sxan

sxan, 10 minutes ago

It’s been a couple of generations since we’ve had a world war. We’re due. With any luck, the Russian nuclear arsenal will be in as good shape as the rest of their military.

sxan, 5 minutes ago

Not at Starbucks. I mean, you can customize your order and ask them to tone it down on the additives, but if you just order off their menu, you either get a black coffee or (I like how OP said it) a milkshake.

sxan, 36 seconds ago

I’ve occasionally wondered the same thing about sexy time. Like, what if they don’t both like the same kind of sex? One likes it rough, the other sweet and soft?

I suppose the answer to that is obvious, but it leads me to questions like: how are accusations of rape handled when one twin was consenting? Again, the answer seems obvious, but aside from the biological challenges, conjoining raises a whole host of other minor dilemmas.

sxan, 17 hours ago

Fucker grabbed that tail, and once he had a hold, he couldn’t let go lest he be eaten.

I hate the comparison; Trump’s as much a tiger as I am a blancmange. But his base are like pirhanna, and there’s no apt metaphor involving dumb, swarming fish.

sxan, 17 hours ago

God, I hope you’re not joking. I can’t tell; that could be an Onion title.

sxan, 5 hours ago

Put me down as preferring to no be bitten by anything.

That’s one unattractive fish.

sxan, 17 hours ago

Interesting. Similar here, only it’s paracord and fancy knots.

sxan, 16 hours ago

This absolutely cracked me up, and my wife didn’t understand why I found it so funny. It took a moment for me to realize it’s because it’s the same schtick as one of my favorite passages from any book.

Two stoned people are having a conversation:

VIRGINIA: Are you hungry?
ANDY: No. (Long reflective pause.) Wait a minute. Did you mean am I hungry for food, or am I hungry in the abstract, like hungry for knowledge or adventure?
VIRGINIA: What are you talking about?
ANDY: You asked if I was hungry.
VIRGINIA: Did I?
ANDY: Yes.
VIRGINIA: Well, are you?
ANDY: Am I what?

A Child’s Garden of Grass, by Jack S. Margolis. 1970

sxan, 13 hours ago

Do you have any bookmarks for evidence supporting this claim that you could share?

sxan, 13 hours ago

That’s because many of them are off-duty cops. And why would you arrest your friends?

sxan, 13 hours ago

I think that’s a local thing. My grocer carries them, and they’re always in stock. I line in the Midwest. But I seem to remember eating them a lot in Oregon, too?

sxan, 13 hours ago

Round, yellow, rough skin? Crisp like an apple, but sweet like a pear (less tangy than an apple)? If that’s what you mean, 100% agree. They’re fairly common, IME; we got them all the time in PA, and see them frequent-ish in the Midwest.

sxan, 13 hours ago

I’ve heard rumors that, while we see two kinds of mango in the US, there are many more varietals in India, and they’re all better. I’d like to have access to some of those; mangoes rock.

sxan, 18 hours ago

But at my back, I always hear
Time’s winged chariots hurrying near
And yonder all before up lie
Deserts of vast eternity.

“To his coy mistress”
Andrew Marvell

sxan, 17 hours ago

Your first example is more a symptom of bureaucracy, isn’t it? Most workplace processes of any age accrue tedious, overly complex steps and checks.

The second is… well, a little surprising. Someone got fired for not managing backups properly. But it’s no worse than 30 years ago when a single, relatively contained fire could destroy all of a company’s records.

Or is this a case of sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic? I’m sure it must seem like it from a non-technical person’s perspective. Heck, jet engines at magic, to me. The big space rockets, too - there’s so much more going on than just a long, controlled explosion, and I don’t understand most of it.

sxan, 1 day ago

You are right, but many Americans probably wouldn’t get it if you used Stalin. For better or worse, Hitler is the face of fascism; Stalin the face of communism. They were both fascists, as were Mussolini, and Stalin.

It’s just short-hand imagery; everybody knows what you mean. Pinochet was a fascist dictator, but he was also a brutal sociopath, so he’s confusing, even if people recognized him.

sxan, 1 day ago

fascism

1. A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)
2. Extreme right-wing, authoritarian, intolerant, racist or nationalistic views or behavior

How do neither of these apply to Stalin? Note the “or” in the second definition. The “Nazi” party was the “National Socialist” party. You have to look at the actions, not just the labels, right? Stalin was authoritarian, intolerant, and nationalistic. He created an authoritarian hierarchical government.

