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articlesofnote · 4 years ago

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despised phrases: “political moment”

I spend a lot of time not talking about what goes on in my head because a) it’s hard to articulate, b) I don’t usually want to engage with how pessimistic I tend to be, and c) because of said pessimism most of what I would articulate would probably make things harder for the people around me, who are also struggling with what is more and more clearly a hell-world to which we have unwittingly contributed and continue, in many ways, to support under duress. i also spend a lot of time (a LOT of time) reading articles of political analysis, mostly left-leaning, which inform that pessimism-unto-despair that i suspect is harbored by many more than just myself. i want to not think the things i think and feel the ways i feel about the world that i now know i’m living in. how can any feeling person know what we know about the world and the suffering in it and not feel compelled to respond to it - to have it shape them? how can you not take it in to yourself in some way and be transformed by it? or destroy your soul by trying to build walls against it? a tangent worth exploring at a later time! in any case, it’s pretty clear from what reading i’ve done that the forces of our social universe are not of any moment, in any sense of that word. there is a nigh-overwhelming weight of experience and emotion and attitude in every facet of what we experience in every moment of our lives - so overwhelming that truly, the only sane response is to spend most of our time ignoring it, so we can get on with our lives and not spend all of our time paralyzed by the knowledge that, for example, our standard of living is not only made possible but is ONLY possible through the immiseration of huge numbers of people. And, moreover, that this has been true for generations at least, centuries more accurately - or in the most inclusive analysis, as long as we humans have been organizing ourselves into hierarchical societies. so what then does this phrase “political moment” mean? what rhetorical purpose does it serve? there is the here and now, yes, and there is a true uniqueness in it - as the saying goes, you cannot step into the same river twice. but it seems to me that the phrase is more... insidious, perhaps? the right description escapes me at the moment. it is as though those who use it would have you forget that the past exists and informs the present - as though the current “moment” is an isolated crystal of reality, disconnected from any forces that shaped it in to what it is - from any history we might understand and trust to inform our decisions. rhetorically: “forget the past! it is done and dead! the demands of the present are too great to think about how we got here! and forget the future too! it cannot be known! there is only the Political Moment, the immediate constellation of power and structure that demands from you a singular response.” in other words - lest my prose get too abstract - “you’d better fucking vote for Biden!” and as bitter a draught as this is to swallow, it must be swallowed, because (and I do agree with this) the alternative is devastating - really, the alternative is devastation itself. (vote biden and we’ll have a chance to save ourselves!) but god damnit, this too is insanity! Biden represents the status quo that got us to this point! History, alas, exists and is relevant! Only by the conceit of the “political moment” can we ignore, even briefly, that Biden might as well be the flagbearer for the forces that destabilized American (global?) society to the point where paramount executive authority could fall to Trump. And make no mistake! You might as well say that power was fumbled into his hands - first by the Republican establishment in 2015, so wrapped up in fighting each other that they forgot to consider (until too late) that maybe Trump would actually win if they didn’t try to make him lose - then by the Democratic establishment, so blithely confident that Trumps’ lack of political legitimacy would doom him that they decided to run a campaign based on the attitude “well, she’s not the other guy!” what galls me is that it seems inarguably clear that this is not some accident on the part of the Democrats! they don’t just happen to find themselves in this position every four years - they have a habit of ceding political capital to the Republicans every time it seems like they might have to actually fight on a point of principle! year by year and issue by issue the Democrats enable an ever-more abusive institution and its growing coterie of fascist auxiliaries, and the fruits of their calculation are daily more obvious. and they do it, as far as I can tell, solely so that when election seasons come they can say with at least some semblance of honesty... “well, at least we’re not the other guys!” (vote biden because he’s less obviously a criminal!) * * * so, after however many words i’ve spent getting to this point, here’s the argument i’m making: the democrats benefit so clearly from a truly toxic opposition that they are now, and have been for decades, motivated to foster that toxicity because it improves their electoral odds without their having to do anything other than be slightly less awful: do you want to shovel 100 tons of shit, or 99? (”why do I have to shovel shit at all?” what are you, a communist?) but because they’ve made this devil’s bargain, they have no positive accomplishments to point to any more, whereas the republicans have been vigorously and successfully pursuing their (horrifying, destructive, popular) policy agenda for at least twenty years at this point. also, here’s the buried lede you’ve been waiting for: i’m pissed off by the phrase “political moment” because i think it’s part of a rhetorical strategy to keep folks from thinking about long-term structural trends that got us to where we are. (vote biden and don’t think about why you’re not voting for someone better!) because i believe in intellectual honesty, and also because i want to feel there has been some point to my writing all of this down, i’m going to make a few predictions based on my above thesis: 1) democrats will cave to the GOP on replacing RBG before the election. their justification will be something along the lines of “not wanting to divide the nation during an election year” or some other such horseshit. 2) biden will lose the election, in one of two ways: - decisive trump victory: the biden “strategy” is like a rehash of Clinton 2016, but worse: he’s not doing any campaigning at all and the democratic party message is, you guessed it, “well, he’s not the other guy!” the political messaging in support of biden isn’t pointing to anything he’s actually accomplished or will try to accomplish if in office, just that he’s a “fundamentally decent man” who has “endured unimaginable hardships” - close-ish election where biden has a small lead on election night but when trump inevitably throws a fit and contests the results, biden concedes. the reason will again be something like “not wanting to divide the nation” which will be more plausible because folks... - there’s gonna be election-related social unrest no matter what happens anyway, don’t forget to vote for biden! because after all, technically he’s the better candidate.

