thebardingreen

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

It’s a shitty choice between

“Business as usual center right Joe Stability Biden, representing rich old business people with a smile and a grandfatherly handshake” and

“My followers LITERALLY want Hand Maids Tale style Christian Fascism in this country and they have a plan to do it and that’s fine with me as long as I get to win and avoid criminal prosecution, also I’m a wannabe Russian mobster! Donald Trump”

So yes, DO make sure to get out and vote against a piece of shit this November.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

And Trump wouldn’t be supporting the genocide a million times worse?

Hate him, he deserves it. It’s a terrible situation, but it will become even more terrible if it turns into a Republican victory, and some of that responsibility is in fact on the heads of people too angry to see and do what needs to be done.

Underneath it all, there’s a tragic, numeric reality and we have to confront it.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

The American electoral system just doesn’t work that way. That is a steaming shit sandwich, but… sitting out the election or voting 3rd party because you’re pissed (rightfully so) is like headbutting a goat. It hurts you more than it hurts the goat and the goat doesn’t care or change it’s behavior. The goat in this case is 100% the collective body of American Democratic voters and the assholes who run the DNC. They will NOT care. They will learn all the wrong lessons. They are old and out of touch and they pull to the right every time they lose.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Smart take is smart. /s

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

No, I want you to vote AGAINST the insane vampires. Stop thinking of the US electoral system as something where you vote FOR somebody. We haven’t had an option that truely represented us in literal lifetimes. You have a button for bullshit as usual and you have a button for “FUCK WOMEN, FUCK TRANS PEOPLE, FUCK IMMIGRANTS, HAHAHAHAH JESUS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BABY.” If you DON’T push the first button… that IS in fact a reality fail and LOTS of vulnerable people will suffer for the sake of your principals.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Agreed. You can have a stubborn goat who won’t change or White Jesus with an AK-47 riding a dragon, leading a glorious army to put women and transpeople back in their place. It’s a STUPID choice, but there IS a right answer.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

I mean… don’t look now, but how many times has American “business as usual” been culpable?

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Actually… great! Tell me how. Tell me your plan. Tell me your end game. Tell me what you plan to do about all the gleeful idiots who want to watch the goat die and then shoot you in the back while they pray to Trump and Jesus?

Again, also not advocating for anything. We ARE just talking about goats.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Look… let’s be straight. Who is worse FOR ACTUAL VULNERABLE PEOPLE HERE AND ABROAD. Out of touch, arrogant and pro big business neo liberals or Trumpian Christofascist Republicans. If we’re comparing them to fantasy horror creatures… which one has more hit dice and is more destructive and aggressive?

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

No, I described BIDEN as bullshit as usual.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Reading Egan is like getting a PHD in mathematics and a PHD in quantum physics, then going to Burning Man and doing 18 hits of acid.

Strongly agree about Reynolds and VInge.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

His later stuff hasn’t lived up to it, although his asteroid mining series is pretty cool.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Tailchaser’s Song really is like GoT with cats, isn’t it?

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Iain M. Banks.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

Here you go

www.donsmaps.com/phallusstoneage.html

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

One of mine is “Leave No Trace” backpacking in a National Park in my 20s when I was on a very tight budget. I felt bad at the time about not supporting the National Park Service, so I packed out a bunch of trash.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

For some reason “The following statement is true.” “The previous statement is false.” has always tried to send my brain into an infinite loop.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Oh shit. I haven’t thought about this guy in years.

I guess I’ll be singing What Does The Fox say for the next few weeks.

thebardingreen , 5 months ago

It is stupid and evil to reject cubic truth.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

I’m one of a whole 2 users at lemmy.starlightkel.xyz and we’re seeing lemmy.world content no problem right now.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

It’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but have you read the Rosewater trilogy? It’s not humans, it’s aliens who are invading earth by replacing the cells in our bodies. They have a biological fungus based data network that humans mistake for telepathy and mysticism. It causes lots of “supernatural” effects, but it turns out they’re all based on biological computation.

Set in Nigeria in the 2080s, by a Nigerian author.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

In a properly designed vivarium, a system could only require cyclical sunlight for powering a self sustained computational unit on geological time scales, assuming all respective lifeforms were fully understood scientifically.

“I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me,” intoned Deep Thought, his voice regaining its accustomed declamatory tones. “A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate—and yet I will design it for you. A computer that can calculate the Question to the Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten-million-year program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall name it also unto you. And it shall be called…the Earth.”

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Butter - I use it in pizza dough, taco meat, stir fry…

I know what brands of garlic powder to use. Nothing beats fresh garlic, but a pinch of the good stuff is worth 10 shakes of supermarket brand crap.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

wave of lawsuits that might eventually grind this whole industry to a halt.

Holy wishful thinking Batman. With the amount of money that’s at stake that will never be allowed to happen.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Cleaning out a ball mouse.

My 14 year old son recently picked one up out of this big pile of old computer treasure I was given by a client and said “What’s up with this mouse?”

