Best of Unstuck

BestOf · February 26, 2021, 9:02pm

Thanks @anon46587892 for catching us up on November and December, I’ll try to work on getting us caught up on 2021 today, starting with these terrific posts:

TRUMP is exactly like MUSSOLINI … his term should end that way

Why y’all keep asking where the police at? Y’all ask where Miley’s at when Hannah’s on stage?

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

https://unstuckpolitics.com/t/the-presidency-of-donald-j-trump-episode-xiv-t-minus-97-hours/3759/5890

#BREAKING: In television news interview, CEO of Parler says attorneys representing the company have dropped them as a client.

Liz Cheney just invited Donald Trump to go hunting.

Dealing with Deplorable Family and Friends

Day after the storming, while dropping off her groceries, I asked my mom if she had any mea culpa for me.

“For what?”
“For the whole Capitol thing?!?”
“That was ANTIFA!”
“Oh my god. I swear Mom, this is where it gets to where I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Oh honey, no. Not again.”
“Here, I want to show you some things.”

And then from there, due to this place’s awesome aggregation, I showed her a quick rundown of some of the eyewitness stuff that had been linked. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve sat down with her in front of the computer and shown her things. But this time was different.

After almost an hour of me showing diff clips, pausing along the way for personal monologues and back and forth Q and A, she asked me to turn it off and said she was tired of all the anger and hate she was seeing. I reiterated a few things softly to close the sale for the day and called it good.

Came back the next day to deliver the second half of her groceries after shopping (stimulus had her stocking up) and she said she wanted to talk to me. Said she’d been thinking all night about things and she was done with politics. That they’re all crooks and she’s through. Said 75% of congress is probably corrupt, I said it’s higher except for Bernie — and he’s naïve, which she nodded to.

She tried to put up some half-hearted defenses the day prior but all my wearing her down has had an effect, she knows who Trump is but it took this final act of overt hubris to seal the deal. The split between what she was told on Fox and the reality I showed was too much to deny also. She now knows everyone but me has been lying to her all along.

Unstuck’s Playlist A-Z

If you’re living in the 1630s then you’re most likely a big fan of god, and cockfighting, and maypole dancing and public executions, you also have a favorite sickle and your fire-making skills are top-notch, but your meals are soup and your desserts are bread and you have six boils on your taint that might be the plague but are probably just scabies because you wear burlap underwear and your bed sheets are an upside-down rowboat

But now it’s spring break 1635 and for some reason your family has decided that this year you’re going to chaucer it up and go on pilgrimage to the motherfucking Vatican, sweet! It was quite a walk but you made it to Rome and you’re finally inside the outrageous Sistine Chapel, which to your 17th-century eyes is unimaginably dope.

Most of the music you have heard up to this point in your life has been total amateur hour; at your local tavern it’s open mic night every goddamn night and by far the biggest genre is songs about fart puns. But now the Vatican church choir enters the room to sing a song, and they’re pretty good at singing, which makes sense because they have really only one priority in life, which is to avoid infinite agony in the unquenchable flames of hell by being the best band in the world. And if from time to time that requires a little light castration to keep the voice angelic, well shoot, at least you’re tithing like you mean it

For Easter they even have a very special song: The only time all year this song is allowed to be performed is during Holy Week, and the only place in the world the song can be heard is the Sistine Chapel. Which is possible because nobody’s invented a recording device.

And then they start singing. Now, I happen to be an atheist/agnostic person. But would 1630s Me have been an atheist if I was standing precisely there, in the Sistine Chapel, when my grueling life and the deep easter silence was broken by this unfamiliar unearthly music that began filling the room straight up to Michelangelo’s freakshow masterpiece on the ceiling? I just don’t know.

M is for the Miserere, composed in the 1630s by Gregorio Allegri
–my favorite version
–a live version

epilogue: people liked the song so much it began to get a mystical reputation, which made the pope guard it even more closely, and the Vatican successfully kept it a secret for almost 150 years.

But then the secret got out. How? Because in 1770, freaking Mozart went to the Sistine Chapel and heard it performed. He heard it on a Wednesday, then went back to his hotel and wrote the whole thing out from memory, then went back to hear it again on Friday to make tweaks.

He was fourteen years old at the time! And the news of what he had done spread quickly, and he came very close to getting excommunicated, but the Pope had an eleventh hour change of heart and decided instead to embrace Mozart and his genius. So, after 150 years the Miserere was finally free to leave the Vatican, and Mozart had invented music piracy.

