Collin Farrel and Kristin Stewart.

They’re just not good actors. They’ve been in a couple good movies, but those movies succeed despite, not because of them.

You’d have to give it the ol’ Jamie Oliver treatment. De-everything it, until it’s just meat, then blend it up, coat it with breadcrumbs, and serve it as chicken* nuggets.

Probably the only way I’d ever eat bugs.

Create art. Writing screenplays and books. Painting, gardening, working out, traveling, seeing live music, volunteer with whatever great organization I happen to be into at the time. Spend more time in my community. Have children.

The way I console myself is by saying that likely, the only way the US elects a true socialist democrat (AKA Bernie Sanders / AOC) that can bring about a Brand New Deal, is by having the pendulum of American politics first swing so far to the right, that everyone with a conscience is forced to get out and vote in retaliation.

But the idea that we could simply vote our way out of a rising fascist dictatorship seems a fleeting fantasy.

we’ve been given too much bread and too many circuses

For a while I celebrated the idea that we were in the “Golden Age of Television.” So many amazing shows, stories being told so exquisitely. But the more I think about it, the more that the ancient roman proverb of Bread and Circus seems more apt. I sit in front of a computer screen all day for work. On my breaks, I browse Lemmy on my phone. When I get off, I work out while staring at another screen in the gym. While making dinner I put on whatever NBA game is currently playing. While eating dinner I watch a show. After dinner I watch a comedy series while I eat dessert, occasionally browsing the internet simultaneously. My whole day, from when I wake up, to right before I go to bed, consuming content from a screen.

I wonder how many are like me, and how many of us are successfully using this constant stream of info- and entertainment to dull the pain of living like this. And what would it take for us to truly resist.

I think you’re right in that it would take hardship. We’re all mostly two missed paychecks away from our living standard collapsing, that could do it. But then that begs the question, how does one resist the rise of fascism? Because I’m beginning to think that voting may not save us when those in power are completely divorced from public outcry or consequences. When peaceful opposition is made impossible (or illegal on certain college campuses), when they round up and deport those that would publicly question their authority, when our elected leaders wring their hands in mocking frustration over all the nothing they’ve tried… well, perhaps violence is the answer after all. What other means have they left us?

From what I remember, it was visually overwhelming, while the story and dialogue were the opposite. Additionally, for how simplistic the story was, it seemed like they could have done it in less than it’s 2hr 15min runtime…

But I dunno, maybe I’ll give it another shot

I don’t agree. I think what was originally dubbed masculine, was thinly veiled stoicism. It was a philosophical approach to how one should live a good life. It was be a hard, strong, quiet man that takes it all on the chin because you know that your work will come back and benefit you in the long run. Masculinity was akin to boomer-isms of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” or “work hard and you’ll be rewarded.”

But through the lack of social economic reforms over the last half century, there is a profound disconnect between hard work and wealth. Wealth generated passively from capital has surged, while earnings from actual hard work has dried up. Young men are not so stupid that they don’t see this. So what happens when someone swoops in with seemingly a massive fortune, that is selling a new version of masculinity? He’s selling a new philosophical approach to the dire economic hardship of today, and it’s basically one of the gangster. The same people that idolized Al Pacino in Scarface, now, instead, worship online toxic figures selling similarly thought out get-rich quick schemes.

His philosophy could be surmised into “Use everyone around you in order to accumulate wealth.”

It’s really just a terrible philosophy that destroys lives, but within it, he offers the same snake-oil that most religions do, “it’s not your fault.” Which is the barb that sticks in people. “It’s not your fault, it’s XYZ (whether that’s the woke or women or immigrants or whatever, it doesn’t matter who they blame, so long as they blame someone else for your problems).”

So, instead of focusing on figures of true positive masculinity (Steve Irwin, Mr. Rogers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lebron James), they flock to the simpler, easier answer. They can imagine how to use people, how to sell drugs or prostitute women, because they see it depicted in movies, and think that they could do it. It’s far more difficult and far more convoluted to grow into a fully realized man that values others, and works hard despite not garnering massive wealth. To live a life of charity and humility isn’t sexy, and doesn’t make one a millionaire. So why would they flock to it?

Fix wealth inequality, and you’ll fix a LOT of issues we have today, including (I think) the rise of toxic male influencers.

Gardening.

Previously my only gardening experience was my mom yelling at me to weed outside in the hot summer sun.

Now that I live alone, I started getting potted plants, and there is something wonderful about sharing my space with green growing things. I have a few that have really taken to the environment and amount of sunlight, watching them grow is wonderful. Marveling when one of my little planty bois randomly flowers, and there’s something so stress-relieving about digging your hands into soil when it’s time to re-pot.

