I need to take responsibility for the fact that I slept on Elite Dangerous, even while it sat available in my Steam backlog.

This game is fucking amazing.

If only the dear U.S. Carmakers could step foot out of the hellish United States that they lobbied for all these years, and see how things *could* be if they weren't paying off members of congress for infrastructure decisions that benefit only them, and not society at large.

We're relocating there soon! I'm not sure there will be much I miss about the US to be honest. Glad that it seems like mostly a net positive experience so far.

We're about to relocate to the Netherlands, so yeah...I sure hope that the Dutch speak up and push back.

Damn. I have certainly had some bad days on the water. Glad this ended up fine.

We can, and should, hold onto localized hope. Especially for things that are directly within our sphere of influence and our community. We should also be very clear eyed about the consequences of all of the different crumbling systems that we are watching. Small hope with large despair is hard.

Ah yes...the 'ole "I really don't like when people smarter than me tell me it's possible to look at behaviors in someone and see trends, so instead I choose to think that this terrible behavior came out of nowhere and actually I'm the first to even see it" shtick.

This is a no-spoiler zone, but just confirming that the villains in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West are so, incredibly accurate in their character portrayal and motivations that it feels a bit like prophecy. #HZD #HFW

The *weirdest* thing about authoritarianism is like the constant, thick, sexual tension between "Yes daddy. PLEASE daddy. You're so powerful daddy. Oh god daddy.", and "I am an extremely hardened, testosterone-laden, rustic individual, unencumbered by 'empathy' and other weak sauce ideas."

I’m becoming more convinced that being an adult is deeply internalizing that:
1) people will not change until *they* want to
2) most people don’t change
3) but celebrate fully with the few that do, and never let go of that optimism in spite of 1 and 2

Meanwhile, in countries with functional government:

I am a big proponent of #opensource #selfhosting #linux and all of the things that decrease dependence on big tech, and increase personal autonomy and privacy.

There are a shit ton of amazing #FOSS tools out there.

That said, Thunderbird's search function is an absolute steaming pile of garbage.

I'd like to be clear: if you read everything I said and thought I was referencing the climate itself, 1) kudos, and 2) I actually was not.

This is a political comment on the effects of brain drain and anti-intellectualism on an economy that denies that it is globalized.

2/2

In large, complex systems, it takes a while for effects to propagate. As effects build, they don't always manifest in predictable ways. It takes constant assessment of the data, models, etc. to see how far a system has deviated from it's baseline.

1/2 🧵

So, I have no reason to be gleeful at the moment. But, tentatively, it would be a small consolation if the short term failure of the American experiment did the 'ole reverse psychology on the rest of the world moving towards renewables over the long haul.

Yep

#solarpunk in real life.

One of the weird side effects of having grown up in far-right-adjacent Evangelicalism in the 90's is that I sometimes forget that for most people, these ideas are shocking. I remember being no older than 14, and being at Bible studies where these ideas were routine, and all heads in the room nodded.

One of my favorite things right now is being a longtime fan of the Flashbulb, and then learning that @bennjordan.bsky.social turned into a crazy-good independent journalist and is doing some excellent reporting on very important issues.

*long, exasperated sigh and rubs eyebrows and eye twitches and grabs a shot of something hard and burnable*

So like…did I make this quote up? Yeah, sure, maybe??
But also:
Are we *really* so sure that a conversation like this hasn’t taken place in real, actual life?
That is exactly my point.
2/2

I was joking with a friend today on Signal, for national security reasons, obviously:
“Is this Ford? This Pete fucking Hegseth, feel me? Listen, Y’know that dope ass F-350 in black that’s really lifted? Put missiles and plane wings on it. Have it to me by tomorrow. Bottle of whisky incoming” 1/2 🧵

That’s crucial context, since so many of the MAGA sycophants surrounding Trump hold evangelical-ish beliefs. If you are making decisions about Iran, under the influence of biblical mythology, and those myths bring you excitement over the potential “resetting” of the world order, well…that’s bad. 2/2

If you’re lucky enough to have not spent much time around Evangelicals, it’s important to know that they talk about the “end times” with the excitement of “knowing” the bad future for non-believers, while “knowing” they will be rescued from the suffering.
1/2🧵

Not that this is the first time that fascists laughably have zero cultural awareness, but For All Mankind has already done this plot line way fucking better.

More of this.

There is *no path forward* to something better in the United States that doesn't involve acknowledging, reckoning with, and dismantling the right's astoundingly successful, decades-long propaganda takeover of American media. Unequivocally. Until that changes, we are fucked. Full stop.

When the edges of Journalism™️ have become so blurred with entertainers and propagandists, it's worth digging into whether a clinical commitment to neutrally reporting facts is truly neutral, in a society where the meta-skill of interpreting facts is, itself, a Rorschach test.

How to Cover a Sh*tposting White House with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins YouTube video by Hasan Minhaj

This was a fascinating watch. For one, hearing @kaitlancollins.bsky.social erudite expertise is pretty awesome. I also think it highlights the disconnect between Journalism's professional ideals vs. serving a society with eroding critical thinking skills and media literacy. youtu.be/NkklCAKeUs0?...