CuriousCat Archive Page 36 of 202

  1. Is it too late?

    in response to Why?

    if by "too late" you mean "are we doomed," no, we are not doomed

    if by "too late" you mean "can we stop things from getting worse," no, we can't stop things from getting worse

    the planet is going to keep getting hotter for a while. we could cut ALL carbon emissions TODAY and things would keep getting worse for a while, because it will take a long time for the CO2 to get fully reabsorbed by the carbon cycle, and, just like a pot on a stove, once you heat the planet up it takes a while to cool back down, even if removed from the heat.

    things are gonna be worse in twenty years than they are now. that doesn't mean things are hopeless, irreparable, or meaningless.

  2. You're referring, mostly, to legislative acts taken by right-wing politicians or arguments made by right-wing ideologues (think Shapiro or Crowder). I suppose I can accept that many right-wing politicians and ideologues make arguments and act in ways, for all intents and purposes, help those who sexually assault and hurt sexual assault victims, but to say that the average conservative person believes this strains belief.

    in response to I find it hard to believe that even most conservatives don't think that, say, sexual assault is bad.

    buddy I research the right for a living and I promise you: their forums, Twitter feeds, and chatrooms - not to mention my comment sections - are full of people repeating these talking points. why do you think they listen to the idealogues and vote for the politicians? why would ALL THE PEOPLE whose careers depend on public support HAPPEN to share the same beliefs about women if most of their constituents disagree? wouldn't such a fluke strain belief?

  3. I find it hard to believe that even most conservatives don't think that, say, sexual assault is bad.

    in response to When liberal politicians are in a scandal, the typical response (see Al Franken, Menendez) is to replace the politician with one of similar ideology and no personal scandal. This does not seem to be the case with conservatives (see Roy Moore, Donald Trump, and dozens of other examples). Why do you think that's the case?

    quiz time:

    who does the following most, the right or the left?

    - leap to the defense of Russell Brand
    - cut funding to women's shelters
    - argue rape statistics are inflated
    - try to repeal no-fault divorce
    - compel women to carry rapists' babies to term
    - downplay the rampancy of SA among Catholic priests
    - oppose legislation that would prevent domestic abusers to be cops/buy guns
    - oppose sex education that foregrounds consent
    - argues things like digital rape or sex under false pretenses aren't rape

    conservatives may SAY "sexual assault is bad" but they define it so narrowly and selectively that the things they condone are no longer sexual assault

  5. Which Daryl though?

    in response to Best Doctor Who?

    the good one

  6. What has Anita Sarkeesian been up to these days?

    podcast

  7. Thoughts? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/02/05/us/miami-police-black-history-month/index.html

    it's not a bad car but I'd rather call acab

  8. What do you think happened to Amelia Earhart?

    I've seen Star Trek, she was abducted and left in suspended animation in the Delta Quadrant

  9. is google search bad now

    it ain't very good anymore!

  11. Hug Good?

    varies, but broadly yes

  13. It's time for you to make the choice of the century:

    Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel?

    Simon

  14. Are we living in a dystopia?

    in twenty years we'll yearn for these days

  15. Why don’t you have any opinions on Nelson Mandela?

    I have gaps in my knowledge base

  16. I think the point this anon was trying to make is that any layman reading the book might think that the IngSoc being "socialist" is meant to be taken literally, if they're not aware of the Nazis calling themselves socialists as well.

    in response to IngSoc calling itself socialist as a reference to the Nazis sounds like a big stretch to be honest. At the very least, it comes off as a satire that’s indistinguishable from being an example of what it’s trying to parody.

    do they think the Ministry of Truth tells the truth?