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janiedean · 6 years ago

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(1) Can I just say I hate all this Freddie Mercury biopic wank with a passion? Like, this hellsite went from "Queen is one of those boring 'classic' bands all whites are obsessed with bc they won't even consider new music by diverse artists u.u" to "WWRY is clearly a song about rebellious queer youth, cishets don't touch Queen u.u" after someone pointed out Freddie's ethnicity and sexuality, to "why aren't they making Freddie gay in the biopic!!!11" and... whatever they're whining about now.

(2) And I HATE looking at all this bs and thinking "fake fans", bc I'm pretty damn sure that by most standards, *I* count as a "fake fan", too. I mean, most stuff I know about the band's history is actually stuff about Freddie, thanks to a few documentaries centered around him and my mom, the long-time fan with a big crush on Freddie who introduced me to Queen when I was a kid. Hell, I couldn't even name all their albums or anything needed to be considered a "true fan". But ppl on here... ugh. (3) It's like they're really embarrassed bc they were called out on mistaking "woke" stuff for "unwoke" stuff, and now they have this desperate need to prove their ability to discern wokeness by getting offended about something they don't even care all that much about, as loudly and dramatically as they can.

HAHAHAHAHA.

okay so, tldr: I hate this discourse and I honestly hope that it dies within two weeks out of the biopic for a whole lot of reasons amongst which the ones you said, but like, this discourse actually highlights a shitload of issues with the usual tumblr discourse which I will gladly go into now because I’m fucking tired and this movie isn’t out yet.

now, premise: while I don’t think that true fans are a thing - at most there’s casual fans or in-depth fans but I mean, a fan is a fan so I don’t believe in the *fake* fans thing..... the problem here isn’t that they’re fakes. it’s that they aren’t fans. period.

other premise: from what you’ve said you’re a casual fan which is normal and you DON’T count as fake I mean if you like them and listen to them and know something it’s basically being a casual fan same as I am with idk the rolling stones, I like the famous stuff, I have the fundamental records and I like them when they’re on but that’s it.

but, yours truly is a Not Casual Queen Fan in the sense that a) I got into them when I was seventeen and I’m thirty now so thanks it’s been a while, b) I own all the records, c) I own a decent portion of roger taylor’s/brian may’s solo records (and I have listened to all of them that I couldn’t buy), d) I went to see them live once (k it was with paul rodgers but nvm guys not my fault if I wasn’t born in time for freddie) and I love queen’s music and I’m also fucking cishet and you know what? these people Are Not Fans and they should stop pretending they are and just stop making themselves look like assholes.

SPECIFICALLY:

the movie’s not out yet and I’ve had to see FIFTEEN ‘FRIENDLY REMINDER TO ALL CISHETS THAT FREDDIE MERCURY WAS GAY (at least a couple said he was bi and they were less asshole-ish) AND POC AND IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOU’D BETTER LEARN NOW HAHAHAHA YOU THOUGHT HE WASN’T. spoilers: every fucking casual queen fan who has bothered to buy three records knows that. yes, also the cishets. like, as someone who went from VERY CASUAL (ie: I know three songs) to NOT CASUAL in the span of two months I can 100% assure you that before getting into queen the usual preconceptions are that freddie was gay and that queen = freddie + three other people. the first three things you learn when getting into queen are (more or less in order but it can change) that a) the band was actually brian may + roger taylor first, b) that roger brought freddie in because they knew each other already, c) that mary austin was a fundamental person in freddie’s life and that she was also brian may’s ex and knew him first before they got together, d) the members’s backstories including where freddie was born, so like...... this idea that CASUAL CISHET FANS wouldn’t know that freddie was a) not heterosexual, b) poc is just something a NON-FAN would say because guess what, most queen fans even at a casual level are 100% aware that freddie was a) not heterosexual, b) not ethnical british. and saying that OMG CISHETS DON’T KNOW it’s ridiculous because guess what, everyone knows and if they have no idea they do, though luck, we did;

