I guess the issue with those types of actions is that it leads to consequences that the people currently in power would be happy with. If people can just stop paying taxes on mass when they don’t like the government it pretty much gives permission for it as a political protest from now on.

I’m not saying that it is definitely a bad idea to give the public a veto on any government policy they don’t like, but it certainly promotes small government. Part of the point of government spending is spending money on things that some people don’t want, whether that’s ‘obamacare’ or the Pentagon. A government that was worried about avoiding any sizable tax strike would never be able to spend money on anyrhing but the most basic and widely accepted expenses. Even “law and order” which is often one of the few roles libertarians support spending on isn’t widely accepted anymore with ‘defund the police’.

Secondly, although part of a strike or protest is about causing disruption as a stick to put pressure on agreeing to demands, part of it is also on performing “costly displays”. Posting memes may raise awareness for an issue, but its unlikely to sway people to your side as literally setting yourself on fire. One is easy, one is horrific, and when someone does something ‘costly’ it let’s people see how much this matters to them. And asking me to not pay my taxes isn’t a big ask, it benefits me (in the short term at least), while with a labour strike you are usually sacrificing pay to make a point, which shows how important it is to you.

All the time. But I don’t see it as a bad thing. I love rewatching shows, and I can really enjoy a show, then years later rewatch it and realise I have a whole season and a half of new episodes!

I’m not sure if they’re what you’re looking for, but their are various little mental exercises you can do depending on what your trying to achieve.

Relaxing visualisations - if I’m trying to sleep and I’m too worked up about something to relax, I close my eyes and visualise a peaceful scene, e.g. being on a warm tropical beach, the heat of the sun lulling me to sleep, the gentle lapping of the ocean… It doesn’t always put me immediately to sleep, but it helps get my brain out of the problem-solving stress mode.

Sensory engagement - if I’m feeling anxious and getting stuck in a panicky loop, I try to engage my senses. Notice four things around you that you can see, three you can hear, two that you can smell, and a texture you can touch (a stone wall, your jacket’s fabric). This works well because when I’m stressed my brain doesn’t want to be told to “calm down”, it’s trying to warn me of danger. So instead of forcing some relaxation, I engage my senses, checking my surroundings, and generally there is no danger, just the hubub of normal life. This reminds my lizard brain that although being worried about missing a deadline is stressful, I’m not in immediate physical danger and should calm tf down.

Sense of perspective - when we are in an emergency our sense of time shrinks so we only focus on the immediate problem. As we relax, we become better able to consider the larger future. This is great in a crisis, but also leads to dumb overreactions. So, if something goes wrong, and in the grand scheme of things it’s actually not a big deal, but to me right now it feels like the worst, I use this technique. I visualise my surroundings and then begin zooming out, viewing my self from above, seing the room and then the building, the pulling out like a map tool, seeing the area, the country, the globe. I sometimes continue, visualising the solar system and the milky way. After that, it feels a lot easier to shrug and accept that whatever embaressment or frustration felt like it was going to ruin my day is, in fact, just not that important.

Was hearing something from an English literature professor recently. He was arguing that we were on track to have a new cultural renaissance, because historically cultural transformations have come when the ‘guardians of culture’ (the tastesetters, the academy, etc) spend all their time in ever increasing arcane and self-referential debates. Then groups from outside of the cultural institutional power start doing something very new and vibrant and it ends up transforming cultural expression.

I guess the downside is that even ‘soon’ in this context could be 50 years, and it’s quite likely you won’t recognise or like what the new art when it emerges. Renaissance art is beautiful, but at the time it was seen as base and anti-intellectual, taking the abstract symbolism of medieval art and replacing it with “this statue of a guy looks reeeealllly like a irl guy doesn’t it!” Uhh, well done Michaelangelo, I can see a naked guy whenever I go to the baths, what does your ‘art’ say about his place is the cosmic order, his eternal destiny and the state of his soul?

I guess if that was the fundamental nature of reality, then stuff would be exactly as it is.

Nothing surprising in there for me (although I’ve met some people who would benefit from reading it…) but then I started reading it from the perspective of self-talk.

I know I wouldn’t accuse someone with adhd of “always overreacting” and I’d never tell them "you’d have so much potential if you just try harder.” But I wonder how often I think that to myself, and how little good it does…

Well, my close friends and I felt similar when we were young. Now we’re middle aged and realised we had a mix of undiagnosed neurodiversity, and are now are now on doctor-prescribed cannabis and/or stimulants.

