I’ve thought about this too. I once heard a theory that road rage is a result of the fact that cars prevent people from observing the subtle facial and body signals we use to communicate contrition or distress that are visible when you annoy someone under routine circumstances.

If you accidentally cut a line in a buffet or turn a corner and almost run into someone while walking, they can see you as a person and identify that you feel embarrassed. But without that, you just see a big truck or a fancy sedan and you write a whole narrative in your head about the worst fucking person in the whole world going around being an unapologetic asshole.

Personally, I’d rather just get people out of cars more than develop new technologies, but I’ve often wished I had a megaphone so I could tell someone I was sorry for driving badly.

Respectfully, when you talk about other people’s bodies in disgust it gives the impression that you don’t actually care about the people who inhabit those bodies; you’re just another idealogue seeking the affirmation of your own worldview, just like your opponents.

I didn’t impose circumcision on my son because I want every person to be able to modify or maintain their body as they wish. Do you want the same? I’m curious if you support adult circumcision by choice and gender affirming surgery, or if you tell those people that they’re mutilated as well.

Yo I’m a practicing Jew and I didn’t circumcize my kid: We don’t all do that, so please don’t hate the whole faith.

Also: like most Americans, I was circumcized, and while I don’t support the practice I don’t like when people refer to my dick as “mutilated”. That’s not really what being supportive of bodily autonomy looks like.

I can’t confirm a negative, but I can state as a Jew in California I’ve seen a lot of similar claims here in the US that were manufactured and false.

Fwiw, I’m only seeing this through channels I subscribe to in order to track this stuff. I see a lot of it, but not so much when I’m not seeking it out.

So some of this might be an effect of your own feed.

If you wish to share this or any other opinion expressed by an actual Palestinian or person who can speak to their opinion through first hand knowledge, please share.

Otherwise, please recognize that they are not characters in a fictional story for you to write your own opinions onto. They are human beings desperately fighting to be heard and have their agency respected.

I don’t think you can guarantee that.

What’s your point?

First, I think something like this does exist. I’ve heard ads for a service that sounded similar to this this on the Savage Love podcast.

Second, anyone interested in this topic should check out a new docu series on Nebula called Goonworld.

In Goonworld, video essayist FD Signifier explores America’s simultaneous obsession with both enjoying and punishing pornography, sex workers, and the performance of sex.

It’s on episode two, and it’s very good.

I came looking for a comment like this to agree that we need to discuss UBI more in the context of Universal Services.

Personally, I think there’s a strong chance that universal services will emerge before or alongside a UBI. Both are more likely to grow gradually rather than suddenly.

One great thing about universal services is that they don’t require as much top-down oversight to deploy, imo. You can join groups now that collect and distribute free fruit. Anyone with a skill can begin giving it away; if you’re a lawyer, you can give free legal services to immigrants; if you’re a technician, you can join or set up fixit clinics. Every time folks begin giving away labor value, they’re chipping away at the transactional structure that holds people hostage to capitalist labor markets. And as critical mass builds, more and more people are freed to spend less and less time hustling for their daily bread, and can direct more and more time to this Solidarity Economy. And unlike a UBI, you don’t need the government or the rich to buy-in: you can start practicing these things yourself and with neighbors now.

If you want to build this but want something a little less anarchist, public school systems are an existing prototype of this: that’s why a lot of school systems also engage in food distribution and more recently experiments in social housing. You can join advisory committees and help deploy more services using your school district to pilot universal basic services!

I totally hear you. But the reason I disagree is that I think writers have a choice in how a death is supposed to strike the audience, and Dinniman is like a D&D GM who acts a lot tougher than he is.

George R.R. Martin is the real deal: he’s a ruthless writer of huge stakes: Ned Stark’s death is designed to be as distressing as possible. It’s intended to leave the reader with the devestated feeling that the world is highly unjust; that the more honorable the character, the more danger they’re in; that the reader should be in a constant state of concern that the characters they care about could at any moment not only die, but – more importantly for fiction imo – be rendered meaningless. He is disgraced in death, and it’s deeply painful for the reader.

Conversely, Matt Dinniman is, imo, basically a softy. When good characters die, they leave a mark. Their friends mourn; they are honored and avenged; their lives leave indelible marks on the trajectory of the story. It’s sad, but it’s very sweet sorrow.

That might change in the later books, but so far, Dinniman has been very gentle on readers when it counts.

I’m on five and it’s mostly stayed constant. I haven’t seen it get better or worse.

The cat goes in to the dungeon with him and is gifted with sentience immediately, becoming the protagonist’s sassy partner. It’s cheesey fun.

As others have pointed out, the book has a lot of over the top violence and death, so you might want to stay away. On the other hand, though, the author is far more into gore and comic book ultra violence than cruelty. Many people find Princess Donut – the cat annoying – but by book five no great harm has befallen her or any of the other protagonists.

Honestly? Good.

I’m glad fascists are increasingly going mask-off.

The polite fictions were getting us nowhere. The US has been a rogue nation for decades, and the faster it loses international influence and legitimacy the better.

Yeah, kind of a crappy omission but the Guardian.

Anyone have a gift link?

I’ve just started having these conversations with my mom, because her mom just passed away at 99.

My mom isn’t as temperamental as you’re describing, but she doesn’t like talking about death. However cleaning out her mom’s old condo has forced her to think about it, and that’s the lens of the conversations.

It’s not going to be one conversation, btw. I think that’s the key thing to understand: you’re not trying to figure out how to talk to them about end of life planning one time, you’re trying to figure out how to talk to them about full-life planning maturely from now on.

I would focus on specific issues rather then a broad concept; relate it to things that others are going through as a reference point; discuss it through the lens of ensuring a long, dignified life instead of about the end part; and try to offer appealing solutions rather than problems that they need to solve.

For instance, ‘I was just talking to a friend who was visiting their dad, and he had a bad slip moving trash to the curb and is now thinking of moving into an retirement village. I’ve always imagined you guys living here forever, and I wanted to check if that’s what you guys want to do too, and if there are any renovations you’d be interested in to make it more comfortable.’

No, California already does lots of gun regulation.

If anything, I think this is the result of a culture in which they’re looking for ways to do more when there’s no much more they can really do without federal changes.

It’s fucked up. California legislators just do not really care about surveillance or civil rights at this this point.

Lemmy is the most active reddit alternative that I’m aware of.

Relevant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dK2UdVVdPI