#silos of ignorance

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/a-fly-buzzed-when/

A Fly Buzzed When...

The fly sitting in the staircase window of my retirement center has been dead for several months.  Unlike me, most folks don’t use the back exit to reach ground level.  They prefer the elevator.  I may be the only person in the building to bear witness to the insect’s slow decay.  I could remove it with a tissue, of course.  But I’m curious to know how long the corpse will remain unnoticed in its sunny location. At peace now, I can imagine an earlier, frenzied time when, without success, the fly buzzed against the glass as it struggled to reach the green world outside.   Flies have a symbolic role in my upcoming memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home. Like the character in one of Emily Dickinson’s poems, I, too, heard a fly buzz at the moment I imagined I was about to die. The sound jarred an awakening within me, the way a glacier dropping snow into an icy bay might stun the ears.  The insect I realized at that moment was my superior. Had I its translucent wings, I could have hoped to escape my fate. Many years have passed but the memory of that fly has never faded. It allowed me to feel empathy for the one that had buzzed itself to death on the windowsill.  This time its wings were of no use. What it required was the ability to reason. “Each to each,” I think every time I pass its still form on the ledge.  Once a defiant point of light against the dark, it has succumbed to it, as must all living things. The reminder earns my respect.  And so, I pause a moment in tribute to the fly each time I make my turn on the landing.  A study on fruitflies confirms that insects are conscious of death. Most creatures are.  Elephants grieve for their lost ones. Crows hold funerals. Alternatively, bees, ants, and terminates designate a specific class among them to clear away corpses from the hive.  When fruitflies encounter death, they have two responses. They die earlier than their peers and the females produce a larger number of eggs under the stress.   Stress, we’ve learned,  leaves a marker in the human brain. Some think the scar may predict a tendency for suicide.  Others insist they require more evidence to confirm the link. Even so, physicians are aware of the debilitating effects of stress and counsel their patients to avoid it.  We already know that what we see, feel, and do alters our relationship with the world.  Think of it as the butterfly effect where a small change in one location alters a larger one. A man dumps used tires into a pristine river.  Others follow his example.  Eventually, the river’s water is too polluted for either human or animal consumption. Flora and fauna die. The green world morphs into a desert. We know our brains generate myriads of impulses. Some are self-destructive. Others work to our benefit. The good or ill in our lives arises from those impulses. It’s doubtful a lily can grow from a dung heap. Those who see justice and vengeance as hospitable companions are the most likely to give way to hate.  House Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebart are examples.  They see corruption in the fall of a sparrow.  Without trust, how is society to endure? Without trust, hate gives way to insanity–the kind that prompted an individual to salt a garden ripe with vegetables that were intended to feed the poor.   Wanting to do good is a force equal to hate but with positive benefits. Good thoughts increase trust and promote good health.  Both are necessary for a thriving democracy. Because consciousness must succumb to death, each of us faces an overwhelming question. How shall we live? Decisions we make, whether large or small, have outcomes.  They affect our well-being.  They affect our society and our planet. A fly dies on a windowsill, its eyes facing a green world.  Too ignorant to understand the nature of the invisible barrier that stands between it and freedom, it dies in frustration. Humans, too, live in silos of ignorance.  They can respond by being angry, judgmental, and prizing freedom for themselves but not for others. If so, then like the fly, they will never know peace. Or, being human, they can exercise a second option. They can see themselves mirrored in all living things and exercise compassion. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————–   Listen to 1 hour radio interview with Caroline Miller on “Between the Covers.”  

[femmeetart]

Juliette is very good at hide and seek

[ghostbusterscantcatchme]

men when their show has a lesbian subplot where one charachter sacrifices everything for the person she loves and is slightly hypocritical:

[theskyexists]

I know that it's pretty revolutionary that the Silo fridges George Wilkinson for Juliette's womanpain but I actually hate it because I really feel like she didn't need that and it's so constantly about him and also her chemistry with him is nonexistent.

