Poloniousmonk

@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social Front Toward Enemy is a nice touch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claymore_mine

#ExplainItLikeImAChild #HashTagGames The human mind has three layers. We're a lizard brain under a pack mammal brain overseen by a human brain. The lizard brain handles things like hunger, and the fight or flight reflex. The pack mammal brain handles our social emotions so that a tribe of angry violent sapient apes can live together without killing each other. The human brain handles things like language and algebra. There are three different types of power to control another person depending on which layer of the brain you are influencing. Violence compels the lizard brain, control of collective resources (money) compels the mammal brain, and lies compel the human brain. Outside of a startle reflex, it's the human brain that casts the deciding vote, so power exercised against the other two layers must be done in such a way that the human brain chooses to go along. This can happen very quickly if, for example, someone is feeding you feet first into a wood chipper. The preeminent type of power is determined by the technology available. For most of human existence, violence was the best way to make someone do what you wanted instead of what they wanted. The best warrior was the one in charge. The invention of the gun changed that. A lifetime of discipline and practice became irrelevant to winning. It didn't matter who used the weapon any more, but who could afford to buy the most guns. The merchants supplanted the warriors at the top of society. Note that it is still rooted in violence. It always is. The merchants were on top until about a hundred years ago when America discovered the old Asian governance technique of, well, lying. We call it "marketing" or "propaganda", but it's basically just lies. It's the secular version of religious power. The advantage of lies is that you can convince someone's human brain that they want to do what you want them to do, so you don't have to use threats of violence or poverty. They willingly do your bidding and, done right, never even know they were manipulated into it. Lies work directly on the human part of the brain which, you'll remember, casts the deciding vote. The invention of mass media--radio and video--significantly entrenched this kind of power, and the internet supercharged it. The way the internet works, the people with power can track the mind-to-mind transmission of a good lie and calculate very accurately which lies work best for which people. Which brings us up to, and helps explain, today's post-factual world. Now finish your breakfast, son. Your Fruit Loops are getting soggy.

#ThursdayFiveList#EmbraceTheWild some low hanging fruit here: Wild Thing, The Troggs Wild Thing, Tone Loc Born to be Wild, Steppenwolf Apeman, The Kinks Wild Wild West, Escape Club

@Nonilex@masto.ai I see two other significant problems here. 1) NASA used to launch rockets without blowing anything up. This dipshit's rockets explode, what, 30% of the time? and 2) Why is nobody else talking about Kessler Syndrome? Nobody in any kind of position of authority has any excuse for letting that happen when/ if it does. It's even more predictable than global warming, and pretty much caused entirely by one man.

@selzero@syzito.xyz He totally nails the cultural aspects of fascism, but I disagree that it's not also a political system. I've always defined it as a system that unites corporate and governmental power and installs totalitarianism while providing scapegoats for the people whose lives are degraded by the open kleptocracy running their nation. I'm pretty sure those points, a conjoining of corporate and governmental power plus scapegoating, are considered hallmarks of fascism by more than just me.

@peter@thepit.social I hafta say--it was deliberately fucked a long time before that. Hell, I'd say forced schooling was deliberately fucked from the get-go. The medium is the message, it teaches punctuality and obedience. It teaches to never learn more than the bare minimum necessary to bullshit the rest, and never admit when you don't know something. Forced schooling was deliberately instituted to extend childhood, hence the age-segregation. What we consider an eighteen year old maturity level today would be a thirteen year old a hundred years ago. A lot of people never develop further, and who's easier to manipulate and control than a child? People like Dewey used to brag on that stuff. Forced schooling was implemented to destroy ethnic identities. Grandpa became a silly old guy who talks funny rather than a venerated source of cultural continuity. Forced schooling ain't a positive, but this is just the historical stuff. These days... It was bad enough when I went through in the 80s and 90s, but after bush2 stole his election, it fell off a cliff. The very idea that phones are allowed in the classroom is absurd. They changed fucking math. I tried to help my gf's kid with her algebra homework but couldn't understand it. I can do calculus, and offered to teach her how to do algebra, but she preferred to jump through hoops to pass algebra class. And as far as I know, the children still have power over the teacher's salary, and even employment. That is an absurd power inversion. I was in a county college when I was in my mid 20's, taking classes with teenagers straight out of high school, and they were spoiled obnoxious. I saw them break a physics teacher. Nobody did the homework so homework review took the whole class so no new topics were ever introduced. Since even at the collegiate level, you're not allowed to fail a whole class despite the fact they all deserve it, after the mid term the prof gave up on teaching physics and just gave everyone a B. LLMs simply formalized the hollowness of American forced schooling. It's great for producing amoral frat-boy salesman types and general infantry. Terrible for producing artists and scientists. And informed voters. Education is a lifelong, self-directed process, and forced schooling exists to subvert that and replace it with a bare minimum of received wisdom.