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Do I look like a sucker to you Illuminaut… eh, fuck it. They have it all already.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

The rich go insane because the people around them enable them to believe their own bullshit and set no boundaries with them. This is SUPER bad for humans psychologically and causes us to lose touch with reality. Something in our brains depends on that group consensus to affirm our concepts of self and beliefs and decisions and it loses calibration when it gets crappy feedback.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

They’re the people who never would have touched it, because it was too technical, had too high a barrier of entry, and saw it as niche.

Yep. My dad uses Facebook, Reddit and Youtube now. I remember having conversations with him where he was confused about why anyone would ever want to use Facebook and what the point of Youtube is… it just wastes time. When I first exposed him to AMAs I thought he would be interested in, in like 2012, he was like “It’s really cool that you can talk to this person, but there’s so much noise and joking around… how are you supposed to follow it all?”

Now he posts on reddit for help with home improvement projects and watches youtube channels about classic cars and how to fix your garage door opener and talks about stuff he saw his other Boomer friends post on Facebook. He sends me unfunny Youtube videos of AI Deepfakes of Trump and Biden talking about how they pooped their diapers. It’s a weird role reversal, because now I’m like “I’ve left every single one of those enshittified platforms.” But it took him years to get on them. It would take him even longer to get off.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

I literally just had a client ask where he should recycle all his old computers, thinking they were just garbage.

I ended up with a 6 year old Dell All-In-One that is now running Linux Mint and acting as a second TV (and it has a touch screen!), a four year old Asus Laptop with a dead battery (that he thought was totally dead because it wouldn’t turn on unless it’s plugged in) that is now running Linux Mint and acting as my video conferencing station, a 7 year old tower that I upgraded for him 3 years ago with 2 TB SSD that is now waiting for me to find a use for it, another old tower that I upgraded several years ago with 2 8TB drives so that he could archive vast amounts of mostly useless old businesses data he thought he might need… those are also waiting for me to think of a purpose for them… 3 nice big monitors (2 are VGA only, but I have some VGA to HDMI adapters)…

All for the price of taking a bunch of ACTUAL ewaste to the recycle center.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

How do they dispose of hardware? I feel like a covert night time rescue operation is in order.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

I actually wish this was true.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

For me, Lemmy content is better in every way, EXCEPT for local subs / communities. I really miss my well populated, engaged local subs.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

The corporation doesn’t love you, nor does it hate you. But you possess economic value, which could be made to belong to the corporation’s shareholders.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Theory doesn’t mean what people think it means.

Culturally, we misunderstand theory to be equivalent to “hypothesis,” meaning “We have an idea, now we need to prove or disprove it.”

But accurately, theory means “We have a framework of interrelated ideas that fit the observable evidence.” In that sense, evolution is an EXTREMELY well supported theory.

Gravity is also a theory. So are general and special relativity. So is all of quantum physics.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Chicks dig guys with money!

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

What do you suggest instead?

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

100% Gaza.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

On the one hand, it’s not that “Gaza” is a hill people are willing to die on, it’s that “You cannot make me party to genocide of this kind and continue to have my support, full stop.” is a hill many people are willing to die on and set on fire on their way out. And… I don’t think we can be blamed for feeling that way. I certainly do.

On the other hand, you’re absolutely right about everything you say about Democracy and right wingers and the only way to stop it.

I will vote for Biden to try to stop Trump, but he and I are not friends and I do not “support” him. I am voting against Trump, not for Biden.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

I DO NOT SUPPORT Biden, my vote is not FOR Biden it is for Not Trump. But I know Gaza is why there are MANY people who will refuse to support Biden. I agree with them, but I think these people haven’t quite done the math.

You can have an old, out of touch fuck face who represents MUCH of what is wrong with mainstream American culture and wants to double down on a bunch of it, sustain some of it’s most toxic parts, while allowing for JUST ENOUGH progressive cultural change (especially the sort that doesn’t really change anything) to keep enough of the base engaged with him to keep him (and MOSTLY people like him) in power.

Or you can have a bunch of maniacs who literally want to create Handmaids Tale and are working hard to push us in that exact direction.

Those are the choices. That’s it. Don’t think of it as “Do I support this one or that one?”

Think of it as:

I can push the button for static, toxic status quo, or I can push the button for Handmaids. Not pushing a button is the same as pushing Handmaids. Also, there are a bunch of little green “Feel Good About Yourself And Win A Participation Trophy By Voting For A Third Party Candidate Who Actually Represents Your Actual Values” buttons, but pushing one of them is the same as pushing Handmaids.

