this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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[–] huskypenguin@sh.itjust.works 139 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The article was satire fyi.

[–] icepuncher69@sh.itjust.works 71 points 1 year ago (2 children)

O thank god, almost ate the onion

[–] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Skull@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

It was a blooming onion at least 👀

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

In Australia we call that "doing the Tony"

[–] lasagna@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] huskypenguin@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Don't forget about Dick Suckerberg

[–] MostlyBirds@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[–] Muetzenman@feddit.de 102 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] WerDei@lemmy.blahaj.zone 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?

[–] Trones@lemmy.one 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!

[–] Rhaedas@kbin.social 56 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.

[–] zeerooth@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz 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.

[–] Perfide@reddthat.com 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.

[–] crashez@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

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

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 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.

[–] Rhaedas@kbin.social 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.

[–] verbalbotanics@beehaw.org 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

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 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.

[–] zouhair@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Basically OPEC.

[–] lugal@lemmy.one 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The People's Republic of Walmart

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Republic?

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

[–] lugal@lemmy.one 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

i mean kinda

[–] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

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

[–] OtakuAltair@lemm.ee 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

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 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?

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 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.

[–] Kajo@pawb.social 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.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 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.

'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.

Excuse me? What the hell?

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 year ago

no fear

give amazon and facebook a seat on the un

jesus f*%!king christ

[–] Draegur@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Makeshift@lemmy.dbzer0.com 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

[–] astral_avocado@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago

Corporatacracy here we come

[–] bleistift2@feddit.de 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.

[–] AnarchoYeasty@beehaw.org 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

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

[–] Holodeck_Moriarty@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

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

[–] Muetzenman@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago
[–] theyresocool@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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

[–] hiyaaaaa23@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Jesus Christ

[–] CaCtUs2003@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I'd rather drink paint

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