[aardvaark]

prentiss: *gets almost killed on a case again*

prentiss 5 mins later: yeah i’m fine lol why wouldn’t i be? oh this gaping wound? nah it’s nothing a little coffee can’t fix haha 🤪🤪🤪

[shipping1addict]

On episode 3 on "Silo".

Screaming, crying, throwing up on the steam turbine thing.

Why was it installed vertically. Is there some form of cycle with a condenser or where does the steam go. How are the turbine blades not damaged after all those years getting hit by hot, accelerated water droplets. How are they just jump starting the turbine without a warm up period. Why does the turbine work without its casing and where is the steam coming from?

WHY ISN'T THERE A BYPASS?!?!

[m3tr0n0m333]

Sky thought Silo looked a little sad. What better way to cheer someone up than a donut floatie?

Basically her own way of saying “you can use this!”

Hey!!

Destiny really enjoyed the picnic! So now she wants to invite everyone to the beach! She brought her beach ball and some popsicles to share! Wanna come with?:)

@sonic-fankid-showdown

[rosecolouredheart]

Oh!! I took this for myself but in case some of you were wondering about the tillable earth on meadowlands farm type (ignore the barn and silo, but the coop is in its default place) and no one's shared this yet, here ya go.

[tangerine-dream-machine]

do you wanna see the west with me?

Notes below!

This is not a realistic road trip at all, but here are the places/activities shown:

Yorktown Battlefield, Virginia: the site where General Cornwallis surrendered in 1781, bringing the end of the Revolutionary War

Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: the famous bell with the message "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof", and later a symbol of liberty for abolitionists and suffragists

Drive-in theater: outdoor cinemas that reached their peak in popularity in the 1950s to 60s; the film is The Searchers (1956)

Kayaking: a fun lake/ocean activity

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: this trail crosses nine states and follows the forced displacement of Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogees, and Seminoles due to the Indian Removal Act in 1830

Traffic (and billboards): a bane to many and common in car-dependent cities

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Vicksburg, Mississippi: one of the oldest cemeteries in the US still being used; predates the Civil War and includes a Confederate burial site

Devil's Tower, Wyoming: a majestic (and sacred) butte and the first US national monument

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah: a flat, empty salt pan estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt and a popular racing site

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming: a geyser in the world's first national park known for its reliable eruptions

Gas station, Nowhere, USA

Horseback riding, Montana: no comment, just a fun time

Las Vegas, Nevada: the world renowned Sin City, a place that caters to many vices

Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, North Dakota: group of missile defense facilities including missile silos and the pyramid-shaped radar system; built in 1975 and decommissioned after one day of operation, a "monument to man's fear and ignorance"

Hoover Dam, Nevada and Arizona: hydroelectric power plant on the Colorado River; the highest dam in the world at the time of its completion in 1935

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington: an observation tower with a revolving restaurant built for the 1962 World Fair "Living in the Space Age", a theme chosen to show the US was not lagging behind the USSR in the Space Race

Sequoia National Park, California: home of the world's largest tree by volume (General Sherman) and the highest point in the contiguous US (Mount Whitney)

Muir Beach Overlook, California: a former base station overlook with dugouts that gained importance immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as a means to watch for attacks on nearby San Francisco

@usukweek

[imagine-darksiders]

God, kidnappers just didn’t exist for us growing up. We were country kids, the real danger was in the cattle fields, drowning in grain silos, running from combine harvesters through the oil seed rape, old scarecrows who kept coming back, the cold lakes in winter.

City friends would come to stay over and wouldn’t believe you when you told them to ignore the rabbits screaming from the brook. They’d always go home tired from playing on hay bales and breathing the grain dust.

