CuriousCat Archive Page 57 of 202

  2. How can you wish to believe in something without believing it?

    in response to Do you ever wish god were real?

    because I was less afraid of death before I was an atheist

  3. Are technology & capitalism so closely intertwined that it's hard to distinguish the two?

    no

  4. Do you ever wish god were real?

    I can take or leave God but I wish I believed in the afterlife

  5. alright, enough of the hits, let's hear the deep cuts. the sixth punctuation mark

    in response to Okay, the first letter of the seventh word

    the first six punctuation marks are comma comma comma comma hyphen comma

  6. Have you ever tied up your identity with a major corporation? What makes this appealing?

    I dunno that it was "made appealing" so much as it seemed like a thing you were supposed to do. like, you're in elementary school, they ask you these really simple questions like "what is your favorite song? what is your favorite color? what is your favorite sports team?" so you get the sense you're supposed to have favorites of everything. and then there are these big brands that play up picking a side. Coke or Pepsi, Sega or Nintendo, LucasArts or Sierra. it just seemed like a natural extension of everything else, so you picked a side and made it part of your identity. my song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, my color is red, my team is the 49ers, and I'm a Sega kid.

  8. So state the possibly non-obvious when everyone else did it the conditions where different.

    in response to How?

    how

  10. I mean doesn't seem like you ever seem to stop thinking about race

    in response to Why did you say "the things the rest of humanity deals with" in your last video in reference to having constant awareness of one’s own race?

    yes, but I don't have to. I lived a long chunk of my life not thinking about race unless someone brought it up. I could blithely walk around in most neighborhoods and not feel eyes on me. I could talk to the police and not have statistics of what happens to people like me running through my head. engaging with race was a choice I made, and I continue to engage because those are my values. but I am well aware I could say "enh, fuck it" at any time and go back to not thinking about it 90% of the time.

    that's white privilege.

  11. Why did you say "the things the rest of humanity deals with" in your last video in reference to having constant awareness of one’s own race?

    white people don't have to think about race. non-white people do.

  12. What do you think about Pewdiepie?

    I prefer not to

  13. Do you remember what the person you blocked wrote about? Just curious... 😬

    It was probably something transphobic, but sometimes I get racism and occasionally threats. It's not constant, but it happens often enough that no instance is very memorable.

  15. When was the last time you blocked someone here?

    within the last couple weeks, I think

  16. If democratic socialism were the dominant political force, would it still be Cool if the government did similar CIA things to undermine non-demsoc governments

    I don't think so

  17. Writing the first letter of the first word of the first sentence of the script.

    in response to Have you begun the next ARP?

    ...you know the first word is "say"

  18. Have you began conceptualizing, plotting, and/or written out a script for the next ARP?

    ah! yes, the script was written a while ago. while my ADHD was messing me up too much to edit, I found I could still write, so I wrote three ARPBs and one Protagony. one of them was The Cost of Doing Business, and so there's two more ARPs on the way. I'm working on the Protagony now (thank heavens for Concerta), and then I'll start production on the TARP. I had a misstart a while back, so the first few minutes are already animated, but it's uglier than I'd like and I might redo parts of it.

  19. Have you begun the next ARP?

    define "begun"

  20. Should the US switch to using the Metric System?

    yes

  22. You’ve spoken before on your channel about how there can be a chronic loneliness to existing as a modern man, and how sometimes that recognition of an issue leads people to reactionary politics, but I’m curious if you have any thoughts about positive solutions to that problem? (In less of a “please solve the patriarchy” way and more of a “how have you dealt with it” way)

    I was a scrawny nerd who got bullied K-12, so I've always known "Male Culture" didn't have a use for me. there's still tons of privilege and socialization that I'm constantly having to find and unlearn, but I've mostly just gravitated towards people I can have healthier relationships with. I got lucky in having an emotionally available dad and the occasional close friend I could be myself with, and, as I've gotten older, I've gravitated towards those kinds of relationships. these days I find I just don't have many cis male friends. there's this dance men do around each other - we put our armor up by default. it's not even aggressive, usually, just kind of jocular and superficial. and sometimes you can SEE that the other guy is like you, would prefer to put his armor down, but neither of you feels safe doing it first, so things stay light and insubstantial. a lot of guys, I think, just surround themselves with relationships like that and maybe you can open up if you're friends a long long time and/or out drinking, but I just can't be bothered. most of my close friends are women.

