Know what works better than boycotts? A general strike. Stop the economy in its tracks. Have a clear, articulated goal. No leadership. No one to arrest. No one to identify as a troublemaker.

The trouble, when systemic, is the system. A boycott is meant to strike at an individual or group of allied organization(s). A general strike is the last level.

Governments tend to be allergic to general strikes. Their reactions are heavy-handed, thoughtless, and reactionary. Howard Zinn recounts several in A People’s History of the United States. But, when primed and done well, it is a demonstration of political will unlike any other. It is a change agent.

I was in Guatemala in 2015 for the one-day general strike that led to the arrest of then-President Otto Perez Molina. His party had been funnelling tax revenues into a slush fund. Look up #noletoca and #LaLinea. He was removed from the presidency, tried, convicted, and served time.

Another easy answer would be Six Feet Under. This show has the most beautiful finale.

Sorry. Am atheist. Aren’t churches cults?

Unpopular opinion.

Allow me to rephrase: Churches aren’t cults, but they do worship a dead guy, an “I” in sky, and promise that “whosoever believeth” will not die but “have everlasting life.” Christmas, Easter, and Judgement Day — the big three.

This, on its own, sounds cult-adjacent.

There’s community, and I guess as long as someone says a prayer for you, remembers your name, or holds on to a record of your existence — I guess that’s something resembling everlasting life. Churches are good at keeping records. Sort of. Depends on what it is, really. If they want to forget, apparently, they will.

There’s also the proselytizing, “spreading The Word.” And the meetings — almost exclusively on the weekend!

Betting on chaos, destruction, reconstruction costs, insurance payouts/denials, and instability for a growing segment of the population made many people rich in the 15th to 21st centuries.

When you are both the cause and the beneficiary of this exercise, that is Disaster Capitalism — an extension of the Shock Doctrine.

The doctrine itself can capitalize on accidents, natural disasters, political instabilities, and economic downturns.

Disaster capitalism foments “accidents” (see: Beirut explosion), natural disasters (see: climate change denialism), political instabilities (see: School of the Americas), and economic downturns (see: the Big Short).

If I was going to sacrifice my integrity for money, I would start a church.

I might add, start good trouble. This follows from 5. above.

Hold your state and federal representatives’ feet to the fire. Protest injustice. Demand transparency and equity. Understand how your local community works. If it doesn’t work, build on that.

Welcome to the Internet. Hopefully, I read as a good person. I am not a bot.

I lived as a young adult through Bush II. 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Halliburton, Blackwater, and loads of corruption. It was tough to trust anything then. The goal was pure profit.

Apparently, Dubya was the warm-up presidency for this shit.

First, let me share a clip from Margin Call, 2011.

As long as the prevailing mode has been capital, there has been speculation. As long as there has been speculation, there have been lying liars who exploit the system.

The last few pump and dump bubbles he mentioned (1987, 1992, 1997, 2000, and 2008) are all market crashes I can remember. The market is a casino. Crashes since '08 include 2010 (Flash Crash), 2015 (sell-off), 2018 (cryptocrash), 2020 (Covid), 2022 (Ukraine War), and 2025 (tariffs).

These were once “once in a lifetime” events.

Second, everything in the world is designed to generate more:

• self-serving, self-centered, selfish

• short-term-focused

• extroverted, charismatic, vain

• action-oriented

• thoughtless

psychopaths and sociopaths. This ethos runs things because of profit motives, monopolies on the exercise of violence, and the development of contemporary morés rooted in exploitation, expropriation, and (deemed) externalities of colonialism. Identifying some humans as “the other” makes much more inhumanity possible.

So, I’m here to tell you, it’s real alright. What you’re feeling is real. What you’re feeling against is real. We are immersed in it. Algorithms are doing their best to lock it in.

Finally, what to do and who to trust.

Establish your own moral center. Decide what matters to you. Find those who are telling the most truth, especially when tested. Demogogues fall apart under examination. Lies fall apart when questioned. The unchallenged authority is no authority at all. Get the receipts; find primary sources as often as possible. Seek those who share at great personal cost.

For me, it started with Star Trek. Then, hip-hop. Then, journalists I could trust. Even films that challenge prevailing narratives. I read a lot of books from many perspectives.

20 years later, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Henry A. Giroux, Amy Goodman, Arundhati Roy, and Noam Chomsky have never wavered. Films like The Insider, Erin Brockovich, and The Corporation light a fire in me. I’m rewatched David Simon and Barry Levinson’s Homicide: Life on the Street and, hilariously, Murphy Brown.

Challenge the prevailing narratives. You’re not alone.

Julian Assange has something to say about this.

