Man, won't it be embarrassing if the 14th best president ever loses to the worst president ever?
When our baby boomers were living off of wealth their parents built and banging anything that walks, their baby boomers were trying to not die of starvation in the great leap forward. Between 15 and 50 million people died (up to about 10% of the population at the time), and then those people had kids and raised those kids.
The spectre of death on that scale changes your worldview. Morality stops being about just being prosocial and "nice". It becomes about whatever is perceived as literally stopping you and your family from dying immediately.
Something that a lot of people are shocked by when they go to China is the fact that Chinese people will just tell the truth of what they see in front of them. "Look at the fat man" they'll say to someone who's fat, because the idea of pretending that a fat man isn't fat just to not appear to be judging them is absurd given that history.
Americans were like that until relatively recently. Life on the American frontier was brutal, and death was a very real option. For that reason, you had to confront reality directly rather than pretending it wasn't true because if a bear is attacking you, there are no magic words that are going to make that not true.
The spectre of death on that scale changes your worldview. Morality stops being about just being prosocial and "nice". It becomes about whatever is perceived as literally stopping you and your family from dying immediately.
Something that a lot of people are shocked by when they go to China is the fact that Chinese people will just tell the truth of what they see in front of them. "Look at the fat man" they'll say to someone who's fat, because the idea of pretending that a fat man isn't fat just to not appear to be judging them is absurd given that history.
Americans were like that until relatively recently. Life on the American frontier was brutal, and death was a very real option. For that reason, you had to confront reality directly rather than pretending it wasn't true because if a bear is attacking you, there are no magic words that are going to make that not true.
When I drive down the highway at night I need to keep my finger on the high beams button because truckers always assume I've kept my high beams on so they flash their lights at me so I have to flash my lights right back at full intensity -- I'm sorry! I didn't pick my damn headlights! They came with the car!
The new batman villain, the rizzler.
"My bills are all due
my looks are real bad
I'll comment on your shoes
And ask about your dad!"
"My bills are all due
my looks are real bad
I'll comment on your shoes
And ask about your dad!"
I didn't know where you were going with that when I saw this post, but I tend to agree that on a conceptual level there's no problem with a few instances being really popular.
I think that we should always be advocating for smaller instances made up of tighter communities for various reasons, but there's nothing wrong with it if a bunch of people end up on bigger instances. You really think that the Hollywood types are going to start running web servers solely for the purpose of accessing social media? That would be kinda fun, but it's not going to happen. Same with your typical man on the street, they can't figure out how to program their VCR they're not going to be running multiple servers. Email is essentially a federated system, and most people have Gmail accounts.
I think that we should always be advocating for smaller instances made up of tighter communities for various reasons, but there's nothing wrong with it if a bunch of people end up on bigger instances. You really think that the Hollywood types are going to start running web servers solely for the purpose of accessing social media? That would be kinda fun, but it's not going to happen. Same with your typical man on the street, they can't figure out how to program their VCR they're not going to be running multiple servers. Email is essentially a federated system, and most people have Gmail accounts.
Right before the pandemic began, I went to a comic book convention that had one of the YouTubers I watch attending. It was an opportunity to finally meet some of the audience in person.
Now this is a guy has been slandered with every single ism, but it was a little bit shocking realizing just how diverse his audience actually was. But no one really cared because there was more to each and every one of us than just our surface level attributes and so it was a really great time interacting with all kinds of people with one shared interest.
Now this is a guy has been slandered with every single ism, but it was a little bit shocking realizing just how diverse his audience actually was. But no one really cared because there was more to each and every one of us than just our surface level attributes and so it was a really great time interacting with all kinds of people with one shared interest.
Really, if you think about it it's a modern miracle that people who are producing software that is available for free can get paid. Not to mention, it's a modern miracle that results in a common good that anyone can use (and many of us are right now)
Perfect is definitely the enemy of the good.
Perfect is definitely the enemy of the good.
I bet if you set your user agent like that you get mobile web pages suited to a phone but immediately bypass paywalls on sites that have them?
You ever sit there going "you know I should really stop working on massive political analyses and spend some of that time working on my BASIC programming book"?
Naw, thought not....
Naw, thought not....
So what I'm hearing here is if we pay off the national debt we better also repeal a bunch of federal laws. 🤔
Man, what a concern to have, eh? "Oh no! We won't be handing free money to banks all the time!"
I can see a time where the bigger tent collapses due to success, just like what's happened on the left which used to have a much broader coalition.
It's a really dynamic system overall, almost an economic question as much as a political one. "How valuable are these people to you compared to how much does tolerating them bother you?"
It's a really dynamic system overall, almost an economic question as much as a political one. "How valuable are these people to you compared to how much does tolerating them bother you?"
I don't even need to watch the video to agree.
I ... ah ... want to tell ... ah ... canadians ... ah ... that i'm listening ... ah ... from my .... ah .... friends yaht ... ah ... in panama ... ah ... we understand ... ah ... your problems ... ah ... my servant tells me ... ah ... the groceries are going up in price ... ah .... I tell him to remind them I'm the prime minister
I ... ah ... want to tell ... ah ... canadians ... ah ... that i'm listening ... ah ... from my .... ah .... friends yaht ... ah ... in panama ... ah ... we understand ... ah ... your problems ... ah ... my servant tells me ... ah ... the groceries are going up in price ... ah .... I tell him to remind them I'm the prime minister