I think the idea is that it’s like the Global Seed Vault but for knowledge (and it’s physically close, too). Maintain copies of important things in such a way that they are designed to survive ~any catastrophe.

I haven’t heard that one, but they did like a crossover a year or two back with the Hood Politics podcast I believe that was a multi episode deep dive into the topic. Given how few details I apparently remember, probably worth a re-listen for me too, but you oughta give it a whirl!

Not everyone believes this, but my understanding is that declassified (CIA I think? been a while) documents support the assertion that parts of our government employed a strategy designed to disrupt black communities. This strategy involved flooding predominantly black neighborhoods with crack cocaine, and then letting addiction, crime, and incarceration take their course.

It worked really well.

And then add in policies over the years that have perversely incentivized splitting up households (much-needed aid not available depending on who lives in the home), too, which may have been well-intentioned but proved very damaging to communities.

And we should also not forget - when comparing poverty outcomes between black and Latino Americans - these groups did not start from equivalent points. The practice of slavery did lasting, massive damage to the black community in the US - it’s basically impossible to extract present outcomes from that history. Far too much trauma.

“Ain’t” is fairly regional in the US, and also kind of a class indicator. Class is not quite right but it’s close. In general you find it used a lot more frequently in the south, and also generally in lower income populations. It’s also less common among folks for whom English is their 2nd (+) language.

If you like it, keep using it! Language should feel good.

Edit: missed your “please tell me” part - it does stick out a bit the way you use it. It’s a very casual and informal word, almost to the point of being crass, and it doesn’t normally get used in the kinds of eloquent writing you do.

I really don’t think Americans have some unique makeup that makes us different, we’re all just humans. What’s different in America is the effort spent and the success achieved in manipulating our population to be hateful and scared.

I do take your point though, we are still culpable. It does take two to tango.

I’m not making excuses for them, and I intend to keep track of the most egregious things that happen under the upcoming Trump administration so I can say to them “is this what you wanted? We knew this would happen and voted against it, you voted for it, is this what you wanted?”

And I never said their ignorance makes them good and okay, what a silly idea. They are good people first - one of them, for example, fought for custody of his kids and raised them as a single dad. It was super necessary and he did it very well. That’s a few steps beyond just “okay”, anyway.

While I do know just what you mean (and find that line useful too), I’m not describing the same thing you are. I’m describing people I know very well who don’t substantially disagree with me on hot button topics, but have been fooled into voting against the things they actually care about.

I’m not describing casual acquaintances that don’t work out once people get to know one another, I’ve absolutely had that experience though.

I have very little to disagree with here, and I somewhat accept your premise that we’re being driven to be the thing we’re behaving as. I mean, that’d just be “fake it til you make it” in a particularly gross context.

However - I’ve drank beers (and bad shots, why not) around exactly the kinda folks you’d expect to find in some of the diviest bars in parts of rural America that barely (or don’t) have a grocery store. Some of those folks are irredeemable, don’t get me wrong. A whole lot of them, though, are truly decent folks who’ve been completely misled.

That was a work thing that I hated and left behind some years ago, but I know very personally two current Trump voters. If you reduce those 2 people to a ballot, pretty easy to condemn them. If you know them the way I do, it’s just blatantly obvious they have no idea who and what they voted for. They were fooled, conned, by a known successful conman. It’s really that simple.

Edit: redundancy

I’m not familiar with Tongan Castaways but will have to give it a look. I felt similarly abused by the revelations of the Stanford Prison Experiment - my understanding of the experiment (pre reveal) did shape, to some degree, my understanding of humanity.

As I’ve gotten older and times have gotten more fraught, it’s become clearer and clearer that most people are fundamentally pretty decent, pretty “meh” at knowing what’s important to focus on (or even likely or possible to be accurate), and - critically - most of us are very vulnerable to fear-based manipulation. Those three traits are not as discordant as they seem.

Unrelatedly, I find it odd but endearing that you seem to use “ain’t” kinda routinely, as a German, lol. Even lotsa Americans don’t. That’s not a veiled accusation, btw, you seem genuine to me and I simply wonder how you came by it. Sharing things is great, for my part as much as I love odd beers and experimentation, y’all’s Reinheitsgebot has improved my life in a non-trivial way, hahaha

Thanks, I vaguely remembered it being related to WWII and being intended as a temporary stopgap measure due to having few other options, it being a rough time…but I didn’t remember the details well enough to cite like that. We ought to make this a bit of common knowledge, truly!

Entire organizations (insurance companies) who do not facilitate health and well-being in any significant way at all - and often impede it, with real commitment! - profit massively from this dysfunction, while both patients AND caregivers suffer mightily, to feed the parasite.

That combined with the fact that the “health insurance via employment” system was set up as essentially a crisis response which should never have been maintained…just really needs to be hammered home.

It’s all manipulation, Americans are not quite as psycho and as selfish as we seem outwardly. In general, unless you’re talking about bigotry and deep-seated prejudice, most of the dumb stuff Americans believe, we have been essentially force fed.

In this case, for historical reasons I don’t remember ATM, it became normalized for employers to offer health insurance and for that to be the primary way people obtained health insurance. Combine that with the strategy to teach poor white people to hate on minorities, as a way to feel superior to someone and thus less angry about their own lot, and you can start to see how the link between employment and healthcare can be seen by some as a moral situation - the person without the good job to get the healthcare must be lazy, and since we don’t want to encourage laziness, it’s therefore acceptable (even preferred!) not to take care of them.

I can’t stress enough how much effort is put into teaching a huge portion of America to fear and hate, constantly. We wouldn’t be this bad otherwise, we’re pretty normal folks by and large. Even pretty kind and generous, often. We’ve just been really fucked up, and very deliberately.

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Pshaw, let’s see you or your deity turn someone into a pillar of salt for looking the wrong way, fuck yeah Team God!

This is exactly where I thought the “in attempt to…” part of the headline was going myself, sincerely

What Dreams May Come, fuck :(

Holy shit what an amazing analogy lol

I have occasional moments where I try to sit and think about the fact that you could take almost anyone from a few hundred years ago and they’d be just floored by the quantity and kinds of food available, like just the crazy flavors and variety of snack foods themselves.

And then show them just hot and cold water on demand, the incredible ease with which waste of all kinds is handled (at least for most of us). The time it takes to get dressed and wash clothes, similar for preparing food and cleaning up.

I mean, all jokes aside, it’s useful to think about the fact that - not that long ago - the things available to a ton of us as fairly default stuff - would be extreme luxury, basically royalty only, if it was available at all. Of course as part of the “standard package” we’ve lost important things that used to be available, by default, to most folks, too. Pretty weird.

I was definitely including “expanding for extra use” in what I mean by allowing construction, but either way thanks for the info. I’ve seen some utterly hideous stylistic choices (which, to be fair, seem garish and “loud” by design, I didn’t uncover some secret), but I really like when it’s done with some care. Probably not a realistic goal in every case, as y’all have helped me see.

The one you posted is utterly jaw dropping :)

Fuck de-escalation, there is no way Russia ends their atrocity without either total surrender from Ukraine or overwhelming force. Let’s get it over with before it festers further. Bomb Moscow, lightly, and fucking annihilate it and several other key sites if there’s even a whiff of retaliation.

Fuck Russia, enough is enough. Miss me with the “but the innocents” bullshit, cuz yeah, I agree - “but the goddamned innocents!”

This was my first exposure to “laconic wit” that I remember as a kid, and I fell in love :)