DefinitelyNotAFae's recent activity

  1. Comment on Game Changer: At Home Edition Kickstarter in ~games

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    The venn diagram is basically a circle. (◠‿◕)

    The venn diagram is basically a circle. (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

    2 votes

  2. Comment on World's first vaccine for Lyme disease could be available in 2027 in ~health

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    No, it should count. The fact checker missed that. I can't see any caveat that would exclude it other than it being pulled other than maybe that the protection decreases over time. Pfizer was more...

    No, it should count. The fact checker missed that. I can't see any caveat that would exclude it other than it being pulled other than maybe that the protection decreases over time.

    Pfizer was more specific that no vaccine exists at this time (and I suspect the writer didn't know better.)

    1 vote

  3. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Yeah kind of the reverse of the peasant food turned gourmet! I can't really speak for modern religions, I don't have the theological grounding outside of Roman Catholicism (and like neopaganism...

    Yeah kind of the reverse of the peasant food turned gourmet!

    I can't really speak for modern religions, I don't have the theological grounding outside of Roman Catholicism (and like neopaganism kind of, which I'd argue mostly has neither orthodoxy/praxy) to speak for what beliefs are expected. Like I know there are a variety of beliefs and practices in Hinduism but not enough to know whether there is expectation or pressure to adhere to any of them. And the big three Abe faiths all have multiple sects that split due to different dogma (and then praxis) But the wiki page for heresy has entries for a number of non-Abrahamic faiths too.

    Much like today though, you don't have to get the mobs moving with actual facts, enough effort to make "those" people obviously evil goes a long way to raised pitchforks. (I uh, can explain that theological point but only because again, extensive Catholic education and I find things interesting.)

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Why I find woke criticism of veganism and effective altruism so outrageous in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    The whole "obviously we must invest our millions into AI" outcome is absolutely one of my reasons for disliking "EA" vs the concept of donating to charities that are effective in their use of...

    The whole "obviously we must invest our millions into AI" outcome is absolutely one of my reasons for disliking "EA" vs the concept of donating to charities that are effective in their use of money like you describe. The former has absolutely poisoned the well for me against the use of the term for the latter. That and the idea that they're worth too much to volunteer their time as much as their money.

    Like for example, the No One Dies Alone program, where the local hospital calls if they have someone with no family or family who cannot make it to the bedside so that people receiving hospice/end of life care aren't alone. The idea that this is not a worthwhile use of time because it's inefficient is pretty anathema to my sense of human dignity and respect (and to connect to the article, it's pretty much entirely unrelated to my feelings about non-human animals). It may certainly not be in someone's skill set, but I think that's why I don't trust the people reducing this down to a math equation to make those judgements about worth and value vs engaging with something they care about.

    Like I found a post arguing about the dollar equivalent of donating blood and that since it's very likely someone else will donate, it's a waste of their time/resources. Like, that's certainly not an argument that can be universalized - it becomes the bystander effect for an entire population.

    Idk that's why I don't like it as someone on the left.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Not the previous poster, I think there's a difference here in the question "have people on the left gone too far?" vs "has the left gone too far?" Some individual always goes "too far", someone...

    Not the previous poster, I think there's a difference here in the question "have people on the left gone too far?" vs "has the left gone too far?"

    Some individual always goes "too far", someone screams at people for not using their pronouns or someone chastises a colleague for not changing their profile picture to a black square or a company hires a bad trainer who advocates for things that the groups in question never wanted.

    But that's a small number of people out of a very large population and exists across any number of axes - I've had bad trainings, controlling coworkers and random encounters with unreasonably angry people of all stripes. For example, I was chased through Costco while someone yelled "actually it's murder" to my Abortion is Healthcare T shirt for example. (Wait... actually maybe it's my fault that she yelled at me, I went too far! /j.) I also had a (pre-"woke" language) coworker who wouldn't document his "brown" employee, did try to write up his white employee, and pissed off almost every woman he worked with except his boss(es) by being a patronizing ass. The congressional Dems kneeling in kente cloth stoles was widely derided - and it was organized by the Congressional Black Caucus - but since those people had the literal power to do more, performative acts were much less well received.

    Those are different than "can/has the left go/ne too far?" And asking if "wokeness" has gone too far is more similar to the latter. I don't think the "movement" has gone too far, rather not far enough, personally. I don't think performative or "cringe" acts "go too far" they're just missing the mark and that typically comes from thinking that any contribution from a majority (often white in the context of "woke") person will be welcomed with open arms, rather than listening to the people already doing the work and following them.

    Like I'd be real dumb to have walked up to the people doing the hard work to maintain the bus boycott during the civil rights movement and suggest that we all stand in the street and protest by blocking the busses with our bodies as if they don't know exactly what will happen to Black bodies in that situation.

    So if "wokeness" is only the completely performative stuff, yeah maybe it "goes too far." If it's respecting pronouns and working to ensure Black/Trans/Immigrant/etc. people have civil rights, then absolutely not. If it's murdering people for telling you they made a racist joke, then we're back to "too far."