If you’re hoping to motivate people to action with the horrifying reality of four more years of Trump (by protest refusing to support Biden)… it’s like headbutting a goat. The goat doesn’t care, or change it’s behavior and it hurts you WAY more than it hurts the goat. In this case, the Right is WAY better organized, unified and prepared to go full fascist then the Left is to get together and demand real change. If you’re unfamiliar with Leonard Leo or the 2025 project, I can point you at some podcasts to give you some nightmare fuel. There’s nothing like them on the Left, no one throwing that kind of money at being that organized to create political and social change on so many different levels.

tl;dr: I STRONGLY feel like Biden does not deserve my support, and Gaza is a big part of my reasoning, but a non-vote is too close to a vote for Fascist Hellscape.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

I can’t take credit for it. Thomas Smith at Serious Inquiries Only / Where There’s Woke / (and now back at) Opening Arguments gave it to me.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

This is exactly how I feel. I can’t relax into my work (and my work quality is impacted) when I have to use Windows.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Folks, very smart people are saying it. I talk to CEOs, generals, every day they tell me. They tell me China is a problem, they say “we’ve got a problem with China. We’ve gotta do something about China.” Everybody’s saying it. That’s what they tell me.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Anymore, Wine can run anything I care to run.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

I assume you’re from Pakistan? standardmedia.co.ke/…/teen-arrested-for-raping-ch…

thebardingreen , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

We should mostly blame enshitification. Which isn’t the consumer’s fault. The market has been engineered to encourage human animals to exhibit specific group behavior.

You can blame animals for doing what they do, but this just makes you angry, doesn’t solve problems and actually disengages you from lines of thought that might lead to constructive behavior. A human has a choice, but if you study groups of humans you’ll find that they always 100% throughout all of history exhibit herd behavior. The famous quote from Men in Black, “A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”

I think we can and should blame the system that encourages the behavior (from the perspective of both consumer behavior and corporate behavior), then target our ire at the people who most benefit from perpetuating and defending that system. Yes, they’re also exhibiting herd behavior (the predatory wealthy can always be counted on to focus on short-term profit, ignore long-term consequences and thus behaving predictable ways), but they’re a small enough group of people and human society is big enough to enforce changes on their behavior when enough of us get mad at us at them.

Sometimes this results in chaos, but sometimes it results in periods of good policy and relative prosperity.

EDIT:

I should add, the rich ALWAYS hate periods of good policy and relative prosperity and always work relentlessly to change the policies and enable themselves to accumulate more wealth, regardless of (wilfully ignorant to) the long term political, social and environmental consequences. They always feel like their opportunities for profit are being limited by the state and that they’re contributing more than their fair share to a society that they always feel aloof from and seek to insulate themselves from. ALWAYS. We have examples from ancient Egypt, examples from Medieval Europe and Medieval China., setting aside the history of the last two centuries where we can see this playing out in a bunch of obvious ways. Those are just examples I’m aware of, I’m sure an Historian could give us a dozen more examples.

The point is, if you get the opportunity to contribute to a radical economic transformation, try your damnedest to engineer it to be “rich, dumb, greedy asshole” proof. This is JUST like security engineering (think of ways to attack the system, then think of ways to patch the problems).

thebardingreen , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

I’m a cishet white male feminist and proud ally… And it took me years to process my own sexual assault as an assault. I was supposed to be happy that it happened and I got to fuck a pretty girl, right? So my confusing feelings about it must have been stupid and out of place, even though I was drunk and having an emotional breakdown when it happened. Even later on, I considered it a “bad decision” until a woman I was with challenged me to reverse the genders. She said something like “Imagine I’m drunk, having an emotional breakdown, abandoned by my friends and end up at the apartment of a man I barely know because they left without me and no one made sure I got home OK. This man starts kissing me, undresses me, lays me in his bed, starts going down on me and then puts his penis in me… with NO protection or discussion. He never asks if I’m OK with it, never asks if I want to, he just does this to me. What just happened to me??” And I was like “Oh yeah! That IS what happened to me!”

But NOW I frame it as a way toxic masculinity / patriarchy is bad /harmful to men and when I frame it that way I get ZERO hate. Toxic masculinity told me I was supposed to want that to happen to me, supposed to brag about it to my friends, supposed to collect the memory as a notch on my belt. The patriarchy told me it was my right and privilege to have a woman fuck me and take care of me like that. Toxic masculinity also told HER her behaviour was OK, that OBVIOUSLY a man would be into it, that I was getting lucky and I should be happy and excited a hot girl like her would want to do that to me. I forgave her easily, because I’m SURE she didn’t process it as SA either… for the same bullshit cultural reasons.

Male SA survivors get hate because they they get pedestalized and used by MRA assholes as reasons to “bhut whut about…” at feminism. And THAT is unfortunately real. I don’t think people hate Male SA survivors, I think they hate MRA bullshit and with good reason.

thebardingreen , 6 months ago

Assholes are pissed that the culture is shifting more and more in ways that punish assholery (look at the backlash against “Woke”). More and more, pushing back on that in a form of pro asshole culture war, collective action of assholes if you will, seems to the glue binding conservatives together.

Certainly, the only thing that the predatory corporate rich really have in common with racist yeehawdees / Christian nationalists / conspiracy nut jobs is that they don’t like being called out and held accountable for their bullshit and toxic behavior.