Disaster
@Disaster@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Anon has casual sex 4 weeks ago:
There is an adjustment period, which is often uncomfortable.
- Comment on Is there any way our of the US political spiral? 4 weeks ago:
Find me a philosophy or religious perspective that is unambiguous about brute force.
It’s effective as long as one doesn’t consider the consequences, but the reality of nearly every situation is such that there’s always a better way. Did the US need to nuke two Japanese cities and every inhabitant during WW2? Or were they just too tired, scared of a war of attrition and with the technological option available, they took the easier path?
- Comment on Is there any way our of the US political spiral? 4 weeks ago:
Maybe. How are we going to responsibly fight one?
- Comment on Is there any way our of the US political spiral? 4 weeks ago:
You are correct in your noticing Democrats have been the party of decorum - and that’s the penultimate refuge of the incompetent before violence. So, now we’ve established that the two-ply paper-thin veneer of legitimacy has unraveled, what should we do?
There are ways out of this. None of them are easy.
Vote with your wallet, vote in primaries. Go to community board meetings. Speak up, even if you’re afraid of what anyone might think. More people will respect you for trying than you’d think, but don’t waste the opportunity on something trivial.
Don’t do business with anyone with destructive politics to the point where it causes you personal/professional inconvenience and costs your money. Support local communities. Talk to the guy on the street corner you always see but never approached. Maybe they can tell you something. Talk to the guy that makes your sandwiches at the store, your bartender, your barista, your cleaning lady, your laundromat people. Hell talk to your drug dealer/street pharmacist. Talk to your coworkers and don’t be scared. If they snitch then you will know indicators better for next time, and trust me - you will survive the mistake. Maybe it’s BS, maybe you’ll realize there’s an angle to help yourself and everyone else. Never do anything unless it helps more people than yourself, and doesn’t have an obvious negative externality that you can account for.
Go to rallies, go to meetings. Show support in public for people you believe in, someone standing up next to you when you stick your neck out counts for more than you can possibly understand. Put yourself on the front line facing armed police. Make the point that you won’t break, and that they can’t scare you. Remain nonviolent until you have no other option, but be prepared when they invent reasons to hurt you withing reason - and remember that they may have thought they never had a choice (even if they did).
This is going to get ugly.
The next time someone annoys or inconveniences you, or says something provocative, ask yourself why, and ask yourself what personal hell they are living in made them do that?
If this sounds a lot like religious nonsense, that’s exactly what it is. That stuff was (arguably flawed and wantonly misinterpreted) attempts to give people a map going forwards. We’ve been putting in an abysmal effort to do better for not only ourselves, but everyone else, and now everyone’s hurting. Some people you can’t help, they’re so stuck into their monomaniacal vision of reality that they don’t care who they’re hurting, even if it’s ultimately themselves through consequence or some other metaphysical mechanism whether you believe in it or not.
Find a community, build a community. Be a leader and set a better example for everyone around you.
It may already be too late but your actions going forwards from here will determine what survives, and whether THAT is worth saving.
And remember - it’s not just humans. There are many other living beings on this planet that don’t have the technological capacity, legal status or physical ability to make themselves heard, and our status demands at very least the acknowledgement of some form of responsible stewardship.
Good Luck.
To all of us.
- Comment on Oh well... 1 month ago:
*compared to the 1st World
- Comment on BBC staffers reveal editor's 'entire job' to whitewash Israeli war crimes 1 month ago:
A lot of people don’t like what’s happening, don’t like the people loudly supporting it and are working as best they can to do something about it. There is international pressure from nations that have experienced parallels (South Africa, for one) and although it looks like nothing is happening, there are things going on which are not reported on and actively minimized, which nevertheless apply pressure to the bad actors in the situation.
It’s disappointing how many people, particularly in the west, are displaying bad political judgment…well, it’s almost like they aren’t thinking about it at all… but that’s just going to have to catch up with them as a consequence later on. This has had the effect of serving to reveal an entire crop of bad actors, which we all know must be removed.
Make no mistake - We Will Never Forget.
- Comment on Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing 2 months ago:
Generally in English they’d usually be called “A Patsy” or “Strawman” - someone disposable to do the unpleasant work, whom nobody will particularly miss.
- Comment on Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing 2 months ago:
I more or less stopped paying attention to NYT in 2002-2003 when they so gleefully cheerlead the Iraq2 campaign. And I feel dumb it took me that long. They don’t exist to do anything except manufacture consent.
- Comment on MPs vote in favour of historic bill to allow assisted dying after emotional debate 2 months ago:
I don’t think anyone could look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion, honestly.
- Comment on MPs vote in favour of historic bill to allow assisted dying after emotional debate 2 months ago:
I’d hoped nobody would come to the conclusion that was the core argument, but it is a consideration.
