DrivebyHaiku

joined 3 months ago
[–] DrivebyHaiku 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I mean Cholera is kind of not the issue here. This creek has habitually tested high for e coli. An e coli infection makes cholera seem tame. You treat cholera it's got a mortality rate of less than 1%... E coli infection has a mortality rate around 17% slightly less than one in five people who get hit die from renal failure. Those odds go up significantly for kids...

This idiot brought his grandkids to splash in this e coli laced stream. I am without words.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 49 points 1 month ago (10 children)

I mean when you look at Harry Potter through a magnifying glass it's actually very pro status quo with a lot of issues breaking down to "the wrong people in charge" a lot of gestures made towards the sort of social problems of the society... Like look at house elves. We meet Dobby and everyone agrees that slave holding situation isn't ideal but once we meet more house elves we learn that Dobby is kind of a weirdo and that they are effectively a sentient slave race with only exceptions like Dobby taking issue with being bound. Hermione sees this as a legitimate issue as any potential elf could be a Dobby but then great detail is placed about how annoying and virtually pointless her advocacy is but the rest of her society and the framing effectively informs the reader - "don't think about house elves. Dobby is fine. It's not your problem and shouldn't be." It's framed as a problem to be solved on a small scale interpersonal basis because by and large the system works.

It's generally difficult for people to critically read a narrative that throws up that many hairpin bends particularly when the set ups are made in the book that these things are social problems... but then never paid off. That it happens a fair amount innthe books is a fairly confusing yarnball. It feels progressive in the same way a company mission statement that is not being enacted in any real way feels progressive.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Neoliberalism is very specifically a breed of political thought that came about with the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter that seeks to create new markets out of previously held government bodies in the name of austerity or protectionist principles and cuts help for disadvantaged people. Think privatization of government service, liquidation of government assets under the guise of saving taxpayer money, removing restrictions/protections on the consumer market and manufacturing sector and dissolving the welfare state or services that soften the blow of being unemployed or unable to work.

Neoliberalism is often used by people on the right to describe the "Progressivish Liberal identifying party of the hour" but it is inaccurate. While Democrats flirt with Neoliberalism under the guise of courting people who like tax cuts Republicans are straight up Neoliberals. Basically old school liberalism believes in a body of rights, a reasonably unrestricted market and a democratic system of governance. Neoliberalism believes first and foremost the market will sort everything out (or is a scam so that people in government can sell it off peicemeal for personal kickbacks.)

Neoliberalism is incompatible and kind of the exact opposite of socialism which seeks to expand sectors of public protections and publicly held wealth.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 1 points 1 month ago

I mean dude, love the energy but this isn't a protest to those laws... that's just going out for enough time in public to need to use a public restroom as a trans man.

Trans men getting arrested by police for 'causing a disturbance' by being forced to use the women's bathroom isn't a bug, it's a transphobic feature. They want to make being trans as uncomfortable as possible because they think that if they can ratchet up the discomfort level less people will attempt to transition. Trans men who pass on average are massively uncomfortable using the ladies room because it's a great way to get arrested by cops, hastled by security, banned from private property, assaulted by women, yelled at and abused because everyone assumes you are a cis male creep, they want you to suffer for being trans or they just don't care.

Like trans women are generally the forefront of the conversation but when it comes to trans men this isn't "malicious compliance." it's either compliance compliance or stealthily breaking the law and hoping nobody notices. The trans deterrent system is operating as intended.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 3 points 1 month ago

Well the good news is that AI has zero ability to make value judgements on normalacy of veiws or interpret novel data. It's just fancy statistics that you can manually set parameters on what to favour or rules to follow.

Just cuz it gets more of something doesn't mean it starts picking sides. People are paid to fine tune it's reactions and conclusions manually.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 34 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Very individualized as per need. Non-binary is an umbrella term for a whole bunch of different situations so what feels right is going to be very different for someone who feels like say a mix of masculine and feminine versus someone who has dysphoric reactions to any and all gender markers. It's going to be different for someone whose identity is more static than say someone who fluidly bounces between extremes.

