i had the same thought since i sometimes wonder “why bother” when i know that things like prism gave them everything they wanted 15 years ago.

did it have some sort of error or failure? if it did, are you able to copy/paste several lines before and afterwards?

i’ll never cease to be amazed at how much the old ways still work.

what are lists in this context?

my social butterfly mother taught me about a “fake-ness” that’s worked well for me in situations like this: when you talk to them, follow every opportunity that reveals something about themselves (eg “you mentioned that you liked the color blue, i kinda like it too because of X, why do you like it?”) and do it even if it bores you and you grasp at straw to keep the conversation going. people love talking about themselves and love it even more with an audience that seems into it and, at the end, either your crush will be dispelled or now your crush is aware of you.

if they act odd after that; then they don’t feel the same way about you that you feel about them and move on. if they do feel the same way about you OR if they don’t, but they still like you; they’ll likewise look for an excuse to tell you more about themselves.

i think it’s crazy high salaries; it insulates them from the problems that the rest of us have have to deal with in our lives.

i first noticed it around the tail end of the earlier “IT half” of my career when my payrate started to push up against six figures; now at over 20 years as a software engineering that’s solidly past that boundary (like most well connected software engineers are); the opinions/outlooks/expectations of my colleagues have become so toxic to me that i’ve decided to go back to IT permanently.

also: the work seemed to get more and more evil as i progressed in the software engineering half of my career. i’m convinced my current gig is a net detriment to humanity and society like all my software engineering gigs were and i’ll be taking a 56% pay cut to avoid the that profit-seeking-evil in a non-profit organization that teaches people who can’t afford to dedicate their lives to a college degree like a 19 year old from the suburbs can do.

a big part of me is sad that i will never become rich like my current colleagues; but i think that my psychological well being matters more and it’s a union job so there are other perks that help compensate for it.

my family calls it complaining and so do i despite my therapist’s efforts to get me to stop calling it so; i bet that guy WISHES he could roll his eyes as hard as my family does every time i do it. lol

i just saw an example and i wonder if it can be leveraged somehow.

it looks like vaporwave; i subscribed.

my crystal ball comes from being on so many shit lists because i’m the “uppity beaner who doesn’t know when to shut up” and the “queer who doesn’t know when to walk away from a confrontation” and the “weirdo who doesn’t know how to read a room” and “the pocho who doesn’t get it” and the “"normal" guy who won’t stop attracting the neuro-diverse” and the “big and loud scary dark man coming at you on the street” and the “bleeding heart liberal” in a deeply conservative family and hometown.

you’re right about the deportations being a little bit hyperbolic and that’s not what what i was referring to; if i’m deported, it won’t be because i’m immigrant labor, but because no one will help like it has happened to me in more incidents that i want to remember in my past because of those shit lists.

i share this because i had a similar conversation with my father and my sister independently about trump’s plan to deport people like them and the rest of my siblings and they had a similar response about it being hyperbole. like i said in my previous comment: my crystal ball is telling me that it’s going to hit me before it hits them and they’re refusing to see it despite them being the target demographic in trump’s designs. (i am too as my family’s anchor baby and our storied history with immigration because of it). i still don’t know when to shut up and felt like i had to give voice to an unknown perspective with people who i think can “get it” and be aware that it’s a thing as well for people who aren’t immigrant labor, but still has the same life altering impact nonetheless.

ha! i’m already subscribed to half of them, but thanks nonetheless for the two i didn’t know about.

i suspect that facism is going to force me to move back into the country that my parents immigrated from if trump gets his way and in the same way that incidents like operation wetback deported millions of american citizens.

i’ve never heard of parentiwave, but it sounds perfect if it’s anything like vaporwave

i’m convinced that if i had fewer vulnerable identities that i would never have been able to see through practice all the “common sense” bullshit levied against me all my life and i also think that’s the only reason why i try when others with identical backgrounds, like my family, don’t bother; i’ve learned the hard way that ignorance will hurt me long before it will hurt them.

i keep forgetting to use <snark> </snark> tags.

i think it’s better that you say something if it’s not clear for the people who lurk through all the interactions.

i’m starting there because i’ve learned that audio books are the best way to cheat at “reading” lol

even more material to “read”; now i’m wondering if i’ll ever be finished with any of it. lol

it get that they’re both bad faith ways to shut down discourse and i can see how whataboutism fits; but i was referring to the false equivalency placed between the nato’s atrocities and that of the soviet union’s in the comment

when it’s “both sides” is brought up to shutdown arguments that the democrats have done some of the same things that the republicans did; they’re likewise implying that the democrats have fewer of such incidents than the republicans and therefore the argument is invalid.

this was my half snarky way of saying that this comment is a “both sides” example can be applied in the opposite direction where it neuters the effect that “both sides” has with liberals.