this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 140 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The article was satire fyi.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (2 children)

O thank god, almost ate the onion

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

It was a blooming onion at least 👀

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In Australia we call that "doing the Tony"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So we can't have Bezos / Musk compete for world king?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Don't forget about Dick Suckerberg

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why is there a New Text Document under the N? Did someone use this meme as a desktop image? And then took a screenshot? Why?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think the meme was made from a desktop screenshot, probably from an image search Great catch, I wouldn't have noticed had you not pointed it out!

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's satire at the moment, but look at so many scifi works that have mega-corporate states ruling the world. They're fiction now, but often times scifi is a bit of a look into a potential future ending up partially coming true. There's no doubt that big corporations do have political influence already for a while now, so it's just a step up to having them fully in charge, and no one will blink.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just look at South Korea where Samsung's revenue is equal to a whopping 17% of the entire country's GDP, making them hold enormous power over politics, education, journalism and the legal system.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And before anyone thinks "who cares, they're just a phone/appliance company", one of the most advanced autonomous sentry guns ever developed, so much so that almost everything about it is still highly classified, was made by a company that was at the time a subsidiary of Samsung.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've translated their marketing and greenwashing shite for a while and hated every word. They are 100% dystopian.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Imagine if 20 years ago you wrote a sci-fi story where people spend a most of their time staring into rectangular devices that sends information that corporate controlled AIs decided they should be seeing. After staring at these rectangles for too long, people become angry and paranoid. Sometimes hypnotized to the point where some people commit mass murder or try to destroy their own democratically elected government.

If you wrote that story 20 years ago it wouldn't be published because it would be too unbelievable. But here we are.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Not to say it's exactly the same plot, but Brave New World was published in 1932. Seems that writing too close to the near future is not great for sales, but far enough out and you've got a great novel, and readers will appreciate the vision and warnings it gives.

And then fall for the trap anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The iPhone came out in 2007, about 16 years ago. Blackberries were popular, it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch. But 30 years ago? Yeah probably

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

They're not fiction, the USSR had and China has even a seat on the security council and state capitalist countries are megacorps pretty much by definition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Basically OPEC.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The People's Republic of Walmart

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Republic?

House Walton will hear of this treason against the Royal Family!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The joke is that there actually is a book with that name arguing for a centralized planed economy. The argument goes that in capitalism, actually everything is planed too so why not switch to democratically planed instead

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

i mean kinda

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago

This would functionally just be "give the US 3 seats at the UN".

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Satire now but honestly doesn't seem very far off, with how willing people are to give up their privacy to megacorps

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wasn't there recently a city in the us that wanted to give corporations the right to vote? Or was that satire too?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not satire, but the City of London has done something similar for a while. The thought process is you might not "live" there but you use it's infastructure and facilities while at work. Giving the employees of the companies the right to vote within the city.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"City of London" is the really small (like 2 square mile) area in the middle though isn't it? AFAIK barely anyone is resident there so it might make sense if employees got to vote.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is, not many people live in the area but plenty work and use it's infastructure. Seaford, Delaware (where the new law is proposed) has a listed 7000 residents compared to the City of London's 8500.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

'For a while' is really underselling it. They do and can do what they do because they have been doing it since time immemorial or rather for at least 2000 years.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

Excuse me? What the hell?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

no fear

give amazon and facebook a seat on the un

jesus f*%!king christ

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

i'd rather give them a place to hang out: at the end of a noose.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

let's go ahead and let companies have a standing military while we're at it :D

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Corporatacracy here we come

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The article—invented or not—states that they should be held accountable, too. I think that’s a step in the right direction.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah that stood out to me. Although they don't need a seat at the table to be held accountable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly, you dont need to be given more power for it to be taken away.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Hey, this sounds like every post-apocalyptic game I've ever played.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'd rather drink paint

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Uhh there isn’t a dependence on them. Their ambitions are myopic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Jesus Christ

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