Your Politics are Stupid

Stop being stupid.

[unwelcome-ozian]

[thoughtportal]

Happy Labor Day. Today I learned about probably the first strike to happen IN SPACE.

[belligerentbagel]

“We would never work 16 hours a day for 84 straight days on the ground, and we should not be expected to do it here in space.“ 

The day when three NASA astronauts staged a strike in space (Hiltzik, LA Times)

[themythicalcodfish]

SOLIDARITY IN SPACE!!!!!

[drendarmorevo]

The opening poster is missing a *lot* of nuance in favor of a message, and makes a totally bullshit supposition of the “punishment.” Because NASA doesn’t work that way.

Now, before I begin, I am in no way undercutting the efforts of these astronauts or their work and what they helped accomplish as far as how they contributed to how astronauts are treated in space. I simply wish to clarify a few things.

Firstly, the three astronauts were, in fact being overworked, they were being given so many tasks that during morning check-ins only one was attending so that the other two could continue working, they were badly behind schedule and this resulted in what we currently call crunch. This had also resulted in a shortening of their sleep schedules which led to increased stress, this is compounded by the fact that sleep in space fucking sucks. Microgravity, machine noises, disrupted circadian rhythm, and the literal inability to “lay down” makes achieving sleep frustrating at best.

So, the overworked, under-rested, weary astronauts… forgot to check in for a single orbital period. They worked the whole time.

This fatigue was noted afterwards and the day after NASA had what Carr referred to as “the first sensitivity session in space” where their schedules were re-evaluated.

Suggestions of a “strike in space” are unsourced and exaggerated. And near as we can tell NASA took the whole matter reasonably and DID change how astronauts were scheduled.

Now, l let’s talk about the hardcore bullshit of the consequences. Mister “makes shit up” in the opening tweet is misrepresenting facts. First, the youngest astronaut on the mission, Gibson, was already 37 when he flew, the others were 41 and 43, why is this important? Because Skylab 4 happened in 1973-74, the next planned manned spaceflight? Apollo-Soyuz in 1975, the crew for which had been chosen before Skylab 4’s crew had even gotten back to Earth, and the next manned mission wasn’t until 1981. In the intervening period the only one that would’ve been even up for consideration would’ve probably been Gibson and that’s if he had kept up with his physical fitness in those seven years. Pogue retired from NASA a few months after returning home, Carr retired in 77, and Gibson retired in 1982 after serving as CAPCOM for STS-1 in 1981 (meaning he WAS CONSIDERED FOR THE CREW), he stated he was “uninterested” in flying on shuttle missions.

Rant over. Short version, astronauts were overworked, forgot to check in, had their schedules re-evaluated, resulting in general reassessment for future missions, all had good careers after the fact.

[asthedeathoflight]

When I was in high school we did an english unit on Octavia Butler and the teacher told us hey btw. You should call her "Butler" in your essays. Sometimes students call female writers by their first names unconsciously, but that's not acceptable. If you wouldnt call them William or Ernest you shouldn't call her Octavia.

And I was like cool whatever I was gonna call her Butler anyways. But that moment has stuck with me for my whole life because once you start seeing ppl calling women by their first names where men would be called by their last names you literally never stop seeing it.

[otakuvampyre]

Is it considered disrespectful to call writers by their first names????

[truthandlibertarianism]

I hear people say this a lot (not just about writers, but also any "official" position), but I don't know if it's actually true. I think what actually happens is that people naturally use the more distinctive name for any given person. I say this because the only examples I can think of off the top of my head where women are referred to mainly by their first name are in these cases where the first name is more distinctive.

People call Kamala Harris by her first name "Kamala" because "Kamala" is a more distinctive first name than "Harris" as a last name.

People call Donald Trump by his last name "Trump" because "Trump" is more distinctive than "Donald". Whereas people call Donald Trump Junior by the name "Don Jr" because it makes him more distinctive from his father "Trump".

Hillary Clinton has the more distinctive last name of "Clinton" but because her previously more relevant husband was also "Clinton" she has to be distinguished from him by saying either "Hillary Clinton" or "Hillary".

With the opposite gender though - if I say the name Shelley, you'll probably think of the female writer Mary Shelley because she's more well known than her husband Percy Shelley. In this case, "Shelley" becomes the default to refer to Mary Shelley, and her husband has to be distinguished with "Percy Shelley" or "Percy." I have never seen anyone refer to Mary Shelley as just "Mary." I think it's because it's too common of a name and therefore not distinctive enough compared to "Shelley".

