New Testingstan

It's 20°C with blue skies and sunshine here. Been having lunch outside in short sleeves.

This time last year it was snowing.

One downside: the wasps didn't freeze...

jesus christ antivaxxers

What did they do this time?

Brought back measles to NY after it had been eradicated ten years ago.

Ah, I hadn't seen that.

Yep, fuck them.

Someone my age that I grew up with when I attended church is currently dying in her home from lung cancer. It's sad. What's more sad, however, is the rationalization of that death by her family. She's going to a better place and will be with God. Okay, that's all well and good if that gets her through the ordeal with peace of mind, but that rationalization is still fucked up because while she's in heaven, her family and friends are here struggling. A child is gone. A grandchild will no longer be there to spoil, to love, etc. A friend is dead. It's okay that she dies because she'll be with god. Disgusting.

Personal opinion; that's actually one of the least offensive aspects of religion. That people can draw comfort during a time of grief is something I can get behind.

^Religion and belief in a afterlife is an understandable coping mechanism when the human brain thinks properly about death.

My god water colour painting (for an illustration art course) is a nightmare to do, I use up metres of white paint, and there's none of the precision with drawing in pencil or marker.

Aaand I think I'm quitting SDN again

the rape culture threads are doing terrific jobs of communicating just how many of the existing members are an

well

The Ukraine thread is also a pretty spectacular train wreck. It certainly can be used as an illuminating example for visiting aliens about the mutability of human opinion. Amazing how quickly people do a 180 and drop their previous anti-nationalist or anti-authoritarian views (or pick up new ones) depending on the nationality of the people acting like bullies.

What did I miss?

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:What did I miss?

Not a whole ton. For the rape culture thing, Coffee responded to a thread about Sarah Palin being a dumbass with a rape joke, and multiple people (including at least one mod, but I don't feel like going back to the thread to confirm who) started white knighting for him when others complained.

As for the Ukraine thread, it's largely been Stas, fgalkin, and Vympel defending Russia's invasion of Crimea against Thanas's criticism of it, and touting the referendum with a suspiciously large margin of victory in favor of the "Let us be annexed by Russia" option as a triumph of democracy. The second two aren't really shocking, since Vympel's always struck me as rather militant and fgalkin displayed similar "people I don't like deserve to live under autocrats" attitudes during the Arab Spring. Stas going to bat for Putin surprised me, though, since he always seemed pretty reliably anti-oligarch to me.

nationalism's a funny thing
like obviously I'm all against imperialism, up the global socialist revolution and all that, death to capitalism, the world will never be free until the last banker is hanging from the entrails of the last capitalist etc etc
but when internet people start criticising my country -- even if they're criticising it for the same things I am critical of myself -- there is a reflex to get defensive about it
combine that with the 'never back down (you palmfucking shitrocket)' kind of attitude over there, I can see how people would end up 180 degrees from their normal positions

...though I guess that's just a wordier way of writing what you wrote, so eh

evilsoup wrote:but when internet people start criticising my country -- even if they're criticising it for the same things I am critical of myself -- there is a reflex to get defensive about it

I sometimes feel that reflex, but I've stopped having it for the most part, since the US is a perpetual target for internet criticism regardless of whether or not they are actually doing anything. If the US gets involved, they are bullies butting into stuff that isn't their business. If the US doesn't get involved, they are either abandoning the freedom-loving citizens of the country or are actually secretly funding the terrorists to only make it look like they aren't involved.

I think, for example, someone claimed in the Ukraine thread that every single solitary protester during the run-up to Yanukovych fleeing was a fascist being funded by US and EU interests who were trying to undermine Russia in a variety of different ways, and used that claim to basically argue that the invasion of Crimea was America's fault. Or done the standard "You dumb Americans can't criticize us because (insert your choice from the variety of US military misadventures of the past 50-odd years)."

Nationalism is a grey area for me; it can be easily perverted into terrible things (like Nazism as the obvious example, but that's only one very extreme example), but arguably without it we wouldn't have things like liberal democracy, since many countries that went down that route did so due to a burgeoning national identity/consciousness that reacted towards imperialism and colonialism. I'm oversimplifying but in essence what I'm saying is that nationalism had a part to play, historically speaking.

Whether it's relevant now though, is another matter entirely.

evilsoup wrote:nationalism's a funny thing

but when internet people start criticising my country -- even if they're criticising it for the same things I am critical of myself -- there is
a reflex to get defensive about it

This is something I really relate to. For me it especially happens for some reason in a historical context. Like bashing Churchhill or the Empire. Which is even more illogical. Or talks about the EU.

fuck churchill though. Man was responsible for millions of deaths and was generally an evil piece of shit.

I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be good… and it would spread a lively terror…

- Winston Churchill, on how to treat Iraqis, 12 May 1919.

Yeah I know. It's not like I think what people are saying is wrong. But like people are wrong to say. Like I said; it makes zero sense.

joviwan wrote:Aaand I think I'm quitting SDN again

the rape culture threads are doing terrific jobs of communicating just how many of the existing members are an

well

Ah, you too were horrified by how that thread went South quickly with the support of sexism and sexual assault being yet more further confirmation why SD.Net should be avoided at all costs? Hilarious gif made my day.

And the EU/US vs. Russian Federation thing was bound to be handled with the lack of nuance and cool headedness I've come to expect (to me it's poor Ukraine being fondled over by two rival sets of corporate kleptocracies). And the Putin worship gets on my fucking nerves when it looks like (from casual/lazy observation) his backing of Assad is what made the Syrian civil war more of a needlessly prolonged meat grinder than Libya (with the West's alleged support of enemy insurgents being a half measure next to Putin's full measure). Different shades of grey and all that.

Know how when you've had a stressful week and once the week is over and the stress is gone and you can finally relax you lose all your energy and it's an effort to get moving and do anything?

Yeah, that's what I'm feeling right now.

Things I learned from self-studies:

The art of lying to yourself, of convincing yourself of things you don't hold faith into, can be pretty potent tools when you know how and when to use it for good.

Pretty useful when the time come to do chores, anyway. Helps to care about things you don't care about.

do you ever get those bursts of creativity that make you unable to concentrate on anything else than the idea you just had, with your mind redirecting all its attention and computing time to trying to make that seed of an idea you just had into something workable and more developed?

because I've had one for approximately one hour now, and it's somewhat annoying.

What do they say? "if it lasts more than four hours, consult a physician", is that so?

Venting:

Dammit, I want to write stories, with characters and shit, not RPG rulebooks! Get on with the program, Creative Mind!

Stofsk wrote:Nationalism is a grey area for me; it can be easily perverted into terrible things (like Nazism as the obvious example, but that's only one very extreme example), but arguably without it we wouldn't have things like liberal democracy, since many countries that went down that route did so due to a burgeoning national identity/consciousness that reacted towards imperialism and colonialism. I'm oversimplifying but in essence what I'm saying is that nationalism had a part to play, historically speaking.

Whether it's relevant now though, is another matter entirely.

nationalism is basically state religion for a secular age, where religious motivations for conformity are obsolete.

you know that thing people do on sdn that everyone hates? Specifically, spitting up quotes and replying line by line.

my course supervisor at uni just did that. with an email so when i'd summarised my message at the end for clarity he had a little 'already answered this' note.

Urgh.