Completely agree about watching the privacy destruction ramp up significantly in recent years. The one silver lining is that deciding how much and what to allow for myself and my children is just a lot easier, and even in less abusive scenarios, less smartphone use is good for basically all of us.

That wasn’t my experience whatsoever and to me yours sounds uncommon. Not being combative with you, I promise, I just worry and wonder how successfully Malcolm X (et al.) has been whitewashed from history.

Edit: redundancy

For anyone who grew up learning about MLK Jr and not Malcolm X -

I’d recommend a book called “The Sword and The Shield”! I thought it did a dope job comparing and contrasting the two figures. Importantly, MLK Jr was way more radical than many of us were taught in school, and by the end of his life he was changing his approach, having been forced to acknowledge that non-violence alone wasn’t going to cut it. In other words he became more aligned with Malcolm’s principles and beliefs as he watched the civil rights movement struggle and falter, and I believe this is ultimately why he was killed.

And then our lords and masters de-fanged his legacy, teaching generations of kids only the non-violence, giving millions the false idea that non-violence alone is enough, and not just enough, but the preferred and historically-proven method of achieving change.

It never has been and never will be, non-violence is only effective alongside credible threats of violence (at a minimum), and Martin and Malcolm both knew that to their core. That book helped me correct what was a confusing hole in my understanding of the world.

Your belief that I don’t understand these ideas or haven’t encountered them is incorrect. In fact I used to prioritize those ideas myself, and encouraged others to do the same.

I don’t even really disagree with most of that, I’m not talking (at all) about clamping down on free expression in a general sense. I’m saying that a free society must not equally allow every possible expression, and that anything invoking and glorifying Nazism in specific is beyond the pale and must be stopped, including violently when necessary. My point of view is not extreme, nor is it authoritarian (by my measure). There are thriving democratic nations who do exactly this right now, Germany being the example I have in mind (though I do acknowledge their special history with regard to that precise topic).

I’m also saying you seem far more interested in splitting hairs and discussing theory than solving problems. And that works fantastically for the right-wing folks who only care about winning. They don’t argue ideology in good faith, they instead exploit the willingness of others to do so (like you’re insisting on here) because it drags them into unproductive conversations and creates feuds (like we’re doing here).

I’m not advocating for anything I’d call authoritarian, but that word means something different to everyone. I am saying tolerance must have its limits, or the spread of intolerance over time is guaranteed. I’m really uninterested in going further with you. You are not bringing me anything new or that I find valuable. You are bringing me points I have considered, largely accepted, and in narrow cases, have chosen to reject. I didn’t say I’ve never gone into a scholarly direction on this stuff. I said I am uninterested in doing so here. My original comment about paradox of intolerance is something that person needed to hear. I never had any intention to be rigorous with my telling, and I stand by everything I said regardless.

I can tell that you feel really strongly about this stuff and I think we’re on the same side. I think I probably agree with you more than you realize. I want to say one more time - I’m not interested in discussing these details. It isn’t that I don’t find them valuable, can’t understand them, or never have learned about them. There are other valid reasons for not wanting to, and I’d appreciate a little intellectual charity from you. But that’s yours to give, not mine to demand. I do wish you well.

Edit: softened tone at the end

That’s a lotta words to say we should tolerate things I say we shouldn’t. We can disagree, but I’m not all that interested in getting scholarly about it - the writing’s on the wall, we have real - not theoretical - fascism headed our way within this 4 year presidency and we’d better be ready to fight.

Enjoy your Stanford political philosophy. I’m gonna keep watching for further sieg heils on national stages, and I know what I’ll do if they become too widespread.

I wish you’d help, but above all, I wish you well.

Thanks so much for sharing! I’ve recently moved to daily driving Linux and went Bazzite for the gaming element (which I’ve since only somewhat used, lol).

Haven’t dove into the bits and pieces that really make the games work much yet, had no idea Lutris was all this! Particularly the wider library management / enablement, the very thing the dev called out as not well known lol.

