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Cake day: June 26th, 2023

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  • Left-wing scrutiny of the Squad and particularly Representative Ocasio-Cortez has steadily veered from constructive criticism and needed pressure to a kind of caricaturish vitriol.

    Jacobin is clearly panicked by the possibility that the Outsider Left might not actually inherit the Democratic Party’s mantle, but seems unwilling to ask why or to suggest a solution.

    This op-ed consists of hand-waving apologetics that glaze over AOC’s often neoliberal voting record with feel-good references to, for example, the legacy of the failed Green New Deal, and it reads like an excuse.

    Perhaps Jacobin is merely attempting to convince itself, but an injunction to think of “the health of the socialist and broader progressive movements” feels pathetic at the end of an article that’s largely failed to defend the socialist Wunderkinder against the leftist critique that they’re all just regular old Democrats now.

    It’s tough being a member of the “Squad” these days.

    Is it really, though? AOC and her ilk further their careers by happily selling their politically-profitable, “socialist” personas to a tragically hoodwinked outer-left constituency that’s just hopeful for meaningful change.

    See ya at the next Met Gala, AOC.












  • I understand the theory behind the production-line savings, but 100% do not believe that those savings will be passed on to the consumer, and am unconvinced that it actually is more cost-effective/materially efficient (incentive-wise, it’s in the best interests of the car manufacturers to convince us that this will be a good thing for us in the long-term).

    They’re manufacturing the various components (like seats) on totally separate lines from the car and then assembling them. If every single component manufactured is the fanciest, priciest version—if every seat has a heater, a fan, and internet connectivity so it can be activated or locked—that’s certainly going to result in a more expensive base vehicle price vs manufacturing lower-tier components and feeding them into the assembly line as necessary.

    A great example would be the Tesla batteries. They’re absolutely not putting the same battery in each car and then locking the ability to charge it beyond a certain point. Materials costs are a huge factor.

    A non-vehicular example would be phones. There’s a reason why every iPhone doesn’t have the same components that are just subscription-locked.

    The FSD side of things does feel different, though, I agree with you there. You’re paying for a consistently-updated, software-based service, but that’s not at all comparable to having to pay the original manufacturer to activate, say, the blind-spot indicators on a used car (unless they’re coming out and upgrading your mirrors from time to time).


  • …am I having a stroke? Isn’t the subscription-model literally “forcing people” to pay a higher base price because the car includes expensive (but disabled!) components that you then have to pay more money to unlock?

    It’s a question of paying extra for a car with costly (to manufacture) subscription-locked features that you don’t want and won’t use vs being able to buy a stripped-down, base model with hand-crank windows, no?

    Am I getting whooshed rn? That’s the only explanation that makes sense, that I’m missing the sarcasm or something.