Edward Snowden has something to say about this.

Reality Winner has something to say about this.

Chelsea Manning has something to say about this.

Woodward and Bernstein had something to say about this.

Whoa, no way. THAT’S why he’s the Count? I thought it was a royalty/ bloodline thing.

In general, vampires existed to me as a commentary on colonialism, class, and the advantages to longevity. Vampires as “blood suckers of the poor”, to quote Popa Wu, who was quoting Louis Farrakhan.

I didn’t know the ‘stop and count objects’ element.

Question, though, as I think this through: would that not extend as an antisemitic trope?

(A half hour of reading later.)

TIL there is an antisemitic history to vampires.

“As rendered by Bram Stoker, the literary depiction of Count Dracula is deeply antisemitic, with roots in the long-standing blood libel against Jews and the antisemitic archetype of the wealth-hoarding degenerate.” [2]

“Today, the vampire remains one of cinema’s most popular horror villains, and the connections to prejudice are largely forgotten, or erased. They still lurk around the edges of the genre though, as generations of creators have either furtively invited them in or tried to put a stake through their heart.” [1]

“The symbolic link between Jews and blood through a history of blood libel and the depiction of Jews as alien and parasitic are seen the main themes that allowed the merging of the two image.” [3]

[1] Bloodsuckers: Vampires, Antisemitism And Nosferatu At 100

[2] The Antisemitic History of Vampires

[3] How Vampires Became Jewish

[4] Blood Libel: The Anti-Semitic Roots of Vampirism

Since 2001: Space Odyessy is above…

Im tempted to go with some Jackie Chan (?!) or Jet Li (Hero) or Tony Jaa (Ong Bak) or Donnie Yen (Ip Man) film — the one that’s closest to my heart is Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Do not watch the trailer. It’s garbage. The film is beautiful.

There are a few outstanding moments in film as well that are practical effects that just force my memory:

As mentioned: 2001, and the Fall.

The last arrow in Throne of Blood. Several scenes in The Cell (dir: Tarsem, who also did the Fall) I’ll also highlight Hero.

e: And all the crazy shit Tom Cruise does in Mission: Impossible. Those are some fun movies.

The first time my cousins from FL visited Canada, it was July. They were surprised there was no snow. So, we took them over to the rec centre and they saw a small pile of snow out back. They were thrilled.

It was dumped out of a Zamboni.

Billionaires win. They are winning in this world — imagine the world as an arena…

They first reach out to those primed to defect. The ones who think they are defending their own interests because, one day after much bootstrapping, they’ll be rich too. That’s 10% of the non-billionaire population and a large group of the young, able-bodied, entitled predominantly male population.

Another 10% opt to not fight. They’ll wait and see who comes out on top or opt for pacifism — supporting those who fight without fighting themselves.

The next 20% are those who want a compromise — not having the foresight to admit they’ll be screwed in the end by the shrewd and wily billionaire class.

That still leaves 4.8 billion people.

Well, another 10% of the planet is malnourished, living in extreme poverty, or are infirm and unable to fight. Take another 10% who lack the capacity to fight effectively, are children, or are exceedingly advanced in age.

We’re down to 3.2 billion people.

Of those who remain, each billionaire will need to kill 1 000 000 people in order to win the day. This is achieved by a combination of attacks — nuclear, chemical, biological, conventional, and systemic. Supply lines are cut early, communication lines are jammed, and every possible similarity that could bind 3.2 billion people together is spun into a wedge to divide them. The billionaires are unified behind their purchasing power. Each victorious serves as a message to the remaining people of the fresh horrors to come.

After five or six days, there are 2700 remaining billionaires, who somehow got richer and only 1 billion fighters. Demoralized, decimated, defeated, the non-billionaires give in.

The one strategy that would — nay, could — turn the tables is to upend the tables. Make money worthless. In some minds, this is the Purge. This is the antithesis.

Instead, as a thesis: truly valuing life and living things, the fragile interdependence of ecology within an economic, social, and anthropological order would negate any power that the death-driven cult of profiteering offers. I’m not talking about sitting in a circle and singing kumbaya into eternity. I am talking about doing the work of eternity — stewardship for a planet we understand (not just its commodities) and community for all participants (not just the economically viable). We can learn from one another and grow with one another without exploiting or reinforcing one another’s weaknesses.

Takers like to quote Adam Smith, Sun Tzu, or the 48 Laws of Power. The battles we do not fight will feed us. The fields we do not raze will house us. The oceans we do not destroy will connect us. The planet we treat like a home instead of a hole in the ground will support us.