  17. When liberal politicians are in a scandal, the typical response (see Al Franken, Menendez) is to replace the politician with one of similar ideology and no personal scandal. This does not seem to be the case with conservatives (see Roy Moore, Donald Trump, and dozens of other examples). Why do you think that's the case?

    because they don't think the things those people have done are bad

  19. What is your favorite Engish word that isn't in the dictionary?

    buttmonkey

  20. I'm not saying you need to watch it, it just seemed like the kind of thing that might tempt you, and I wanted to give you an option that circumvented the YouTube algorithm.

    in response to I don't know if the algorithm has shown you the Brennan Lee Mulligan 'Dom DM' improv bit yet, but here's a tumblr link in case you'd rather watch it on there: https://www.tumblr.com/crewdlydrawn/729489651124092928/s-i-r

    the algorithm is always watching

  21. Do you like The Prodigy?

    COMMMMMME PLAYYYYYY MAIYYYY GAMMME
    (inhale inhale you're the victim!!!)

  24. Are you partial, to the Martial, or the Plutocrats, in their beaver hats?

    I'm not jealous of the zealots, or anarchics with guitar picks

  25. I don't know if the algorithm has shown you the Brennan Lee Mulligan 'Dom DM' improv bit yet, but here's a tumblr link in case you'd rather watch it on there: https://www.tumblr.com/crewdlydrawn/729489651124092928/s-i-r

    no! begone! get thee behind me, Mulligan!

  26. Says the guy who can’t stand tankies (DA)

    in response to Why are communists so bad at aesthetics?

    1) my grievance with tankies is not the aesthetics
    2) theirs are not the only aesthetics

  28. And who wrote jeff?

    in response to Who wrote the Bible?

    jeff prime

  31. (different anon) Threesomes, foursomes, and orgies are all things that happen.

    in response to Is sex binary?

    ah man, I missed a chance for a "sex is binary when you fuck an android" didn't I?

  32. Is sex binary?

    is ANYTHING binary?

  33. Do you radicalize people to the left?

    I dunno! I hope so.

  34. Thoughts on the Canadian parliament shitshow?

    Canadia isn't real

  35. Which specific chapter from Believing is Seeing from Errol Morris' book that you want all of us to read?

    I think the first one was my favorite

  36. Honestly, if you were able to play Ecco the Dolphin at a young age and not be scared, you can probably handle most horror games.

    in response to Did that game scare the crap out of you?

    no, what scares me is just kind of unpredictable. most horror games are unbearable because I KNOW scary stuff is coming, so every second I am filled with stress. that's hard enough with a movie, but a movie will proceed to the end on its own! a horror game, I have to DO STUFF, and it WILL NOT END until I perform my task. I find that intolerable.

    but I didn't go into Ecco expecting a horror game, and the stuff that happens in it never scared me, so I never dreaded the next bit.

    maybe I could handle Amnesia if I knew for a fact that the monsters are NOT the kinds of things that freak me out, but I don't know that til I see them! and every second til then is MISERABLE.

  37. Are fascists good at aesthetics, or good at co-opting aesthetics?

    both. they steal most of them, but they have a VERY GOOD understanding of how to orchestrate the pageantry.

  38. How does 1984 have more to do with fascism? There aren’t references to nationalistic pride, yearning for rebirth, etc. It’s more about totalitarian states that control your life and demand strict obedience (which granted, are present in fascist societies, but not to the same extent and focus as Stalinist countries are perceived to have had).

    in response to I mean in reference to Animal Farm & 1984, which are inspired by the October Revolution and Stalinist Russia respectively.

    I don't know how you can think 1984 isn't about nationalist pride if you remember what the last line of the book is.

  40. IngSoc calling itself socialist as a reference to the Nazis sounds like a big stretch to be honest. At the very least, it comes off as a satire that’s indistinguishable from being an example of what it’s trying to parody.

    in response to I mean in reference to Animal Farm & 1984, which are inspired by the October Revolution and Stalinist Russia respectively.

    ...it's not an example because it's fictional. it's not satire, it's depicting how fascism works. it calls fascism socialism, the war department is called the Ministry of Peace, it calls the slot you put to destroy information a "memory hole."

    I'm not sure I understand your critique.

  41. Agreed. I guess what I'm getting at is that even though the conversation was started in bad faith, I think there was potentially something there worth talking about, and people seemed ready to talk about it, but the bad faith part put everyone off. And I see it happening in other places. Like large language models are kinda cool, but all anyone (with money/power) wants to do with them is end art forever, so that's what they're *for* now in the discourse. Or automating menial jobs that no one wants to do should be a Good Thing™, but the default assumption is that companies are going to just cut the workers loose to starve (which they will), so automation bad (which it isn't--corporations bad).

