Eric's Tumblr @ericbauld - Tumblr Blog

Nice lyrics

I'll find a place somewhere in the corner I'm gonna waste the rest of my days Just watching patiently from the window Just waiting, seasons change Someday my dreams will pull you through that garden gate.

I want to be the wandering sailor We're silhouettes by the light of the moon I sit playing solitaire by the window Just waiting, seasons change One day these dreams will pull you through my door And I'll come running to tie your shoe And I'll come running to tie your shoe.

#brianeno

I like these Bob Marley lyrics:

They’ve got so much things to say right now

But I’ll never forget, no way, they crucified Jesus Christ I’ll never forget, no way, they sold Marcus Garvey for rights, I’ll never forget, no way, they turned their back on Paul Bogle, So don’t you forget your youth, who you are, and where you stand in the struggle.

awesome-picz

Two Dogs Get A New Puppy And Now They’re The Best Sleeping Buddies Ever.

2boysandnewyork

Such love & friendship

inalandofmythandtimeofmagic

Ack

Boss shit

Literal actual goals

Bruh this shit was amazing

7thblacksheep-deactivated201907

GO BABY GO OMG

thaunderground

Poetry in motion

datmos

My jaw dropped

viqueen

HER NAME IS ANTARA AND SHE’S MEXICO’S GRAND CHAMPION AT THE VERTICAL WALL CLIMB LOOK AT HOW HAPPY SHE IS!! SHE KNOWS SHE’S A GOOD GIRL!!!

augieboogie-deactivated20171016

nicasiosilang

the wags on the way down

jhameia

WHAT A GOOD DOG

taquito

best picture in the entire world

fandomsandfeminism

Humans are a communal species that have banded together and cared for their sick, disabled, and elderly since before we were ever modern man. Resources were shared even as skills specialized.

Capitalism isn’t natural. A community should not have members dying of starvation or exposure while there is an abundance of resources. That isn’t how it works. That isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

g-taire

ok so my roommates are anthropology students and their favorite example for debunking the ‘survival of the fittest’ bs is shanidar 1. (x, x, x)

shanidar 1 is a neanderthal who, at a pretty young age, was hit in the head hard enough to blind him. this also led to that side of his brain shutting down and withering his right arm, and possibly crippling his entire right side. not only that but his skeleton also shows that at some point, he broke a bone in his foot and, in addition to the other factors, resulted in a noticeable limp. there are some sources which say he likely had degenerative diseases. (arthritis was really common in neanderthals)

going off of widespread ideas of “”primitive”” (no longer the word used in anthropology/academia to describe early-modern humans) societies, shanidar probably died really young, deliberately abandoned or killed. i mean, he was severely crippled, blind, etc., he couldn’t contribute anything, he would have been a “”burden to society””, right?

except he lived to be between 40 and 50 years old. (about ~80 in human years)

this means that his social group had to have taken care of him for a minimum of two or three decades without his ‘contributing’ anything significant to the group. this discovery (and Shanidar III’s) was huge because it basically proves that early humans had a concept of hospice. early modern humans cared for the sick and the elderly, greatly extending their lifespan, simply because they cared.

tl;dr: the concept of someone needing to be ‘’useful’’ or ‘’’productive’’’ in society in order to be valued and cared for is a very modern concept and our quasi-predecessors would be ashamed

ericbauld

What do you mean by capitalism? Private ownership of the means of production?

I think you have to compare like with like: what are the ways that modern societies run, what works and what doesn’t. Some of the least capitalistic societies are those where there are “members dying of starvation or exposure while there is an abundance of resources.” And some of the most capitalistic societies (for instance the Scandinavian countries, which score highly on the free trade index) are among the most egalitarian.

Perhaps you are arguing for a strong social safety net. That is perfectly compatible with capitalism--a large number of the richest capitalist societies have them. And private ownership of the means of production has a pretty good track record of reducing human suffering. Better than any other social structure, actually.

Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary, Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next, Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.

Walt Whitman

Was just doing math in my office and these lyrics made me emotional (in a good way)

“I want to be the wandering sailor We're silhouettes by the light of the moon I sit playing solitaire by the window Just waiting, seasons change, You'll see, some day these dreams will pull you through my door.”

#brian eno

Most people avoid thinking if they can, some of us are addicted to thinking, but Von Neumann actually enjoyed thinking, maybe even to the exclusion of everything else.

Edward Teller on John von Neumann

sitta-pusilla

Gene Demby explains the Overton Window

“[Trevor] Noah isn’t wrong that compromise and good-faith are necessary for functional politics. But. There’s this idea in media studies called the Overton Window. Basically, the MSM defines the universe of legitimacy in public discourse. The news media covers/gives voice to lay inside the realm of legitimacy; the stuff it downlplays/ignores is on the fringes/unacceptable.

People of all ideological stripes try to expand and move the Overton window; the Civil Rights Movement did this exceptionally well. Illegitimate ideas–and noxious/dangerous ones–creep into the universe of legit via the language of controversy and debate. This is how a lot of the mainstreaming of the so-called “alt-right” is already happening:

“Let’s put these noxious ideas up for discussion!”

“Let’s debate them and smack down those janky ideas with superior facts and logic!”

