“The Firm,” if you want a corporate sound, or to emphasize their illegitimacy with an ironically legitimate-sounding and euphemistic name.

“The Home Owner’s Association,” for glib sarcasm and irreverence. Like, “did you pay your HOA dues” but it’s a protection racket.

arachnids have ten limbs, I’m tired of living a lie.

it turns you into a plastic lego person, which is the horrifying, soylent green-type secret of how all lego people are made

Sure, I’d press the “turn him into a good person” button, but that button doesn’t exist, it never has and never will.

I mean, yeah, imagine if you could just “turn people good” in an instant. That’s the ideal solution. We wouldn’t even be in this mess. Just solve capitalism lmao. “God, what the fuck have I been doing? All this wealth, from other people’s labor?? No, no, hit me. I deserve it.”

Potential health effects: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-09/documents/methyl-methacrylate.pdf

190 km of pipe

Surprisingly not much pipe. An oil refinery can contain over 1000 km of pipes

https://elsegundo.chevron.com/what-we-do

Hiring an artist would require assigning value to human labor, and by extension human life

Someone mentioned the Nestor Makhno betrayal narrative in the comments. Is that narrative growing or shrinking these days?

is “white desperation” the tone they’re going for?

Chinese people aren’t some alien Borg Mind race. They want the same things you want. They’re just normal people dude. You want to know why they like their government? It’s because 90% of them own a home and college tuition is like $2000 a year. CPC efforts to raise living standards have been visibly effective. That’s what people care about.

Also, it’s not accurate to characterize modern Chinese people as “Confucians” to begin with. Certainly not to a “religious” degree, although Confucianism has never been a “religion” in the typical sense anway. Confucius is still discussed in China, sure, but we’re talking about a modern technological state with a modern education system. Chinese people are not awed into servile obedience by religious fervor toward the state. They’re shitposting on social media like you and me.

Chinese citizens consistently describe their government as democratic and view it favorably

And I know what you’re thinking, “Well yeah, but they’re forced to say that, that’s not how they really feel.”

But no, that is how they really feel. Even western outlets have had to reluctantly admit this.

*That third link is a stand-in for a different article I’m still looking for

The author wrote a guide to self-hosting VaultWarden

https://blog.ppb1701.com/self-hosting-vaultwarden-taking-back-password-management-part-8-of-building-a-resilient-home-serve

I’ve had success shaming people into submission (not on hexbear), for me the trick was to not directly insult their intelligence or inherent character, but only attack their views or attitude, and strictly along moral lines, not “does it make sense or not” which is just an indirect insult. People will take a lot of abuse as long as you don’t call them an idiot

Good thread

Another rule of thumb: it’s good to give people an out, i.e., be respectful and charitable enough that they can leave the conversation at any time without feeling they need to defeat you to save face. It’s as much for your own sake as theirs. If they feel like they have to defend themself by attacking you, then suddenly you’re in the same position of having to defend yourself and no one has an off ramp.

Sometimes easier said than done, but it’s never too late to deescalate even if it does start to get heated. It’s just harder.

It also helps with persuasion. No one wants you to be right if it hurts them. Respect and patience gives them emotional space to consider your ideas, whereas hostility gives them an incentive to shoot you down reflexively as a way to defend themself.

As far as I know (and I’ve looked), the only actual evidence of his fate is that, at the end of the video, he is ushered off the street by civilians in streetwear. From there, people seem to make conclusions based on an overall impression of the Chinese government as comically evil, rather than any specific or credible evidence (or indeed any evidence at all) related to this guy in particular.

Which is somewhat understandable, don’t get me wrong – no one investigates everything they hear. We try to gauge the overall picture and then, once we’re convinced (rightly or wrongly), we tend to accept or reject new information on the basis of that picture. Everyone does this. I do it. That’s why US propaganda is so effective. It works by sheer volume and repetition, amplified by a compliant media. Once that “comically evil Chinese government” picture is established, people will believe new details that fit the picture. Many stories collapse under scrutiny, but as long as they carry no consequences for ordinary Americans – as opposed to, say, “Saddam has WMDs” – skepticism spreads slowly, and meanwhile new stories are piled on top.

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