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brief farewell, severely overextended Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri metaphor 

Walking away from Masto for a while. Hoping to let this stew until at least the weekend. I really did not intend to open a can of mindworms, let alone get any of them on any of my friends who are having a rough time.

But I'm begging you. Look at those mindworms and ask "What would Academician Prokhor Zakharov* Do?"

Get to work weaponizing those little fuckers, because lord knows Miriam won't have the FAINTEST clue how to even deal with them, let alone make friends with them herself. Gosh, communing with alien telepaths would be a SIN.

(I mean, you can ask him. He'd canonically be 28 right now. 🤯​)

cw: nasty historical reference 

Nicer addendum to that last post:

Remember, our communities thrived for CENTURIES under oppression. "We all get tossed into camps or worse" is ONE of many possible outcomes, and... I mean... it's not even where all right-wing authoritarian societies end up. Most just... are content to quietly suck and make life difficult for good people -- and EXTREMELY difficult or untenable for a segment of them -- for a few decades.

I would put my money on this being, like, "Duterte bad" or "Marcos bad" or "Franco bad," not -- I'll come out and say it -- "Hitler bad" or "Amin bad."

And I say that with all sympathy because I have spent my whole life fixating on worst-case scenarios and it's a natural and often sensible human habit.

But yeah. This all has scary resemblances to Berlin '32 and THE RESULTANT FEARS ARE VALID AS SHIT. We should be on the strongest guard against this. We need to get ready NOW to push back. But I don't think doom is inevitable -- and I have course notes from my Russia and Germany classes to back me up so don't even fuck with the history tiger.

I think things will get worse for us. The momentum of the Trump cult and its willingness to demonize us is terrifying. Don't get me wrong, this is a high alert we're at.

But we can do this. And what we really, really, REALLY NO I AM SO FUCKING SERIOUS HERE is start mining our history for the survival tricks of our forebears. There is a HUGE amount of trickery and cultural agility in our past, that would El-ahrairah Himself blush.

Don't give up until you've at LEAST done your own deep dive into it and seen just how well other people have persisted through unimaginable hardship and persecution.

And then add to that the fact that the Internet is our native ground. We have no excuse not to be taking advantage of that in much the same way the Viet Cong -- and the Trung Sisters before them -- took advantage of the Indochinese jungle.

The right rose to power on a raft of bullshit. Jim Watkins leveraged real power just by talking shit on 4chan. We walk away from that power on a regular basis. And I DEMAND at this point to know why.

re: uspol, not very friendly, very ranty, about so very many of you 

i love you even when i gotta roar at you and i leave you with this

i know eyes glaze over at Other People's Music but please please please listen and read the lyrics, this is my most important political song by far

youtube.com/watch?v=ru5zYr8aB0

koly.com/stereolab/song.php?id

also, call a republican senator and unload on them. summon up your meanest most sarcastic self. mock their intellect cruelly. i swear if there is a single ounce of psycho jungle cat in you soul it will make you feel better

🐯​✊​❤️​

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re: uspol, not very friendly, very ranty, about so very many of you 

and if anyone wants to attempt a rebuttal without taking my literary advice first that's fine but i absolutely guarantee you that all you're gonna get is that mona lisa smile tigers get when they are about to lick their forepaw and leave the room while a small creature is trying to convince them there is somehow inconceivably a threat bigger than them outside

you have no fucking clue what kind of mayhem i am willing to unleash on the world and i am fucking telling you THEY should be scared of US and they're fucking morons if they're not but we KNEW THAT, its ugly and scary and horrifying but you know that what else it absolutely is NOT is sustainable because entropy and reality have a way of kicking the shit out of ideological card-houses like these