(spoilers: I also am 99% sure that those ppl have no idea that roger and brian actually sing on the records and composed a shitload of the music and queen =/= ONLY FREDDIE but okay)

they have no idea that rock music in the 70s/80s was not so heteronormative and was not the cishetmalething they think it is. like, please look at led zeppelin (ie THE PEOPLE WITHOUT WHOM YOU WOULDN’T HAVE HEAVY METAL) and tell me they were heteronormative. like, you saw robert plant? yeah, me too. and the thing was that queen were revolutionary in the sense that they brought an operatic/theatrical approach to the music that no one tried before but guess what, the point is that they made it sell. the thing that I would like tumblr Woke People to grasp is that what made queen groundbreaking as far as Wokeness goes is that they managed to sell and become the monster-moneymaking group they were (while keeping things quality) with a frontman who was Not Heterosexual, Did Not Try To Pass For Heterosexual One Day In His Life and Never Shied Away From It. like, idk if people are aware that while the scene was way less heteronormative than they think it still wasn’t the most openly talked about topic around (I mean guys elton john did marry a woman at some point X°DDD), but going around in the seventies flaunting your non-heterosexualness around and selling millions of copies making your stage persona a selling point of your music wasn’t exactly common. like ffs one of the most famous queen songs has a video where for 3/4 of the time they’re in drag and the other part has freddie performing with the royal ballet (and guess what the song was actually written by john deacon and the idea of doing the video in drag was roger taylor’s and none of them as far as we know is Not Heterosexual, but never mind giving the rest of the band some credit when it came to Not Caring About Heteronormativity) and fine, that video was banned/controversial, but it still was a huge british hit and it’s in the top five queen songs Everyone Knows. and tbh I’m terrified of that video being shown in the biopic (which it should since the works was from ‘84 and they stop at ‘85) because I’m 100% sure that those people have no idea it exists and when they find out how long is it gonna take them to decide that IT’S PROBLEMATIC? I mean, Woke Kids on here think the rhps is problematic, I’m shuddering at the thought of what they’d think of the i want to break free video;

actually a lot of us cishet queen fans might have had a wake up call including, er, finding out certain preferences, thanks to either their music or their shows or their videos (*cough* I 100% assure you that watching roger taylor in drag was what made me realize crossdressing was my thing for good like I knew before but I didn’t actually put two and two together until I saw that video and went like ‘............. AH WELL SHIT THEN THAT’S IT FAIR ENOUGH’), and a lot of us cishet queen fans who weren’t, like, strictly playing to heteronormative rules back in the day found a lot to relate to in their music even without being queer ourselves and guess what I’ve never met a single queen *fan* who could give less of a damn about freddie’s ethnicity or orientation (as in: everyone was a-okay with it) regardless of their background. that was what made them groundbreaking and extremely important as well, because they managed to be that kind of record-selling records-breaking band while not shying away from having a Not Heterosexual frontman AND Not Heteronormative Heterosexual Band Members Who Also Didn’t Give Two Fucks About Their Lead Singer’s Sexuality so going like OMG NOW WE’RE GONNA TEACH YOU THAT FREDDIE WASN’T HETEROSEXUAL BECAUSE WE’RE WOKE is ridiculous because dearest susan, we already knew and we already were woke about that and to us he was the frontman of a band we liked for a bunch of reasons;

also I don’t think people realize that freddie was a role model/example for the entire next generation of rock bands frontmen even in genres that had zilch to do with him - I mean guys AXL ROSE had a hero-worship for freddie and sang bohemian rhapsody at the freddie memorial concert WITH ELTON JOHN and grn really aren’t the same exact sphere as queen jsyk, but if you look at axl on stage esp. when he was younger? guys. it’s obvious. like you can see the influence. but lmao, now ALL the very cishet(-ish) singers who OPENLY SAID FREDDIE INFLUENCED THEM DIDN’T KNOW ACCORDING TO TUMBLR DOT COM?

LIKE, fuck’s sake, one of freddie’s major accomplishments in that sense was to ending up being a role model for younger singers in a genre where heteronormativity is way less common than everyone thinks BUT where not many people esp. back in the day would be open about their sexuality because it still was a taboo-ish thing -- like, gender roles were a lot more blurred but you wouldn’t hear many of those people admitting openly they were bi or gay or Not Heterosexual and the entirety of the rock scene especially mainstream but also not was entirely fucking aware of it, do these people think THE FANS wouldn’t?

also, we will rock you was WRITTEN BY BRIAN MAY AND IT WAS ABOUT A FUCKING ENCORE WHERE THE FANS SURPRISED THEM AT ONE SHOW IN LIKE MID-SEVENTIES which already shows that They Know Nothing because if they think freddie wrote all the queen songs then it’s already obvious they have no fucking clue about how queen worked as a band because all the members contributed something (guys john deacon wrote at least two of their major hits, roger taylor sang on all the records along with brian may and if you hear the back harmonies on ‘39 he goes way higher than freddie and a part in seaside rendezvous has both him and freddie mimicking other instruments with their voice and you wouldn’t know if no one told you first, brian may wrote a SHITLOAD of music for queen and it was an all-four effort, not just freddie + three other generic british dudes for fuck’s sake) so like, anyone saying that is already giving ample proof that they have no idea;

now of course you can interpret it as whatever the hell you want, but assuming that all of queen’s music that might relate to queer issues was written by freddie ABOUT QUEER ISSUES (this when freddie’s main topic of interest was... not really discussing his sexuality especially in the seventies like again, I want to break free is one of the queen to-go songs everyone brings up when it comes to that topic and IT WAS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE and the video concept was THANKS TO SOMEONE ELSE) just shows that a) you don’t know shit about the band’s history, b) you’re not a fan because you didn’t even bother to look it up on wiki, c) you’re trying to look woke at all costs;

they have NO FUCKING CLUE that most people in the 70s/80s/90s in the business were NOT politically correct according to their standards LIKE LITERALLY NO ONE WAS;

goes unsaid they probably haven’t listened to one full queen album from beginning to end not even the greatest hits.

