Alabasata
2mo ago
I wrote a Dethklok-style song during the pandemic about that trend. It was cathartic to fantasize about burning those kinds of HOAs (and their contracts) to rubble.
The existence of keycard-locked and gated neighborhoods is a strong signal that most of the Americans that can afford them believe their surrounding society deserves low-trust interactions. This, in turn, earns a disgust response from me and others who cannot afford the security you buy.
Alabasata
4mo ago
I am not surprised that the author fancied themselves mischievous and fun to be around after that exchange. Certainly no longer a "failed male" as I expect many transwomen often slotted themselves as.
I know I would have found the conversation delicious, were I on the recieving end of it.
Alabasata
2mo ago
Are we LARPing, or just throwing speeches at each other? 🤣
Consider the following:
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The benefit cliffs from tax subsidies are real, and most technician jobs pay in the shadow of them. Competent contributors without a strong social network seem to get the worst of both worlds. Especially if the work is structured to have compulsory overtime to meet legal deadlines, and face-to-face socializing is rarely possible during work hours.
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Everyone fantasizes about violence. Some people sublimate it better than others. I appreciate your honest distaste. It's less exhausting to communicate with masks off.
You're welcome to believe we deserve our hell, as I believe you've invented one for us by relying on Internet art and thirdhand stories.
Now, this might not be the thread for it. But are you ready for some productive conversation after we've puffed our chests at each other?
I saw the trailer for this conference. This was held last year in Austin. I am a father, and before I was a father I could not have afforded a trip to attend this. I expect their target audience are HENRYs & PMCs, not tradesman.
I've wanted to be a father for a very long time. I could imagine my kids, but for a very long time I couldn't picture the woman who would want to have mine. After I bought a house, I couldn't find a local woman who wanted my children.
I don't care how beautiful the rhetoric is. They're not talking to me. I already kinda buy in, but I'm not who they want to sign on.
It sucks to be looked past. And I recognize Sean Hannity in the series of audio quotes. "Beyond politics", my ass.
Alabasata
23d ago
I'm starting a GoFundMe to commission a klezmer rendition of "On Eagle's Wings". Then, and only then, will the inferior WASP culture be washed away from sea to shining sea.
/SaturdayCartoonVillain
Alabasata
2mo ago
When was the last time you've heard of people making real decisions based on fiction they've read or seen? Or based on news articles from only one color of the spectrum?
If kids see a cartoon about bullies targeting people with glasses, they're less likely to wear glasses. Adults are nowhere near immune from that kind of false-positive threat modeling. They're just a lot more effective at overreacting. See: post-9/11 reactions to Arabs & Muslims, Japanese internment camps, Pizzagate, parental advisory stickers.
People can and do put the cart before the horse when making decisions on which neighborhoods to move into. It's common, and no amount of 'rational threat analysis' will change that.
Alabasata
5mo ago
Alabasata
1mo ago
I rarely have dreams I remember through the morning. Though after becoming a dad, they do come a little more easily. Maybe it's the sheer emotion of being with my little sprog, maybe it's the long-term management of raising her. Hard to say. Emotionally-charged moments do tend to get the dream machine cranking harder.
Today, I dreamt about the loss of control of who is in my house. I remember I was in a house larger than my current one - but still believed it to be mine - and being shocked that people I disapproved of were in it. The details are very fuzzy of how they got there, or how they tried to remain despite my protests.
Last night, in a fit I threw one shelf of my medicine cabinet into a laundry basket. The clutter was so bad I couldn't see the back of it any more. We ended up having far too many expired items. Also, duplicates of stuff that might have been bought because we couldn't see what we had? Anyway, the first shelf was finally ordered & visible and all was right with that little corner of my world.
It's possible the purge triggered that line of dreaming. I'm not a strong believer in cause-and-effect here. Possibly other causes I'm not aware of as well.
Alabasata
4mo ago
What's your take on Sam O'Nella or Max Miller?
Alabasata
4mo ago
Father here. Part of my job is to set her up for good partnerships.This requires her to be attentive, attractive, and to have a good social filter.
