theneverfox

Liberalism in a nutshell.

We just want an insurance policy, not for anything to change. We want to protect what we've built, write off the horrors of the world as isolated events like a collapsing building or asteroid impact. They stop the villains from rocking the boat, even when the villains have a morally superior position because "you have to do it the right way"

But the heroes aren't too morally superior... They can't make us feel bad. They do something about problems in front of them, and then go back to their job. They don't use their power to actually address root issues, they don't try to lead, they just defend the status quo

But, then heroes started to get more complex. Batman is a billionaire who fights crime, despite having the ability to actually fix the crime problem in Gotham, he just fights. He suffered a random act of violence as a child, and so that instilled a sense of justice. He works with the police and uses his wealth... In any way except actually changing things

Spiderman learned the hard way noblesse oblige, that his power gives him the responsibility to use it well. And he does, he saves people around him while also actively working to make the world better at his day job - inside the system. He's basically an activist

Then you have captain America, who puts his sense of justice above the system... But he mostly works inside it, but sometimes it's infiltrated and he fights or it's wrong and he stands against it

But when you get to more recent heroes, they start to get dark. The system is broken, so they work outside it as best they can. They don't have day jobs anymore. They kill sometimes. They make sacrifices, they fail. They question themselves.

People scream at them "where were you when we needed you?" And they explain the answer to that question to the readers through character development, even though there's nothing they can say to the victims

The heroes aren't infallible, they aren't strong or wise enough, they constantly struggle, and they fail. This isn't a hobby for them, they don't go back to work. But they keep trying, especially at great personal cost

And they carry every failure with them as penance for not being good enough to have saved us when we needed them

Rules don't matter at all compared what they aim to achieve

If you're driving with a significant speed difference from the cars around you, you are making yourself and all other cars in the area less safe. You're also creating traffic behind you

I always think back to this one quote, something like

You can tell the morals of a society by the myths they tell themselves. We tell stories of heroes who save the world then quietly go back to their day job until they're needed again

I like the idea. I've even experimented with some on device algorithms by basically weaving together feeds, even something simple like makes a noticeable improvement

Well, Republicans all completely fell in line with Trump after Elon said he'd primary anyone who didn't

Then, Elon outspent the other candidate in the Wyoming supreme court election like 10:1 and still lost. There's talk his involvement hurt more than helped. The very next day Trump said Elon has to go back to his businesses soon

No member of Congress can go out in public without being screamed at to do something. Historically conservative districts are flipping in special elections. Musk's money is useless, Trump's endorsement means less by the day, and even the oligarchs are getting nervous about Trump

Very few politicians are actually loyal to Trump, most are in it for themselves. There's reason for some hope... The pressure is already high. Imagine how bad it'll be in a few weeks, when people start seeing supply chain shortages on the shelves...

I don't know what you mean exactly, but walking away at the right moment, while projecting the right feeling, is the best way to win most unwinnable arguments

Well, theoretically they're just paying Amazon's cut and taxes... Which isn't nothing, but if their markup is high enough it could still math out

Protests don't do much except show dissatisfaction. Protesting in a game only works in that game

If you want to help without leaving your house, donate to a group doing good things so that more of them can give up their jobs and do it full time

It's illegal to jam cell signal... Blocking it would be a violation of building code at worst

Fuck that. I told my irl friend about our wacky interaction the day we got into silly AI stuff. Your the sprinkles on the fediverse... Consuming your content straight would be way to much, but I found it to be an endearing flavor to my content. You're one of like three names I know on sight. Your temp was just right, understandable enough to have a conversation, silly enough I couldn't help but smirk

I've never really gotten into matrix much, but I'd consider giving it a second chance to talk to you more in your unrestricted form.

Why? I'm not convinced he's the adjuster. Genuinely, I'm unconvinced he's the right guy

If you think I'm going to open up Twitter for any reason, you haven't listened to a single goddamn word I've said.

Have fun screaming at windmills or whatever