This Was Helpful
17:42 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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Long video, but as good an analysis as you'll find, probably better, for early analyses. It's complicated. We're in a great deal of trouble. And we have got to figure this out and get it right.
✍️ Reply by emailSelf-Help
16:20 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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This was an open tab from a couple of days ago.
Seems pretty solid.
✍️ Reply by emailGo Shopping
13:46 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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It does have a kind of 9/11 feel.
So I guess I'm taking my cues from that inspirational leader, W, and stress-buying.
If I were a good person, I'd be donating more money to non-profits. Right now, I'm just trying to "be still," and mostly failing.
So I bought another Apple IIe. This is how this hobby gets out of control. Started out just wanting a //c. Then I wanted a IIe to do some more robust interfacing with other devices. But, you know, seven slots in there...
Might as well fill 'em up!
Except, they don't all fit.
Solution? Buy another IIe!
I'm going to hell.
Not to worry, I'm sure I'll be in good company.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Banality of Evil
13:09 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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I'm going to try to refrain from borrowing trouble, there'll be more than we could want soon enough. But as regards the title of this post, Hannah Arendt right.
Perhaps "good" and "evil" are merely emergent properties and not intrinsic ones. We all seem to possess the capacity for both to varying degrees.
To what extent, then, are we culpable? Is it all just contingent? Does being immersed in a capitalist media culture just make people evil? Or just push those inclined that way, farther along?
How many of our fellow citizens, our "neighbors," may find themselves one day, not too far from now, saying what so many Germans were saying in 1946?
"I was a 'good German'."
And is the evil we witness today, and will witness tomorrow, simply the evil we choose to see, while indulging our own self-delusions regarding our "goodness," when it comes to our culpability for the evil we choose to ignore? I trust I don't have to point out what that is.
Yeah, we're probably all sinners.
Doesn't seem like we take it seriously though.
I don't think the answer is in the Bible; because if it was, I don't think we'd be here today.
Anyway, introspection and self-reflection is for chumps, bro!
Winning!
✍️ Reply by emailOne More Thing
05:33 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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My neighbor across the street was certain Harris would win. I guess I was "hopeful." The margins in Florida seem to confirm what I suspected, that people were going to vote for Trump, but they weren't as proud of it. No flags. No parades.
They'll be proud now.
For a while anyway.
There was something chilling about the grim faces I saw walking into early voting.
Winter is coming.
✍️ Reply by emailChinese Farmer
04:37 Wednesday, 6 November 2024
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I was going to link to the Taoist parable of the Chinese farmer. I thought I'd written about it here, but I guess that was in Groundhog Day.
In any event, if you Google it, it comes up a lot, and in many places I wouldn't wish to send anyone just now. It is interesting, though, how many different kinds of people see something in that little story to validate whatever their point of view may be.
Yesterday I wrote that one of the results of the binary choice we faced would be a catastrophe, and it appears that is what we're confronting this morning.
The collapse of this civilization has accelerated.
There would be suffering, as there is always suffering, whoever won. Now it will be different people, different times. Ultimately more people, sooner. I would not want to be in Ukraine today. Or Gaza. Or a Haitian in Springfield, Ohio.
One of the elder sages of the internet, a triumphalist who prides himself on the monetization of our social interactions through the pernicious construction that "markets are conversations," is blaming Democrats and the stories they tell, while holding himself as "above the fray." I have nothing but contempt for that guy. Textbook example of the power of self-delusion.
But even feeling and writing that is a waste of time and energy.
I think it's likely that our timetable for leaving Florida has also accelerated. Both the marijuana and abortion amendments failed and we are clearly redder than I expected.
For most of us, by which I mean the folks who hoped for a different outcome, I'd say it's time to kind of take stock and consider our immediate circumstances. Much of this has been outside of our power to control. "Do your best, the rest is not up to you." If you did your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to regret.
The world is about to get more chaotic. Our capacity for collective action at the international level has been significantly diminished, if not destroyed. This has implications for public health and climate change. And the role of the federal government in mitigating adverse events in those areas has also been significantly diminished.
More than ever, we are on our own.
A lot of "self-sorting" has taken place with people moving to regions more sympathetic to their political perspective, though most of that seems to have been people on the right moving to red states. It's probably time for people on the left to consider moving to regions where they're more likely to encounter people whose views align more closely with their own.
We will have to work together at the very local level to establish resilient networks. I think that effort looks different depending on where you are on the political spectrum, and it will be easier and more effective if you're among like-minded people. If you feel like joining a local militia and carrying a weapon, then a red state will welcome you.
If you feel like working in a community garden, maybe you should think about moving to a blue state.
That's not to say that both of those things won't happen in either state, just that the emphasis and effort into each will differ by temperament.
You're less likely to encounter friction, and the chances for unfortunate and regrettable misunderstandings are less.
I am profoundly disappointed with my country this morning. But there is nothing to be gained by indulging those feelings. We need to figure out how to come together and work with one another, because things are going to get worse, faster now. It'll be easier and more effective if we share something of a common perspective with our neighbors. So a change of venue may be appropriate for many of us.
Rural New York is pretty red, but it's not the deep scarlet that exists in Florida. I think we can do ok in New York, even with winter.
I worry about my kids, but they're all adults and must make their own choices for their families.
I wanted to get out of here by 2026, 2027 at the latest. I think we'll make it by 2026. We need to take advantage of the opportunities we have here to get fit. The 2025 hurricane season is a risk, but I don't see us being ready to launch in six months. But we'll see. If we had to, I think we could.
Though we don't all see eye-to-eye, we are all in this together.
It's a shame that fear won.
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