Schadrach

It lost it’s meaning before that.

It started as “we have confirmed you are who you say you are, public figure”, and that was it.

The some Twitter features were pegged to it.

Then it spread.

Then it also somehow became a “Twitter approves of this message” flag, as some people were stripped of their check for posting offensive things (probably most notoriously Milo).

Then Twitter staff started expediting the process in exchange for essentially bribes.

Then Elon buys Twitter.

Then it just became a subscription service, with enhanced features over non-check users.

While the effect of not having as much random porn on steam is kinda nice, the underlying reasons for this are fucking horrifying because it’s further proof that some giant american companies (visa, paypal, mastercard) are the global morality police.

They have been for decades. You just aren’t going to see news stories anywhere major when what’s being banned by the morality police is something like loli or zoo content, but stuff no one wants to publicly defend are targeted first to set precedent to justify anything else they might want to ban later.

See the H.L. Mencken quote about defending scoundrels.

It is. But the reality of those sites is that for a guy the vast majority of your messages will never be read. You are shouting at the void and hoping for the best. This does not incentivize taking the time and psychological investment to write thoughtful messages, because you will send comparatively few and the lack of response is harder to deal with when you’re more invested. It incentivizes sending the quickest messages that you care about the least to as many as possible. The guy didn’t send her a dick pic, he sent every woman in a 50 mile radius the same dick pic hoping that with enough sheer volume he’ll get a response.

It’s basically spam that wants to fuck you, because non-spam options don’t get you anywhere.

And, the sites end up eating battery.

Yeah, but they would have done that in 2005 too, if you were using them on a device with a battery.

Correct.

Since math is a language and is itself described by language, that folds all the natural sciences (as they are described by math) into social constructs as well, and since engineering is just applied science, engineering is a social construct. Which means that civil engineers assign whether or not a bridge will hold under a given load and conditions, as opposed to it being some properties of the bridge itself independent of the language being used to describe it that determine what loads and conditions it can successfully operate under? No?

Sex is the same way. Sex predates language. Sex predates humans. Sex predates the entirety of organisms we would classify under Kingdom Animalia. It predates any living thing complex enough to have a language. It exists independent of the language used to describe it. You can easily make the argument that’s not true for gender, because unlike sex it doesn’t exist outside the language and societal structures built around it.

is still a social construct in that it’s a label made up in order to explain

By that logic, literally everything that can be described with language is a social construct.

often non-consensually ‘correcting’ them.

I am against the medically unnecessary cutting of children’s genitals in all cases. Whether it’s FGM, “correcting” intersex kids (in cases where it’s not going to cause problems with things like urination), routine circumcision, etc.

they assign sex

I hate the use of the word assign, but it doesn’t fit with what doctors are doing. Sex is a biological rather than social construct. They’re looking at how you are, and trying to identify what your reproductive organs are. It’s like saying a doctor assigns you a medical condition rather than diagnosing a condition that is already present.

Also, I recently rode on Amtrak for a long trip from Columbia, SC to Baltimore, MD. This was my first time on any kind of train other than a subway or metro line. It had its drawbacks (incredibly long travel time and delays)

I thought about taking an Amtrak to Boston for a trip since it was a vacation and I wasn’t in a huge rush travel wise. By “incredibly long travel time” in my case it would have gone from ~3 hours (two roughly one hour flights with a very short layover you’ve got to haul ass through because for some reason the relevant gates are both at the far ends of different concourses at Dulles) to about a day. Wasn’t in a rush, but that’s a bit too far to the other extreme.

(People keep saying audio is a nightmare to set up in Linux. Ohh you clearly haven’t tried to set up a printer or you would not be complaining)

My single worst experience with Linux was getting audio to work with an ISA Plug ‘n’ Play Sound Blaster card back in the late 90s. Eventually I got it to work, but after installing the card I had to dig through documentation and forums to figure out that in addition to audio drivers I needed to install a package for ISA PnP cards, run a tool that came with that to generate a config file, realize that config file contained every hypothetical configuration my card could potentially have all commented out, find and uncomment the actual configuration I wanted the card to use and then restart the isapnp driver. All of that to get basic functionality. For Windows, I literally just installed the card and it worked with basic functionality out of the box, with an option to go to their website and download a driver for some extra functionality specific to that card.

That…soured me on the idea of desktop Linux for several years.

He might have won the very first Nobel Prize, had he not passed away just a few years prior,

Basically the same thing happened twenty years later with Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who made a discovery that’s essential to figuring distances in space. She noticed something while working as a computer at Harvard College Observatory that eventually became known as Leavitt’s Law. Her Nobel nomination was halted because she passed away and the award is not given posthumously. Hubble’s work heavily relied on hers.

and they have also moved me to be more open minded about some things I thought I would never agree with.

Such as? I’m curious.

