Thought Dump

That's far too generous.

Maybe so. But I really hate the elitism of certain liberal classes that treats the electorate as this undifferentiated mass of uninformed schlubs. It's a really pernicious tendency and one that I sometimes, unfortunately, am also guilty of.

It's hard to always have sympathy though. It's true that the American media landscape is literally just a massive disinformation campaign, which means that individuals who want to participate in the democratic process but might not have developed the critical faculties (which is quite normal considering that basic media literacy is never taught in American schools) are often filled with absolute clickbait, sensationalist nonsense. And since we live in an atomized society without the existence of very many national trade unions or mass political parties with autonomous civil and political cultures, the average American is incredibly reliant on CNN to understand politics.

At the same time, I grew up in an apolitical, middle class family that never discussed politics and had been lulled into false consciousness by their highly financialized assets and luxuries into thinking that they weren't members of a social class. They offered me literally zero political education whatsoever. When I was fourteen years old, I could not have told you even the most basic difference between a Republican and Democrat. But then I became an adult person and actually had to critically engage with the world around me. And I guess that's where I get confused by other people, because what is it exactly that they are doing instead?

The song “Too Much” by Dave fucking Matthews Band is always popping into my head for reasons I can’t fathom. I didn’t even listen to that album much when I was a young un. And when I did, I didn’t particularly give a crap about that song. Why is this always happening to me? It’s been going on for like at least ten fucking years and wtf.

Harsh realm.

Actually, that rules imho

All of these animal videos that YouTube keeps recommending to me have millions of views, their thumbnails all say "Live!" and have giant cobras squeezing lions to death and shit

There's one with a cheetah eating a baboon and the baboon is also about to be eating by a giant bear or something, I mean it's just


Just says it all really, you know

Undo, you must be watching really sick videos on YouTube to be getting these recommendations. Mine are just Seth Myer clips and Leonard Cohen interviews.

We watch a lot of nature stuff.

Give me your favorite animal and I'll post the first video that I can think of for it.

Gorilla.

Don’t say Harambe.

I don't watch gorilla videos but you can still enjoy this

Was hoping for Harambe vids.

I bet Flo and Eddie would be super interesting motherfuckers to hang out with.

30 years from now I’ll either be dead or repulsive.

Life is so fucking stupid.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing

Not about you, I mean.

Lately global warming has been actually scaring me and I feel sad and scared for the future of my child.

That's very normal. Bill McKibben writes for The New Yorker about climate change and in his last long article he starts it by talking about how difficult it can be for him to sleep at night because he thinks about the world that he is leaving behind for his children.

I am someone who has boundless political optimism, but when it comes to climate change it can be really tough. We are quickly approaching a critical tipping point and the international community is doing fuck all about it. I wonder what the conclusions are going to be from these meetings in Madrid.

The tipping point was in the 1970s or, at the very latest, 1980s. It's merely about how quickly it happens, at this point. Our (ie, man's) fate is already sealed. I'm not happy about it, but that's just the way it is.

A Gates-funded startup recently harnessed the power of the sun--like, for real, though.  Endless energy.  Almost 100% green.  Nobody cares.  It has barely been reported.  No meaningful changes are being or will be made.  The current iteration of the "the market" is more important to the handful of people who can take substantive, widespread action on such issues than survival.  We're unlikely ever to have anything even remotely as close to a literal get-out-of-the-worst-possible-jail-free card (even if we'd still be in another, less brutal prison) ever again, and nobody gives a shit.  You're right to be concerned, but the devastating reality is that you're probably, at your worst, too hopeful/optimistic/etc..  It's awful, I know.  I've been shouting at this particular cloud for more than 20 years, now, and nobody will ever listen.  It sucks!

The “Epstein didn’t kill himself” memes are infuriating and make me want to kill everybody sharing them because:

A. Of course he didn’t
And
B. Why oh why Jesus fuck why is nobody sharing memes of trump and Barr as the murderers?

Because Hillary did that shit.

Do you believe in the power of rock n roll?

Do you think it made the world a better place? Do you think it gave a voice to people that needed it? Did it challenge traditional values that deserved to be questioned?

I didn't live through it like people my parents' age did, it means something totally different to them than it did to any of us. And a lot of it was overly-mythologized bullshit, sure, but what else did they have? What about us?

Just the joy rocking out with your friends, playing music with people, that's gotta mean something, right?

And even if you despise the golden age of rock n roll and all that stands for, surely you see that it was necessary to lead to [whatever music you love today]. Or maybe that's really overblown and not necessarily true, I don't know.

That's a shitty post but it's just an appetizer for what's to come