tldr: I hate that they don’t seem to realize that things existed before 2005 and that music in the 70s/80s COULD and WAS diverse and *woke* already before they were even born, I hate that they decided that ALL CISHETS DIDN’T KNOW when thank you I think even my damned parents know and they don’t listen to rock music, I hate that they decided that queen APPARENTLY DIDN’T HAVE A FANBASE BEFORE THEM (lol) or that that fanbase didn’t understand them (triple-lol), I hate that they’re reducing freddie to his sexuality when he didn’t want that in the first place, I hate that they’re falling into THE MAIN MISCONCEPTION AROUND ABOUT THIS BAND as in THAT IT WAS FREDDIE + THREE OTHER PEOPLE and not an all-around group effort of people who were friends and deeply loved/respected each other and put the same share of work into it, I hate that they moment they see the movie and are introduced to the actual music/the actual story they’ll MOST LIKELY find problematic things to wank about because like hell they wouldn’t and I hate that they’re basically pretending to give a fuck about a band that I love and have loved dearly in a very non-casual way when they actually fucking don’t.

fucking hell please never let anyone make a biopic about either springsteen or led zeppelin or other people I actually like because this is bad enough, I don’t even want to think of what tumblr ppl would say if they knew anything about any rock artist of medium-large fame back in the day. peace.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #queen for ts #let's see how fast wank arrives #I HOPE IT DOESN'T #god i hate this discourse BURN IT #lgbt for ts #haljathefangirlcat #ask post

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kanerosalind1995 · 4 years ago

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Does My Ex Wife Want Me Back Super Genius Diy Ideas

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How Do I Get My Personal Property Back From My Ex

This will make her believe you if you work together not against each other.Maybe it was the call but tell them how you feel that it was an accidentally on purpose thing.I didn't actually get your girlfriend back and try using this tactic will probably tell you that if you really want your girlfriend does not want someone who may be able to reflect about what makes sense and practical thinking.Don't mention it as a sign that he didn't want to get her back.The odds get better when you want your girlfriend back by using the psychological techniques I'm about to share is take the plunge and ask how you're feeling.

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Do you still have good feelings and if you screwed up big time and the problem before I approached him.These are just a matter of a rut and restore the relationship, and then once you feel the same person he fell in love with you for a relationship before.It's hard to get an ex back is to make him see that you can think of how to do something!Don't beg, cry, called them 20 times a week...wrong.No offense to all the things that you do to get your girlfriend physically attracted to that was, you'll be able to communicate in an instant just because of infidelity, different value sets, lack of communication.

How Can I Legally Get My Dog Back From My Ex

#Does My Ex Wife Want Me Back Super Genius Diy Ideas #Get Your Ex Wife Back

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spineofdeathwing · 8 years ago

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Heyo, it's Maul.

I don't use tumblr and, in all honesty, I've found that I don't like most tumblr users that I've come across. That being said, I'm not into categorizing an entire community of people based on the select encounters that I've personally had, as I'm sure you all are swell people. For the most part, at least.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not, nor have I ever been, a particularly "nice" individual. I'm far too blunt and straightforward, a characteristic of mine that has led me to where I am now in the WrA RP community: either loved or hated. I am, however, someone who treats others with respect, provided that they deserve such treatment. As I'm sure you are all aware of, there are certain people and groups out there that are nothing but scumbags. There have been certain instances of where I have acted like an asshole to those I personally felt deserved it, which is definitely wrong.

I'm the type of person that will openly and freely admit to my own shortcomings. I am not averted to taking responsibility for my own faults or screw-ups, which has led me to believe that, for the most part, others hold themselves to the same general code of conduct. So, to recap, respect and responsibility. Keep that in mind.

99% of people I come across, at least to my knowledge, have absolutely no qualms with me. The 1% that don't like me have their own reasons, and I completely respect their right to dislike me. I couldn't care less, however, that they don't like me. WoW is an online game; the moment you seek to please everyone is the moment you become a soulless husk. Believe me, when I first started out on Brugash, I tried my hardest OOCly to get everyone to like me, despite my protests if you ever accused me of such.

Now... I'm not sure why the Wolfmane post came to the surface, but I'm only to going to grace that anonymous poster with a response for the next few sentences. There are two sides to every story, both horribly misconstrued. What remains a constant, however, is that I know for a fact that you have absolutely no evidence to substantiate your wild accusations against me (most of which are entirely false). Unfortunately, you guys are more likely to scamper away at the first sight of confrontation than you are to actually hold a conversation that isn't stacked almost entirely in your favor. 9 v 1 ring any bells?

Alright, onto the other shitter. I formed the Irontusk clan because the orcish community was dying. I won't delve into the specifics, but the premise for the clan was not original; just your typical warmongering bunch. OOCly, however, is where I feel we shined. We were openminded and respectful, oftentimes to a fault, as another poster below stated. My vision for the clan was to outshine all of its predecessors: the Ironfang and Warfang clans, to be specific, both of which I heard from others devolved into piles of shit. Excuse my French.

