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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)GR
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2 yr. ago

  • Hell, not even the fucking Nazis themselves claimed that they weren't deliberately operating death camps. Here's Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz:

    Technically [it] wasn't so hard—it would not have been hard to exterminate even greater numbers.... The killing itself took the least time. You could dispose of 2,000 head in half an hour, but it was the burning that took all the time. The killing was easy; you didn't even need guards to drive them into the chambers; they just went in expecting to take showers and, instead of water, we turned on poison gas. The whole thing went very quickly.

    And here he is, after his trial, four days before his execution:

    My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done. I ask the Polish people for forgiveness. In Polish prisons I experienced for the first time what human kindness is. Despite all that has happened I have experienced humane treatment which I could never have expected, and which has deeply shamed me. May the facts which are now coming out about the horrible crimes against humanity make the repetition of such cruel acts impossible for all time.

    Doesn't really sound like the statement of a guy who was trying to claim it didn't fucking happen, or that it was anything but a deliberate crime against humanity.

  • Maybe you get "digested" in the sense that you get incorporated into the sarlacc's body, like it's using you in a parasitic sense. It makes you one of its internal organs, and it keeps you alive as it slowly uses you up over the course of a thousand years (assuming we take that phrase literally). I think acting as a gall bladder for an underground sand monster sounds like a fate worse than death.

  • Motel of the Mysteries is basically this joke explored over 95 pages, lovingly illustrated by David Macaulay, the guy who did those black and white books Cathedral, Pyramid, Castle, and The Way Things Work, as well as others. It's hilarious.

  • Permanently Deleted

    Jump
  • Picsart. I'd like something that can do a bit of photo editing, adjust brightness/contrast/curves, work with layers, and conveniently slap together collages, but that doesn't interrupt me in between every other operation with an ad or a request to sign up for a subscription to the app.

  • It's not just sad, it's one of the fundamental problems of our time. There are all of these obvious good things that government could and should be doing, but because they seem scary and revolutionary, the Democratic party is afraid (perhaps rightly so) that if that try to do them, they will lose to the Republicans. Then, people get upset that the government isn't doing enough and seems stagnant, and that's why candidates who seem disruptive get more attention.

    On the good side of that equation, you get Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, who became much more successful than one would think on paper, because they branded themselves as Change candidates. The dark side of that is Trump, who appeals to people who think he seems not like a normal politician, and probably to a fair number of accelerationists, too. Obviously if you think about it for thirty seconds you can see that Trump is a fucking con man first, middle, and last, but the outsider branding might be his most potent tool.

    Democrats have got to acknowledge that anger at the system feeling fucked, and they have got to make real changes to noticeably improve people's lives. If all they do is try to maintain institutions and return to the pre-Trump status quo, then the fascists who want to set fire to everything are going to have that advantage over them.

  • For sure, the technology and fashion is all VERY late-90s. But the way that The Matrix informed SO many action and scifi movies to follow, and spawned so many cultural touchstones made it break containment.

    And then you've got subjects that it brings up, like mixed technophobia and technophilia, gender identity, anti-authoritarianism, and so on that are still at the forefront of our cultural awareness. The Matrix has stayed relevant and meaningful in ways that very few works have managed to.

  • There's a filter that I apply to these kinds of questions, and it's that there are some works that are of a particular time, but they ascend beyond that time and just become a part of culture, broadly. Like, Wizard of Oz just IS, Bohemian Rhapsody just IS; they aren't bounded by their decades of origin.

    I'd argue that at least Jurassic Park, and arguably also The Matrix, are above and beyond the '90s in ways that other movies can't quite achieve.

  • I'm curious: what would that mean, within Brazil's borders? Would they be able to prevent Starlink from being used? Broadcast a Starlink jamming signal over the whole country? Or turn it into a diplomatic issue, with the US State Department getting involved?