chapotraphouse

No one talks about how “jack-off all trades masturbate none” makes no sense

I’m working in a fucking non-profit and it still acts like a for-profit corporation.

One manager who I have good rapport with warned me that while I’m not in any trouble, she wants to make sure I reach fundraising goals because higher ups think “wow! Look at all these applicants we’re getting! We can fire all but the best of the best and have a small group of elite employees!” for a fucking minimum wage summer job where half of all new hires don’t even last a week. And of fucking course the higher-ups get all stuck up with their “it's not that people don't want to make contributions or even if they do, everyone is too broke and busy to, it's YOUR fault for people not wanting to contribute!" Like, sorry when people say "no" I understand that means fucking "no".

Yeah, because the fact that previous members (who make up the bulk of any given quota) are almost never home or too busy with literally anything is all my fault…and the fact people all say “no” is also my fault.

leaving my car idling 24/7 so florida sinks into the ocean faster

The engineering feats I pull off just to reach the remote when I'm having a big sit and it's too far away should more than qualify me for a spot on a rocket ship.

get up go water your plants and take a shower then go take a nap like you had a hard day

couldn't be me

I just finished reading Blackshirts & Reds and found it to be very informative and also fascinating, as it touched on future topics like 9/11 and the War on Terror, Snowden and the NSA, Putin and Russian corruption, etc.

I did notice that, due to it being released in 1997, it is an incomplete view of Marxism-Leninism. Particularly in regards to China and the extreme developments the people of China have seen in the past 30 years.

What subsequent books can I read to bridge the gap between 1997's Marxism-Leninism and today? What can I read that will inform me about China's developments, specifically Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and Dengism leading into the current leadership of Xi. How did that propel them into being able to strong-arm the US as we are currently seeing? What is the Belt & Road Initiative? What are China's global goals? Why does China build hospitals in the global south? How is China able to afford these works? Has China inspired other countries to pursue Marxism-Leninism, and if so, how? At this point, is China an adequate replacement for the loss of the USSR? Why or why not?

Furthermore, several eastern european countries were discussed in Blackshirts & Reds. Their progress between 1992 and 1997 was observed and reported. How have those countries fared in the ensuing 30 years? What has changed? Several commentators in 1997 mentioned that the "switch to Capitalism would take time, and short-term hardship is predicted." Has the hardship continued? Have those countries used western capitalism to turn their countries around?

I am just very curious about the decades since 1997 and how they affected Eastern Europe, China, and the global south, and I am very interested to read more like Blackshirts & Reds that covers these more recent decades.

EDIT: And I want to learn more about Yemen, Houthis, Ansarallah!!

I'm simultaneously annoyed at my parasocial content creators for ignoring the genocide in gaza and covering the genocide in gaza, the latter because the situation it is pretty distressing and I feel really powerless. I might just crash out out of internet altogether and take the grill pill (painting gundams).

Before dying David Lynch told me all my posts are funny, even the slightly problematic ones.

somehow misplaced my cheese grater fucking CIA

Lol I swear hexbear is a psyop designed to radicalise LGBTQ people and turn them against the moderate middle, thereby creating exactly the villain the gender/sexuality wedge issue calls for.

This is true

https://x.com/RimaHas/status/1930564938243694723

apparently the boat that Thunberg is on is diverting to rescue a sudanese migrant boat crossing the Med that sent out an SOS, and they managed to pick up 4 of them before it got intercepted by the coast guard

A "slur" used against spartan women was "thigh shower", because they would wear more practical versions of the normal Greek dress (The peplos) with a slit down the side for added mobility.

time to see if i can get nightreign cracked and working online

what the fuck is a cover letter?

I was told not to make one back in school, and all of sudden everyone needs one again?

The 2020s have really fucking sucked so far. Bad performances all around.

If I ever met the knucklehead who invented http cookies I will not be held responsible for the inevitable violence

I'm in Japan right now and it's crazy how 90% of the things Americans say aren't to communicate information but just because they're afraid of silence

it is june 4 and stalin saved the world from fascism

I'm feeling really good, I read something someone said somewhere about how they quit smoking and adapted it a little bit for me, and so far it's helping me cut down like nothing else has. I haven't gone to bed with a headache or chest ache in a week, and I can feel more energy. I'm doing more spontaneous exercise (typing this from a plank rn) and am becoming better at finding the time to do important stuff like gardening. Just planted two currants in big pots, one yellow flowering and one red.