The officer core I eventually ended up with was sublime, for lack of better terminology: Skorest (founder of the Warfang clan), Elsine (former GM of the Ironfang clan), Pagdash (founder of the Dreadhowl clan). On paper, these individuals were meant to be the pillars of the new orc community that I very publicly strove for. In practice, however, I did all of the work. Skorest, Elsine, and Pagdash only went as far as to DM the events that I asked them to (which is something, I suppose), but past that they were a hindrance to the clan. The tasks I set for them were either never completed or were finished weeks later. If it matters, of the three, Elsine did the most.

What were these officers doing instead of fulfilling the expectations of their positions? Elsine and Skorest were constantly at each other's throats, with Skorest unsurprisingly filling the role of provocateur as Elsine would throw a hissy fit. Pagdash did well to stray away from these conflicts, but she more often than not took Skorest's side. In any case, I essentially put the guild on my back and carried it for the better part of three months, which stressed the hell out of me and factored into my departure.

To cap it off, I ran this guild in a benevolent dictatorship in the end. It's the type of guild-related government that fits my needs and my work ethic, and it turned out great. Even Raton of the Wolfmane complimented my guild, and that guy hates me. Another story for another time :^)

Skorest here has made some claims about me too. First of all, I have to commend you for actually showing up to talk. You're an eloquent writer with an excellent grasp on the fundamentals of grammar and sentence structure, but you're a piss poor speaker. That's probably why you perceived my outspoken nature as a personal attack on you. To set the record straight, I was -not- respectful towards Skorest in this particular instance, which was a major deviation from the norm. But the disrespect was mutual and, honestly, I had forgotten about the conversation until someone pointed me in the direction of this thread. So, Skorest, I apologize for hurting your feelings. Won't happen again.

Nevertheless, the summary of our discussion was myself getting at Skorest because of the petty antics he had committed himself to. He threw a temper tantrum when he wasn't given ownership of the guild, kicked out the individual that I did appoint as GM, tried to poach members from the guild as he left, and lied multiple times about why I left.

Let me set the record straight a second time -- I LOVED the Irontusk clan. I put so much work into creating what I perceived to be an absolute masterpiece (with very little help from my officers) and it crushed me that RL was pulling me away from the game. I spent hours upon hours each and every day RPing with every single member of the guild, creating nearly EVERY event that I or one of my officers DMed, dispelling any possibility of cliques forming within the guild, and establishing relations with other clans and guilds, to name a select few. When I say I did everything, I mean it. I am not exaggerating. I poured everything I had into a clan that, had I not left, would have easily became the biggest and baddest the orc community has ever seen.

The reason I left is because I'm a full time college student that managed to finally land not one, but two jobs just after Thanksgiving. This was stated multiple times during the last meeting I had with my former officers, along with the possibility of appointing someone else GM, but I guess facts that don't support their narrative are just cast off to the side. Take it as you will, but there's a reason that Maul is still an extremely prominent member in the orc community and that Skorest was having trouble simply finding a guild to put his orc in, as per his now tarnished reputation.

Moving on, stalking? I've spoken with Pagdash once (who is the GM of the Wartotem tribe now, for those of you who don't know) and that's it. I haven't even been online in the past 2 weeks. School is about to start up in a couple of days and I've been working nonstop since late November. I've been on less than a handful of times, most of which I've just logged onto Maul and sat him in the Valley of Honor while I did other shit off the game. I implore you to show the screenshots of my so-called "harassment" or "stalking." If you want, I can help you fabricate a couple of screenshots so it doesn't seem so pathetic. Seriously, I'm down to help a homie out.

Take a breath guys, it's almost over. This is just the part where I speak out against those that claim I'm discriminatory or prejudiced against any religion / ethnicity / sexual orientation / gender. Again, there's absolutely no evidence out there that would support these allegations, but I'll go ahead and take the bait. As Dezka mentioned before, I myself am of mixed descent. I'm an immigrant to the United States. I have countless homosexual and transsexual friends. I am a conservative from a political -- not social -- standpoint. I'd be happy to get into the specifics of what I do or don't believe to those who are interested, but you'll have to hit me up. I'll just leave it with I ultimately believe everyone has a right to do whatever the hell they want; if it doesn't affect me, I don't care.

Someone here (also posted anonymously - it's as if they're not confident enough to show their face while shitposting me) accused me of exhibiting anti-Muslim tendencies. This is false. I have and will continue to treat Muslims the same way I treat everyone else, because that's the decent thing to do. Even though I personally believe that the fundamentals of Islam are sexist / homophobic and have caused the rise of many extremely violent radical terrorist groups, I do NOT believe that every Muslim is a terrorist. That would be ridiculous. Most Muslims in the world have more or less adhered to the social expectations of whatever country they've immigrated to, which is great. I'm great friends with several Muslims that agree completely with my perspective and don't condone the subjugation of woman and the slaughtering of homosexuals in these Middle Eastern cultures. Sorry if that's too extreme for you.

