ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
No bio...
User ID: 1012
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
10mo ago
Russia has apparently been abducting tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Children. The prospects of getting these kids BACK even if Ukraine wins are slim-to-none.
I'm no Russia apologist but this seems like maximally uncharitable framing, and I'm extremely skeptical of that wiki article since it seems like blue tribe has thrown in completely with Zelensky. Having never heard of that, I assumed that Russians were literally driving around in vans and snagging kids to send them back to the motherland to process into Soylent Green or something since I can't imagine why they would bother rounding up kids in a war zone. But apparently they're just collecting war orphans, kids who were stuck in government institutions, and kids who were orphans before the war broke out, and trying to place them in Russian homes.
I'm not really sure what the alternative is. Send them across a chaotic active military front? Leave them to scrounge for rats to eat in bombed out apartment blocks? Having read the AP news article cited in the wiki (NYT one is paywalled), the biggest complaints are that the kids aren't being sent to the other side of Ukraine (which makes sense since as far as Russia is concerned eastern Ukraine is part of Russia now) and that the kids are being taught Russian which apparently counts as "genocide." From the kids' perspectives, western Ukraine and Russia are probably both very foreign, and wherever they get sent in Russia will almost certainly be farther away from the warzone then wherever they'd end up in Ukraine.
This is as bad as "kids in cages," and it makes it really hard for me to take seriously any claims of Russian war crimes (of which I'm sure there are many real examples) since western media is so eager to exaggerate to push an image of Russians as sadistic child-stealing orcs.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
This is the real problem. I don't know or really care if Trump is guilty of mishandling documents, but I do care about setting a precedent for using the bureaucracy to endlessly hound and destroy a political rival. I thought his "lock her up" rhetoric was stupid and irresponsible in 2016, and I think this much more serious escalation is stupid now.
Trump was over after 2020, the Dems could have just taken the high road, ignored Trump, and watched as the GOP tore itself apart three ways between the Trump fanatics, the Nevertrumpers, and the demoralized group in-between (including me). Instead there's a faction determined to make an example of him in order to... what? Certainly it's not because they love justice or else they would've been prosecuting the legions of other corrupt American politicians who do worse things. Presumably this is ideologically motivated but again -- to what strategic end? Letting Trump beclown himself on social media as he and his partisans slip into irrelevance would have much more effectively destroyed his movement than giving him a bunch of attention and riling up his fans. It seems then to be motivated by short sighted vengeance, or is there a steelman I'm not seeing?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
FWIW I tend to downvote those, but I often won't engage since there's usually not even an interesting point to be made. I even report ones that are especially egregious, although certain posters on "my side" of the culture war seem to be allowed to get away with low effort snark that I think would get me moderated.
I agree with you that there are a lot of them and that they should be more aggressively moderated since they drag down the discourse.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
No, it's not enough, because you and I both know that these cases will never be reopened so it costs you absolutely nothing to take that stance. Very principled and also very convenient.
As someone above posted, the only way to deescalate this sort of partisan spiral is for your side to willingly take an L. If the Dems showed that they had Trump dead to rights but then loudly proclaimed that they refused to stoop to politically motivated prosecution, I would be impressed. Or, if they prosecuted Trump and then also began looking into Hunter Biden, I would be impressed. But until then, if it looks/walks/smells like political partisanship then it probably is, and all the self-righteous throat clearing in the world isn't going to change anyone's mind.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
It really adds 30 years.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
I've seen you post comments in opposition to idpol many times now but I'm still not sure what you believe. To me the argument that adopting idpol in the U.S. is tantamount to pressing the "defect" button in order to benefit at the expense of other groups who must coexist with you. So the logical response is for those other groups to start pushing "defect" themselves lest their lunches get eaten.
I'm not a fan o white nationalism and I think that "white" is a very incoherent, borderline-nonsensical concept in the U.S. But it seems like as a non-BIPOC person my long term choices are "do nothing and eventually pay reparations" or "start advocating for my racial group or coalition in order to counter enemy idpol tactics." I would prefer a third way. You seem to think there is one, so what is it?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
I haven't seen that discussion, but it sounds possible. Places like that are usually exactly what you'd expect, some combination of:
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Extremely small
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Filthy and/or damaged
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Old
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Structurally dangerous (predating latest earthquake safety laws)
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In a natural disaster high risk zone (flood/tsunami/landslide)
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Terrible location (far from public transit, or next to factories/noisy train station/graveyard/sewage plant etc)
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Tainted by association (usually a suicide or high profile crime)
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Shitty neighbors (almost by definition)
$150/month might still seem outrageously low given the above, but I again have to emphasize that these are usually basically pod "apartments" that would probably violate building codes in the U.S. for being so small.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
But the bigger issue is that Mainland China is so incredibly sheltered. They don't have the sense of what is possible, their culture is a tiny shallow hothouse for midwit takes. It's like Belarus or some other stale post-Soviet backwater; actually worse. This is true of their entertainment as well as of their tech and politics. I've tried to take them seriously for a while, and came to this conclusion. Ignoring China and assuming they won't do anything consequential nor retaliate in any meaningful way when Anglos are kicking them in the balls has consistently been the rational choice.
