Benjaben

I have occasional moments where I try to sit and think about the fact that you could take almost anyone from a few hundred years ago and they'd be just floored by the quantity and kinds of food available, like just the crazy flavors and variety of snack foods themselves.

And then show them just hot and cold water on demand, the incredible ease with which waste of all kinds is handled (at least for most of us). The time it takes to get dressed and wash clothes, similar for preparing food and cleaning up.

I mean, all jokes aside, it's useful to think about the fact that - not that long ago - the things available to a ton of us as fairly default stuff - would be extreme luxury, basically royalty only, if it was available at all. Of course as part of the "standard package" we've lost important things that used to be available, by default, to most folks, too. Pretty weird.

Probably me just being sensitive, cheers!

Well...I kind of agree and already know, but I think that joke and semi-truth, taken too far, can be borderline disrespectful and diminishing of their work. I say that with a life full of folks connected in various ways, I assume your comment comes from a similar place.

Hey, your lovely sounding treatment of patients aside, I don't wanna miss this lol, are you saying you as a therapist give your own psychiatrist fake home addresses for yourself, one specific reason being so that they cannot involuntarily commit you...?

That would be hilarious, sobering, and several other things I don't really have words for. It's like doctors who broadly seem to agree that end of life "care" is a travesty and have their own exit plan that doesn't involve it.

(To be clear I'm not at all implying hypocrisy from you whatsoever, in case that could possibly be read into my comment, you made it clear you refuse to do the thing you're taking interesting steps to avoid)

I was definitely including "expanding for extra use" in what I mean by allowing construction, but either way thanks for the info. I've seen some utterly hideous stylistic choices (which, to be fair, seem garish and "loud" by design, I didn't uncover some secret), but I really like when it's done with some care. Probably not a realistic goal in every case, as y'all have helped me see.

The one you posted is utterly jaw dropping :)

Fuck de-escalation, there is no way Russia ends their atrocity without either total surrender from Ukraine or overwhelming force. Let's get it over with before it festers further. Bomb Moscow, lightly, and fucking annihilate it and several other key sites if there's even a whiff of retaliation.

Fuck Russia, enough is enough. Miss me with the "but the innocents" bullshit, cuz yeah, I agree - "but the goddamned innocents!"

This was my first exposure to "laconic wit" that I remember as a kid, and I fell in love :)

Huh, thanks for that perspective, I (US native) was firmly in the "how could they do this?!" camp, but you're right! When old ass buildings are all over the place it's probably much more pressing to figure out how to allow ongoing development and construction, vs. how to preserve the aesthetic of yet another centuries-old brick structure.

Edit to add: ugh I still can't get over how ugly and deliberately discordant it looks, reasonable takes be damned!

Worked pretty great. Of course part of the ratfucking they did was to cripple the actual legislation, too, not just the image of it, so it doesn't work nearly as well as it should.

So now they have to vote in Congress to keep a thing people need but which they themselves made much crappier, while also being expected to scream about wanting to get rid of it altogether, while also being unable to make any useful changes to the legislation at all. And this is on healthcare, probably the most directly impactful issue faced by their actual voter base.

Messaging and propaganda are seriously like game-breaking IRL exploits.

I hear you, but their messaging was going to be their messaging, and it was going to be effective and adopted by their base. No one "let it be called Obamacare", that was strictly Republican, and very deliberate. There was never a point when the GOP was gonna just allow a massive popular win by the other side, they were always gonna ratfuck it every way possible, do everything they could to make it unpopular.

Associating it with scary brown guy was pretty much inevitable, I can't put even a piece of the blame on the folks who fought for that legislation to be passed.

Really! Is there a known biological mechanism there? Sounds like it's our sampling frequency basically, lol

I remember the hilarious part where they all campaigned for years on "repealing Obamacare". Then they had House and Senate majorities + the Presidency, and guess what didn't get repealed?

It was like that silly video where a dog is barking viciously at another dog, looks super serious and mean, and then the barrier between them is removed and they both act real cool immediately. Then, barrier back in, vicious barking again...