    I wouldn't want the takeaway here to be "avoid men," because, ah, that's OBVIOUSLY not a way to treat male loneliness! I guess it would be to seek out people you can be vulnerable around, and be aware that will feel riskier with other men.

  23. IIRC, it's more along the lines of "cultural Christian", i.e. feminism via vibes and osmosis rather than serious academic study.

    in response to Euphemism for what?

    we gatekeeping women's rights now?

  25. bias! which esport *you haven't played* is the hottest?

    in response to which esport is the hottest?

    I haven't played Melee as an esport

  26. Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism are not the liberal and conservative versions of the late 20th century moves to the political right. Neoliberalism refers to Reagan’s and Thatcher’s economic policies of privatization and favoring of big business, although to be fair, Jimmy Carter pioneered some of these policies. Neoconservatism refers to the unapologetically aggressive foreign policy that Reagan and Thatcher supported. It’s called neoconservatism because its early leaders tended to be former liberals and leftists who moved right in response to the anti-Vietnam War movement. So Reagan and Thatcher were both neoliberals and neoconservatives. In response to electoral defeats in the 1980s, some Democrats and Labour Party members (led by Clinton and Blair of course) embraced some of these policies and got control of their parties and won. These people became known as New Democrats and New Labour. Neoliberalism has come to also refer to Clinton’s and Blair’s economic policies specifically in the last few years, but the original definition is still in use too and it causes confusion.

    in response to What the heck is neoliberalism? Been seeing that word a lot lately?

    Welp, I stand partially corrected

  27. Stagflation broke the brains of economists all over the political spectrum, so politicians all over the political spectrum were basically throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. One of the policies Carter’s administration tried was called the Volcker shock. This was when Paul Volcker, the chair of the federal reserve, raised interest rates to very high levels between 1979 and 1982. This crashed the economy and took a long time to lower inflation. Reagan confidently and charismatically supported the same old gilded age economics he had supported since he married Nancy while blaming both the high unemployment and inflation on Carter. Some of these old ideas were dressed up with new names like “supply-side” economics, but it wasn’t anything actually new. Reagan won and cut taxes massively in 1981, but unemployment continued to increase throughout 1982, so Reagan was very unpopular at that time. Then in 1983 inflation finally dropped so Volcker cut the interest rates by a lot. This interest rate cut and not the Reagan tax cuts (he partially reversed them in 1982) caused a large economic boom in 1983-84, but Republicans credited it all to tax and regulation cuts and won reelection and they haven’t shut up about it since.

    in response to Following up on your answer about neoliberalism. I've been trying to figure this out as part of understanding US political history. What issues did that 50 year liberal reign ultimately have that allowed the neoconservatives to win out? I have always assumed that if the liberals had been doing everything well, the neocons would not have gained traction. But I always see their success narrowly attributed to how effective they were on cultural/social issues like the southern strategy

    Also: Reagan's tax cuts immediately caused the worst recession since the Great Depression, with unemployment even higher than it was in the 2008 Recession, and he addressed it by raising taxes 11 times... on everyone but the wealthy. And then he slashed them for the wealthy again right before leaving office.

    A lot of the economic "prosperity" of the 80's was only felt by the middle class because the tax breaks on the banks allowed for a lot of cheap credit. The recession hurt the middle class and deregulation flatlined wages, but you could suddenly get money very easily from the bank. Like, the thing we have now, where the middle class is only middle class because they're tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Where you "buy" a house and just pay a mortgage forever until you sell it or die? Where it takes you 25 years to pay off your student loans? Where you juggle multiple credit cards and can't get a car or apartment without a "credit rating"? That didn't exist before Reagan.