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uspol, not very friendly, very ranty, about so very many of you 

i can express my feelings about the left today in a single image capture from a very famous tv show but it wouldn't make any of you any happier nor enhance my ability to keep my circle of friends from bailing on me in these trying times

so i'm just gonna remind people i lived in the shadow of constant doomsaying for over a decade (even if it was very sweet friendly beautiful intelligent self-sacrificing funny doom with a very nice butt and it got much less doomy over the years ♥️​♠️​♥️​♠️​) and i'm just not buyin' any of it, because HERE I STILL AM

and if we're fucked i'm not only gonna make the most of it, well motherfuckers, i have been thinking about death EVERY FUCKING DAY OF MY LIFE SINCE THE DAY I LOST MY FATHER AT AGE 11 and it's just lost its ability to scare me

i am almost looking forward to the opportunity to go explode in a blaze of glory yet strongly suspect that i will not be provided with the chance

and if you really want the knock-down drag-out historical argument over this, we can do it that someday, but ffs not right now -- maybe when i get home -- but you really really ain't gonna like what i have to say

this ain't a subtweet -- i think once you're addressing more than 30 people at once, it no longer fits that definition

i just ain't convinced this is an unwinnable hand UNLESS WE FOLD OUT OF SELF-REINFORCING FEAR and i am skeptical as fuck about the cultural complexes and collective leftist... issues... leading people to think it is

don't make this into a self-fulfilling prophecy, that's the meanest thing i have to say, because i have fucking WATCHED friend after friend after friend curl up so fucking tight into their shells waiting for blows that never came... except that the blow came in the from of the damage done by HIDING INSTEAD OF ACTING and i am frustrated to the point of tears trying to figure out how to coax some of you out

if you're mad at me now, i ask you, plea for you to do me one big favor first -- reread at least the first two Wrinkle In Time books before you come at me

do you think meg and calvin were not scared absolutely shitless of It? thank got the ms. interrogatives (you know, the witch ladies) were there to calm them the fuck down, and once i am over my frustrating that is exactly the role i guess i'm gonna have to play

can you seriously look me in the eyes and tell me these fucking soulless idiots we're up against will have the FAINTEST ABILITY to learn how to kythe or tesser? pick up a goddamn spiritual weapon and use it

nsfw quote from a silly old book with outdated values 

hooray hooray
the first of may
outdoor fucking
starts today

Welp. End of an era. All accounts suspended from Twitter. I went down telling a confessed admirer of HItler to go fuck himself for posting pedo blood-libel accusations against transwomen.

Zebratron2069 is gone, too, the porn account. It looks like it hasn't affected Peg's accounts, not sure how they work this exactly.

I filled out the "appeal your suspension" form. It may have been the most obscene thing I have ever written.

Good riddance.

@JulieSqveakaroo Also, haha, Rage. Fond memories.

"It ain't nothin' to wreck a bus."

@JulieSqveakaroo Got any Superdeck? :D

(JOKE CAPTION: Superdeck was a notoriously awful CCG. IIRC it basically boiled down to Collectible War.)

@JulieSqveakaroo OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT THAT MEANS RUSSIAN DOLL SEASON TWO PREMIERES TONIGHT :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

@mawr I love it. Reminds me of the discourse about "I got hung up, man" from youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5B There is a HUGE sociolinguistic value in terms for "I don't have a specific answer for you and please do not ask for one."

@LeDiva For a split second I read that as "spawn squirrels." I just... thought it was important that you know that.

@mawr Also I don't know if "account of because of" was intentional or pure typo serendipity, but it's perfect. :D

So yeah. I'm okay. Mom's okayish. Memorial service is coming up soonish, plans start today.

If you were thinking of doing something unkind to yourself today, don't do it-- as a favor to me. Life is really short and we* all deserve joy.

* OFFER DOES NOT APPLY TO CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO JEFF BEZOS, MARK ZUCKERBERG, ELON MUSK, D***** T****, AND RICHARD SPENCER.

family death 

I've mentioned it elsewhere so I suspect most of you know, but I feel like I should announce it here, too.

My stepdad died today.

He was a really good guy. I am so grateful for everything he did for me and my mom. I will miss him horribly and I will not be particularly sane until I' reassured that my mom will be OK in the short, medium, and long run.

That's all I really have to say. Please don't reply. I'm full up on social niceties and wouldn't even know how to process them right now, though I really appreciate the ones I've gotten, and I don't have the mental energy to respond.

@hystericempress that was what ultimately put me off of batman beyond... *sigh* it's so true, you're mercilessly right

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