nah you’re good you’re good, no need to apologize

Yeah I guess I should rephrase that – I knew lead poisoning wasn’t a myth, but I wasn’t sure about the theory that lead-exposure is the reason for the apparent rise in anti-intellectualism/conspiratorial thinking in older generations

At first I enjoyed the irony in this comment – thinking the lead-poisoning myth is my type of conspiracy – but it turns out, in a spectacularly non-conspiratorial way, researchers have shown correlation between lead exposure as a child and maladaptive personalities as an adult.

Isolated (mis)information streams and the need to identify with an ingroup are the two biggest features to me.

I feel that way as well

I find it rude when people on the bus put their bag on the empty seat next to them, so that you have to ask them to move it when there are no empty rows left. It’s strangely hostile to me.

I think its just polite to leave your bag off the seat until the bus is boarded.

Smoking…what?

Mind me asking how you get access to deadlock? I wanna give it a shot, too.

Thanks :)

What are you playing, bpt11?

Just started Baldur’s Gate 3. Never played a CRPG before (does Disco Elysium count?) so it has been quite the learning curve for combat. Pretty stuck in the Underdark, it seems. Looks like I’ll have to help out a slavetrader Gekh in order to proceed because I don’t think I can defeat him and his buddies…

I actually was fortunate enough to visit the Sistine Chapel this summer, and although when you take a close look at images online of the paintings, it’s clear they aren’t “realism”, when you see the paintings in person they look very real. I was especially struck by how real Jonah looked, as if he was just hanging out, sitting on a ledge near the ceiling. Very cool experience.

I didn’t read the Zahir but I felt like The Alchemist was a shallow Siddhartha-wannabe when I read it. I couldn’t help but think it was trying too hard to be profound

The Alchemist and Song of Achilles are some popular books that I thought were mediocre. Probably not the worst book I’ve ever read though.

That probably goes to Sean Hannity’s Conservative Victory that my grandma gave me when I was 12.

True slop. Fuck Sean Hannity.

Noooo :( I love Moby Dick.

Granted I listened to the audiobook

Holy, Holy by Geordie Greep. Insanely talented artist

Playing guitar. I’m bad, can’t really play with others, couldn’t play live, but being able to sing and play along to songs I love, putting my own spin on them, or getting into a rhythm and making up silly lyrics is one of the most valuable things I ever learned to do. Probably the single best thing I’ve done in my life is learn to play.

The proof is in the pudding folks

I would recommend reading or listening to Noam Chomsky’s Understanding Power. It is a compilation of several of his Q and As about his ideas about the US political and media systems. He has a whole book about the media called Manufacturing Consent, but Understanding Power will give you the lowdown.

Essentially, all mainstream US media is beholden to capitalistic (for advertising) or state (for funding) forces, so a person should always be aware that news sources are never going to print something that is against its own interest. Things like LGBTQ rights and right to abortion don’t put news outlets sources of money at risk, so they’re safe to print, but you’d be hard-pressed to find something that challenges, for example, the military industrial complex.

I’m not doing it much justice but that’s a very very general and incomplete jist of why it’s good to be skeptical of the mainstream media in general.

Yup, it’s “The Room” of music

Corey Feldman’s Angelic 2 the Core is without a doubt the worst album I’ve ever listened to. It is not just mediocre or underwhelming, it is not just a “miss,” it is actively and unforgettably horrible. Definitely worth checking out.