#i hate to sound like a centrist but you are all fucking insane thinking whatever side you're on has the higher ground lmfao

[leothil]

I've actually had enough of posts like "THESE shippers are being vitriolic, so as a showrunner I would never appease them and instead go hard on this other ship" like besties, there are idiots everywhere, why the fuck should one side "be appeased" over another? I guarantee that whatever take you saw from the "side" you don't agree with there's an almost word-for-word exactly similar post from the "side" you do agree with.

[sylvieusedhyperbeam]

the left going forward; corporate media

 all right so

i’ve heard a lot of thoughts about where the left can go forward from here.  and i’m not just talking about the election in november (in fact, that’s not even on my mind right now as i write this).  and while i feel like the first real steps forward from this point on should be the left focusing on local elections, trying to reach out and inform communities of the cause (waking apolitical people up with the possibility of a further extended coalition is never a bad thing), there’s a huge obstacle that we really need to figure out.

and that is, of course, corporate media.

anyone new ‘round here

now for anyone new here, corporate media isn’t just some ‘leftist twitter bubble conspiracy theory!!!’ as some centrists would have you believe.  

when the near entirety of a country’s news stations, outlets and papers are owned by six corporations, and when said corporations donate money to a political campaign?  yeah... i hope you can see the problem there.  a news station owned by a company donating money to a politician probably isn’t going to give fair or neutral coverage throughout that particular election.  

for more information on this, i’d suggest a reading of Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky.

now that being said, it’s safe to say that corporate media becoming effective free super-pacs for these establishment picks are... a pretty huge problem that we need to figure out going forward.  

i’ve seen the suggestion of ‘not making the media hate us’ get floated around, but uh... lmao yeah, good luck with that.  long as you stand for people, and as long as you threaten their bottom line, it ain’t gonna happen.  they will ALWAYS hate you.  the coverage will get friendly and fawning once you’re no longer a threat to them, and ONLY once you’re no longer a threat.  that’s when they start gaslighting the left, insulting them for ever thinking there was a bias (lmao we’re in that phase right now where CNN and MSNBC have nothing but good things to say about Sanders now, it’d almost be funny if it weren’t so goddamn infuriating).  so yeah, tl;dr you can go ahead and try to be more media-friendly, but... i just don’t see it happening.  if you ain’t corporate friendly, you ain’t in the club.  period.

just to reassure anyone reading this, no you’re not crazy, there WAS an incredibly insane bias and they’re going to try their hardest to gaslight you into thinking otherwise.  don’t take their bullshit.  never forget.

as for my take on it, i can only think of a few suggestions.

one will have to be labeling/branding.  it sucks that western countries never recovered from the Red Scare and that it’s all but calcified unfettered capitalism at the expense of the labor/working class, but unfortunately, that’s the reality (it’s also why i was facepalming at leftists constantly pushing Russiagate while not realizing how easily that’s going to be flipped on us come 2020 but whatever, hindsight and all that).  

i think one of Sanders’ mistakes was running entirely on the label of socialist.  like i said, western countries never recovered from the Red Scare, you have to go with something more friendly to the culture.  you can’t connect the dots for them if they’re too scared by the word ‘socialist’ to look at the picture.  maybe instead of socialist, run on New Deal Democrat?  it’s ‘less scary’ and potentially creates an inroad with older voters.  like it or not, you have to sell your ideas in an appealing package before you can expect to see any results.  

number two, i think we just need to stop giving a fuck about the spin the media tries to put on us.  like, stop going on the constant defensive and jump to offense.  i think it was another mistake in the Sanders campaign, they spent way too much time on defense, and Bernie didn’t spend enough time drawing contrast between himself and Biden.

and for the sake of context i’ll go ahead and add that this didn’t come without personal shortcomings on Bernie’s end, either. fawning endlessly over Biden, saying Biden was a decent guy that could totally beat Trump, that shit was just politically stupid beyond belief.  i love Bernie to death, but playing nice this time around cost him when he was already on a harrowing path.