I’ve spent most of my life being the bigger, stronger, heavier person in most of my friendships. If the ratio is mouse to human — or Iron Giant — I’d take the opportunity to (literally) stand on the shoulders of a giant.

Also, being the one whose tail was “pinned on” must have given him some sense of distrust. Was his tail severed only to be temporarily attached with sharp object as a game to amuse children?

Some existential stuff right there.

Tigger. And, to a degree, Owl.

I have questions.

When I’m tiny:

• is the giant still a friend?

• Am I less/ as/ more intelligent by comparison?

• do I really have to poop out the pocket?

• could I poop out the bottom of the pocket?

• what is the scale difference?

When I’m giant:

• is the pocket friend still like me?

• is the pocket friend vulnerable to my mistakes?

• am I one of few, or the only one remaining of, giants?

• is the pocket friend intelligent or more like a pet?

Pertinent examples in this inquiry are Attack on Titan, the Iron Giant, Marvel Comics’ Galactus and Celestials, that one episode of Futurama with Bender being a god, and the Shadow of the Colossus.

Private soil farming is a great business model. Low cost, high demand. With fewer chemicals and wider practice, the trade will be more sustainable.

More houses will be 3D printed — and smaller — in the future.

The internal combustion engine is the largest technological mis-step in human history.

47m here. This was my journey:

Remember that scene in Heat, where Robert DeNiro introduces himself to Edie at the café? Do that. Stay interested. This goes for everyone. Get to know people. Take genuine interest in people, uncover what excites them, and get them talking about their excitement. If you find you’re excited by the same things, great. If not, there are many more people to practice on.

Also helpful:

Read books written by women. Fiction, non-fiction, articles, TV shows, films… everything. Take on concerns as experienced by women (SA, undoing redpill /mensrights /manosphere, unequal pay, caring professions) as your own responsibility. You’ll do everyone around you a favour.

Care for other people — less insofar as what they can do to/for you and more about the ends they are in themselves. Keep up good relationships.

If she’s still around, and you have the emotional capacity to do so, call your mom or sister. Women like to know that their men can have a good relationship with a woman who is not a sexual object.

Finally, give a shit about yourself. Get better at what you want to be good at. Keep a clean living space. Eat healthy, get outside, and find enjoyable activities. If you plan on dating anyone, you’re better off knowing what you like so that you can share it. Then, when she shares what she likes, you can approach it openly.

I’m not a guru. I’m still working on this from within a long-term committed relationship. It’s hard. There will be closeness, rupture, repair, and growth in any relationship. The willingness to wash, rinse, and repeat is key.

Anti-hero: the protagonist whose methods, while effective, are not openly supported or celebrated because they fly in the face of “norms.”

While I agree with your analysis on Holden. Reluctant hero, to be sure. He sure did screw over Earth and Mars on a fairly regular basis to make his points stick. He disobeyed orders and protected a Belter ship, which got him bounced from the Navy. He declined promotion so he could keep shagging the pilot of the Cant. He went alone on sending out the message that got them caught by the Donny… and that was all before shooting down a medical relief vessel, shearing off the drive section of a UNN vessel, targetlocking every ship in the Ganymede AO as he escorted the Weeping Somnambulist away. In-universe, Holden will do just about anything to advance his own ends. He’s a privateer, his motives and methods transcend in-universe moralities, which we can only see because we know all the pieces. It’s not 'til the Behemoth that he gains the patina of “saviour” — in contact with the dead, chosen by the protomolecule for direct communication, and having escaped death enough times to engender trust.

For most of the others — Amos (that guy --> just walk away), Naomi (clubbing Cyn ‐‐> waking the Presence), and Alex (we don’t talk about Alex) for running with Holden; Fred (stealing missiles, selling Inaros out to the Inners --> “in my quarters, stop them”), Drummer (executioner --> “speak plainly”), and Bobbie (warrior, defector, ronin, mercenary --> fucking Valkyrie) for materially supporting Holden; in-universe, they would also be regarded as Anti-Heroes until they’re not because of their arcs. Don’t hate the playa. Hate the game.

Maybe “hero of the belt” = anti-hero precisely because it undercuts the frame of a “classic” hero. Much to be learned, then. Maybe I just want them to be anti-heroes because I have so much respect for these characters, their subversion of “norms” and willingness to address a greater good.

Nice touch with the comparison between Amos and Shinji Ikari. If this had been 2 years ago, I wouldn’t have known. I see it now.

Also, Clarissa Mao?

Everyone in the Expanse. Naomi, Drummer, Fred Johnson, Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala, Monica… Obviously, Amos, Peaches, Miller, and even Holden.

All of them do reprehensible things. Some did them and made up for it. Some still do them to win.