[txttletale]

youve previously spoken about i was a teenage exocolonist and its confused politics, and i agree, and now im thinking, how would one revise the story so as to improve them?

i think the game would have to either not be so proudly About Colonialism or would have to revise its story so that the theming actually matches the events. like imaginining that my proposed rewrite aims to 1. make the game's politics coherent while 2. changing as little as possible and 3. keeping the game's intended themes, i think the things that are most dissonant and jarring are:

the game not understanding what colonialism is but wanting to very much assure you that It's Bad

the game not understanding what fascism is but wanting to very much assure you that It's Bad

the game not understanding what capitalism is &c. &c. &c.

the bizarre unexamined eugenicist elements

so let's start on the first thing. you would want to lean much more heavily on the colonists as 'refugees' rather than 'colonists' -- the game treats 'colonizing' a place the exact same way as 'living there', and that kind of sucks (a common problem when using 'Space Colonization' as a 1-1 metaphor for actual colonization). so while we want to keep the weird culty aspects of the colony's society we'll ditch most of the colonial intentionality until the Helios arrives. secondly, we need to have the planet's indigenous people, like, actually present and not secretly hiding away as supercomputers.

so, like, let's keep the Gardeners as artificial life forms dedicated to protecting the ecosystem, but let's make them biotech. let's make them giant, imposing trees that reach up into the sky, with root networks that span the whole planet. then, rather than the colony being colonialist because it straight up doesnt know indigenous people exist (because they're secret computer people), we can make a much more interesting conflict by having the colonists be ignorant (and, as the game progresses, willingly ignorant) of the gardeners' sentience. have the raids start after the colony fells one of the trees (killing a Gardener) to make room for their own expansion, maybe really lean into the nasty parts of the colonial metaphor by having the Gardener's wood be the construction material of the new wing of the colony.

then Lum arrives as part of an intentional colonization project from the Earth we fled, assumes military command as in the current story, and immediately ramps up existing exploitation and destructive enviromental practices. his administration deliberately suppresses information of the Gardeners' sentience and spreads propaganda about them being 'monster trees'. have Lum clearly backed by Earthbound corporate interests, seeing the colony as an excercise in extracting value and using fascist dictatorship (usurping elections and the council with a permanent state of emergency and martial law) as a tool to maximize that value.

instead of defeating Lum at the ballot box, you can remove him in a coup. you can keep the getting-the-councilors-on-side minigame, you can even make it a bloodless coup if you don't want to put revolutionary violence in the game (but considering how much other violence there is in there, including terrorism, genocide, and murder, seems like a strange omission tbqh). and dont make him your fucking tiktoker put the guy in Jail. hes killed people sol.

have Sym still have his humanboo interests but also hint at an internal power struggle within the Gardeners, make it clear that there is a real and thriving culture among these indigenous gigantic environmentally networked tree-ecosystem-people, make his motivations for seeking peace more multifaceted.

then make the peaceful resolution to the whole colonialism issue to integrate the settlers into Gardener society rather than the weird siloed reservation thing going on in the base game. the head of the settlement or an ambassador (probably Dys) gets to go to the big fancy Gardener meetings where they decide things, the settlement gets permission from the Gardeners to farm and expand sustainably and is integrated into the ecosystem rather than neatly separated from it. the excolonists stop being colonists and become citizens of the planet.

as for the capitalism stuff, you can just drop that from marz' character, honestly. or if you want to make it make more sense without having to get into What Capitalism Is (which i think would be outside the mission statement of these proposals), make her thing wanting opulence and excess (it already kind of us, the game just keeps saying 'Capitalism'), have her excited when Lum starts giving people the opportunity to have that, then have her moment of excitement turn sour when she looks into Earth history and realizes how destructive this kind of extraction is in the long term.

and the eugenics--i think the simplest case here while still keeping all the cool genetic mutant character tics is just to make the genetic mutations a random glitch in an artificial womb system the refugees were using to have kids in space. this lets you keep the weird and wacky stuff going on with tangent and dys without raising questions like 'hey isnt this society insanely fucking dystopian'.

that's my in-a-nutshell rewrite of the game. obvsies an actual rewrite would need to change some more in-depth things, but i think off the top of my head these are the changes to the narrative that would make the heavyhanded attempts at political commentary work for me (that said, you could also go the opposite route, stop trying to draw parallels to colonialism and fascism and keep all the weird shit as is. but i think that's less interesting and more like stuff that already exists)

[peachdues]

A little glimpse at the Compass one-shot I’m doing for Sanemi’s birthday. This one-shot will be almost entirely fluff. Like. Tooth rotting fluff.

