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> Because, frankly, I don't think the average, or even marginal Venezuelan would agree with you at all, as, they have actually had to deal with this dictator.

why do you think that? when was the last time you were in venezuela? first you tell someone to get off the internet for a bit and touch grass, then you gesture vaguely at what you think... which came from where exactly? different parts of the internet? cable news? where?


Immense majority of the country wanted him out. This is not even an argument at this point. You could argue Chavez was very popular for the most part, but Maduro? Even the communist party of Venezuela wanted him out.

an immense majority wanted him kidnapped by america? either you've inadvertantly shifted the goalpost or i'll need something to back that up, because i find that hard to believe.

I can speak just for myself and all my relatives and friends who wanted him out. I’d hoped it could be through other means but I’ll take this. Hopefully this leads to a transition and we get back to having a normal country like we’ve been yearning for so many years now.

Go ask a Venezuelan if you know one. We tried everything and only received violence. Personally Maduro got what he deserved. The regime is still there I know but it’s a bit of justice.


well tell us how it actually is then.

> For instance, the moment the Gaza ceasefire allowed Hamas to continue to operate, we all witnessed them dragging their own citizens into the street and summarily executing them for supposed “collaboration.”

wouldn't be the first time people from a group aided in the genocide of that group. what do you expect will happen to such people?

it's easy to put quotes around the word "collaboration", but go on, tell us what you know about these people, make your case that they weren't actually collaborators.


all tea has caffeine unless it's decaf. some things that aren't tea are called tea casually, but they aren't tea, for instance peppermint "tea" is not tea. by the same logic that one would call peppermint a tea, one would have to call coffee a tea. and beef broth.

That depends on culture. All camelia s. teas have it (green etc) but almost none of common herbal teas in Europe have it (chamomile, menta, sage etc.) They are not called casually teas.

> They are not called casually teas.

are you saying chamomile isn't called tea but it's one of the teas without caffeine? if so that's very confused.

camelia sinensis is tea. when i said that other things are casually called tea, i mean that what chamomile tea, for example, ought to be called is a tisane or an herbal infusion. casually, people might call it a tea; some people are so casual about it that they think it actually is tea. but it isn't.


no true scotsman tea. Tea is what is called tea. You can not just decide that you don't like some teas so they are not tea anymore.

did you check wikipedia and found it agrees with me before you came up with that?

for perspective, a novel is around 100k words, and animal farm is under 30k.

For perspective closer to the topic here, these are the approximate word counts of the books currently listed at "George Orwell bibliography" under "Novels":

• Burmese Days (1934): 97000

• A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935): 94000

• Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936): 87000

• Coming Up for Air (1939): 83000 (?)

• Animal Farm (1945): 30000 (just over 30k)

• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949): 103000 (or 99000 without the “The Principles of Newspeak” appendix).


Typically a novel is over 40k words plus, a novella is 15-40k words, and a short story is 15k or under. Depends on who you ask though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella#Word_counts

No, "typically" it's a "know-it-when-you-see-it" kind of thing. Trying to delineate precise word count boundaries is a misrepresentation of how these words are used. The numbers you gave are reasonable guidelines but are certainly not determinative.

Yes, that’s why I used the words “typically” and ”depends on who you ask”.

That chart implies it is possible for somebody to write a work that wins the Hugo awards for best novelette and best novella, which I’d really like to see happen!

> Cars will make you “fat and lazy” if you never move your body otherwise, but it’s fairly clear to see that this is avoidable.

why would you choose to compare ai to cars? you seem to be defending ai, but to compare it to cars... cars have been a horrible development.


I don't own a car, I don't drive a car, and I will never live in a city that has been made for a car primarily. That is not a majority-opinion nor majority-behavior in the US.

Cars are obviously useful at moving things around places (eg. Taxis are great, Fedex would never make sense as a service with public transit), but shaping our civic society around them have been terrible for the humans within it.

AI is obviously useful, and has proven clear use-cases that generate value. I think it'll be terrible if we make civic society for it like we did the car.


i don't understand what you're saying about hypertext.

i think they're saying you don't form semantic links in your own mind bc you're mindlessly clicking around

tracking down the relevant text from a reference is loading your working memory and, i would argue, inhibiting your ability to form semantic links as a consequence.

that makes sense if other people are watching the conversation, paying attention to it, considering everything that's said and using that as the basis for what they believe going forward, but that almost never happens, and certainly never happens here.

not when the entire conversation has nothing to do with anything.

but i have to wonder what powerful people actually bring to the table.

Leadership.

Most here won't want to hear it, but the average person does not want to lead. They want to be told everything will be alright.

Leading + consequences is difficult and stressful. Heck, just leading your own household is stressful, try doing it for someone else or 1000s.


Mismanaging your household finances can ruin your livelihood and you might end up on the street.

Mismanaging a company which you didn’t build won’t ruin your livelihood. It might of the employees. It may weight heavy on your conscience but we’ve heard enough of those “I take full responsibility” phrases that we know how heavy is that.


Capital or the ability to raise capital.

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