    But that's why not defining it in the discussion is the problem. Because the way that the right is defining "woke/ness" right now is like how they claim any Black pilot is a DEI hire or how the DOGE purges worked. It's just shoving anything they don't like that has any "ctrl-F" of the words "Woman, Black, Queer, Latino, etc." into the same pile and lighting it on fire. And it's why many of us are so critical of the very premise of the article/podcast and the headline attached. If you never define wokeness then it will simultaneously have gone way too far and never have gone far enough. And everyone gets to yell about how they're right.

    It's why I highlighted a portion of the transcript and talked about it rather than the headline, but I'm still frustrated at the implications made there (and direct statements here too) that obviously the left has gone too far, that non-binary people are too big of an ask, that it's "our" fault that "they" are hurting us. And if we don't give up our values and throw some group - immigrants, queers, women, - under the bus, we'll never make the reactionaries who allegedly voted to spite us actually like us.

    That isn't how stopping bullies works, it isn't how soothing abusers works, it's also not how you keep voters liking you. No one respects the person who sucks up to the bullies in hopes of ingratiating themselves, especially not the bullies. So the strategy just doesn't make sense unless you were already willing to pitch those groups under the bus because those weren't your values.

    There are ways to persuade and convince people but they're entirely separate from these sorts of conversations and they will require people to accept responsibility for their own actions. Blaming the left will only impede that process, not improve it.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Well and apparently chickens get seasick which would be the other major reason they don't eat, besides being fed shortly before. As for the sacrificial meat it depended on what was being killed I...

    Well and apparently chickens get seasick which would be the other major reason they don't eat, besides being fed shortly before.

    As for the sacrificial meat it depended on what was being killed I think, birds would probably have been small enough that only the priests got their cut but large public sacrifices were for the people (and large military ones for the army and so on).

    I like Rome for its policy of orthopraxy over orthodoxy. Doesn't matter what you believe, it matters if you did the right offerings.

    Chickens being commonly and cheaply available meat is really a modern thing afaik, with maybe some variations throughout like 10k years. The opposite of gentrification I suppose

    2 votes

  7. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I don't think those chickens were ritually slaughtered for augury too (and then eaten) but maybe at the end of their um, term, as sacred chicken they become sacred fried chicken. I know in the...

    I don't think those chickens were ritually slaughtered for augury too (and then eaten) but maybe at the end of their um, term, as sacred chicken they become sacred fried chicken. I know in the past in the US chicken wasn't really a common meat crop because they were comparatively expensive and it was a more seasonal or rare food as they were raised for eggs. I don't know the history as far back as Rome though.

    Of note you also typically didn't feed sacred chickens prior to your augury... Which meant their enthusiasm and thus the gods will was, shall we say, easily manipulated.

    Edit because I got curious: there was actually a sumptuary law limiting chicken to no more than one (total not per person) per meal. It was a delicacy because they fattened the chickens up and even discovered that castration fattened them faster.

    Couldn't find specifics but if chicken was a delicacy, old chicken augurs were probably on the menu, but maybe just of the priests.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on Game Changer: At Home Edition Kickstarter in ~games

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    I have indeed done both. Taskmaster will be a nice Christmas treat and the game should be a longer term use purchase

    I have indeed done both. Taskmaster will be a nice Christmas treat and the game should be a longer term use purchase

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Thank you. I promise I wasn't fishing for compliments, you're very very kind. Some days are just the wrong moments for things to happen.

    Thank you. I promise I wasn't fishing for compliments, you're very very kind. Some days are just the wrong moments for things to happen.

    5 votes

  10. Comment on Game Changer: At Home Edition Kickstarter in ~games

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Already backed! And hoping I can swing an upgrade when it hits the backerkit stage If I justify it as a Christmas present like the taskmaster advent calendar 🤔

    Already backed! And hoping I can swing an upgrade when it hits the backerkit stage

    If I justify it as a Christmas present like the taskmaster advent calendar 🤔

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books

  12. Comment on Is British English actually better than American English? in ~humanities.languages

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    I don't. I'm just interested in it for the same reasons I like folklore and foodways. As for whether I care, I am still processing your previous post to me and not really sure how I feel about it...

    I don't. I'm just interested in it for the same reasons I like folklore and foodways.

    As for whether I care, I am still processing your previous post to me and not really sure how I feel about it all, mostly still pretty upset/hurt about it all frankly. Hence not ignoring the question or responding with a polite smoothing over as if everything is fine.

    So since you asked, I don't know. In case there's confusion from anyone, this is bluntness, not hostility.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Ordered from the US because similarly it's fun to support folks and I don't mind a romance now and then either

    Ordered from the US because similarly it's fun to support folks and I don't mind a romance now and then either

    1 vote

  14. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" (gifted link) in ~humanities

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Different book, but the Kushiel's Dart series is an alternate history fantasy earth where the Yeshuites live in a very nomadic form and are considered odd for being "monotheists" when a number of...

