Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post on the "Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here" thread - put them here

probably shd've said "they should be visually impaired"

Blound?

emblindened

blindicated

i

deocularized?

depercussionated

"shown the wonder"

Oh good you two have met

c3p0, r2d2 and bb8 are bad and you should all feel bad

otm

Can’t believe we had three whole weeks of respite. Truly a Christmas miracle.

not raving but droning (Noodle Vague)
Posted: January 7, 2018 at 7:31:23 AM
findeed.

bad and self-hateful hangover.

Take it to the Sunday thread dude

Guys can we

Like we did have

bad form

I laughed tbh

praying for a trump towering inferno

for sale: nice shoes, never complimented

379. Jhonny Cahs - Hrut
378. Daivd Bwoie - Balck Tsar
377. Lneorad Choen - U Wanitt Draker
376. Wrraen Zveon - Ejnoy Ervey Snadiwch

lil peep - save that shit

Have we a fourth one of these threads yet

seems a bit extravagant for people wanting to learn Mandarin

Your patience is testes but you must honore de balzac.

I bless Claude Rains down in Africa

https://i.imgur.com/D5r5LET.gif

all for the best in the best of all possible worlds

my way was funnier obviously

this is funny bcz the date is literally today and that proves that dril AND seth abramson (a) read the borad (b) post to it

would that it were so

You seem to have anger issues or something. Haven’t figured it out yet but maybe take a break?

he asked to be banned!

i disagree 100% with the characterisations itt and cannot in fact believe any of ye believe what ye are typing with any sincerity whatsoever.

this thread's gone to hell

I feel like Wittgenstein would have something to say about all this

David Foster Wallace's short story "The Depressed Person" is available online as a PDF.

scanners.gif

easiest fucking life ever jfc

it's kind of impressive the sheer variety of differently unhelpful ways to chime in

Neither the hardasses nor the enablers are being helpful because there is no help to be had here. Alright, tacet.

hey fa, is your name a godspeed reference, just got that for some reason..

who among us is not merely a comedy sock account these days tbrr

Under late capitalism we are all sockpuppets

we need a brexit to cleanse our socks and can then and only then don then afresh

dunno boutchoo but im a socketpup

and it's gonna be a long long time

but less funny

self-plamás is no-plamás

Let a thousand cacti bloom

Close enough

what are you guys going to do when yr celebrity bestie falters even a tiny bit

we're all just sifting through the social wreckage looking for the least-damaged items of value to salvage

I think I object to the kind of moral accounting required to pit the two outcomes against each other

Understood, and I don't mean that it's some kind of see-saw where you pile things up on either side until one prevails.

ok i have the worst possible take

i like talking about politics but my take on politics just doesn't mesh well with what i'm just gonna call the "sabermetric" approach; i'm much more of a "the political is personal" person. i honestly don't know if there's enough people into that to sustain a thread, and i _know_ there's no shortage of people who are gonna be like "oh seriously is kate saying there should be _another_ politics thread"

probably there shouldn't be. i mean i take forever to put together a post about anything. i meant to post this yesterday, and time got away from me...

lol I had that thought when I was writing about politics as politics, “This is the kind of talk Kate hates!” And I get it. It IS personal. It is for everyone, and especially for people most directly at the end of the sword. I don’t think there’s any single best or right way to respond to politics. My career has been to a large degree about watching it and learning it and trying to explain it to other people trying to understand it, plus also some years working in it, so my perspective on it kind of defaults to analytical and diagnostic. Why is thing happening or not, what would it take to make it happen or not, who’s fighting that fight, what resources do they have, who are they working with, where is the money coming from, etc etc etc.

sabermetric approach could be somebody's way of being able to be disengaged enough from something that affects them directly to be able to discuss it

I don't think considering why things happen and how to achieve an outcome means you are not feeling emotions or don't have a personal reaction. Far from it. The more I learn the more I feel.

