queerlilhayseed
@queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
Will no one rid me of these troublesome conspiracy laws?
- Comment on I've wondered since I was a youngin 1 week ago:
I think oppressors have a conscience already, they’ve just been taught to ignore it or accept exceptions to it. Or rather, I think it’s more that oppressive leaders are in on the game, but the vast majority of their coalition has to be hoodwinked into following along. Look at the modern American news media machine: we kind of forget how expensive it is because it’s also profitable, but that’s a huge amount of concerted effort directed at making white americans afraid of and angry at non-white people. If people were just naturally OK with oppression none of that would be necessary, they would just do it and not bother trying to justify it with scare tactics. It’s also fragile to argument, which is why books get banned and civil rights leaders get assassinated.
- Comment on I've wondered since I was a youngin 2 weeks ago:
Have there been cycle breaks? I’m not trying to be combative but I am curious to know what examples you have in mind. I don’t think human history has ever seen a break in the cycle of violence as I would define it. The active bloodshed has waxed and waned over the centuries, or at least moved from place to place, but violent oppression has been alive and malignant in every chapter of human history that I can think of.
- Comment on I've wondered since I was a youngin 2 weeks ago:
That’s a hard question and I don’t know. I don’t know that a strictly nonviolent movement can work if there’s a critical mass of oppressors who believe that those they oppress deserve to be oppressed. I think the theory of nonviolent resistance is built on an assumption that, deep down, we all know that what oppressors do is wrong and that there is a contrivance of convenience that allows oppressors to except themselves, or simply ignore that knowledge. I don’t know if that deep down knowledge is universal. But I know from personal experience it’s quite easy to ignore it, especially when one’s own life is hard, or when the oppression is mostly hidden from view, or simply when the problem of oppression seems overwhelming and unassailable. I believe that most people who don’t try to resist oppression either disapprove but feel helpless in the face of it, or they benefit from it and therefore try to justify it, or usually a combination of the two. If that belief is correct, then the answer I think is one of education. Give people the tools they need to fight nonviolently: Educate about local elections, form citizen watchdog groups, show how propaganda uses common tropes to reinforce ideas about the “inherent criminality” of the oppressed, teach the history of how oligarchs use flunkies like trump to implement favorable policies while deflecting blame onto minorities, and the million other things that people need to know to have a well functioning society. Use shame to dislodge the privileged from their comfortable niches and force them to answer for the consequences of their actions or lack thereof.
I think, especially now in America, this seems so far away that even to seriously consider it seems fanciful. Maybe it is. Maybe we’re at the point where violence is necessary to jerk us back from the cliff of autocracy. It certainly seems like trump and his goons want a fight, and it seems likely that sooner or later they’ll get one. But I don’t think violence can be solved with violence, and even if America goes through some violent convulsions I don’t think they’ll end us in a place where we aren’t doing violence to each other. Nonviolence requires nonviolence.
- Comment on I've wondered since I was a youngin 2 weeks ago:
Yeah. The question is whether to work to continue the cycle or work to break it.
- Comment on The highest-rated games and what the people say 5 weeks ago:
The fun thing about art criticism is there’s no barrier to entry. Literally anyone can do it.
- Comment on Tf is a ternary diagram 1 month ago:
Don’t be fooled: Loamy Sand is just Sandy’s mild-mannered, glasses-wearing alter ego.
- Comment on Fun Otter Fact 1 month ago:
I tried but for some reason they keep cavorting in the sun and water all day.
Maybe they are trying to teach me a lesson.
- Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)? 1 month ago:
In emergencies when you need to use a compass you can save time by using these maximally efficient cardinal names:
,,, and. - Comment on What do you feel lucky forabout? 2 months ago:
Same. Feels very old to say but computers are so much more complicated and abstracted now, I feel like they were much more approachable when there wasn’t as much to them. Like being able to open the hood of a 60s era car and see all the discrete parts vs a 2020s car and you just see a tangle of plastic :/
- Comment on What do you feel lucky forabout? 2 months ago:
I met my partner when we were both in our early 20s and we clicked very quickly. Growing up and through my teens I assumed I would never settle down into a long-term relationship. I didn’t really have a good idea of what a long-term relationship would even be like for me; I certainly didn’t want to wind up in a mutually-resigned tolerance that my parents resolved into. Then for a while after we got together I (fortunately privately) assumed that we were too young and it was too good to last and that things would eventually fall apart but (so far) we’ve just never gotten tired of being around each other. We’ve had a few rough eras, actually in one of the scrabble periods now, financially, but as for the relationship itself we’ve been together almost 20 years now and going stronger than ever. Still rather in awe that it worked out this way when I think back on it. Feels very lucky.
- Comment on How do you respond to unwanted advice? 2 months ago:
It really depends on the advice, and my relationship with the advice giver. I generally give advice at least a thought, even if it was unwanted, unless I have a reason to mistrust the advisor. As for how I respond to the person, if it’s a friend I’ll usually have followup questions, for people I know less well it’s usually a cordial variant of “hmm, interesting perspective” and then I have to think on it for a while before I respond, if I respond at all.
- Comment on Just how? 2 months ago:
Yep, I think the accepted English pronunciation of “Euler” is as a homophone of “oiler”, so the award would be “the oilies”. I never heard the name out loud as a kid so I pronounced it “you’-ler” until well into adulthood, until someone made a big deal about me not pronouncing it correctly. I remember the occasion very clearly 🙃
- Comment on Just how? 2 months ago:
We can call it the Euler Award for Excessive Achievement in Science. Or the Eulies if you’re in the industry. And we make a big deal about it if anyone pronounces is " the yoolies”
- Comment on Valve released a new VR helmet? 2 months ago:
I hope it happens. And by it I mean VR / AR equipment that I can comfortably use for a few hours at a time without getting sweaty, fatigued, or motion sick. When I’m using a computer I like to have a bunch of displays, and it would be really convenient to have a comfortable headset that I can wear instead and live my dream of coding in VR / AR and spin displays up or down on a whim, or better still use some as-yet-undreamed VR native UI that takes advantage of the platform. That dream is still a way off, it seems like, but I still want it.
- Comment on X-Files '90s promo shoot 2 months ago:
I mean look at them. To quote Raymond Gillette, nobody’s that gay.
- Comment on Efficacy unparalleled 2 months ago:
I’m beginning to suspect Stamets isn’t even a real doctor.
- Comment on Efficacy unparalleled 2 months ago:
Concerning that researchers are giving their subjects full-strength memes like this and telling them they’re placebos. Hard to believe an IRB cleared this post.
- Comment on What are the most popular conspiracy theories? 3 months ago:
I remember “Covid was a Chinese bioweapon” being popular, alongside “Covid is fake and just an excuse for the government to inject us with 5G microchips”