Minor CW: description of gang-related violence • reference to drug use

COMPASS MASTERLIST HERE

When he turned ten, Genya brought him a tiny green race car, no doubt swiped from the basket of loose toys that sat next to the cashier at the nearby corner store. The paint was chipped, and one of the wheels had a tendency to stick whenever Sanemi skated it over the kitchen’s cracked linoleum, but it was a toy, and Sanemi hadn’t had one of those before. So, he ruffled his brother’s hair and the two spent the night rolling the car back and forth to one another across the floor, giddy with that childlike innocence they never got to keep come sunrise.

The store closed not long after his birthday, its owner having been dragged out sometime in the night by hooded men, face too swollen and mouth too bloodied to scream.

Not that anyone would’ve helped, anyway. Not in the Silo.

Sanemi still has the car, though. It’s since lost a wheel, and the paint has nearly faded away, but it sits in his window sill; a prized token of the boy he’d never been.

For his fifteenth birthday, Sanemi’s lucky ass got not one, but two presents: a broken rib and a black eye. Courtesy of Kyogai, a sleazy had-been in the Corps’ ranks, whose penchant for downers meant he never had enough money to pay his dues to the Corps. Sanemi, a junior at the time, had been sent to collect money Kyogai refused to cough up, and in his youthful arrogance, thought he could simply strong-arm the Corps’ payment back.

That was when he learned never to get between a junkie and their fix — especially once withdrawal set in.

Sanemi returned the birthday generosity on a cold day in January, with his crowbar to Kyogai’s kneecaps. Rumor was he still couldn’t walk without a cane.

So no, Sanemi can’t say he expects much out of his birthdays. He views the mark of his twenty-second here on earth the same way as he had the others: with utter disinterest.

You, however, seem dead-set on ignoring more than two decades of practiced indifference.

[ripplestitchskein]

I will never understand the “Me sharing my anti opinion in the main tags is more important than other’s enjoyment”. Mindset

It’s very much showing up at a party where everyone is having a good time, not liking the theme and then standing in the center of the room screaming about how much you hate it.

The person I confronted this morning about it was basically “I am allowed” and “You can keep scrolling” and “it’s just one post”.

People are allowed to be an asshole in a variety of ways everyday, the choice to not be is what makes the difference.

I can keep scrolling, of course I can, but the point of using the tag is that I’m scrolling through what I wanted to see. I specifically chose to scroll through that tag to see it. By putting your anti shit in it people have no way to escape an opinion they specifically chose to not see. It’s a pretty good consent metaphor, people consented to one thing, they declare that consent by using a tag to indicate that’s what they want. Now someone is deliberately ignoring that and forcing themselves into a space they are not welcome or wanted. Tags are a boundary, and part of a social contract you are choosing to ignore, for what?

It’s just one post. But it’s not? It’s multiple a day. You are contributing to an overarching problem. So while we are just trying to see speculations and theories and fun art and angsty head canons about what we’re enjoying we have multiple people a day coming in for no other reason than to ruin that enjoyment.

You are of course welcome to your opinion, and sharing it, but there are tags so that people who enjoy anti and critical content and want to be heard can enjoy it and be heard, and there are tags where people who enjoy pro content and want to find likeminded people can enjoy it and find their people. It’s the entire reason Tumblr is a great community building space and superior in my opinion to other social platforms.

Tumblr is not Twitter or Instagram, the tag system allows people to curate their experience so they don’t have to see content they don’t want to. That’s what the tags are for, so they can enjoy themselves and not be siloed or forced to find people through endless hours of scrolling thorough things they don’t care about. You don’t get more engagement by rage farming on Tumblr. There is no benefit to doing so. It is an entirely malicious action.