@jens@social.finkhaeuser.de @selzero@syzito.xyz Of course, Eco knew his shit. He's still limiting it to the cultural aspects rather than the structural. He doesn't even discuss scapegoats. Can you imagine woke, inclusive nazis? Can you be nazi without punching down? I swear there's more to it than these thinkers are suggesting. Both the talking head above and Eco's wiki are about the psychological side of fascism. I just can't see any definition of it that omits scapegoating. It's more than just a psyche disorder.

@Jeroen89 I was taught that Mesopotamia was "The Fertile Crescent", and that it is in what today is Iraq and Turkey. I remember watching the news in 1991 the first time we bombed the shit out of Iraq. It didn't look very fertile to me. It looked like a desert. Same thing?

@DeliaChristina Please. Reconstruction. Look at the demographics these days. It'll work this time.

@jeffowski@mastodon.world @rbreich@masto.ai It was a lie when Reagan said it, too. I could see that and I was in elementary school. No sympathy for anyone who got suckered.

@ParadeGrotesque @ombialik I'll second @RickiTarr@LibertyForward1@MelissaBearTrix For gardening: @arisummerland For astronomy: @sundogplanets For news: @AP For haplodiploid insects: @futurebird For music: @labr

@heidilifeldman If you don't read him, you might like: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/04/sam-alitos-inspiration

@renardboy@mastodon.social How do you know they're white? I'd be more likely to think a nonwhite sloop owner was making that statement. Doesn't change your overall point.

@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social Y'know, I've been on more than one airplane. A lot of the time it's been clear all the way down to the ground and I could see as we flew across one national border or another. From five miles up? I couldn't see a damn thing. National borders are a giant fucking myth we all subscribe to.

@stevewfolds@mastodon.world @davidaugust@mastodon.online It was kind of a joke. They got fragged pretty much instantly as soon as the firefight started.

@davidaugust@mastodon.online Reminds me of the life expectancy for a first looey in Vietnam.

@DMTomas@mastodon.social @inthehands@hachyderm.io Non rhyming poetry is called "Free Verse" in America.

@emd@cosocial.ca Tag @arisummerland@beige.party

@Nonilex@masto.ai These are mosquito hawks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

@fritzoids@mas.to @Tlachiquero@social.vivaldi.net @chu@climatejustice.social I saw one in a bar, but it was non functional. Just a piece of vintage decor.

@Azarilh@mastodon.social @peter@thepit.social Reality has a liberal bias. A liberal is a conservative who's been mugged by reality. In the US, the schooling system is designed to squash liberals and empower reactionary fabulists. I'm saying to fix the schools, not abandon them. I'm not a "defund the police" guy either, despite being fully aware of how shitty they are. Law and order are necessary. Without it, power devolves to the biggest bastard with the most guns. I'm just saying there's a better way, and it's not like the better way is any kind of a secret. As a species, we know all the answers to create an educated, safe, equitable, sustainable society. It's just that things like forced schooling sabotage any ability to achieve that.

@Azarilh@mastodon.social @peter@thepit.social I never claimed that utter ignorance is better. I claimed that education is better, and we've known how to do that for a hundred years at least. That Montessori person laid it out pretty well.

@kauer@aus.social @dgar@aus.social Two drunks walked into a bar. The third ducked.

@dramypsyd@ohai.social I think it's important to disconnect sometimes. Just turn your internet off until you don't miss it any more. Shouldn't take much more than a week. It's a drug, we're addicted, and all functional addicts know you have to clear your head occasionally.