Follow the link, the picture itself is a GOAT but its use here was chef’s kiss

**Official** Physicists are freaks and very weird dudes LC Thread

I worked at a butcher shop for a couple years and did 2 deer seasons. A big-antlered buck is like 1/200, super rare, we’d get fewer than one a night and we’d process like a hundred a night. Every big antlered buck except one rare time, the guy wanted it specialty skinned so he could mount it. Little antlers were pretty common and most of the time they’d ask for them so they can get just the antlers mounted on the wall. I’d have to slice the neck all the way around and then cut through the spine with a hacksaw. then I’d put the head on the ground and with my foot on its face I’d start with the hacksaw right to its skull to get the antlers out. I’d try to do a triangle shape so it’s only 2 cuts, and then smack it against something to get any brains out.

Poker player was a better job. Scientist is probably the best so far. I’d like to try mailman at some point, mailman seems fun. But none of that packages shit, just letters.

Your Favorite Posters

There was this guy that posted the pic of Trump looking at the eclipse and got somethin crazy like 64 likes on it but I can’t remember his name so…shrug

I’m reluctant to name names but I just wanted to call out that I appreciate the role everyone plays in this forum, because I see it kinda like an ecosystem.

Some post short, almost commentary that keeps threads moving.

Some post more detailed analytical pieces that add a depth of information.

Some post sarcasm or memes that adds levity.

Some post links to high quality information that helps aggregate and spur on more discussion and analysis.

Some post more unique takes that might often get disagreed with, but still help people look at different perspectives.

Some are able to succinctly summarize entire topics.

Some don’t even post at all themselves, but their sprinkling of likes helps encourage more participation.

Some are complete pricks, but at least you make everyone else look good…

So as lame as it might sound, thanks to everyone no matter how you choose to participate. We’re all playing a role that makes the community what it is, whether you get a specific callout in threads like this or not.

*Sorry if this isn’t necessarily in the spirit of the thread. I think its cool seeing people getting named and appreciated. Just wanted to share a view I have thats more indirect.

The Presidency of the Joes: more like INFRASTRUCTURE WEAK

My personal experience is meaningless to the overall health of the forum, and I’m not sure that anyone else feels this way, but I can tell you that I feel less inclined to participate lately mostly because I am very angry at what is happening and I don’t take any enjoyment from arguing with Biden optimists (whether self identified or not) or even Biden pessimists who just don’t seem to care.

I like you guys, and I don’t think anyone here (with maybe a few exceptions) has any really unsavory beliefs or motives or anything. But it’s genuinely hard for me to find an ounce of happiness or optimism about anything right now. With Trump, it was the same, but the anger and fear I felt from him was also kind of a uniting force, and would give me flickers of hope that if things are so fucking bad now and all of the stuff we’ve been doing for decades has led us to this moment, maybe this can be a time where things change.

Right now I’m left feeling nearly as bad, but also much more isolated because a lot of the people that had that same righteous anger and fear and hope have now turned into people patting me on the head and telling me that actually $1400 is exactly what was promised and hey $15 minimum wage in 5 years and “man looking back on it, I think people were right and Biden was the right choice”.

Honestly like, I get why a lot of people are put off by some of the aggressive lefty posters here, but for me personally it is very comforting to feel like I’m not the only person looking around and feeling that way. I don’t even know if I’m right about the things I believe, but I know for a fact that I’m in for 4-8 years of having those beliefs completely ignored, and then probably 4-8 years of a Republican who will make things 10x worse, before maybe getting my hopes up again for a few months that we can do better. It’s just fucking depressing, and I’ve got 50 more years of this if I’m lucky!

Mental Health Thread

Mental Health Thread

The one thing I’ve been told is to be more forgiving of myself when I make mistakes.

Thank you for sharing this. Your statement about being forgiving of yourself reminded me of a meme that I saw earlier this week & a conversation that I had with my GF regarding the feeling of guilt.

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Most everyone knows who Freud was, but not as many know Max Stirner, a 19th century German philosopher known for his work on nihilism and existentialism among other things.

Anyway, MsConwoman and I were talking about how one of the mini-breakthroughs that she had was in re-framing the memories she has that are associated with guilt. For example, when she was a child she had broken some item at a store, and had attached a feeling to the memory that was not only laden with guilt but also with a sense of being a bad person who did a bad thing. That sense of guilt, that leads to shame, that leads to [insert negative self-perception here] gets repeated and internalized, becoming a part of who we are.

Every time we recall a memory we are rewriting it–essentially creating a new memory. Now, quite often the rewritten memory is so similar to the previous iteration that there is very little difference. But there is no limit to how differently we can rewrite the memory. We can push it. We can shape it. It’s size and characteristics are not defined by the laws of physics. To me at least, it can seem a little scary to acknowledge having that kind of power.

It’s interesting that in German the word for guilt is the same as the word for debt(schuld). We don’t necessarily associate those two words as easily if we are mono-linguist English speakers. Although, anyone raised in the Christian faith may recall saying the Lord’s Prayer, and asking to “forgive us our sins/debts/trespasses”.