Finally, someone else on The Motte who gets it.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
No, I think you may very well be a principled person. But you are probably surrounded by a large majority who are arguing for unprincipled exceptions who will use your principled stance to cynically further their goals.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
One dark pinstripe suit. I wear it to solemn Masses and big social events (funerals, ceremonies). So at least once a quarter.
Glancing in my closet I also have a tweed blazer and a thin white summer blazer that sadly no longer fits since I've started lifting. : (
I've been meaning to buy a casual suit to wear for fun. Probably a navy one.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
RIP. That story makes me smile every time I read it.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
Not to mention the banality of Rotherham.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
Here it is from Gillette's official account: https://youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
If you've got the right sort of sand, you can make a Sagrada Familia sandcastle. My daughter enjoyed this when she was about 4 or 5. Otherwise just crack a beer and let 'em run around, they make their own fun at that age.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
I dunno, man. I'm pretty sure that if Jan 6th was a bit hotter the cops would've started shooting people and would probably have been exonerated for doing so. Look how draconian the legal repercussions have been for Jan 6 participants.
Not so for BLM. I don't blame cops for not shooting BLM rioters, they knew that the full force of the radical left-wing political machines would come down on them and utterly ruin their lives.
30,280 at 0.01 percentile. Checkmate gaytheists. I am apparently "Shakespearen" and have been granted license to add words to the dictionary. Literally my first act will be to revert the definition of "literally."
/images/16857141042367923.webp
I would also like to point out that I only took it once and while I was taking a shit.
Edit: Misspelled Shakespearean above. License revoked.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
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Safety razor with a bunch of blades. Cheap, sanitary, and does a better job than plastic razors.
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Obsidian Sync for storing all my notes and ideas and syncing them between my devices (you can do it for free with git but I like supporting Obsidian)
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Plastic pan scraping squares. Cleaning pots and pans has never been so easy.
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A dozen small glass bowls for storing small amounts of leftover food or for temporary ingredient storage while cooking
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If you're poor, an all purpose hot sauce like Frank's Red Hot makes everything edible
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Pour spouts for your liquor. Way less mess and wasted booze, way easier measuring.
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Better than Bouillon, best stock/bouillon substitute ever (only available in America maybe?)
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Kitchen chopsticks. These are giant chopsticks connected by a string for story frying stuff. Much easier to use than a spatula but might take some practice.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
Is this new? I don't think I've been in a Target since Covid. I don't remember Target or Walmart stocking LGBT themed stuff even in places like the greater Seattle area.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
Go to a park or trail that is a very easy walk and has few people. Turn your phone off. Don't bring anything you have to carry, like a bag or water bottle. Try to notice as much as you can about your surroundings. What color are the leaves? Is the terrain sloping? What's swimming under the surface of that pond? What sounds can you hear? How does the air smell?
I personally prefer walking along ridges or along the edge of some body of water. There are also some small valleys near where I live that feel pleasantly insulated.
When you get to quite, isolated spot, take a short rest and soak it all in. I like to say a few prayers of gratitude at this point.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
I guess Leftist propaganda has done a number on me because when a new book about the Holocaust or Racism or whatever comes out in $currentyear (although admittedly this one predates mass TDS by a few years) I steel myself for the inevitable parallel between Conservatives/Christians/White males/etc and the not-so-subtle implication that people who oppose immigration are literally SS guards or that people who are not in favor of "trans rights" are little Bull Connors. I'm still willing to read stories about the Holocaust that were written a decade or two after the fact, but I treat anything written later with extreme skepticism, because at some point (maybe during the 60s and 70s?) the Holocaust was elevated from "terrible thing that happened" to "the worst and purest example of evil in human history" and assumed near-mythical qualities. The Civil Rights Movement on the other hand seems to have undergone the transformation to myth almost immediately so I am extremely selective and skeptical when consuming anything about that period.
When a book about the Fall of the Roman Empire comes out, I expect it's going to be a dry history, maybe revealing a few new discoveries or advancing some new theories. There are books that try to draw parallels between the British Empire/American Republic to claim that we're repeating history, which by this point is quite a tired and trite comparison, but they're not usually imbued with the same moral outrage.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
They prey on naïve Westerners who are good people, and thus believe that other people are good people too.
What would you do?
Nothing. I wouldn't want to prevent them from learning a very important lesson about their fellow man.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
11mo ago
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Trashy Adult Swim Shows
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Denpa music
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Sour Patch Kids
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Bicep curls
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Collecting weeaboo merch
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Dr. Pepper
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TTRPGs
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Not breaking character during the entire TTRPG session
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
1mo ago
Was it this one?
Wasn't it applied to fans of "The Man Show?" So it's probably around 20 years old. Maybe it (or a sanitized version of it) started offline?
Edit: Since people seem unfamiliar with the term -- my understanding is "person (usually a guy) who leans left not out of pure devotion to the progressive cause, but because he enjoys fun deviant stuff like booze and porn that the prudish Christian Right would try to restrict or ban."
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