This appears to be leading to people being super quiet about their AI usage. It really feels as if everyone is using it massively but keeping quiet about it. This is a guess as I haven't gone around and asked every single person about their AI usage.
I am reminded about a question I posted in a Vintage Apple subreddit. I described the problem and all the steps I took to try and resolve it. In the middle of the text I also hinted that I asked AI and that it gave be a wildly strange answer which I dismissed but that it gave me hints to continue onwards.
The majority of answers were focused around that one sentence and completely ignoring the rest of the post(and even the problem I was posting about). I was ridiculed (sometimes aggressively) for even considering trying the AI. Eventually someone finally answered the question, I thanked them and continued to get downvoted massively.
While I get that the vintage community can attract some colorful characters this was an interesting observation at how badly they reacted to the post. I've since refrained from mentioning AI and furthermore, trying to limit my involvement with communities like that and ironically working on better ways to use AI to solve problems so as to minimize dealing with them(finding ways of providing more system level data to the AI in my prompt).
>Aid to Israel is basically giving them weapons for free, i.e., paying US-based companies. I have no idea how did you jump from weapons to subsidizing Israel's healthcare.
Sick and tired of this old argument: Its still adding to the debt, so its socialism to increase military contractor stock prices.
Not really, this increases the profits of American oil and gas exports, USA is one of the countries that benefits from higher prices.
You could argue that just benefits petrol companies, but overall USA doesn't really lose on this its mostly the rest of the world that pays for it, and it might redistribute a bit inside USA.
When the US went to Iraq the approval rating was in the 90s(correction I mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraq was 70-80s) because the US had been attacked, and Bush took the time to sell the war to the Americans (with lies) by the time all the disasters kept coming in, support dropped to the 40s.
This war started in the 40s approval rating. If bodies start coming home in mass, I don't know how things will turn out for Trump and his party but its already looking like a disaster for them and it hasn't even hit the really ugly part yet.
Maybe the Asian countries can finally get together and hash out a way to deal with Israel. It seems like an insurmountable problem. The elites in the US either fall in line or when they try to push back they are eventually forced to relent(ex. Musk in the early Twitter days).
This entire saga has been a wake up call to the middle eastern states. They thought all the money they paid to the US over the years got them a first class ticket when in reality they are sitting way back in economy.
There aren't many options on the table. Cozy up to China? Maybe the middle eastern and OECD countries can do it but not the Asian countries. The right strategy would be to join forces to try and help the US get back on track because what other superpower is there? And that means somehow dealing with Israel as they are going to continue causing trouble for everyone.
They don't need to deal with Israel when Israel itself is a ticking time bomb. This war and this presidency with their kompromat on Trump was their only shot at becoming an expansionist regional hegemon. Israel is facing a demographic timebomb, and a reverse-Aliyah exodus of top talent to literally anywhere else, including the UAE and the US. Turns out, nobody likes living in a military state, except for a bunch of ultra-orthodox emigres and Hasidic Jews, who are both growing like crazy and have zero inclination to serve in national defence, and have piss poor technical aptitude.
> This entire saga has been a wake up call to the middle eastern states. They thought all the money they paid to the US over the years got them a first class ticket when in reality they are sitting way back in economy.
This is the biggest change. The Gulf states were completely blindsided by the war, and are now rethinking their alliance with the US. Expect to see more Chinese and EU bases in the region - China already has a military base in the UAE. Al Udeid is going to be massively downsized. And these guys are going to be shopping in the EU for weapons systems, not the US.
> Cozy up to China? Maybe the middle eastern and OECD countries can do it but not the Asian countries.
The right strategy is for the Asian countries to stop quarreling between themselves and forge new defensive alliances. Or alternatively, submit to Chinese hegemony as tributary states (tributing natural resources that is), as they used to do in the past.
>Israel is facing a demographic timebomb, and a reverse-Aliyah exodus of top talent to literally anywhere else, including the UAE and the US.