    I dunno man. I suspect we probably agree on the majority of this topic. I'm just being pedantic and neurodivergent and don't have the full vocabulary. Fuck capitalism <3

    in response to (first different anon) First of all, I appreciate the elaboration! I think I was operating from an incomplete/wrong definition of "crypto" (or at very least a different one than you are using). Which is kind of emblematic of my larger point. There are certain buzzword-y topics that are just REALLY hard to talk about because there are a lot of bad actors intentionally muddying the waters at all levels; definitionally, regarding costs and goals, what their own role will be, etc. FWIW I'm not attached to crypto specifically. I just felt like there was kind of a moment where we (societally) were maybe going to explore the idea of decentralized currency, but specifically crypto turned out to be a scam, and it seems like we kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater on the larger conversation to me.

    I too am neurodivergent and pedantic, so apologies. was your interest in crypto primarily the "decentralized currency" aspect?

  43. I mean in reference to Animal Farm & 1984, which are inspired by the October Revolution and Stalinist Russia respectively.

    in response to Why did Orwell choose to write about the Soviets and not the Nazis?

    Animal Farm was based on both the October Revolution and Stalinist Russia, 1984 was more explicitly about fascism. IngSoc calling itself socialist is an explicit reference to the Nazis claiming to be socialist.

  44. Did you ever play Ecco the Dolphin?

    hell yeah I did. never beat it, welcome to the machine was just too hard. had to do it over and over again.

  45. Why did Orwell choose to write about the Soviets and not the Nazis?

    he did write about Nazis

  46. Was Jesus a revolutionary?

    he was a radical, but I don't think his teachings were very much about changing the existing regime? more existing in defiance of it. someone religious could answer better then I could.

  47. Who wrote the Bible?

    jeff

  48. Do you think the usage of the word 'dick' as a slang term for a cop should be revived?

    "dick" was a slang term for a detective, wasn't it?

  49. You are a rogue and druid multiclass.

    in response to you are a liberal

    leeloo dallas multiclass

  50. How so? Lighter? Flint and steel? Oil on a stove?

    in response to S1 vs S2 if you had to choose

    whatever they did during the Arab Spring, and do it on the steps of the Capitol Building, might as well do a protest while I'm at it

  51. Were America faced with a choice between "Institute Universal Healthcare" and "Be dragged into Nuclear War", what would you expect to happen?

    Let's say that every other nuke having nation had all got together to threaten the U. S. all at once somehow for some reason, just most extreme version of the situation I can think of, "America: Universal Healthcare or every single nuke on the planet other than your own will be set right to you."

    if this happened today? Biden says ok, Republicans try to block it in Congress but maybe it squeaks by, Supreme Court strikes it down and we all die.

  52. I'm one of the STRAIGHTEST players in the game rn. You? You're one of the gayest, bro.

    which game? don't wake daddy?

  53. you are a liberal

    you are a hot dog

  54. Why don't you check CuriousCat as often on the weekends? Should it be the weekdays that you're less active?

    I make my own hours, there are no days I "shouldn't" check CC. but weekends are when my friends and partners don't have work, so I'm more likely to be out doing things.

  55. Apologies if this has already been asked:

    If you could give one piece of advice to a newb video essayist covering the alt-right, what would it be? Like if you could go back in time, what do you wish you would have known?

    run

  56. S3 was a boring rehash. S2 was good and Lynchian, shame no one understood it since it wasn't a monologue fest like season 1.

    in response to True detective S2 vs S3

    whatever you say

  57. S1 vs S2 if you had to choose

    in response to True detective S2 vs S3

    I would set myself on fire

  58. True detective S2 vs S3

    S3 is the only good season

  60. Hmm. I’m not certain what I meant.

    For metamodernist theory to be “real,” I guess it would need to accurately describe a new trend in media.