Additionally, all of these political discussions took place in a channel called the "Ice Box," where everyone was explicitly informed TIME and TIME again that the subject material would be sensitive. Even then, there was never any harassment that I was made aware of, and absolutely nobody was discriminated against based on the color of their skin or what religion they practiced.

At the end of the day, there is very few people who dislike me. As I said before, I'm sure they have their reasons, and I respect that. Hell, I don't harbor any negative feelings for these bozos simply because I couldn't hold a grudge to save my life. But I'm not going to let you talk shit without dishing some back myself, nom' sayin'? I do find it amusing that now that I'm out of the picture game-wise, I'm being called out. I haven't played consistently at all in the past two months, and now you guys decided to take a swing. No evidence, I must point out once more. Not a single shred.

Also, what the anon posted about Skorest was of his own doing. They asked for my screenshots multiple times, but I simply wasn't around at the time. And while I personally don't care what you guys post in your Discords, I find it funny that there seems to be a double standard here. You accuse me of being a scumbag WITHOUT evidence, and then backpedal about your own actions when proof is provided of your exploits.

Face it, bud. You're a glutton for drama. You've said it yourself multiple times and even take pride in being a "guild killer." Good on you for dismantling the Shadowtusk tribe, of course, because pedophilia is disgusting. But where it concerns the Irontusk, you just didn't get your way. We had that conversation after everything was said and done, and you crumbled under the pressure as I expected you would, telling me to go "kill myself" when it was evident you were losing badly, then you ran off into another channel. I followed. You banned me. Since then, we've had no contact until now. If you really want to venture down this road, just know I'm strapping up the boxing gloves right now :^) I promise you I can disprove every illegitimate point that you make.

I'll leave it with a firm apology, though. If I've caused all of you anons enough strife to warrant an entire wall of posts, then I must've affected you blokes on some intense emotional level then. In all seriousness, I don't mean any harm to anyone, and even though the tone of my post is a little sarcastic and satirical, I'm really not a bad dude. You can either take the word (still no evidence) of people who very clearly and very blatantly hate me, or you can form your own opinion like an adult.

It's what separates the sheep from the shepherd.

#scumbag #submission

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lifeisshrug · 8 years ago

Text

science march 4-22-17

i’m not marching today. The science march is overtaking DC and it’s earth day but yet i’m #optinginside. Bill Nye is there, as is questlove (main MC??). CEO of Nature Conservancy is there. Most of my friends are there. Not me, today. Not really sure why. Wanting an indoor day to myself, mainly. I’d also really like to be perched out aside a stream in the middle of the woods and just watching life pass me by, but I’m not up for the struggle of getting to a destination with parade traffic, nor do i really long for congested trails full of newbs and tourists.

It is also a rainy day and i worry that my outdoor toughness is softening; perhaps i just don’t want to get rained on? Pull yourself together, man.

Yesterday was a normal friday at work, except that it was a busy morning (annoyingly, thanks boss); had lunch in the sun; procrastinated in the afternoon; ditched at about 4 and met Grace in the sculpture garden fountain on constitution. we sat in the sun and talked about her people watching (she’d had lunch with adriane and stuck around in the city). She’d written some stream of consciousness stuff (we’re currently trying to write some songs together) about wishing she could stop protecting her heart, and wishing she could do away with her plans and escape and go on adventures. She mentioned the man on the street, that she’d left out something he said: “all my thoughts are noble thoughts because all my thoughts are moral” or something like that. She’d told a friend of this sentence, and the friend suggested grace and i’s band be called “Noble Thoughts,” which i thought was neat and better than any water-themed thing i could have thought up. i left her at the metro station on Pennsylvania and 7th; she was having a yoga-class friend stay the next few nights, as she was between places. I brought up homelessness; Grace inquired, and hoped i’d share my experience working on that at another time. Looking forward to seeing Hurray for the Riff Raff with her Sunday.

Grace’s voicemail, upon encountering the man: alright, listen. so iwas just walkin home from yoga class, walkin down the street, with my yoga mat in my backpack. and on the other side of the street there’s this old man in a red blazer and a red american flag hat with the tags still on it and a big old beard and a guitar, sitting on the park bench waiting for the bus across the street. He looks like a homeless guy. And he yells at me “hey you, you there! watcha got in that backpack?” and i said “welp, its a yoga mat.” and he said “well i thought it was a musical instrument! Can you fit a musical instrument in there?” And I said “well, I sure do, i got a kazu and spoons and..” he says “well come on over here and lets sing us a song!” So i went on over there and i brought out my spoons and my kazu anddddd (laughing) and show them off to him a little bit. and he says “well that’s great!” and he tells me that he’s just come from the Railroad Evangelists Society where they talk about evangelizing the lord and model trains. And he keeps talking about this and i tell him im a unitarian and don’t believe in evangelizing and he said “well i used to be a unitarian too until i met my devil wife; she’s dead now, bless her, and to everyone else it was a blessing.” and he starts telling me about life and std’s and a second wife and that he liked to sleep around...” and he was a hoot. it was really funny. and i said ‘you know i gotta go, so lets sing a song and ill be on my merry way. so he gets out his guitar and says you’ll know this one; and he starts playing his guitar and it is soooo out of tune that you can’t even pretend that it’s in tune, but he keeps playing as if he doesnt notice; and he starts singing a song and the bus pulls up and i say “sir nice to meet you but i gotta get on” and winked at the bus driver as i walked away. anyway, i wanted to tell you that. He gave me his address in case i wanted to write him letters, and so that we can look him up to jam sometime, if you’re interested. *laughs* ok, bye.

