vonbaronhans
@vonbaronhans@midwest.social
- Comment on Why does it seem like many Americans have an arrogant personality trait? 5 days ago:
I’d like to add some nuance to your observation.
We Americans, most of us anyway, went to public school. And in our history classes, we teach what has been called the “Standard American History Myth” by YouTube channel Knowing Better in their video on American Neo-slavery.
In short, America is founded on many ideals (freedom, liberty, etc), and we generally write our histories as if we have always believed in and acted according to those beliefs (with slavery being a “failure to live up to those ideals”). That’s the simple history we teach our kids here, it’s what we grow up believing, and the only people who ever really learn anything different had nontraditional learning opportunities (e.g. local experts in black history, American Indian history, etc), studied history at a university, or nowadays maybe learned from social media (like the above Knowing Better channel).
Manifest Destiny is a big example. We teach that America believed in their divinely inspired right to the American continent, from sea to shining sea. We do mention the Trail of Tears, but it’s taught as a brute fact at best, and as punishment for standing against America at worst. There’s no emotional processing that we did a bad thing and that we shouldn’t do that thing anymore. Most Americans would do it all again given the opportunity.
And that’s the big thing. We just… simply don’t have any sort of national level conscience. If we did something bad to someone, no we didn’t, and if we did, they deserved it.
I only really came to grips with America’s dark side in grad school by reading, listening, and watching interviews with black people who protested Jim Crowe and Asian Americans who told their experiences living in concentration camps (euphemistically “internment camps”) during WW2.
That, I think, is the biggest problem in the American psyche. Not only have we “never done anything wrong, really” but we’re also pumped up on religious symbolism (we’re a beacon on a hill, a light into the world, etc).
“Divinely inspired” crybully, basically. There’s a reason Trump resonates so strongly here. He’s the embodiment of “I am the best, I never did anything wrong, and fuck you for trying to insinuate otherwise, you ungrateful traitor.”
- Comment on Chat, is this true? 1 week ago:
At this point, I don’t know if America can heal with Mt Rushmore still there. I’m not saying we would blow it up, but I do think it might be good if it was blown up.
- Comment on Dogs may have domesticated themselves because they really liked snacks, model suggests 1 week ago:
I mean, same
- Comment on When You Block the Internet on Your Phone, Something Astonishing Happens Mentally 1 week ago:
I like this idea, but I don’t know how you build a site to facilitate that without also being super appealing to children and pedos at the same time.
- Comment on HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?? 1 week ago:
Do you think “frank” means “without nuance or care for how what I’m saying could be misconstrued as bigotry”?
Like, literally the only change I know I’d like to see is “there are some women who” and like… that’s hardly an imposition, y’know? Definitely not a “40 page essay” either.
- Comment on HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?? 1 week ago:
Weirdos end up on Lemmy. Many of us are a splendidly wonderful, if pedantic, sort.
And then there’s the weirdos that… aren’t that. The ones who never built social skills or the ability to look at the world from beyond their own limited experiences. The ones who extrapolate with reckless abandon, usually in the traditional directions of punching down.
I’m sorry if they or someone they know got baby-trapped, but that is DEFINITELY not the usual nor should it be phrased like it is.
- Comment on anti-evolutionism 2 weeks ago:
Oof. Yeah they’ll get ya like that. I’m certainly not immune.
- Comment on anti-evolutionism 2 weeks ago:
So, I gave this a cursory read.
The discussion of essentialism mostly makes sense, if a few weird red flags scattered throughout. But I was curious at what point it would be turned into, as promised in the intro, that essentialism is a fundamental flaw of “wokeism”, and apparently specifically Critical Race Theory.
And uh. That connection was poorly made, in my humble opinion. It’s a lot of philosophical history and bluster to then just sort of… miss the point and mischaracterize the quotes being put on the table.
My apologies, I would be more specific and pointed in my critique here, but I’m on mobile and I usually need a better setup (e.g. on PC) to lay out these thoughts with more precision.
- Comment on Is it a pattern that every time a movie, show or animation that doesn't have a white person as the protagonist is attacked by right-wingers? 2 weeks ago:
As an aging anime fan… I tend to agree with Miyazaki’s take that anime is made by weird people for weird people.
Sometimes being a bit of an outcast gives you perspective and you take that and make someone great.
Sometimes it turns you into an incel who creates characters that totally aren’t pedophile bait, no sir, they’re 2000 years old! They just so happen to have the body of an 8 yr old.
The conservative anti-woke scum of the Internet who love anime can’t tell the difference between the two. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.
- Comment on Why We Love to Get Lost in Games: The Enduring Appeal of Metroidvanias 2 weeks ago:
I think I’d put it this way - I like adventuring, exploring, and finding my way through an immersive world. I don’t like when I can’t seem to stumble into the exact right clue or secret passage or interactable and waste up to possibly hours scouring the same locations over and over.
