A goal to work toward. A hope that if we keep fighting, there will eventually be a future where people don’t have to fight. That there is a path toward humanity reaching it’s peak, rather than an endless sisyphian struggle until our extinction.

It’s not “things could be fine without struggle or setbacks”, Star Trek makes it VERY clear that it was not a smooth and easy path toward fully automated gay space communism. It’s history of humanity is riddled with wars and uprisings and cultural slides backwards. But there is the idea that there could be a better future someday. Where greed and inequality are almost foreign concepts in society. Where science and reason finally win out against superstition and ignorance.

It may be a fantasy, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hold onto a belief that things will not always just continue to be shitty forever. Never forget the words that can make a happy man’s joy turn to ash, or a sad man’s misery into hope:

This too shall pass.

Misleading headline.

Like 90% of users, I care about voice chatting with my friends, having persistent chat sessions, being able to share videos and links, being able to share files, being able to share screens, and stream to my friends.

Yes. ALL of these features are important. Not “oh but you can chat using this app, and share files with this app, and stream with this other app”. No. All those features listed. In a single app.

Until an alternative pops up that offers all of that, I refuse to accept the other “alternatives” listed as viable. They are not. There is a reason people moved from things like mumble and teamspeak to discord. Because discord offered more services at a higher level of convenience. I despise what discord is doing, but pretending like having to use multiple different programs to try and poorly accomplish what discord offers on its own would somehow be appealing to the majority of users is insane.

“Oh but these are decentraliz-” I. Do. Not. Give. A. Shit. Nor do the vast majority of discord users. Decentralization is fine and good, but it is so far down the list of priorities that it’s worthless to talk about.

It just feels wrong. It’s like having superman act like homelander. Even if the message is “things shouldn’t be this way”, you are tarnishing a symbol of hope and optimism. People like Star Trek, especially these days, because it gives them hope of a better future, beyond the struggles and corruption of modern society; where justice isn’t just an abstract concept that has to be fought for every day. Where competence and intelligence is rewarded, and corruption and prejudice is not tolerated.

To take that and twist it by going “actually the future is shitty and still full of fascism and it will always be an uphill battle” is just soul crushing.

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Smartest kid in our high school, easily got valedictorian in a very competitive school. Got a full ride to Harvard. Got his Masters. Became a research scientist. Was on track to get his PhD. Suddenly quit it all and became an elementary school music teacher. From what I can tell, he seems happy, but that burnout must have been crazy.

There is a type of ant that smells like rotten coconut when squished. Is that what they’re talking about?

I mean, except for you, the creator and poster of this misleading image that will only add fuel to the baseless accusations from Mossad. Even if you created this as an edgy joke, it won’t be used that way.

Let me ask you something: Why make shit up at all? Even as a joke? There are plenty of respectable people who have made anti-ICE statements. Hell, even Miss Rachel has made actual statements. Why not just use her actual words? Why put words into someone’s mouth that they didn’t say? What good comes of that?

This shit is exactly how things were reported in the runup to the 2024 election. Even if they don’t fuck with the elections, I am confidently predicting the midterms are not going to be a blowout like people are hoping.

The Dems might, might, barely squeeze out a majority in the House. And then starts the age old game of having to capitulate to the 2-3 congresspeople who say they’re Dems but vote with the GOP every time.

Not a snowballs chance in hell of Dems winning the Senate.

People are going to be hit with a truck of reality come the mid terms. Not that they’ll learn anything. Next election will be the same shit of “we’re totally going to win guys!” before fizzling into nothing.

If you are hoping for the midterms for justice to be served against this administration, keep dreaming. It’s not going to happen. Ever. Trump will die before he ever sees the inside of a courtroom regarding Epstein. No matter who the next leadership is, they’ll choose to move on without giving any consequences in the name of “unity”.

And the people will grumble, and ultimately do absolutely nothing about it.

One of the Epstein files is an email from a CEO where he says they no longer have to worry about revolt because the people are too obsessed with buying consumer products. Lots of people posted it and criticized him, but very few people were honest enough to admit the truth: he was right.

Bread and circus. That’s all the people want. You give them just enough bread and an overwhelming amount of circus and the people won’t rise up for anything. Beyond the traditional definition, consumer products these days also include social media, streaming services, and video games.

