Thought Dump

undo wrote:The answer to this may be different depending on where you live.

Is it legal to insult strangers in public? Just walk up to someone and say, "wow, you're ugly!"

Is this protected speech?

Just expressing your opinion, IMO.

undo wrote:Most of the people I've known in my life who could be called "talented musicians" had absolutely terrible and boring taste in music.

This bothered me for a long time but the thing is a lot of terrible music is just really fun and instantly rewarding to play. Or it confirms lessons about the "right" way to play music that more interesting/unpredictable music usually does not, and that just creates a feedback loop that never ends.

A dump of a thought if there ever was one

What is an example of terrible music?

A sublime cover band?

Oh that wasn't rhetorical, like we could all easily name some terrible music. I was just curious about this case specifically

I've had the same thought before though I can't really think of an example. I've chalked it up to some musicians thinking about music in terms of craft instead of art, if that makes any sense and doesn't make your eyes roll out of your head.

C-poots wrote:Oh that wasn't rhetorical, like we could all easily name some terrible music. I was just curious about this case specifically

That post was inspired by something I was listening to in real time but I cannot remember what it was. As always, you'll know it when you hear it!

Ned Braden wrote:A sublime cover band?

I hate making everything about Donald trump, but I feel like Putin’s only desirable off-ramp right now is Trump 2024. Trump can run on, “I’ll end the high gas prices and convince Putin to leave cause we’re tight,” and Putin gets to slink out, offer minimal concessions, and get something he values even more than Ukraine in return - an American president who is a totalitarian mob boss in Putin’s own image.

Eh, by 2024 Putin will be in the midst of a quagmire of an occupation of Ukraine, and even that will be more desirable than dipshit in the white house again.

I have literally stopped watching or reading any American news. Not really an intentional political act but I just find the world view expressed by mainstream press to be boring and myopic. So I really have no idea how the Russian invasion is being narrated in the U.S. Do people really care that much? Is this just being viewed as a typical act of Russian belligerence that will justify our parents default Russophobia?

In Europe, things are really strange. Obviously the vast majority of intelligent observers are critical of NATO expansionism. I'd say that the majority of the European left is openly opposed to Ukraine's entry into the NATO 'security' alliance as well. The more interesting debate is about EU expansion. I think there is a legitimate case to be made that despite the left's objection to some of the foundational treaties of the EU (and in some ways its whose raison d'etre, which is the Common Market), Ukraine's accession could be considered a 'progressive' act of solidarity that would also challenge the plutocratic revenue-making schemes of post-Soviet oligarchs throughout the region. The real reason that the Donbas is so foundational to Putin's military aggression, for example, is that the political/economic power base in that region are primarily individuals who enriched themselves by plundering the Soviet Union's (dirty) industrial heritage in that region. Accession into the EU would disrupt those revenue streams and so they require new forms of protection, which motivates their alliance with the Russian Federation to create independent 'people's republics.' The media wants to simplify this into a fratricidal conflict between cultural/linguistic groups with a shared history.

Anyways, I don't really have a strong opinion when it comes to Ukrainian accession to the EU. I do on NATO though. That would be a nightmare scenario. More importantly, this war is absolutely horrendous. The bombing of the maternity ward in Mariupol is an unspeakably atrocious crime against the humanity. Hope this ends soon but any long-term peace negotiation seems quite unlikely.

I guess this is just going to be the new reality of the multi-polar international order. Not sure how to conceptualize this stuff yet tbh. Not that it really matters at the moment.

Russia is killing people with China's backing to increase their regional influence. Russia wants a buffer to NATO (and more territory/resources to practice their oligarchic gangster capitalism) and Russia is China's global buffer. Russia has been distracting the West for a decade while China continues to rise.

China has become powerful enough that they can back Russia and even NATO can't really intervene without suffering immense economic and political sanctions from Beijing. The US has done fuck all to mitigate China's rise in the last decade either—in fact, we paid for it.

All of this current "crisis" is small potatoes compared to whatever China is planning to do in the next 10 years. Watch out.

Bay Area liberals are, of course, most concerned about their European vacations, gas prices, and where they can buy Ukrainian food to pretend they're doing something.

I decided to go on a news break when the invasion started. Because I personally could not process it in a healthy way and I had to find some way to put a lid on this all-consuming sense of pessimism that was just making me feel totally hopeless every waking second of the day. I got over the initial shock of it but haven't been following too closely so I can't really say how the American media is reporting on this, aside from the sporadic coverage I have allowed myself to watch.

I have the impression that they are covering it responsibly. I'm sure I'd be laughed out of any message board, including this one, if I tried to double down on that statement. One thing the far right and the left do seem to agree on is that you cannot trust anything you see any longer in the media. Certainly not for the same reasons! A not insignificant part of the Republican party and the American electorate seem to be cheering for Russia, Putin is the strongman that they want us to have because politics is now a 100% emotional sport where emotionally scarring people that you hate is the only thing that matters anymore in this world, government cannot or should not do anything else. For them this is all about making Biden look "weak," already I have coworkers parroting this spin in between complaining about gas prices.