I know that if my adhd meds were stopped, I’d have to go back to self-medicating with booze, weed and street drugs. But having access to reliable clean stimulants that help me do the stuff I want to do, have hobbies and keep a steady job and long-term relationships, has been life transforming. I’ve had a jar of weed in my drawer for over a year, because I’ve gone from smoking weed everyday to once every few months. And it’s not because I think weed is bad, or not fun, but just because my life is so much more rich and satisfying and busy (in a good way) that I don’t need to get baked to make it manageable.

Edit: didn’t mean for that sound preachy. There’s no problem with not being ‘sober’ of it works for you. But if there’s some underlying issue that the intoxicants help you deal with, I just wanted to share that it can be amazing if you can sort the issue out rather than mask it. But there’s always space for a delicious cocktail, some fragrant bud or taking some mushrooms at a rave in the deep forest.

Had a quick search on Google scholar, lots of stuff comparing general rates of engagement with hobbies in different countries, especially linked to helping older people. Thiscompares some countries, and observes that both wealth and wealthy inequality lead to less engagement with hobbies (which is why the US is relatively low).

I found this one that discusses how covid impacted different types of hobbies in various countries, but I couldn’t see a quick table of hobby prevalence. Just comments about stuff like cooking being more affected by covid in anglophone and Hispanic countries.

It’s worth giving it a go! Here’s a recipe that bakes a foccacia at 200°. At worst it’ll be less than perfect, but it’ll definitely be edible!

It would be helpful to know what you’re baking? It might be cooking longer at lower temperature, but it might also be about adjusting the size (a larger cake is usually cooked at a lower temperature to allow the centre to cook before the outside over-browns).

While it’s absolutely true that baking is a strict formula, I don’t agree that not reaching a given temperature means it’s necessarily doomed. It might achieve a somewhat different outcome, but for a whole bunch of baked goods a lower or higher temperature with adjusted time will produce something perfectly acceptable.

As you say, most people have no idea what temperature their oven actually produces, or fail to adjust for the strength of fan assist or placement in the oven. Sometimes this leads to frustration and failure, but many delicious cookies have been baked with imprecission.

I’ve got some tiles on my keys and my earbud case. I’m mostly pretty good with my keys (thy have hook hy the front door), but for the occasional time I’ve need to find them in a rush and they aren’t where they should be the tile has been very helpful. The ear bud one I use multiple times a week, and before I had it I’d regularly waste hours searching through my clothes and bags looking for my headphones (only to find that they fallen off the table and were now in a shoe or something).

So, if you’re prone to misplacing stuff they’re amazing. But if you never lose stuff then I doubt they’ll be very helpful.

This. Winning the peace prize doesn’t mean you’re a saint, it means you’ve further world peace. Most things in politics are so complex and involve so many different actors and factions that it’s impossible to really boil stuff down and know whether the motivations are ‘worthy’. Most peace is achieved by international arrangements that make it more attractive for decision-makers to choose peace over war, often for very selfish reasons.

I was completely opposed to anyone winning one for the recent change in Isreal / Palestine, because until we see the fallout from it I’m skeptical any meaningful peace has been achieved. If Russia remove all their troops, and Ukraine is at peace, and Isreal are no longer genociding, then sure give him the peace prize. That’s the point of awards and shit, to make it tempting to do good even when it doesn’t immediately benefit you personally.

It’s an understandable reaction, but it’s not ideal or effective. In fact, depression and apathy is one of the key mechanisms of keeping a group oppressed.

Fighting to maintain power is costly and risky, but if someone can make people give up hope and stop struggling, then they can do what they want to them.

I might be a soyboy but at least I’m not fashy.

But don’t we have lots of insults for other categories of people? People call people soyboys, incels, tankies, fashy, bible thumper, nepo babies or basement dweller.

Aren’t those just the modern version of “jocks” and “limeys” (I went for those because I’m Scottish and British, you can mentally fill in the alternatives…)

I’ve not noticed that in particular yet. but it might be because I block accounts that don’t add constructively to the comments, so maybe I’m not seeing a lot of the worst behaviour.

I’d say, post as often as you can be bothered and make interesting content. I rarely pay attention to the username beside a post, so I’m unlikely to judge that it’s the same person who posts 99% of posts in a less popular community. But if I see lots of examples of posts on a topic, it’s easier for me to remember about it and think “I’ll post there”.

What interface/appnare you using? On boost its exactly the same process for upvotes or downvotes. I don’t think an extra step would make any difference, I don’t downvote very often and when I do it’s because I think it’s worth doing.

Yeah, never feel like it’s too late to start something. There’s stuff (learning an instrument, language, craft stuff) I considered getting into in my 30s but felt like it was too late. Now I’m 40 and I’ve started and I wish I’d done it ten years ago, because I’d be so much further ahead.