Comparatively, I've never heard Jane Austen referred to as "Jane." Only "Austen" because "Austen" is the more distinctive of the two names. And there's no need to distinguish her from any other Austen.

When it comes to Octavia Butler, I think Octavia is far less common of a first name than Butler as a last name, which makes Octavia more distinctive.

It is possible that this happens more often with women because women more frequently have distinctive first names than men do. But I can't say for certain on that.

[yokelfelonking]

Dante. Michelangelo. Napoleon. Elvis. Ozzy. Prince. Shaq. Tupac. LeBron. Kanye.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

Michael Jordan gets both first and last names used most often because both are very common. Same with Michael Jackson, though he's also referred to as MJ a fair bit. Robin Williams as well.

George Washington gets both used if the revolutionary war context hasn't yet been established. Once it has, then it's just Washington. Likewise, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt get their full names used until context is established. Unless FDR is referred to as as FDR. However, Teddy still gets Roosevelt because Teddy is already associated with teddy bears.

As an aside, I had no idea that Prince's name was actually Prince. I thought that was a moniker.

[quakerjoe]

[brantheblessed]

Both of these can be true.

Misplaced empathy leads to opening your borders to rapine beasts that ruin the future of your children.

It signals the death of empathy for your own people, your very own children.

[quicklyscreechingwerewolf]

There is a thing called toxic empathy. Take care of your own house before you handle another.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Are we still peddling this quote taken wildly out of context?

While Musk said he believes in empathy and that “you should care about other people,” he also thinks it’s destroying society. “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “There it’s they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.” Empathy, he said, has been “weaponized.”

He's not saying empathy itself is wrong, he's saying people can abuse it. He also said it's complicated.

Ironically, OP misquote is often deployed to demonize Musk himself and decrease empathy for him.

[rosiewitchescottage]

Exactly so.

Empathy should be for everyone or no one. Meeting the needs of one person shouldn't mean dismissing the needs of another.

And there are ways to make sure that this doesn't happen, if we bother to look for them.

Putting people in Oppressor/Privileged or Oppressed/ Not Privileged groups makes for less empathy, not more.

[whiteshakira]

u cld write a whole thesis abt this xkcd & how the only workers personified here r the upper class college degreed tech & management workers & not the third world workers facing unsafe grueling conditions working in mining or even manufacturing..... the wood source described as a "legal fight"

[eviethekiwi]

he's also greatly overestimating how much design work actually goes into most products like that

[peak-widow]

not leaving that in the tags

[420blazblade]

"Dear God, the engineer who makes comics about STEM made a comic about engineering for his STEM comic series instead of writing a 400 page essay on the evils of capitalism! Why would he ever write about a subject he's familiar with instead of a deep dive on the intricacies of factory labor! I'm flabbergasted! If I were to write this single-panel comic, I would simply cover the entire image with words to ensure that not a single worker goes uncredited. In fact, that's exactly what I'll do after the revolution when all the bourgeoisie hacks in engineering are murdered executed sent to the farm upstate and I take over XKCD. I can't wait to draw comics all day by the light of a fire hazard, on a crooked desk made of splintery wood, while drinking from a cup that I can't fill over halfway or it spills everywhere."

Personally, I think this comic is pretty neat. It's incredible the amount of craftwork and intent that goes into even the smallest, most taken-for-granted things. Even better that in most industries, those small details are so matter-of-course that they can be mass-produced, increasing supply and reducing costs. I'm glad that we live in a society where it is possible to have so many things without needing to know how to make them oneself, even if that sort of ignorance sometimes leads to the above nonsense.

[hst3000]

There's also the massive difference between 'labor in the design of the product,' 'labor in the production of THIS ONE INSTANCE of the product,' and 'labor in the production of ALL instances of these products.'

Because I'm sorry, the 'worker' (who's also likely an engineer) who made the die for the lamphead has as much claim to it as the guys who spent hours doing up the drawings for it. The press worker (assuming the damn thing is manned and not automated) spent less than half an attempt of the curve working on THAT lamp specifically.

The 'cheapest source of recycled glass available' is raw glass cullet that's useless for pretty much anything retail. Once it's had the labels, liquids, lids, corks, and other detritus removed, it's used as aggregate in concrete or for non-optical glass for industrial uses. I sincerely doubt it would be in drinking glasses. And besides, the glass SUPPLIER supplies... glass. Not cullet.