    Different book, but the Kushiel's Dart series is an alternate history fantasy earth where the Yeshuites live in a very nomadic form and are considered odd for being "monotheists" when a number of Angels literally walked the earth and gave birth to the people of Terre D'Ange (fantasy France) with one commandment above all "Love as Thou Wilt." (Which humans then fail at a lot) They are descended from and pledge themselves to different angels/bloodlines of angels and they all took different angles on the whole thing. (Content warnings abound)

    Personally the Yeshuites read very Jewish but also maybe Roma? It's been a while though so now I'm due for a reread.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I'm not attempting to shame them nor in this post trying to change them. We will not change them by blaming other people for their actions. They also don't have actual critical mass, they're loud...

    I'm not attempting to shame them nor in this post trying to change them. We will not change them by blaming other people for their actions.

    They also don't have actual critical mass, they're loud but I firmly believe there's more of "us" than "them" but we keep telling "us" to stop being so demanding and just accommodate "them" more because it's "our fault" that they're this way.

    The people doing the work of education and thus change, are already frequently the most marginalized. What I do for change is different than when I post on the internet about an article that contains an exhausting repetition of a blame-shifting narrative.

    If someone is taking an action to spite or hurt someone else they're being an asshole. My typical solution to that is to individually, nicely, ask them why they're being an asshole, pointing out the impact of their actions and the motivation they're expressing. But I'm not the therapist or educator for the world. In my tiny realm, I do an excellent job.

    Here, I'm going to say the very basic thing that "hurting others is bad behavior" and see if I can get told I'm not being nice enough a dozen more times. I don't see much analysis here and I'm not sure why I get graced with the tone policing of it all.

    9 votes

  16. Comment on Is British English actually better than American English? in ~humanities.languages

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    And like I said, it's fine, I understood you, and the English language and society in general was no worse off for it. It's only the irony that was relevant.

    And like I said, it's fine, I understood you, and the English language and society in general was no worse off for it.

    It's only the irony that was relevant.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Is British English actually better than American English? in ~humanities.languages

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Nope just interested in the topic and felt pointing out that you undermined your own argument twice, and thus IMO disproved your thesis, was the clearest way to respond. Putting the way you speak...

    In contrast, I found both Fae's and your responses to my question felt pretty combative and/or hostile.

    Nope just interested in the topic and felt pointing out that you undermined your own argument twice, and thus IMO disproved your thesis, was the clearest way to respond. Putting the way you speak in a place of superiority over another's more inferior speech will nearly always result in a typo at minimum, it's basically a rule of the internet.

    5 votes

  18. Comment on Pizza Hut reinstating the BOOK IT! program in ~books

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    Fwiw I think the "branding" would have been less successful without those meaningful memories. Your mom is as responsible for your fondness for Pizza hut as Book It! is, probably a good deal more....

    Fwiw I think the "branding" would have been less successful without those meaningful memories. Your mom is as responsible for your fondness for Pizza hut as Book It! is, probably a good deal more.

    from someone who recently bought red plastic tumblers because they're a nostalgic pizza hut aesthetic (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

    2 votes

  19. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link Parent
    I genuinely don't know how to read it as anything other than being rude and uncharitable but I acknowledge you saying that wasn't your intent. And maybe that's because I'm really deeply tired of...

    I genuinely don't know how to read it as anything other than being rude and uncharitable but I acknowledge you saying that wasn't your intent. And maybe that's because I'm really deeply tired of being told I, personally, am the reason for people not wanting to engage on this site and in these sorts of threads and that I make their Tildes experience worse to the extent of people DMing me that they quit the site because of me and one doing it dramatically and publicly. And while you're very kind in this response that message still sort of continues here.

    I genuinely just disagreed with your take, not because I think you suck, or you didn't live up to an imagined purity test, but because I disagreed with the thing you said. I don't care about internet votes one way or the other, it's not a relevant metric to me.

    Thanks for the kindness here. I hear and appreciate it, genuinely, despite disagreeing with you and my other feelings on the matter.

    12 votes

  20. Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society

    DefinitelyNotAFae
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I just disagree with standing ground being a losing strategy or that being non binary is a bridge too far When folks respond to this overblown rage with very simple but popular statements like how...

    I just disagree with standing ground being a losing strategy or that being non binary is a bridge too far When folks respond to this overblown rage with very simple but popular statements like how everyone deserves to be allowed to work, rent or own a home, feed their families, or that everyone deserves equal protection under the law, even people we may not know well, not understand or disagree with, voters seem to go for it. When people get wishy washy about trans people or human rights in general, the left bails and the liberals are stunned to find the right winning.

    You don't beat them by buying into the bullshit you beat them by having values and better marketing while pointing out how "they" want to end women's right to vote.

    I mean even the Pope is standing his ground on the matter more than some pundits think Dems should.

    7 votes