You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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politics
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Hey guys, have you heard this new punk band? They got this weird lead singer called Johnny Silverhand...
These zones would allow wealthy investors to write their own laws and set up their own governance structures which would be corporately controlled and wouldn’t involve a traditional bureaucracy.
Why do I read this as incel rape cities?
Cyberpunk 2025
We already have those; ZEDEs in Honduras & I think India used to have one called Lavasa & it failed😂
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They should absolutely do this because tech bros cannot do municipal government and they will spend years throwing all of their money into a nuclear powered bitcoin mining boondoggle with open sewage that produces nothing.
Fordlandia, multiplied by the 1%. If that removes billionaires from our society for good, I approve.
elon's already wanting to build musklandia in texas.
Those already have a name - company town.
They failed the last time they were tried and will fail again.
But before they failed, they stole a ton of labor/profit from the residents.
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A city run by a corporation is the opposite of a "freedom city"
It's freedom from government regulations, many of which stem from the last time we let companies set up their own towns. What could possibly go wrong?
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You know what? They should approve it. Give all the MAGAts free homes there and they can all suck trumps dick their. Let the rest of us live in an actually productive and healthy society.
The problem is that they're also tanking the economy. Many people won't have the economic freedom to choose their employment.
Already, people don't really work in Amazon warehouses because they want to piss in bottles.
If that free home is on Mars, sure.
Every time an oppressor wants to enslave people, they use "freedom" as an excuse.
Exhibit A: People's Liberation Army. Its not a conquering, its liberating 🤣
Or Exhibit B: Maga
How do people ever get fooled by this? Its so dumb
In September of last year, the podcast Behind the Bastards did a two part series on right wing blogger Curtis Yarvin, his connections to Peter Theil, and his influence on JD Vance. I highly recommend these episodes for anyone who wants to know where this is all headed.
Yarvin has, for years, pushed the notion of RAGE (retire all government employees), and his dark enlightenment movement centers on dismantling democracy and installing a neo-feudalistic system of government in which oligarchs rule as kings.
This is not some crazy new proposal that will be ignored by the people in power. This is the endgame. The oligarchs and right wing fascists Trump has surrounded himself with have been pushing this for years, just waiting for their moment.
If you don't think this is a big deal, then you probably won't realize until it's too late.
Thanks for the heads up, I'll give it a listen. I've been hearing about the network state since I saw someone link this here a few months ago.
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Ironically, “Freedom Cities” not free.
More people need to play BioShock to understand why this is a bad idea.
Elon is literally a fan of Blade Runner. He just Identifies with the CEOs of megacorps rather than the suffering poor.
No, no, Rapture was an EXCELLENT idea. Let's send Trump, Musk, and all the rest down there, and watch the results on television. It would be cathartic.
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Or look at the history of company towns
They keep trying this shit even though it never works. (Like there's literally no pictures of this actually, totally existent place. But it's a paradise. Trust me.)
First off, this video is obligatory watching on the topic. Go watch it now if you haven't.
Ok, back to Próspera. From the Wikipedia article:
The company is financed by several investors and venture capital firms, including Balaji Srinivasan, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen, through the venture capital company Pronomos Capital.
It's literally the same guys, and they're trying it in the US too btw.
That Balaji guy in particular is the one who came up with the idea of "freedom cities", which he calls network states. He's also a follower of Curtis Yarvin, obviously, and just like him he's a two bit fascist crank who thinks he's of superior IQ.
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“ You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store “
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Holy shit, it's the Burbclaves from Snow Crash.
I just started that book like a week ago, Even just the first couple pages and it was like "oh... oh no", even got the meta verse in there
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Christ, why did we have to get the Shitty Dystopia versions from Snow Crash, Jennifer Government, and every Gibson novel, but none of the cool and fun shit like flying cars, off-planet living, and advanced medical/cybernetic tech.
Gonna have the corpo company town again. Instead of an online walled garden it’ll be a walled city with it’s own currency that gets traded at a steep loss if you try to go anyplace nicer. Keep you in your place.
The cool tech is why they want network states or 'freedom cities'.
Unregulated biotech research is how ~~we~~ they get cybertech and biohacking. So oligarchs can outlive the rest of us.
It's all in their plans for the network state.
@tree_frog @RememberTheApollo_ high on their own supply, though. A lot of government regulation is there to make sure the plebs feel just happy *enough* that they don't rise up. I'm not advocating anything, just to be clear, but if people have nothing to lose then they start... trying stuff. Wasn't the final straw that started the French Revolution the price of bread?
According to interviews and presentations viewed by WIRED, the goal of these cities would be to have places where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups, and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval from agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Yes because the first thing I think needs regulations is fucking nuclear power!
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