John

Writer, musician, theatre artist, arts advocate, storyteller. Co-creator of collaborative fiction platform Mote. Recovering brand designer and advertising creative director. Former drag queen, househead, club kid.

Posting: astrophysics and cosmology; collaborative fiction and narrative instruments; TTRPG and gaming stuff; music; and other nerdy things I like.

Anti-fascist. Everything is politics. Team #NOVID.

Queer/Gay, He/They. I got Pre-Existing Conditions.

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Last Notes

2024-11-20 15:46:15

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@nprofile…taps
There is literally an entire genre of gay porn that is only this.

2024-11-20 15:44:57

The absolute oblivion into which Biden and the Democrats threw COVID and the ongoing pandemic will never cease to amaze me.
People literally ~never think about it~ and now few people test even using shitty, unreliable RATs when they get ~very sick~.
People have wildly wrong ideas of how many have died, how many have Long COVID, and how many are infected right now.
~Science journals~ write ponderous articles about "what's happening?!" re: increasing sickness, morbidity and mortality.

2024-11-19 19:00:22

I've spent years on forums arguing with US Liberals *specifically* to try and understand what's going on under the hood. This is in the context of me being a dyed in the wool centrist for 15 years.
What I've learned is that US Liberals have completely rationalized a total disengagement with basically anyone who criticizes their ideology.
The tools they employ to reinforce this disengagement are mostly dismissal and invalidation, ad hominem, and clustering ("right and left are the same").

2024-11-19 16:48:53

I don't know how to say this more clearly: sabotage Trump or your worst nightmares will *actually* come true.
Harm reduction is not a Federal game anymore. That's for States and localities.
The only name of the game in DC is "fuck it up hard, fuck it up bad, make sure all of Trump's new toys are broken, make sure this term is the most colossal failure in the history of US Presidencies".
That Democrats do not get this is as disqualifying as any other delusional behavior they've had.

2024-11-18 15:25:13

If you are fired from your Federal job, *fuck up everything as you leave*. Make it almost impossible for the coming appointees to do what they're told to do.
THIS IS THE WAY
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/18/trump-federal-worker-civil-service-protections

2024-11-16 15:22:50

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I know it's hard to accept this, but recommending nurses work while sick is *just as fucking insane* as literally anything RFK believes.
Same thing is true of the entire ideology that animates our CDC for the last 5 years: "close your eyes and wish on a star"
At least now that these groups are run by anti-science shitfucks on the *opposite* side, liberals will be like "now see here!" instead of like "but is physics *really* a valid way of looking at masks?"

2024-11-16 15:20:20

People are freaking out about RFK like our public health institutions haven't been making delusional, corrupt anti-science decisions for 5 years already.
Folks, Wormbrain is just following the "Kids don't get COVID, Kids don't spread COVID, COVID is mild, Long COVID is in your head, Long COVID is very rare, SARS2 doesn't harm your immune system, who could have seen there'd be another surge, do masks *really* work?" public health fuckwits schematics for anti-science policymaking.

2024-11-15 05:35:17

Liberals both want to hold power AND be able to tell the people they need to hold power to fuck off. They seem vexed by the idea that they cannot BOTH tell everyone they need to vote for them to die in a fire AND win elections.
Hubris is a hell of a drug, and telling millions of people that you actively despise them while openly trying to shame them into voting for your candidate is the definition of hubris.
If what you learned from this is that *everyone else* is stupid, that is also hubris

2024-11-11 23:44:27

The "don't blame Democrats" energy is strangely similar to the "don't play politics with guns" energy that shows up after mass shootings in elementary schools.

2024-11-10 19:02:39

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@npub1ugh…92hc
I agree that we should abandon Federal power and instead learn from the Movement Conservatives and build insurgent political operations at the state level, even/especially in "red" states.

2024-11-10 16:35:03

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It takes a particular kind of hubris to lose so badly and *still* think that attacking and alienating your own constituents is the "path to power".
Every one of the people wandering around on the webs writing about how "confused" they are and saying ridiculous shit like "I hope they're happy" about the voters they alienated for four years did more to ensure Trump's election than any pissed-off leftist.

2024-11-10 16:29:59

The energy that animates Democrats turning against their coalition of hostages rather than forcing a reckoning for their pathetic party, is the same energy that animated the bourgeois numbnuts who flooded Portland, OR, jacked up housing prices, then turned and ran the *second* their reckless disregard, lack of civic investment, and neoliberal economic and housing policies flooded the streets with houseless people.

2024-11-08 23:47:05

Does nobody in the entire world need to refrigerate soup stock in a normal fridge, in a non-plastic reusable watertight container?

2024-10-20 18:33:11

Means-tests are a neoliberal op designed to destroy social programs.
Every time I think it I have to post it.

