It is stupid, but lots of hobbies are stupid.
What takes it over the top is when people start making actual life decisions based on what they read about "Aires and Gemini relationships" or whatever.
I have an ex whose grandmother would literally call her in the middle of the night to opine on how she should leave me and find a man who better matches her astrology shit. And what could have been a humorous laugh about batty ol' grandma turned into me chuckling while she sternly stared at me until I said "... you're... not really listening to that dumb shit, right?"
Well, that was many years ago, grandma is long dead, and uh, I dunno, maybe the sun knew something. Or maybe she was just using it as an excuse to make hard decisions. Who knows.
I still don't understand anything about organic soap or astrology though. So, maybe she was also right with the whole "you never listen to me" thing. Listening to someone go on about the stars and moon and shit and how it has mystical powers is probably exactly how my mom felt when I was a kid explaining to her how I made gold in RuneScape. Just smile and nod along. Retain nothing. I did try to retain stuff, I really did, but I guess my brain just isn't built for that shit. But I describe in painful detail every boss fight from a raid I did 20 years ago... Brains. How do they work?
If you pay attention, like actually pay attention, and fully comprehend all the terrible shit the US state dept (and its various puppet like the EU, NATO, Israel, etc.) does on a daily, even hourly, basis... this is basically all going as expected and predicted for decades.
Not to downplay the shittiness
Remember that time... when after 9/11... George "Hitler" Bush and Richard "Himmler" Cheney pushed through a bunch of insanely overreaching legislation, executive orders, and got SCOTUS to rubber stamp basically all of it. I remember being told as a teen in those subsequent years into the Iraq War era, that while time period, that those laws that created or beefed up the most powerful intelligence agencies/federal law enforcement agencies ever at the time, and still, were "required" for the moment. We're at war! Once Himmler gasses all the terrorists, we'll just, you know, do that thing which oppressive governments are famous for doing and simply relinquish power, stop the mass spying, the oppression of non-state dept friendly ideas/actions, etc.
What actually happened, as everyone including a (very stupid, but not that stupid maybe) 15-16 or so year old me, said was gonna happen. The laws remained, the provisions they promised were only for "dirty foreign terrorists" became increasingly for "well, domestic terrorism exists too!" and now, as fully predicted, they're just creating more events, pushing people on the edge (but it's not entrapment because we said so!) to do unhinged shit, all to justify the previous laws, which you cannot even question anymore in public discourse btw, good luck if you tried. Fully solidify the past, it was always like that, don't believe those silly cranks who literally lived through that insanity, and btw, we need more funding. More departments with ambiguous names, murky objectives, held accountable only to other federal agencies that will simply say "nothing to see there. Just patriots!"
The right wing used to be against this shit. Ostensively anyway. That old streak of libertarianism that probably would've said like "Yeah I think all these commies deserve to die, but that doesn't mean we need to frame them! If the government can frame them, they'll frame us!" You know, the absolute basic critical thinking required. Well, those guys are totally gone, and now just like "Yeah this is all really fucking bad... bad that isn't being used 100% against commies! Let's just do that!"
Which, one on hand, I can appreciate the sentiment since I would like the power of the US government to also obliterate all the right wing dipshits. But, I also know that 1) isn't happening 2) probably would horribly backfire even if someone tried. That also means that, like it or not, my own mind has slipped from a world where, for example, dissolving the department of homeland security (one of the worst agencies in the US which is packed to capacity with SS units on top of SS units) was a possibility into the current world where that isn't even up for discussion or even much thought at all. Instead the only thought is "How do I point the death cannon at people I hate?"
Matt Christman and many others have spoken on the same basic idea. Nothing unique. Just rather sad when you analyze your past self and present self and realize that while you hold certain ideals somewhere down there, the perception of what is plausible has changed around you, and thus changed you as well.
"Sad!," in the word of a dang Cheeto.
I think Uber might be the pinnacle of a vaporware tech corporation.
Remember they were gonna make self driving cars? (On paper anyway) Like that was the original selling point idea thing. Then it just became "oh, well, we drove all the taxis out of business... now we have slaves essentially. Well, this works too! Oh, btw, they aren't our employees. Oh, also btw, we will absolutely still be collecting our massive chuck every time a ride happens."
