Spyke

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Why isn’t transit ridership in the US isn’t higher? Partly because very few people are allowed to live near the best transit. This is the Capitol Heights metro station

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Yes, actually, hospitals and libraries should contribute value to their communities. How is that even a question? Are you saying that libraries and hospitals should be poorly run and not contribute to society?

We should have libraries that are well-run and have lots of books. We should also have transit that is accessible, fast, and reliable. Train stations like this make it so transit is difficult to access for most people that would actually use it. Park-and-ride stations are fine, but not if they're out in the middle of nowhere with nothing useful within a half mile radius of the station. This station is literally surrounded by high-speed roads and would be horrible to get to on foot. This is the sort of thing that makes American transit bad at its job.

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Why isn’t transit ridership in the US isn’t higher? Partly because very few people are allowed to live near the best transit. This is the Capitol Heights metro station

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What's the point of a metro station if its completely inaccessible by foot? If you're going to invest billions into a metro line, each station should be maximizing its economic contribution by building housing and mixed use development around it. Otherwise what's the point of building transit if you need to drive a car just to get to the train?

memes

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Feed your Neighbours

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Who's to say that they're only gardening on this single plot of land? Why not plant a food forest in your front and back yard, and coordinate with your neighbors to have the whole neighborhood build a food coop?

Also, how do you get "feed your neighbor every single calorie they will ever need" out of this meme? You're literally just loading a whole bunch of extra baggage onto a simple point that we should be growing and sharing food for our community. There's no reason to make perfect the enemy of good.

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Wait, you mean workers *don't* love the automatic dumbass machines that constantly threaten their jobs?

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In a world where people controled their own work and lived in community with each other, AI could have been one of the greatest technological advances of the last fifty years. In the current system where everyone is subordinated to a tiny class of economic dictators who own every technology and piece of infrastructure, AI mostly just serves to advance the interests of its owners.

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What work of fiction (book/comic/movie/tv show/etc.) changed the way you think about the world? Why?

The Dispossessed. No question. No other work of fiction has made me question more about my beliefs and worldview than that book. It makes you question everything you believe about society and your role in it. It's both an engaging science fiction work and an incredible work of philosophy. The author's worldview very clearly bleeds through into every page, and she does an excellent job of creating characters that actually feel like real people. The heroes are deeply flawed yet morally engaging, the villains are sophisticated and well-spoken. The Dispossessed made me rethink how I see my purpose in my life, my relations to the society around me, the ways we perform gender, and whether or not it's actually possible for equality to exist. Whether or not you agree with Le Guin's politics, she is easily one of the best authors of the 20th century.

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