While I generally agree that Israel is on shaky ground, I'm not sure this is fully accurate. Ok to be fair, yes a lot of liberal educated Israeli seem to have left a while ago but if you look at their demography they are one of the only few countries that has a positive demography. As other countries begin to degrade from this population decline many more Israeli's may return as well.
>Turns out, nobody likes living in a military state, except for a bunch of ultra-orthodox emigres and Hasidic Jews, who are both growing like crazy and have zero inclination to serve in national defence, and have piss poor technical aptitude.
This contradicts the timebomb narrative and yes this will definitely cause problems just like the decline in education in the US will rear its ugly head years down the line....but having population means possibility, it does not matter how educated a person is if they don't exist.
>This is the biggest change. The Gulf states were completely blindsided by the war, and are now rethinking their alliance with the US. Expect to see more Chinese and EU bases in the region - China already has a military base in the UAE. Al Udeid is going to be massively downsized. And these guys are going to be shopping in the EU for weapons systems, not the US.
Its really unbelievable to see how the US has destroyed many relationships in real time and the Trump loving crowd continues to pretend like nothing is wrong. They are gearing up to blame the other side as well once things become visibly painful. Just like the Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden I suspect this mess will become visible after Trump is long gone and the successor will get all the blame.
I generally try not to believe in conspiracy theories but is the US being set up to fail by multiple advisaries (including Israel) or is it really just stupidity and a broken system of accountability?
>The right strategy is for the Asian countries to stop quarreling between themselves and forge new defensive alliances.
Thats the thing, I don't know if they are capable of this given their poor demography. I was thinking that maybe the correct move is to swallow their pride and try and patch up relationships when Trump is gone while also doing more themselves(whatever they can). In fact that might end up being the default move for the EU as well. Bringing in more of China so as to not be completely dependant on the US but ensuring the US is still part of the game in a significant way. I have not seen anything other than tepidness and strongly worded letters from EU since Trump came back and it makes me think there isn't a real life and death motivation for them to become independent. Its much easier to patch things up and hope for the best.
Apart from the demographic counter you put out, agree on all points. The Hasids vapidly oppose any participation in the military, and are already contesting and protesting it in the courts, which are hearing none of it, much to their chagrin. These are a bunch of folks who haven't had the typical education geared towards scientific talent, who haven't had even the necessary hardening needed to function in modern society - the Israeli state massively subsidizes their lifestyle as long as they're engaged in religious education. Changing community mindsets is much harder than training afresh.
About the Asian countries, you're right, but I'm still optimistic that with a looming Chinese threat, they might consider strengthening regional bodies like ASEAN. But again, imperialistic China might end with Xi, and China hasn't even been traditionally expansionist outside their core regional claims. Yes, they are strongly irredentist, but that's also a relief for Asian countries - yes, they will be threatened at sea, as China claims more sea, but apart from Taiwan and maybe Amur Russia, China has no interest in actually landing boots on the ground in most of Asia.
>The trouble is that the US has lost the plot, there's no value or vision to defend, it hollowed itself out with hyperfinancialisation since the 80s, the consequence is that there's no rallying inspirational point anymore. It doesn't have a "hook" to attach its vision of the future, I have no idea what's the vision of the USA for the future except for "generating wealth".
I'm not entirely sure I buy this. Everything you said feels true, and it's happening in the moment. But I think you're missing the forest for the trees. The way you wrote "hyperfinancialisation" makes me think you are European (German?)
I'd imagine a vision for the country would be explained at places like World Expo right? In 2025 their booth (developed during Biden years even though it launched during Trump) gave a "semi" okay idea of where the country is placing its vision. Was it expressed well at the Expo? Not entirely sure, but it was there.
Historically, they didn't need to really do much at these Expos because who doesn't know the U.S.? And who doesn't know what the country is about? But I guess with the increasing decline of the U.S., they now have to 'advertise' themselves and explain to people what the underlying vision is.
