sanity_is_maddening

I’m not sure if the OP is trying to expose this article as an idiotic thing or not, but I can’t take this nothingness of an article seriously.

I’m 40 and I’m sure that I “gave” this supposed “stare” to both older and younger people several times this month alone. And we’re barely past midway through it.

Yes, it is smug and rude and most of the times uncalled for. But I don’t remember a time when this wasn’t around. I’ve given this look and received it since I’m able to remember existing. It’s not a generational feature, it’s not even a cultural one, as I’ve met people from all ages and places that do this my whole life.

And it’s not that the young are more rude, is that everyone is more rude now.

We all know that social exchanges took a turn for the worst since algorithmic social media really started to take off circa 2010, and it only got worse when everyone got locked with it as their only form of social exchange during covid lockdowns. This is not a GenZ problem, nor a U.S. problem, this is a problem for most people in most places now.

Blaming this on the young when they had no saying in establishing this mess and when they were obviously never in charge of any decisions that led us here is the typical nonsense to expect from the most idiotic reasoning of the establishment and legacy media.

“Oh, you know who we should blame for the shitty world we have? The people who were never in charge of anything and never had any saying in a single thing whatsoever. That’s who!!”

I’ve witnessed this nonsense too many times my entire life and I don’t know how people fall for something so easy to recognize as inconceivable. And not with just the youth. It’s always stupid to assign blame to the people with the least available agency in the room, or in the world.

And I hope you all catch it and stop it everytime someone is trying this nonsense in front of you.

This article deserves the very “stare” that is trying to attribute to GenZ. If they do indeed do it more than others, articles like this only re-enforce that they should keep doing it. Because it very much earns that reaction.

And how many people kept warning everyone of this and for how long?

I am a bit tired of the lack of foresight. In reactive vs proactive measures people only seem to understand reactive ones.

I’ve been telling people about the dangers of the lack of digital sovereignty, in relation to nations, communities and individuals for I don’t even know how long. As many many others have for even longer.

It’s as if one keeps telling someone to fix the fissures in the hull of their boat while on shore, but they only seem to understand what you mean when the boat is leaking through these same fissures at sea.

It’s only then that it starts to sink - pun very much intended.

By that point it’s too late. And the outcome might be a tragic one.

It’s the same with the environment.

It’s the same with their own health.

It’s the same with everything.

One doesn’t need to ponder about this for very long to pinpoint that this is because the absence of reference is what makes it harder to acknowledge it. Because one has a harder time understanding what one doesn’t have a frame of reference of, and then the subsequent dismissiveness ensues.

The great tragedy of all the proactive efforts is that when they are successful, something has been avoided, and therefore unseen.

We register rescue, not prevention.

And it’s only in the rescuing that the understanding of what could have been avoided starts to be perceived. Not everyone is like this, but most people seem to be.

But I don’t know how as one gets older, sees what might be a cliff ahead and finds only reasoning for a faint downslope.

And I no longer care to know if it is due to denial, laziness or ignorance anymore. Because I’m quite exhausted of this.

I don’t think white nationalists mind being called white nationalists. The same for zionists or islamists. What these drisciptors and the people who stand by them have in common is that they all share isolationism, supremacy and the disdain for otherness. These features are all intertwined and inseparable, like the three sides of a shitty triangle.

One can say being called one of those descriptors when one finds them wrong and disagreeable is obviously offensive to the person in question.

As for if it constitutes hate speech… it’s a mess. I’m not one to police language and speech.

As the defense of every hateful person is that they can just be ignorant. And how true that is. But how convenient as well.

Trying to legislate intention is impossible, and banning words is a terrible idea. And using the elusive concept of the status quo for a barometer of what is acceptable is also not a good idea at all. So… what are we left with? Allowing speech to fight back speech, basically. It’s far from perfect, but is the best we have.

But in this case, yes, this is just someone drumming up fear in the racist bias of a portion of the public.

As for if he is ignorant and believes the nonsense he speaks or doesn’t and is just mad that there’s an actual voice for the people to hinder and reduce the control of the elites, which include him and the moron tech bro brigade he’s a part of…

I would say the distinction is irrelevant.

But that’s just me.

I’m going to hinder the complexity that is required to properly answer your question, for the sake of brevity…

Islamist=zionist=supremacist

You can say that it’s the same product in different colours.

As to this case in particular… It’s a racist trying to call someone a racist to distract from the fact that this is a capitalist that doesn’t like a socialist, because power doesn’t concede and it hates sharing.

Mamdani is actually succeeding at connecting the elite class to all the societal issues in the population’s eye.

So… It’s time for whistling in the racists through the post 9/11 phobia. Which in New York… you can fill in the rest.

If someone wants to add more complexity to my very reductionist take, please do.

Thank your for such reply and the link as well. The text you linked shares a lot of inspiration for these trying times.

And oh, how we definitely need it.

Why this level of vitriol and condescension in this exchange?

