Ancap (ie, right wing) friend sent me this off shitter:

Unrealized gains tax for Gen-Z:

You buy a Pokémon card for $50.

Someone offers you $500 for it. You say no. You love that card. You’re keeping it.

The government says: “Cool, but that card is worth $500 now. You owe us $100 in taxes.” You: “…I didn’t sell it.”

Government: “Don’t care. Pay up.”

You don’t have $100 lying around. So you’re forced to sell the card you love just to pay a tax on money you never received.

Next month? That card drops back to $50.

Your card is gone. Your money is gone. And the government shrugs.

That’s a wealth tax on unrealized gains. They don’t pay you back the tax…

Now picture this.

Your mom calls you crying. She has to sell the house she raised you in. Not because she can’t afford it. She’s lived there 30 years. It’s paid off.

But some website says it’s worth more now and the government says she owes $15,000 she doesn’t have.

So she sells your childhood home. The kitchen where she made you breakfast. The doorframe where she marked your height every birthday.

Gone.

To pay a tax on money that was never real.

Now picture the opposite.

Your dad put everything into his small business. For 20 years he built it from nothing. One year the business is “valued” at $2 million on paper. He owes a massive tax bill. He empties his savings. Sells his truck. Borrows money. Pays it.

Next year the market crashes. His business is worth $200,000.

He lost everything to pay a tax on a number that doesn’t exist anymore.

Does the government give him his money back? No.

Does the government give him his truck back? No.

Does the government care? No.

They sold this idea as “taxing billionaires.” But billionaires have armies of lawyers, offshore accounts, and trusts. They’ll be fine.

You know who won’t be fine? Your mom. Your dad. Your neighbor with a small business. The farmer down the road who’s had the same land for four generations and now has to sell it because dirt got expensive.

You’re not taxing wealth. You’re taxing people for owning things.

It’s like getting a parking ticket for a car you might drive somewhere someday.

They want you to own nothing and be happy. To fund the fraud, waste and abuse of the welfare state they created.

There is enough money. More tax isn’t needed. It’s all a lie. But you’ve been gaslit into believing this is a rich vs poor debate.

I hope you understand what’s at stake.

I pretty much instantly shut that down by saying “THEN MAKE THE FUCKING LAW FORBID THE BILLIONAIRES FROM SIDE STEPPING IT! THAT IS THE PROBLEM! IT IS A RICH VS POOR DEBATE YOU IDIOT!!!”

People are idiots.

Same here. Only luanti for me now!

Yeah I’m likely gonna have to replace the cap someday. I’d like to adjust those pots too. I’m not too keen on opening one up but I’ve worked on tube Amps and house electricity before so I’m not too concerned if I’m careful.

Yeah I had someone else say very likely a cap on the vertical deflection board. So maybe not really my fault after all

But what can we do

Its all a plan. People think I’m a conspiracy nut when i explain it. I think they’re dumb for not seeing it. Capitalism is the best planned scam.

Yeah sadly. Studies have shown modern music causes fatigue and I think some people at least realize that now. Radio rock is always going to be a sausage waveform. Gotta go underground for good stuff usually.

Yeah it is. Right, room is very important. Ive always been able to designate a listening area where I am, thankfully.

True!

That’s awesome! I got paid a few times but never really done it as a job. Always wanted to but I always wanted an organic approach while bands wanted to be absolute radio perfect periphery style and I’m just not into that.

Yeah exactly. I mean, vinyl is amazing for the art, and if you keep it super clean its going to sound very good. CD is fine if only they wouldn’t destroy the damn master !!

Ya!! I get it, dynamic stuff can actually be annoying in loud environments (classical in a car, definitely not hahaha)

Awesome song!!

That one sounds great on the reel.

What you’re describing is called dynamics, which much music today lacks. You should listen to full albums. That’s the point of a mastering engineers job, make the album flow Usually when you have a dedicated listening setup, albums are the point…

Or get a transparent rack compressor and put it inline with your amp. That will even it out for you. Supermarket muzak setups have this built in so music is always the same level. Its why you hear modern songs on supermarket speakers clipping, because the systems were made for 90s mixes. But for active listening, that kills a lot of the impact and enjoyment.

Most people don’t have proper home stereo setups any more either, and they prefer shitty overcompressed music through earbuds. They don’t know any better, sadly.

And Ive probably spent less than 400 dollars on my home setup. But it blows away anyone who hears it. Just takes some smarts in setting stuff up and getting good used equipment.

Just another part of the cheapening of everything in society , and why music isn’t appreciated as much anymore. No wonder everyone has depression.

It definitely mattered a hell of lot more in analog days. Getting a properly calibrated reel tape machine through a properly calibrated tube amp in a properly dimensioned room with good speakers is a feat, and absolutely sounds amazing.

Nowadays, it’s about how they mastered it. I can tell you for a fact Ozzy’s no more tears CD sounds like shit and the double record mix is FARRRR better, because it doesn’t have the life squished out of it from brickwalling. Is that digital vs analog? No. Its mastering.

Analog will sound better if you spend a SHIT ton and have an insanely good source. Digital will also sound amazing if you spend a lot. I myself very much enjoy listening to my original reels of 50s-70s music because you really can get so close to being in the studio and hearing everything, because they couldn’t edit it to death.

Bridge over troubled water on a reel is a real experience.

Picked up a bose system test cassette once. It sounds amazing at first listen on anything because they overhype the high and low end, much like most bad modern music. And its actually fatiguing over time and stresses people out. Big reason I hate a lot of (popular) modern music is the over hyped non natural eq.

Friends will show me songs and they grind on my ears with that unnautural 3k boost to make everything “radio sounding”, gross. I don’t want modern radio polish (and the sampled kick drums, awful) I want good sound.

Commodores, night shift, 1985, one of the best sounding albums of all time because they knew what they were doing. And funnily enough one of the first digital tape recordings on a Mitsubishi! Also the nightfly.

Regarding digital, quality spdif cables absolutely matter. One tiny mistake and they crackle out and don’t work. I’ve gone through many pairs of cheap ones until I just spend the money to never have issues again.

Now will the 1 dollar one sound the same as the 80 dolalr one? Yes. It won’t last or hohld up to dust or abuse at all though.

Awesome headphones. If you don’t mind the beyer peak. My favorites are my grado rs2. But I prefer music on speakers not headphones, so much space is lost on headphones. Hear a pair of magnepans in a room and you’ll be blown away. Got some original SMGa’s from 1989!

Real audio enthusiasts know the room is the most important, followed by the speaker itself, followed by the actual source. Then the amp etc.

And when you record and mix music you realize how much of it is bullshit in the end. The source is all that matters, really.

Boss fight cx40

I have this too! Wanted to sell but SO likes it ha