There will always be a fraction of people who are okay with jerking it to kids. I have no interest in adapting the Fast Bear Rule: making my daughter uglier/less available so pervs find a different girl. She will develop a filter & practice it like any other skill.
If I've done my job right, she won't have to worry about pedos. She just won't see them as legitimate options.
Alabasata
5mo ago
Other potential answers, since we're brainstorming.
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The talent isn't there. White male actors may be pursuing longer-term roles, not ad spots. The revenue per hour for ads may be only worthwhile if one is modeling/acting as a side gig. Career models/actors may not be interested in bit parts. There may not be room/budget for a Jim Varney these days.
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You are consuming media not meant for 'valuable white men' to consume. 18-30 men are being given mass-market brands to remember when they finally earn real disposable income. After aging out of that demographic, the rules change for which white men to pursue. If you don't have an expensive hobby, you may not be worth targeting.
Alabasata
1mo ago
Alabasata
2mo ago
Remind me, how common are acid attacks in that corner? Because that type of antisocial assault is something the subcontinent is infamous for. Not interested in starting the "if I'm getting beat up by the townies anyway, let's give them a real reason for it" ball rolling.
Alabasata
2mo ago
I'm not especially high-status. I was the worst distance runner to qualify for a letter in track. The only reason I ever made sergeant in the military is because they promoted over half of all eligible E-4s. The main reason I'm a board member of a neighborhood organization is because the person stepping away had new familial obligations to attend to - and she hadn't lived in the area for years anyway.
I got to where I am by being present at the right place at the right time with an agreeable temperament - with a handy dose of preparation & persistence. If I thought like you did, I doubt I would have achieved what I've earned.
I wouldn't call small-talk interesting. But it's the quickest route to learn if people care about things - and what. It's okay to not be interested in what they care about. It's a social barrier to be proudly ignorant of what they care about. It's entirely possible to get intellectual about the history & patterns of one's relationships. You don't need to know about Georgian taxes or bell curves to have intellectual conversations. Most of the time - in my experience - that shit doesn't help anyway.
And conversation is also a two-way street. They need to know who you are, too. Is the other person likely to walk away with a good sense of who you are & what you're about?
As long as you can find a reason to follow up via email or text message the next day, I call that a conversational success. Just keep recalibrating until you find reasons at least half the time.
Alabasata
10mo ago
Your value judgements on manner of death don't make sense. "A strength that is greater than your own" can be interpreted in a great many number of ways.
An adult human is capable of 2 kW from time to time. It's pretty easy to buy sodium lightbulbs that are rated at 1000 Watts. By that logic, it's somehow not-shameful to die to three large grow lights - whether by burning or by a slow increase in heat or some other creative method- but not by one large grow light.
How?
Alabasata
10mo ago
Silly question, but have you seen anyone try to use GPT-4 to...create documentation? Maybe it'll write something that's better than what exists. (I'm not in programming, so I wouldn't know the limitations.)
Alabasata
4mo ago
Meet People IRL
Frankly this approach seems dead in the water in this day and age. The only reliable way to meet people in person anymore has been, in my experience, through academia.
Our experiences do not match. Granted, I am not an academic. Meeting people in that setting is not my idea of a good time. Instead of talking about sustainability theory at some convention, I'd rather hang out with likeminded people ripping out decorative bushes and planting a food forest. People who are capable of Doing The Damn Work are my people.
Filtering out the flakes (men and women) who RSVP but don't attend makes the selection process for who to associate with so much easier. I'm not sure how that translates to your areas of preference. Hopefully, you can connect the dots there.
Alabasata
1mo ago
From my understanding, Mondragon members have largely pulled the ladder up behind them (point 7 here).
I and another new member are well aware that the status quo is not attractive. I am probing the other board members to find out where their curiosities & passions are. They used to have tables at city-permitted events, but that dropped off years ago.
One thing I'm thinking of is using the speaker as a platform to reach out to people further down on the career pyramid. As an example, in April we'll be having the city's parking manager presenting. This could be useful for people working as traffic control, as valets, as meter maids, et cetera. We have local nonprofits literally training people off the street for these entry-level positions a mile away from our meeting location. This is a working class neighborhood, and this could attract those whose aspirations aren't yet smothered.