AND I was very happy to find out it’s all Python! That’s my bread and butter (and it’s delicious), I may just have to do a wee bit of dev’in someday too. If I ever get around to the games lol

You need to spend some time thinking on the (misnamed) “paradox of tolerance”. The idea you’re espousing is exactly the most critical, fundamental misunderstanding of tolerance as a moral value.

The “paradox of tolerance” is the idea that one must even tolerate the intolerant - it would be a paradox because this tolerance ultimately ensures the unbridled spread of intolerance. Folks weakly on the left have misunderstood this forever.

But there is no paradox, never has been. Tolerance must never be given to the hatefully intolerant. Nazism can never be tolerated, it must be defeated as quickly as possible everywhere it sprouts up. And I do absolutely mean violently, I am not talking about just simple ostracism or censorship.

A society that tolerates the hatefully intolerant is fully doomed. Please, come to realize that you are not advocating for anything high-minded, you are advocating for the destruction of all things beautiful, art or otherwise.

PREACH. More of this please!

Might be too late for you now, but for everyone else reading, involve your state employment commission! I got all my back pay from an abusive restaurant owner (like a million years ago, apologies if these no longer exist or are just too dysfunctional to do anything anymore).

I was in high school, working like 50-60 hour weeks, and this lady thought it was fine to pay regular rates past 40. I sure didn’t! State employment commission didn’t either. Stole some water bottles full of Grey Goose on my way out, lol, then collected a cool few very well-earned buckaroos some months later.

Restaurant folded in a year. Turns out it was basically a gift from her successful husband anyway, lady was outrageous. As in, fuckin employees in the walk-in and stealing money from high school kids outrageous lol

Aaaaand just realized I’m old. I’m apparently the kinda guy who just tells stories about strangers to no one, from 20+ years ago, for no reason.

Lotta moments like these adding up. Lotta times I myself just end up not buying a thing instead of getting it from better places, too. Between that, financial uncertainty with all the craziness lately, and folks just being broke, I have a feeling consumers are spending a lot less these days.

Yep, this is what’s going on. As is usual with Trump, there’s no actual ideology or goal, it’s all scam all the time. When you can unilaterally announce at any moment of any day that you are about to grenade the global economy, that’s going to have a guaranteed response from the markets. Predictable as the fuckin sunrise. Especially because everyone rightly knows Trump truly doesn’t give a shit about the consequences and absolutely might just do it.

Then he says some wildly different shit a different day, with again 100% predictable market movements (even announcing on Truth Social ahead of time to buy, which is truly beyond the pale), and everyone he knows gets even richer, again. That grift will wear out and stop working and he’ll switch to something else.

And again, and again, and again. All scam, all the time. I mean, plebes like us are aware of multiple concurrent grifts the guy is using the presidency for. Imagine what we don’t know about! It’s kleptocracy of the highest order.

Hmm, I don’t remember much, and not in his books in general. Although I am the kind of reader that’s wholly uninterested (no shade to those who feel differently!) - but it’s entirely possible it’s there and my brain doesn’t really hold onto it! But put bluntly his stories are usually bleak, romance would fit a little oddly.

You say complacent, I say complicit.

Awesome!! And I don’t think it was a series when I read it, so been a while for me too lol. And yeah, Revelation Space books are just so, so good. Can’t say enough good things about the worlds this guy builds. Artifact in the meme would fit right in, lol

This post really doesn’t call for this comment but here we go -

One of my favorite authors wrote at least one book in a setting where many galactic civilizations have come and largely gone, and treasure hunters try to “crack baubles” - break into old vaults and such left behind. Think Space Indiana Jones! But what’s really compelling and brain melty to me is that these civilizations used entirely unknown tech and physics in some cases. So they’re trying to break into and steal things they cannot possibly even comprehend, which is SO foolish and so fucking cool, and if that were available to me, my curiosity would utterly demand I keep at it until dead or worse.

Book is Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Plus it’s got one of the scariest fuckin pirates ever, so I mean, Space Indiana Jones with horrifying unknown tech treasure and implacable, immortal(?) pirate villains…that’s gonna be a strong recommendation for the right flavor of reader lmao.

Can’t say I agree. $20 million plus in person visits = significant shits given.

What’s making you say that? I so badly want this to be true.