I say that as someone who works in civil service. There is a imo a constant need for more people who are determined to measure stuff and do things based on evidence. That evidence can be numerical, like how many people do xyz thing, or how many people fail to complete xyz task after trying to do it, or deeper stuff than that. Just because it's numerical doesn't mean it's not about real, personal situations. Numbers can make you see and feel things. And show those things to other people. But evidence can also be user research. In my current role I've watched about 110 user research sessions where people talk about a really personal, difficult part of their lives. It can be upsetting sometimes, but I use that feeling to fuel the anger which drives me. I don't get angry or lash out at people but in order to create the environment where we are given space to measure things, and time and money to talk to people and find out what they need, as well as do technical research with them, I need energy and enthusiasm, and that emotion and feeling is a good motivator. Other people may do it differently. There's one particular session I watched where a person described being humiliated in a court situation because they decided to represent themselves. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen in 13 years doing this job. I think of it constantly anytime anything gets stuck or somebody tries to block us doing a good thing, or I am feeling less enthusiastic. Sounds a bit cheesy perhaps but it's how it is.

Moving away from my own situation as I know it's a bit specific/potentially annoying, I just think it's wrong to say that an outcome-based view of the world or politics is somehow divorced from the personal or the emotional. If we weren't living in such a shitty time we might have more opportunity for more outcome-based discussions of politics at a macro level, though we still should fight for those discussions. I think maybe macro versus micro is a more fair way to think about it. I know there are wonks who hand-wave every issue and sort of hide behind numbers but it doesn't have to be that way.

Emotion and the personal is a part of the picture imo. Going back to the micro-world, I sometimes will have bosses or others trying to argue that user research or involving the people who need to interact with public services is time consuming, or takes longer. I always argue that it speeds us up because it gives us incontrovertible evidence for what we are doing, and is the most powerful way of bringing people along with us. It's rocket fuel.

We just need to rewire the state at the top echelons that way now, should be easy, lol.

Can’t believe MY TAXES go to paying for this FILTH

(But seriously, great post)

lol

Yes totally agree LG. My political engagement tends to take the form of analysis and description, but it’s fueled by a lot of simmering rage punctuated by glimmers of hope and inspiration.

sabermetric approach could be somebody's way of being able to be disengaged enough from something that affects them directly to be able to discuss it

― scanner darkly, Tuesday, June 9, 2026 9:52 PM (yesterday)

yeah i mean thinking about it i'm not opposed to the sabermetric approach. i think it's important, i think it's valuable, and if i had, like, the ability to look at things in those terms, i probably would start looking at it in those terms again. we all got our ways of coping, and i'm not saying... i mean i do look at things in abstract terms. i absolutely do. i also recognize that it's, uh, not something most people do. it is a hobby, like fantasy football. for me, part of my sort of "sabermetrics" - part of my beliefs about effective political engagement is... like i've read "democracy in america" and i do think it's a valuable political study of a country that's fundamentally different from any america i've known. the way ordinary people are invested, committed to politics on a local level! i think that's good. and i understand why people are invested in a senate race in maine or whatever. particularly on the internet, where we aren't local. sure, none of us live in maine, but none of us live _anywhere_ specifically. it affects us. we got a common interest. if i lived in maine i'd be salty about it, cuz i got more of it, i got a direct interest, and some people looking at a battle for the future of my state like it's a fucking chariot race feels kind of personally disrespectful. but god, i think it's important for _some people_ to look at things from that perspective, an abstracted perspective.

i also think it's important for literally _everyone_ to be out there doing politics, and that's NOT always going to be "pokemon go to the polls". i think it's important to give people an incentive to go to the polls. i think we can have a world where people are as excited about going to the polls as people were about buying dragon quest iii on launch day, though hopefully with fewer logistical issues. (i know that's a weird analogy, that's where my head went). i mean i guess doing politics like that _isn't_ something that's gonna happen on a 25-year-old internet message board.

ah, idk. it's fine. sometimes i'll just start talking politics somewhere that's not the politics thread, and i do it because the politics thread is actually not a very good place for _me in particular_ to talk politics. probably that's gonna piss people off, and i mean, yeah, i get that.