shawn1122

@shawn1122@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  This is true wisdom.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For Iranians, Bombing of Gas Field Worsens Already Dire Energy Crisis⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Up the escalation ladder we go, as instigated by Israel. They’ve already bombed Qatar’s LNG plant which is the biggest in the world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Happy 17th of March⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re absolutely right, the scale of the transatlantic slave trade was greater than ever before seen in human history.

  Somewhere between 1 in 5 to 1 in 6 died on the journey alone.

  One needs to also be aware that slavery as practiced by modern Western colonial empires was even more cruel than how slavery was practiced traditionally even dating back to antiquity.

  In most of the world historically slavery was often contingent and there were several pathways to manumission (freedom). It was not an inherited status by default (partus sequiter ventrum).

  The Western colonial empires very much perceived the entire world according to a race based caste system where Europeans were the highest caste and those of African descent were the lowest. Complexion defined your worth as a person. They spread this worldview globally, which has poisoned so many minds, and the world is still recovering from it to this day.

  America adopted and upheld this race based caste system until the civil rights act passed in the 1960s (within the lifetimes of many of parents/grandparents). During the American era of slavery, slaves had no legal rights. They did not have personhood. Children of slaves were automatically also slaves from birth. Slaves could be grieviously injured or killed with impunity. They were seen as property, or livestock.

  This is not how slavery was practiced historically around the world.

  In fact, even ancient Greece and Rome (both of which thrived on slavery) had more legal protections and pathways to freedom. Slavery was not race based. In many cases, they had earnings and could eventually buy their freedom. In Rome they could be set free by an owner and become Roman citizens.

  None of this is taught in American history likely because the ruling class worries it would hurt the average person’s national pride and their ability to exert control over them. But the truth is no society can improve without honestly reflecting on their past so I hope there will be some that read this and learn.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Happy 17th of March⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think anyone is arguing that on a global scale though colonial/Western powers did decimate Africa and continue to engage in neocolonialism there.

  But if we’re talking about American history we need to be transparent about the fact that this was a nation that was an apartheid state until about half a century ago and the consequences of that reverberate to the present day.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨send thoughts and peer review⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Not mutually exclusive though I can understand how the West’s experience has led them to that conclusion.

  Though there are many scientists in the West that are religious.

  One has to understand that the purpose of prayer and community isn’t necessarily to improve material circumstances.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unconventional strategy.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  When you’re persecution complex is so robust you reanimate the Old Testament despite being a “secular” nation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Every single time.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Melania is that you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Real Height 📏⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you touched on how social pressure can make it toxic.

  By no means advocating for a change in how we define adulthood but a recent paper looking at topographical turning points in the brain identified adolescence as extending from 9 to 32 years of age which explains a lot in my view.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game over⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Might be a good time to learn about the curry leaf.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Real Height 📏⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Most people don’t really know what they want until they’ve had their perspective is broadened.

  Filtering people out based on specific physical attributes is wild in my opinion. So glad I found my partner before that became ‘normal’.

  That being said I’m speaking for full fledged adults. We have research now that suggests adolesence extends to age 32. I wouldn’t be suprised if people in their 20s were trying to optimize ear or nipple size in their search for a partner, just from my memory of living through that age.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stereotyping is wrong.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If we’re going off election results it would be two thirds of white men and more than half of white women.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stereotyping is wrong.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For which party and why?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon disrespects their elders⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This must be devastating for the Switch which also happens to be nearly tied for best selling console of all time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does most American's give shit to the French when if not for them we would have lost the revolution?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  France has no US military bases on its soil and has refused to be entirely vassalized by the US unlike most of the rest of Europe. It’s one of few Western countries that has managed to maintain strategic autonomy in the face of US hegemony. Refusal to participate in the war in Iraq is an example of this, while countries like the UK followed blindly like a good little lap dog.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The article makes the claim that homes have been broken into.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Great insight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Being accustomed to bad infrastructure means they won’t use good infrastructure if it’s right in front of them? That’s an interesting assumption to make of those of lesser means.