Last night was beer club. I brought along the new belgium ‘tartastic,’ a light lemon ginger sour and trekked over to Emily’s new apartment on 3rd and I, with Sam. I also brought along my empty can of Pure Water Brew (by clean water services). Clara joined. It was the usual gang -- carlos, emily, sam, les, monica and josh, and the rest of josh/carlos’ friends who i still don’t really know that well after all these months. the theme was “green beer” in time for earth day. So when it was my turn, i started rambling about the ingredient that is most central to beer -- water -- and basically explained the crux of the issues I’m working on at EPA in order to paint a picture, and then explained that the Pure Water Brew was the perfect beer with respect to not contributing to those problems; and i explained my lament that i could not actually share it with anyone. Somebody asked if folks could one day get over the stigma of drinking beer made from poop water, and i smiled big and said “YES! And i’ll tell you why! Think about the water system we have. When you flush or whatever, all that water goes to the community wwtp, where it is cleaned to pretty paltry standards, and then released into the river -- millions of gallons worth a day -- and then the next town downstream sucks it in and makes their drinking water out of that. By the time potomac water gets to DC Water’s drinking water intakes, it’s supposedly gone through 7 or 9 people already. and so when folks ask me the poop water question, i simply say, ‘dammit, we’re all already drinking it anyway!’” and it went over pretty decently, actually. Anyway, people cheered for my “ted talk” and i was glad i brought it up, even though i’d only given it a little thought so my coherence wasn’t where it needed to be. the rest of beer club was a hoot, and we played with the pug Frank (emily’s roommates’) until we lost him; until we realized his momma had just snagged him. Everyone’s beer pitches were top notch and the voting was convoluted as ever (went with the “French” model of elections); Beer club is never a bad time.

I quickly typed out my thoughts regarding the “ted talk on water and beer” that i started rambling about during beer club:

***

Given that we're doing green beer, it's earth day, and my beloved EPA is waiting in line for the guillotine at the moment. I wanted to talk a little bit about the ingredient that composes 99% of beer: water. Not only is this a key component of beer and almost every other commodity known to man, but it's also my trade so I want to rant about it a little bit.

What i am about to say is true about the entire world since the dawn of "civilized" man and industry, but it is particularly applicable to the US since 1492. According to the people of the united states, the US government, and private business, waterways have been one thing and one thing only: garbage cans. While large, navigable waterways have been thought of as passages for travel, all surface water bodies -- lakes, streams and rivers -- have been used primarily as the garbage cans of a productive society. Nearly everything that can be bought and sold in the US relies on intakes of surface water for the manufacturing process, and subsequently the disposal of used water back into the river, stream or lake. From factories producing batteries and Teslas and RC car toys and paper and pens and steel and plastics and cardboard and rubber garbage cans and blue jeans, to hog farms and paper mills, to coal power plants...all of these require an input of "clean" water, and during the manufacturing process, that clean water becomes dirty, and that water is treated to a minimal standard and then put back into the river or stream.

Consider the battery factory: they rinse their machinery and battery casings with water and create ionized metallic solutions for dipping, among other things; and the result is brine water full of arsenic, nickel, varieties of sodium. Take a coal fired power plant: water is drawn in to keep the smokestacks cool, and also to become steam which powers the turnbines that generate the electricity. It creates waters containing high levels of mercury, arsenic, lead, selenium, and other metals. My boss actually just led the rule writing to regulate to what standard coal plants have to clean that water before discharging it, and it became law in the last year, but now Pruitt is moving to erase it. But anyway, In both examples, the water is treated to remove part of the metals to the standards Congress allows EPA to set -- which are not stringent -- and then put back into the river.

And how could I forget poop! Whenever you flush, wash dishes, shower, laundry or whatever, that gets sent down the line to the community wastewater treatment plant. The solids are removed from the water, the water cleaned to the minimal accepted standard, and then "discharged" back into the river. And that discharge heads on downstream. So consider how our urban areas are set up. You have communities up and downstream of each other. So discharges from communities upstream remain in the water available for those downstream. Pretty elementary stuff, right? But this highlights a fundamental flaw in our system. You see, pollution /discharges were completely unregulated in the United States until 1948 and only then marginally until the 70's. That's the Clean Water Act that we know today.