The feeling of guilt and/or debt has played a key role in human sociology. The tit-for-tat, I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine, the sense whether it’s reciprocity or revenge. It underlies how we function and interact with other humans. How we cooperate with them, and how we hold grudges. Humanity as we know it does not exist without the sense of guilt. There is no ignoring it. There is only dealing with it as part of the condition of life.

So, how do we harness that feeling of guilt? What is the counter move? If it’s a left jab, then what is our head feint and counter? Forgiveness. That’s it. Forgiving ourselves and others. But that is easier said than done.

So, I was reflecting this week on how to approach the challenge of gaining more power over my sense of guilt and why it can be such a struggle to be as kind and forgiving to myself as I strive to be to others. What if I failed? What if I pushed a negative memory so far into a positive re-framing that it reverse judo flipped me into being some kind of self-assured asshole? As I was walking down the sidewalk thinking about all of this, I saw a black spray-painted stenciled message on the pavement: “Your anxiety is lying to you.” Yeah, it sure was. Thanks random person in my neighborhood. Thanks random meme. Thanks superuberbob. Thanks MsConwoman.

GOP Insanity Containment: Beets, Gazpacho, and Lube

I think what you are saying is related to my point but I actually think religion precedes AM radio/Fox news which precedes Qanon.

As a kid who was brainwashed in the Lutheran church and through AM radio simultaneously I think I am qualified to speak on this. When you teach a kid that a magical being who loves you will solve all your problems you detether them from reality.

I very distinctly remember being at my grandma’s funeral at 10 and praying the entire time for literally like 2 hours to bring her back to life. When it didn’t happen and there wasn’t even any semblance of a sign that it mattered that put a niggle of doubt in my mind. Then there was the intersection of politics and religion that occurred constantly. I went to the lutheran school associated with our church. A kid in my class was expelled in 7th grade for bringing a condom to school. Every election there were people at the parking lot entrances to the church/school handing out pamphlets of who to vote for. Being a democrat would get you socially ostracized.

Worst of all was the abortion protesting. Wichita was pretty much the epicenter of abortion protesting in the early 90s and beyond starting with the “Summer of Mercy”. My parents took me to those protests and I stood there like a good little boy with my “God hates abortion” sign or whatever it was. My parents were both arrested that summer. Eventually the movement got what they wanted and some nut shot and killed the abortion doctor George Tiller.

Then there was the AM radio brainwashing. Literally driving to and from everything it was on. Driving to school, church, sports practice, vacations it was always Rush and his slightly less fun AM people spewing the propaganda into our heads.

When it was time to go to college I had long since started to check out (although the right wing brainwashing was still there, more on that in a minute). I did not really believe anymore and was drinking and using church as a place to meet people my age for sex. There were always the “bad kids” at church and by this point I was one of them. My parents decided they weren’t going to give me a penny to go to college unless I went to a 2 week christian reeducation camp in Manitou Springs called Summit Ministries. I made a financial decision and I went even though I knew it would be awful.

Awful it was. Every day there were hours of class telling you about how the liberal media and college was going to feed you lies. They taught extensively that the Earth was 6000 years old with “scientific” proof. I always laugh when you guys bring up Ken Ham because he was there spewing his lies at this camp in 1999. They taught about the dangers of socialism. They taught about the evils of abortion. It was two weeks of hell for me. I called home the first week every day begging to come home. The weirdest thing was some older guy who worked there pulled me aside about halfway through and told me he had been having dreams about me. In them he was supposed to talk to me because I would do great things. Even at 18 I realized I was likely being groomed for sex and so just walked away completely grossed out. Eventually it ended.

I say all that to get to my point. After that I was never going to have faith in God in that sense. The control of “religion” was gone. But the control of the right wing propaganda I had been subjected to continued. I am very ashamed of that.

I continued to spout anti-evolution nonsense to my friends. I continued to spout anti-climate change stuff. I supported Bush both elections and the Iraq war. I was anti-gay marriage. This went on for almost a decade after leaving the re-education camp. The right wing propaganda was much stronger than the religious propaganda.

I credit the 22 pol forum and my wife with starting to deprogram me. Now I look back at all the people stuck in that with anger and fear. Mostly because the Christian movement in this country isn’t religious. It is a hate filled political organization camouflaged by some crappy songs and fake prayer time. Look at how the Christian leaders were willing to sacrifice everything for Trump.

TL, DR: I grew up in an insane right wing church family and the AM radio brainwashing is much stronger than the religious brainwashing. Religion primes you for right wing nuttery which is now priming people for Qanon.

And now a break for character limits