That said, metroidvanias are my favorite videogame genre. I just had to accept that it’s okay to look up a guide or wiki before I get fully tilted.
- Comment on FTC investigates “tech censorship,” says it’s un-American and may be illegal 2 weeks ago:
You misunderstand. This IS Trump’s chosen stooge. FTC Chairman Carr.
He’s complaining about tech companies “censoring” conservatives for “speaking their minds”, aka being hateful bigots and spreading misinformation during a public health crisis.
- Comment on China renewables capacity additions soared in 2023, growing more than four times faster than the G7 2 weeks ago:
With renewable energy?
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 3 weeks ago:
Well, I think this is twice in the same thread where my intuition was considerably off base. Lesson learned, I suppose.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 3 weeks ago:
Just read that, and it says they’ve only issued 453 million numbers so far. Huh. I really thought it would’ve been a lot more than that.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 3 weeks ago:
We have 350 million people in this country literally right now. I don’t think “350 million born since 1933” makes sense. There gotta be a lot of churn just from early deaths alone.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 3 weeks ago:
We have over 300 million people in the US right now. Social security started in the US in 1935 with just over 127 million people then.
Yeah, we probably have gone through 999 million options by now.
- Comment on what if another country staged a coup in the US and deposed trump? 4 weeks ago:
Well, I think we’d have to give some of the Eastern seaboard to the UK. But some goes to France, some to Spain. And tbh a lot could be reallocated back to American Indian groups and councils. Oh, and a bunch would go back to Mexico, too.
- Comment on Colombian president says cocaine 'no worse than whisky' 4 weeks ago:
I’m generally in favor of legalization, but we should go into it with the best, most accurate information we have about the potential impacts so preparations and safety nets can be made in advance.
- Comment on Colombian president says cocaine 'no worse than whisky' 4 weeks ago:
I can get behind this, generally speaking.
- Comment on Colombian president says cocaine 'no worse than whisky' 4 weeks ago:
An important caveat though:
“The authors explain that one of the limitations of this study is that drug harms are functions of their availability and legal status in the UK, and so other cultures’ control systems could yield different rankings.”
Cocaine is still illegal, and by extension less available. I’m no expert, but I have to imagine that is affecting the rankings here significantly.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
I think the care for being not identified and covering one’s tracks provided in the above comment is a pretty obvious indicator for why their comment history is scrubbed lol.
- Comment on "ChaO" Original Anime Film Announced with New Visual 1 month ago:
Don’t know why, but I’m getting Sarazanmai vibes.
- Comment on Steam is 'an unsafe place for teens and young adults': US senator warns Gabe Newell of 'more intense scrutiny' from the government if Valve doesn't take action against extremist content 3 months ago:
Iirc, when the ADP put out their guidance on Pepe, it was during the 2016 election when Pepe was being actively coopted by alt-rightera and neo Nazis. One of those "take something innocuous and poison it by using it as a pseudo secret signal to other bigots.
I vaguely recall them saying that Pepe was a hate symbol only insofar as it was being used for that purpose. I wonder if that changed, or if this investigation is ignoring that nuance to hamfist a “hate speech” argument.
- Comment on Conversations like this are why I want more people, especially "normies", in the Fediverse 4 months ago:
The hexbear folks were the worst. Like, putting all of their political opinions aside, they would just swarm posts and flood it with low quality buzzwords and memes and every formatting option to be as visually obnoxious as possible.
I don’t know if I blocked them, they blocked me, or if my instance defederated from then, but holy shit my Lemmy experience got so much better when I stopped seeing their shit everywhere.
- Comment on Read-onlys are cancer. Post stuff you want to see. 4 months ago:
Hey I comment from time to time, that’s contributing! Kind of!
- Comment on YouTube tests removing viewer counts — here’s what we know 4 months ago:
Rumble isn’t any better. It’s where my dad gets his COVID conspiracy material after folks got kicked off other platforms.
- Comment on IFIXIT: Victory Is Sweet - We Can Now Fix McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines 4 months ago:
Long hard fight.
We take our Ws where we can get them.
- Comment on Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers 5 months ago:
Clear temples?
- Comment on Work from home 8 months ago:
I’m one of the “company-provided-phone-only” folks. Thankfully, I work for a pretty decent employer who has never abused that in the nearly 10 years I’ve worked there. But I realize that’s a pretty rare privilege.
- Comment on Stay Mad 8 months ago:
That’s true, it could be racism, it could be both.
God, if Taylor Swift runs for president I’d be stunned. I mean, given the circumstances I’d vote for her, but geez Louise.