CW: liberal zionism, genocide apologia

https://www.vox.com/politics/414049/reading-books-decline-tiktok-oral-culture

I was reading this article, which is interesting but flawed, about how a group of thinkers believe that society is devolving from a literate culture back into an oral culture (and how that will spell the doom of Liberalism, and herald the return of tyrant kings). The author is ambivalent about that premise while maintaining that the overall decline in literacy is not good and probably a sign of bad things to come. I was even thinking of making a post out of it. But then I got to this bit:

[T]here are several reasons to question the broader premise that declining deep literacy is the driving force behind illiberal politics in America today.

...

Likewise, illiberal leftists — such as those who authored apologias for the October 7 massacre — are not typically distinguished by their lack of literary erudition (and much the same can be said of liberal intellectuals who’ve rationalized Israeli war crimes in Gaza). Nor were the Stalinists of yesteryear especially unacquainted with libraries.

Maybe it's just my personal hatred of the word 'illiberal', but I can't bring myself to engage more with the article, which kind of peters out at the end anyway. The author seems unclear where to point the blame for America's illiberal turn. Is it that nativist hicks are forcing the educated elite out of power? Is it that phones are bad? But what about these stats that indicate phones are good and made us woke about the gays? But how does that fit with the existence of Andrew Tate, the evil man who lives in the phone of every teenage boy? Socrates once condemned writing, so maybe if I say AI is bad somebody will think that makes me look a fucking idiot so I won't say that even though I believe it.

I really was thinking about how I suspect the idea that America was once shaped by an engaged and literate electorate (as was theorized earlier in the article) is misguided, that the US has long taken its cultural cues from the elites, that those elites were once well-educated people engaged in the project of Liberalism, and then once education became for the hoi polloi and Liberalism lost its moral standing to Socialism the elites gave up all pretense of giving a shit sometime around when JFK took one to the dome. I mean there's more to it than that because obviously the views of the masses have mattered and had an effect on things (largely in how the bourgeois respond to those views) but not in the orderly-and-learned-citizens-engaging-in-(non-disruptive)-civic-duty way I feel was implied early on in the article. You could also make an argument that the elites never gave a shit at all, that it was always a farce, that all this is business as usual and the only difference is that now even VOX writers can see that. But the whole thing ends on such a disappointing note and I've got better things to do with my time (I should have been asleep two hours ago), so I'm not going to think any more about this.

I was reading Chip War by Chris Miller, and throughout the book he throws so much shade at China (a bit at the soviet union too). And then i get to the chapter where he talks about the more modern day when Xi Jinping became leader, and its so comical how he tries to portray China.

He talks about how the semicomductor companies are a under a tight leash by the CPC. I realize that that only sounds bad if you assume CPC = evil therefore bad.

He also spent the first half of the book talking about how chip companies needed heavy subsidies and intervention from the government. So put it together, his point is that CPC is bad because they are subsidizing their chip industry (which America/South Korea/Taiwan already do) while also maintaining control over it. A complete contradiction of free market principles! So which is it? Government intervention is required to build a strong chip industry? Or government shouldnt intervene in semiconductor companies except to give them blank checks? As he has shown in the American semiconductor industry, the latter has caused them to fall behind twice.

He also talks about when Taiwan was going through a crisis, Morris Chang ensured that the government would bail TSMC out. This is portrayed as a good thing though.

New season of trailer park boys is doing casting rn and I have an in via a co-worker who had a speaking role in the last movie at least during shooting. No idea if he made final cut. I have met most of the cast before when I fed them while they were drunk way back. If I csn just get one speaking role in tpb I'd be soooo hyped.

Henlo new mega

after you die the fucking family guy end credits roll and then you immediately cease to exist

Gonna be too hot for my usual beanie soon. Really gotta figure out how to keep my hair out of my face without it in a way that doesn't look terrible 😔

Can't wait to finally find out about delta's rune