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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: February 26th, 2024

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  • Excerpts from a short piece, called “Back to the Wall,” by a famous writer; abridged:

    The individual soul is under attack…
    Ten years ago it may have been inconceivable that the great sweet “cassaba melon” as it was called of “American Century” prosperity was really a great psychic hoax a mirage of electronic mass-hypnosis…
    The choice given - or CHOSEN? by us between an oldfashioned politician…, which is to say conservative, and an outright Authoritarian rightwinger? We never had a choice between middle and left, we were always stuck between middle and right. Finally it becomes too much to fight. But the stakes are too great to lose…
    To live in a country which supposedly dominates the entire planet and to be responsible for the outrages of ones Own country! Woe to the Germans silent under Hitler woe to the Americans silent now.
    Not a matter of Policy, rational discourse etc.
    Things no longer merely out of proportion, things are UNREAL. Manipulating the unreal from centers of power - how can the soul endure?
    Movie blather, news broadcast blather … social blather of a totally maladjusted tribe engaged in struggle to retain power-dominance and control over an entire planet (nay an entire solar system!)

    He also mentions a “synchronistic putch.” The writer is called Allen Ginsberg and this piece was published 1966.
    Which is to say, the Overton window has been shifting for a long time and Nazism has never been truly defeated, only forced to hibernate. And certainly not just in the US. At least that’s my pessimistic conclusion at this point.



  • Empower the White, Christian, Sexually Aggressive/Frustrated Misogynists.

    Only as much and for as long as he deems necessary. Should they become a liability after getting him elected into power, they’d be dealt with swiftly. Remember Henry Hill in “GoodFellas”?

    If you’re part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they’re going to kill you, doesn’t happen that way. There weren’t any arguments or curses like in the movies. See, your murderers come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who’ve cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you’re at your weakest and most in need of their help.


  • Yeah, I’ve had a realization a few days ago when I checked out about a dozen songs that had north of 10 million views on YT, but I’ve never heard of them, at all, or of the artists behind them. And all of those were from some 10 years ago. So I guess my taste in music is kind of frozen in time and I’ve been trying for a while to complete collections of “old” artists rather than getting to know new ones.
    I do get occasional inspiration from the folks at I Love Music, though.



  • From the other side of the pond, I find it very worrying and, indeed, disconnected from reality that Americans on Lemmy discuss the body odor or groping or even raping connected to one man that could and, given the chance, absolutely will completely unhinge their entire country at once.
    You might think it smug, but many people all over the world have experienced a tyranny, or are currently experiencing it. There is no second warning, nor will there be a deadline; one day, the disappearings just start, and they will become increasingly random. You will not be in control of the process anymore.
    Or, in the words of Andrew Mack, albeit about the failed Vietnam War: “The American experience [is] in no sense unique, except to Americans.”
    I understand people need to vent, but what I would really hope to see would be discussions on how easy, or how difficult, it is to uproot one’s live and emigrate; how to go about getting a visa, or asylum, or a job in a different country; how long it takes to become fluent in a foreign language; or how long it would take Canada to close its borders once huge waves of refugees set in.
    Today’s “too alarmist” is tomorrow’s “wasn’t alarmist enough.”
    /offmychest




    • Language is by far the most important door opener, so put in one hour of learning every day for at least a year.
    • Mingle to get out of your comfort zone: Go to after-work parties and flea markets, take public transit. Use hobbyist/ meet-up apps. Read/ watch the local news.
    • Don’t expect to be invited, especially not to people’s homes. People might also be uncomfortable being invited to your home. Meeting in a public place is almost always the better option, unless you’ve gotten to know someone really well.
    • Irony/ sarcasm don’t translate very well between cultures.
    • Europe has some lousy weather, so get watertight coats and waterproof your shoes and backpacks.
    • Take it slow.
    • Also: Enjoy it! Europe is a fantastic little place at the crossroads between Asia and Africa and I would never want to leave.






  • Yeah, this one had me kind of excited. The atmospheres of Earth and Venus are, in fact, both quite aggressive, but Earth’s is very oxidative and somewhat acidic whereas for Venus, it’s the other way around. As a consequence, on Venus, stuff like carbohydrates would break down easily, especially in that kind of temperatures. As a consequence, life would have to be very different from Earth’s, and any search would have to account for that.
    As for how phosphine could be created on Venus, maybe something like this: 4 H2O + 4 SO2 + H3PO4 → PH3 + 4 H2SO4, which is likely endothermic. So there would have to be a very specific advantage for a life form to bother creating it.



    • Don’t be afraid of loneliness; don’t be afraid of too many people around; don’t be afraid of sharing your life with an SO you think you don’t really know. As you age, these phases tend to blunt and blend together, like the seasons. The only thing you really have, in the end, is yourself.
    • Adult life is a lot more about compromising than fighting. Don’t make other people’s life shitty on purpose, neither allow them to make yours shitty.
    • Get your regular medical check-outs.
    • Leave a place if you positively can’t stand it any longer, and start from scratch. It’ll be okay.