In the end, the underlying theme seems to be "optimistic collaboration led by American innovation". Yeah I know its hard to picture this in the moment after everything that has happened in the last year but as the Biden years ended this was the thinking among government officials.
Watching this video a year later, it just seems so comical that this whole vision of "collaborative innovation": of the future being a collaborative project, with America wanting to lead it but not alone, and the slogan 'Imagine what we could create together' just seems comical after everything that's occurred in the last year. I guess it remains to be seen if this vision will hold once Trump is out of office.
> I'm not entirely sure I buy this. Everything you said feels true, and it's happening in the moment. But I think you're missing the forest for the trees. The way you wrote "hyperfinancialisation" makes me think you are European (German?)
I'm Brazilian-Swedish, living in Sweden.
> I'd imagine a vision for the country would be explained at places like World Expo right? In 2025 their booth (developed during Biden years even though it launched during Trump) gave a "semi" okay idea of where the country is placing its vision. Was it expressed well at the Expo? Not entirely sure, but it was there.
A vision for the country is something that's built upon, across governments and party lines since it's "what the nation is about" more than what policies are being voted on by diverging ideologies, it's something to tether a nation's spirit onto. Advertising something on a World Expo is just advertisement, it's the actions over a longer period of time that can be linked to a vision that actualises it, and that's what I don't see from the USA at all.
> In the end, the underlying theme seems to be "optimistic collaboration led by American innovation". Yeah I know its hard to picture this in the moment after everything that has happened in the last year but as the Biden years ended this was the thinking among government officials.
That line couldn't reek more of corporate-speak than it does, it's something you'd read on a PowerPoint slide from McKinsey. It doesn't inspire anyone, reading it doesn't make you feel "yeah, I want to buy into that". It just cements more of my thought that the vision is "get wealthy", it just states an end without inspiring any of the means for it.
Also, the Biden years already feel long gone, it could've been the beginning of re-steering the ship into a brighter path, barely a bit more than a year without Biden and nothing from the previous USA is recognisable.
> Watching this video a year later, it just seems so comical that this whole vision of "collaborative innovation": of the future being a collaborative project, with America wanting to lead it but not alone, and the slogan 'Imagine what we could create together' just seems comical after everything that's occurred in the last year. I guess it remains to be seen if this vision will hold once Trump is out of office.
Exactly, it's comical that it was kept as a pitch given everything we are seeing from post-Trump USA. It's really hard for me to imagine coming back from this, even more if it does last for another 3 years.
It's a real problem that Trump himself and his movement seem incapable of articulating a positive vision of America. It's an equally serious problem that the opposition are equally negative about the country, its history, its promise and potential. Both factions seem to be serving as negative emissaries. No one has less vision of America than MAGA; and no one hates it more than the Democratic Socialists. This isn't really an accident, in my opinion. And it's not just due to "hyperfinancialization" or growing economic inequality or racial disparities - all of those are issues.
Call me paranoid, but I think it's due to one of our greatest strengths being hijacked. Our free speech laws and the openness of our society, the total non-filtering of information - which I support - have created a fertile ground for sophisticated propaganda from China and Russia, Iran and Qatar, to overwhelm the brains of a lot of people on both sides of our political divide through massive social media psyops that have gone on for a decade.
It's reached the point that very few people in America can state why America is a good thing, even for its own citizens, let alone for the rest of the world.
But not very long ago, this was not the case. And there are excellent arguments to be made for why America should remain the keystone of the global order: It's inclusive, it's progressive, its system has been a miraculous engine of economic growth for everyone in its orbit. But the easiest and most banal reason, one which no one says out loud is: If not America, which country would you rather have exercising power to create some kind of international order? The people who think everything America does is automatically evil haven't really made much study of what life is like under the realistic alternatives to that question.
> If not America, which country would you rather have exercising power to create some kind of international order? The people who think everything America does is automatically evil haven't really made much study of what life is like under the realistic alternatives to that question.
