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Tue Dec 10 06:00:01 UTC 2024 ======================================== Slept from eleven-thirty to seven. Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s. Southwest winds up to 10 mph. # Work * 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM IIPA scrum * 01:00 PM - 01:45 PM CTO demand team sync * 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM Org mgmt status report draft review * 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM CTO all SA call * 04:30 PM - 05:00 PM IIPA sync with Tah Yang # Home * [ ] build Pi-hole for home network * [ ] exercise for ten minutes * [ ] schedule dentist appointment * [ ] schedule optometrist appointment Read more of The Mountain in the Sea. https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/24/mall-ninja-prophecy/#mano-a-mano > Prepping is what happens when you are consumed by the fantasy of a terrible omnicrisis that _you_ can solve, personally. It's an individualistic fantasy, and that makes it inherently neoliberal. Neoliberalism's mind-zap is to convince us all that our only role in society is as an individual ("There is no such thing as society" – M. Thatcher). If we have a workplace problem, we must bargain with our bosses, and if we lose, our choices are to quit or eat shit. Under no circumstances should we solve labor disputes through a union, especially not one that wins strong legal protections for workers and then holds the government's feet to the fire. > > Same with bad corporate conduct: getting ripped off? Caveat emptor! Vote with your wallet and take your business elsewhere. Elections are slow and politics are boring. But "vote with your wallet" turns retail therapy into a form of civics. > > This individualistic approach to problem solving does useful work for powerful people, because it keeps the rest of us thoroughly powerless. Voting with your wallet is casting a ballot in a rigged election that's always won by the people with the thickest wallets, and statistically, that's never you. That's why the right is so obsessed with removing barriers to election spending: the wealthy can't win a one-person/one-vote election (to be in the 1% is to be outnumbered 99:1), but unlimited campaign spending lets the wealthy vote in real elections using their wallets, not just just ballots. > You know these imaginary disasters: "FEMA death camps, 'great replacement theory,' the 'Great Reset,' fifteen-minute cities, 5G towers being beacons of mind control, and microchips installed in people through vaccines." As Seymour writes, these conspiracy fantasies are proliferated by authoritarian regimes and their supporters, especially as real disasters rage around them. > > For example, during the Oregon wildfires, people who were threatened by blazing forests that hit 800'C refused to evacuate because they'd been convinced that the fires were set by antifa arsonists in a bid to "wipe out white conservative Christians." They barricaded themselves in their fire-threatened homes, brandishing guns and prepping for the antifa mob. > > Seymour says that this "disaster nationalism" "processes disaster in a way that is actually quite enlivening." Confronted with the helplessness of a real disaster that can only be solved through the collective action you've been told is both impossible and a Communist plot, you retreat to an individualistic disaster fantasy that you can play an outsized role in. Every crisis – the climate emergency, poverty, a toxic environment – is replaced by "bad people" and you can go get them. Washed linens. Servings: grains 5/6, fruit 0/4, vegetables 2/4, dairy 2/2, meat 3/3, nuts 1/0.5 Breakfast: cookies Lunch: coffee, ramen with broccoli, egg, and sausage Dinner: gyro

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