I'm super ill-informed on the history of NATO and why it matters, but what do you expect

Chrono, I am pretty surprised that you are so convinced of this whole Chinese wolf warrior diplomacy/global expansionism narrative. What makes you think that the CCP is actually interested in global hegemony? And what do you think they'd actually like to do with it?

I'm not convinced of any narrative. I don't read anything from foreign policy circles. This is just my own view from following the news and my limited knowledge of history.

All of their actions to create economic ties throughout the entire world? Because it benefits them economically? They'll do the same thing we do with their own style: use their hegemony to spin all the markets of the world in their directions, get first access to natural resources, and set the standards/rules of engagement.

I can easily see them eventually using a bit of military power to access more resources or install favorable governments where they see fit. Or asking someone else to do it for them. It's not a guarantee though. Maybe the CCP will find that it isn't worth the risk and they can meet all their objectives in a simpler way?

I don't pretend to know what China "wants", but everything the CCP does suggests they want money, power, and control. Presumably they'd like to do something once they get that influence. I certainly don't think they give a fuck about Russia's objectives.

Yeah, I have no fucking idea either. It just seems like Atlantic state powers seem to project a lot of their own historical experience and worldview onto assumed Chinese ambitions. Our whole national narrative about China seems to be premised on the idea that we need to somehow "contain" this emergent global hegemon because otherwise it might completely rewrite the 'rules of engagement' through which international relations/diplomacy are conducted. And of course, the fear is always that they will do this through military force and are just biding their time.

But I don't know if that is accurate, tbh. This whole 'Chinese dream' narrative about restoring the great Chinese state does not necessarily imply an aggressive or expansionary relationship to the outside world. In fact, considering the impact of European interference on Chinese society since the middle of the nineteenth-century (Opium Wars and forced liberalization of trade on British/European/American terms), it is a pretty legitimate ambition to be able to manage their own sovereign affairs.

I couldn't tell you what the CCP "wants" either but then we probably shouldn't necessarily assume aggression and conflict is their ultimate aim, imo.

I agree it's not a given and China has a much less aggressive history in their foreign policy than the West. Any expansionism they did I would expect to be less violent purely based on national history.

At the same time, I think it would be naive not to think that they are accumulating money, power, and control to do something with it. The CCP is quite sophisticated in its statecraft. They have frequently used their economic might to bully other nations (flipping distressed assets in Europe, building cheap infrastructure in Africa, setting up contracts for natural resource extraction in Latin America, tightening the screw in Hong Kong/Tibet/Western China, etc.). They have been clearly oppositional to US power and interests globally for some time.

I think the West believes in the China containment narrative so strongly is that we know that the key to our success has been rigging the game for over a century. Even if China didn't turn around and do become an aggressive hegemon, leveling the playing field would feel like a "loss" to the privileged West.

The West controls global trade, currency, and resources in a major way. My belief is that China wants to flip that on its head. They want the renminbi to supercede the dollar as the global currency. They want to be the absolute king of the court when it comes to any future discussions about climate change mitigation. They want to be able to flex their regional influence over India and Pakistan by being in a leading global position. I believe that eventually they want to shift the axis of global trade and power from a Eurocentric to a Sinocentric one.

Any time one nation replaces another as the global economic leader, there are many possibilities. That's why I also say it's possible that a new leadership group comes to the fore in China and they are military expansionists. We don't really know right now. All that said, based on China's 19th century experience with forced economic opening, I am fully convinced they want to be the kingmaker in global politics and economics.

chrondog wrote:At the same time, I think it would be naive not to think that they are accumulating money, power, and control to do something with it. The CCP is quite sophisticated in its statecraft. They have frequently used their economic might to bully other nations (flipping distressed assets in Europe, building cheap infrastructure in Africa, setting up contracts for natural resource extraction in Latin America, tightening the screw in Hong Kong/Tibet/Western China, etc.). They have been clearly oppositional to US power and interests globally for some time.

Yeah, this is all true. To be honest though, none of this bothers me that much. The saber-rattling narrative about the Chinese threat seems entirely overplayed. Plus, the actual interests of China's political elites are too integrated into the global capitalist world system for them to ever want to pose a fundamental challenge to the current order, imo. That is the big difference between contemporary China and the USSR of the twentieth century.

I think it is really interesting how little the average American knows about about contemporary Chinese society, myself included. Nineteenth-century British and French colonialism produced an entirely new branch of academic knowledge (orientalism), American security paranoia about the Soviet threat created Soviet/Kremlinology as well. While the creation of both of those academic fields were motivated by immediate political interests (and probably tell us more about ourselves than they do the actual object of inquiry), it also did produce some really worthwhile scholarship. And it suggested serious engagement with the outside world. There is really no equivalent in the United States today with regards to the PRC. The majority of academic funding has been focused on security threats from non-state actors (war on terror) and the study of Islamic fundamentalism. In the coming decades, as our attention shifts and we return to more conventional forms of warfare and conflict, that might change. But currently, it is shocking to me how little serious attention is given to Chinese society and politics.

