weevil-mastermind

[weevil-mastermind]

With President Donald Trump sending out tweets threatening violence against looters and police arresting reporters on air, it’s hard for Baby Boomers not to feel like this is 1968 all over again.

It was a difficult time then. The nation was stuck in the quagmire of Vietnam, with hundreds of thousands of troops fighting for their lives in a useless conflict. Meanwhile, every day seemed to bring more news of turbulence at home as the anti-war movement brought ongoing clashes between activists and police.

damn, really sucks that Vietnam was so unsporting as to be a quagmire that America could get stuck in and force the troops to fight for their lives while anti-war activists caused turbulence at home.

I mean this is a relatively minor point – or perhaps it isn’t – but you could rewrite this paragraph along the lines of:

It was a majorly fucked up time then. The nation was bombing the fuck out of Vietnam and Laos and would soon begin secretly bombing Cambodia too, with hundreds of thousands of troops committing massacres and war crimes on the regular. Meanwhile, every day the police were beating the shit out of people who were trying to end the war.

like that would be technically more accurate and less misleading than portraying America as this innocent virgin continually ravaged by “turbulence” that comes out of absolutely nowhere for no reason at all.

[weevil-mastermind]

I considered specifying “all sane people” or something like that but I thought that was unnecessary.

I appreciate your honesty but to be frank I think you have a morally bankrupt position.

surprising number of idiots use Ukraine as an example of why open borders doesn't work, because if you allow people to travel freely without checkpoints between historical enemies like say Germany and France it also allows those countries to bomb each other's cities and.

[weevil-mastermind]

surprising number of idiots use Ukraine as an example of why open borders doesn't work, because if you allow people to travel freely without checkpoints between historical enemies like say Germany and France it also allows those countries to bomb each other's cities and.

[weevil-mastermind]

I know a queer Russian. Things would be a lot nicer if they could easily immigrate to a country where LGBT people have achieved some basic freedoms, at least until Russia gets over the whole homophobia thing. There are a lot of people around the world in a similar boat!

surprising number of idiots use Ukraine as an example of why open borders doesn't work, because if you allow people to travel freely without checkpoints between historical enemies like say Germany and France it also allows those countries to bomb each other's cities and.

[weevil-mastermind]

I think everything should have a list of academic sources

[weevil-mastermind]

surprising number of idiots use Ukraine as an example of why open borders doesn't work, because if you allow people to travel freely without checkpoints between historical enemies like say Germany and France it also allows those countries to bomb each other's cities and.

[weevil-mastermind]

Seems like Ukraine is an excellent example of how open borders is a moral necessity. When the war broke out, millions of Ukrainians fled to safety in other European countries. I think we can all see why allowing Ukrainians to escape a war zone was a moral imperative, but we don’t extend that logic to people in other countries wracked by violence.

surprising number of idiots use Ukraine as an example of why open borders doesn't work, because if you allow people to travel freely without checkpoints between historical enemies like say Germany and France it also allows those countries to bomb each other's cities and.

[weevil-mastermind]

yuup 👆 healthy baby animal

[weevil-mastermind]

Security!

[weevil-mastermind]

A hummingbird thought a man’s orange hat was a flower [x]

[weevil-mastermind]

That is some stunning commitment to the bit

[weevil-mastermind]

[weevil-mastermind]

…

[weevil-mastermind]

democratic representation, freedom of speech, and rule of law are the three things that we’ve finally managed to get right after so long and people are incredibly eager to piss them away, it’s sad.

[weevil-mastermind]

“Why should a French or a German citizen be born with access to world-class services and well-protected rights (actual implementation on the basis of minority status may differ), while a Somalian citizen is not only denied those things, but also faces huge obstacles in becoming a citizen (or even a resident) of anywhere else? If you are born a citizen of Japan, there are 190 countries you can travel to freely without a visa; if you are a citizen of Afghanistan, there are only 25. If you are born a U.K. citizen, and feel like a change of scene, you can pay $7 for permission to go to Canada, hop on a flight, and stay for up to six months without anyone bothering you. If you are born in a refugee camp, it can take years before you even get a chance to live in a place like Canada. So how can we possibly consider ourselves to be people who care about freedom and autonomy, when thanks to borders our destinies are practically assigned to us at birth? Is it absurd to form your own state? Or is it more absurd to have states in the first place?”

— Aisling McCrea, No Man Is An Island?

[weevil-mastermind]

Fun fact: in Europe, charcoal makers or colliers were considered somewhat of an odd job. While not rejected outright, despite the very specialized skill set and knowledge needed to do charcoal kilns, they seem not to be highly considered. Charcoal making needs constant attention and is often a solitary job next to sources of wood like forests, so colliers were considered solitary men, the German word Köhlerglaube ("collier’s faith") means a person with blind faith on something, because colliers often didn't have time to go to church to learn what they believed in, they just did.

This solitary lifestyle and connection to the forest, at least in Scandinavian folklore, seems to make colliers a favorite 'target' of forest spirits such as the Hulders or Huldras. Hulders are described as beautiful women (sometimes men, huldrekall) with a hidden non-human trait, like a hollow back or a fox or cow's tails. Colliers who left gifts for them and were kind were repaid by the Hulders tending to their kilns.