But it’s O P E N.

Netscape

I like this comparison to see how they were right about different facets together.

Real answer: if you’re communicating, you want to be understood at some level. Knowing the audience changes the dynamic to fulfill that goal. If you use big words and your audience is 5 year olds, you likely won’t be understood.

If someone gave me this advice, my first reaction wouldn’t be “You’re attacking me!” It would, “Hey, thanks for the advice. Can you unpack it further for me?” In work, I’ve done well by having a growth oriented mindset. There absolutely are bad faith actors, but listening to the advice of others has helped me grow.

John 13:34. If Jesus really is the holy prophet for the West, and his last commandment before being betrayed is “Love everyone,” then that seems pretty important to Christ’s message.

I believe in that sentiment strongly. If they believe that sentiment, then we can exchange hugs. It has to start from that place, or they are lost.

A lot of people are discussing the legal or revolutionary frameworks, but there’s a very human story to all of this. The government is run by people, and people are human. They make mistakes, backstab one another, get sick. They compete for different goals & subvert. It’s politics.

Morality is about respecting other moral agents, but it’s also about self-defeating principles. If you constantly lie, then there is no trust. Without trust, there’s room for speculation, rumor, & fear. Everyone on eggshells constantly. That’s partially why these fascist systems aren’t sustainable. However, as the world has become interconnected, so have the global elite. Fascism isn’t just here: it’s in a lot of places. There’s likely secret (and not so secret) actors pulling those strings, not to sound conspiratorial.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction in physics. Like others have said, I’m not sure about my faith in the USA, as it is today: 50 states and some territories holding “together”. The culture and economy of the Northeast is vastly different than the Southeast. The USA absolutely had its hand in much of global politics over the last 100 years. Russia was the USSR in the 80s (~40 years ago); I think this is our “equal and opposite” moment of a world power fracturing. My expectation is the USA splits up, but I’m not sure what comes next. I don’t know if that’s “screwed”, but it’s not as it is today.

Woody Guthrie, still relevant.

Hitler wrote to Lindy, said “Do your very worst,”
Lindy started an outfit that he called America First
In Washington, Washington

Ask more questions and entertain others’ ideas. If they are shutting down like this, it’s because you’re being equivalent to a brick wall. People model behavior. If you don’t model listening & engaging, then you’ll get the opposite: shut downs & stopping talking.

This is all speculation from a distance based on what you’re describing. My guess is you aren’t listening, so when this shut down happens, you’re reporting it as “out of the blue.” Most people I talk to have never done that reaction. There’s almost always a “This isn’t going anywhere,” or some phrase for “I’m disengaging.” If you aren’t hearing that, then my guess is you missed it.

Both of them are idols for me: they were enigmatic musicians who defined themselves and loved by the world for doing it. They bucked against fashion trends. They spoke openly about their views.

I did drag for the first time that year because I didn’t want to be on my deathbed with regrets for not doing it. We raised money for kids with HIV. It was super fun.

I miss both of them.

Absolutely.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/trump-frees-violent-january-6-attackers/

Looks like Bo Burnham doing karate.

FB is going to die eventually. This expedites it. Its audience is aging, not getting younger. Add hate speech, and you’ll just drive people off it further.

I use FB for my birthday and connecting with family. I can find other platforms. Thanks.

Alright then, good points and sick hat. :)

Those 1000 people are massive evangelists for him. I don’t mean transactional as purely money. If Trump gains value & there’s no risk, why not take it? He gets to look like some benevolent person, he gets more supporters, and they are the most rabid. They’ll go out and recruit more people.

I don’t disagree with you that financially, there really isn’t much gain, but cult power, there’s some to gain.

Can I inquire about your hat if he does pardon? /s

I would be careful with that bet. Two of his major qualities are:

• Narcissism
• Transactional

If it suits him to free a bunch of people in order to gain power, he absolutely will. He’s also unchecked, so he has 0 risk.

Think of all the Trump stuff Trumpers have. There’s whole cottage industries around this stuff. What is a con man without a mark? Desperate.

Yup. I’m pretty sure I’m done being a “democrat”, whatever that means now. The party sucks.

The answer depends on your religion, but in the monotheistic traditions of the major religions, the notion of God might be better aligned with “oneness” or “integration” than a personification as we think about them. In that way, God is “everything” (including the contradictions) which would also mean emotions. To say God feels things, it means “God has the capability to feel, because God is all powerful.”

Whether God is impacted by those emotions or their reasoning changes because of them, I think the realities and contradictions are a part of faith. If it all made sense, faith wouldn’t be necessary. You’ll find reasoning similar to this in someone like Kierkegaard.

I’m a UU (raised Catholic, was an atheist for 20 years, followed Buddhism for a few years). My internal conception of God has changed a lot over that time: mostly expanded and includes more grace about this “grand everything” rather than “Old man in a cloud who can be sorta weird and spiteful.” I like that the UU lets me ask questions and develop my own faith.

This shit is so backwards. People are getting blackmailed competitively by this guy in broad daylight. I know it died long ago, but it was the death of liberty when we introduced MTX/P2W politics—fuck Citizens United.

What is Mark has been a sentient AI for some time?