    I feel like I’m digging myself deeper here though. Different versions of Metamodernist theory might be more/less accurate. Also, I know literary theory is often a lens through which you can gain insight and not necessarily a set of historical claims. Also also I’m not sure what evidence I would find satisfying.

    in response to Do you think “metamodernism” is a real thing?

    it is possible that the trend is being overstated, that people are reaching to make connections that are tenuous, or reading meaning that isn't really how most audiences experience it. those are all plausible! can't say whether they apply. but the lens is still "real" as anything, the question is whether looking through the lens is useful or insightful.

  61. Diff anon: For any policy, do you think it follows that if one party endorses it or disparages it that the other party, even if it hadn’t really cared about the policy position before, the other party will suddenly loudly proclaim the opposite position? It seems like that exact situation has happened a lot.

    in response to Why did the political parties switch?

    the policy still has to be in keeping with the larger system. like, the Republicans condemn socialism, but the Democrats don't therefore support it! they just condemn it differently.

  62. Why did the political parties switch?

    the electoral process demands two opposing parties. that is the stable form of winner-take-all elections, far more stable than any actual politics or beliefs.

    the Republicans saw they could regain power by appealing to racists, so they did, and the Democrats became, by default, the racially progressive party. there's no more logic than that; it's happened ~5 times throughout American history. if completely changing your politics can help a party rise to power, it will eventually do that.

  64. Any thoughts on this business?
    https://billwillingham.substack.com/p/willingham-sends-fables-into-the

    baller

  65. Do you think “metamodernism” is a real thing?

    I haven't looked super hard into it. in what way might it be less "real" than modernism or postmodernism?

  66. If it were possible to un-kill people, would that have a meaningful impact on your opinion on the death penalty?

    like, we can sentence people to death for 10 years and then bring them back?

  67. "I'm an orangutan"

    in response to is the general strike happening

    that's code for strike, definitely

  68. is the general strike happening

    I dunno, what have you heard?

  69. I strongly agree that deplatforming weirdos like Walsh and Shapiro would be very good.

    How do you think liberals, progressives and/or leftists should go about trying to do that?

    Or, if you don't have a good answer, what knowledgeable activists that you know of would be worth asking about that?

    in response to Would you support an anti-rightest campaign to purge reactionaries like Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro from politics? Would it do more good than harm?

    a lot would be accomplished if politicians would pass laws forcing platforms to actually enforce their TOS, but, barring that, we gotta settle for disruption

    protesting live events can be very effective, not least because their hosts have to shell out more money for crowd control. (one reason Milo stopped getting speaking engagements was the cost of security got too high.) audience disruption is also an option - refusing to sit or be quiet while they try to speak. crowdfunding the money to buy up all the seats to their event and then not showing up so no one hears them talk. ditto for film tickets to Walsh's documentary, especially if you can get the payments to decline after the screening. DDoS attacks on the ticketing websites are good, nonviolent disruption. sending their worst comments to advertisers and making a stink online can cost them a lot of money - David Hogg did that to one of the Fox News people - Ingraham, was it? - and it put the fear of God in her. (basically any way you can hit them in the wallet.) naming and shaming their audiences at public events/in comment sections so they face social consequences, and, yeah, I endorse documenting hateful posts and then sending them to people's bosses and getting them fired.

    by and large, people are doing these things as individuals, but we'd do well to act like leftists and do them collectively. organized. strategically.

    there's a good list of tactics in Shane Burley's Fascism Today (though I take issue with some of his writing, the tactics are good), and you can check out Lisa Fithian for more - I haven't read her book, Shut It Down, yet, but I did a workshop with her vouch for her strategic know-how.

  71. Would you rather have perpetually wet socks or have the parts of your fingers that touch each other always be a little sticky?

    in response to What's some other stuff that you hate?

    sticky

  72. Best Doctor Who?

    Daryl

  74. so is religion the ibuprofen of the masses?

    in response to Is religion the opium of the masses?

    oxycodone, but yeah

  75. (different anon) I think they were actually referring to right-wing politicians who oppose outlawing child marriage.

    in response to Do you hate groomers?

    or maybe they meant serial rapist Donald Trump who was charged by a 13-year-old

Anon commented:
Ian replied: