askchapo

I always believed religion was incompatible with a society rooted in addressing material reality, although I know we have have religious users and wanted to hear people's takes.

By this I mean some sort of media IP, but one that isn't privately owned. How could an IP like this be managed, including characters, lore, etc?

Sort of related, but Pulgasari is rad as fuck and it would be cool to turn it into some kind of shared project. Maybe a dumb idea, but I just think it would be neat.

Seriously, though. Are these things really that popular?

Asked this a year ago apparently, and now that we have some new comrades here, let's see how this thread goes!

"Since 2008, gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy have been available free of charge under Cuba’s national healthcare system."

What's the waiting time and quality of care on this? Is it actually well implemented or is it just a law with no funding behind it? How tolerant is the Cuban culture? Is the remaining intolerance mostly from the Spanish colony's Catholicism or did Castro's homophobia leave a lasting impact? Why was Castro homophobic? Were there really concentration camps?

"Since 2008, gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy have been available free of charge under Cuba’s national healthcare system."

What's the waiting time and quality of care on this? Is it actually well implemented or is it just a law with no funding behind it? How tolerant is the Cuban culture? Is the remaining intolerance mostly from the Spanish colony's Catholicism or did Che's homophobia leave a lasting impact? Why was Che homophobic? Were there really concentration camps?

????

I've looked it up a bit, but the search algorithm is so inundated with shit around the topic I thought I'd try here instead for some pointers.

When libs bring it up I usually engage in some 'whataboutism' and pivot to saying if they think that's an assault on democracy, what about CambridgeAnalytica, or worse, what about the fact that the US funnels EXORBITANT amounts of money into global media manipulation to destroy entire countries.

Good sources anyone? Reading? Podcasts?

BONUS: I'm also struggling to find the source of the exact figures of the US funnelling money towards destabilisation of countries, sometimes worth more than the networths of the countries themselves, or something absurd like that.

EDIT: Thanks for the replies. Somehow the reality of it was lower than my already very low expectations.

So I do like Star Trek a lot, especially TNG, DS9, and Below Decks. Voyager and TOS are fine. Space socialism is pretty good and I can't get enough of it. There are a few common tropes that irk me. tho.

1. Baseball is cracker Amerikkkan nonsense - You telling me that all these different species and planets get together to chill, and the vibe they're gonna channel is Ohio?? Football (soccer) or some version of hockey make a lot more sense, you can pick up and start playing immediately. I can't imagine Worf wanting to learn all those pointless rules about balls and strikezones and fowls. Sisko is arguably the best captain of any series, and I really get pulled out of an episode every time he drops some awful baseball trivia. It's only slightly better than Nascar. I actually know one Scottish person who really likes baseball, and he's literally the worst person I know.

2. The tribunal - It's so damn common. It seems like every season there's got to be a court-martial, hearing, or appeal against a Starfleet decision. I guess Law and Order is big there. It's probably a minor critique, but it does reinforce the ideology that Western courtrooms are fair.

3. Kirk is a sex pest - This has been said to death, but leave your subordinates alone.

4. Poker in TNG - Poker has to be the worst form of entertainment, and I genuinely like maths. I blame TNG for reigniting the poker craze of the 90s and ruining all my guy friends' personalities.

i'll start. i saw a ask reddit post saying something along the lines of "men of reddit whats something women can't understand" and the comments were just. oh my god. the main one that made me want to puke was "when dudes walk by each other and nod" and the whole fucking thread was just fedoras with arms soypogging like it was some secret language or something. "when you nod upwards, it means respect!!!!!1!!11 when you nod downwards its aggression!!!1!11!!!!!" as if women dont do the same shit.

do you guys have something similar to share?

All these politics podcasts are making me sad, and I need shit to listen to, at work

I don't really know much about him except that everyone seems to hate him too.

Unrelated ramble: This election reminds me of the leadup to the election that Ventura won in Minnesota with 2 guys everyone hated leaving it ripe for a weird third party to win. I don't suspect RFK could pull it off, because I think Ventura's celebrity and centrism was an important part of that formula.

Just over the last few years it went virtual reality, blockchain and crypto crap, and now chatbots.

What will the next fad be? I'd like to know so I can convince one of these VC ghouls that they should give me money for vaporware.

