Random political thought thread.

[Coriolis]

"There's only two genders!"

I'm reading this in German where there are actually three genders, grammatically at least. I suppose we have them, too, but "it" is reserved for inanimate objects, and occasionally the random animal.

 

[Red Herring]

I'm reading this in German where there are actually three genders, grammatically at least. I suppose we have them, too, but "it" is reserved for inanimate objects, and occasionally the random animal.

Interestingly enough "Geschlecht" (gender) is neutral: das Geschlecht

The big culture war over here is not so much about genderqueer or intersex people thougj (we had a law introduced 5 years ago that created the legal status of "diverse" next to male or female, so you can now register a baby as other on their birth certificate and job ads usually use "(m/w/d)" (m/f/o) after a job title.... transgender is different, legal reassignment just got easier but there are a lot of TERFs and conservatives in a fit about that) but about gender inclusive language. Many people hate it when others do it even though nobody forces them to do it themselves. Using "Patient*innen" instead of "Patienten" (generic masculinum) or "Patientinnen und Patienten" to describe male and female patients (and everybody inbetween) is considered a serious attack on the German language. It supposedly confuses young children learning to write and migrants learning the language so the use of the "*" is actually illegal in official communications from government institutions and at schools in several federal states.

 

[Coriolis]

Interestingly enough "Geschlecht" (gender) is neutral: das Geschlecht

The big culture war over here is not so much about genderqueer or intersex people thougj (we had a law introduced 5 years ago that created the legal status of "diverse" next to male or female, so you can now register a baby as other on their birth certificate and job ads usually use "(m/w/d)" (m/f/o) after a job title.... transgender is different, legal reassignment just got easier but there are a lot of TERFs and conservatives in a fit about that) but about gender inclusive language. Many people hate it when others do it even though nobody forces them to do it themselves. Using "Patient*innen" instead of "Patienten" (generic masculinum) or "Patientinnen und Patienten" to describe male and female patients (and everybody inbetween) is considered a serious attack on the German language. It supposedly confuses young children learning to write and migrants learning the language so the use of the "*" is actually illegal in official communications from government institutions and at schools in several federal states.

It does seem rather awkward to have to use two words when one would do fine, if only it were gender inclusive, like the English "patient." Sure, we have inherently gendered words like mother, or policeman, but even there we can speak of parents or police officers - no need to double up.

 

[Red Herring]

It does seem rather awkward to have to use two words when one would do fine, if only it were gender inclusive, like the English "patient." Sure, we have inherently gendered words like mother, or policeman, but even there we can speak of parents or police officers - no need to double up.

Most of what I am describing here refers to public communication like journalism, political statements or advertisement. Conservatives tend to either just use the male form and say that, of course, they also mean women (which is how, historically, the language has worked for at least two millenia) or use both words if they want to sound polite and inclusive. More and more institutions and businesses use the "*" (at the risk of pissing of conservatives), sometimes just to sound progressive, but I never heard anyone use it in private. Some leftwing activists apparently do though. What I do at home is to deliberatedly use the double form when talking to my little daughters ("he-engineers and she-engineers" , etc) because studies over studies have shown that when you use the male form children, like adults, tend to figure a male person in front of their inner eye. The language contributes to the gender gap in STEM, etc. If you want to raise them with fewer gender stereotypes this needs to be addressed. I also do it when speaking of jobs like construction workers. The good thing about Angela Merkel was that I didn't have to make up a hypothetical head of government, so the kids are used to "she-chancelor" and "she-decision-maker".

Another (also divisive) option can be to use something like "Studierende" (studying people) instead of "Studenten" or "Student*innen" or "Studentinnen und Studenten" for the plural. But it is not always an option and can also sound weird. University students is the prime example but I am also hearing "Forschende" (researching people) becoming more and more common in journalism.

The whole thing is highly controversial and emotional. As a translator I tend to use the old-fashioned style in my work so as not to get into trouble, unless the customer is already using inclusive language on their website. With my kids it's the double form and for everything else the old-fashioned style, out of habit because I'm over 40 and it's just too much of a hassle to do the glottal stop. As I said, I never heard it used in private. But I am actually happy when I hear or see the "*" in public communication.

 

[Virtual ghost]

2024 House Election Interactive Map


They updated the consensus house map.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I want to take Don’t Tread On Me back from the crypto-fascists. I hate how it’s been perverted. You can’t seriously agree with that sentiment if you’re also supporting blue lives matter and “law and order” candidates. Those standpoints are mutually exclusive.

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

It's hard to enthusiastically vote for people who keep on telling me that what I'm worried about will never happen. I'm not inspired or assuaged by that, just kind of pissed off. Are those claims reflecting reality?