And those ideas up for debate tend to be things like whether Muslims are inherently violent or Black people possess lower native intelligence. And slowly, the Overton Window shifts. And suddenly, the humanity of entire groups is a subject of legitimate, mainstream debate. And then so do the policy ideas that correct the “problems” presented by those groups. It doesn’t happen all at once. And it starts small, like having people on your show to debate whether Islam = terrorism or BLM = The KKK. This is the problem presented by treating Tomi Lahren as a person whose views are worth fighting about/engaging. And more broadly, it’s the danger presented by supposed “alt-right” thinking given official legitimacy by the White House. These notions will become just another set of seemingly partisan positions to be argued about, pro/con style on CNN.”

ericbauld

I think the problem is that now there are 1 million different Overton Windows, and they don’t face each other.

Just because you’re not talking about things doesn’t mean people don’t think they’re acceptable...

“Controlling the culture is not the same thing as power. And a viral video eviscerating racists is not the same as a grassroots movement that seeks to have common ground with people, and create a multi-ethnic coalition, that understands that other people’s hierarchy of needs is not necessarily your hierarchy of needs.”

--Jon Stewart 17:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIR3y49tXA

apsies

And democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100 percent right. This is hard to explain sometimes. You can be completely right, and you still are going to have to engage folks who disagree with you. If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want. And if you don’t get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged. And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair. And that’s never been the source of our progress. That’s how we cheat ourselves of progress.

Obama’s full remarks at Howard University commencement ceremony - POLITICO (via apsies)

If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want.

(via sashayed)

beouija

Here is a shortened version of a letter I just sent to my neo-con uncle. I am not an expert in politics, race, or communication, but I wanted to speak to him as best I could from the common ground we do share, using words I hope he will be able to hear & understand.

Sending love. Don’t give up.

Dear Uncle, it meant a lot to me to talk to you last week. I believe you are breathtakingly wrong on almost every single issue, but of course our underlying concerns are the same: we want good lives for our loved ones, and for Americans, and for human beings in general. We want people to be good to one another. We want things to be fair. We want as many people as possible to live in dignity, health and safety, with access to as much happiness as this often cruel world will allow.

Keep reading

ericbauld

Courage to communicate. Eleanor, you are awesome.

theglintoftherail

WHY ARE YOU LONELY: A TEXT GAME - Mallory Ortberg

WHY ARE YOU LONELY: CHOOSE ONE

FAILED TO NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS BORN OUT OF CONVENIENCE ONCE CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIRED ACTIVE PARTICIPATION FROM YOU

WATCHED NETFLIX FOR SEVEN HOURS INSTEAD OF SLEEPING BECAUSE YOU HAVE ONCE AGAIN MISTAKEN INERTIA FOR REST

CONFUSED “SELF-CARE” WITH “SELF-INDULGENCE” AGAIN; YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF EXPERIENCING GENUINE REFRESHMENT OR RESTORATION BUT YOU DO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY AT NAIL SALONS

ONCE AGAIN CONFUSED “EMPATHY” FOR “TAKING RESPONSIBILITY” AND INVITED OTHERS TO UNLOAD THEIR EMOTIONAL BURDENS ON YOU WITHOUT FIRST ENSURING RECIPROCITY, WHOOPS

ANTICIPATORILY BLAMED OTHER PEOPLE FOR NOT CALLING YOU WITHOUT ONCE ASKING YOURSELF WHY YOU CAN’T CALL THEM

ASSUMING ANY TIME SPENT TOGETHER THAT YOU HAD TO INITIATE IS SOMEHOW LESS AUTHENTIC THAN REQUESTS FOR TIME SPENT TOGETHER THAT YOU ACCEPT

BELIEVE “PERIODICALLY EXPERIENCING THE HUMAN CONDITION” MEANS SOMETHING IS FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN WITHIN YOU

CONSTANTLY LIE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS THEN WONDER WHY YOU FEEL LIKE NO ONE KNOWS YOU

MISTAKENLY BELIEVE THAT NEGATIVE FEELINGS MUST BE MISTAKES EITHER TO BE AVOIDED OR FIXED RATHER THAN EXPERIENCED

DESIRE TO BE FULLY UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT THE CONCOMITANT WILLINGNESS TO FULLY EXPLAIN YOURSELF

BELIEVE TRYING AT SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT SHOULD RESULT IN INSTANT PERFECTION AND FIND YOURSELF HORRIFIED AND ASHAMED OF MAKING REALISTIC PROGRESS

TRY COCONUT OIL

CONVINCED THAT HONESTLY ADMITTING YOUR PROBLEMS WILL DRIVE PEOPLE AWAY BECAUSE NO ONE LIKES COMPLAINING SO INSTEAD YOU OFFER EVERYONE A PISS-POOR SIMULACRUM OF BEING EASY-GOING

STILL JUST WAITING FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN TO YOU INSTEAD OF EXPRESSING YOUR DESIRES ALOUD

THINK YOU’RE BEING PLAYFUL BUT ACTUALLY YOU JUST GET MEAN WHEN YOU DRINK

SPEND ALL YOUR TIME SAYING THINGS LIKE “EITHER’S GOOD” OR “DOESN’T MATTER TO ME” WHEN IN FACT ONLY ONE THING IS GOOD AND IT DOES MATTER TO YOU BUT YOU THINK “NOT EXPRESSING A PREFERENCE” IS THE BEST PERSONALITY TRAIT YOU HAVE TO OFFER OTHERS

PEOPLE ACTUALLY MORE AWARE OF YOUR BARELY-CONCEALED CONTEMPT FOR THEIR CHOICES AND RELATIONSHIPS THAN YOU THINK THEY ARE

NO GOOD REASON, SORRY

Mallory Ortberg plz stop laying my psyche bare for the world to see