The problem with it is two-fold: first, we expected that we don't need to treat discharges to a very safe standard, because when we sucked the river water back in downstream, we could just treat the crap out of it and human health would be fine. That worked a 100 yrs ago, when clear water that didn't smell bad was assumed safe. But now our technology to detect specific contaminants is so much better, and we realize that cleaning crappy water (no pun intended) is actually really hard to do and expensive. Cleaning out hormones and nitrates, or microscopic plastic shedded from synthetic clothing in the washing machine, is super hard to treat, for example. For really big places like DC, DC Water has the economy of scale to afford all this crazy cleaning technology to superclean the drinking water. Which is important, because Potomac river water has been "through" 7 people and god knows how many manufacturing processes before it is treated and sent to your tap. DC Water can basically strip everything out but the hydrogen and oxygen and then literally have to add minerals back into the water to prevent health problems among us DC folks.

But small communities who lack much buying power? They get what they get. If they sit far downstream of a bunch of industrial activity and towns, and they can only afford some basic filters and chlorine, not the gizmos DC water can afford...what's going into their bodies? And this doesn't apply to just the drinking water plants; think about the wastewater plants. Some of them can turn wastewater into water so pure it can be used for anything, including drinking water. But what about communities that can't afford such technology? Many communities in rural areas can only afford what's called "lagoon" treatment -- literally a lagoon that allows sewage solids to settle to the bottom and microbes to partially disinfect the water on top, which then gets sent into the river. That kind of treatment doesn't do much for things like pharmaceuticals and heavy metals that may have ended up in the waste water.

It also does not address nutrient pollution. For those who forgot their 7th grade science, nutrient pollution comes from various sources and is mostly nitrogen and phosphorus. These are the two primary fertilizers required for optimized monoculture plant growth, and they are prerequisites for mankind's existence. But but we also release what consume in some form, and sewage contains tons of n and p. Additionally, in order to assure a sufficient crop yield, the US encourages Ag to use more fertilizer than necessary out of caution; and water events (rain, floods, farm animals like cows walking around in streams) result in this fertilizer, largely intact, running into rivers streams and lakes (along with animal wastes, which contain a ton of N and P). The result of excessive N and P in our waters is excessive microbial growth, like harmful algal blooms (which release neurotoxins into waters that cannot be filtered out, and Sidenote, these have been occurring more frequently on slow moving rivers and lakes near drinking water intakes). N and P are why the gulf of mexico has a dead zone.

And none of this involves other water issues. Everybody knows about flint now. But what about migrant families in the Central Valley of ca, where over fertilizing of crops results in nitrates in the groundwater, which these families must drink, and they boil the water out of fear of contamination, because the community water system is essentially third world, but boiling only concentrates the nitrates, which results in chronic health issues and birth defects? And that EPA wants to help fix that, but families don't bring attention to it because they think federal assistance will get the attention of ICE? And everyone knows about the ground sinking in California from pulling out too much groundwater, but what about the ground sinking in Virginia, of all places, because groundwater is drawn faster than it can be replenished, resulting in more flooding and saltwater fouling coastal groundwater that families rely on for drinking? Or what about mid size communities that can afford to do some innovative things to avoid these issues I'm ranting about, but the water rates are controlled by the city council, and since they want to be reelected, they keep the rates low, which deprived the water system of investment fund and ultimately prevents the community from doing "the right thing" and instead maintaining the status quo -- which is really the story across America, actually.

Anyway, back to that urban model. all this waste water full of n and p and contaminants goes through basic treatment, right? and then most of it ends up in the river. But we have technology now that can pull the N and P out during treatment and turn it back into commercial fertilizer, which effectively reuses it without letting it run downstream, and raises money for the community when it's sold. And we can take the poopy solid waste and turn it into fuel that powers the entire water plant, plus electricity for homes nearby. A few communities can afford these innovations, but most cannot. By capturing those nutrients, it prevents us from needing to import phosphorus from the middle east and other areas (which we need to do, to maintain current farm yields-- and by the way, it's going to run out in the coming years, and yet we're literally letting it flush down the drain...); it also prevents almost all of our n and p ending up on the sea floor in the gulf of mexico, having been discharged and ending up in the Mississippi River. The energy component would reduce how much electricity is required to clean and produce drinking water, which consumes a little over 2% of all electricity produced in the US.

There are so many challenges and opportunities associated with this way of doing things, with obtaining and managing water. One of the big three. Food, water, shelter. It was a beautiful system 100 yrs ago, but now we understand what needs work...and it's gonna cost money we don't have. Meanwhile, those with the least are being affected the most, as I think is typical. It's not all that surprising that EPA spends most of its time helping folks in trump country have safe drinking water and paying for their sewage treatment, and trump is looking to eliminate those funds.

So it's really important to think about what water touches and it's nexus with our daily lives. What am I sending down the drain? How did my food and my clothes and my purchases ruin or improve the water that other people - or God forbid, other creatures -- depend upon? If my city council or utility commission is considering raising the water rates...is it for a good reason? Probably. How can I help get clean and safe water to those who don't have it? Maybe water isn't the loudest of issues right now, but take it from me, water problems are Americas best kept secret. Most scholars call it "Americas largest looming crisis" ...and there's a reason mark twain said "whisky is for drinkin and water's for fighting about."

Which brings me to ways we can help solve these issues! Beer is a great start.

***

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