And most of them aren’t doing much (some are guarding federal buildings, most don’t even have any orders), it’s actually the LAPD that’s handling the protests.

Because they are deployed to protect federal facilities and employees doing their duties, not to break up protests. So until protesters go do something like attack a federal building or assault an ICE agent it’s outside their orders. Protest crowd control is on the regular police.

I might think some of the violence was some false flag kinda shit

Uh-huh. Remember, violence from the other side is proof they are violent thugs, violence from my side is a false flag or otherwise caused by the other side. This previous sentence is of course said regardless of what side you are on.

But seriously, this is some “J6 was undercover FBI and Antifa” level bullshit.

That doesn’t say anything about Marines in particular as opposed to any other branch of active duty military, which is the bit I was replying to.

…How good is the “pop culture detective” YouTube channel?

It’s basically “Anita Sarkeesian’s ex keeps doing essentially the same kind of thing she used to do”, to the point that the writing is similar enough (at least at the beginning of the channel, haven’t watched any of it in a long time) that I wonder if he wasn’t the one doing most of the writing for her stuff during the Tropes v Women era.

Oh, of course. That’s a given. But the original comment implied that the feds are only fucking with blue states and immigrants are fine in places like Georgia.

The idea is to target blue areas so they can put on a show of “doing something” about immigration while their base continues to see around the same number of brown people who don’t speak English very well and so continues to believe that the “invasion” is ongoing and stronger action needs to be taken.

I’ll say this though - since Trump started doing heavy ICE enforcement I’ve noticed a lot fewer truck drivers who need a translation app to handle basic English. Makes me wonder if ICE has got them afraid of having to deal with DOT.

Marines have seen their spouses and other relatives deported in recent months. Trump was an idiot to deploy them like so, as opposed just about any other branch of the active-duty military.

I take it Marines are especially likely to have family or spouses that are here illegally, for some reason?

if you hate me why tf do you want to fuck me?

Testosterone is a hell of a drug. I’ve known a few guys who have had at least one gf they only stayed with for the sex and were just putting up with her the rest of the time. Those…generally aren’t very good or healthy relationships. Most of them eventually get out of that mindset and (at least try to) find someone they like being with first and also want to fuck besides.

But then my wife acts shocked that a bunch of women she works with talk like they don’t even like their husbands. All I can think is why marry them then?

I think the Bible fails on the role-playing game front and I don’t remember any voodoo, but otherwise yeah?

She was religious and this is from the early 80s. It’s not even in the top ten most batshit things she said or wrote. From an early 80s Christian conservative standpoint homosexuality is basically just a more narrow category or sex perversion. She was also one of the big voices in the Satanic Panic in general and considered a subject matter expert, including writing things like interrogation guides for law enforcement.

Here’s a couple of examples of her lunacy:

THE WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE AND HOW OF TEEN SATANISM

WHO
1. Adolescents from all walks of life.
2. Many from middle to upper middle class families
3. Intelligent
Over or Under Achievers
Creative/Curious
Some are Rebellious
Some have low self esteem and are loners
Some children have been abused (physically or sexually)

WHEN does this occur?
It appears the ages most vulnerable are 11-17

WHERE?
1. Public places such as rock concerts, game clubs in communities or at school.
2. Private parties at a friend’s home.

HOW?
1. Through Black Heavy Metal Music
2. Through fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (R)
3. Obsession with movies, videos, which have occult themes
4. Collecting and reading/researching occult books
5. Involvement with “Satanic Cults”, through recruitment
6. Some are born into families who pratice “satanic cult rituals”

TWO BASIC PRINCIPLES APPLY HERE “Law of Attraction” and the “Law of Invitation”

WHAT can be expected?
1. Obsession with occult entertainment
2. Minor to major behavior disorders
3. Committing crimes and status offenses such as:
A. Running away
B. Graverobbing (such as bones)
C. Breaking and entering to steal religious artifacts or sometimes stealing small items to prove loyalty to the group
D. Defacing public or private property using “Satanic Graffetti” or related Graffetti 
E. Threatening to kill (self or others, self mutilation is very common)
F. Aggression directed towards family, teachers and authority figures
G. Contempt for organized religion
H. Supremist attitudes
I. Kidnapping or assistance in kidnapping
J. Murder
K. Suicide pacts among members of the group

WHAT can we do?
1. Document all information relating to occult involvement (even if it does not appear relevant at the time)
2. Keep an open mind
3. Stay objective
4. Never assume that an individual is acting along until all other information surrounding the case and individual has been fully investigated.
5. If individual is involved in “satanic activity,” he/she will deny a great deal to protect other members of the group as well as the “satanic philosophy”.
6. Have a team approach, work with a therapist, a clergymen and other helping professionals.
7. Educate the community so that potential tragedies might be avoided.

Don’t forget the woman whose son committed suicide so she created an anti-D&D group called Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons. Her group described D&D as “a fantasy role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings.”