I could do without the US scholarly convention (at least in history) of listing every publication that ever addressed a given question, even in passing. The pretense of complete coverage is exhausting and absurd. It would be so much more helpful if authors referred instead only to the works that were essential and let those of us who are so inclined dig for more.
It's been a grind, but I'm finally making progress on the SaaS frontend to this whole project. My idea is it can be a portal where game communities can publish their community to advertise for new members. This will tie into the existing self-hosted Warlock framework for Linux servers and will serve as a complementary service for those groups who want to advertise, (completely optional; the self-hosted project isn't changing).
Currently the idea will be to enable this service to user…
After the whole Adam Something "dating advice for leftist men" thing, I realized I should probably write something about that. I didn't, but I realized I should. Here I am sort of getting around to it.
I had a friend call me an "elder" at one point. I was like 35 at that time, but like... a lot of old leftists are just dead or in prison, so we take what we can get I guess. Being also an elder in the sense that I'm an elder millennial, who is also a parent and married for almost 10 years and all that, I guess I'm technically qualified.
So here it is, dating advice for (straight cis) leftist men:
1. Don't.
That's it, actually. That's the whole thing. Let me explain a bit.
First of all, this is dating advice for neuroatypical folks. We're way overrepresented in both extremes because this system wasn't built for us. And that's who is *the most* confused by all the relationship stuff, and most likely to try to apply all this masculinity/manosphere bullshit. I'm also talking a bit from experience here, as a neruo-spicy trying to "figure out" how to date within a paradigm entirely built around neurotypicals and their relationships. It's garbage. Throw it out. There's nothing worth saving.
His video had some line comparing not having sex to your house being on fire. I'm not gonna bother to quote it because I'm busy with actual life. But like, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I recognize that and it's horribly destructive. Men who buy in to patriarchy actually believe this, because those men value themselves based on (hetro) sex. Yeah, if you think you're worthless because you aren't "getting laid" then yeah, you're gonna feel like that's an emergency.
"Dating" as a paradigm turns humans into roles. It dehumanizes us all, and thus makes human connection much harder. It is a game that, like thermonuclear war, can only be won by not playing.
When you abandon "dating" and just act like a human, everything starts to be easier. There's no such thing as being "friend zoned" because you're just friends. Sometimes friendships become other things, sometimes they don't. It doesn't actually matter, because if you're actually there for friendship then you don't *need* anything else.
My grandma, at 98 I think, gave me some advice. My grandparents always got along well, and were married for enough decades that I listened really closely. She told me I should just do things I loved to do and everything else would work itself out.
And it kind of did.
I understand the fear, the idea that you'll die alone. I get that. I get the loneliness. It all hits a lot harder when you have ADHD emotions and past trauma. I get that. But that fear is self-manifesting. When you build your confidence, when you don't *need* to be "in a relationship," you have more room to actually build relationships. For me, dating was dehumanizing. When I abandoned that, I was able to actually be a good partner, and I was able to find my partner.
I would advise against marriage as well, but we did get married for legal reasons. It can still be hard to maintain that, to see each other as people rather than roles. That becomes extra hard as parents. But the times that we cut through that are the times we're closest. Those are the times when it becomes easier to remember that we're both humans and all human relationships need tending.
Roles don't need to be tended because they are classifications. Classifications are static. But relationships between humans are not. Humans are messy and chaotic. Humans have all kinds of complex needs and desires.
So yeah, don't date. Just be a human and see what happens. Maybe google "relationship anarchy" and see where it takes you.
If you have ADHD, it can be especially useful to understand that relationships with neurotypical folks can be especially difficult. Assume you're incompatible with 90% of the population as your baseline, and you'll start to understand why the standard "dating" thing has made you feel so alienated and miserable.
Neurotypical folks generally have no idea that atypicality exists, much less how it impacts relationships. Having to conform to a neurotypical relationship just adds additional mental strain unless you find someone (really special) who can do at least some of the work.
The ADHD thing was especially important for me. There were so many things I was told to do in specific ways by neurotypicals that never worked for me. Their advice always made me feel like a failure. When I was finally diagnosed, I realized they were just giving advice for the wrong type of brain. It was advice I could never use. Basically all dating advice I ever got fell into this same category.
That's my braindump. Maybe I'll develop it more in the future, but I'm busy so maybe not. I hope it helps someone who is struggling like I was.
Canal says it will "roll out a major evolution of the Canal App" using OpenAI's tech to "power content search and discovery", and signs a Google Cloud AI deal (Georg Szalai/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywood…
Because @…’s Flipboard site won’t scroll for me (?!?), here’s the paragraph with the punch:
❝It’s worth noting that over the decades, Pixar has explored topics such as, but [not*] limited to: becoming a widower, suddenly becoming a single or adoptive parent, environmental collapse, existential dread, motherhood, and job burnout. The first Incredibles has a subplot where Elastigirl thinks Mr. Incredible is having an affair, Toy Story 3 has the toys accept death by furnace, and Elemental is about interracial relationships. The last two movies Docter directed were Soul, which is about a Black man finding joy in his life again, and Inside Out—maybe the most therapy-ass movie (and series) in the studio’s entire 40-year tenure—is about messy preteen emotions that lead to its main character running away from home.❞
* The word “not” is missing in the original, surely an editorial mistake?
https://flipboard.com/@gizmodo/i09-ifm0rl1hz/-/a-M010weUPTnu1lZIfiOE3oQ:a:1876139665-/0
Slice, which uses AI agents to encode tax policies and legal rules across 60 countries, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight, taking its total funding to $32M (Mary Ann Azevedo/This Week in Fintech)
https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/slice-ra
There might be nothing I hate more than when a company deletes all record of a product from their web site.
Just list it as discontinued, keep any manuals or documentation, show it as 'no longer available', but damn, don't pretend it did not exist. We both know it did!
I'm not a fan of more laws, but a consumer protection law/rule for this would be welcome.
Le Monde says it has seen a "significant amount of new revenue", including via subscriptions, after licensing content to OpenAI, Perplexity, and Meta (Alice Brooker/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/
RFK Jr. Says He's Ending the War on Protein. It Doesn't Exist (Sam Eagan/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr-says-hes-ending-the-war-on-protein-it-doesnt-exist/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260116/p57#a260116p57
It’s hard for me to imagine more clear-cut defiance of the injunction. These shits are trying to run the legal blockade by pretend pretending it doesn’t even exist — and Bovino is not only fully aware but physically present for it. Contempt of court is completely meaningless at this point; I dare any judge to prove me wrong.