@crankylinuxuser@infosec.exchange @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Same shit the health insurance companies do, but for lower stakes. I think the failure here is that Americans think fraud should be illegal. Or they think laws matter. Something.

@skeletor@mas.to First they ignore you Then they mock you Then they fight you Then you win

@eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place Thanks!

@TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social No, I did not know that. Thanks!

@samiamsam@mastodon.social @heidilifeldman@mastodon.social FWIW, I'm living proof they reveal it if you're not, too.

@futurebird@sauropods.win I see another possible positive outcome: Trumpet pisses off his own voters so bad they stay home, and that kind of gerrymander dilutes the white vote in every place they park Black people.

@studiofox@beige.party tag @getfedihired

@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange The only secure data is that which was never collected in the first place. I've been terminally online since the 90s and if you google my real name, you'll get nothing. I'm a ghost, and this is wise advice.

@tkalvas Thank you.

@HamonWry@mastodon.world You might want to check your dates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker

@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info @mattblaze@federate.socialhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UT8RkSmN4k

@DGI@graeber.social It's not normal to sleep through the night. Before electric lights, most people had first and second sleeps. They got up for a bit in the middle of the night.

@DBG3D@masto.es @ariarhythmic@ohai.social @peter@thepit.social I think we can make the point without becoming the bad guys. I'd like to see giant statues of guillotines erected in places where billionaires can't help but see them. Crowdfund to buy a plot of land in their neighborhood and put one up. Sth like that.

#introduction It's been a while. I should let the novices know what they're in for. My autistic special interest is power, and the means sapient monkeys use to hold it over one another. I'm a hyperlexical autodidactic polymath and generally do know what it is I'm talking about. I realize this might be hard to recognize in today's information ecology. I'm pretty tolerant. Kinda supernaturally so. Preternaturally tolerant, because I've always been such an oddball. I'm a gender queer raised atheist in fundamentalist America. I've always been a WASP out of synch with the hive. The thing is, these days, fascists are being a fucking pain in the ass again. So I can't tolerate fascists. Fuck fascists. I really don't understand why punching them was a controversy, despite the fact I'm ambivalent about that. Punching them plays into their victim complex. On balance, I'm against it. Shooting them in the face? That I'm cool with. Both of my grandfathers did that. They won medals for it an' shit. That's about me. I've never had any coping mechanism other than humor, so I have the bleakest sense of humor you ever came across. I drink like a fish, smoke anything that smoulders, and do believe the truth is out there. It's just that the lies are already in your head. Stay safe.

@matt@proud.social @TechConnectify@mas.to I had one of these growing up. I'll vouch they work.

@jens@social.finkhaeuser.de "Everything I don't like is fascism" is as based in reality as anything trumpkin says. Yes, people use the word that way, but they're flat-out wrong. It's like calling Germany Communist. That's either stone ignorance or big lie propaganda. I've never seen a gazillion minutely different definitions of fascism. I get that on the other end of the spectrum--some people draw distinctions between liberals, leftists, and progressives. But the right wing tends to march in lockstep. Much less catherding there.

@HeliosPi@neuromatch.social @DBG3D@masto.es @Azarilh@mastodon.social @ariarhythmic@ohai.social @peter@thepit.social This is a very good read. Worth the investment.