2024-10-06 00:07:07

I love the stories about mules helping isolated people in SC mountains.
But I also think it's important to realize that the reason these community members have to use mules is because *the United States government has failed so catastrophically that even a week after this disaster, in the richest country in human history, they look like clowns looking for their own asses in those big hoop pants.*
If you're wondering why Americans hate their government so much, this is why.

2024-10-05 22:50:46

One positive of accelerating climate change is that it will grab incrementalism by the neck and physically throw it directly into the sun.

2024-09-30 16:44:06

Every analysis of why the far right is successfully building power is wrong, because they all assume that centrism is the ideal governing ideology.
The fact is that the center has failed catastrophically to address most of the challenges facing people and the planet, while basically working overtime to make sure the only options in democratic countries are centrists and fascists.
Is it a surprise that people are trying out the alternative, since the center has failed so badly?

2024-09-25 18:40:41

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Not only will people suddenly start dropping from strokes and heart attacks, developing diabetes and autoimmune disease - they'll also just get sicker and sicker and sicker. Everyone will be sick, all the time.
Our medical authorities will declare crises of fitness, nutrition, loneliness, phones, pollution - anything to avoid copping to their catastrophic failure.
And it will continue like this until we get biomarker tests. Then they'll start looking for treatments but not cures, bc money.

2024-09-25 18:35:54

As COVID gets better at infecting us and better at sticking around in our bodies and shutting down our immune systems, it seems clear two things will happen: 1) incidence of Long COVID will skyrocket, and 2) acute symptoms will be reduced to almost nothing.
This is the most dangerous combination *imaginable*, because most people are laboring under the kind of bio edu you get in 9th grade, just like I was in 2019. They think symptoms = severity.

2024-09-16 07:32:46

We shouldn't recommend RATs to anyone without also telling them that only a positive result is reliable.
There are people who honestly rely on these tests to protect their loved ones who don't understand how profoundly unreliable they are as a test of whether or not they're infectious with COVID.
I haven't found a single argument for recommending RATs that addresses the false negatives and their impact on people's impression of the pandemic's prevalence.
Unreliable tests are not useful.

2024-09-13 18:36:37

The absolutely sanguine, businesslike way that the media is treating Trump's "[Haitian immigrants] eat dogs and cats" thing is so jarring to me.
Not only do they just say it like it's nothing, but more importantly they don't mention, in the same breath, that Trump's deranged fantasies have caused a massive increase in attacks against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH.
Oh, what I wouldn't give to re-educate these people so they actually understand their fucking jobs.

2024-09-10 05:27:55

I'm sure that the reason these kids' brains are aging at an accelerated rate is because of "lockdown", not because of the airborne neurotropic vasculitis they've had 4-5 times.
Better make sure we never "lockdown" again.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/09/covid-lockdowns-prematurely-aged-girls-brains-more-than-boys-study-finds

2024-09-07 17:42:25

I'm not sure there's a force in the universe strong enough to convince someone in the United States that they weren't, in fact, locked in their houses for 1.5 years.
The "lockdown" fantasy is so entrenched across the country that people you *actually know* were going to clubs in June 2020 will look you in the eye and say with intense earnestness that they'll never "go back" to being trapped in their house for a year.
They have to justify their current nonsense with an invented past trauma.

2024-08-27 19:31:29

There's nothing quite as dark as writing "just wearing a mask is a literal act of rebellion in some states right now" and it being 100% true.
How can liberals not see the descent they're merrily leading us on? Wild shit.

2024-08-27 18:21:44

COVID community: temper your hypervigilance and your anger when it comes to people who simply cannot live a COVID safe lifestyle for whatever reason. Many of them deserve your grace.
People who can't live a COVID safe lifestyle: if you're abled and healthy (still) please center COVID and its ongoing impact in your everyday interactions. It's not D/CI people screaming alone that will change everything; it's abled people of conscience who refuse to accept the invitation to erase us.

2024-08-24 18:49:43

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So it's collapsing, because it murdered its culture of excellence. And once you destroy a culture, it won't come back: kind of like the coral reefs we're blithely slaughtering every year with our pollution.
What's most telling is that Boeing's executives are *totally, honestly nonplussed* by what's happening. It's a combination of "why are these passengers so worried about planes falling apart?" and "it seems impossible to not build planes that might fall apart."

2024-08-24 18:45:30

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They pumped it full of steroids while "trimming the fat" - which actually means they fired all the people who knew what they were doing and/or cared if the product killed people.
Expanded production lines + dramatically reduced staff + erased oversight = massive short term profits.
Obviously, it wasn't going to last.

2024-08-24 18:43:27

Boeing is remarkable because it's a nearly perfect exemplar of the outcomes of our current economy, whether on society, the planet, or even companies themselves.
Boeing used to be well known for how well it treated its employees. It used to have tons of "lifers" who worked there until they retired. It used to make a respectable profit, and enjoyed almost universal praise for its product quality.
Then, modern capitalist goons showed up.

