TheBigCat [none/use name]
I have a similar albeit slightly different take: halfhearted lockdowns and restrictions only put undue stress on the vast majority of workers given the state of our unemployment and government assistance. This is only made worse through means testing assistance and fumbling the welfare back in the spring (I got called back to work for a week and missed out on $500 because I was at work. In a pandemic). This stress turns into anger and reaction which plays right into the hands of the arch capitalists who would gladly see millions dead as long as they’re replaceable. We either do it the right way, or we don’t do it at all. The problem is the right way would terrify most Americans into thinking the end of days had begun when in reality it would just be a copy of how China handled it: hard quarantine, little to no internal travel, no international travel, full assistance provided by the government along with contact tracing and mandatory shelter-in-place while using the police and military to deliver food and medicine and essentially fulfill vital industrial roles for about two months. The glaring issue being that Americans wouldn’t go for it, politicians wouldn’t go for it, capitalists wouldn’t accept it and the military and police would, at the very least, bitch and moan the whole time while getting even bigger hero complexes. As for me and my house, we’re just doing what we can to stay safe and healthy while seeing select few friends and family who we know have also taken their health seriously. It didn’t have to be this way, but hey, it’s america so what do you expect?
Larry King was a lib, but he seems like he was a good lib. And just icing that nerd Rubin on his own show to talk to his grandson(?) is too good. Also, forgot about Dave Rubin but he’s one of those smug pricks I wanna hit in the head with my torque wrench.
Not quite the answer you’re looking for, but I’ll shoot. Die setter with a plastic injection company. It can be stressful with our schedule, it’s physically taxing (sorry knees, sorry back), and it’s dirty as hell (you never quite wash the grease and oil off your arms)…BUT it’s fun in a way, you have to be mentally present, it’s a great workout (I’ve never been in better shape) and it’s interesting. Not saying you should move to the Midwest to make plastic car parts, but manual labor can be really enjoyable in the right circumstances. Plus you can play with tools which are essentially toys with the right mindset (“oh boy I can run to the hardware store for a new ratchet! I can’t wait to work with it!”). Just my two cents.
I largely believe that most of what goes on in my conscience is of my conscience, but I’ve only had a handful of things that make me think, “okay, maybe there is something out there that loves us…” and Yknow, it’s comforting. It doesn’t seem demanding or jealous, just…love. I’m a very grounded, very cynical person who believes in science and materialism, but I do leave a chair at the table for a little bit of reasonable faith and hope. I guess what I’m saying is if something gets someone through a rough patch or through their day even, I’m not going to kick them while they’re down, but I sure as hell will shove them if they try to make me do the same as them. That’s my take on religion in a socialist society: people can pray and believe in God and heaven and all that if it helps them deal with the big questions and tragedy and stuff beyond human control, but that’s a personal thing and don’t expect others to kowtow to your beliefs.
Love me some honeybees and bumblebees. Carpenter bees are dicks though. Still, honeybees and bumblebees are quite docile and vital for our food chain, plus bumblebees are awesome little guys because they just wanna pollinate and keep to themselves.
Fallout 3 is, in many ways, a modernized retelling of Fallout 1 with slight tweaks to make it feel more original than it is (and I say this as someone who loves 3). However, New Vegas is stronger in that it does what 1 and 2 did well: give perspective on a post-apocalyptic America 200 years after the bombs fell. The Capital Wasteland felt insanely empty and uninhabited for being a major region 200 years after the war whereas the Mojave wasteland felt far more lived in with more lore and character development.
Hey sounds like my workplace. The working class, especially the white working class, has been incredibly propagandized when it comes to damn near any cultural or economic issue. Most of these people have trauma that they’ve never really confronted and it’s excused via propaganda. I know a guy who does my job but wishes he was an engineer, who hates engineers, but falls back on, “well, I was a shitty student who didn’t put the effort in so I deserve this.” No motherfucker! If you want to be an engineer you should be able to go to school and try at least, but he’s so cowed and submissive to the system that he literally thinks he’s deserves to break his back because of grades in high school. So many people bitch about welfare recipients or welfare scammers and it’s like they don’t even know that the biggest frauds in the country are the assholes getting billions in tax breaks. I want to challenge them but I get so tongue tied, but maybe I need to speak up a bit more and direct their attention elsewhere. It’s like they have the anger and energy and it’s all pointed in the wrong direction. Same reason I can’t fault trump people who aren’t nazis: the system has failed, but they diagnosed it the wrong way.