The intended message: "He started from the bottom, now he's here. You can learn from his example. We're capable of bringing in Top Guys. You want access? We make it happen." This can increase the range of speakers in the neighborhood beyond just civil servants and new arrivals.
This is just one example. There are more, but I'll wait for another time to add them.
Alabasata
11mo ago
I'd be curious to hear why Captain DeJearnette deserves similar disdain for having a red headstone. Unless both of them simply paid extra for a custom piece.
Alabasata
1mo ago
If you focus on the gaps, you'll see gaping maws everywhere. An incel may see all the reasons why they're undateable. A Black-pilled HBDer may see themselves as inherently slower.
If they can't start with seeing themselves from their strengths, they are unlikely to grow into the best they can be.
I know many retired E-9s of color. The oldest is a Vietnam veteran. He needed help taking the placement test in the way his white peers did. After he got that help, he did the right thing and passed it down to his mentees. It's not just innate intelligence that gets passed down, but also experience. Experience, expectations, and emotions.
There's a strain of community activism called Asset Based Community Development. Like many programs, they started with the initials (ABCD) and made a bacronym. Unlike many other programs, they prefer a bottom-up approach. They assume people, all people - limited though they may be - have put in the work to get good at something. Good enough that they should be valued.
I don't know what your life goals like like. You may not reach the intellectual & career heights of people that we write about. (SPOILERS: most of us here won't either.) But if you can operate in your zone of excellence, and help a brother or two get at least half as good as you are - that's still a life of positive impact.
Alabasata
1mo ago
If I remember right, the law claims there is no such thing as consensual sex in prison. It's just selectively enforced by the wardens to minimize the effort needed to maintain control. Having a zero tolerance policy for prison rape creates more work, so is naturally opposed by the wardens.
Alabasata
2mo ago
For an Anti-capitalist Psychology of Community by Nick Malherbe. (ISBN: 3030996956)
Trying to find textbooks for my neighborhood organization that could be used as 'best practices'. This is certainly not going to be one of them. I've never read a community psychology book in full before. Mostly because I wouldn't normally be introduced to this text until I've gone through a full undergrad program. Which ain't happening, lol.
After a scan of Intro To Community Psychology - and seeing their stated core values - I was not surprised that the field would be Left-dominated. Figured I might as well hear experiences from the source as they saw it. It is obvious from the get-go the book would be explicitly anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist.
It was not obvious this person would seek to (a) be upfront that anti-capitalism & community psychology as movements had inherent contradictions (b) celebrate those contradictions in a "I contain multitudes" sort of way. Nor that he would call out other anti-capitalist works as primarily fatalist in nature - seeking to close on a hopeful note himself. (I have not made it to the end. No telling what the author believes is hopeful rhetoric.)
The writing style is...not great. The overuse of in-the-field phrases ends up creating semantic satiation more than clarifying any points. And yet, it isn't nearly as dense/absurd as Sokal Squared would attempt to create. This is probably not written for a layman like myself. But I can understand the general thrust of the topics contained within so far.
I'll probably get around to finishing the book this week and moving to anodyne on-its-face works like "Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement" or "Cultural and Critical Explorations in Community Psychology: The Inner City Intern". Culture War addicts will get a kick out of titles like "Decolonial Feminist Community Psychology" and "The Taliban's Virtual Emirate: The Culture and Psychology of an Online Militant Community".
I disagree with your definition of "woke". It might have been telephoned to that degree, but I operate from a much different vantage. In short, I see woke as "Systems of power have been designed, and they weren't made with your prosperity in mind. Don't fall in the cracks that their laws and loans and research has made. Don't be a victim of The System: stay woke."
A medical example: sodium is painted out to be a much bigger factor than it is in blood pressure studies. But the government & processed food industries stand to make money off of advertising and low-rigor studies, so re-education is low on the priority list. Staying woke means cooking from scratch and adding salt to taste.
Now if you're going to look for grift, you'll find it. There is more bullshit being written every day than you can read. If you want to find something to fight, you're going to. But why would that be good for you?
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