• Hegar@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Immortality has been the dream of autocrats for millennia. As soon as we see centralized oppressive regimes, we see leaders obsessed with immortality and their afterlife.

    Death is the final equality and we’ll always see the most bloated parasitic elites trying to skirt their responsibility to die like it was their fair share of the tax burden.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s wild that after so many thousands of years of rulers chasing the mystical arts and obscure kookery to gain immortality, we’re actually living in the age where we have an understanding of biology and physical processes on a deep enough level that we can actually conceive of real immortality as a possibility.

      Which proves to me that these oligarchs and dictators are complete idiots. Because if they had several brain cells to rub together, they would be converting all that stolen wealth into science and research on moonshot scales to unlock biological immortality or anti-aging tech close to it. Sure they would still horde the tech as long as possible, but the point is they are like everyone else… incapable of investing in their own future over maintaining social status in the here and now.

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      elites trying to skirt their responsibility to die like it was their fair share of the tax burden.

      Nicely phrased! A++ would read again.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They will swiftly be replaced by new, likely dumber dictators. I am not holding my breath for a good ending.

  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    2 days ago

    It sounds laughable, but both of them have captive populations. If they command their health authorities to identify subjects with potentially compatible organs, they, within their own systems, have absolute privilege to harvest them.

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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      2 days ago

      Yes, but the reality is organ transplant is not the same as your own. You’re in serious immune drugs for life. You have a lower life expectancy. I don’t doubt they would skip the queue, but they would be going from severely ill to at risk, or I’ll. Not immortal.

    • Cid Vicious@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Yeah realistically society would be fucked if people didn’t age. You think we have generational wealth now? Ho boy.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        My guess is that billionaires will go for self-cloning until immortality exists

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      We have better solutions to tyranny than old age. And anti-aging could help prevent a lot of human suffering. Though I doubt it will happen in our lifetimes anyway.

    • imdoneinteracting@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Oh like you don’t dutch oven yourself when you have a good batch stewing. Gigglin between each sniff with a sense of accomplishment. Probably wafting like a chemist right now.

  • PotatoLibre@feddit.it
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    2 days ago

    It’s for this reason one of my dream is to take a shit on Mao’s grave.

    This poeple needs to be remembered in the right way.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child,” Xi’s translator could be heard saying in Russian. An inaudible passage from Putin follows.

      It’s the BBC printing a translation of a rumor of a partial conversation from two world leaders their parent government hates. Might be worth taking this with a grain of salt.

      Nothing western press loves more than doing Ralph Wiggim tier headlines any time a National Enemy gets near a podium.

      • ThinkBeforeYouPost@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I agree, but they got the translation wrong. This is interesting because this is not uncommon due to the dialectical differences between Russian and Mandarin.

        When you listen to the actual audio clip, you will understand that it is said “one becomes child again”. It’s a sly dig at aging brains that doesn’t translate well when done literally. The nineteen eighty nine authoritarian response and slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in response to the tiananmen square protests and xi being a winnie the pooh knob head is hilarious you authcino bootlicker if you don’t understand the cultural idiom component.