racktash

We're well past the point where (and it's ever growing) evidence of Trumpism's tyranny and cruelty will sway anyone, I think. As depressing as it is, a large swathe of people just do not and cannot care. I remain shocked that the March CECOT deportations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2025_American_deportatio...) is largely untalked about now. Yes, many months have passed, but the blatant human rights violations involved remain truly shocking to me.

I think you've described the problem (or one of them) very well.

We've seen how misinformation -- including ideas that were once fringe, believed only by a minority of cranks -- spreads and becomes acceptable, becomes a "legitimate alternative opinion".

We've seen, too, how hostile states, populists within, spread falsehoods to sew havoc and division.

My only hope, really, is that I think some of the younger generation are slightly more alert than some Gen X and millennials (my own generation) as to the dangers of misinformation online.

I wish I knew the solution too. Like you, I feel quite helpless even in terms of what to WANT. Can the Twitters of the world be regulated? If so, are we as a society able to agree on how it should be regulated, or are we too divided to agree on anything?

It's a mess. I don't know how we get out of it.

No.

I have a cushy job, especially when I compare it to how many other people earn money, but it's still a job rather than a passion. The social aspect is all well and good, but much (but not all) of it in a company is actually quite fake.

I hope to live long enough to see a free Iran -- or at least something better than the current, rotten regime.

Given most assassinations on US politicians (including attempted) targeted Democrat politicians in 2025, I would have different expectations to your last point.

(Highly subjective opinion incoming.)

I've been thinking a lot lately, challenging some of my long-held assumptions...

Big tech, the current AI trend, social media websites serving up rage bait and misinformation (not to imply this is all they do, or that they are ALL bad), the current political climate and culture...

In my view, all of these are symptoms, and the cause is the perverse, largely unchallenged neoliberal world in which the West has spent the last 30-40 years (at least) living in.

Profit maximising comes before everything else. (Large) Corporate interests are almost never challenged. The result? Deliberately amoral public policy that serves the rich and powerful.

There are oases in this desert (which is, indeed, not inevitable), thankfully. As the author mentioned, there's FOSS. There's indie-created games/movies. There's everyday goodness between decent people.

Between River and Sea by Dervla Murphy (her final published book). It (and admittedly a few other things) completely altered my view on the relevant issue, and despite being a very serious topic, the book is enjoyable and heavy considering.

I get where you're coming from. I would be a bit annoyed if, for instance, taxpayer money went to artists painting white-paint-on-white-canvas non-paintings or recording silence as a form of music. The trouble is that it's hard to measure / assess "merit" beyond extreme cases like I've listed. To illustrate: there are plenty of movies that were panned by critics of their time only to later become "cult classics".

Strawman.

Some things need funding despite being unprofitable. Not everyone will agree, but I believe art/culture (including often unprofitable forms thereof) are worthwhile, and should thus receive public funding (to some degree). I believe the same about justice, policing, education, research etc.

None of this rules allowing a freeish market to operate where doing so "delivers the goods".

Both are important, both are unprofitable, both (in my opinion) deserve public funding.

Some art produced today is good, some bad. Subjectivity will mean people disagree. It has ever been so.

But the idea that art / artists don't require money isn't my read of history.

When you go to an art museum in, say, London, you'll find lots of fantastic paintings depicting religious themes. Were artists of the time fixated only on the religious aspects of life? No doubt religion was more important, but the real consideration was that patronage came once from the Church.

Art and culture may be "unproductive" from a utilitarian point of view, but it's valuable and enriching in ways hard to measure on a spreadsheet.

Art and culture is extremely valuable, but is often not profitable / sustainable. Banking is important to society too, but it's already well compensated!

Great art isn't necessarily about popularity / wide appeal, though. In fact, the art that isn't of wide, general appeal, is what stands to benefit the most from this kind of benefit.

Ordinary People, Redford's directorial debut, is one of my favourite movies. A movie that deceptively appears simple but that is wonderfully emotionally deep with great performances from the entire cast. I must give it a rewatch.

I used to think this, and I was so wrong. Or course some attend the rallies for foolish reasons, but I found that a lot of what I believed about the Israel-Palestine situation was effectively Israeli propaganda (and grossly untrue).

The mistreatment of the Palestinians is long running, deliberate, calculated. The recent blood bath in Gaza is another entry in a long running tragedy.

Between River and Sea by Dervla Murphy is a wonderful, humane examination of the country. It's over a decade old but still very informative without being academic or dry. I would recommend it highly.