but in all fairness, i think Bernie played so nice with Biden BECAUSE he knew that he was talking to, effectively, Biden’s super pacs whenever he was on MSNBC and CNN.  like i get it, he’s trying to play chess, but sometimes you gotta flip the fuckin board over and call it when your opponent is smearing feces all over the pieces.  

running that train of thought, hell, MSM loves ratings a shit ton more than they value journalistic integrity, so maybe sharp-tongued contrasts and statements about the other side will draw attention gradually towards the core issues.  drama sells.  discussing issues invites them to put spin on you, and yes it’s total bullshit, but what people forget about MSM is that they HAVE to make money off of everyone somehow. ‘Senator Jones Has Mathematically Sound Plan for UBI’ doesn’t sell.  ‘Soviet Union Loving Commie Tries to Sell Commie Ideas’ does.  

like, it sucks that the idea of surviving the turgid sea of shit that is neoliberal media is to play their game to an extent and rattle the cages, give them a bit of red meat to bite into here and there, but i honestly think it was a huge part of Trump’s formula.  he kept on giving them red meat to bite into, he stirred up drama, he said outrageous shit in order to draw attention before he utilized that attention to bash into Hillary.  

and like it or not, people listened.  

so yeah, i think going more offensive and drawing contrast rather than being on defensive would work better to our advantage.  we’re not going to get anywhere playing nice.  we’re not going to sell the issues by apologizing for believing healthcare is a human right, or constantly apologizing for shit they’ll go dig up to pin on you (like a stupid off-color joke made in a blog twenty years ago).  it sucks, but it’s the world we live in.  focusing more on offense (and trying not to think about how we’re providing the bread and circuses for these assclowns) might be a better path.

IDK these are just my thoughts and my coffee is gone so time to go take care of that shit.

[automatismoateo]

I am living proof that the grass is greener once you abandon your toxic family members. via /r/atheism

Submitted July 30, 2019 at 02:03AM by ifunnycadetbonespurs (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2GAEbDm) I am living proof that the grass is greener once you abandon your toxic family members.

Looking back on my life I was extremely lucky. I (31 M) was raised by a single mom who, although was religious, never set the stipulation of belief on me. She always left it up to me and made it clear that I had a choice (despite my current beliefs that we likely do not have a choice when it comes to beliefs). She couldn’t answer most of my questions but never discouraged me from asking them. Nonetheless I did end up believing heavily that Jesus Christ was my “personal Lord and Savior”. Whenever I was 16 years old I got into a bunch of trouble, mostly underage drinking, marijuana possession and then vehicular theft which landed me in jail. I ended up doing a little over year altogether before I reached 18 but while I was in there I read the Bible. I read it twice. It did in fact reinforce a lot of my beliefs and I remember feeling “a presence” so I went with it. Once I got out of jail I wanted, classically, to prove my religion to others. I wanted to save as many souls as I could. I started reading from all angles as I’ve always done. I’m not so much of a centrist politically, but I’m not ever going to fall into the trap of intellectually isolating myself. I read from all sides very regularly. So, naturally I wanted to read about external sources regarding the Bible. I wanted to read about the historicity of the Bible. As you can imagine that journey led me to the truth, which is that the book is proof of nothing; certainly nothing supernatural. I learned about all of these denominations, there’s different religions, even cults in which people clearly felt the same “presence”. The more and more I learned about history and science, the less I believed. I think having experiences with LSD and mushrooms really helped my critical thought process during this time. Then I went from one end to the other, wanting to prove as many Christians wrong as I could. These were dark times as I seem to have learned nothing from the first round of believing Christianity. I found myself evangelizing for atheism which sickened me. I came to understand that I can be a living example rather than trying to provide examples for everybody to not believe this or that. I kept doing me, kept researching, stopped putting my opinions out there; and it was great.

In the course of about a week I slowly came to the conclusion that I no longer would remain apathetic around false beliefs and fallacious claims. I vowed that I would now call them out, respectively. This began another dark time in my life. I found no matter how polite I was that the more I spread the truth and the value of critical thought, the more people thought I hated them and or their beliefs. I had relationships dropping left and right and I would be left asking myself afterwards, “Is this worth it?”. Before I get into the specific details on each family member, I want to clarify that Donald Trump aided this process greatly. I, in fact, had no clue that most of my family are scumbags. As you will see, it turns out many of them were and still are.

