mozz

IDK if I am the clueless one, but I had absolutely no idea what “S’pore” was supposed to mean.

The earth changing in massive ways that cause mass extinctions and upend everything that all the existing life had come to rely on, is part of the cycle of natural history, too. The earth can actually bounce back from it pretty quickly, in geological terms. Just, it normally happens so rarely that the chances are astronomically against any given organism having to live through it and all the death and suffering that goes with it on an individual time scale. And of course on any individual lifetime scale it's absolutely permanent, and irreversible. Here's one pretty fascinating example

We're just lucky, I guess. We will have a chance to understand what's happening and why it is our fault, and feel regret and anger as we're watching the catastrophe, those of us that live long enough to see the true shape of it.

I think for quite a while, the violence monopoly will be better at that game than will the ordinary people. And in Western societies at least, you still have a lot more leverage through political organization and activism than through straight-up violence. The number of people and the level of organization that would be required to win a for-real shooting war with the fossil fuel companies which would instantly escalate to a shooting war with law enforcement and from there to a shooting war with the US government, is so much higher than to get enough people in congress to just start putting the brakes on (and keep them there long enough to make a difference.)

I'm not saying it never gets to the point where something like that's required. Ukraine in 2014 is actually a really good example; like okay, we tried elections and protests and it seems like even enough of us to win in that arena isn't enough to make a change, so what the fuck let's get in the streets and make it happen anyway. But you can see; it's way more difficult. Basically 100% of the country was behind it, and still they had to have these huge battles. Political isn't easy, no, but the same people who are saying "OMG I can't believe they did Bernie like that, that's unfair, they can't do that" and then gave up, would not react well to seeing their friends and political leaders getting shot and killed because hey, that's unfair too, they can't do that either. The wrong people are in charge, yes. They are cheating, yes. That's not like a reason to quit, that's a reason to work to make it better.

Basically there's no getting around needing to do the work to make it happen. Is my feeling. IDK, I am not expert in this but that is my feeling.

IDK, I could see it getting to that point like you're saying, like Ukraine or the fall of the Berlin wall, where so many of the ordinary people understand that it needs to stop and start just forcibly making it stop, that it works. I don't think we are there yet (and if Trump gets in and starts shooting even peaceful protestors after Project 2025 cleans house then it will probably set that clock back by quite a bit), and like you I would hope that in our societies there are enough levers of power available to ordinary people that it won't get to that point.

Try that in a small town

Oh wait hang on, I'm confused now

Not dangerous yet. Give it a few years. When it starts causing massive crop failures, that'll be when we learn about dangerous.

True. And art brings people together who might then talk to each other and find allies and form a base of communication centered around something other than "do what I say or I'll punish you." There's lots not to like about it if you're trying to destroy a country's democratic institutions.

Because arts uplift, and misery is a huge part of the engine of fascism

Well adjusted societies have less temptation for it on the pro side, and a lot stronger and more inspired resistance to it from the anti side. It needs to breed sickness in order to really take hold and thrive.

I doubt DeSantis has that much of an organized plan for it, of course; I think it’s simple mean spirited ness on his part that he happened to see some vulnerable people that he can punish.

My favorite part is Carson's pure politeness, and overt attempts to give him a fair showing and put him at ease. Like bro, any petard you're gonna get hung on is purely your own. I just wanna see you show me what you got. By all means: Go ahead.

Bro

Have I got a fuckin story for you

Yeah, I didn't even know she died -- I only looked it up because you said

Whoa, what the fuck

You are correct apparently that she did kill herself legally in Switzerland after a lifetime of treatment resistant depression, but she said the thing that really messed her up was treatment with SSRIs, not the stress of having been a man.

Although, she was hospitalized for a depressive breakdown during research for the book. She identified the reason as "the burden of deception," though, not specifically being treated as a man. From what I remember, she said that in a lot of ways being a man was actually less inherently stressful than being a woman (not having guys make eye contact with her, sort of play dominance games with her or try to interact with her, but just kind of let her go around and be left alone -- also that male friendships are more unconditionally supportive and friendly with each other than female). But yeah, I'm sure she couldn't fully "enjoy it" so to speak because of having to lead the double life full time or not feeling like she could really be friends with the people she was friends with.

it's a major oversight to not indict or convict him of a felony charge

I don't disagree with you in any respect. For reasons that aren't really clear to me, courts commit major oversights of charging people every single day. Except drugs! For some reason they really like fucking people because of drugs. Punching your girlfriend and firing a weapon near some people who shouldn't get hit with bullets strikes me as exactly one of those things that someone might some way-too-large minority of the time look at and go "you know what it's hard to say what happened and it might be tough to prosecute, fuck it, 8 months probation, let's go have a beer it is Friday."