involve a reversion like that. Whether it is Rome, or France, or Russia, there usually is a significant reorganization of the social order involved. Though we are talking about a revolutionary pattern that is largely global.

So it seems that the most likely event would be a more extreme version of the last one. The revolutionary pattern is more intense, and societies values change drastically. What it means to be an American, or a European, or Chinese, shifts drastically within the context of these revolutions. This means the borders change, the rules change, and we enter a world we might struggle to imagine. It's like us now are mid 18th century Brits trying to describe what the world will look like in 1900. It can go anywhere.

The worst case is a division of all known boundaries and the complete collapse of modern social ties. Nations fall. This is the Fall of Rome scenario, and it seems drastic to me because the governments of the modern world are rather efficient compared to those of collapsing empires. If this does happen, the breaking of international and national ties means we all live in some form of near-subsistence poverty. Still, the Roman Dark Ages meant a rich urban government was replaced by multiple poor agrarian governments, it didn't involve a significant loss of technology (despite what the movies say). With the technology we have to day, this complete breakdown seems unlikely.

and if tumblr takes over, who says it gotta be the shut-ins part of tumblr? maybe the porn part of tumblr takes over.

Well I'm one that's shifting more to the camp that the cyber world might play a greater impact on the conflict field than nuclear weapons or even conventional warfare. Physical damage won't be so much wrought with bombs, but through abuse of the internationally connected world. In the sort of environment when US and Isreali black-hats can hack and shut down Iranian nuclear test reactors, then it's actually not impossible for non-state groups or others to do the same back; considering that a lot of these cyber contractors probably were at one point "criminal" individuals hacking for self benefit or for shits and giggles.

So on that level there's maybe two ways to go about things as a self defense. Rigorous and draconian censorship, or Stasi level self-moderation within the community (which someone accused a TED speaker of promoting in comments).

The potential of cyber warfare is interesting and ignored. Non-state groups now have the same tools as global powers today by abusing Google Maps to pick up Sat Nav maps of regions, and there's even phone apps that track the movements and whereabouts of airplanes. And with the use of Tor/The Onion Browser you can achieve basically complete anonymity and encryption the military would have once only enjoyed.

So if I was scripty enough and maybe had enough bitcoin I could maybe organize an attack on someone's server and take it over.

the problem with cyber warfare is that it is easily fixed by not hooking your major weapons systems to an accessible network. You think there is a real threat your weapons systems will be hacked? Isolate those motherfuckers entirely and use old-school communication methods to fill in the gaps.

If cyber warfare truly gets ramped up to a truly dangerous level, that is exactly what will happen.

I'm not going to lie, this thread took a turn I did not expect.

Well I'm one that's shifting more to the camp that the cyber world might play a greater impact on the conflict field than nuclear weapons or even conventional warfare. Physical damage won't be so much wrought with bombs, but through abuse of the internationally connected world. In the sort of environment when US and Isreali black-hats can hack and shut down Iranian nuclear test reactors, then it's actually not impossible for non-state groups or others to do the same back; considering that a lot of these cyber contractors probably were at one point "criminal" individuals hacking for self benefit or for shits and giggles.

So on that level there's maybe two ways to go about things as a self defense. Rigorous and draconian censorship, or Stasi level self-moderation within the community (which someone accused a TED speaker of promoting in comments).

The potential of cyber warfare is interesting and ignored. Non-state groups now have the same tools as global powers today by abusing Google Maps to pick up Sat Nav maps of regions, and there's even phone apps that track the movements and whereabouts of airplanes. And with the use of Tor/The Onion Browser you can achieve basically complete anonymity and encryption the military would have once only enjoyed.

So if I was scripty enough and maybe had enough bitcoin I could maybe organize an attack on someone's server and take it over.

Funny you mention that. One of my future scenarios involved a one world government formed after a global cyber war between multiple factions of international political machines in a world where nation states are far more fluid.

Whoever controls the machines, controls the world.

It sounds insane, but I figure quantum computers may actually make this scenario a possibility. Of course this also requires every government on Earth thinking that a global net with quantum computing based infrastructure is a good idea. Which it isn't and with governments like China's out there, good luck eroding the nation state for now.

I'm not going to lie, this thread took a turn I did not expect.

I didn't exactly go through all 12 pages worth of bitching here, but I'm under the impression that this thread is pretty much all about...

War and feminism.

So going back to the thread title/original purpose of this thread...

B!tchfest = Politics.

...

Politics everywhere.
Screw politics then.

Everybody is weirdly civil about the politics in here.

Is when you get to the issue of inter-gender relations that everything gets vicious for some reason.

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Funny you mention that. One of my future scenarios involved a one world government formed after a global cyber war between multiple factions of international political machines in a world where nation states are far more fluid.

Whoever controls the machines, controls the world.

It sounds insane, but I figure quantum computers may actually make this scenario a possibility. Of course this also requires every government on Earth thinking that a global net with quantum computing based infrastructure is a good idea. Which it isn't and with governments like China's out there, good luck eroding the nation state for now.

