niktemadur

aRe ThE sAmE!

Then every time Democrats try and pass something meaningful, but are blocked and sabotaged by republicans who have way too much power because of lazy idiots using “all or nothing purity” as an excuse to not vote, those same lazy idiots - who didn’t bother to even do a cursory glance to see how Senators and Representatives voted on bills - go bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe LoL aMiRiTe again. And again. And again.

Potato - potatoe, tomato - tomatoe.

You see 196 as

queer and especially trans friendly

I see it as a garden of shitposting delights.

there’s /r/StarWars and /r/SaltierThanCrait over on Reddit

Those two spaces had differing stances.
There also the case of InterestingAsFuck as opposed to DamnThatsInteresting, because why the fuck does “Fuck” have to be in the title?

But then there’s shameless karma-farming duplicates, like ComedyCemetery and ComedyNecromancy.

Twitter was a great space for breaking news, official alerts like weather, earthquakes and tsunamis, for developing election day tallies.
The “you mean Grimes left the king of SpaceX?” manchild broke all that.

I smoked for a long time, switched completely to vaping several years ago and still do it. I started at nicotine level 24mg - supposedly the equivalent of a Camel or Marlboro - decreased gradually to where I’m now at the lowest nicotine level widely available in pre-made juices, 3mg.

Remember that nicotine at these doses is not harmful, nor is it a carcinogenic. What it is, is addictive, and the documented harm from the cigarette as a nicotine delivery system comes from the combustion.

With that in mind, I admit that I’m still comfortable with vaping after several years, my health has improved dramatically since then.
I can breathe much better, easier. Now I don’t catch every single throat infection and flu of the season, and if I do catch one, it’s now usually so mild that I don’t even need medication to sleep with a clear nose.

What keeps me on edge is the pervasive anti-vaping sentiment, caused by the anarchic environment of the fledging vaping industry at the beginning, many nicotine delivery systems packaged EXACTLY like candy. A greedy gold rush attitude poisoned the well at the outset.
As an analogy, think Bitcoin and crypto.

This might be when that old iPod - sitting in a drawer for years - might come in handy. Or any little MP3 player that might be in the market right now, I haven’t shopped for them in ages, but I imagine they’re pretty cheap nowadays.

the utter futility of invading an island

An amphibious and paratrooper assault in this day and age, as well as the inevitable international sledgehammer of sanctions, makes it look to me like the expense and risk outweighs the potential benefits.

There is a balance of peace and trade in the region. Who in their right mind would overturn this balance? There has to be an unholy alliance of sense of power-tripping entitlement plus a strong self-loathing inferiority complex. But goddamn it, we’ve seen too many hollow, noisy, vulgar, aggrieved billionaires and orange millionaires in the past decade or so, haven’t we?

It’s just hollow, mindless narcissism. Brought to you by the exact type of rude deadweight that cuts into an orderly line every time, expecting nobody to break the tension, confront and put them in their rightful place at the back of the line.

they will at first lure you in with cooking, travel, and credit card tips

Holy crap. I had no idea. We’ve heard of a slippery slope, but this is a slippery sheer vertical cliff.
Like that toxic meathead rogan luring the curious in with DMT stories and the like, and this sounds like that particular spore has burst and spread.

Maybe some BBC stuff?

Gardener’s World, the way the show is presented is soothing yet fascinating at the same time. There are a lot of full episodes on YouTube, and it is healthy content for a 70-year old mind… or much younger, even.

You watch this one thing out of curiosity, morbid curiosity, or by accident, and at the slightest poke the goddamned mindless algorithm starts throwing this shit at you.

The algorithm is “weaponized” for who screams the loudest, and I truly believe it started due to myopic incompetence/greed, not political malice. Which doesn’t make it any better, as people don’t know how to take care of themselves from this bombardment, but the corporations like to pretend that ~~they~~ people can, so they wash their hands for as long as they are able.

Then on top of this, the algorithm has been further weaponized by even more malicious actors who have figured out how to game the system.
That’s how toxic meatheads like infowars and joe rogan get a huge bullhorn that reaches millions. “Huh… DMT experiences… sounds interesting”, the format is entertaining… and before you know it, you are listening to anti-vax and qanon excrement, your mind starts to normalize the most outlandish things.

EDIT: a word, for clarity

In one of those 70s Fat Albert episodes, I think it was Rudy who one day showed up wearing a jacket of “genuine imitation leather”. That term has stuck with me for decades.

…which is now open for business!