It’s not in anyway equivalent in seriousness but if you wouldn’t post triggering content in a trigger warning tag why would you post anti content in a pro tag? They are the same base behavior.

[laswells-ashtray]

Okay, here me out on this. Gonna do this anonymously cause social anxiety is scary and I've never left an ask before, first time for everything I suppose. :')

I was randomly just watching the missions for MW3 cause I loved the concepts of some of them, just hated how most of it played out (Like how did Graves survive being blown up? Or how it felt like the story was rushed at points). Then I remembered the mission where Price got trapped in that silo thingy with the poisonous gas stuff that I cannot remember for the life of me what it is called (Think the mission was called Reactor,if you wanted to look it up if I don't explain it that well). Loved that mission cause to me it showed that Price wasn't this almighty powerful captain that doesn't get injured that badly compared to everyone else in 141.

Had a random thought of just the in-between part of when Price passed out to when he woke up on the helo. Was scrolling through the random posts and when I got to the one where Mac had met Price's team and stuff all I could think about was what if Gaz or Soap or anyone who's met Mac just tell Nik or Laswell to call for grandpa. I find it hilarious just the thought of Price's subordinates panicking over the fact that their captain, (and practically father figure sometimes due to how often he mother hens them), had inhaled poisonous gas then passed out and wanted help from someone who's known Price for years. Then cue Mac just showing up on base in Price's office or calling Price really late at night being like "You have 5 seconds to explain what happened and how in the world you got into that situation Mister. I do not care that you're a captain now I still hold seniority over you Price, I will pull that card you little shit." Cause despite the fact that Price was a pain in the ass when he was Mac's sergeant he still cares for the stubborn Brit's wellbeing.

Sorry if I started ranting, I love cod and finding the posts have made me do my happy stims. :) Especially reading the silly ones, always makes me feel better when having a bad day.

Made me get my glasses for this one, in a good way I'm just blind as shit. A little bit. Also never apologise for ranting, this is a safe place for ranting, rambling and threats of bodily harm but only if they're polite about it.

Firstly, I know exactly what mission you're talking about because I can't get past the second juggernaut and had to rage quit because I was giving myself a stress headache.

Secondly. I've missed writing more Mac if only because I have to write so English-ly for everyone else.

When the door opens, John doesn't look up. He assumes it's Nikolai coming to check on him, Ghost popping his head in to call him a twat again or one of the sergeants asking how he's doing. He doesn't expect to see the same, worn soles of some battered old boots that he's been trying to convince Mac to get rid of for over ten years park themselves on his desk.

Nor does he expect to see Mac watching him, arms crossed over his chest, and a look of blatant fury on his face that makes the hair on the back of John's neck stand up.

His chest is still tight and there's a familiar ache in his throat, he's too old to be getting fucking gassed anymore. Whatever cancer he'll be riddled with in ten years is not worth it.

"Well?"

He isn't stupid enough to answer that, leaning forward with his elbows on the desk. If Mac didn't look ready to deck him, he'd likely be lecturing John about "uncooked joints on the table".

"Jus no gonnae say a fucking hing tae me? Dae a luk like a store dug?"

He groans and ignores the rattling behind his ribs, running a hand over his face as he prays that maybe, just maybe Mac will go easy on him.

"What have you been told?"

He doesn't bother asking "and by who?" because he doesn't want to be annoyed at any of them, and it was likely Kate.

"Ye inhaled a fuck ton ae somehin ye shouldnae 've and a hud to hear about it fae someday else."

He nods, looking at the older man wearily. "That's about it, didn't think you'd need a play-by-play."

Mac lowers his feet off of the edge of the desk and drags his chair closer to the desk with a grating scraping noise that makes john wince.

"Right, lad. Genuine question, are ye a fuckin tit?"

It appears to be just that, a genuine question if the way Mac is arching a brow at him means anything. The Scot doesn't allow him the opportunity to answer before talking again.

