theogrin

theogrin, 3 months ago

@GottaLaff

As the old saying goes, "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere!"

Trump can no longer make it there.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites

People occasionally lament the inconsistency of the Conservatives' policies and directions, but it all makes sense if you realize that they're just a set of excuses which they shift around like a kaleidoscope. They don't care what the excuses are so long as they're a 'reason' to vote Conservative, be that because they think the Cons will keep them at their social standing (hah) or because it's the Party of Hate. Anything to justify that end result.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@wordshaper @charliejane

Hell, even at the end of Q Who, he's all like, "I'm in such a good mood that I'll even fix up the mess I caused, aren't I so nice?"

He is one of my favourite characters, but can't forget that he's an amoral villain and Jean-Luc and the Enterprises are simply his favourite playthings.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@Impossible_PhD

This is horrifying to the extreme. This isn't just the death of a generation. This is the death of several, the cultural obliteration of trans, enby and GNC folks in general for decades upon decades, in pursuit of a vaunted patriarchy constructed entirely of pigeonholes.

Of that 25-44 range, I would even hypothesize that the lion's share are below 35.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@Impossible_PhD

And those in the Bible Belt are the ones most likely to be unable to move. Mobility is sharply reduced in lower-income areas, in no small part by design, and especially for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, ND and other groups which are discriminated against in terms of income.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@rachel @Impossible_PhD

I don't even have to look up the doc to tell you they skew hard towards poverty, because a culture of hatred and violence doesn't just have the obvious illness and death effects, but also results in stressors which make it difficult or impossible to hold down even the most seemingly-innocuous job for long, even without the push to turn to self-medicating through alcohol or other substances.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@Impossible_PhD

It is a wonder and a blessing that we even have as many as we do -- folks like @oldladyplays who is an absolute gem and out there living her best life.

But imagine how much better we could be with more like her...

theogrin, 3 months ago

@Impossible_PhD @oldladyplays

Seriously, at some point I need to find the best way to treat her to something like Nougat or Vincenzo's or somewhere in town. (Hear that? The offer's open!)

theogrin, 3 months ago

@zazzoo

Those paying extra special attention may note links between those groups and the bankrollers of the disastrous Ottawa Convoys from the other year, which crowded the streets of our Capitol with Nazis resting their feet up against their car horns and painting swastikas on walls -- until they ran out of gas and started demanding local business owners provide them with all the respect they weren't showing to anyone else.

Have the alleged CTF started trying to convince Canadians that we have a Second Amendment up here?

theogrin, 3 months ago

@girlonthenet

If one or more of you start to feel like you own another, outside of the cute 'I'm yours and you're mine' fluff, take a step back and reassess: a relationship isn't an abrogation of boundaries or a refutation of consensual anything.

Those boundaries still and will always exist, and while they may be relaxed, now you have even more incentive to ask first.

theogrin, 3 months ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites

Doesn't take much to figure out why they use the term, either. Calling it a 'war' implies that it has two sides, and isn't just a million little murders. Calling it a 'war' implies that the oppressed, the victims, are fighting back in violent ways. Calling it a 'war' all so often implies that it can be, at all, justified.

And if there's one thing these ghouls adore, it's self-justification.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@paninid @cosmicallyf @SrRochardBunson

It's hard for me not to be continually aware, now that it's been pointed out to me, that the Evangelical movements -- hard-E -- are predicated on the very Calvinistic notion that there are Elect, and then there are Others, and the notion that By Joining Our Team, You Too Are Elect.

Except that latter is such a transparent scam that I'm almost amazed anyone still falls for it. Hope, as they say, springs eternal.

And what of the Others? Well, they don't really matter. They're just there, you know? Grist for the mill, slurry for the pigs, free labour. They, after all, don't deserve to be rich or influential, otherwise they would be.

And oh, I wish advances in technology were as straightforward as that, fueling more free time and the recalibration of human lives (and increases in lifespan!). They could be!

The people standing in the way of that, hoovering up the excess for themselves, certainly aren't the aforementioned Others.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@SrRochardBunson @paninid @cosmicallyf

I've tried to put a line in my perceptions between the hard-E Evangelicals -- the Dominionists, the Calvinists, however many flavours of premillennial dispensationists and Pentecostal megachurches you want to imagine -- and the soft-e evangelists, who do want to spread the Word, but in a manner which -- at least theoretically -- benefits the world as a whole. (Preferably without anything written by Paul.)