First it was my uncle. He is an evangelical Christian and a republican Trump supporter, something I never really noticed while I was a believer and even when I was de-converting back to atheism. One day my wife got a message from him on social media, it was a piece of garbage; Trumpian Christian evangelical fear mongering nationalist propaganda. Not having the social media app myself, I quickly downloaded it under the pretense that those were the rules now. We can share propaganda now with each other and our loved ones, great. So I started sending him Carlin quotes, Ricky Gervais quotes, small speeches by Sam Harris about Christianity and the like. As it should, this sparked many debates. I learned that my uncle thinks Hillary Clinton is knowingly working directly for Satan, liberals are trying to make everyone gay and/or trans, and 12-year-old rape victims should be forced to carry out the pregnancy and give birth to the rapist’s child. Honestly, he even alluded to his belief that the dad, the rapist, should be able to visit the child down the road. That’s what did it for me. Goodbye, Uncle. To be honest, that was when I deleted the app as well because his page was a cesspool that I became way too familiar with, and it caused me a great deal of worry while diminishing much of my already dwindling hope for future society.

Next it was my dad. This one was much shorter because my dad never gave a shit about me and stopped regularly reaching out when I was 6 so we never had a real relationship to terminate. It turned out to be a good thing though because he was insanely violent, alcoholic, and you guessed it—religious. Years after he left when I was 18, I was questioning my mom yet again as to why she would have babies with this obviously bad man and she admitted to me that he raped her and that’s how I was conceived. I had contact with my dad, however minimal, but that ended immediately upon learning this information. The sliver of a relationship we had was shit and toxic. The only real reason I continue to have any relationship with him is because of the societal view of “he’s still your dad.“ Still, it was my dad who used to abuse my mom in front of us regularly, he abused us kids as well and if you met my sister you would be able to see plainly how destructive that abuse turned out to be. My sister used to beat her dogs, and one time my dad came over and said, “what’s wrong with this dog?” because the dog was head shy when he went to pet it. I said to him, “She beat the dog so much that it’s head shy now.” He replied, “can she find me a girlfriend?” Think about how big of a piece of shit you must have to be to abuse your whole family, leave them and then come back years later to make jokes about enjoying how timid that abuse makes women. A separate time he came over when my kids were watching Mr. Rogers. He told me in front of my kids, “I never used to let you guys watch Mr. Rogers because I thought he was gay.” Again, he was a total piece of shit and still is today. Also I’d like to mention he’s an avid Trump supporter. Shocking. I cut him the fuck out and it’s been amazing. I made sure to mention to him and his new wife (who told us that she had been in abusive relationships before) that he broke his previous girlfriends ribs, raped my mom, and abused us all. She is still with him today.

Finally the most recent one which is my wife’s grandma. I know, I know, it sounds like it’s going to be cruel. Well the only cruel thing about this one was her. My 4 1/2-year-old daughter came to her house and was playing with dolls and Grandma asked her what she was doing. My daughter replied, “They are getting married.” But the problem was that they were two girl dolls. Then, apparently my grandma raised the issue and pushed back, telling my daughter that marriage is not for those couples. Thankfully my daughter also pushed back saying, “ I don't want to marry a boy, I want to marry a girl. My daddy showed me a video about it.” Now, I don’t think I need to say this but I’m not raising my daughter to believe that same sex marriage isn’t a reality. The fact is it exists, what’s more, I approve of it and when my daughter is an adult she can decide for herself. Whatever she decides has no significance to me or my love for her. As to the video, I don’t know specifically what she’s talking about but it’s likely that she may have been looking over my shoulder while I was watching wedding videos online of our many gay friends who have gotten married. Anyways, Grandma gets really mad and sends my wife and I a text message saying,

“I hope both of you are happy and proud of yourselves for working intensely to indoctrinate your precious, formerly innocent 4 1/2 year old daughter. How immature r you 2 feel u have to tell ___________ that you don't need to marry a man when u grow up and I quote her " I don't want 2 marry a boy; I want 2 marry a girl... my Daddy showed me a video about it". ( this came after she saw ___________ and my wedding photo.)

