Lunch Conversations #4223: Getting In on the Ground Floor

John: ... No.
Tyrone: Listen, all I'm asking is that you give the idea a decent --
John: Robot overlords. You are "pro-robot overlords".
Tyrone: They bring world peace, universal health care --
John: At the cost of our freedoms!
Tyrone: MY POINT EXACTLY. We're already giving up our freedoms -- our right to privacy, gone. Warrantless arrest, gone. Right to have your vote counted is super-gone depending on the state you live in, right to stand trial, gone -- we have torture. We already have all the downsides of a supposed robotic takeover, but we're being cheated of the upside! I say, if this is the world we're gonna live in anyway, at least let the robot overlords have their shot. World peace, technological utopia -- and no crime! The robot overlords' crime control is swift and merciless.
John: But it's completely ... uncaring All people will be punished equally regardless of circumstance!
Tyrone: I'm sorry, did you forget I was black?
John: Okay okay --
Tyrone: Sure, the robots rend criminals with horrible tearing jaws. But if you're telling me they eat white and black criminals equally --
John: I get it.
Tyrone: They use that as a selling point, the robot overlords will be ass-deep in brothers with oil cans and subpoenas.
John: ...
Tyrone: Robot overlords don't give Scooter Libby pardons. No rich man can bribe his way out of the robot overlord court. You telling me you don't want to see the robot overlords kick in Dick Cheney's door --
John: I would buy that DVD. The two disc box set, with robot overlord commentary.
Tyrone: Hmm? Hmmm?
John: ... no. We can still control our destiny, through elections.
Tyrone: Like those voting machines are attached to anything --
John: You always say that. But look,the Democrats won in 2006!
Tyrone: Suuuuuuuure they did.
John: What are you -- Congress changed parties! We took over!
Tyrone: Absolutely. Remember when the Democratic Congress ended the war?
John: Ummm ...
Tyrone: How about when they changed the Bankruptcy Bill, so middle class people didn't get reamed. When they passed that children's health care plan over the lame duck president's veto. Or when they finally reclaimed America's moral high ground when they bravely stopped the approval of an Attorney General who thought waterboarding was a grey area. When they shut down Gitmo ...
John: ... *sigh*
Tyrone: Well?
John: How do we get into the good graces of the robot overlords?
Tyrone: Support them early . Urge others to vote for them.
John: I thought you said --
Tyrone: Sure they'll rig the election. But appearance of support is everything in order to curry concessions. Look at the Religious Right.
John: Bumper stickers.
Tyrone: Good. Very simple design. A silhouette of a robot, or one red eye. And a nice clean logline. "Vote Robot Overlord. They'll Know if You Didn't"
John: "Vote Robot Overlord: Like You Have a Choice."
Tyrone: See, you're good at this.
John: That's not a compliment.