If you know someone who is non-binary that's essentially just the tip of the iceberg of a whole discussion about how they personally interact with their body or the culture of gender. A lot of people seem to treat it as a full stop third category which can actually be a disservice to a non-binary person because it oftentimes just leads to a lot of new assumptions and frames out some of the ways they could be better treated than just as automatically genderless. I've heard of mixes of Mom/Dad for bigender people, just Mom or Dad for trans masc/femme folk, Completely new words that do not have cultural baggage, or just "my parent". It's not a one size fits all situation.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 14 points 1 month ago

I've heard "Mawpaw" for a bigender person before which sounds kind of delightfully southern.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 7 points 1 month ago

There's a pernicious bit of socialization where women are often stymied from being directly assertive. Often they are rewarded for concensus seeking behaviour - euphemism, gentle value neutral phrasing, permission seeking, not interrupting and ceeding the floor. This socialization pattern rewards quiet and service in favour of other people's emotions often at the direct cost of one's own.

It's not a good thing because it trains women to conveniently fade into the background, never center themselves publicly and builds in an instant hesitation every time they speak that takes years of work to undo. It's effectively the female version of the socialization of men to never express their emotional needs except through anger. In this version one is denied anger or any form of strong self advocacy instead limiting women to a toolbox of subtle manipulations. It fucks women up.

If that is what was intended by this person it's a very shitty standard to hold women to and they are a misogynistic prick. You are better off without that baggage.

[–] DrivebyHaiku -1 points 1 month ago

People are going to feel what they feel. As a trans person I recognize that this isn't for me. It's a call to action to get cis people to step up and perform heroics. It's a saviour trope with all the baggage attached.

It's not a bad message but it also isn't flattering to be depicted as the battered rat barely standing. It's art. Art is going to strike you differently depending on where you stand. Both takes are valid because it's subjective but the real pernicious bit here is somebody from a group featured in that art is telling people here how that art makes them feel and the immediate reaction is to tell them they are wrong to feel that way. That isn't kind. It's not empathetic. It is demanding unconditional gratitude from someone you feel owes it without reservation of quality of help recieved.

Sadly it's true right now we as a community don't really have the luxury of picking between good and bad allyship, we need all we can get... But it's still kinda a shitty.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 2 points 1 month ago

Interesting. Really hedging their bets on oil, gas and coal remaining a dominant industry over the long term huh? Not exactly a bet I would personally take but if they wanna go it's their funeral.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

I dunno about that. This status quo was created because America came out of WWII smelling like roses. All of Europe was rebuilding and so American prosperity of the time was basically like being the one only slightly scorched house on a bombed block. It's been long enough that the countries in question aren't in need of leaning on the one stable currency.

This could be the push needed to equalize the world stage and break off of old habits. Like take Canada for example. Food self sufficiency in Canada was always a concern. That's why there was a tarriff on US Dairy, because Canada wanted to retain domestic self sufficiency in one of it's food production spheres. That issue persisted through other sectors but there wasn't a strong political motive to make that shift. The government wasn't called to protect and incentivize strong domestic production to a great extent because the US generally has a better growing year in the south. To not have food security however is a weakness in Canadian's self determination if things go bad. Now that things have gone bad structure will be put in place and protected meaning a semi-permanent loss of market for American interests.

What Trump has proven is American volitillity in it's government structure and voting block and nobody will want to tie a shoddy investment around their ankles. In fact some might take it as the opportunity to cut loose a problematic ally.

[–] DrivebyHaiku 1 points 1 month ago

It's the case that the entire premise of popular elections is kind of flawed system. Actual leadership and technical aptitude and the ability to play to a crowd are not really the same skills at all but we treat them like they are. It is a way to select someone who will make a bunch of promises that give them popular directives... But they aren't beholden to those promises at all.

Having a balance between groups which are hired and fired based on their technical ability to follow the directives and achieve the objectives set by elected bodies is crucial. That they persist through different governments means a continuity of service and the ability to commit to long term planning.

Honestly what most people don't seem to get is that any actual improvement made by a government takes almost a decade to pay off. Half the time they are dissatisfied with "broken promises" it is that those initiatives haven't had time to work because elections aren't that far apart. There's a certain amount of technical fleshing out, research before the fact, wrangling of contracts and trial and error in execution before anything does what it's supposed to do which often means an elected party is praised or damned by the actions of their predecessors.

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