 

[The Cat]

It's hard to enthusiastically vote for people who keep on telling me that what I'm worried about will never happen. I'm not inspired or assuaged by that, just kind of pissed off. Are those claims reflecting reality?

I think Biden can actually make me feel hopeful. But it was important to me get a president who might have done something to undo the post-9/11 security state. No idea why I was worried about that, though, it's not like anyone else was.

Oh many of us were and are quite worried.
But asking a government to give up a natural resource is like asking Isildur to cast the one ring into the fire...
It's a nice fantasy.
You've only got three wishes, most people forget to wish the djinn back into the bottle.

Perfectly told stories like the Venture Brothers Saga aside...
Information is worth a lot of money, and money is a kind of power.
Also a population divided and hopeless is easier to control.
As the first rule of acquisition states: "Once you have their money, never give it back."
It's weird how so often money becomes a key for a thing like certain inalienable rights. I don't recall the right to privacy being explicitly spelled out in any of the sacred scriptures, so I'm pretty sure there's always going to be people and organizations trying to exploit that and us. Which is why its so damned important to not give up the fight for a better tomorrow today. For the children. And the elderly. And the true victims, rich and powerful shadowy corporations. You know, our friends and family who own us. All of us. They're watching us right now. Plotting. Scheming. Mocking us. Mining our data to sell us madness at a mark up and make us fear the real things we need. Other people.
It's a game you see. Like Calvinball, but with blood sport.
One thing's for sure; whether its a wedding or an execution. Either way we'll have a good time. Make it like a carnival. Bring in the right music and food trucks, hell some people won't even notice the signs.
There's so many everywhere all the time, what sane person would even try to keep track of it all, what sane person could keep track of all the collected crazy of an entire country.
The games we play as children prepare us for the games we play as adults. There are rules and expectations for cheating in both. As a child you are discouraged from cheating. Punished for it. As an adult you are expected and encouraged to cheat, if you can afford it, you can even get rewarded for it. Just don't get caught. If you get caught it draws focus to the fact that it happens, the fact that it happens, raises questions, tedius questions, scary questions, dangerous questions, questions have a bad habit of demanding answers and answers require thought. Thought is painful. Like growth. Pain is scary ergo growth is scary.
And there's always going to be someone standing by to offer all those scared thoughtful people the opportunity to get security in exchange for some existential conceptualization of a right you didnt really think you were using much right now anyway, and its not like you can't just return the car and get a refund once you've driven it off the lot.
Tale as old as time my avian friend.
Keith David even sings about it.

It's called a deal with the devil for a reason beyond it sounding cool.

It's a slow burn long con...

Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you! But That's a story for another day and I digress:
FWIW, I do still think there's hope. Even if it's only a fool's hope.
Life tells the jokes, I just point out the punchlines and hope to get you to laugh instead of cry.
Another fun current event. I found some big moxes of the monster ceareals at walmart. So I bought the big three. I passed a halucination of my childhood self at the cash register. It was like the scene at the end of return of the jedi. The ghost of my inner child nodded at me. We did it little dude. When we became an adult and do our own grocery shopping we really can buy all three monster cereals. Living the dream feels fantastic.
Now I just need civilization to hang in there long enough for me to become an old person, all these long rambling go no where stories will rival the great aged bard Abraham Jebediah Simpson II. Come on democracy hang in there for all the mostly harmless affably eccentric rubes in all of us. So that future generations can enjoy three kinds of monster ceareal which would have been four if there had been Apple Mummy.
​

tl;dr: Life is a brief candle all to quickly spent. At least there's snacks.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Oh many of us were and are quite worried.
But asking a government to give up a natural resource is like asking Isildur to cast the one ring into the fire...
It's a nice fantasy.
You've only got three wishes, most people forget to wish the djinn back into the bottle.