I felt sick to my stomach and it absolutely breaks my heart 2 see how you 2 r no different than parents who tell their kids 2 hate black people or " that brown church is bad they say bad things in there".

So immature, so hateful!!!

A little child can be taught to go w their parents 2 feed the needy or help / visit the elderly in a nursing home.. o, so many good honorable things.

Your beautiful children are being taught things that children r entirely too young 2 think about now. When they're older they can decide who they want 2 marry ... You two are so focused on telling her ( eventually ________) that gays r so wonderful and so mistreated... did u ever consider telling them that there r many other people who need love help encouragement and hugs... yes, hugs, ________.

What is your over zealous fascination with defending gays ? How about defending your Christian Grandma who has only ever tried to be kind loving 2 people.

I wanted planned 2 talk 2 You Both a week ago but you said you've been so stressed and _______ went 2 ER... yes, I prayed for him will continue to, whether I have your approval or not.

I won't be silent anymore as heartbreakingly sad this is for me 2 say, but if you want me to be a part of your family, you will have to immediately stop this hateful indoctrination, or I'll just bow out... with the greatest sadness I'll probably ever feel, except when ___________ died.

It hurts me so deeply that you are willing with strong determination, to indoctrinate your beautiful children with this Hateful diatribe!!! I can't hear it! the stress heartbreak is too much for me to take anymore.

Since my car's not working, I can't talk to you both, in person, unfortunately... hard when the kids are around... and they DEFINITELY DON'T NEED ANYMORE GRIEF PUT INTO THEIR INNOCENT SOULS!!

PLEASE DON'T TAKE AWAY ANY MORE OF THEIR INNOCENCE!

Your Heartbroken Grandma

( I know you won't chastise ___________ for the remark since she's only repeating what's she's been told).”

— END

So to clear up some things, I never said brown churches are bad, I never told my daughter to be gay, all I’ve done is explain to her that gay people exist and when you are older you get to choose whether or not you want to marry a boy, girl, or neither. Let’s say hypothetically I did try and indoctrinate her to be gay, that still wouldn’t equate me with white supremacists who are known for outright murder and violent racism. My response was brief, needless to say I ended that relationship as well. She isn’t my grandma to begin with, she’s my wife’s grandma. This one is probably the most satisfying toxic relationship to walk away from for me.

I’m writing just to explain to other people who may wonder if it’s worth it to cut out toxic, in this case religious, family members. It is worth it, I’ve never been happier. The lesson I have learned from all of this is; speak the truth and stand up to unfounded beliefs when you are around them. Don’t compromise that for anyone. There are some cases in which yes, maybe you have a 95-year-old grandma who is going to die any day now who believes gay people will burn forever in hell... do spare her. My wife’s grandma is 75 and sharp, she has no business threatening the very relationship with my daughter over her fear mongered beliefs that continue to poison her brain every night while watching Fox News.

EDIT: If you are a college student or are for one reason or another financially dependent on your parents, there’s no shame in waiting to “come out”. If you’re not being abused you should likely avoid contact and become financially independent before going all fallacy vigilante during thanksgiving.

[nullset2]

Open Letter on Hate

I got to call out something that I'm noticing in my day to day in my city, Seattle, because I think that, if not spoken about, it will get out of hand in a very bad way; that something, ladies and gentlemen, is a certain feeling of societal unrest related to the tech industry's impact on the community that, ever so slightly, shows the rear of its ugly head in succint yet cutting ways in everyday life.

Now, first point of disclosure, I'm not one of those Social Justice types and you shall see no clothes-tearing of biblical proportions here; yet, I think that we, and by that I mean Humanity as a whole, we MUST progress towards a more accepting and more emphathetic society. I honestly believe that it is a horribly hard challenge to shed the ugliness of tribalism and groupthink in the modern US, and that as a whole we're currently faced with horrendous Ecological, Social and Political challenges, which we must solve. To constantly try to move the modern narrative to move that agenda forward is necessary.

However, I also know that the establishment is there for a reason, and it would be stupid of me to ignore that or to try to antagonize it. So, call me a centrist if you will, as in, all sides of thought have a lot to be criticized for.

