I’m not saying this isn’t a sign of something, but Surf and Turf nights are fairly common at overseas bases. Sometimes once a week.

EDIT: Pie is pretty much nightly anywhere with real kitchen.

Helps if your world view is shaped by people who are continually telling you that he’s a figure of manliness, while constantly playing off your fear and insecurity for profit and political gain.

EDIT: It’s also a very unrealistic standard of what it means to be a man, almost a caricature. It’s a masculine ideal rooted in myths of the “common-sense everyman hero” who’s wisdom is more valuable than other’s knowledge, instincts more accurate than other’s intellect, and cunning able to overcome other’s skill. He’s a man who’s anger and will can overcome insurmountable odds, and who’s “rough-around-the edges” personality is more attractive than practiced social graces. There’s no need for growth or change, because our hero needs nothing more than the innate qualities he already possesses to thrive, and because of that failure is never his fault.

It’s the aesthetic of romanticized cowboys, gangsters, renegade cops, and retired spec-ops, a domesticated version of 1980’s gritty action-hero masculinity adapted for group membership. It’s always framed as bucking authority and going against the grain, even though conformity is required to be one of the “good guys”. Being low on the totem pole allows you to gain the virtue of being a simple man with a simple life, or being the trusted sergeant “who really makes things happen around here”, but doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of rising to any occasion just because you have guts. Washboard abs or hard work are only important when they can be used to show how weak and ineffective your opponents are, but what’s really important is that you’re able to dismiss, demean, deny, and destroy anything that doesn’t conform to the right way of doing things to gain the accolades you’re due and save yourself the embarrassment of having to admit your hero fantasies aren’t true.

Again, it’s ridiculous to apply this ideal to the bloated orange, but it’s an image he cultivates. His personal mythology is embodying that ideal and gaining massive success in every endeavor because of it. It allows his failings to be used as evidence that he’s “just like us”, and not as examples of his overall lack of redeeming qualities.

But I wouldn’t expect it every really make sense, because at it’s core it’s just a bullshit justification for getting whatever they want with as little effort as possible.

As a philosophical stance, I feel humans should use tools, not the other way around. AI is a tool that uses those who attempt to use it.

AI “art” as most people understand it perverts the natural relationship between artist and medium. It inverts it, using the human to give it the one thing it cannot generate, an idea, then produces an approximation of “art”. A satisfying result with an AI generated image demonstrates a lack of vision on the part the of the user, they were likely never really clear on what they wanted, not the power of the generative model.

Asking AI for answers or to give an overview of a subject seems harmless, but it can’t be trusted to understand the unique context and needs of each user or to highlight what details are truly pertinent in that place or time. Again, it inverts the relationship between human and information, even if what has been generated is factually correct. It over-simplifies relationships and concepts in ways that are dangerous when nuance has been systematically stripped from public discourse for the last few decades. We need information to decide how to act in a given context, AI seems to attempt to change our understanding of that context to match the information it provides.

It’s necessary to accept that you don’t have complete control over the world around around you, but that doesn’t mean we should accept a lack of control over our own understanding of that world.

Fear.

They rally around figures who look strong because they’re afraid of losing social status, or feeling xenophobia due to racism, or insecure over economic concerns. As always, everything is projection with these dipshits. They let fear drive them into the sort of groupthink mob they accuse liberals of being.

One of these days, when we can’t ignore it any longer, when they can’t hide it anymore, this will be recognized as a public health crisis on par with leaded gasoline, smoking, obesity, air pollution, and others.

They are fucking with people’s heads for profit and it has real consequences for children and adults alike.

I’m afraid to ask what the implications for Kid Rock are…

Physical fitness and physical activity correlate very well with health and positive outcomes if you do get sick, or contract something preventable like a parasitic infection… but it doesn’t guarantee it.

I like Dan John’s take on fitness and health. Fitness is one’s ability to do a task. Health is the optimal interplay of organs and the absence of disease.

The man could be riddled with undiagnosed cancer, more parasites, and infections from his dumbass lifestyle and blatant disregard for both food safety and disease prevention. He’s got access to medical care most of us don’t and could be on god knows what substances now to enable him to run around shirtless like a dipshit teenager.

Doesn’t matter how many pullups the old saddlebag can do. He’s not someone we should emulate or who should be lecturing us on health.

People are dicks sometimes.

Tulsa. Bell’s Amusement Park.

ID verification is essentially giving them exactly what they want. The whole goal of surveillance capitalism is to match online profiles across multiple sites, services, and even devices to a single person’s identity.

Might as well just send them credit reports, bank statements, and a picture of everyone’s butthole while we’re at it.

Depends on where the shit is getting real.

If it’s getting real at arm’s length, I definitely need my glasses.

If it’s getting real on the other side of the room, I’m gonna have to take my glasses off to see it properly.

Yes… I am old.

This is a public health crisis akin to smoking. Any company that runs an ad supported, algorithm-based site that uses surveillance to target ads, propaganda, and increase engagement should be handled in the same manner as tobacco companies.

They know their product is harming people’s mental health. Not just children, but adults as well. They’ve always known. They designed it this way and now they’re lying about the harm it’s doing. Just like tobacco companies lied. Just like oil companies have lied.

They should have to fund an education campaign against their own product, to continue to expose what an utter pile of shit their business model is until they’re forced to change or go out of business.

We used to have a small, locally owned amusement park.

This exact thing happened. The little bungalow homes in the neighborhood around it became trendy. People moved in, complained about the noise from the park’s main attraction, a classic wooden rollercoaster that had been an area landmark for DECADES, and badgered the city council about it until they limited the place’s operating hours and it went out of business.

I still get absolutely livid if I talk about it for too long.

EDIT: Not the City Council, as it turns out, but the organization that runs the local fairgrounds, which the park leased land from.

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My ideal lower purpose would be beating guys like this with a sock full of nickles until they weep uncontrollably.

I semi-touch type, with three fingers and one thumb, and form that looks like an arthritic hobo. But I still get the job done.

However, I can work a numpad or a ten-key calculator like a pro athlete.

This is fucking awful.

Then you do get it to a degree, hopefully.

Look, so, I know I came across as dismissive in my first reply, but you’re also coming across as really condescending. Not sure if you’re aware, but if your intent is to reach out with empathy and understanding, you might want to consider that.

I get it. I’ve been reaching out to people for more than 30 years and watching them consistently go against their best interests for about the same amount of time. A little cynicism is natural.

I’m sure in a face to face we’d probably agree on most things, but this conversation doesn’t feel productive. Thanks for taking the time to reply and good luck out there.

When you say this, I can’t help but wonder if you’ve seen firsthand the immense levels of anxiety in working-class, blue-collar families as the failures of this system become undeniable and they are indeed unable to understand exactly what to do about it.

I’m part of one of those families. I’ve lived among them my whole life. It’s not a moral judgement, just an observation on human behavior. And I was talking about those in the suburbs more than my own neighborhood.