Miles O'Brien

“but whatabout…”

Many of us are resisting, but there’s so much more in the way of organizing in the US that isn’t a problem in other countries.

I’d love for us to band together like I see France doing. Shut down entire cities just by simply being in the street protesting.

However, it’s a lot harder to get people together on something when half the people who want to help are one paycheck from being homeless and starving or dying from their untreated illness without Healthcare.

It’s harder to organize when the people who want to organize are spread out over 300 million square miles.

It’s harder to organize when historically any left-leaning group is constantly hounded by the Alphabet Squad (fbi/nsa/dhs/etc) and Republicans will abandon their guns before letting performative gasp a black man have one.

Many of us are resisting, but when 1/3 of the population is cheering this shit on, 1/3 can’t be bothered to make up their minds, and the entire system stacked against the remaining 1/3 that will at least vote for a chance at change.

Personally I’m helping network immigrants and their families near me so they have a plan of action if something happens and they need to leave quickly, physically protesting when I can, training firearms with some of the LGBT people I know, and trying to get some of the “on the fence” crowd I know to see reason.

It’s not much, but it’s what I can do without becoming just some dead nut job in the street.

I’m sure that England has been glad to be rid of us for quite some time. We haven’t been very good allies in my lifetime, let alone before that.

I’m also equally sure plenty of Americans today would rather be somewhere in the UK.

I’d argue that with the government, we are there at face value, but the next level down “behind the lie”.

It’s very much to me felt like they’re saying these things knowing that nobody believes them, like when the stereotypical TV mob boss says something like “I’m broken up about the death of your brother” with a smirk. We all know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, and they’re daring us to do something about it.

And also I’d argue that for the MAGAts, they’re already a few pegs below the bottom. I’ve literally been called a terrorist this past week for pointing out Renee good was trying to turn away and leave, and Alex Pretti was unarmed and being beaten while not fighting back when he was executed.

Nationalists will attack anyone who doesn’t hold their exact narrow worldview from their narrowly defined area, regardless of which nationality they hold.

American nationalists are just called “republicans” (although plenty of democrats could be considered nationalists, it’s a bit of a “not all squares/rectangles” situation)

My parents are definitely in the “resist status-quo change” group, but I would argue they do understand “the cause” at least when it comes to American politics. They’re vocally against fascism in private, but any sort of resistance is illegal and therefore wrong. And it’s too bad these politicians are doing fascism, because they’re supposed to be good God-fearing types who just want abortion to stop.

Without an ounce of thought behind it, my mother will say medically necessary abortions should be allowed, and vote for someone who loudly tells everyone they won’t allow any at all. Will say ICE shouldn’t be executing people, but will happily support funding for them. Doesn’t like that the US keeps putting its military boot into other countries’ doors, but still says “support our troops”

I don’t get the fascination with sports either, but I get emotional about the stories in video games. I imagine someone who loves sports but doesn’t care for video games might view my tears over pixels as pathetic. My outrage at imginary injustice from a judgemental npc as ridiculous.

I have all these feelings for random collections of pixels on a screen. They can have their feelings for random groups of people.

I have to stop myself from mocking my brother in law for yelling at his TV on apparently bad plays, because I definitely have yelled at my screen before over a death, or plot twist.

Next they’ll ask why red barrels explode when you shoot them…

Anybody have any experience using mesh radios for communication while hiking?

The closest node for either one is 60 miles away, so I’m not really tied to either, but am interested in picking some up for communication out in the field while out of cell range.

I have some tech/electronics experience, and plan on making some solar powered relay nodes eventually so I can slap them on a tree or tall pole, but for now I have nothing.

Recent politically motivated events in my country, as well as weather, have made my decision to have a secondary form of communicating with my wife pretty easy, and I’d like it to be something relatively small I can pack into a bag or pocket, that’s easy for my non-techy partner to use.

I wonder how difficult it would be to make a heating system directly powered by solar panels. It doesn’t have to be enough heat to make a person comfortable in a t-shirt, but just enough to allow normal battery operation.

I’m sure that depends on a lot of factors like shed insulation/wall facing direction, etc, and burying the battery bank would probably be more effective.

to find an expanded & bloated lithium ion battery pack

Intrusive thoughts: “go on, poke it with a knife. See what happens firsthand”

As usual, the opponent of recycling things is simply “it’s too expensive”

The ultimate failing of the future, as always, is current reliance on capitalism.

Why recycle when you make more money by blowing up the planet and ripping out the good stuff?

Well here in the US we’ve been speedrunning Germany in the 1930s, so it tracks that the places we fuck up and try to control would also be speedrunning their own thing.

Yes, and?

It’s a scene from Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.

Here we see the characters Anakin Skywalker (left) and Padme Amidala (right) sitting in a field while on the planet of Naboo, Amidala’s home planet. Anakin is poorly hitting on her like the awkward teenager he is.

However, instead of referencing sexual fluids, he is speaking in reference to the overall system of governance that the Republic has become.

I am not trying to be condescending so please don’t take my extended explanation as such, I just assume you have no idea what any of it is since you asked a question that would be answered if you had seen and remembered the movie at some point.

The only good fascism is MY fascism!

I’ve only interacted with two dementia/alzheimer’s patients, so I’ll admit I don’t know much about the conditions.

While yes, they could get belligerent and uncooperative, but largely would agree with pretty much whatever you were saying, as long as you weren’t using a mean tone. Basically they were thought sponges that had no problem agreeing with whatever you said, and even repeating it for a short time before losing it.

Trump is clearly a thought sponge for whoever he last spoke to that wasn’t immediately adversarial to him.

I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.

I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.

Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.

Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.

English IS my first language and it still tripped me up. It’s an easy thing to swap, especially without much context.

I read it as “to break off” not “to temporarily interrupt”

I’ve started yelling “NO PRONOUNS” and “USE HE/SHE BECAUSE HE/SHE IS NOT AN OBJECT” at my conservative relatives and acquaintances who complain about pronouns and gender-neutral anything.

No, Deborah, the non-binary person who helped you figure out your phone today is not the cause of societies’ downfall, nor are they responsible for high grocery prices.

They complain about pronouns, but use them constantly. Clearly they don’t truly know what a pronoun is. They complain about gender neutral stuff, but use neutral language all the time.

So I’ve been loudly pointing out every time they do.

I’ve been uninvited from a lot of future family gatherings. oh nooooooooooo