Stalin fits both definitions of Fascism. It doesn’t matter that he was at war with other fascists; monarchies had for millennia fought other monarchies - it didn’t make them not-monarchies.

sxan, 1 day ago (edited 17 hours ago)

I could never make a comprehensive list; fascism has been all-too common.

Well, I probably could make a comprehensive list, but I’m not. But Franco was another prominent one, so that was a good catch.

sxan, 17 hours ago

I’m only ignoring it because what you’re saying isn’t in the dictionary definition of “fascism,” and I’m not a political theorist. I’m just going by what the good book says.

belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and/or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy

What about Stalin makes you think he demonstrated any of this?

sxan, 1 day ago

Is the context significant for UnpopularOpinion? Because I feel as if you posted pro-Trump fascism here, you’d get upvoted as being a truly unpopular opinion, but if you did the same 70 miles N of Minneapolis, you’d be quite popular.

Lemmy is left-leaning, and vegetarian-leaning to a lesser extent, so I’d say OP’s opinion is probably unpopular on Lemmy. If we’re taking nationally, then sure, it’s not an unpopular opinion, but most of these are evaluated in the context of Lemmy. Not Twitter, not Reddit, not Fox News.

Now, if you disagree with me about the veg-bent, that’s another thing. Maybe it’s just my local server amplifying those voices, and I’m wrong about the larger Lemmy zeitgeist.

sxan, 17 hours ago

instead of voting on whether or not it’s unpopular and thus appropriate as a post.

That’s because it’s absurdly counter-intuitive. Maybe that was the original intention, but it was doomed to always have this problem. Literally: we vote literally the opposite you vote everywhere else.

But this brings up my favorite pet peeve about Lemmy: the authors wasted a perfect opportunity to fix one of the biggest problems with Reddit, which Reddit kinda eventually fixed with awards, except they monotonized it. If Lemmy had the ability to do emoji responses like github, it’d go a long way to solving the problem that voting has a dual-purpose – and contradictory – use: to elevate as “interesting,” and to demonstrate approval. And now behavior is entrenched.

But you can, usually, vote based purely on exposure to the topic

You lost me. You’re suggesting that you vote based strictly on personal opinion, I think?

Since I have seen people order (or try to order) milk with a wide range of cuisines

I live in the Midwest, close to Wisconsin. If you don’t, you might be surprised at the wide variety of things Midwesterners will put cheese curds in.

Oh! I lived through, and absolutely adore what happened in Japan with dairy. At one time, cheese was (as I understood it) to be fairly widely regarded as being disgusting. On a trip to Singapore a while ago, I discovered the Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory, which made ice cream in cheese flavors. And not, like, mascarpone; no, full on Gouda and Roquefort! It is hilarious! I’ve recently seen some similar offerings in the States, but I love that it was the Japanese that went from “hate” to “bizarre combinations even Americans would shy from.”

sxan, 1 day ago

Some of the Mi Bands work pretty well with GadgetBridge, which would block their ability to phone home. There’s a list is compatible devices somewhere on the GadgetBridge wiki.

sxan, 2 days ago

Fair points. I’m guilty of just saying “single issue voters,” without elaborating on every comment. That could easily be seen as an indirect ad-hominem attack. Maybe I should make a copy-pasta response for whenever I see someone arguing for single-issue decision making.

That said, there are justifiable single-issue decisions. If Trump was spouting rhetoric about shutting down all support of Israel, yeah. I can stand behind folks “switching sides” over this. Free Choice, ditto. 2A I have a harder time with, but that’s because there are usually so many other issues that you’d think are more important. Not my decision, but I have less sympathy for people who think being able to own a gun is more important than the ability to unionize.

Anyhoo, like I said: fair points.

sxan, 2 days ago

Hold on… I need to whiteboard this.

https://uploads.dailydot.com/2023/11/charlie-day-meme.jpg

sxan, 2 days ago

That’s one of the main things I’m sorry I missed. Y’all can’t afford houses, but at least you got wheels in your shoes.