MetaFilter

Claude the koala busted again for evading security to eat seedlings

Become ungovernable.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:30 PM on June 10, 2024

Scotty, you promised me an estimate on the dilithium crystals

The last human is going to die on the same planet we evolved on. The colonial mentality has people desperately trying will another frontier to exploit into existence instead of acknowledging we actually need to take care of our home and our fellow creatures. The literally impossible is more conceivable than the end of capitalism.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 4:09 PM on June 10, 2024

This isn't the first time Martire has presented the idea of a positive mass warp drive. Here is a response to the last time, arguing these solutions still violate the weak energy condition (which Alcubierre evoked the negative mass to avoid in the first place.)
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 4:42 PM on June 10, 2024

It's always surprising to me how almost pathologically negative and hostile MetaFilter is to any potential advances in space travel like this.

It is a lot like the whole Evangelical rapture idea. It's an imaginary future where the consequences of our choices don't ever come calling. I find that distasteful, and I think a lot of other people do as well.


Like there are other possibilities besides… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:25 PM on June 10, 2024

A dying empire led by bad people.

How will withholding ones vote prevent that?

Who says it will? It doesn't change that Biden is perceived as a racist for his racist actions, not some vague animus against him.

If Biden if losing votes because he keeps murdering children, maybe that is a problem with him, rather than the voters.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 8:00 PM on May 29, 2024

Yeah, I figured "Gaza" would be the nonresponse to all the stuff I posted about how the Democratic has, on countless metrics, moved to the left, not the right..

Oh please. All of these points have been responded to ad nauseum in countless other threads.

The fact that you refuse to address the fact that the on going genocide Biden is participating in makes him unfit for office makes picking through your list of DNC talking points even more pointless than typical.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 8:58 PM on May 29, 2024

Vote for Joe Biden, who is not a Nazi.

He's not from the Austrian region, so he's just a sparkling war criminal.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:13 PM on May 29, 2024

Certainly there has to be at least one here. You only joined in 2020. Does anyone know this person IRL? If so, I retract my accusation and apologize.

This is serious Blue MAGA territory. Every critic must be a secret fascist. Every criticism is Russo-Chinese propaganda.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:21 PM on May 29, 2024

When it comes to the Gaza discussion, isn’t it too late to salvage his reputation with voters who withhold for that reason? It can’t be undone that he’s appeared to stand by throughout the majority of this.

There are people withholding their support as a means of putting pressure on Biden to take steps to end the genocide in Gaza (beginning with stopping actively supporting it.) So there are definitely votes that can be recovered.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:44 PM on May 29, 2024

There are definitely people who are just done with Biden and won't come back. But I have no idea how many of them are out there compared to the ones who really want to be able to vote against Trump without supporting mass murder in Gaza.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:50 PM on May 29, 2024

The POUM tried to politically and militarily cooperate with the Stalinists and Republicans and were murdered for their troubles. I don't think that is the best example to argue for collaboration in the face of a fascist enemy.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:47 PM on May 29, 2024

It is pure craziness to suppose Biden helps himself by opposing Israel.

If the US is so intrinsically criminal that abetting genocide is the only way to get elected, then why should it be treated as anything more than another Putinist Russia, or Nazi Germany? If the American people are so hellbent on spilling Palestinian blood, then how can we possibly engage in electoral politics instead of active resistance? I can understand believing the US… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:35 AM on May 30, 2024

So stay home. Convince all your friends to stay home. Spend lots of hours on the internet convincing lots of strangers to stay home. See what you get; I'm done caring.

I understand the fear and the anger. Believe me, I do. But the comment you are replying to isn't calling for staying home, or political apathy. It is calling for using the literal only means the average American has to try to stop what this administration is doing. If we just shrug our… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 8:11 AM on May 30, 2024

That was a while ago. Now I just don't care.

Yeah, they count on that.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:54 AM on May 30, 2024

Years ago my father's home country was threatened with annihilation by a much more powerful neighbor and the threat of US conventional force projection was literally the only thing that prevented it. So don't be so certain that if the US ceased to be a global power, the whole world would be over the moon with joy.

And plenty of other people's countries were invaded, had their democracies destroyed, and endured decades of horror to advance the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:29 AM on May 30, 2024

I submit that if you think Biden's move today will hurt his electoral chances, you might want to do a bit more research on current popular opinion in the U.S. regarding immigration.

Trying to outfash Trump is a bold strategy.

If Biden manages to lose to fucking Donald Trump by alienating Hispanic and Muslim voters, I don't want to hear anyone whining about leftists costing him the election. I mean, I will, but I won't want to.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:58 PM on June 4, 2024

Assuming that anyone who wants somewhat more controlled immigration is racist, fascist, and anti-Latino is not a safe assumption.