Many lumber operations own their own forests, but sure there's a chain of custody for the lumber. He's actually talking about your blue collar laborers there, too, because a logging dispute would be between the logging company, the landowners, and the government. The furnituremaker would have nothing to do with it except have issues sourcing certain species with specific grain and moisture characteristics. And if that table is using wood from a RAINFOREST and you're in Europe or the US, it's almost certainly handmade. The cheap stuff you're talking about being done by assembly lines is almost always particleboard or ply with a veneer.

But sure, assume all designers for consumer goods are lazy do-nothings who don't care about their products. It certainly fits your narrative. It's not like there's entire books about the design of household goods which have informed entire industries, or engineers doing the work prototyping and test-fitting iterations of designs.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

But they have an extremely vague idea of how the basic process is done, they clearly know the job well enough!

For a laugh, show them a set of blueprints and see how much they understand.

[whiteshakira]

u cld write a whole thesis abt this xkcd & how the only workers personified here r the upper class college degreed tech & management workers & not the third world workers facing unsafe grueling conditions working in mining or even manufacturing..... the wood source described as a "legal fight"

[eviethekiwi]

he's also greatly overestimating how much design work actually goes into most products like that

[peak-widow]

not leaving that in the tags

[420blazblade]

"Dear God, the engineer who makes comics about STEM made a comic about engineering for his STEM comic series instead of writing a 400 page essay on the evils of capitalism! Why would he ever write about a subject he's familiar with instead of a deep dive on the intricacies of factory labor! I'm flabbergasted! If I were to write this single-panel comic, I would simply cover the entire image with words to ensure that not a single worker goes uncredited. In fact, that's exactly what I'll do after the revolution when all the bourgeoisie hacks in engineering are murdered executed sent to the farm upstate and I take over XKCD. I can't wait to draw comics all day by the light of a fire hazard, on a crooked desk made of splintery wood, while drinking from a cup that I can't fill over halfway or it spills everywhere."

Personally, I think this comic is pretty neat. It's incredible the amount of craftwork and intent that goes into even the smallest, most taken-for-granted things. Even better that in most industries, those small details are so matter-of-course that they can be mass-produced, increasing supply and reducing costs. I'm glad that we live in a society where it is possible to have so many things without needing to know how to make them oneself, even if that sort of ignorance sometimes leads to the above nonsense.

[hst3000]

There's also the massive difference between 'labor in the design of the product,' 'labor in the production of THIS ONE INSTANCE of the product,' and 'labor in the production of ALL instances of these products.'

Because I'm sorry, the 'worker' (who's also likely an engineer) who made the die for the lamphead has as much claim to it as the guys who spent hours doing up the drawings for it. The press worker (assuming the damn thing is manned and not automated) spent less than half an attempt of the curve working on THAT lamp specifically.

The 'cheapest source of recycled glass available' is raw glass cullet that's useless for pretty much anything retail. Once it's had the labels, liquids, lids, corks, and other detritus removed, it's used as aggregate in concrete or for non-optical glass for industrial uses. I sincerely doubt it would be in drinking glasses. And besides, the glass SUPPLIER supplies... glass. Not cullet.

Many lumber operations own their own forests, but sure there's a chain of custody for the lumber. He's actually talking about your blue collar laborers there, too, because a logging dispute would be between the logging company, the landowners, and the government. The furnituremaker would have nothing to do with it except have issues sourcing certain species with specific grain and moisture characteristics. And if that table is using wood from a RAINFOREST and you're in Europe or the US, it's almost certainly handmade. The cheap stuff you're talking about being done by assembly lines is almost always particleboard or ply with a veneer.

But sure, assume all designers for consumer goods are lazy do-nothings who don't care about their products. It certainly fits your narrative. It's not like there's entire books about the design of household goods which have informed entire industries, or engineers doing the work prototyping and test-fitting iterations of designs.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

But they have an extremely vague idea of how the basic process is done, they clearly know the job well enough!

For a laugh, show them a set of blueprints and see how much they understand.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

>capitalism

>China

>due to social pressure

How did someone manage to come up with a stupider take?

[woman-respecter]

i think a lot of people want to be “unique” but at the same time are afraid of being actually different and/or incapable of having any original thougnts so they just adopt the traits of a subgroup that they think will make them special and quirky but they’re actually putting in a lot of effort to be exactly like everyone else in that group.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

If the only thing you ever do to help people is "raise awareness", then you don't care about helping people. You care about browbeating other people into helping others so that you can look good without actually having to do more than write the occasional post, if that.

[riflebrass]

In Longview some high school students dragged a girl into a locker room, pinned her to the floor, and partially undressed her. The superintendent allegedly handled it internally but she never reported it to the police and she intimidated the victim to keep quiet.