Bill Murray is probably just as much of an idiot as anyone else is.

Look I like him but the way the Internet deifies him really needed to stop like 10 years ago at least

On my way to work this morning I saw the 22A bus in my rearview mirror and the lit up sign on it read like “ass.”

Has there ever been an American political scientist with a take on European socialism that was more pragmatic and useful that Ferris Buehler’s?

This social media post on LinkedIn is really, severely fucking with my head:





Like… am I right to be weirded out by this or is my brain just broken due to years of the internet? The “felt cute thought I’d post a #fuckcancercoughingupblood selfie maybe delete it later idk” vibe I’m getting here is just too much for me to cope with right now.

Thirst traps 4 birthday leukemia vomit threads are one too many layers of fuck this world and every poor asshole stuck in it imho.

Imo if she legit has cancer she may be struggling emotionally and seek out any vanity available, people cope in different ways. Whatever helps, more power to her. But I’m an old dude what do I know

Trigger warning this is a bit dark but I want to share

Sadly our very close friend just found out that she has breast cancer and needs a mastectomy next week. It’s so god awful. We are each other’s support network and since we both have zero family, we are like each other’s family. She also may have to go through chemo which could be bad. She has other health issues on top of this.

Since her husband passed away tragically 6 years ago, if she can’t survive this we may have to step into a guardianship role for her son. It’s some pretty overwhelming stuff but we are mostly trying to stay in the moment and be positive, most especially for her sake.

Dude...   good luck. That is an awful situation, and I'm pulling for you, your family, and your friend. I really hope things turn out ok.

coyote wrote:Imo if she legit has cancer she may be struggling emotionally and seek out any vanity available, people cope in different ways. Whatever helps, more power to her.

Yeah...  this is the right response for sure. My immediate thought that this post looked like a spam thirst trap thing rather than a cancer victim trying to cope speaks to my brain probably being cynically hardened by the general shittiness of the internet.

C-poots wrote:

undo wrote:Most of the people I've known in my life who could be called "talented musicians" had absolutely terrible and boring taste in music.

This bothered me for a long time but the thing is a lot of terrible music is just really fun and instantly rewarding to play. Or it confirms lessons about the "right" way to play music that more interesting/unpredictable music usually does not, and that just creates a feedback loop that never ends.

A dump of a thought if there ever was one

What is an example of terrible music?

I honestly have no idea what the post you're quoting here was actually supposed to be about. I get stuck in these thought patterns that are miserable and lazy and not even 1% as profound as I probably think they are when I go to post about them on my lunch break.

The two most talented guitarists I've ever personally known only aspired to play "praise & worship" Christian music of the early 2000s and something (everything?) about that just bummed me out in a way that I've never stopped figuratively shaking my head to. Years later I realize that at least they were doing whatever they wanted and the real joke was on me.

Last week I was in line at the deli and "No Rain" by Blind Melon was playing on the store speakers and I started to wonder if I could play that lick that opens the song. I've spent 20-30 minutes with this video every day this week and it's made me a much happier person than I'd be if I was left to my own devices without it.



Blind Melon might not be "terrible music," it is fun to play and that's all that matters, oh wow look I finally figured it out like 30 years too late lol

Ned Braden wrote:

Like… am I right to be weirded out by this or is my brain just broken due to years of the internet? The “felt cute thought I’d post a #fuckcancercoughingupblood selfie maybe delete it later idk” vibe I’m getting here is just too much for me to cope with right now.

Thirst traps 4 birthday leukemia vomit threads are one too many layers of fuck this world and every poor asshole stuck in it imho.

You think that is a thirst trap, man? Just looks like a woman wearing a shirt.

A number of folks in my family have had cancer and lost their lives to it. But if you are going to fight it, a big part of that is having a positive attitude and trying to go about as normal. The therapists and doctors that work with the families and afflicted will let them know this right away. Like as soon as one is diagnosed- within the first few minutes.

It's a terribly taxing situation in every possible way; physical, financial, and emotional. Especially during relapse or metastasis. Your days are numbered and you have to live in some way to motivate yourself/loved ones until the time comes or literally give up & die.

My aunt had breast cancer that developed into brain cancer. Brother. This is a hard, hard road. If you are just sitting around wallowing and not actively trying to be positive, you are going to die miserably in ways only someone without experience of this with a loved one could be glib about.

Have you seen a 7-year-old die of cancer? I have.

My initial response to that random social media post said way more about me than about the post.

When I’m in a “the whole world is fake and shitty garbage” headspace, anything I see on social media will just exacerbate it. Especially LinkedIn, which is billed as some bs “professional networking” thing, but frequently manifests as “FB posts from my racist aunt with a #business hashtag.”