No, it seems to work pretty well. Most of the time, the folks repeating the fascist talking points are at least fascist adjacent. Which is at least refreshingly straightforward. It is certainly less grating than the alternative.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:51 PM on June 5, 2024

I didn't expect Biden to be some amazing leftist radical, but he put forth a platform in 2020. Things like saying he would:

Welcome immigrants in our communities
Reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees
Tackle the root causes of irregular migration

(All from his 2020 campaign's position paper on immigration.)

This flies in the face of all those promises. It is very obvious… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 11:00 PM on June 5, 2024

At this point I have to assume there's polling showing that white republican women in the suburbs will outweigh people protest voting the primary (or staying home).

I could believe it. I could also believe that Biden is in fact very racist and genuinely thinks of migrants and asylum seekers (and Palestinians) as scary brown hordes.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:52 AM on June 6, 2024

And these these highly successful Democratic politicians — who have been elected again and again by Democrats — are "pandering to fascists".

Yeah.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:39 PM on June 6, 2024

If you wish to convince yourself that the victory of fascism is unavoidable, you may choose to do so.

...just don't pretend you're not part of the Bando Nacional, in that case.

I have had to rewrite this first sentence a half-dozen times to make it civil. This is a genuinely disgusting thing to say.

Yes, I think the US is on an unavoidable course into fascism. I don't expect to survive it. I expect a… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:03 PM on June 6, 2024

Sorry, aramaic. I just finished reading about the tortures Palestinian prisoners have reported, and I was sickened and angry about it, and all the other awful things, and about the fact I see no way not to be somehow complicit in it no matter what I do. I was in a pretty bleak place and I shouldn't have unloaded it on you. Please forgive me.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:21 PM on June 6, 2024

Apparently the American electorate isn't entirely on board with Biden's policies:

NAACP Asks Biden to Halt Weapons to Israel as He Seeks to Shore Up Black Voter Support

“The NAACP calls on President Biden to draw the red line and indefinitely end the shipment of all weapons and artillery to the state of Israel and other states that supply weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. It is imperative that the violence that has claimed so… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:53 AM on June 7, 2024

This is how you can tell their positions are not as popular as you'd like them to be.

No, this is how you can tell centrists are afraid their positions would be popular if they got a fair hearing. They wouldn't bother if they thought they were non-starters.

Does it matter if you were more philosophically correct if, in the end, you all get killed by the disingenous grifters?

Yeah. Because it means I wasn't the kind of person who would trade human lives for power.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:32 PM on June 8, 2024

i don't care that you personally won't vote against fascism, but throwing people into the meat grinder today for your hypothetical is deeply immoral

I didn't say anything about not voting. This seems like a non sequitur. Or maybe I am just not following you.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 3:57 PM on June 10, 2024

Does Ed Balls still count?

If posts can be load-bearing, goatse.cx was fundamental.

Those weren't Twitter, though.

It could be, if you weren't a coward.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:16 AM on June 10, 2024

G__d_ye, P_t S_j_k

We're as doomed as doomed can be!
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 12:40 PM on June 9, 2024

Opinion: Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab

There is just no need to invoke an exotic scenario to explain a lethal and highly contagious coronavorus. SARS and MERS made it clear that this sort of evolution was possible. It was a matter of time. And Wuhan is exactly the kind of place you would expect it to happen.

You can't prove that it wasn't an escaped bioweapon. You also can't prove it wasn't beamed to Earth by space aliens. Doesn't mean either theory is worth taking seriously.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 4:40 AM on June 9, 2024

I am sorry to report that medical professionals are not great about maintaining a rational worldview. I have had multiple nurses I have worked with advise patients against getting vaccinated against covid, and a pharmacist as well. (Not on the basis of any medical condition, but because it was a scary new mrna vaccine. All of these patients were at vastly increased risk of death if they contracted covid.) I've had a nurse practitioner advise me to try reiki for chronic pain. So sadly, finding… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:13 AM on June 9, 2024

"We Have Normalised Horror."

Western progressives supporting solutions that would permit Hamas to return with offensive capability have just been wasting their time.

Hamas was deliberately kept in power by Israel in order to justify violence against Palestine. Apparently it continues to serve that purpose.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:49 AM on June 8, 2024

-Hamas is still hiding armed fighters inside a refugee camp
-Hamas is still hiding living civilian hostages from the 10/7 attacks
-Hamas is still trying to use their own populace as human shields, which should be clear by now is ineffective and ruinous

Would the people of Gaza be justified in slaughtering Israeli civilians, including children, indiscriminately in order to punish the IDF, until Israel… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 12:13 PM on June 8, 2024

Many of our ideas around sexuality and queerness are a little incoherent

I was not prepared for these comments.