Ideally no country of course but a multilateral organisation like the UN.
Definitely not the unilateral bully that is the US right now. That's not even the least bad option anymore. It is what the US was during the second Iraq invasion, everyone knew it was based on lies but we went along anyway because the US still had soft power. But Trump has thrown all that away.
>It's an equally serious problem that the opposition are equally negative about the country, its history, its promise and potential.
I don't buy that at all. Mamdani's election is the latest example of a progressive left that is slowly making inroads and provides an extremely positive vision for the future based on inclusion and respect for all peoples. He is definitely rising to the occasion as well. His win was a 15 years of struggle starting with an extremely disorganized movement in Occupy Wall street, with many events in between to him getting elected as a democratic socialist in the finance capital of the US. His vision pursues economic justice as a way to empower people to build a positive future.
But we don't need to just use him as an example. AOC was also pushing an extremely positive message in her famous campaign ad: a positive vision for the future: Green New Deal, efforts to invest in people and not just corporate graft and the same respect for people of all backgrounds(given her district has 50+ languages spoken there). She knocked out the guy that was the Democratic party's main money man link to the financial institutions that bribe both parties.
Her victory followed decades of struggle of Bernie Sanders's vision who went from being a completely dismissable vision back in his days of trying to become Mayor of Burlington to now being a figure that the Democratic party is forced to recon with because he has built a solid movement in the next generation that has the drive to implement his original vision.
> Call me paranoid, but I think it's due to one of our greatest strengths being hijacked. Our free speech laws and the openness of our society, the total non-filtering of information - which I support - have created a fertile ground for sophisticated propaganda from China and Russia, Iran and Qatar, to overwhelm the brains of a lot of people on both sides of our political divide through massive social media psyops that have gone on for a decade.
Yeah this exists but at the same time are you seeing whats happening on the ground off the internet? Its people using whatever strained institutions are left to slowly hold people accountable and also driving towards a new vision by raising people like Mamdani. Everyone was surprised by his win...except the people on the ground who saw him go on a hunger strike years earlier to help taxi drivers committing suicide because they were trapped or working through the corrupt system to actually get a free bus line funded and helping real people.
The ship may have sailed for a lot of consumers. This along with EVs are one of those things that people try once and if they don't like it they won't try again. Probably helps to explain why all the stocks of these companies were riding high for quite a while but then collapsed.
How do you rebrand after people have already associated your product with past failed incumbents?
Their wikipedia lists many engine models, all of which seem to be either small industrial engines or engines for range extenders only. This does not sound like a portfolio that can compete with the legacy OEMs but it does explain how they ship so many units.
The Chinese understand that everyone will be burned once and then never again(hopefully). Thats still millions of dollars in their pockets and not yours. There is a sucker born every minute attracted by the low prices expecting these things to work just like Raspberry pi. I got burned on the Cubieboard 1 in 2012. Still have that junk somewhere in the house having never run any major applications on the device.
I wonder if AI can help bridge the gap and provide the missing support that these vendors don't wish to provide.
I am reminded about a question I posted in a Vintage Apple subreddit. I described the problem and all the steps I took to try and resolve it. In the middle of the text I also hinted that I asked AI and that it gave be a wildly strange answer which I dismissed but that it gave me hints to continue onwards.
The majority of answers were focused around that one sentence and completely ignoring the rest of the post(and even the problem I was posting about). I was ridiculed (sometimes aggressively) for even considering trying the AI. Eventually someone finally answered the question, I thanked them and continued to get downvoted massively.
While I get that the vintage community can attract some colorful characters this was an interesting observation at how badly they reacted to the post. I've since refrained from mentioning AI and furthermore, trying to limit my involvement with communities like that and ironically working on better ways to use AI to solve problems so as to minimize dealing with them(finding ways of providing more system level data to the AI in my prompt).
reply