Best posts made by Ortallus

@quinn I really like the idea of doing a symptom journal! I'll pass that along to my sister. Thanks!

@warma-sheen said in Good TV:

@arkandel Agreed. It was the more subtle things that made the show good. Another was that as much as race was a theme of the show, I can't remember any white characters that were racist (maybe I missed some). Any negative issues with race were focused within the black characters and their experience with America (as a whole and as a Captain).

So they completely bypassed the old, overdone 'whites are racist' cliche and went to more relevant and dramatic themes of the black experience within the US and the dynamic of how we feel a part of America and also apart from it and how do we reconcile both of those things, which are almost universal for black Americans.

I definitely didn't sense any overtly racist characters either, though I wasn't looking for them or anything, and as such might have missed some. But it was as you say more about the experience of racism from the PoV of the black people.

@ganymede Heck, I made a private Discord server just to dump photos into for this purpose.

Like this one!

@roz said in Good Anime:

@ganymede said in Good Anime:

Not really. I think of 'anime' as anything that is influenced by Japanese animation. So, The Boondocks fits, Avatar and The Legend of Korra fit, Exo-Squad fits, but Transformers does not.

Wait, Transformers doesn't fit this definition? The original series was literally animated by Toei.

How do you look at Megatron and not see Japanese influence?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLFEvHWD_NE Just absolutely WOW. I've loved multiple versions of this song, and even have it on Beat Saber, but this was my first time seeing this version, and it just blew me away. So moving.

@sunny said in Good TV:

@ortallus said in Good TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEe-ZeVbTLo

Morning. Nice day for fishin, innit?

That was really, really good, lol. I saw what it was and laughed, intending to watch a couple of seconds, and now here I am having finished it. I'm impressed with a lot of things about it, but particularly the actors' ability to convey emotion and intent.

Agreed. VLDL is under-rated in general, but this was some quality YT entertainment in my book. I hope they get all the views.

@tinuviel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

The easiest way to solve unemployment is pay everyone a UBI, everyone works two or three days a week. Everyone would work three days, if they're able. Productivity stays the same, wages stay the same (though they should be higher in general anyway) and everyone has time to be creative, see their family, engage in hobbies.

Done.

UBI will never happen so long as corporations control the congress of this country, which they absolutely do.

As Aria pointed out, if employees had the ability to quit when they feel abused, capitalism would fall apart, because abusing employees and not compensating them is a core precept of capitalism.

Add to that the fact that it's basically illegal to not have a job/income (See: Laws that punish the homeless) and you have a nice tidy system of control over the masses that the privileged wealthy exploitive class of America, of which 99% of congress is a member, will never allow such a change to happen.

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@ortallus said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

As Aria pointed out, if employees had the ability to quit when they feel abused, capitalism would fall apart, because abusing employees and not compensating them is a core precept of capitalism.

I see this more often that I care to admit, and each time I do I retract my knee-jerk reaction to counter and argue. Instead, I will just quote the following:

Every system which endeavours, either, by extraordinary encouragements, to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go to it; or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from a particular species of industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be employed in it; is in reality subversive of the great purpose which it means to promote. It retards, instead of accelerating, the progress of the society towards real wealth and greatness; and diminishes, instead of increasing, the real value of the annual produce of its land and labour.

Translation: abuse of the capitalist order destroys capitalism.

Okay, let me amend/edit:

It is a core precept of MODERN, which is to say LATE-STAGE capitalism.

Better?

Because let's face it, modern capitalism isn't about increasing wealth for society, it's about increasing wealth for the limited and few individuals regardless of the cost.

I agree that ideological capitalism is a wonderful thing in which everyone benefits.

But the same could be said about socialism or even communism.

The problem with ALL of these systems isn't the systems, it's the corruption of the systems by the powers that be.

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@ortallus said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

It is a core precept of MODERN, which is to say LATE-STAGE capitalism.

Better?

Not really.

