Government operates by accepting our individual political authority, and utilizing that investment of power to provide paid services to customers (“taxpayers”).

Our investment of political power makes us shareholders. Like any shareholder, we are owed a return on our investment. The government should be paying a dividend to each and every citizen.

Take your upvote and choke on it, dad.

It depends on where the donation center is. I live in a semi-rural college town with virtually zero homeless population. Plasma donation here is a bit different here than it is in the urban hellscape 25 minutes away. The atmosphere here is more “blood drive” than “soup kitchen”.

That’s enough internet for today. Good night, Lemmy. Never change.

Full body condoms FTW.

I experience the “search box deselected after starting to type” problem on Amazon pretty much every time I use it, even if I have the page up for several minutes before starting to use it. Its like the search box.is specifically designed to fuck with me.

Multiple platforms, multiple browsers, it’s like they dont have anyone actually looking at their UX.

I dont know how DD stays in business. I’d rather have Hostess or Little Debbie donuts. Or Lender’s bagels. Or Kirkland precooked bacon.

The game ended years ago: https://xkcd.com/391/

You won. Congratulations.

We have the same problems in America, but with deer, and the same solutions to that problem.

But those same nutjobs who want to ban roo meat also want to ban deer hunting. Because they are idiots.

Government performs services, and acceptd payment for those services in the form of taxation. The thing that is missing is the recognition that the powers exercised by government are possessed by We The People. We own those powers. We “invest” those powers in the government, who uses those powers to provide paid services to its customers.

We are each owed a return on our “investment” of political authority. Our political authority should not be given to the government freely. We should be individually compensated for it.

We are shareholders.

Universal Basic Income is one possible method of compensating the citizenry for the use of our political authority.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_limits

Increasing the bag limit on “billionaire” to something greater than “0” would have a much more appreciable effect on the climate than a thousand families forgoing children.

Oh, this one went somewhere, just not anywhere you wanted it to go.

You can say “billionaires harm society, literally”. That’s a literal statement that is true.

You can say “billionaires benefit society, literally”. Thats a literal statement that is untrue.

You can say “billionaires are human, literally”, so long as you are talking about individuals, and not corporate entities.

You can say “billionaires are steaming piles of shit, figuratively”. They are not literally turds emitting water vapor. That metaphor is quite apt, but not literally true.

Likewise, they are not masses of mutated cells. That metaphor is also apt, bit is not literally true.

You can say “teratomas are cancer, literally”. You can’t say “this argument is literal cancer”. It is figurative cancer, not literal.

I think you will see that OP is saying that “Billionaires are cancer” is not a figurative statement at all, but a literal one.

It is a metaphorical statement rather than a simile, but both metaphors and similes are figurative, not literal.

So, billionaires are not “literally” cancer, but “billionaires are literally cancer” is supposedly a correct use of “literally”?

That is my point. Literally can be used correctly in a statement that is not correct,

This is generally true, but in this particular sentence, the reason the sentence is false is specifically because of the meaning of “literally”.

“The sky is literally purple” is a correct use of “literally” in a false statement. This is what you are trying to argue.

“Billionaires are a cancer” is a correct, figurative statement.

“Billionaires are literally cancer” is false specifically because “literally” does not mean “figuratively”.

I listen to the same ~30 songs, over and over and over again.

You are refuting an argument that I did not make.

I am refuting the argument that would need to be made in order to support your position. I clearly specified that necessity in my refutation. “Cancer” and “billionaire” would have to be synonymous, not analogous, for “literally” to have been used correctly.

What type of cancer are billionaires? Carcinomas are cancers of epithelial tissue, but “society” does not have epithelial tissue. Sarcomas are cancers of musculoskeletal and connective tissues, but “society” does not have bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. Myelomas are cancers of the plasma cells in bone marrow, but again, “society” doesn’t have bones. Leukemias are cancers of the various blood cells, but society doesn’t have “blood”. Lymphomas are cancers of the lymphatic system, but society doesn’t have one of those either.

In fact, “society” does not have biological tissues or organs that could even become literally cancerous. (Members of society do, indeed, have these various organs and tissues, but no member of society has been diagnosed with a “Bezosma” or “Muskaemia”.)

“Billionaires are cancer” is a metaphor. “Billionaires are literally cancer” is simply a false statement, unless “literally” was used, incorrectly, as hyperbole.

My point is that I believe OP was using the word “literally” to mean what it literally means,

You can only rationally make that argument if you are claiming that “society” is a biological organism, like an amoeba or a babboon, presumably evolved from other common ancestors of all life on earth. When you can tell me the scientific name of this organism, and what organs have been affected by tumors, we can start talking about the literality of the “cancer” OP referred to.

As the underlying logic was metaphorical, “literally” was used as figurative hyperbole, not literality.

I’m lost.

I’m angry.

And I’m armed.