  29. So, what caused the 2008 recession?

    the sub-prime mortgage scam crashing the housing market

  31. Regarding your "poor timing" remark, when *aren't* we dealing with "a lot of pretty bad guys"?

    in response to Why did/do people get all animated about when a Cartoon redeems a bad guy

    We've never had a President be so openly fascist as Trump in all of American history, and many of these shows were alluding to current events.

  32. Do you think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy?

    yeah probably

  33. Why did/do people get all animated about when a Cartoon redeems a bad guy

    I mean, I like a good redemption arc, but having a sudden glut of bad guy redemption arcs at a time when we are dealing with a lot of pretty bad guys is poor timing. Also a lot of these shows are more explicitly alluding to things like fascism and abuse, so redemption for those characters is going to be a lot more charged than when the bad guy is, like, a guy who wants to eat Smurfs or whatever.

  34. this genuinely brightened my day, thank you

    in response to i want to know your Bagel Opinions

    I've watched this so many times

  35. Euphemism for what?

    in response to I hate cultural feminism

    "cultural Marxism" is code for "Jews," I'm guessing this is a euphemism for "women who don't know their place"

  36. what are the hottest forms of physical activity (outside of the ol' You Know) my money is on dance

    esports

  37. The post war economic boom that funded the welfare state (that undercut further-left arguments that capitalism was built on exploitation and maintained the appearance of unity between labour and capital) were functionally unsustainable even by the time of Nixon's presidency, If the liberal era was defined by pretending nothing was wrong with capitalism if you had enough welfare, the neolibral one recognised that was nonsense and then said that everything would be fine, so long as growth outpaced inflation, and that growth outpaced the growth of capitals share of gross profit (sold more often as "it doesn't matter what share of the pie everyone gets if we make the pie bigger) then everything is fine, don't worry about it,
    Both wrong, but the second one looks better until the wheels come off, because the welfare programs were originally to 'buy off' the idea of economic dissatisfaction, this lasts until, say, a series of unaddressed financial crashes refuse to fix themselves and start making growth from somewhere,,, Then you get lower living conditions for everyone but the very richest, and then you have no tools to suggest the system isn't naked exploitation

    in response to Following up on your answer about neoliberalism. I've been trying to figure this out as part of understanding US political history. What issues did that 50 year liberal reign ultimately have that allowed the neoconservatives to win out? I have always assumed that if the liberals had been doing everything well, the neocons would not have gained traction. But I always see their success narrowly attributed to how effective they were on cultural/social issues like the southern strategy

  38. What did you think is a good retort to people who are like "do you know what a Cat is" when talking about trans folk

  40. Following up on your answer about neoliberalism. I've been trying to figure this out as part of understanding US political history. What issues did that 50 year liberal reign ultimately have that allowed the neoconservatives to win out? I have always assumed that if the liberals had been doing everything well, the neocons would not have gained traction. But I always see their success narrowly attributed to how effective they were on cultural/social issues like the southern strategy

    I don't know everything, but there was some soft deregulation in the 70's that started to soften the economy. Carter got blamed for "stagflation" and Reagan promised he'd fix it. (He created other problems.)

    But Reagan was also the first President to really GET politics in the age of mass media. He was a TV star. He was a CELEBRITY.

    This is not a comprehensive list, but it's a couple things I know.

  41. You claim that Democrats backed off from progressive economics as they became neoliberal
    Surely you think progressive Democrats have "progressive economics", don't you? If not, then your definition of progressive seems exceptionally inconsistent

    in response to What the heck is neoliberalism? Been seeing that word a lot lately?

    I mean, sure? Some individual Democrats have relatively progressive economics. My point is where the Party is and what its overarching politics are. Saying "let's put taxes back to 92% on the top brackets like they were in the 50's" is completely outside the Overton Window right now, much less going lefter than that. Even the ones who suggest it know there's no chance in hell of it passing.