Second, I realize that I come from a position of privilege, which some of you will happily brandish against me (oh, I can just feel the angry keystrokes coming my way already...).

Oh, how I hate that term.

I am an information professional in 2019, a field very, very highly sought after for people and where people generally do well. So I will not claim to have all the answers, lest some of my unconscious biases were to show, but as somebody who knows what happens in both sides of society and that is actually trying to change, I still feel compelled to write my impressions in order to get people thinking.

I may be an information professional yet it wasn't "just given" to me in any shape or form, you know? This stuff costed me years, and years of dedication, capice?

Hopefully you can call me out if I say something uncalled for --remember, this is the cornerstone of cultured discourse, I say something, you say something back if I messed up, from which I learn, and by continuing that process, we reach the Truth. Things will get better as long as we keep talking, and the moment you leave the discussion table because of some high and mighty political belief that precludes basic human decency, then we're done.

So, ok, let's get onto the point: it seems that, as the generation born in the 80s and 90s in the modern, globalized world reaches maturity and as they start to realize that they're Hungry, they're feeling a little bit left to die by a variety of societal forces related to the expansion of the tech industry in the US.

Some call it an economical gap, citing the 1% and whatnot... or some even worse types will start bringing out conspiranoic thoughts that I just would rather not dive into.

In any way, all of this leads to a bunch of... well, just plainly, hate. Hate for each other, hate for the establishment, hate for the goverment, hate for the enterprise. Just undistilled, raw hate.

And this then surfaces lots of ugly things: who would had thought that racism, nazism, white supremacy, sexism and discrimination would be alive and well in 2019? 2019 is one of those year-dates that I imagined would be amazing when we'd get there back in the 90s when I was more impressionable. The mere idea of a 2019 made all of those awful terms sound like a bunch of things that were "of the past"; old horror tales coming from a society less informed, less emphatetic, dumber, and less capable of rational thought than whatever was to come. I thought that with the slow advent of the massively-online, always-on, low-barrier-of-entry Internet, powered through the amazingness of the World, its people and their Cultures, we would reach a better state at Large. Mind you, in a lot of ways we have, don't get me wrong. It may be sucky --yet, it's the best it's ever been, and I truly do appreciate that. And yes, leading the world and taking it upon your shoulders is a terrible and painful task, so it's not easy by any means.

If somebody decides to change sex for example, and shows up tomorrow at your office, and somebody decides to not recognize them, that person will get fired on the spot. Do you realize how impossible that sounds compared to the world of two decades ago?

But, unable to channel that frustration to correct use, confused out of their mind, feeling disenfranchised, there's tons of adults lashing against everything while they're desperately clinging to whatever seems fit to take them out of their misery, be it the necessity to emulate the false semblance of the "Greater" America of yore, the necessity to come together in tribes or factions and make an "us versus them" out of everything, or a general feeling of anger about everything. It's insane and irrational and founded in just pure fear.

Believe me, I've been yelled hate at while walking down the University district just because I'm --obviously-- one of the people moving in. My cleaner yesterday angrily let me know that she used to live on the 8th, and had to move 2 hours of commute away due to the hiking rent prices in downtown Seattle, close to Stevens Pass. I can easily assure you: you got deeper issues than money if you actually have to move that far away to make rent.

But anyway.

I will be the first to recognize it though: most techies fucking suck. Yes, I would also feel pretty slighted if it turned out that my neighbor now is now some brown dude who won't even say hello when I try to talk to him because he refuses to interact socially beyond obligation in anything that's not his native language, fantasizing every day about going back to their home country and retiring for good the soonest possible.

Techies may also be hard to make friends with because of their narrow vision of the world, their lack of time to actually develop social skills... and basically, their inability to take on some ass like god intended.

"My coverage % is my reason to live!", said no one ever.

Yes, guys, get over yourselves.

It's just Java. Calm down.

That's what leads to stickers such as the ones that you see in the picture above being plastered all over the US. Lots of tech companies have brought a lot of new people in town, whose pay grade, suddenly, makes property owners close to the corporate campuses very happy but a lot of renters disgruntled. Not only rent, but cost of living is raising all over the place.

