So we are where we are The problem is that I think very visible stuff like NASA, whose "practical benefit" is hard to articulate, becomes a lightning rod during hard times But I continue to maintain whether you love or hate space stuff it is not that big a deal
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I'm absolutely fucking disgusted by NASA because it epitomizes the fascist "cells of the body" view of humanity by justifying all current world suffering as a necessary down payment for some hypothetical glorious future for a handful of hypothetical people we will never be
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Replying to @Nymphomachy @arthur_affect and
Whom we are not, whom we will never get to be The Bidenist neoliberal view of "look, buddy, progress comes in increments", while *we literally do not have the fucking luxury of increments* This idea that the years of our lives are fungible—that what we need now is fine tomorrow
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Well that's any kind of big-picture research then isn't it Do you feel the same way about the Large Hadron Collider, and the even more abstract study of very tiny particles to try to figure out how the universe started billions of years ago
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
I mean you seem to be arguing that conditions the developing world make "idealistic" projects like NASA offensive but that just openly selfish shit -- spending billions a year on the purely idle amusements of rich Americans -- is less offensive It feels perverse
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
Sony spent quite a bit more money in less time developing the PS5 than the Perseverance project will take And the asking price for a PS5 is substantially more than 1/3 of the world's population makes in a year (the global poverty line is $370/yr or "a dollar a day")
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
I mean, why is there a PS5? Did we actually need one? Was the PS4 just not good enough? Is the benefit of having one even in the same ballpark of importance as curing cancer?
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I mean I was being glib with my PS5 comment but considering that we're all basically on hospice and there's very little hope for anyone, I do think that it's better to invest in bread and circuses than, say, real estate development
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And maybe science is circus enough for some people?
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If we're comparing the "circuses" of "pure science" professions and the mainstream entertainment sector than the amount of good provided by the former is, particularly for its cost, exponentially less effective at its job
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Enh I dunno about that A lot of movies just suck and no one sees them Like a LOT
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
The typical Cold War-era criticism of the West from the East of consumer capitalism wasn't even just that the things the West adored were in and of themselves unworthy pleasures to enjoy But that there was so much WASTE involved in making them
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
I mean it's not a bad argument, it's impossible not to see the argument just walking around a store They make so many brands of junk food no one even likes, just to see if someone might like it, or they can trick you into starting a fad around it
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