Fucking shot out of my chair when I saw this. A series that truly deserves to be brought back.

The Martian is a very good book, but I’m not sure it really fits what OP is looking for. Kind of the selling point of that book is that there are no made up technologies. It’s all doable with what we have right now.

Oh, yeah, it’s use in the crypto space is absolutely part of cult conditioning. Any reality check, any sensible question, any appeal to reason, it’s all FUD. Only blind unquestioning faith in the rapture… I mean TO THE MOON… is acceptable.

This would be a valid argument for Trump 2016, when people had little to no clue what we were all in for.

People believe, first and foremost, the evidence of their own lived experiences. This isn’t rational but it is how we’re programmed to operate. And the lived experience of most voters is that, financially, they’re doing worse under Biden than they were under Trump. They don’t care that most of that was because of factors that weren’t really directly connected to White House policy decisions (in the same way that the President doesn’t control the price of gas); they just see that they are suffering, and feel that the people in charge must be responsible. It doesn’t matter how terrible you tell them Trump’s policies were compared to Bidens (and in case I somehow have to spell out my position here, yes, of course Trump’s policies were terrible compared to Biden’s) because they know how much money is in their bank account and that’s really all that matters. Telling these people how much better off the country is doesn’t mean shit if they’re struggling to pay rent and buy groceries.

But in 2024, Trump wasn’t saying “I’ll help you”. Trump was actively campaigning on grabbing you by the legs and pulling you deeper underwater.

Let’s not be asinine. Of course Trump was saying “I’ll help you.” Yes, you and I have the context to examine his proposed solutions and immediately conclude that they will make things worse, but that’s not a context that everyone shares. Like I already said, these people are drowning. Most people don’t have enough understanding of policy to really judge the details of Trump’s plans, and they don’t have the time or attention to gain that understanding of policy. They’re not interested in arguing over the details of how someone plans to save them, they just want to be saved. And they don’t even have to be 100% convinced that Trump will be the better choice. Not even 50%, or 30%. What they are 100% convinced of, because it is the unquestionable evidence sitting right in front of them, is that they’re poorer now than they were at the start of Biden’s term, and that Harris, when asked what she would have done different, said “Not a thing.” If there’s even a 10% chance, in their eyes, that Trump’s bullshit turns out to work, he’s the better option, because it’s obvious to them that there’s a 0% chance that things will get better with the Dems. You can tell them all you like that Trump’s policies are awful, but when the thing you propose instead is voting for the people who - as they see it - made things so much worse for them over the last four years, they’re going to look at you like you’re crazy.

It never mattered what Trump was promising. Not in specific sense. It only mattered that he promised things would get better. The how was irrelevant.

When you’re drowning, and someone says “I’ll help you!” you don’t ask them to lay out their exact plan. You just throw out your hand and hope they’ll take it.

These people made a very simple calculation; “I know I’ll continue to drown with the Dems. I know this because that’s exactly what they’ve promised; four more years of slowly drowning. With Trump, there’s a chance that maybe he’ll make things better. A chance is better than no chance.”

Based on that calculation, they did exactly what you’re asking them to do. They voted for the least bad option.

The economic factor is easily the biggest blindspot in the Dem’s campaign. We’re still seeing articles right now about how Biden “fixed” the economy only to hand it over to Trump to destroy again…

They’re absolutely stuck on this idea that Biden was great for the economy because metrics like GDP and the S&P 500 went up, all the whole ignoring the simple fact that those numbers only represent meaningful gains for the wealthy. With mounting inflation and stagnant wages, most people are poorer than ever.

They lost because they promised “four more years of this”, and “this” was “you getting poorer every day.” It’s really that simple.

McConnell helped to stack the supreme court with the same right wing hardliners who torpedoed any attempt to prosecute Trump. McConnell helped install judges like Eileen Cannon. McConnell refused to impeach Trump. There are so many ways in which what is happening now is directly his fault.

This is just straight up misinformation. Lina Khan’s FTC was extremely hostile to large mergers, frequently suing to stop them, and that’s a very good thing. They also were working on several large antitrust cases, including one that they won against Google. They are literally in the process of breaking up a monopoly as I write this.

All of that is going to get flushed down the fucking toilet now that the Republicans are back in. Good job America.

Almost everything by William Gibson. But in particular I would strongly recommend The Peripheral.

FUD means “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.” I’m not following how you think that’s what’s happening here? I mean, I think you’re accusing the Kodokawa execs of bullshitting, but what they’re expressing is the opposite of FUD.

Is it hypocritical though?

Dishonest, absolutely. But in a certain sense what they’re doing is more true to their values. They believe they are in a war over the future course of their nation. They’re not interested in being nice, and they’re not willing to sacrifice the things they care about for some pretence of honesty and decency.

There’s a consistency to their ideals there that liberals often lack. McConnell blocked Obama’s supreme court picks because he could, and because it would help advance his agenda. Obama meanwhile had many options for simply steamrollering over the senate, but refused to explore any of them because it was more important to respect the process than it was to achieve results. Biden got huge swathes of his agenda blocked by Trump’s supreme court picks, but never contemplated packing the court to solve this problem, because it was more important to respect the process. You can argue that they were protecting these institutions, but when the institutions have already been so utterly perverted what value is there in protecting them? The senate and the supreme court are now less trusted than ever, all thanks to Obama and Biden “protecting” them while Republicans corrupted them.

This is devious, underhanded, scummy, and selfish. But it’s true to their ideals. They believe in the world they want, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it. The left could learn from that.

Lina Khan was one of the best things to happen to the world in decades, and probably 99% percent of you fuckers don’t even know who she is.

I’m in between fiction right now. Contemplating what to read next. Maybe going to give Earthsea another try.

I’m also working through Guns, Germs and Steel, which is a fascinating read.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think pipx can allow you to just put a shebang at the top of a script that automatically installs all the required dependencies the first time you run it?

What I really like about this, unless I’m missing something, is that it basically lets you create Python scripts that run in exactly the same way as shell scripts. I work with a lot of people who have pretty good basic Linux knowledge, but are completely at a loss when it comes to python specific stuff. Being able to send them a script that they can just +x and run sounds like a huge hassle saver.

And now we’re into the “class of people we’re legally allowed to torture” stage of fascism.

This already exists.

In New York wealthy business people pay small town sheriffs to deputize them. As deputies they now have a right to concealed carry, even in places like NYC that have very strict gun laws.

Realistically, if all the school shooters start going after CEOs instead (I certainly wouldn’t complain if they did) you’d very quickly see gun violence go from “unsolvable” to “very solvable”.

Did you expect some kind of mass uprising to happen the very next day? A hundred million people out in the streets, all armed to the teeth, hunting CEOs for sport?

In this cartoon fantasy world of yours, what does “something coming from this” look like? Was his next stop going to be the White House where he would hold Biden at gunpoint until M4A is implemented?

Few games will ever have the guts to implement a sanity system as buck wild as Eternal Darkness.

Probably both if you can make the case for it. Funko for the false request, the registrar for not doing their due diligence in honoring it. Depending on the wording of the law the registrar may be off the hook however, so whether there’s a case to be brought there would be a question for their lawyers.