#writing #writer #writers #writingCommunity I thought maybe someone would want to be a part of this. It's a cut-n-paste from an email and lost the links, but you could just go to the Vagina Museum's site if interested. Call for Submissions ==================== Lip Service invites visual, fiction, and non-fiction submissions for Issue #7 – On Ageing Lip Service is a quarterly publication by the Vagina Museum in the style of old school community magazines. In this A5 zine, the content ranges from expanded exhibition content and other longform commentary and cultural critique, to photography and letters. The hope is that it serves as a forum for community engagement and knowledge exchange. As a creative, promotional and educational outlet, Lip Service also serves as another channel by which the Vagina Museum might share our work with the public. Our work being: 📢 Spreading knowledge and raising awareness of the gynaecological anatomy and health 🗣️ Giving confidence to people to talk about issues surrounding the gynaecological anatomy  🚫 Erasing the stigma around the body and gynaecological anatomy 🏳️‍🌈 Acting as a forum for feminism, women’s rights, the LGBT+ community and the intersex community 🔥 Challenging heteronormative and cisnormative behaviour ✊🏽 Promoting intersectional, feminist and trans-inclusive values We are accepting submissions for Letters, Commentary, Fiction, Visuals as well as questions for Ms Fallopia. Commentary, fiction, visual and question submissions should respond to, engage with, or in some sense tackle the theme of On Ageing. Ageing, although simply the result of passing time, is a phenomenon mired in controversy. From demographic fears about ageing populations to uptake in so-called ‘preventative’ cosmetic procedures, ageing causes all manner of anxieties on an individual as well as population level. This is not only true of ageing in the later stages of life, but at all stages of development. Cultures and societies all over the world track the passing of time in different ways, commemorating milestones at different occasions. A child’s first laugh, menarche, a voice breaking, going off to university or landing your first job, the first time it hurts to sit on the floor, menopause, that red Ferrari purchase, the passing down of an heirloom or a first dance. Some, but not all, of these milestones are marked in the body and the body is where so much of the trepidation around ageing lives. We’re interested, then, in explorations of what ageing, growing up or growing old means. What does it mean to ‘get old’? Or to age gracefully? Who gets to decide? How are ideas about gender, about disability, sexuality, aesthetics, and power entangled in getting older? How is ageing differently understood, experienced, thought about around the world? We invite submissions, both written and visual, exploring these ideas. The zine is a collaborative, mixed media project so we encourage not only written submissions, but visual submissions also.  For a full description of the sections see here. Submission Guidelines --------------------- Deadline: 5pm on Friday 11th September 2026 How to Send Us Your Work: Please email your work to lipservice@vaginamuseum.co.uk, clearly indicating the section you’re submitting for in the subject line. Your work must be complete and in one of the following file forms: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .txt, .jpeg, .png. Formatting Your Work: All written submissions should be in 12-point type, with at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. Fiction and nonfiction should be double-spaced. Poetry can be formatted as preferred. The author’s name and email address should be typed at the top of the first page. Contributors are asked to include a brief biographical note with their submissions. Simultaneous Submissions: We accept simultaneous submissions. Payment to Authors: We cannot pay contributors at this time.  Word Count Guidelines: Letters must be under 300 words. A letter can be anything from a five word response to a letter in a previous issue to a short review of the Museum. Letters need not adhere to the theme of the issue. Commentary works between 500 words and 1,200 words can include creative non-fiction, reviews, commentary, analyses, Op-Eds and more. Fiction submissions may take two forms: flash fiction or poetry. Flash fiction submissions should be complete works no more than 500 words in length. Poetry submissions should be no longer than two A5 pages. Questions for Ms Fallopia should be no longer than 100 words. Visual submissions should come with a summary no more than 250 words in length and a description suitable for alt text. – Before submitting, please consult the full submission guidelines here and the full editorial guidelines here.

@timo21@mastodon.sdf.org @Nonilex@masto.ai And, and, and--using the atmosphere as a satellite graveyard. That dumps tons of...aluminum oxide (?) into the stratosphere with who knows what results? It's giant, uncontrolled experimental geoengineering, in the hands of one of the dumbest and most scientifically illiterate ass clowns to ever run a grift.

#AlternateFridayMusic #Liarhttps://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=eY7EPE9biO0

@Aphelion@mastodon.sdf.org To express it Is to be An artist.

@inthehands@hachyderm.io Y'know, Paul--this has to be the fiftieth time this has popped up in my feed. Apparently it wasn't just myself that was impressed by it. Damn near everyone I follow seems to have boosted it, too. Well done.

@momo@social.linux.pizza Good on ya. The youth need facts, not marketing bullshit. Way to raise yours right :)

@samlitzinger@journa.host I bet Jon Stewart could get them a slot on Comedy Central...

@pikzim@hcommons.social It actually sounds similar to the hold under Rivet City in Fallout 3.

@annaghughes@mastodon.online Is that a housecat or some kind of dwarf puma?