Well done.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 11:35 AM on June 7, 2024

"a permanent cessation of military and hostile operations"

Remember that thread about how everyone opposing Israel's actions in Gaza was a rube taken in by Russian bot farms? Well: Meta Removes Hundreds of Fake Accounts Set Up by Israeli Firm
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 10:50 AM on May 30, 2024

You don’t need a Time Machine to find Native Americans to give guns to.

I am sure it wasn't your intent, but this comes off pretty badly. Native Americans aren't sitting around waiting for white people to arm them.

Genuine support for Native sovereignty is very common among US communists and anarchists. They are occupied people and also have the right to resist their colonizers.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:47 PM on May 30, 2024

I was merely pointing out the absurdity of the previous posters comment.

I'm pretty sure the point was that the American colonial project warranted violent resistance to the exact same extent as the Israeli colonial project, not anything to do with actual time travel.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:02 PM on May 30, 2024

Hezbolllah hit a soccer field in Druze village of Hurfeish in northern Israel with drones.

It is still hard to find out any real details around this attack. Hezbollah claims the field was being used by the Israeli military. Which might be true, as the one confirmed fatality was an Israeli soldier. They also state the attack was in retaliation for Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon with white phosphorous, that have killed 88 civilians and started… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 11:37 AM on June 6, 2024

God have mercy. I desperately want those accounts not to be true. But I can't really believe they aren't.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:49 PM on June 6, 2024

Your tax dollars at “work”

Finally, a cop car that burns itself.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 1:06 PM on June 6, 2024

The Tourist Trap

Thinking backpacking and gap years are "rites of passage" for young people suggests limited awareness of economic disparities in "the West". Describing overseas vacations as a "virtual human right" confirms it.

Unsurprisingly, there is no discussion of not renting a coastal villa as a solution.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 4:14 AM on June 5, 2024

This is not hard to grasp and there is no net gain to this conversation by smugly ignoring all of the above.

This seems like a personal responsibility lens on what is more of a systemic problem. Wealthy people are turning people's homes into commoditoes for other rich people. I doubt you are going to get enough change appealing to their better angels.

I really don't think that in this increasingly fractured world… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:12 AM on June 5, 2024

I feel this is the kind of question you can only ask if you've never lived personally in a community where few people have ever traveled far or lived elsewhere (or given serious attention to another time or place where this was the case). The blind provincialism and herd instinct of humankind is hard enough to overcome with the ability to get sharp reminders that other people live in ways quite different from your own without falling into anarchy or getting smote by God.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 8:30 AM on June 5, 2024

I notice that you don't mention cultural or ethnic (i.e., that most commonly implicated by travel) diversity here. Or how your poor/disabled/anarchist friends get treated by the local power structures, by which I mean not just City Hall but, like, the local churches.

Travel, as I said, is not a magic tonic. Nonetheless, if we could overcome the externalities (that's the very big if that is very much legitimately raised in this FPP), of course it's better for… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:10 AM on June 5, 2024

The 101st most successful music act of all time

Their music is unpleasant to listen to, and they spent a while being overplayed. I think that is sufficient. I don't think it has much to do with them being unsophisticated. There are plenty of bands that just make good, fun music I enjoy.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 6:51 AM on June 3, 2024

Around the early 1990s, radio country pretty much became pop/rock for people who wanted music with more conservative cultural signifiers. (Or whose parents thought rock music was of the Devil.)

Pretty much any aspect of pop music, rock, or hip hop eventually finds its way into radio country, sanitized of any trace of ethnic, urban, or queer influence by a 20-something year old white boy with perfect cheekbones. It's not bad that these things influence country, but they… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 11:57 AM on June 4, 2024

Trump Verdict Thread

This calls for a celebration.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 2:16 PM on May 30, 2024

The Deliberation

I think there is a lot of. defensive. cynicism. After you've had your hopes dashed a dozen times, there is a reflex not to hope.

I am not sure how this will go. I think this is one of the weaker cases against Trump, but I hope he is found guilty and put away for a long, long time. His followers are dumb enough to mistake narcissistic postiring for strength. Seeing him in a jumpsuit in handcuffs will do more to hurt him politically than any moral or legal argument.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 7:03 AM on May 30, 2024

Hot diggity damn. There's some good news for a change.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 2:09 PM on May 30, 2024

Utopia Must Fall

This game is great! My score seems to be hitting a wall at just shy of 200K. I think that is as far as my old man reflexes will take me. Still lots of fun!
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:57 PM on May 29, 2024

My solution has been getting as many damage, twin shot, and rate of fire upgrades as possible and hosing them doen as soon as they decloak.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 5:04 AM on May 30, 2024

Topic 30: talk, anything, work, need, let, better, day, help, ever

I am so glad there is no record of my teenaged courting. I just spent hours on the phone with my sweetheart.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:54 PM on May 29, 2024