"Ye must be, cuz we both ken launchin heed first intae somethin filt wae somehin that mangles ye is some biblical arsehole-ity, John."

John briefly considers slamming his head on the desk. It'd do no good to explain that it was for the mission, Mac would probably just skelp him over the back of the head for implying that wasn't something the retiree already knew.

"You did worse back in the day."

MacMillan only narrows his eyes at him, clenching his hands into fists on his lap.

"Dae ye take me as a gid fuckin example wae these things, son?"

John shakes his head, staring down at the desk in front of him.

"Swear tae fuck, ye pull a stupid stunt like that again and a'll huv yer fucking knees wae a crowbar. Christ, is yer self-preservation that far oot the fuckin windae?"

That has John looking back up at him through narrowed eyes, everyone kept jumping down his throat about it as if they wouldn't have all done the same for the sake of a mission. It was part of the job.

Mac slams his hand down on the edge of the desk, irritation washing over his face in waves.

"Dinnae fuckin luk at me like that, crabbit wee git. A get tae rip intae ye fir stupid shite like this or did ye forget that? The fuckin heart attacks ye put me through fir years and ye huvnae changed a bit? Ye canne be dain that tae every, ye might act like an ignorant arse but ye've got folk aroon here that actually don't like the thought ae attending yer fuckin funeral, ye daft cunt."

Maybe the older man can see the exhaustion that's settled in John's bones, wearing him away from the inside out. Or maybe this is just how MacMillan felt years ago, it might just be an inherited trait that presents itself alongside the captain title.

"Get tae bed, son. We're talkin aboot this the morra. And tea wae lemon fir yer throat, ye sound like ye've been gargling shrapnel."

[essektheylyss]

Conrad and Justin really are so sweet and heartwarming, but there is something that makes me lose my mind about them being friends in particular.

Given Mark Bition having such an influence in the city, with Mayor Logic being elected because, you know, it just made sense, and just Elias Hodge's general career path and interests, Justin could've been running with the big dogs. People who are ambitious and rational, particularly those funneled into siloed scientific development jobs for those traits, often justify their actions extensively. Progress, the momentum of civilizations, the greater good, economic upswing—these are all justifications for scientific and technological development that work well on the people doing the work as much as they do on those funding it. It is a simple story to tell.

But Justin isn't with those people. He's with Conrad, the stunted conscience that has been neglected and ignored out of pain and fear and anxiety for years. He's been encouraging Conrad to act, to speak up, to push through those fears to make a change, and after all of those years, he is still Conrad's best friend.

Even when Conrad thought he had been wrong, Justin didn't. Which means Elias Hodge knew all along that his conscience was right.

[bioethicists]

black women have been grappling for decades with the fact that they organize with + live alongside + love men who are both given only conditional access to male privilege AND wield violent, structural power over them. they have generated libraries worth of compassionate theory which engages with the destructive impact of misogyny on men, the way in which being seen as a Real Man is conditional for marginalized ppl, the dangers of separatism + the importance of leaving nobody behind. these are not new ideas + they are absolutely necessary ideas for moving towards total liberation.

however, most foundational black feminist/intersectional feminist (in the tradition of angela davis) theorists have discussed these concepts without: minimizing or erasing the concept of misogyny, falling back on lesbophobic stereotypes (ugly man hating dykes!), repeating antifeminist propaganda (not all men!), abandoning a focus on structural power + material impact, engaging in bad faith identity politics which silo identities (tokenizing some while ignoring others, constructing weird hierarchies of which oppressions 'cancel each other out'), or individualizing oppression/identity/power (things which happen TO us + AROUND us, not within us).

respectfully, these theories of feminism which include + acknowledge men's pain are already happening- there's a reason those aren't the theories/practices you're exposed to. these theories often do lack trans voices, but you aren't adding our voices to these stories. you are creating a new theory of oppression built on a foundation + critique of white neoliberal feminism + based largely on anecdotal experiences in predominately white communities. you are replicating all of the flaws of white feminism.