  Yes, I can see that being a problem. But it comes back to Japanese infrastructure not having the capacity so I’m glad they’re doing the responsible thing by shutting it down. Hopefully they can come up with a solution so that businesses that see a lot of revenue due to this festival don’t get hit too hard.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If you talk to locals, yes, this is the stereotype.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Lots of narrative building going on in this thread. I’m in another comment chain where the case is being made that Japan has the best maintained and widely available toilets in the world and yet people are still choosing to break into homes to use the bathroom and defecate in the open despite this. Hard to believe anyone can genuinely buy this so one can only assume that the underlying intentions is, rather than having a discussion in good faith, to pit this one one group of people while absolving Japan of any reaponsibility.

  Which is their prerogative but it’s important that they acknowledge their bias. Japan is headed towards an alarming demographic collapse with 40% of its population being pensioners by 2046. Tourism is one of the few industries that will keep their economy and social services functional so I do genuinely hope they figure this out, for their sake.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You genuinely think a person would forgo a functional (let’s take udon’s word for it - world class) toilet to break into someone’s house in a foreign country just to use their bathroom? That doesn’t seem like a stretch to you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Feel free to make a counter argument based on your personal experience, if you have one. What would be the reason?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  For whatever reason? What could possibly be the reason? If the toilets are as remarkable and pristine as youve shared, it’s hard to imagine any reason someone would choose to do that. Unless you’re saying the tourist is doing it out of spite which still leaves us with the question of why.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The already existing infrastructure may be of good quality but it doesn’t really matter if the capacity isn’t there to meet the volume of people.

  In fact, let’s agree that your point is absolutely true. Wouldn’t it then br most likely that people would want to use those facilities and the only reason they may not be is because the wait is too long?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan cancels cherry blossom festival over complaints of tourists littering and ‘defecating’ in yards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Worth reviewing what type of sanitation services are available. If people are completely ignoring adequate public recepticles and bathrooms then that can be addressed a variety of ways but that seems relatively less likely in my opinion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon goes to the ball⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not a woman but will speak on what little I know from life experience.

  From a woman’s perspective, an offer to share intimacy is not necessarily validating in the way a similar offer may be received by a man.

  For some, perhaps many, women there is the looming question of whether an offer of intimacy is simply a man looking to make them the object of their sexual gratification. Many women are not interested in that.

  As men, we’re not used to getting offers. So much so that when we get one it makes our day, week, month etc. For many women, the challenge is not getting offers, but there is a looming question of whether the offer genuine. What is the intention of the person showing interest? It’s not that men aren’t also concerned with these questions. It’s just that, for a variety of reasons, the stakes are lower for men. So they spend less time thinking about them and more on just being excited someone noticed them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon gets nostalgic⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  An unsurprisingly one sided perspective on gentrification with no attention given to the displacement and economic destruction it causes the people already living in those ‘ghettos’ and

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humans are part of the ecosystem.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Wish you the best on your journey of better understanding our world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humans are part of the ecosystem.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Many of every other nation, race, culture and creed do too.

  Not in the way that Indigineous cultures do, see the sources listed by fossilesque above. Indigineous peoples often find themselves in a position where they have to protect the environment from Western corporate interests.

  No, there is value in sperating out the West here. I refer to the past 500 years of human history as the reason why. You can claim that my approach is binary ie. western by seperating them out as an entity but the reality is it was their binary view of the world (ie. white people being superior) that has left us with that division. They had the economic and tchnologic leverage to make that binary our lived reality. Ignoring that would be naive at best, disingenuous at worst.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humans are part of the ecosystem.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Many indigineous cultures uphold sustainability as a crucial part to their culture.

  It is actually a common logical failing of Western culture to assume that everyone sees the world and interacts with it the way they do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What should the next President of the United States do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  1. Immediately reverse domestically regressive policies.

  2. Foreign affairs? I’m afraid cats out of the bad. No ones trusting the US the same way again. Start the process of patching up relations but it’s going to take much longer than one term.

  3. Find a way to actually improve the material conditions of the average American. Trying to use laws to prevent another Trump is not going to work. Demagogues thrive in an environment, typically defined by unease or insecurity. If people feel that their lives are improving they don’t fall for it as easily.

  4. Be competent.