Saw No Men at a tiny show once. Great energy. Friendly people. Chatted with them for a while.

Saw screaming females a few times. The singer crowd surfs while doing guitar solos.

This year saw Caroline rose at a tiny packed venue. That was great. Love good crowd banter.

I don’t think “friends” works well as a binary yes/no. There are many different kinds of friends, Some people are like cacti and only need to be watered once a year. Other people are like… I’m not a gardener, but some other kind of plant that needs frequent watering. Some are weeds that will take over your entire home. This metaphor got away from me a little.

Personally, I follow a strategy of “when you have the energy, demonstrate the behavior you want to see.” So if you have the juice to handle an unsatisfying outcome, reach out to them like you’d want to be reached out to. Invite them to a party. Send them a funny meme. Whatever. They might flake. They might not respond. But you only do this when you can handle that disappointment. If someone’s been real flakey and you just can’t deal with it, you don’t have to go the extra mile for them.

It doesn’t help that the right infiltrates and murders left wing movements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars

I’m not a historian so I’m struggling to remember specific details. “People’s History of the United States” by Zinn includes many examples that went like “People wanted to organize for something better” -> “Capitalists said no, and had the police beat up and arrest people”

Fines gotta scale with wealth or some scumbags will think it’s just a $600 fee

The assailant should have their life ruined. Certainly lose their car and license.

The other person who just watched and walked away should suffer, too.

The least bad use of LLMs is probably “shitty search”. Because Google et al have let the internet rot, it’s often hard to find things through normal searching. So people use the LLM that’s at the top of the page. This is not great.

They tell me to use AI at work. I tried entering in like “tell me about X. Link sources”. All the sources were also AI. Horrifying.

Capitalism is fundamentally unjust. Someone who doesn’t even work keeps the profits generated by the people who do. Fuck that.

Capitalism doesn’t mean “people trade money for goods and services”

I would make cautious alliance with someone if that was their principle.

I see job posts on LinkedIn that say they’re AI recruiters. They don’t seem to have a lot of clicks. Horrible idea.

People get defensive and stop listening, stop thinking. You tell them about all the bad things downstream from car centrism, they realize they drive a car, and then they emotionally decide you’re a bad person for “making them feel bad”

It’s a rare person who can tank “you’re making the world worse”

I don’t mind them. It’s important to remember that the current situation is absolutely, needlessly, devastating for people every day. Humans are emotional creatures. Facts like “XYZ people die every day from cars” don’t hit the same way “look at this happy woman! She looks like your sister! And now she’s FUCKING DEAD from a car” move the needle.

Of course, there’s also the backfire effect where something makes someone uncomfortable, so they reject it. Humans are really bad at reasoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth%2C_and_I_Must_Scream

It’s short and you can find a copy at your library, or on the seas.

You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.

Sales number is the only language they speak.

They also speak violence, but historically that’s in the form of the rich and/or the state attacking labor.

Oh god concerts are so stupid right now. Can’t see anything because there’s always some idiot holding a phone up in front of your face.

I get annoyed when people hold the phone up high during the show. If you hold it in front of your face, no one behind you can see it. Don’t block people’s view.

Microsoft should be broken up. They never should have been allowed to get so big in the first place.

The Republicans cause more abortions because they don’t do anything to fix the problem sooner. No sex Ed. No contraception. Nothing to allow labor to have stable home lives with financial security. Voting Republican to minimize abortion is counter productive.

I have family just outside the city and they insist on driving in. I keep telling them just take the train. They’re like “no we’ll get lost”. It’s a train. It goes two directions. Follow the sign for New York.

No. Don’t feel strongly about hats. Wouldn’t want to live someplace where wearing a hat is expected. I’m a band T-shirt and jeans kind of guy though.

and on her way to work every single leftist that she knew irl punched her in the face every single day.

But no there’s no corresponding “leftists are doing something like punching her in the face” in real life. Certainly not “every single” one. I agree that people are emotionally driven ( https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe is a good comic about it ).

There are extremists in any sect - the christian fanatics, animal rights ecoterrorists, whatever. But it’s not “the left” as a whole, or even a majority.

Unless, I guess, you consider a scenario like

“I just think gay people shouldn’t be so visible. It’s confusing to my children”

“That’s a messed up thing to say. Gay people are a part of life. Shunting them into the closet so you can avoid a mildly uncomfortable conversation is unjust”

to be punching someone in the face.