Agreed. Lots of recent (last 10-20 years, say) non-fiction is annoyingly flabby.

Agreed, not a fan. The world has enough fakery in it already without people accidentally generating even more (I assume quite a lot of casual users will mistake this zoom for zoom in the traditional sense).

I feel the same. Am very interested to hear others say the same as it is a worrying experience, seeing a substantial part of one's life disappear in no time at all.

It's hard to say whether it was the event itself, the effect of how it changed my working life (it made me a remote worker where before I was fully in office) or as you say, just getting older. I see photos of myself taken in 2019, and I'm surprised how different I look. Aging, sure, but I just feel like 2020 changed a lot more than we think.

It may be too FPS specific, but I always got a lot out of the in-game audio commentaries on Valve's games (HL2: Episodes, (since 2024) HL2 itself, Portal 2 etc.) There is some great analysis of player psychology in the recordings that I think would be universal across games.

As a game developer myself (hobbyist), I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Games are hard, but they're worth the effort!

(And also for what it's worth, my first forays into game development was met with lots of critical comments (some helpful, some not). It's part of the process, but don't let it discourage you!)

"Peace for Our Time"/Chamberlain was at least motivated by a genuine (albeit naive) desire for peace. This is much worse insofar as motivations are concerned.

It was content for a segment of his base.

On Twitter, it's common to find populist-right commentators say things like:

1. Supporting Ukraine against Russia is risking WW3

2. Zelensky is always asking for more, more more and is SO disrespectful to the generous United States. And he doesn't even show up in a suit when meeting the president. How disgraceful. etc. etc.

These points were both touched upon by the Trump/Vance tag team and that's no coincidence.

My respect for Zelensky, the only decent politician in that room. Ukraine is lucky to have him in a time like this.

Trump pardoned the January 6th rioters for the benefit of a certain segment of his supporter base. I have a feeling his childish humiliation of Zelensky is more of the same.

It's no coincidence he dropped a "World War 3" reference, a common talking point of a certain segment of the online populist right (to be clear, this isn't to say some fear about such a scenario is unjustified; only to point out that it is cynically used to steer the discussion about the Ukrainian in a certain direction).

Shame on everyone who continues to be an apologist for this administration. People can make mistakes – I've supported my fair share of dodgy people in the past – but anyone who doesn't see things clearly at this point isn't looking.

Fun idea!

I am always astounded how hard it can be to break doom scrolling as a habit DESPITE knowing how much better I feel when I can't / don't do it.

When I don't do it, I will often spend my time doing something personally productive, but even if I do nothing at all instead, it's still better – my head is clearer, I can think so much better; I feel more content and optimistic about life in general; time goes slower.

Eat, drink and be merry – preferably with good friends and family. Always be open to new things (within reason). Get basic finances in order (pension, savings and investments), but don't overdo the planning. Be careful who you're friends with – avoid narcissistic types as much as possible. Be yourself, but keep boundaries.

That's what's I'd say to 29 year old me.

One has to take in the broader picture. The DOGE events are one piece of the puzzle. It was only last week that far-right thugs were pardoned unconditionally by the President.

Some people hold conservative views, some liberal and others a mix. People have "tribes", but that's not what this is about.

What is happening is not good if you view rule of law and liberal democracy as being good things.

Since it worked so well for Russia in the 90s onwards, why not America?

I would love just one year of this decade to be uneventful / boring...

I used to think people were over-doing it in their criticism of Trump – I thought he was dreadful, but ultimately a contained / containable force. I was even a little optimistic that he might be a disruptive force (inadvertent) that would make other politicians return their focus to everyday, working class concerns.

I was naive and stupid. And many people are kidding themselves even now about what's going on. There's nothing normal or business as usual about what's happening in America right now. I'm not qualified to predict where this all ends, but I don't think any of it's good and I don't think this ends after Donald Trump's second term.

To the people thinking DOGE is about cutting "wasteful spending", I can only shake my head. What will it take for people to see clearly what's right before them?

Ah yes, the Nazi salute's innocuous cousin, totally unrelated to the far right, the Roman Salute... /s

Unfortunately, this isn't a one off connection. For instance, search Musk and the AfD.

Eventually you see enough associations between a person and who he sympathises with and you have to ask some questions.

Even more revealing are the people offering excuses / brushing this and other things off – they are either naive (or have not been following Musk's comments about the AfD etc.) or knowingly acting in bad-faith. If there is one small positive about these political times, it's that we're finding out who the authoritarian / far-right sympathisers are.