And I would like to draw attention to the totalitarian nature of our attitudes towards suicide. It’s been enforced heartlessly for a very long time - if you commit suicide, you’ll go someplace worse. It’s this, it’s that. All ultimately to remove the last escape for people who are in some form of extreme physical, mental, emotional or existential pain to the point where they don’t believe there’s another solution.
I’d sooner discuss why we have those attitudes - maybe it’s so we get a free pass to be extractive and shitty whilst simultaneously denying the people we abuse even the dignity of leaving on their own terms.
- Comment on MPs vote in favour of historic bill to allow assisted dying after emotional debate 2 months ago:
Suicide is not assisted, leaves a mess for those that discover a corpse, EMT’s and others to clean up. Someone’s suffering might end when they jump in front of a train but the train driver’s suffering only just begins at that point.
Suicide is often an unmanaged, chaotic process which causes trauma. It also often fails whilst leaving those that attempt it in bad physical shape. A law like this reduces the necessity of discussing, normalizing or enabling suicide because there is a safe and properly counseled path out of a no-win situation for those that truly need it. A policy on containment when there are probably household cleaners that could do the job effectively with a small amount of chemistry knowledge is absolutely insane - and if someone truly is in that much pain, they’ll find a way. Families and loved ones also have time to work through grief and loss rather than getting the wind knocked out of them when they hear the news.
The fact that we’ve hit a point where we can even have a discussion about this is probably something that should be celebrated, rather than being so totalitarian and controlling that we effectively force people to live even when they’re in enormous pain.
- Comment on He's just lucky I guess 4 months ago:
Save Him.
- Comment on Anon uncovers something big 4 months ago:
I know absolutely nothing beyond the lego-brick level of building and watercooling machines. No EE chops whatsoever… but this stuff is so interesting to me and maybe one day, cost and space no object, having a palatial garage or workshop to muck around in… Just knowing it’s possible really is the half of it.
- Comment on Anon uncovers something big 4 months ago:
Apparently it IS possible to make IC’s at home, obviously nothing approaching 5nm transistor gates and therefore the equivalent of lego blocks to precision machined parts… but anyways:
(apologies for the YT link… I’d much rather link a service that isn’t totally enshittified) www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEC2LGGXn0
- Comment on Seriously, what the f*** is keeping Donald Trump in this presidential race? 5 months ago:
The same thing that is powering most other political figures, all of which can be termed “Populists”
People are angry about a number of things. The wealth gap is very large, they are constantly told that the reason they aren’t doing well in life is because of their own failings, whilst they watch elites with political access get away with things they can only dream of. They’re being told immigrants and/or AI’s are coming for their jobs. They’re being told they can’t have what their parents or the wealthy had because Climate Change, or because inflation.
This generates a great deal of friction, which in turn pushes people to radicalize their beliefs. You can’t continue to sell a liberal, centrist viewpoint of the world when it simply isn’t working for them. They might cotton on to “dumb” ideas, but this does not mean that they are stupid. It means that they are angry. This is is demonstrative of a deeper problem that is being very deliberately ignored or papered over, because those in power have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train running for as long as possible. The sheer scale of the problems we now have to deal with are exceeding the kinds of moves and actions most Western politicians have learned over the years, so we aren’t getting appropriate results out of our political apparatus.
In times such as these, many people will look to the past for ideas on how to deal with their current situation. They sometimes come back with bad ones, sometimes they come back with good ones, and the pre-existing power structure will do everything it can to resist both of them, because to change is tantamount to completely losing grip on power for many of the people invested in the way things are. They cannot adapt, and once gone they will never get it back.
So we have a kind of a worst-case situation with a maladaptive leadership, extreme public resentment and actual natural/physical catastrophes forming a kind of crucible that this civilization needs to endure.
The trumps/erdogans/farages/orbans/lukashenkos/putins/meleis of this world are symptoms of these issues.
- Comment on Anon doesn't like reddit 5 months ago:
discord requires a phone number to create an account. hard pass.
- Comment on Anon is stuck in a rut 8 months ago:
No, it gets much worse.
- Comment on Anon can't find a good match 8 months ago:
Often times, you don’t need to ask. You can just tell.
- Comment on Why has the world gone to shit? 1 year ago:
No, most people would not.
Most people would share, or hit a point and think “OK, that’s enough for anything I really want personally… I’m gonna try and help out now…”
Nobody in their right mind should want a world where they are privately wealthy, but publically impoverished.
Because then, you have no security.
Someone will always be gunning for you.
You can stave it off by layering brute force, and laws, but there is no such thing as 100% secure. Eventually something will make it through, and wreak havoc. And because all you now care about, over everything, is whatever paltry “wealth” you’ve managed to secure, the catastrophe is magnified orders of magnitude. You have no real friends or community to turn to, nobody who would support you if you didn’t have the most, and the rules didn’t make you “king” because of it.It’s a sickness.