Just ask my SF friends.

I mean, I appreciate that people are trying to speak up against what's happening because I would fucking do it if I was in their position. I have found a certain appreciation for that kind of counterculture (you cannot have a healthy society without counterculture, which is something I think most young children these days are dropping the ball hard on, by the way). It's people trying to speak up, reach out and actually make a point and that's a force of nature in regards to change. It is exactly what we need.

Yet, bottom line, I know that everyone that was born here and grew here deserves respect, so again, I cannot truly say this without my biases showing, and I'm sorry about that, but I am not about being fed a bunch of hate either.

But let's not make it about me.

Let's exception at the vapid finger-pointing. A lot of people are pointing fingers at Sillicon Valley, or megacorporations, or the Wealthy, or... anybody moving to the US themselves don't really stop to consider what the other side is going through.

We're all in the same boat, y'all. We can be friends.

I mean don't get me wrong, I understand where people are coming from. I imagine it sucks to see your city change so fast within your lifetime.

But hear me out, and I say this as somebody who knows that the struggle is real. I know that the rate of change is increasing and it seems awful and like it's not ever stopping, but in my opinion that's not only a consequence of the socioeconomical order. I think it's a logical conclusion of how we have more information to go by now. You have to understand that all of us are competing on a worldwide arena now.

No matter how bad things may be, I think a lot of the hate is just rooted in the fear of change, and only those who understand that we will never get to live slow, ways-set-in-stone, 50 years with the same job lives every again, and embrace it, will always come out on top.

It sucks but embrace it and then maybe, all together, we can make a better thing out of it.

If there's tons of people coming in taking in expensive jobs, why don't you try to play on the same level field? If college is expensive and a machination of an evil system trying to systematically castrate people out of their own volition and enterprise, then why do you still resent people that went to college? Again, I paid for every single cent of my college tuition, don't assume the worse in others all the time. Why couldn't you? Even if it sucks, why didn't you at least try?

No, but it all falls back into anger and fear at the big bad corporations making their lives hell and people will purchase stickers to shit on others... and then they turn around and 1-click buy their stickers online while continuing to avoid going out and watching yet another video on the tube site. Capice?

Again, it sucks, and I know why it sucks, but stopping in your tracks to cry is barely any use. Change careers, learn, and learn, and learn. Adapt and try to play to your advantages. Your tongue is your ally if you use it well. The rate of change is increasing, are you going to surf the wave or will you stay on the shore?

I mean, listen. Don't be the victim. You don't wanna be the victim, believe me. I've seen families ripped apart, torn to shreds because of that. It numbs people. Even though so many things suck, you gotta try to pull through, and not everyone gets the luxury of getting that drilled into their minds by someone else so I'm gonna dad you. Pull yourself together, it's not about the techies, it's not about the corps, or at least it shouldn't be at least or should it?. It can be about you though. That's the only thing you can control, yourself.

Hey, and YOU, as a techie, you don't get off scot-free either.

If you know that you're working in something inhumane or exploitative or terrible in a corporation, don't give in to it. Don't be someone who just takes your boss' agenda in without questioning if that is so. Raise your voice and don't be complacent. Refuse to be fed the vision of the world where you're supposed to just be subservient. And you know, treat the locals with respect. Don't isolate yourself away in your own techie tribe because you're too much of an socially inept, incompetent person to collaborate and integrate. Fucking integrate ffs. Bring money back in to the system and participate in the culture. When in Rome, you know? It feels comfortable to just adscribe things to being "oh, but it's because they don't understand us. It's because they got it in for us. Oh, it's because they're trying to shun us away.". What are you really doing for them, though, and why does that them doesn't become us anyway? Don't be a bad techie, understand your position and act well on it.

And bottom line, at least from my side I want you to know. Seattle, I am trying. I hope you can at least understand that.

Mother 3 warned me about this thirteen years ago when I played a pirated copy of it in japanese, without the translation patch in a shitty GBA emulator in 2006 in the middle of bum fucking nowhere and I didn't even know that it was telling me about what was to come. That's how much ahead of its time that game was.