Word got out. The boys have been arrested for rape and the Sup's been arrested for covering it up. They should be lined up and shot.

[uncle-beanbag-mojave]

Yes they should

[siryouarebeingmocked]

I'm not sure what the Super and boys should be charged with, but I'm pretty sure she should never be allowed to work in a school again. Also, I thought Worm was exaggerating this sort of thing.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

Given how the school handled my assault (non-sexual) way back in 2001, it sounds entirely familiar.

[angel-derangement]

genuinely and for real if you change your fundamental values because people are mean to you then you’re stupidddddd. “men are going to the right because leftists are mean to them” okay well they are stupid. “so and so became a terf bc trans people were mean to them” stupid behaviour. that was stupid of them. I don’t think “the left” is “failing” men. I think those men are stupid.

[brantheblessed]

Men are going to the right because the toxicity of the left blatantly reveals the utter lack of intellectual framework behind leftist positions.

You can't prove your positions via reasoning which is why you resort to character assassination and physical violence.

[the-davest-of-uncles]

Leftists haven't figured out you can't shame someone into supporting you.

That's because leftists are stupid.

[animenutcase]

If you treat someone badly when you supposedly have no power, they're going to question what you would do if you DID gain power.

[sunder-the-gold]

OP would be the first to tell you that a demographic should never vote for anyone who hates and abuses them, until that demographic is male, white, or Christian, in which case they absolutely should vote against their own interests. Whether Jews and Asians are included is a seasonal matter.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

They say "leftists being mean."

Because that sounds better than "leftists advocating for discrimination."

[theconcealedweapon]

[otakuvampyre]

This would be more believable if the ones chanting that weren't the ones starving, bombing and killing innocent people.

When it's regimes like the irgc and terrorist groups who are chanting "death to America" you can't expect us to believe this crap. Tho this is from Twitter, where no one thinks critically got even 2 seconds and rightfully calling a group terrorists, yes even ones internationally recognized as such, gets you labeled an islamophobe.

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

It's hilarious to me how the people who loved the "You are not immune to propaganda" meme, absolutely adore propaganda.

[beardedmrbean]

What the actual hell

[ceasarslegion]

Ouran high school was my favourite anime when I was like 14 which is really funny because thats also the age I basically was in a Haruhi fujioka situation. Not like fully literally but the meat of it was the same

I was the one single middle-class kid in a super high-end rich kid private academy with like pressed uniforms and building wings and everything. I didnt get any sort of scholarship, my dad just got a job as a teacher there and teachers kids got to enroll for free because the tuition was like 30 grand a year and you arent affording that on a teacher salary. So I understand her on a very visceral level and perhaps enjoyed OHSHC so much because she was SOOO me fr. These damn rich people

[ceasarslegion]

One time I convinced my classmates that I had never had sushi before because we were too poor to afford it just so they would pay for my sushi dinner and it worked. They were so out of touch that they thought I didnt have the money for anything more expensive than fast food. I did in fact take advantage of this partially because every teenager is a shithead and I was not exempt from that rule and partially because I knew they had more money than god so it was a totally victimless crime. A classmate once bought 2 copies of The Last Guardian on release just because they thought I "deserved a new game." They thought I couldnt afford a new video game and I said nothing

[ceasarslegion]

This experience also made me utterly immune to the "rich people shit is when [middle class thing]" discourse on this site. Because ive directly experienced rich people shit and its NOT when someone goes to NYU or gets Starbucks on their breaks at the job they have to work to afford their mortgage.

Rich people shit is when I had to yell at my classmates that we are not spending tens of thousands of dollars ON BALLOONS for our prom when we had a DJ to pay and their response to me was "thats only 700 dollars per person."

Rich people shit is when I went to go tutor one of my classmates little brothers who was struggling with history and it took him 10 minutes to go get his tablet from his bedroom and come back to the kitchen table because their house was that big, which was being cleaned by a live-in maid while their private chef made us snacks the entire time I was tutoring him. And then their parents paid me 500 bucks and told me "sorry I seem to have misplaced my other wallet, is this enough? Its not a lot :(("

Rich people shit is when the other teachers kids and I breezed through school with high GPAs because all of our peers had so much money that they never had to care about getting into a good university or having careers or budgeting or anything, so they never tried.

