PrimeMinisterKeyes

I will have you.

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.

Breakup version:
Rachel and I are dating again.
Well, not each other, but still...

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

• 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.

First they came for the nudes, and I did not speak out. Because I was not nude.

OBEY

That 1935 piece surely seems prophetic. For example this part:

Development of the anti-scientific and anti-cultural campaign, cutting down of education

For the last five or so years, I've been noticing a surge of anti-intellectualism. People are not any longer ashamed to publicly dismiss "smart alecks" and "know-it-alls".

• 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.

If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

Can't escape capitalism.

Means... of production.

Life is better down where it's wetter.

Russia's hot engagements in Burkina Faso, Central Africa, Mali and Syria, the various degrees of meddling in e.g. Armenia, Moldova and Yemen, and the 20 years of general political "influencing" all across Africa and the Arab countries are often neglected. This is why parts of the Western public don't understand the need to contain Russia. It's a wannabe worldwide player, and it's corrupt as hell. Allowed to have its way, it'll turn every country into a vassal autocracy, Soviet-union style.

Maybe another time traveller disturbed the shooter by pushing him because what would have happened if Trump was shot dead would have been truly apocalyptic in the longer run. Maybe we just witnessed the n-th time loop without remembering the other ones and this is the first one where the bullet only grazes Trump's ear instead of blowing his brains out so now life on Earth as we know it can continue, and we can post about it on Lemmy.

• Get a fire extinguisher for your home.
• Get legal expenses insurance.
• In both private and professional affairs, be fair and honest.
• Don't waste too much time with shitty partners or in shitty jobs.

I noticed AMP links started popping up all over Reddit. Before Google started injecting money, posting those was discouraged. Surely it's a total coincidence.

Because topless != nude in most of Europe. Hell, you can see topless women at pretty much any seashore when it's warm enough.

No, it's Ocho!

The number of people who will get the reference can be counted on one hand, probably.

Yeah, it feels quite petulant and deconstructive at times.
But a lot of what you wrote is just a feature of any small online community. Then you end up with these bitter types who, if you rubbed them slightly the wrong way, get up at 6 a.m., downvote everything you ever wrote and report as many of your contributions as they can get away with.
I mean, downvotes and upvotes could be capped at -1 and +5, respectively, like on /. which has been going strong for more than 20 years with this concept, or there could be enforcement of some sort of netiquette, but that would put additional strain on the mods.

Are you sure about being ghosted? Or is the app just cutting your connection?
Same thing you described happened to me so many times I've lost count. Furthermore, I've compared profiles with some women I did met IRL and wouldn't you know, what you see in your "profile preview" or whatever is not necessarily how anybody else gets to see you. We've seen profile pictures being removed or entire profile texts being wiped out, sometimes just before the first date.
Some people became aware of the enshittifaction/ gamification many years ago and resorted to putting their IG handles or phone numbers into their profiles "in case we get interrupted." When some dating sites starting cracking down on that, too, they started putting this info into their pictures instead.
And that's not even mentioning the bots and "controllers," as they used to be called, whose only purpose is to extract private information from you. At least in the EU, dating apps have had to disclose their existence in the TOS for some years. They all do.
TLDR; The game is rigged beyond belief.

Try 15 years. There was this cute girl who'd always kind of hang around in the background, but never said a word. She made a big mistake by repeatedly sending her solid-10 friend to talk to me about her, and we fell in love instead.
Years later, another girl tried the genius tactic of inviting me and about a dozen gorgeous female friends of hers to a bar, then sitting straight across the table from me and just glaring at me intensely. I started thinking "gee, she must really hate me" and made my move on the girl sitting next to me. Who was the only one I could actually talk to, because it was just too noisy in that bar.
There were other times when I immediately picked up hints from girls because they made it abundantly clear what they want from me, but they simply weren't my type, so I basically ignored them, which only made them try harder. I realize now that to them, genuine disinterest and blissful ignorance must be indistinguishable.

At Google HQ:
Boss: "So... this Reddit integration you've been working on?"
Developer: "Yeah, I think the first milestone could be ready in about six months."
Boss: "Sorry, that's been decided, go-live is in 1.5 days."

In my last company, everybody could easily obtain "manager" status... because that was just the title for everyone who was salaried. Which didn't necessarily mean more money. In fact, usually not. It certainly meant more overtime... a lot more.

Keep absolutely still. Its vision is based on movement.

See also: System justification

You know I've started to get the impression that the impoverished part of the right-wing electorate has long given up on looking for a solution that could really improve their lives. Instead, they want the government to create a new underclass of people made up of immigrants, leftists and criminals that they can look down on.

There are many forums like that, especially if you're not limited to one language. Most of the ones I frequent have been around for 10 or 20 years or more, but kind of fly under the radar. ilxor being a very good example. AFAIK, the latter also adds only one new user per day. I'd say that's a good thing, even though I had to apply several times.

And let's not forget politics. When you're golf buddies with the right politicians, winning those extremely lucrative public tenders will become a cakewalk.

"In the corporate world, nobody has any compassion, ever." - A friend told me as I was about to take my first real job. Brutal and maybe exaggerated, but exactly what I needed to manage my own expectations.

I feel you...

🎶 I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire 🎶

That's it! That's it! Flaming globes of Sigmond! Flaming Globes of Sigmond! That's my note! That's what I thought was so funny... That's not funny. There's nothing funny about that.

When I was little, I asked my parents why they don't smoke and they just laughed. I didn't understand why. Because 100% of the other adults I knew were smokers.

Yeah West in his seminal "Scale" kind of corroborates the whole story.

It seems, though, that the molecular changes you are undergoing do not immediately translate into increased mortality, so you're going to have several more years of - presumably - feeling well until the big drop-off starts for all of us at about 60.
BTW, because of its wide range of topics, its solid scientific underpinnings and its excellent intellectual accessibility, this is one of two books I positively think should be taught at any school, the other one being Solé's "Phase Transitions."

I use the wage filter on Stepstone because I don't want to sift through more than 20 pages of job ads each week. Also, I'm seeing more and more companies asking for your expected salary when applying on their web page anyway. If they don't, I just put in the number at the end of my cover letter. Cuts through the bullshit.
Sure, I'm getting an order of magnitude fewer interviews this way, but on the other hand, I'm not wasting hours on dressing up and preparing myself, potentially even taking a day off and travelling out to the fucking company because they insist on meeting me in person, only to stare into blank faces after having answered the final interview question about my salary expectations.
Rather recently, when I was in sudden dire need of a job, I could not pull that shit off, obviously, but I still managed to get more than in my previous job. Then again, it turned out to be the fucking worst job I ever had, by far, so there's that, too.

I've been lurking for months before joining and honestly, the voting appears quite random. If you post a comment early in any thread, it'll probably get upvoted even when it's totally silly and inane, as long if it can be construed as being in good faith. Write that same shit a few hours later, it'll go into the abyss.
I'd say it's still better than on That Other Site where you can get a good idea from the headline alone what the hackneyed 'top' comments will be like.

Back, and to the left.
Back, and to the left.