  42. Assign your friends as flavors of coffee.

    I don't drink coffee or have friends

  43. Do you think that the left should be using terms like "Robber Baron" more when referring to people who control corporations? And if yes, what other terms would you like to see come back into fashion?

    nobody says porkbarrelling anymore :(

  44. But surely fascists do better if there’s a reason? For example, I feel like if Ukraine had actually done anything wrong, Russia’s invasion of it could have gone much better.

    in response to What I'm saying is that the Right got to the myth of the pedophile ring *in spite of* Dems being safe and boring. But if Dems actually flouted the rules and used the enemy's rhetorical weapons against them to achieve progressive policies, like you're suggesting they do? It might give the conspiracists on the Right just the excuse they need to be even *worse*. Like I said, potentially leading to an honest-to-God second American civil war. I'm not making that up. It's already part of alt-right rhetoric, even with a lame duck Democrat president who couldn't be further from a leftist. And, God forbid, if it happened with a Republican in the White House, and leftists on the "rebel" side? It could be the end of democracy in this country. So what do we do when our choices are to maintain an untenable status quo, or risk provoking the lunatics on the other side who would burn our nation to the ground?

    what successful fascist government do you know of that "had a reason"?

  45. What the heck is neoliberalism? Been seeing that word a lot lately?

    here's the short version:

    in the US after the New Deal, liberalism was pretty economically progressive. it was all about tight regulation on business, high taxes on the wealthy, government investment in industry, strong social safety nets, and stuff of that sort. it's kind of the closest the US has ever been to Nordic model social democracy, you know?

    then Reagan comes along, completely revamps US economic policy. heavily deregulated markets, huge tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting funding for social programs and running the government at a deficit. the argument was that business owners would take the extra money and invest to stimulate the economy. Reagan also tied together a lot of preexisting elements of conservative culture - like homophobia, antifeminism, and the solidification of the racist "southern strategy" - and all this came together into what we now call neoconservatism. you need to understand, until then, Democrats OWNED Congress. for the 50 years from 1931-1981, they controlled BOTH houses for 46 of them. Reagan and neoconservatism is how Republicans reformed to wrest control back from the liberals. (similar moves happened in the UK with Thatcherism.)

    neoliberalism is how the Democrats reformed to compete with neoconservatism. think Bill Clinton in the US, Tony Blair in the UK: a pro-business liberalism focused more on centrism (what Clinton called "triangulation," trying to find a position on issues that would appeal to liberals and conservatives by appearing to be distinct from either). it was imperialism through economic influence rather than military power, relaxed but not FULLY deregulated trade, and at attempt to lean into social justice to keep on the Left's good side as they backed off from progressive economics (this was often a mix of genuine progress and liberal performance). in a lot of ways, neoliberalism more closely resembled pre-Reagan conservatism.

    most of our culture and economic policy today is neoliberal. the idea that "government should be run like a business" is the neoliberal stance, and I guess it's just how liberals chose to cope with a post-Reagan world. liberals and conservatives disagree over how the business should be run, but the idea of abandoning Reagan's tax plan completely and going back to the liberalism of the 60's is not even on the table anymore.

  46. i want to know your Bagel Opinions

    I like monstrous breads adorned with all kinds of extra bullshit

    https://youtu.be/ovCdpPteW0M

  47. Not only do they not need a reason, it is beneficial to them if dems or leftists think appeasement can work.

    in response to What I'm saying is that the Right got to the myth of the pedophile ring *in spite of* Dems being safe and boring. But if Dems actually flouted the rules and used the enemy's rhetorical weapons against them to achieve progressive policies, like you're suggesting they do? It might give the conspiracists on the Right just the excuse they need to be even *worse*. Like I said, potentially leading to an honest-to-God second American civil war. I'm not making that up. It's already part of alt-right rhetoric, even with a lame duck Democrat president who couldn't be further from a leftist. And, God forbid, if it happened with a Republican in the White House, and leftists on the "rebel" side? It could be the end of democracy in this country. So what do we do when our choices are to maintain an untenable status quo, or risk provoking the lunatics on the other side who would burn our nation to the ground?

    yeah, people who do whatever reactionaries want are generally called "collaborators"