People use "late-stage" as if to suggest that it's going to lead to something different and less abusive. No one I've listened to or read has proposed any inevitable outcome, and people have been predicting the death-knell for capitalism -- from right-wing crackpots to left-wing pundits -- since I was a little kid. And I can't say that this is "modern" capitalism because it is contrary to everything I learned of "modern" theories on capitalism.

No, we live in a time of abusive capitalism, which isn't going to work under actual capitalist precepts. And we can talk until we are blue in the face as to why this is, but it's not going to get us anywhere.

Socialism is a modest improvement to this, but only insofar as the people who do end up controlling the means of production aren't dickbags which, if homeowners' associations are any indication, won't be the case.

Inevitable Outcome

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Socialism is a modest improvement to this, but only insofar as the people who do end up controlling the means of production aren't dickbags which, if homeowners' associations are any indication, won't be the case.

Yes. Because corporations, on the other hand, especially the fossil fuel industries, are so much better at serving the public good.

The CEOs and board of any corporation sees humanity as 7 billion opportunities to increase their own personal wealth, and that of their shareholders, and nothing more.

@silverfox said in Good TV:

I'm watching Taskmaster and damn is it funny.

You must mean the British TV show? For a second I thought this was something to do with the Marvel MCU and was like "Wait wtf?!"

@arkandel said in Good TV:

@ortallus said in Good TV:

@silverfox said in Good TV:

I'm watching Taskmaster and damn is it funny.

You must mean the British TV show? For a second I thought this was something to do with the Marvel MCU and was like "Wait wtf?!"

I lowkey love that villain.

From what I understand, he IS coming to the MCU. It's worth noting that I think I read somewhere that Taskmaster and U.S.Agent had dealings in the comic books (or maybe that was BattleStar, who is, sadly, dead, because tropes.

Yeah, quick Google shows in Earth 616 Battlestar was trained by Taskmaster.

Also yeah, looks like Taskmaster is the antagonist in the Black Widow movie, which should be VERY interesting/fun....

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@ortallus It's one full time, and one part time. Thankfully, both of them are WFH because I wouldn't be able to do it, otherwise I would have imploded long ago.

Oof. That's still nuts. I'm so tired of arguments against minimum wage hikes.

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This juicer, which says on the bottom that the warranty expires in july of 74.

Meaning it's more than 5 years older than I am =P

@puppybreath said in RL Anger:

Family stuff is so rough sometimes. I always had a pretty okayish relationship with my mom. At one point I considered her my best friend. All of that was kind of shattered in 2016 (YOU KNOW WHY), and I've never been able to look at her the same. I've distanced myself a lot.

I haven't forgiven her for xmas 2020, which I've vented about already, but we had a decent interaction at the beginning of May after I asked for help with moving my horse.

Last week she asked for my help, but I had to decline. She wanted me to meet the farrier and hold her horses while he did their feet because she couldn't be there. The last time I did this for her, though, this farrier started ranting about how covid was a hoax and masks were stupid, blah, blah. So I told her that I wasn't comfortable with that farrier. I also pointed out that I would have found a new one.

At which point she called me Hitlerish because I would have fired someone because I didn't agree with his 'opinion'. Never mind that she also doesn't agree with that 'opinion'.

My middle sister's baby shower was today and I didn't go in large part to avoid my mom. Fortunately my sister is awesome and understanding and I'll hang out with her sometime soon instead.

But jesus fucking christ, I can't wait to cut off my parents entirely.

2016 broke a lot of families. America's Cold (or Lukewarm) Civil War.

@ganymede said in RL Anger:

@puppybreath said in RL Anger:

At which point she called me Hitlerish because I would have fired someone because I didn't agree with his 'opinion'.

Remember when religious fundamentalists told kids to burn Nirvana CDs because of their music?

Pepperidge Farms remembers.

Did they stop?

How to Survive a Harem - Public Service Anime

@solstice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

This is hardly news, but if you're getting Moderna 2, just make sure you're okay to be incapacitated for awhile. I kinda ignored that, and now I'm sitting here with a fever and chills and baring my fangs at god.