Sorry, best I can do is vampires again. If you’re good, I’ll also toss in a society of werewolves that they are in constant war with for some reason.

As in supporting Ukraine or supporting Russia? Because those are the two sides and only 1 is responsible for the war and trying to take land by military force. Doesn’t get much more imperialist than that.

Like high school? So a nightmarish time of depression, social stigmatism, and self-harm that has been slowly, but successfully, become mostly obscured by a decade of repression and heavy marijuana use?

That was everyone’s experience, right?

Did you ever watch parks and rec? Do you remember the episode where Ben is working on a senatorial campaign and the Senator is essentially a robot? He comes out, makes some generic statements on camera, says a few scripted lines to the people around him “stay cool, it’s a scorcher out there!”, and then goes into a room and stares blankly at a wall until they need him for something else.

That is essentially what a good portion of our politicians are like. They make no decisions. They have no opinions or thoughts of their own. They are surrounded by handlers every day who tell them what to wear, where to go, what to say, and how to vote. They have zero autonomy of their own. And unfortunately, this is far more apparent on the left rather than the right. I don’t get why people are surprised that the Dem leadership has been so ineffectual; it’s essentially just a collection of cardboard cutouts with voice recorders going “When they go low, we go high!”

Bitcoin is crashing because everything is crashing. Hardware has nothing to do with it. Bitcoin hasn’t been mined with typical commercial hardware for over 5 years. They use ASIC’s whose prices have been not been heavily impacted by AI investments as they can not be used for AI purposes.

The trip doesn’t fully end until you go to sleep.

Wolverine doesn’t call people “bud”, he calls them “bub”.

I really dislike that story and the traction it has gained because she did pretty much no follow through. ICE is able to get away with a paper-thin layer of doubt by saying “well she wasn’t actually hired” because she wasn’t. Why did she not at least show up for orientation? Why didn’t she use the opportunity to make a report on the training ICE receives? Why did the whole thing end after she was extended an offer?

I am 100% not defending ICE, you’d have to be a real piece of shit to think any of what they’re doing is acceptable. But… This is really not an uncommon tactic for HR at large orgs with tons of candidates for unskilled positions. Background checks take time, they cost money, they will often extend offers to nearly everyone and only bother checking once the person has shown up, because it’s a waste of resources to do it for everyone. Do you know how many stories there are of people getting hired on at big companies only to be let go a few days after starting when their background check starts popping up red flags? And yes, ICE should not be run that way. But that’s not the point, the point is this is a story put out by a journalist calling out a very common practice and people getting outraged because they don’t realize it’s a really common practice.

It just feels… I don’t know what the word is. Not fake. Not a distraction exactly. But… Like planned opposition? Like a story that’s technically true enough that it pisses off the left, but filled with enough inaccuracies and hyperbole that the right can easily handwave the criticism away and use it as evidence that leftwing media is overreacting. Basically, intentionally focusing on the wrong story rather than the actual issue. A good example is the types of warrants being used by ICE. That seems to be a big focus of stories and the left latches on to them going “omg, they are arresting people and breaking down doors with the wrong type of warrant which makes it illegal!” Meanwhile the right goes “so what? It’s still a warrant. Complaining about the wrong type just seems like a desperate attempt to claim a technicality.” And all the while, the conversation about what ICE is actually, physically doing to people and the harm they cause gets lost in the noise. So both sides get evidence that they’re correct.

Dude… Just no. They have not thrown the kitchen sink at us. Tear gas, unconstitutional arrests, even shooting people in isolated incidents is not even fucking close to how bad it could get. Short of sending an M1 Abrams? How about just unloading full auto rifles into a crowd? How about taking out targets with predator drones? FFS, they only just started deploying LRAD.

Things can, and very well may, get so, so, SO much worse even before tanks start rolling in the streets.

Any civilization capable of sending missiles across the galaxy should be more than capable of simply sending a tight beam of gamma radiation to sterilize the planet. No need for earth shattering explosions. Just a flood of radiation engulfing the planet for a minute or two and everything not buried a mile underground will be dead. There would be no warning either.

And that’s if they don’t bother to just blow up the sun.