  48. What was your reaction back in 2003 to the invasion of Iraq?

    went to my first protests

  49. how would you describe your ideal home

  50. What I'm saying is that the Right got to the myth of the pedophile ring *in spite of* Dems being safe and boring. But if Dems actually flouted the rules and used the enemy's rhetorical weapons against them to achieve progressive policies, like you're suggesting they do? It might give the conspiracists on the Right just the excuse they need to be even *worse*. Like I said, potentially leading to an honest-to-God second American civil war. I'm not making that up. It's already part of alt-right rhetoric, even with a lame duck Democrat president who couldn't be further from a leftist. And, God forbid, if it happened with a Republican in the White House, and leftists on the "rebel" side? It could be the end of democracy in this country. So what do we do when our choices are to maintain an untenable status quo, or risk provoking the lunatics on the other side who would burn our nation to the ground?

    in response to (diff anon) I think the idea is if Dems actually do anything *but* what's safe and boring you run the risk of the Right's accusations getting more and more conspiratorial and extreme until their base starts an actual *civil war* thinking their leading a crusade against the forces of the devil. Consider Pizzagate and January 6th. If Dems are more proactive, there's a real chance things may get worse before they get better.

    if they're willing to attempt a violent insurrection with made-up justifications, what makes you think they need an excuse to start a civil war?

    fascists don't need a reason. they revolt because they want to revolt. the Nazis didn't actually believe there was a communist conspiracy after the Reichstag fire.

  51. Right-wingers who bend or break rules don’t always get away with it, but they are almost always given more leeway than liberals as are always given WAY more leeway than leftists. I think this is primarily because the left is by its nature less familiar than the right and a fear of the unknown is widespread. Do you think there are other reasons for this?

    in response to Don't you think that the media would treat Democrats breaking the rules as Satanic Fascist Communists, given how it has treated regular Democrats thus far as "dangerous radicals"?

    I think it's because the Right does radical things and the Left doesn't

  52. Ian, do you have a particular make/model of car that you’ve always been fond of?

  53. (diff anon) I think the idea is if Dems actually do anything *but* what's safe and boring you run the risk of the Right's accusations getting more and more conspiratorial and extreme until their base starts an actual *civil war* thinking their leading a crusade against the forces of the devil. Consider Pizzagate and January 6th. If Dems are more proactive, there's a real chance things may get worse before they get better.

    in response to Don't you think that the media would treat Democrats breaking the rules as Satanic Fascist Communists, given how it has treated regular Democrats thus far as "dangerous radicals"?

    I know what the argument is. let me ask you: what things do you feel the Dems did that provoked Pizzagate and January 6th? in what way were they less "safe and boring" than they are now? what things, had they not done them, would have prevented a coup attempt and the persistent myth that they are running a pedophile ring?

  54. I hate cultural feminism

    is that the new euphemism, like "cultural Marxism"?

  57. Why did the Nazis in the 1930s as well as Alt-Righters today often oppose both socialism *and* capitalism?

    in the 1930's socialism was spreading across Europe and was becoming a "common sense" position. the German monarchy was ended through a coalition of communists and social democrats. the political tension was between socialism's "end capitalism" stance and social democrats "regulate capitalism" stance, with conservatism's pro-capitalist stance a distant third. to create a new mass politics, it was necessary for fascists to at least PRESENT as being a type of leftism, a kind of anti-Marxist socialism that would deliver the promises of socialism but only to the "right" people. in practice, "national socialism" for the Nazis as well as the Italian fascists didn't mean any kind of actual socialism - no worker control of the means of production, no collective action, no citizen councils, no direct democracy. it meant expropriating resources from the wealthy, but only the wealth of minorities that the Party demonized. people who were considered part of the nation, the "volk," were empowered to keep right on practicing capitalism, and made richer with the state eliminating their ethnic competition. this is why fascists, despite their leftist posturing, are overwhelmingly supported by conservatives and rejected by existing anticapitalist movements. capitalism always keeps right on running when they take power, just more racist and nationalistic capitalism.

    inasmuch as the Alt-Right claims to oppose capitalism, it is along these same lines, but frankly I have seen a lot more fetishization of capitalism in the Alt-Right than opposition.