Another situation I try to sort out like "ok. Cool. So, all the drivers should just use an open source app "Not Uber" which is literally just Uber, but, you know, not." They could even charge the same prices to riders and the drivers keep all (maybe minus some minimum amount to maintain the app) the profits, perhaps boosting them to almost a fair wage.
As it stands, drivers assume all the risks, must have insurance, are responsible for cleaning their vehicles, gas, normal wear and tear, apparently also will be responsible for taxes (self employed I suppose?), etc. Uber does absolutely fuck all except they made an app like 10-15 years ago, were first to market (first big anyway) and dominated by offering artificially low pricing to customers.
But this would require some sort of Mass Effect style or Borg shit where the leader assumes direct control and tells people to stop using the Uber app and instead use this other Not Uber app... but in that case, why not just also command them to embrace communism?
Which leads me to my new solution for the world: communism brain worms. We get a sample of that RFK Jr worm(s), we find out how it made him cut the head off a whale, and we reprogram it to cut the head off... well, some sort of head, who can say what head?
I think about doing shit like this all the time (like turning an audiobook into a movie) but never even get close to follow through
What an incredible effort. Also, am I about to listen to season 1 for the 4th time? On Chapo, Will did say Brendan and presumably Noah will be on Soon ™️ with their new season announcement/yearly shilling
If we're talking literal cavemen, like hunter gatherer societies that hadn't really discovered the technology of farming yet, then I'd believe the world was fucking ending for about an hour. Then be like "oh... it didn't... back to figuring out how to not die today."
The US government (and EU for that matter) can't even find their sacks to make Apple stop being a monopoly and anti-consumer as fuck (no, this does not mean Google, Microsoft, etc. are better).
The US is going to collapse under its own house of shit because people listened to a demented, "god fearing" failed actor circa 1980 and never figured out how full of shit he was and how much damage was done by undermining union labor and then passing NAFTA (Clinton did it aka Reagan term 4 and 5)
It's one of those weird things that sometimes I feel like I have arcane knowledge of... when I explain this stuff to people I feel like they probably either think I'm making it up or, probably a legitimate thing to wonder, ask themselves why the fuck I know these weirdos inside and out. I, too, wish I knew that...
as I get older I notice I like to play like "the archivist" role and just recount the most insane shit I read online 20 years ago. Can't wait until my niece and any other kids my brother might have are old enough to hear their insane uncle tell them about turn of the century Nazi memes
It's been a very far right, literal Nazi, meme-but-not-a-meme thing (if you ever see how the groypers act, you know what I mean. "It's all a joke wink wink!" (Hint: it is not a joke)) since, well, forever. It's less about Israel as a nationstate doing 9/11 and more specifically about "the Jews" doing 9/11. But Israel goes out of its way to equate Israel with all Jewish people, boosting this type of antisemitism as people constantly warn about. So, Nazis just use Israel/Zionist/Jew all interchangeably depending on the layer of mask they want to wear.
And, yes, believing "the Jewish cabal" did 9/11 or whatever is a conspiracy theory so stupid that it is laughable. That's probably why it doesn't catch much mainstream right wing (but not quite explicitly Nazi) favor. But hey, today is a new day, imagine the Mein Kampfs that could be written... (oh god...)
He spoke at the end of the recent True Anon/Chapo (w Hasan Piker guest) live show with like a very short prerecorded cameo. He sounded basically like his old self there.
Obviously I don't know anything more specific than anyone else outside his family/friends, but strokes now days can be recovered from almost 100%. There might always be something "off" about the person post-stroke, but it's generally expressed how we saw Fetterman (as a public example) immediately after the stroke with aphasia. With therapy the symptoms can be almost fully overcome in a lot of people. With all medical stuff obviously it's statistics and just because like 80% of people live basically normal lives doesn't mean... well, you know. But based on Amber, Will, Chris, Felix's statements over the past year or whatever and the fact he can even make a video at all. Seems promising.
Here's a pubmed paper on stroke recovery if interested. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8189855/
Heart related medical science has really come a long way even in my lifetime. When I was a kid, a stroke basically meant you were paralyzed for life. My grandmother had one and she used a cane until the day she died because her left side was so weakened. Now days, my next door neighbor had a stroke and I see his old ass power walking with his dog every morning. So, anecdotal sure, but it's also sort of the reality now. (Obviously assuming a person has access to modern medical facilities and trained physicians, etc.)
@Justice
@lemmygrad.ml