• 0 Posts
  • 20 Comments
Joined 8 months ago
cake
Cake day: December 16th, 2024

help-circle
  • how good it was when they were young

    Sorry did I miss a decade? My youth consisted of hanging chads -> 9/11 -> The War on Oil -> 2008 financial crisis -> the death of Hope via congressional fuckery -> Trump. When were things good…? I had hope for universal healthcare with Obama and hope for Bernie before Trump 1.0 but now I’m not sure what to look forward to. That said; can’t stop won’t stop.

    I honestly and truly hope you and yours remain healthy and happy. I don’t begrudge you that or wish you ill. But I haven’t seen good times and at this point don’t really expect to.









  • I pursued an engineering BSc with the desire to emigrate but got distracted by the success of SpaceX and wooed by the challenge of Mars colonization. Then the US health insurance industry got in the way, I failed out and didn’t make it back until COVID. I graduated in 2022 with the first university degree in my family but was crippled by student loan debt and unable to save to leave. Was finally able to escape the rural Midwest a year ago and made it to a city with plenty of aerospace companies right as everyone stopped hiring. The cherry on top was the CEO of the company whose engineering feats initially inspired me throwing fascist salutes at inauguration.

    Odd jobs and parental support have mostly kept me afloat, but they can’t help forever and I am a few months out from having to move back. The military industrial complex slid into my DMs recently with the offer of a fat paycheck and loaded resume in exchange for my ethics and morals. They even dangled a carrot of potential transfer to a NASA climate science project after the contract is up, but I’ll be surprised if it’s still funded by then. Frankly, I broke down when I realized the project I’d be working on.

    I’ll hear back about the position early next week and I’m desperately hoping it’s a no and I’m back to the drawing board, but if it’s a yes I’ll be starting in a couple weeks. The BBB will very likely lead to losing the best, most effective and enabling healthcare I’ve received so far, and the salary would cover the insurance plan I’d need to maintain that care. Its a short contract and the salary would also enable me to save enough to emigrate but I already feel compromised. I’ve dreamed of contributing to space exploration and am instead being bullied into contributing to it’s militarization by a country I’ve opposed for the entirety of my adult life.

    I’ve looked into joining the Ukrainian Foreign Legionnaires and would much rather contribute to European defense against Russia, but I honestly just want to pursue an MSc or even PhD and turn my brain towards mitigating and adapting to climate change. I’ve worked so fucking hard, dreamed so fucking big and bounced back from defeat time and time again for this? Fuck.

    Tl;dr: Masters/PhD in Sweden or Germany but barring that I’ll work for any European defense company that will take an american immigrant.






  • I cut a very cherished friend out of my life on Tuesday because of this mentality. When he said “I’m not going to read what you write or consider the point you’re trying to make” the first time it was enough. The second time was too much. I expressed my wish for his life to improve, told him good-bye, and removed/blocked him.

    The next morning I woke up to a text claiming I didn’t value his friendship and that he’d be here for me when I got better. That’s when I truly realized how long he’d been disregarding the support and compassion I’d been sending his way.

    I spent Tuesday mentally digging a grave for the friendship. I spent Wednesday filling it in, and that night I drank to the loss of a friend and to the health of the man who replaced him.


  • Any and every form of dehumanization.

    Any and every form of bigotry.

    Any and every form of supremacy.

    Any and every form of authoritarianism.

    Every single person from the homeless guy at the on-ramp to TACO himself is an ordinary human. Some humans are born into extraordinary circumstances, some humans accomplish extraordinary feats, but we are all human. Humans are not born hating other humans. Hate is taught and encouraged and ingrained so that it may be passed on.

    Universal Basic Income is a bandaid on a system couched in one of the ugliest human motivations; greed. I chose my name for that reason; Universal Basic Justice. Justice must be the base motivation; not ‘eye for an eye’ or ‘frontier justice,’ but the belief in treating others as you want to be treated; the belief in the powers of forgiveness, responsibility and growth; and the power of compassionate care dedicated to help those that are willing to learn and grow.

    If and only if all those fail should a human be separated from society in a humane way that prevents their flaws from harming others.

    Death Row is not justice. Guillotines are not justice. Systemic violence is not justice. No government nor individual should be empowered to decide who is worthy of justice, of forgiveness, of growth. Of life.

    Every human is fallible. Every human deserves the opportunity to recognize their mistakes as well as the opportunity to learn, grow, and make reparations for those mistakes.

    I don’t see these changes happening in my lifetime. At this point, I’m not sure we humans have enough lifetimes left to achieve these goals.

    What I am sure of is the danger and violence incumbent within any ideology willing to look down at another human being.




  • They’re not sitting outside of a Starbucks on a cell phone

    My dude can we not gatekeep homelessness‽ Lack of a home in societies with abundance is a systemic issue stemming from the diversion of tax funds away from supporting those who desperately need it. Just because the Starbucks people are human enough to give the guy a cup of coffee while he charges the best chance he has at getting the support doesn’t mean he is the problem.

    Dehumanization of any population is the issue. Your neighbor is not a subhuman to you, nor you to him (I hope) but suddenly the neighbor a few blocks down is a subhuman? What’s the local “radius of exclusion” before we start othering more humans?