Rich people shit is when youre invited to a little get together on the weekends and get told to bring an overnight bag because their definition of a little get together is an overnight yacht trip. And then you get there and find out that your middle class definition of what's needed for an overnight trip is VERY different from a rich persons definition of the same thing: you have some pajamas, clean underwear, toothpaste, and some soap and face wash, maybe some moisturizer. They bring half their wardrobes and designer personally-commissioned serums that cost more than your house and then tell you that youre "just so quaint."

So much discourse around whos rich and whos not comes from people who have never been in a rich persons reality and so they end up shooting directly above them and calling that rich. But I tell you from personal experience that rich people are uniquely disconnected from reality and anybody who has to work for a living is by definition NOT rich. I dont care if they have a big suburban house and 2 new cars and go on vacations a lot, thats not RICH. Rich is when their kids think 700 dollars is pocket change for prom balloons and have their own personal yacht to take their friends on whenever they want, not when someone goes to fucking NYU.

[thelegendofsqam]

[spooksier]

passages that make you whisper "oh my god"

[barryogg]

Ok but that's not actually true? It's not the only thing people have left, they just want to feel like that's the case so they can excuse their inaction

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Also, the people who insisted all art is political were mostly folks on the left, not society in general. People explicitly said "you're wasting your time on pointless quibbles". And now this article is going "wow, can you believe we were forced to waste our time on pointless quibbles?"

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

To rephrase, many a leftist adore being told they have no agency. Which makes it hilariously easy for them to be manipulated. By merely telling them to exercise their agency to protest their lack of agency. The irony is palpable.

[revizyonist]

med people are so annoying "This family's 8 year old child who was about to go through a major surgery and kept crying that she was hungry so they pitied her and gave her food, she then had a heart attack in the surgery. They're so stupid 😒" girl they didn't know that could happen or why it happens. it takes so little time to explain to them that will happen instead of telling them "no food" with no explanation 10 times

[revizyonist]

"Before surgery, your body’s reflexes that protect your airway are relaxed by anesthesia. If there’s food or liquid in your stomach, it will near certainly come back up and go into your lungs, which can cause choking, a severe lung / heart infection or even a heart attack. That’s called aspiration, and it is life-threatening. It's hard, but it's only a single day to prevent near certain death. Not eating or drinking beforehand massively lowers the risk and helps prevent these life threatening situations under anesthesia." <- TIP: patients have brains which allows them to receive information just like you

[ancelineonline]

I have four kids. I’ve had one or another of them need some kind of surgical procedure that requires anesthesia four or five times over the past 15 years.

This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.

I’m not stupid. I understood that just fine. Hell, my kids would have understood that just fine. But no one bothered to tell us.

[bowditch]

i did know this before having kids (i have six). we have a kid that's needed multiple procedures requiring anesthesia. and every single time, i am asked multiple times if i'm sure he was not given any food or water after a certain point.

every single time i have had to say, "i understand that if he had food or water, he could aspirate it into his lungs under anesthesia. i am not lying to you." THEN someone would make a little note and i would stop being repeatedly asked.

not a single time was that risk explained to me. the only reason it came up was because i already knew. i still don't understand why it isn't standard pre-op counseling or pre-op check information, when me as a parent acknowledging the actual risk also put THE MEDICAL STAFF at ease because i conveyed that i had informed understanding as reason to not lie about giving my kid food.

"maybe some people will get nervous and refuse surgery" okay so they need more counseling about risks and anxiety, not less information in a way that actually does endanger their child or themselves!

[arctic-turtle-cassiopeia]

Reblogging to save a life and teach medical professionals basic communication skills

[itsthebrokenheartthatdecides]

see how easy it was to give that information!

[siryouarebeingmocked]

I'm pretty sure if a parent goes against doctors orders and harms their kid, that parent is still responsible for their actions. Is this post implying otherwise?

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

No, it's just focusing on how many medical professionals will tell patients to do or not do something and give no explanation as to why. Which can easily lead to issues because people don't know the severity of doing otherwise. They may also perceive some nuance in the phrasing that was unintended.

For a basic example, I've had a doctor tell someone to fast by saying, "Don't eat anything for 24 hours." If that patient had assumed that it was thus okay to drink stuff, that could be very dangerous. I work tech support, and I see similar things constantly.

Do not assume your doctor is doing everything on purpose, or even correctly. I have had a doctor prescribe me a lethal combination of medicine. I looked it up and refused to take them. They actually argued with me for a bit until I finally got them to check. Then I promptly got a different medication prescribed.

[beardedmrbean]

[siryouarebeingmocked]

[yourpoliticsarestupid]

We also know everyone of remote importance in the the battle of Bumfuck-Upon-Tweed, as well as everything they did in the battle.