ttmrichter

"Jeffrey doesn't always eat people. Just sometimes. We should totally go clubbing with him and spurn him later if he eats one of us."

"Yes, Jeffrey has, in the past, killed and eaten gay men. But we should wait and see. It's impolite not to invite him to the party!"

Their direct fault? No. But they sure as fuck share a lot of the blame in pouring gasoline on the fire.

There was an interesting paired poll done, asking about federation with Threads and federation with Tumblr.

66% of people were wary of or actively opposed federating with Threads. Fewer than 20% were wary of or actively opposed federating with Tumblr.

It's not "defederate from every corporate player". It's passing this message on to Meta:

Or K. Everybody always forgets K.

Daoism. Buddhism. That's two off the top of my head. (Both, in fact, don't care if you participate in other religions' rites and ceremonies.)

You'll find that most pantheistic, animistic, and shamanistic religions aren't as bigoted as the Abrahamic faiths tend to be (which is the faith family most westerners think of as "religions").

Where have I seen this pattern before...?

Oh, right! The mass famine of the Great Leap Forward was caused by exactly this kind of thing! But ... I've seen this pattern elsewhere. Let me think...

Oh, right! Literally every medium- to large-sized corporate entity I've ever worked in!

There's a reason why I call corporate thinking "corporate communism".

It is one of the most translated texts in world literature.

It's also one of the most badly-translated texts in world literature with most translations saying more about the translator than the text. (This is largely inevitable given that it's written in a language—Classical Chinese—noted for being opaque, vague, and open to interpretation at the best of times which is then further obfuscated by deliberate riddle-making and word-play.) When Chinese translators (translating from Classical Chinese to modern vernacular Chinese) can't agree on the meanings of the text, we poor westerners are going to be even more flummoxed.

Lest you think I exaggerate the difficulties of the original text, ponder the difference between "horseplay" and "pony play" in modern English and the confusion that could erupt from that difference to anybody not familiar with English idiom (and EFL/ESL student, say). Now run this through over 2000 years' cultural and literary drift and get faced with a written form that's by design fluid and vague in interpretation (for very practical reasons).

Then tell me how easy translating these 5000 characters is going to be. 🤨

That being said, the 道德经 is impossible to translate, but it is emphatically worth the effort.

How do you define a "temporary email account"?

I'm reminded of old games that insisted you couldn't sign up with an email provider and had to use an ISP email ... which kinda screwed over the literally BILLIONS of people whose ISPs don't give email addresses...

Seriously, my dude. Touch grass.

Yes. Keep thinking that way. You'll find ZERO normal people agreeing with you, mind. You might need to go out, touch grass, talk to people who aren't permanently wired.

If you don't think an attack on a person's child committing suicide breaks standards of human behaviour, you might want to check into a human behaviour standards course.