One can of course (and should!) get into the question of whether evangelism, soft or hard-E, is at all warranted in the first place, but that's a very different loaf of fish.

No Christian I, nor one with any sort of divine revelations or particular insight, even if I do quite like the more theological works of C.S. Lewis. One thing's for certain, though: torturing someone to 'accept' a faith, actively or passively, is a grave and horrific crime -- perhaps not in the eyes of a deity, but certainly those of reasonable human beings.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@cosmicallyf @SrRochardBunson @paninid

Never been a great fan of the prevailing thoughts on that particular light save in the meta context of the nature of human good vs. human evil from a non-religious standpoint, e.g. the 'angels vs. demons' in our heads and hearts as a metaphor for certain thoughts and actions. Even if The Screwtape Letters was a lot of fun, of course.

Of course, theodicy is also among the knottiest (and naughtiest) of problems in theological philosophy.

Paul, though, whoof. For someone who claimed to be an acolyte of a man filled with love, he certainly had a lot of hate to put out there.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@SrRochardBunson @paninid @cosmicallyf

I can't say I've ever read any of Rohr! A casual look shows that he certainly seems to have a good head on his shoulders, so I might have to amend that.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@bellule @futurebird @Laplantgenetics @Twarda

In the US and Canada, the hardline creationists have largely conceded that battle -- for the moment -- and moved onto their next big point, which is as we know the reversal of social norms and mores. There are certainly echoes now and then, though...

20-25 years ago, though, that was a fraught time. It was then that the 'teaching the controversy' bit was making real waves, to the mutual detriment of teachers and students, and thus wasn't a good time to do much of anything in, for example, a high school in Texas.

I've never understood it, myself. If you want people to appreciate the full glory and majesty of God's creation, why wouldn't you show how She put together a universe where things can gradually grow and mutate and eventually, given sufficient time, evolve into a freaking cat?

theogrin, 4 months ago

@glennf

I think you've hit the nail on the head, and more: any culture, corporate or other, which finds criticism to be anathemic will never and can never hold itself responsible for any of its failings, and will always resist change outright due to the fact that making a willing and positive change means admitting a lack of perfection.

The result hasn't just been a loss of billions, but a gradual and continual onset of stagnation and decay within Boeing, once one of the most trusted names in aeronautics.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@glennf

So too Boeing's loathing of unions, because of one simple axiom:

Unions effect change.

And they effect change in part through exposing the weak links, the abuse, the inconsistencies and inefficiencies in the corporate structure as seen through the lens of workers' rights.

Criticism, in other words. Healthy stuff, like listening to your doctor when they say to cut back on a chain-smoking habit.

But some folks take that as an attack...

theogrin, 4 months ago

@MLE_online

You should be more careful with those baby alligators. If they get into the sewer system, they might wreak all manner of untold havoc.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@Terra
I love the cishet folks' claims that it's all about pronouns. And names. I mean, those two things are the smallest, the barest microcosm of basic respect, an acknowledgement that we're actually human beings.

Which puts things into sharp perspective, huh?

The refusal to acknowledge our names and pronouns is just the most obvious sign of a flat refusal to acknowledge that we are, in fact, people. Everything else, the hate, the grinding down, the stripping of our rights, the gleeful saunter towards having LGBTQ+ folks in general put into concentration camps, all of that follows from that one simple proposition, that dehumanization.

So pronouns certainly aren't the problem here. But they're a pretty helpful bellwether...

theogrin, 4 months ago

@realn2s

My favourite is Tom Lehrer, who both taught and did, regularly and with great aplomb.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@zcutlip @0xabad1dea

Ensure that your system has sufficient memory to receive what the server is sending, by double-checking the settings in config.sys and autoexec.bat, making sure HIMEM and EMM386 are properly configured.

theogrin, 4 months ago

@ThatAdamGuy @molly0xfff

While Twitter hasn't yet directly compensated many Nazi writers for their work -- to the best of my knowledge, anyway -- Substack has very much done so, signing bonuses and paycheques for which any professional writer might rightly salivate. Those bonuses are drawn from the ad revenue not just from their intended audience, but from LGBTQ+ and similar writers who have been ascribed a mere pittance in turn.

Some include Graham Linehan and Richard Spencer, who crowed happily about their payment figures.

So while they use Twitter for the larger audience, they're happy to draw subscriptions and funding in general from Substack, which gives them a great deal of leeway in return for bringing to the platform All The Nazi Eyes.