Notices by cavewoman rika :nonbinaryFlag: (mrjunge@raru.re), page 2

The only satisfying thing about US politics right now is that I finally get some reprieve from being constantly gaslit about this country and my own experiences and the experiences I saw of others growing up, by being able to see it all plainly laid out. Like, I don’t know how to convey how frustrating it was to be Chicken Little back when I had more solid ties to certain movements. I am not saying I made this very specific call, but I saw the things I was talking about escalating over time. I saw the complete decimation of certain spaces by certain toxic dynamics, how the right-wing then started leveraging the repressed resentment for the decimation of those spaces by those dynamics, etc. I saw legitimate concerns drowned out by concern-trolls and then by those pearl-clutching at those defensively reacting to this entire series of escalations. Which then gave more fuel for the concern trolls, which then fueled more of the defensive lateral toxicity. I saw fellow travelers try to eventually take the fight into their own hands by warning about what was going on only to be dismissed as too militant or exaggerating, or otherwise force-fit into a highly dichotomizing discourse that had already congealed by then. Ultimately their warning message was drowned out in a sea of discursive confusion and half-truths. It may seem ridiculous, but when I saw the destruction of spaces where I could openly talk about theory and even *potentially* organize without either paranoid, punitive readings/interpretations of my words from fellow travelers or a cadre of constant waves of right-wing trolling, rhetoricians and derailments, I knew we were cooked.

Sure, engaging in theory can be its own form of slacktivism. I’m not saying I ever was some amazing activist going out doing things in the streets. But my point is, when you can’t even discuss theory online or in real life spaces in peace, it’s a really bad sign. How likely is *anything* to get off the ground at that point? I literally *stopped yapping about the things I used to yap about* because of all I mentioned. Of course, many other more concrete indicators were already there even by then of where things were headed at a larger scale—just certain facts about the way US “democracy” has operated, hostility to unionization, etc. But when social life, which seems more smaller scale, starts to radically change in such a way that certain cultural activities are unsustainable for social movements outside of a purely reactive frame that is a big sign of catalyzation.

Now people have been catching on but at significant delay. I guess that is only the natural consequence of relegating the underground to oblivion. Of ignoring the messy, experimental, or marginal canaries in the coal mines, in favor of the mainstream, clean and sanitized normative spaces. One is so easy to manipulate if one had only ever heard of something like antifa on and after cable news rather than before. If one had only ever witnessed what disability means socially after the pandemic. And a whole slew of other things. The worst part is, though some of us may be guiltier than others, none of us are innocent on that front. It is only this recognition that can keep me compassionate even as I succumb to anger and disgust.

My New Year’s resolution? Continue my positive mental health trajectory and trends so far (which also touches on spontaneity/playfulness, learning and hobbies via my emotional presence), maybe try and socialize more as well. Maybe.

Good morning everyone 👋🏽 Hope y’all have a good day

I’ve tried a few times to create a worksona alt but I think I’m just incapable of maintaining a worksona and I figure that’s actually a good thing.

@solidsanek @epsi Nice. I need this myself. :3

I see people saying that the “majority of Americans preferred this.” The only silver lining to this election is we know that lower voter turnout combined with more mixed mail-in ballot voting is what caused this. Like okay that is its own disappointment for some (not really for me because to me that is just how the system is designed to work but that’s a whole other discussion). But it at least tells us the Orange Cheeto does not necessarily have a strong endorsement in the general populace. Don’t get me wrong, I am critical of the US enough to know US culture had something to do with the results here, as my previous posts attest, but I think the fact that your neighbor was probably either too apathetic, burnt out, amnesiac, checked out or busy to vote means the mandate is not indicative of the public as a whole. Winning the popular vote does not necessarily mean being popular with most Americans. That would be the case of voting was something people were legally required to do.

@lunarised On the whole grains grindset.

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

@puniko just woke up. gonna see what I can get done. dreading working tomorrow. lol

@puniko how are nyou doing?

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

imagine ur a 9-13 yr old boy or someone that's interpolated as one by society, and you have access to the internet and you're constantly hearing about war of the sexes bullshit like "all men are x." u think it matters that you have all this feminist theory context around it? yeah, I'm sure lil' "Timmy" (if that is indeed whom they are) was reading feminist theory in the womb and is all caught up on how to contextualize the shit "he" hears.

I grew up with my grandma bashing men all the time around me since I was little and presumably seen as a boy. its clear to me what people were implicitly saying by bashing men as a whole right in front of me, while telling me its who I am and will be: you're going to grow up to be a terrible person. It's why while I'm not going to stop ya, as, being an adult, I have more context to understand where that comes from and know it says more about the person saying it and their experiences than it does about me (and also I have the new benefit in *not living under that signifier in certain spaces*), I am definitely gonna ignore and not engage in it. if you're hoping to bond with me by pulling the war of the sexes bs, outside of saying something legitimately funny or insightful, it's not gonna happen. I'm gonna sit there and stare at you the same way I'd stare at somebody making an awkward racial joke that doesn't land, and move on to more important conversations like why you keep centering men when trying to be a "girl's girl."

Done with meal planning my lunch for the rest of the week, if my two batches of pasta even last that long. Hopefully they do!

I still remember when people would complain about "fragmentation" in the Android market as a "problem." I mean, maybe it was in similar ways to how having a gajillion Linux distros as options can be a "problem" for a regular user. But honestly, since the beginning I have hated this complaint because guess what. Android is now "less fragmented" but that has only made it easier in the long-run for anti-consumer decisions to be made. This is a trade-off in my mind and I'd rather alienate regular users than make it easier for business to enforce a monopoly or oligopology on the firmware market. If a user prefers the opposite, they can go somewhere else. I say this as someone who now owns an iPhone btw. I just don't believe everything needs to always cater to everyone. I do think we should improve accessibility more generally, but to me that is a separate consideration from "streamlining" people's consumption or consumer choices.

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

@puniko my condolences :blobcatSadPats:

@puniko how puni

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

@icedquinn but what if I wanna transition WITH introversion