  58. Don't you think that the media would treat Democrats breaking the rules as Satanic Fascist Communists, given how it has treated regular Democrats thus far as "dangerous radicals"?

    in response to You chided democrats for not doing anything to stop Barrett or Kavanaugh’s nominations but what could they have done? They weren’t the majority party so refusing to hold a vote wouldn’t work because they’d be outvoted anyway

    acting safe and boring does not stop the Right from calling them Satanic Fascist Communists, and the MSM will take their cue from Fox News

  59. I can’t think of it in that context because if democrats are the majority party and republican don’t like a budget and decide “we’re not going to show up or do our job” then why don’t dems be like “Okay, we have the numbers to pass it without you. Instead of 52-48 it’ll be 52-0.”

    this is me doing quick research, so apologies if I get anything wrong, but, with 52 seats, what you're describing is technically possible. the Senate needs 51 to have quorum, and we can make that without Republicans. but we don't have quorum in the House, so the shutdown can still happen.

  60. You chided democrats for not doing anything to stop Barrett or Kavanaugh’s nominations but what could they have done? They weren’t the majority party so refusing to hold a vote wouldn’t work because they’d be outvoted anyway

    I need you to stop thinking in terms of "rules." Republicans refusing to convene a vote on Garland was not taking advantage of a rule. it was a form of political disruption. when they shut down the government over a budget they don't like, that's not a rule, that's disruption.

    I want the Democrats to disrupt. once you decide to go outside the rules, you have tons of options.

  63. thanks for the response

    good job by yahtzee for writing the best advertisement for a game that i've ever seen

    i haven't thought about gun godz in a hot minute, i'm glad we got to see more of yung venuz

    in response to my organs wither and my flesh clings to my bones, i crawl along seeking for the sustenance i require but i lack the energy to pull my withered husk any further so i fall upon your doorstep to beseech you, with the last of the energy within my body: i really want to play a shooter with a fucking amazing shotgun

    Y.V. distills the thrill of playing Nuclear Throne so well that I don't play him. too frenetic for me!

  64. i think i sent you a playlist of modern post-punk songs during a twitter q&a, did you ever get around to listening to it?

    in response to How do you discover new music?

    I did. It was good!

  65. my organs wither and my flesh clings to my bones, i crawl along seeking for the sustenance i require but i lack the energy to pull my withered husk any further so i fall upon your doorstep to beseech you, with the last of the energy within my body:

    i really want to play a shooter with a fucking amazing shotgun

    I don't know which shotguns you've already experienced. I will assume you already know that id is famous for their good shotguns, and DOOM II and DOOM 2016 are quite exemplary on that front (haven't played Eternal but I hear good things).

    good shotguns:

    - the quad shotgun in ProDeus
    - the double-barrelled shotgun with the flak cannon upgrade in Project Warlock
    - the dual-wielded lever-actions in DUSK
    - the incredibly loud super shotgun in Gun Godz
    - the shotgun Yahtzee said "sounds like God slamming His car door" in Painkiller
    - the sawed-off in Blood, aka the best Build Engine shotgun

    some commendation goes to the disperser in Ion Fury, which has very nice game feel but the game as a whole is lacking

  66. Is there a word for "I thought I was over this person years ago but I just saw them and now blushing blushes"

    oh I never assume I'm over anyone

  67. How do you discover new music?

    in response to what's your favorite album you discovered this year?

    a mix of recommendations from friends/followers, Spotify Discover playlists, and going down rabbit holes on specific genres/artists

  68. If its not butter, then what is it?

    buttre

  69. Ian, joining organizations, volunteering, knocking on doors; that takes too much time and energy-Can’t we just do something about it online where we don’t have to get off the couch?

    I mean, much of the far right's action starts online, so, yeah. it can be impactful!

  70. if a spider wore pants how would they wear them

    proudly

  71. How would you react to a spider the same height as you?

    deferentially

  72. Why are you calling Jimmy Eat World "empty emo"? Like, empty emo is shite like Hawthrone Heights and fucking Simple Plan; Sorry if I sound mad but Clarity was a formative album to me

    for me as well! but they've been quite open about how their lyrics don't mean anything. Your New Aesthetic is the *idea* of rebellion against conformity in music, but they aren't actually rebelling against anything. song still slaps tho, dammit.