My marriage. In all my past relationships, it usually takes me about as long as the relationship lasted to get my feet back under me, but in this case, that time would be 10 years, so I really hope it won’t take that long. I’m on year 4 now. I read somewhere that men take longer to get over romantic relationships, because usually their romantic partner is also their best friend, and mine was no exception. We broke up because we shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place. I was in active alcoholism, and despite us both knowing that I wanted children, and she absolutely did not, we plowed ahead regardless. It seems stupid, but we truly loved each other. Heck, I guess we still love each other, we just have acknowledged that we’re not compatible in a way that severely limits our long term goals. It sucks. Logically, I should be able to just get right back on with dating, but it hasn’t been so easy.

There’s been multiple things standing in the way. First and foremost, some childhood trauma that had been trying to resurface for as long as I was an active alcoholic. Add that into a severely dysfunctional family dynamic, and you get a big ol’ mess that I’m only now starting to emerge from. I’m back to browsing tinder, and even though I do fine with matches, I just haven’t the energy to message anybody. Like, I just assume that they’re going to waste my time, and so I just sit by myself instead. I’m trying to become the person that would attract my ideal partner, so I’ve been putting extra time in at the gym, and have refocused on some hobbies of mine, like writing, and performing stand-up comedy. But even those seem like a chore sometimes.

I understand the abhorrent history of church run schools, but what did Pope Francis, specifically, do to garner such hatred from you? He’s been the most liberal pope we’ve ever had? Celebrating the previous popes death, I get, but Francis?

The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)

I mean, the more money you have, the less compassionate you are. Having an abundance literally shrinks the part of your brain responsible for empathy. Essentially, excess money causes brain damage. These people at the top of the corporate ladder are, all of them, literally brain damaged. It’s foolish to think that they will ever choose to reverse course, they know only one thing: they want the number in their account to go up. And they’d do literally anything to stop it from going down.

“Eat the rich” isn’t some anarchist punk slogan, it’s instruction for a healthy species.

I mean, yeah, you’re right. However, the amount of jobs that robots like this would displace is astronomical. Like, the U.S. trucking industry is one of the biggest employers in the United States, so if ever we were to get truly automated trucking, the job losses would be catastrophic to millions of Americans. One can assume that something would have to be done to help ease the transition, likely in the form of stimulus checks and subsidized education. But that’s just for one industry.

These autonomous robots could be deployed in seemingly every industry, resulting in the potential loss of hundreds of millions of jobs (assuming widespread adoption and construction, that is). One would think that in order for society to continue, vast socialist reforms would have to be undertaken. The alternative would be something akin to having a couple people with the wealth and power of todays superpower nations, while the rest of humanity lives in abject squalor. I’d like to think that humans wouldn’t let things get that bad…

but even as I type that out I know it’s a lie 😥 ugh. Fucking humans, man.

The NYT article talks about how a technician in a call center is operating it now, and whilst operating, their systems are gathering information to guide the robot in future un-manned tasks. Much like an LLM analyzes thousands of essays in order to “write” it’s own, so to will these robots analyze thousands of hours of technician-guided activities in order to do it autonomously in the future.

Very interesting, and very much the same as how they “taught” self-driving cars to operate. One can imagine that if efforts continue in these fields, it’s only a matter of time before we actually do have fully automated robot butlers, that only need the occasional reboot, or technician support. This would be a massive boon to literally every service industry, from transporting patients in the hospital, working in a warehouse, assembly techs, to waiters and waitresses. Shit, how soon until they deploy them on the battlefield?

Considering they have robot cafes operating in Japan already, we could see this happen sooner than we think, if the companies choose to share all their training data, that is.

The only question that remains, is would this lead to a new era of prosperity and free time, or would this just be another tool to further enrich the entrenched capital?

I don’t know if this counts, but when I was little I’d go to friends houses, then later in high school to my first serious girlfriends house, and I remember their families were like… loving? I loved spending time at my girlfriends house especially, hanging out with her Mom and her Dad even if my gf wasn’t there. They were so nice, and you could tell had genuine affection for their children (and to some degree, me). I miss you Mr. and Mrs. Miller!

way to go attentive little league coach!

also wtf parents?

Being a slut is a superpower now?

bro what? did you have a stroke?

Old books written by long dead men hold little sway over me

I agree, but that being said, vaccine mandates save lives, while “minding our own business” when it comes to super-spreaders of disinformation has had huge consequences in the sphere of public health (as well as many others).