STUPID predictions people made (that never happened)

[A Small Talent For War]

Unlike communism, I think socialism is a pragmatic use of Marxist ideas, with compromises made for the world as it is, not the world as we'd like it to be. The problem with communism is that it wouldn't actually work until all the world was communist. That's the symbolism of the five pointed red star--the five representing the five continents and the red representing the blood that will be spilled before all the world becomes a communist utopia. It was easy for the soviets to say that, as the whole world isn't communist yet, in the meantime there must be a dictatorship to control and protect the parts of the world that are.

What exists in most of the functioning democracies is a mix of socialism and capitalism. Just like the socialism doesn't go fully communist, the capitalism isn't fully laissez-faire liberalism. If you had true liberalism, then there would be no government controls--capitalists could do whatever they wanted, but they also wouldn't get bailed out by the government whenever their business model fails. It's supposed to be survival of the fittest--so if a company isn't fit to withstand a pandemic, it should die.

It's funny that Americans have such an over-reaction to the word "socialism." A reaction like that to "communism," I can understand--since communists really do want a bloody revolution. But socialism is just what you already have in the USA. It's why there are protections for workers, a social safety net, efforts to feed and clothe the poor, educational standards and government assistance in times of national emergency. Republicans and Democrats alike believe in socialist principles even if they're not willing to use the word.

However, that social safety net comes with a lot of capitalist construction. Medicare doesn't offer medical care, but pays for the care provided by corporate hospitals, clinics and health care plans. Most in not all government welfare plans involve a great number of private contractors to manage. Even our military, which one would think is the ultimate state program, is dominated by contractors that get the vast majority of the money and all of the profit.

You will find a lot of contradictory opinions in America, but both the left and the right are wary of statism. In socialism a dictatorship of the working class sounds a lot like a tyranny of the majority, so conservatives don't want the state to be so powerful that it could be used by a leftist government to impinge on their rights. At the same time, they want the state to apply all sorts of restrictions on individual rights of minority groups and absolute power to protect their property rights. The left wants to take state power but it's not to give it to all the working class, but to a minority group of progressives who may not actually really do any work for a living. I mean, it's hard to find any politician that's actually had to work for a paycheck, but it seems really hard to find a progressive politician that knows anything about the working class and working poor across the country. Most workers want jobs and to get out of debt - not to be a part of some dictatorship of the proletariat. Let's meet those needs first.

I'm more inclined toward the American perspective that individual rights supercede the state's interests, and that there should be no absolute political power in any group. Orwell's ANIMAL FARM is often put up as a great anti-Stalinist piece of propaganda, but at the beginning, Farmer Jones - as a representative of capitalism - is a pretty horrid individual, so it's no pro-capitalist tract either. Instead, it ends up making the point that the positions of power, whether socialist or capitalist, always end up with the same problems. So, no one should have that power.

[Mace Dolex]

I used to believe that widescreen HDTV's would never catch on especially when viewing older movies and TV shows filmed in 4.3 weren't going to fill the wide 16.9 aspect ratio and instead of black bars top and bottom now you have the issue with black bars left and right, and then those who are technology challenged will stretch the image making everyone look distorted.

[DrNewGod]

I think it's especially cruel of airlines that, when you enter most airplanes, you have to walk through the First Class section before you can get to your seat at the back. So you're taunted by the luxury that those passengers enjoy before you enter into your own personal hell.

Some of the larger craft are designed with two doors, one between first and the cockpit, and one between first and economy. The idea was to dock the jetway on the forward door for deplaning, and move it to the other door for boarding to avoid just what you're talking about. However, airlines began to decide that slowed aircraft turns too much.

[captchuck]

I think the constant religious End of the Worlds were hilarious, especially as predicted by Harold Camping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Camping

[Kirby101]

Elon Musk, we are always a year away from fully self driving cars.

[CaptCleghorn]

Gordon Michael Scallion's predicted map. Cleghorn would have been beachfront property with chartered flights to Otisville.. That last part about flights to Otisville was my prediction addition. But there would have been an Otisville.

[Zelena]

Gordon Michael Scallion's predicted map. Cleghorn would have been beachfront property with chartered flights to Otisville.. That last part about flights to Otisville was my prediction addition. But there would have been an Otisville.

The world at the end of the century thanks to climate change? Some lands seem to have surfaced…

[Kirby101]

It will be bad, but not that extreme. Mostly on the coasts.

[Starter Set]

Yeah, i somewhat doubt that in just 80 years most of Europe would be underwater, sorry mister Gordon Michael Scallion, that's a fancy and quite dramatic looking map but no.

And really, Greece underwater? That's pretty much only mountains. Come on Gordy.

[TriggerWarning]

It will be bad, but not that extreme. Mostly on the coasts.

Yep. If all the icecaps melted it would raise sea levels about 230 feet. Obviously devastating for coastal regions but it wouldn't be the extreme of those maps.

The real devastation would come from the influx of coastal refugees to the higher altitude places that wouldn't have the infrastructure in place to handle them. My state wouldn't be affected at all by flooding as most of the state is at least 3000 feet elevation (we have one tiny area that is only 700 feet) but as a state that borders multiple states that would be flooded we as a state with under 2 million population would not be able to handle the influx of refugees.

[Gotham citizen]

Well, this is the Earth like it was during the Cretaceous (in that era the poles were totally free from the ice), so that hypothesis doesn't seem wrong at a first glance; but that mysterious continent on the left of the South America… What is it, Atlantis?



Ah no! Atlantis is on the left of the Spain, the one on the left of the South America is Lemuria.

[Scott Taylor]

Denver would be beachfront property, huh? Well all the displaced Californians there might approve.

[Jack Dracula]

Both of those actually had some merit to them.

1980s was heavy Cold War territory and between Reagans bluster and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Nuclear War was highly likely, add in HIV and its not exactly an unusual thought to go "We'll probably be dead soon"

As for Libraries the only thing keeping people involved with physical media is concern over ownership, not enough content and nostalgia.

Having come of age in the 80's I can attest to the general feeling that nuclear war was a very real threat. My friends and I would often talk about what we'd do when the sirens went off and the missiles started flying.

[Kirby101]

Having come of age in the 80's I can attest to the general feeling that nuclear war was a very real threat. My friends and I would often talk about what we'd do when the sirens went off and the missiles started flying.

80s? Hell, try growing up with Duck and Cover in school and missiles in Cuba!

[Malvolio]

80s? Hell, try growing up with Duck and Cover in school and missiles in Cuba!

When my parents first told me about that, I was only 10 years old, but even then I understood how absurd it would be to think a wooden desk could protect you from a nuclear missile.