I’m also going to repeat… Taking your stance to an extreme, and you have yourself a reductionist view of the world with nothing but intolerance or hatred for those who don’t share it. Sounds familiar?

I don’t know what’s going on in your life, you could be going through something and I don’t want to add more to the pile of what you’re already dealing with. So I’m just gonna leave this here, because I suspect that even my concerning tone right now will read as passive aggressive to you. It isn’t. But I can’t control that.

So take care.

I understand your anger. I really do. But may I remind you that the Republicans were the ones who took a stand to abolish slavery and even died for it not that long ago really. And look at where they are now.

It’s people like this woman that are fencing any movement from turning corrupt and vile. Unfortunately all too often there’s not enough of them to stop it from happening.

She most likely saw the cloth as a way to reach and help people in need. As it is one way of doing it. And given her very advanced age, when she was young, it was probably one of the very few that existed at her disposal. Especially as a woman.

And you shouldn’t conflate the identity of individuals with the institutions they’re a part of or with their social descriptors. That is precisely what you hate about these groups you brought up. So don’t play for the opposite team and act the same way they do.

And by the way, you were downvoted but I wasn’t one of the ones who did it. As I do think your anger towards these institutions is absolutely warranted and justified. I feel the same way. Just don’t let that keep you from recognising a decent human being when it is very much the case. Otherwise, you allowed them to turn you into what we both hate about what these institutions represent.

This woman is on everyone’s side because she’s fighting for everyone. Even though I’m not religious, I recognise that I aspire to the same as her.

Oh, thank you so much. I wish I let myself believe that I am what you just described. You do seem to fit the description you assigned me very well from this very brief interaction.

Let us all keep spreading warm and fuzzy feels on and on to as many people as we can.

The world certainly needs an antidote to spread against the vile current that is dragging us all into a hole of despair.

We can’t let that happen!

Unfortunately, I often do let myself go in that direction.

So thank you for pulling me the other way.

What a Fucking Legend!!! People such as her should be our icons. Not the plastic ridiculous people that the legacy media and the algorithimc social media keep pushing out like clowns to the circus floor to keep people distracted.

Sue Parfitt. Let’s remember her name. In fact I’m gonna save this post.

And while I’m not one to support religion, between her and the reverend that gave that sermon to Trump’s face in church, I would say “Lady Priests” (apologies for the reductionism) are having a moment and showing the cloth that apparently only the women in it seem to remember what “their calling” is supposed to be all about.

If anyone knows the name of the woman that gave that sermon, tag it under. Please.

It’s not about supporting the church, it’s about giving credit where credit is due.

In fact, we should start making a record of the people who are raising to the occasion these days all over the world, and taking the moral stand and give them the space and the limelight, instead of allowing everything to be about the shitty people doing their shitty deeds. That takes so much of the bandwith as it is, and makes us feel alone in the face of it all.

Be it about the atrocities being committed in Gaza, Ukraine, the U.S. or in any place where wrongful actions are occurring, let us make visible the people that raise to face it. Let us put forward the faces and voices of the ones who still truly give the word “humanity” some of its supposed meaning back.

PS: A lot of people here might not be able to read Spanish. But I do and I really liked the article you linked. It was a really nice complement to the one linked in the post. So, thank you for sharing it.

They want everyone’s private data to be accessible and actionable. It’s not even about avoiding the hassle. It’s about you not being able to avoid them.

Now, think about how much they could use this to crush dissidence and prevent assemblies of protests or worse, jail people because they criticise the government.

I got nothing to hide. By today’s standards. If it changes, and criticising my country’s government becomes a legal offense, then I would be a criminal. So would most people I know.

This is about control. Surveillance is always about control. It’s disguised as a necessity through the paranoia that those in power help veiling over us.

And not just in California. Or just the U.S. But the whole wide world.

One can dream.

But seriously, Android users from all over the world who haven’t degoogled should sue and keep extending the precedents.

And then use the money from the settlements, if they get them, to buy a degoogled phone.

Or just degoodle the one they have and install Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Graphene or /e/os depending on the hardware they have. That way they’re not even spending Google money to get rid of google.

As you can see, the replies to your comment are like the reactions in general, they split in two factions. The ones who are embarrassed to death and those who believe this was a necessary step in diplomacy, setting aside ego to prevent even worse outcomes.

While I can entertain the second group’s reasoning, I can only accept it as valid if it comes with a further plan to counter the position that led to the necessity of so much grovelling.

Otherwise - and pardon me for the following crude statement - this is like one rolling the red carpet for one’s own rape and murder.

Except this one person is doing this in behalf of many people.

So if there is no plan beyond the grovelling, this one person is rolling that carpet for us all to be left hanging dry to the atrocities that will come after. And so far, I can’t see a trace of a plan. And my only hope is for that to be part of one.

Otherwise, Rutte is just fondling the balls of a rapist, hoping for a more gentle rape when it’s time.

So, let us all hope for that secret plan that we can’t find any trace of to really exist somewhere.