  73. What's wrong with women dating cis men?

    alright, context for those unaware: the other day Lo-fi Republican tweeted a transphobic thing about how leftist guys say "trans women are women" but then don't actually date/marry trans women, implying everyone actually believes trans women are men and cis men who say otherwise are just performing.

    there were a lot of (entirely justified) dunks on this comment, e.g. that people like Lo-fi Republican probably can't accurately tell which women are trans. what irritated me was how it ignored the agency of the trans women themselves: "cis men don't date trans women" assumes it's because the cis men don't want to, not that the trans women don't want to. my sample size isn't huge, but most of the trans people I know are dating other trans people. a lot of them have complained about how much they have to explain about themselves to cis partners, about getting creeped on by cis male chasers, and the fact that trans women are one of the most murdered demographics in the US and its overwhelmingly at the hands of straight cis men (and in many states cis men can beat a murder charge by claiming trans panic). so, yeah, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if trans women dated cis men at below-average rates.

    I didn't feel like I, as a cis man, was the right person to speak to those trends (at least not with the brevity Twitter requires), but, hey, it's ok for me to make fun of cis men, so I quipped "I'm frankly surprised anyone marries cis men at all." made a similar joke to fellow YouTuber AdequateEmily, whose QT of the post is how I found it.

    this was not the wisest way to address my frustration, and I have been getting dunked on as one of those "I'm one of the good ones" cis boys since last night.

    now, this was a shoot-from-the-hip tweet and I'm at the level now where I should stop making those, especially after 9pm when I'm sleepy. it presumes a level of "we're all friends here" in a cis man making fun of the shittiness of cis men. strangers don't owe me the benefit of the doubt. it also presumes a familiarity with Emily that, while we're mutuals and we met once at a meetup here in Boston, it was presumptuous to think that means I can crack wise about trans issues with a trans woman.

    so, I'm sorry. mea culpa. the tweets are deleted.

  74. when you see an itty bitty spider on something you're going to be touching, are you the kind of guy to get it under a cup and outside or the kind of guy to just blow on it so it now lives in another part of your house

    blow. I don't catch nothing smaller than a dime.

    I appreciate that "squish" was not an option. you know me very well.

  75. what's your favorite album you discovered this year?

    Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor (2022)
    Third in a series of albums mixing death metal with African American slave spirituals, set in an alternate history where enslaved people in the antebellum South turned to Satan instead of Jesus. Very fond of confronting death metal's worst elements; the standout track Church Burns recontextualizes the genre's history of burning Black churches to "raise awareness for Satan" with a story about escaped Africans burning the church of their former masters. (Song also fucking owns.)

    Dutch - A Bright Cold Day (2010)
    After leaving Jedi Mind Tricks, apparently Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind just casually put out the best trip-hop record since the 90's. Or, if not the best trip-hop record, the MOST trip-hop record. (I swear the track Pearls is doing it's damnedest to make you think of that Isaac Hayes bassline that backs both Portishead's Glory Box and Tricky's Hell is Round the Corner, off two of the albums that defined the genre, though it is actually a different nearly-identical sample.) California Cloaked in Wool is a personal fav, as is Warm Like the Wind.

    Genghis Tron - Board up the House (2007)
    Having one of these tracks come up randomly on Spotify kicked off a whole synth metal phase for me, but the album itself is a winner. "Cybergrind" is one of the worst genre names in history, and it's not even accurate - Genghis Tron has none of the ADHD brevity or vulgarity of grindcore and more closely resembles the cycles of tension and release of hardcore acts like Botch or Converge... but with snyths. Warm, buzzy synths. Sounds a little like what Vangelis would sound like if he was getting tortured in Hell. Start with I Won't Come Back Alive

    2 Mello - Memories of Tokyo-To (2018)
    Mello decides to make an album modeled after the Jet Set Radio soundtrack, kicks ass. Tag Walls, Punch Fascists is my unofficial anthem.

    Marmozets - Knowing What You Know Now (2018)
    Becca Macintyre has more energy than any vocalist I've heard in a looooong time, and she's backed by guitarists with chops. Got mildly obsessed with the track Habits but the whole first half of the album is wall-to-wall mosh pit music.

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