arctanthrope

Terry Pratchett died ten years ago

you are allowed to stumble on the first line. and it may come off poorly. and if it does the other person is perfectly valid for not wanting to engage further. therefore if you want the other person to continue to engage, you should try not to come off poorly. this isn’t some newfangled social phenomenon, it’s how basic human interaction has worked for millennia

that’s not illegal actually. if it were, administrations could try to invent felonies for opposition leaders to have committed. now this particular felon should also have been ineligible to run under the 14th amendment, but he was never charged or tried for those crimes, let alone convicted

fun fact: Sauron did not create the Palantiri (btw, the word Palantir literally means “to see from afar” in Quenya, Tolkien’s high-elven language, the same etymology as the English word “television”), but he was able to gain control of the stones and influence the thoughts of others who looked into them by showing them visions of only the things he wanted them to see, which would bring those who were susceptible over to his side, or for those who were less susceptible, drive them to hopelessness and despair (this is what happened to Denethor, the Steward of Gondor; the movies decided to remove that plot point and make him look like an asshole for no reason). anyway, just a random fun fact about a fictional world, definitely no real modern relevance to powerful malicious actors gaining control of “television” or other means of rapid communication to bend the thoughts of others to their will

would it be possible to solve this problem by making different inks? or would any ink that doesn’t have this problem just inherently be non-permanent

ah, a barbarian

aurochs is the singular. aurochsen is plural. notice the similarity to ox/oxen

Netflix startup sound

honestly seems wild to me that people are pushing back so hard on the idea of having at minimum a small bedroom, as opposed to a cot in a crowded bunk room, or one of those Japanese pod hotels. y’all never seen a college dorm room?

I’m sure there are better solutions if we assume we can dismantle and rebuild all of society any way we want, along with the attitudes of those who inhabit it, but I think it’s worthwhile to consider how current systems could be improved

I’m not talking about my personal vision of utopia, I’m talking about the bare minimum of a society that can begin to be considered just, even in a very hollow sense

I’ve always believed that everyone should be able to have, for free, a permanent private living space of at least 80sqft, a reasonably comfortable bed, access to a toilet and shower and associated toiletries, clothing suitable for the weather, water and food (even if only some flavorless nutritional paste), and access to medical care both as-needed and on a regular basis. if you have no ambition in life beyond sitting in that little room staring at the wall and eating soylent, then so be it, for a society to provide any less is immoral