luddybuddy

joined 2 years ago
[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe “we’re not so different” did a podcast series on the parallels, I think it’s paywall though. Great podcast!

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ll second the volunteering idea. It’s easier to make friends with folks you see often, such as at work or school. That frequent contact really helps get you over the hump. Volunteer somewhere aligned with your interests, and go to every event you can.

  • food not bombs
  • bike coop
  • museum if you dig old nerds (especially labor, industrial, and maritime museums, often full of commies)
[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago

This is great stuff (by which I of course mean it is terrible).

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago

This is good shit. Also connecting that to the english peasant rebellion (can't remember which one) where they went to London and burnt all the records, so nobody knew who owed whom.

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

che-smile

No you're right, I have the intellectual understanding to combat this, I just haven't finished the work.

I'm super excited about the analysis of soviet vs. american contracts, I will look for a lay-accessible source on this.

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production

ugh I should read more Marx; this statement makes such sense intuitively and is counter to free market doctrine - capitalists say that the bargaining power of a worker is proportional to their scarcity. That idea of course has some merit, but that power is bounded by the worker's need for survival, which are relatively constant across people (everyone needs so many calories, etc), vs the productive capacity of a worker is hugely variable, from an expert CNC operator to someone hand-knitting sweaters. So productive workers effectively have less bargaining power because they are worth so much to the employer, but if the market allows, can always be underpaid down to starvation wages.

Thanks, that's certainly a step towards chopping the head off this worm.

TBH my sticking points are all vibes based. Listening to Chokepoint capitalism, I learned that the creators of Spiderman sold their work for about $150 and didn't see another cent until the first movie was in production, and then through a public shaming campaign, got some $$. My reflex opinion was "Well of course they didn't see another cent, that's only right because they sold their work. The potential value of that work was unknown, and they made a bad forecast and it bit them in the ass. Sorry chumps." My next thought was that they probably didn't have much choice in the matter, and needed to take what they could get to feed their families. I want to eliminate that first thought. Talking about it here is helping, I think.

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago

Absolutely. I think this is the core of what I need to take from 'here's a thing I understand intellectually' to 'this is how I feel about the world on a gut level'

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

My uncle was a naval officer, so I got to go on tiger cruise once. They did a display of the CIWS which resulted in half the deck being covered in mildly radioactive shell casings which were then swept into the sea. Fun stuff. At the time I remember thinking yikes, seems like you wouldn’t want to risk your crew’s safety by littering shells all over the deck for people to trip over, but knowing it’s the last line of defense it makes a bit more sense. It’s an emergency and you’ve got to spit all the depleted uranium at the incoming missile, who cares if one guy slips on a shell casing and gets a concussion.

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

For technical boots (hiking, alpine, whatever) follow manufacturers instructions. There are compatibility issues between cement and leather care products that can make it impossible to repair if you’ve used certain products.

For traditionally constructed boots, I use a leather lotion or leather conditioner every so often, and generally don’t use wax polish. That’s partially because I’m not looking for a mirror shine, and partially because I have found that too much wax polish allows the leather to dry and crack, especially at the creases behind the toe box.

There’s a lot of information on the internet about how different tanning processes need to be treated differently and that’s true, but mostly unhelpful as it’s difficult to find out what exactly the leather in your shoes was tanned and finished with. If you value your sanity, don’t think too much about it.

[–] luddybuddy@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago

My usual tolerably-apolitical sword guy, Scholagladiatoria, has only a short video on the Jambiya and it’s mostly conjecture about usage, which is immediately countered by a few Yemenis in the comments. Not linking because it’s old and not that good, and I don’t want my least terrible sword guy getting dunked on here!

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