I was going to run a modern cyber-terrorism cell in an NRP once, one that would presumably end up seizing all the nuclear weapons of all the great powers and preventing them from being launched.

It would have been entertaining if the cards fell right, but many of the core people in that NRP disappeared about a month ago. So I can't initiate a pseudo-Skullface move.

The sheer amount of butthurt Trumpists have.

I just had an argument on G+ with one and it seems that she's actually shut down comments and insult me as if to make me feel bad. All I'm saying that is that it kinda proves my point of her being whinny and butthurt. Follow that up with the fact she failed to state any of Trump's policies and instead opted for more insults, and posting screenshots of the some of the comments I made calling me a "lying liberal bitch" despite there was no relation between her claims and the pictures. Then she spouts out the number 2 million of what I can only assume as views. Strange since the person in question only has about 1k followers and hasn't reposted anything to any communities.

Jesus Christ is butthurt of the highest caliber... she also said that her "ego could never be broken" which seemed about as true as me having a tank as a car.

I worry for America sometimes...

/endrant

You worry for America sometimes? We worry about America, and we're across the Atlantic! For every Barack Obama there is a Trump. America doesn't do anything by halves, at least. Either the very best or the very worst.

More like our political system is melodramatic. Obama is a fairly middle-of-the-road liberal, and Trump seems to be playing at something rather than running as a serious candidate. If it were discovered that Trump is just running to see how far he can get by chatting up the contrarian-populism vote, I wouldn't be surprised.

I honestly thought that Trump was flat out trolling the GOP when he first started running. Now I don't know who's worse, him or the people who support and agree with him

Oh yes, the US psyche is profoundly melodramatic. Take gun control. At the first sign of reasonable laws a certain section of the US EXPLODES! They talk as if one week after the authorities took their guns they would be Living under Russian occupation. Ridiculous!

Well, British style gun-control wouldn't work in the US because there isn't nearly enough popular support for it. If we tried it, the authorities would be fighting an up-hill battle in trying to enforce it. And that is assuming they actually try to enforce it on anybody but minorities.

I mean, I consider myself pretty liberal, but my idea of sane gun control is basically just closing loop-holes so that licensing is effective.

But yeh, I agree, people aren't going to fight off a big brother government with their 22's. If the hammer of naked totalitarianism came like paranoid folk like to imagine, the military would be divided and the weapons that defend our rights would come from them. Squirrel rifles are for squirrels.

I honestly thought that Trump was flat out trolling the GOP when he first started running. Now I don't know who's worse, him or the people who support and agree with him

I still think he is. Not so much trolling, but rather that he is this guy who has always got everything he wanted, who has cultivated a popular larger-than-life image, and has an ego the size of one of the buildings he names after himself. Him running just to see how far he can get makes more sense too me than the idea that a real estate mogul from New York City legitimately cares that much about illegal immigration. He's a salesman. He found an audience who he could get to take him seriously, he cultivated them, and now he is riding off their support.

That Trump is doing so well does show that the Republican party is going to need a makeover if they are going to be competitive in the future. Consider that, if a Democrat wins this election like a lot of people seem to think, this will be the first time we've had two consecutive democrats since Johnson. And the first time the this happened without the latter first ascending to the presidency due to the death of the former since James fucking Buchanan. Such a thing would suggest a significant political upset, and very possibly the shift to the left that would put us more in alignment with the rest of the Western World.

Trump is exposing the average american voter, yall just want someone to entertain you. Even his opposition loves to hate him, he's like really well designed video game boss that you keep re-loading just to fight.

Huh... Just learned what Cringepics are recently. I now have a whole new set of individuals to direct my impotent hatred towards...

I think the time spent writing a rant about random idiots the forum may or may not have even seen/read about would be much better spent watching all of the Slow-Mo Guys' videos, so if you're feeling especially stressed, just pretend you read a reasonably nice rant (if you can't settle for anything less than the actual thing, just watch that one video in which a guy in a gimp suit tells Tumblr to kill themselves. I think that's well in keeping with the theme here.) and then spend the next few hours watching guys smash tvs and play with paint. You'll be much better off.

Oh yes, the US psyche is profoundly melodramatic. Take gun control. At the first sign of reasonable laws a certain section of the US EXPLODES! They talk as if one week after the authorities took their guns they would be Living under Russian occupation. Ridiculous!

This. I mean, seriously? A guy says "Hey, you know, could you, like, do background checks please? That'd be great." and everyone buys ammunition and fortifies their homes in preparation for a government crackdown. It's not that terrible to have to wait a little bit to buy a gun, you know.

<Snipped quote by Ulstermann>

This. I mean, seriously? A guy says "Hey, you know, could you, like, do background checks please? That'd be great." and everyone buys ammunition and fortifies their homes in preparation for a government crackdown. It's not that terrible to have to wait a little bit to buy a gun, you know.

The only reason people are scared is because they are idiots.