squinch

glad you liked it!

On the day the Stratemeyer Syndicate fell, Melody McGinn finally got her hands on one of their much-coveted Shares and framed it on the wall in her bunk.

squinch (mastersquinch.github.io) was kind enough to immortalize it for me - complete with C-suite signatures and singed edges! #OVER/UNDER

maybe the fact that people are resisting their natural impulses and engaging on much larger scopes and scales *is* a good thing *regardless* of whether it is a "natural" impulse or not-- and furthermore, its difficult to determine what is "natural" vs a product of our sociopolitical context

3.) while it _seems to be true_ that humans naturally limit their moral considerations to those closer to them, it's odd to then imply that it is a good thing any more than it is "good" that some insects lay their eggs in the eyes of children or millions die to disasters (it is *natural*, after all)

Not sure if the author actually sees these or just the publisher, but (character limit allowing) I'd love to hear a response/clarification on these points. I did not read your objections to animal rights, though I doubt I'd really find them compelling. Which actually reminds me of a third objection:

2.) I feel you are making a few significant assumptions by regarding the position as "A is better than C" when the position can just as easily be described as "mitigating suffering for millions of lives who WILL exist. Less about the hypotheticals one billion from now than the last ones, dig?

Two immediate objections:

1.) "A non-human animal living “in the wild” cannot really be said to be free..." I object to your assumption that "real" freedom involves the "possession" of "civil liberties", and would also say that that idea is as muc ha quirk of modern westerners as "longtermism" /2

Literally all we have to do is empower people. Learn, organize. They DO NOT expect this, they CAN NOT handle it. Things would probably-- definitely-- get bad. But the masses move history, not individuals, and certainly not these fucking nerd ghouls.

You and I cant do anything. WE can, and must.

They just level countries for dollars now, they have autonomous weapons systems and are currently throwing tech at the wall and seeing what sticks to parse the data from the panopticon. Everyones so afraid of losing their job at dennys they cant imagine *not having to slave at the fucking dennys*.

They watched the 70's from the sidelines. And tech has accelerated so much that to them it probably feels like ancient history. On the same token, the masses are effectively alienated, indoctrinated, and have had any real collective resistance or imagination beaten and starved out of them. Just $$$.

2.) they are kind of just stupid and short sighted. This is the result of like three generations of complete power and unfathomable wealth-- they don't actually have to *know* anything. They can just sit with their repulsive ideologies and money and empire build. They haven't dealt with unrest.

The difference here is, I think, twofold. 1.) the fact that they have (or feel they have) the power to just enforce it in a fascist autocracy. Automation. They are attempting to cut out the part of the system that requires they have political legitimacy to avoid their heads ending up on spikes

I'm really struggling with the char limit here, but if we continue business as usual, the function of the old GOP was to capture that crisis, redirect it, further consolidate. But their hatred and warmongering and brazen theft also immiserates-- so the ds function to capture w "hope and change"

100% agree. It's capital in crisis. Queer rights, black lives, me too, etc.. Dems almost had to CHANGE something. This is capital doubling down. And the Fetterman's/Schumers will back it every time. The fatal flaw in the dem strat is that symbolic democratic concessions are a bandaid on necrosis.

( to specify, the dems rely on stability, they are polite and high minded about blowing people up, imprisoning people, and stealing your shit, they want you, the peons, to work WITH them. They DIFFUSE struggle. The GOP just brazenly does all of that and REDIRECTS working boots to brown/queer necks)

Adding your voice matters, actually, but only if you do something offline to back it up (or dedicate enough time to deliberately and strategically having presence and engaging in dialogue where it counts). This conversation wont matter much unless it inspires someone to go act, or read, or organize.

In fact, if we all speak like Borderlands characters and sip $12 organic coffee, and never talk about anything important on its own terms ever, and go VOTE for the controlled opposition every once in a while, things will just fix themselves! It'll be like san fran (the gentrified parts) nationwide!

Keyboard warriors spread messaging and propaganda and normalize ideas and contribute to psychological and information warfare and, if you were paying attention, were a critical part of this administration

God forbid anyone be earnest about anything. We should all just be ironically detached cynics!

Why the condescension?

I felt it was pretty fuckin obvious I meant log off and do it in real life. Hence "neighborhood".

And if you think social media isn't useful, look at the fucking white house. GO back and research how exactly they got here. Maybe look up what memetics and memes actually are.

In general.

And the latter is true *as an individual*. YOU can't do shit, and neither can I. But WE can do a hell of a lot.

Which, again, I'm sure you agree with.

Well, the man himself was dying. The original text -- Devotions on Emergent Occasions-- was a reflection on mortality and penance. It's maybe better known from another ancient figure a few hundred years later, Earnest Hemingway. He wrote a novel about a civil war fought by what was once a great Empire. For every ally who died fighting against the repressive state and its reactionary forces, they were one step closer to death. But also, despite being arguably justified, every time they killed one of their enemies, known as fascists, they were also one step closer to death. Because in spite of the civil war, and all the sacrifice, all the heroism the wars never ended... clearly, right? People killing people. Like a snake eating it's own tail. That's the tragedy of it to me anyway.... to me it means we're all interconnected, for good or for ill. Anyway, I've already seen things I wished I hadn't. After a while you just kind of get used to seeing things a man shouldn't. Sorry, I'm being chatty. Reminiscing. Yeah, I'm interested.

i asked someone about the bell, and they didn't know the response, so i waxed poetic about Earnest Hemingway and John Donne as cover, and I felt so fucking pretentious lmao. I think it worked, cause I got invited to Bratva.

If you want change- REAL change-- fight the system that led us here. Don't fight to return to it.

If your "fight" is something HE allows you to do every four years under a rulebook, you aren't doing shit.

Start organizing your neighborhood.

Be willing to clash with police and get into trouble.

Trump is a symptom, not the cause. We weren't exactly democratic before trump. Ask black people, prisoners, latin americans, southeast asian, communists, socialists, anarchists, queer people indigenous folk, muslims, the poor etc etc
etc..

Trump is what happens when we get too rowdy. Get rowdier.

Because hes supported by capital. Thats it, there's your answer. Everything he is doing is further consolidating power into the hands of the ruling class. He's just doing it with an opposing strategy to the corporatist democrats. He's an oligarch and a kleptocrat. That's the "interparty" conflict.

And the controlled opposition will ensure they don't actually have to do anything that might upset the status quo on which they are structurally dependent

They never want to be ahead by more than a couple points. Enough to make you feel you need to support them, not so much they have to do anything

OVER/UNDER Bonus Episode with Reece Carter & Luke Gearing

Last Friday, @scarius.bsky.social invited @lukegearing.bsky.social onto Ansible Uplink for an impromptu bonus episode recording, all a big ol' debrief (a.k.a. chattin shit) about #Over/Under

Enjoy the episode, one week after the game has finished, 🤠

i still like the old steam controller. i _will_ be robbing a liquor store to get one of the new ones. trust.

big_dog beefspeak

Kyle did an AMAZING job doing the headshot of my character for #over/under and everyone from the Dreamcatcher team !!!

200 black-and-white profile pictures next to each other

this is what over 200 discord profile pictures look like next to each other. #over/under