Perfectly told stories like the Venture Brothers Saga aside...
Information is worth a lot of money, and money is a kind of power.
Also a population divided and hopeless is easier to control.
As the first rule of acquisition states: "Once you have their money, never give it back."
It's weird how so often money becomes a key for a thing like certain inalienable rights. I don't recall the right to privacy being explicitly spelled out in any of the sacred scriptures, so I'm pretty sure there's always going to be people and organizations trying to exploit that and us. Which is why its so damned important to not give up the fight for a better tomorrow today. For the children. And the elderly. And the true victims, rich and powerful shadowy corporations. You know, our friends and family who own us. All of us. They're watching us right now. Plotting. Scheming. Mocking us. Mining our data to sell us madness at a mark up and make us fear the real things we need. Other people.
It's a game you see. Like Calvinball, but with blood sport.
One thing's for sure; whether its a wedding or an execution. Either way we'll have a good time. Make it like a carnival. Bring in the right music and food trucks, hell some people won't even notice the signs.
There's so many everywhere all the time, what sane person would even try to keep track of it all, what sane person could keep track of all the collected crazy of an entire country.
The games we play as children prepare us for the games we play as adults. There are rules and expectations for cheating in both. As a child you are discouraged from cheating. Punished for it. As an adult you are expected and encouraged to cheat, if you can afford it, you can even get rewarded for it. Just don't get caught. If you get caught it draws focus to the fact that it happens, the fact that it happens, raises questions, tedius questions, scary questions, dangerous questions, questions have a bad habit of demanding answers and answers require thought. Thought is painful. Like growth. Pain is scary ergo growth is scary.
And there's always going to be someone standing by to offer all those scared thoughtful people the opportunity to get security in exchange for some existential conceptualization of a right you didnt really think you were using much right now anyway, and its not like you can't just return the car and get a refund once you've driven it off the lot.
Tale as old as time my avian friend.
Keith David even sings about it.

It's called a deal with the devil for a reason beyond it sounding cool.

It's a slow burn long con...

Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you! But That's a story for another day and I digress:
FWIW, I do still think there's hope. Even if it's only a fool's hope.
Life tells the jokes, I just point out the punchlines and hope to get you to laugh instead of cry.
Another fun current event. I found some big moxes of the monster ceareals at walmart. So I bought the big three. I passed a halucination of my childhood self at the cash register. It was like the scene at the end of return of the jedi. The ghost of my inner child nodded at me. We did it little dude. When we became an adult and do our own grocery shopping we really can buy all three monster cereals. Living the dream feels fantastic.
Now I just need civilization to hang in there long enough for me to become an old person, all these long rambling go no where stories will rival the great aged bard Abraham Jebediah Simpson II. Come on democracy hang in there for all the mostly harmless affably eccentric rubes in all of us. So that future generations can enjoy three kinds of monster ceareal which would have been four if there had been Apple Mummy.
​

tl;dr: Life is a brief candle all to quickly spent. At least there's snacks.

God I hate Slors. They're the worst. (And how great is Moranis in that scene?)

I feel drawn towards Boo Berry, though I've never had it (most sugary cereals were reserved for camping although Frosted Flakes snuck in there). I've long assumed it was mythical. I didn't catch the word play and mused that it was so awful if you ate it it would turn you into a ghost. This would be why I never saw it. But, lo and behold, I just saw it in Jewel the other day.

 

[The Cat]

God I hate Slors. They're the worst. (And how great is Moranis in that scene?)

I feel drawn towards Boo Berry, though I've never had it (most sugary cereals were reserved for camping although Frosted Flakes snuck in there). I've long assumed it was mythical. I didn't catch the word play and mused that it was so awful if you ate it it would turn you into a ghost. This would be why I never saw it. But, lo and behold, I just saw it in Jewel the other day.

Here's what you do regarding those cereals. You get some softserve iced cream, and you mix that cereal into it. It's fucking amazing. Not remotely real food, but you could pick nastier poisons...but not many more delicious. For added dopamine consume whilst watching your favorite saturday morning cartoon from back in the day.

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

 

[ygolo]

I found it funny that a mathematician was not afraid to get political in a programming conference (from 5 years ago)

She leans into this more in a talk at google:

 

[The Cat]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I hope labor wins this battle against ai.

The true danger of AI is not Terminator but economic disruption and displacement. It has the potential to affect many different industries.

AI might be a better thing and might actually do what's promised if we didn't live under an economic system that incentivizes doing things quickly and cheaply.

I think anyone introducing AI to a workplace and saying that "this is not for putting people out of work" is probably fill of shit. That's exactly the outcome demanded as a consequence of this by the logic of capitalism - putting people out of work because they cost too much and do things too slowly.

 

[Red Herring]

I came across a video of two young American teachers talking about the abysmal reading skills of their middle school students. I am married to a teacher and have a kid in grade school, so I watched it. The video was interesting though not surprising given that we have similar problems in Germany.
It was only after watching it that I realized it was published by a group called Educating America. Many of the comments were from (homeschooling?) parents saying how modern parents are lazy, public schools suck, private schools are better and the problems are all the fault of the government (that wants to keep children stupid) and evil teachers unions.

The other posts of this group are all clearly conservative leaning material, though nothing extremist.

I'm still afraid though of what this will do to my algorithm.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm too negative for political work, unless there's somebody else or a broader movement to excite me.

Nobody needs somebody going around saying "we're all doomed". How does that help? My major virtue in the political sphere is that I usually know when to shut up. Perhaps that time has come once again.

 

[Virtual ghost]

EU says Elon Musk's X is biggest source of disinformation