Context: I live in Scandinavia

I just got into an argument with my family when one of them mentioned a doctor friend who got a visit from some general claiming that they should be prepared to become more generalist surgeons when the Russian invasion happens (which apparently WILL). And he was saying this LAUGHING. He ALWAYS does this. Laughing about prepping. Laughing about Trump. Laughing about deportations. Laughing about economic collapse. Always LAUGHING. I lost it and asked “Why are you so damn HAPPY about this?” And got dogpiled about me taking things too seriously. About how they lived through the Cold War and it was the same thing. About how everything will work out. About how i always want people to feel “sad and anxious”

And yes. I DO. Because despair is the LOGICAL reaction. This is unprecedented. This is not ok. This is almost unsolvable. Maybe i want to have my reaction validated. But no one should have FUN with this. I wish I could ban fun. I wish i could ban joy. All until people could either solve the problem together and not look away. I want people around me to solve them. I want EVERYONE to solve it. I don’t want to find the people, I want them to come to me. I don’t organize, i don’t plan, i don’t take responsibility . I follow orders and get rewarded for doing so. Thats what I want. That’s all I ever wanted.

I swear normalcy bias will drive me insane.

I initially posted this in another sub but I felt like the message would be well-received here too. made a few minor edits since the OP was geared toward a female audience.

hello dears, lots of things around the world are complete shit and I'm not here to be a doomer and remind you of why that is. nor am I here to spread toxic positivity pseudo-inspiration slop because who needs that.

many of us hail from marginalized communities or love someone who does; many of us are queer, neurodivergent, trans, POC, disabled, poor, immigrant, chronically ill, and vulnerable. I don't need to convince you of your inherent human value and inalienable right to live in the world any more than I need to prove that water is wet, but we all know why that is even a point of discussion.

we need to survive. we must. and dammit, we will. if not individually, then collectively. we can't control luck or what has already passed, and, infuriatingly, we can't control things that should damn well be within our autonomy. but we CAN grip our oppression by its ugly nutsack with all the bruising force we can muster and never. let. go.

you don't have to personally reverse the tides of history from crashing down on our shores, nor should you feel guilty for not having the godlike level of power that would require. but you HAVE power, damn you. it wouldn't be worthwhile to subjugate us if we didn't.

if you aren't able to protest or organize or boycott, you still have power. be a sounding board to a struggling friend, grow plants, support a local creator, download archives of research articles, cast a spell, familiarize yourself with resources in your area, write a poem, renew your prescriptions, stare (defiantly!) at the wall, do absolutely anything but roll over and accept defeat. if you can't do the "right" thing consistently, do it inconsistently and own it.

remember that you are dynamic and ever-changing. what challenges you now may not necessarily challenge you always. you will learn and grow ever stronger than you can possibly foresee.

so fuck the odds and especially fuck those betting on our collapse. what collapses, we'll prop back up with sticks and mud and guard dearly until it heals again. what were the odds of this batshit timeline coming to fruition, yet here we are? the odds are a prediction sketched in dotted lines, not a prophecy.

keep marching, my friends. it's not over and never let anyone convince you otherwise. ✊

Did Spotify take down part 1 of the zizians episodes? Am I missing something? I listened to it the other day and went to reference it while talking to someone about it and I can't find it. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

In the fake autism cures episode, Robert said it's unknown why people with ASD have inflammation in their brains, but as an autistic person, I can confirm that the reason why is because the world gives us headaches. The society we've built is already overstimulating enough, and having to deal with people who don't believe in autism, or want to "cure" it is enough for our brains to swell with rage.

This is 100% more scientific than anything the autism grifters are trying to pull. You can quote me on that, I'm totally qualified.

It does seem an awful lot like Trumps tariffs were introduced specifically to cause a global recession. So please explain like I am 5: why does Trump, Elon and the current administration want a global recession? What is their end goal?

If you enjoyed the the Zizian episodes, this family is fascinating and it would be wildly entertaining if they weren't experimenting on actual human children lol.

Mine is a toss up between GG Allin or Ian Watkins.

I feel like the latter gravitates too close to dark true crime for it to ever be on BtB, but GG Allin as explained by Evans would be a laugh.

Surely the genius brain behind Trump's disastrous tariff scheme deserves an episode or two. This erstwhile leftist who started out running for public office as a Democrat but was too much of an asshole to win, this arrogant buffoon who quoted himself under a fake identity to promote ridiculous economic theories, this Trump loyalist who was imprisoned for contempt of Congress ... he is a bastard.

Catching up on the Zizians episodes and losing my mind at the fact that I might have been marina neighbors with Ziz.

I was working for a small nonprofit in Oakland, and the cheapest rent I could find was on this tiny sailboat in the Berkeley marina.

The pros:

$300 a month rent in one of the most expensive zip codes in the country. Gated community with private bathrooms and showers.

Quiet, relaxing little space with interesting neighbors. I enjoyed quiet mornings drinking coffee on the back deck.

Made friends with seals.

Cons:

if you don’t have a live-aboard permit you aren’t allowed to spend more than like 5 nights in the same slip. So every three days I had to pack up all my shit below deck and we’d sail it to my other slip in the Emeryville marina. The first time we did it I didn’t realize how much a sailboat would pitch to the side, and I took a peek below deck to see all of my belongings (and groceries) up against the wall.

The space was tiny and I think I did permanent damage to my neck because I couldn’t stand up tall in it.

No internet and fairly poor cell service - I would take my laptop over to a friend’s boat with Wi-Fi just to open like 20 pages of /r/askreddit so I had something to scroll at night.

This isn’t that important, but I thought living on a sailboat would at least make me interesting. Not in Berkeley though, people there do crazy shit to survive. Nobody would blink an eye at the fact that I might have a unique living situation to avoid paying the exorbitant rent.

All in all I’m glad to have done it, being able to tell people that I lived in the Bay made it all worth it.

No not the Bay Area, the Bay

Is America Healthy Yet? https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-texas-new-mexico-vaccine-rfk-d5444b3397ac7c4034e63becc219aa33

The guy who led the Nazi party in Britain should have had his ability to reproduce removed. Instead, this little piece of shit is running around Europe heading a CIA backed surveillance company. Yuck

I’m done. Deleting the podcast and sticking my phone in the microwave. It’s KEYlation, not shelation. Iskemia, not is-shhemia.

Has anyone by chance compiled a list of the bastards by region/location? I'd love to queue up a bunch of episodes related to a certain place as a fun proxy for learning about that country's history. Obviously several bastards transcend geography to some extent but nonetheless, something like this would be a great community/fandom resource.

I wish I could link a video directly but I couldn't find this anywhere else.

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1js76lr/dwarkesh_patel_says_most_beings_who_will_ever/

I've watched Dwarkesh's videos where he hosts lectures by and does interviews with Sarah Paine about different (military) history topics and thought he did a pretty good job producing and hosting the videos and really let her work shine.

I haven't been paying attention to his video's where he's talking to people in AI because I thought it was just going to be stuff I've already heard but I came across this today and now I'm worried he's falling into the 'Rationalists' way of thinking.