2024-08-14 09:32:21

The people who are criticizing both parties and our system are the *optimists*. The people who are trying to shut them down are the *fatalists* and *pessimists*.
The same is true of COVID educated people (optimists) who are still taking precautions vs. people who are just lettin' it rip (fatalists/pessimists).
When you believe everything is truly f**ked, you give up. When you think people are capable of doing better, you speak up.

2024-08-12 18:41:35

I don't know who needs to hear this, but JD Vance's "drag" is exactly the kind of "drag" every cis guy does in college. The victory laps so many people are taking dunking on his "hypocrisy" are just gross.
It's not news that sometimes people do shit in college and then turn into worse/better people after college. This whole "20 years ago you did this!" thing makes us look like peevish little pieces of shit.
Hypocrisy, esp ancient hypocrisy, is boring. Focus on who he is today.

2024-07-20 19:01:26

"Honor" feels like it's hard to define, but I had a thought as to what it is practically.
Namely, it seems to be the *cultural* force that self-limits the ruling class' behavior. It's like "law" but for people who are above the law.
Years ago, it occurred to me that a major problem with the American ruling class is that it has no honor: there is no force, cultural or otherwise, that limits their exercise or expression of power.
If I was a politician, I'd start fighting for "honor".

2024-07-17 16:20:08

The reason efficiency/frugality arguments don't work on people who routinely use them to justify cruel public policy is because *the cruelty is the point*, not the efficiency or cheapness. That's just their *excuse*.
That it's legitimately and provably cheaper to just house people for free is irrelevant. That compulsive masking and testing in healthcare would save them money doesn't matter.
When we make efficiency/frugality arguments we're accepting their bad faith framework.

2024-07-06 22:12:10

I remain bewildered that America has not just gone to SCOTUS and told them to fuck off.
I mean, if these nine Wizard Kings ruled that you should kill yourself tomorrow, would you oil up your gun and load it?
When institutions fail to the point where they mandate destruction of the rest of society, you *empty them out and give them a good scrubbing and possibly replace them*, you don't just shrug, say "welp" and drop nukes on DC.

2024-07-05 16:47:28

People grasping about to figure out why Biden really started to fail about a year ago, in a sudden decline, but also having memory-holed the neurotropic plague ravaging the world right now, is a vibe I literally predicted years ago.
Presidents are not immune to plague, despite being President. Biden catching COVID multiple times is as bad as your grandma catching it multiple times. Both of them are going to be fucked by it

2024-07-03 20:18:40

Novavax just can't win, man. Like, last year they were 2 months late to the party. This year, they were going to early but the FDA changed its reco like a week after they committed to JN.1, which will be a terribly ineffectual vaccine because we'll be on KP.3's grandkid by then, and JN.1 doesn't even work on KP.3.
What a mess.

2024-07-02 20:52:42

The more I read insider accounts of Biden's "intermittent incapacity" and neurological symptoms, the more certain I am that he's experiencing accelerated cognitive and physical decline from multiple COVID infections.
It could also just be regular aging, too. But the sudden onset (apparently a year ago) and the progressive but intermittent quality and physical aspects make it sound like PASC.

2024-06-28 21:15:19

I just said to someone "summer colds are vanishingly rare and if Biden has one it's almost certainly COVID" and they completely without sarcasm replied "c'mon, everyone I know has had a cold this summer".
It's like - you're almost there bud. *ALMOST* there.

2024-06-20 19:40:11

I wish that doctors cared if they gave me COVID.

2024-06-14 16:53:31

Literally everyone at a friend's work (they're full remote) has COVID right now, after attending a conference last week.
Many of them had COVID 5-6 months ago as well.
One of them has had COVID at least *7* times, though he's stopped counting.
My friend tells me that they're all kind of spooked and confused by it. They call it "a slow dawning", which is, of course, exactly how the broader public was always going to realize they've been hoodwinked into selling their health for pennies.

2024-05-10 21:55:29

I love how COVID aware people are basically in three groups: insurance adjusters, very accomplished scientists, and disabled/chronically ill people.

2023-12-04 21:15:17

I think something people, even healthcare providers, simply do not allow for, is that to be chronically ill/clinically vulnerable right now is an overwhelming amount of stress. If you encounter one of us and we're having a bad day, it's probably because we're afraid of being *permanently disabled* because *you're not wearing a mask* because *you don't care if we get sicker*. If I seem snippy, it's because I *have to be there* even though you've coughed 4 times and cleared your throat 9 times.

2023-03-23 16:18:14

Capitalists are warning us that commercial real-estate is an "economic bomb" waiting to go off. In their broken little minds, there's nothing we can do but go back to work in person. Of course, we could just seize the properties and turn them into housing, solving two of the nation's worst problems in less than a year (houselessness and housing shortages).
The solutions to our problems are easy and obvious.