149
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I know it never could or would work, but every so often I wish there was some imaginary huge tract of land that nobody had owned before...and I guess somehow didn't affect the environment for all the assholes that want to play power games or pretend they could rule the world or just live lawlessly so they could be silo'ed off from society. Of course it would fall apart, innocent people would somehow end up in there. They'd probably end up attacking the rest of the world and I'm sure a myriad of other terrible problems. But man that'd be nice.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] [email protected] 39 points 1 week ago

That’s just called the USA

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

Nah but I'm stuck here., womp womp. I want a place people voluntarily go into. This is not based in reality lol. As I've gotten older and learned more about history, I realized what a cursed nation we are though...

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

As soon as people start having kids, you're back to square one

[-] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago

Sorry, you're born too late. You would have loved 19th century colonialism. As long as you could get over the "uninhabited" part of course.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

Everybody is assuming I want to take part in this. I want an imaginary zone for all the assholes to go to...

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

This is it 👍

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Ive had similar thoughts about racially pure islands. Everyone's happy. The race-supremacy people get to live among their own and the rest of us are free from their bullshit.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

But then the children will have to be raised by racists

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Since they're racists they soon would find other random properties to segregate.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Even more adventurous and lawless and dangerous in earlier centuries.

As long as you could get over the “uninhabited” part of course.

They sure did back then, easy as pie.

And some very influential people want that era back. Incl. trampling on people already living there. [Techbroligarch "Freedom" Cities]

[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago

Yes. Somalia has 1,900 miles of coastline, a government that knows its place, and all the guns and wives you can afford to buy. Why have I never heard of this paradise before?

-Pierce Hawthorne

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Huh I've never seen this!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Spot on. Never seen that one before

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It would be easier to somehow trick those people into a matrix-style virtual reality where it's literally the same as the current world at the point where they enter (so they don't realize). Then they can act out whatever they want to do as they do in the real world with all the consequences, but instead affecting nothing in reality. Having an autonomous zone to act it out won't work because they won't be satisfied if the real world they perceive isn't affected.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

So we trick the red pilled into taking the blue pills...

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Honestly I'm more wishing the opposite was possible. Imagine a utopia to test out, UBI, communism etc... somewhere that capitalists aren't going to sabatoge and declare war on it while it's in it's infancy.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Danish countries.

And...huh, it works.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

I guess by "Danish countries" you mean scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland)? Then i regrettably have to inform you, that they are just slightly less horrendously capitalistic. Compared to the USA they probably seem like star trek though, so i get the sentiment.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

You should watch Westworld! It's basically what you describe.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

I imagine it becoming a haven for profitable vices like drugs, gambling and prostitutes to make money off tourists.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Sure. And in my imaginary head canon that is fine and everyone assumes the risk of going into that zone. Once again...this would never work.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The 'freedom' they want only extends to having the freedom to do what they want regardless of how it impacts anybody else.

The vast majority of these people don't want isolation. They need other people to exploit. Edit - or they want the freedom to exploit other natural resources (no doubt they see humans as a natural resource to be exploited) regardless of the impacts on other people, now or in the future.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

That was essentially why the US was founded.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Have you heard about what happened when libertarians took over Grafton, NH?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

You might want to read Neuromancer to find out why that’s a terrible idea. If it’s in a cyberpunk world, it’s almost assuredly a giant red flag the author is waving.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

To be clear, I don't want to go to this autonomous zone. I want others to go do their weird shit there ha. But yea I'll have to read Neuromancer, have heard it's a good read.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

It’s not about living there. The zone still allows for the rich and powerful to exploit people and profit immensely off of it. The world would be no prettier because your autonomous zone; that area would just be filthier.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

You might be interested in the history of Kowloon Walled City after WW2

As a result of the absence of any widely recognized bureaucracy, the city's residents and businesses had no municipal codes to govern them. Enabled by the enclave's anarchic nature, trade in banned products thrived, ranging from narcotics to dog meat. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by local triad gangs and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug abuse.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Yea that place sounds nuts. My mom was for a time from Kowloon, not the walled city but I'm guessing around the same time it operated which is wild to imagine.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

sounds like the purge.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It wouldn't work, even in principle. They want to force you to live by their lunacy. It would be totally pointless if they couldn't exert power over the unwilling.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Of course it wouldn't work. That's the whole point. But I say we just ship them there whether they want to go or not.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Would you kindly make Rapture a real place?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

*See Australia, Taiwan, U.S.A., Japan

Society used to exile people, send them to penal colonies or some people that felt ostracized packed up and left Society. Where? To some of the grea open uninhabited or not so habitatated lands. Taking U.S.A. as an example, there where religious extremists who became unwelcome in Britain, so they left to a place they could practice thier beliefs without competition, America.

Every Society worked better because you didn't need to imprison or kill people that where criminals and people that where ostracized somewhat had the option of making thier own land. Now every single piece of land is claimed there is nowhere to exile people and no where to just run to.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately they're probably not stupid enough to all fuck off to Mars soon…

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Oooh how I wish I could convince all those space obsessed oligarchs to expand civilization over there...

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

How about a boat in international waters?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I thought you said Autozone and I was excited that someone else was also enthusiastic about a do-it-yourself auto repair shop

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Fuck it, I'll take an autonomous AutoZone!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

“Walkaways” is a good piece of fiction about this

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Ooh interesting. Is it by Cory Doctorow?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I misread. Walkaways is about autonomous communities apart from capitalist society. They walk away from it. But the dangerous stuff isn’t part of the book. But it is a very good book.

Yes it is by Doctorow.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Are we just Curtis Yarvin-posting now?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I think I should clarify that I have no interest in participating in this zone. The reality is we live in a world of monsters and I unrealistically wish there was somewhere else they could go and do their evil and leave us be.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Westworld explored that idea. It doesn't end well.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That sounds like you want to deport people

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So........ a libertarian Micronation ??

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
149 points (92.1% liked)

Showerthoughts

36593 readers
477 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS