I think there’s also something to be said about fascism as a comfort. There are many people I’ve seen argue that it’s somewhat of a happy ending for Florence Pugh’s character. These also seem to be the types of TERF radical feminists who are more likely to be in lockstep with the current administration based on its treatment of transgender people.

When you have been hurt in that way, burning it all down can make sense. The movie does make you feel comfortable with the deaths of the characters I think - they all very much come across as more “deserving” of what happens to them than is typical in most horror films. I think that’s another amazing aspect of that movie - you don’t feel bad about them dying and maybe that should concern you?

Hereditary is another movie that has so many layers to it. The problem there is that it’s basically impossible to watch more than once to form a proper analysis of it lol

It was fun, but vim ultimately made more sense and is what I used for note taking most of the time now.

At one point in college I decided to make myself take notes in ed for a semester for the lulz

Amazon’s ebook store front (as well as the internet in general) is flooded with AI slop. The internet is a place where the signal to noise ratio is dropping rapidly.

Physical media is necessary. Especially books. Especially the kinds of books regimes might want to ban. When it’s time to rebuild, we’ll need firm ground to stand on, and physical books work as long as you can hold them.

The ISS is also a symbol I think. The “International” Space Station. Think about how Soviet and American’s worked together on Skylab, and how that inspired the creation of what is truly a marvel and testament to humanity. Space has a been a place for the future and hope - it doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from, what matters is the spirit of exploration and desire to better understand the universe.

Elon wants his name on a Mars mission above everything else. He wants history to talk about how he got us there, and imagines a future where planetary exploration allows his progeny to be lords of entire planets. Safety doesn’t matter, and we’ll probably end up with the first Americans to die in space in the next few years. (Will the US space program become as secret as the Soviet era one?)

Btw there have been massive cuts to many NASA programs across the board (especially in outreach/education lol). Artemis/Moon to Mars will probably die or be significantly changed because it’s “DEI.”

Bridenstone was Trump’s first appointment to the office, and was focused on giving private companies access to space - this is why this Starliner debacle happened in the first place.

NASA is dying because the oligarchs see space as a resource to be exploited and do not understand the purpose of scientific exploration, beyond what they can funnel into their own wallets.

I only have one Linux shirt - the awesome upside down command line guide XKCD one. My beard has grown in since, and I have not needed Randall Munroe’s help to navigate my system for many years, but it’s a fun shirt.

I mean, can’t we go back to the way that the Dems refused to see that Hillary was not popular, and how party leaders actively intervened to make sure that no one resembling an actual Dem (Bernie) got the nomination?

I think that’s really where the writing was on the wall - sabotage a popular candidate with the kind of populist support that we saw launch Trump into office, to platform someone who was probably one of the most hated women in America?

Nothing wrong with Doctorow - I just think that his techno dystopias are very prescient.

Yeah - they’re teaming up with the Christofascists. Accelerationists - smash the United States into a wall, so various parties can pick up the pieces. It’ll be Gilead where I live - Cory Doctorow elsewhere.

Racists see the world as zero sum.

Privately, they believe that the Other (Mexicans, trans people, Muslims) holds the same views that they do. Some people do not mature/develop a theory of mind beyond a vague sense of tribalism.

Because given power, they would eliminate people unlike them, they assume that the Other would do the same.

Look into racist spirituality, ie White Identity - a common belief is something like racial “oversouls” which are naturally opposed to each other. Anything that benefits Black or Mexican folks are overt moves by those oversouls - affirmative action as a covert move to drive white men out.

The majority of these people don’t get into it/think about it enough to engage with the “oversouls” but I think it does align with their behavior. The internet has also unfortunately gotten things like Blavatsky and Evola into to the mainstream - dollars to donuts that the DOGE boys were introduced to those names on /pol/

They get handed locked down chromebooks or iPads at schools. They’re only really exposed to a walled garden, and they also aren’t explicitly taught a lot of concepts that need to be taught (almost all MS/HS I’ve met have passwords which are just sliding their finger across the keyboard - it’s bewildering. I teach “correct horse battery staple.”)

You can’t learn much if you can’t install your own software. Learning is breaking things though, and most schools seem allergic to hiring competent tech teams/setting up sandboxed computer labs. Security concerns are huge - eg, if your kids school uses PowerSchool they probably got hacked this year - but when your teaching physics and can’t install MathLab or whatever…

There are still the little geeks that figure out how to get video game emulators going - Pokémon Emerald is probably more popular among middle schoolers today than it was in 2005.

The thing is - no one skips right to surgery.

I don’t want to minimize the experience of detransitioners, but they’re extremely rare. They just get platformed more, it’s a narrative that the media wants (especially the “Irreversible Damage” narrative - that trans men are little lost girls mutilating ourselves in response to misogyny). The vast vast majority of people who detransition/regret usually do so because of societal factors - eg, that transitioning can often cost you your job, social support network, put you in danger…

I’m entering middle age and have been on testosterone my entire life. I have still had doctors try to talk me into going off. Heck - to even get started, I had to lie about my sexual orientation - no one was giving me shit if I didn’t start off with “when I was four years old I threw a fit every time they made me wear dresses and only ever play with GI Joes.”

As someone who likes sex and to some degree exhibitionism:

Any amount of sex liking/photos of yourself online will bar you from certain jobs. I have a rather traumatic history of sex work - even the fact that I did it to survive is something that tars me. Doing things consensually and willingly is even worse.

The trade off for some is going to be financial. If having videos of yourself online could potentially ruin any change of a normal life - there needs to be something that secures some safety in return.

Being promiscuous is considered a character flaw. If you are frequently willing - the times where you are not have zero chance of being tried fairly in the court of public opinion.

The Madonna/whore complex fucks everyone over. Having lots of sex is fun, we’ve just come up with this dickish social rule system where enjoying receptive sex is a strongly ingrained societal “no no.”

Fun fact - in the 1920’s, 1 in 3 white people in Indiana were members of the KKK. It was as about a mainstream a thing as being a rotary club member - they even had charity matches against the Knight of Columbus.

Edit: another fun fact: the shortest serving governor of Oklahoma was impeached fairly shortly after opposing the klan.

Republican Governor Kevin Stitt plays golf with the Ringaling superintendent. I think the state superintendent does as well, it’s a pretty incestous lot.

In rural Oklahoma - high schools exist to field football teams. You drive into a town and the water tower will say “State Champions ‘92” - their quarterback was on the team, owns the car dealership and consequently owns the town. It’s not about religion necessarily - it’s more that Oklahoma is a set of petty fiefdoms run by terrible men who are okay with anything as long as they can watch the game at a brand new stadium built with bond money.

There are also a couple of interesting names on there if you do some googling. Happy hunting.

Are there places so privileged where women have harems of male sex slaves? Is there a country with organized matriarchy?

Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to speak or be seen through windows.

Is there are a country where men are treated the same?

Edit: Wow. Imagine if y’all get as upset about rape and femicide as you did about sometimes women being a little snotty to men online.