I couldn't remember what "phatic" meant so I looked it up. And then I found a NYT article that I really liked.

Phatic expression

In linguistics, a phatic expression (English: FAT-ik) is a communication which primarily serves to establish or maintain social relationships.

archive.today • Hihowareya? We Asked, and You Answered - The New York Times

By Emily S. Rueb

May 24, 2010

When you ask someone "how are you," do you really care?

As Jennifer Seager wrote in this weekend's Complaint Box in the Metropolitan section, people don't.

"Where was I on the day that "hihowareya" became one long word devoid of meaning? I must be asked at least 10 times a day how I am, but I have yet to find one person who actually wants to know. This drives me absolutely crazy."

"I had not realized how much the pointlessness of this much-repeated phrase annoyed me until last summer," she wrote, "when I came upon a lady on the street who was walking with her head down. As we approached each other, she suddenly looked up and asked 'Hihowareya?' I was pleasantly surprised by this sudden inquiry about my well-being. But before my brain could conjure up an answer, she had walked right on by."

It's a strangely meaningless gesture that one should never extend during a time of grieving or sickness, but many readers sought to ascribe a deeper meaning to this seemingly innocuous phrase.

Anyone who has learned a Romance language knows that this greeting has a textbook reply, but Americans have yet to adopt a uniform response, which drives English scholars and protectors of the language mad. The response should be "very well, thank you." But others say it's a vestige of a bygone era, when men wore bowler caps and ladies carried dainty umbrellas to shield their delicate skin from the sun's rays. But like many of these dressed-up customs and traditions in our culture, "How do you do?" has come to be like a silent consonant in our loud vernacular.

But maybe it's a geographic thing, as a few Texans suggested. Away from the coasts, they say, the gesture is accepted with grace and aplomb. It's also very American. One reader pointed out that in Chinese, a common way of saying hello is to ask if you've eaten. But you're not expected to answer.

Still, the greeting is a ritual courtesy. "It's not designed to elicit your true state of mind or body, in which nobody but friends and family (and not always them) is interested," wrote SKV. "The response is, 'Finehowryou?' and you don't have to wait for details."

Here, unedited, are several comments we especially liked:

An Invitation

I always take the question at face value and give a hearty but polite assessment of my current state of being. Then I return the question, and nearly every person responds with their own self-report, old guys with ironed-in frowns being the chief exception. Such exchanges always make me feel good. Courtesy isn't dead, exactly, just in hiding, waiting for an invitation.

I may sound pollyanna. Wrong. I'm a cynical ad copywriter. But a world of people is what I've got, so I make the best of it.

— J

Goodnyou

The answer to "Hihowareya?" is "Goodnyou?"

No need to work yourself into a snit about it.

— Kimiko

Phatic Communication

The author is describing what linguists classify as "phatic communication" or "small talk." No need to get upset. It's a way of greeting each other. Perhaps the best response is "Do you really want to know?" If the answer is yes, then the conversation can become "emphatic."

— T.G.

A Harmless Greeting

I'm with #16 — while the perso asking may not really care about my answer, I do appreciate the acknowledgment that someone other than them exists.

We walk about NY everyday whipping right by people who could – if we stopped for one second – end up being good friends, colleagues, old school friends, etc etc.

If someone considers saying the short "hihowareya", I'm okay with that — it creates a split second connection that could do a lot of people a lot of good.

— Nas

We were having a great convo about voting, then he dabbed, called me old and said skibidi toilet on his way out the door. Smdh my damn head.

Kids these days.

Maybe those go hand-in-hand but when I tell you it’s bad, it’s bad. I am the person who is clowned for not recognizing x country on a map

What would be the best way to complete such a feat

Does anyone have good news sources? I am pretty wary of swallowing the state department line that this is all due to “gang violence”… particularly given how racially coded that language is, and when I read into the stories it says they’re mostly attacking government and police buildings. I see embassy personnel are being airlifted. Mainly trying to figure out who are the factions/what is going on

A social democrat friend who knows basically nothing about socialism and was a berniecrat is looking for book recommendations, what is a good book to recommend to him?

I sort of dived in the deep end when I first started (perhaps unproductively ) and I they're the type of person who would probably benefit a lot from nice prose and nothing SUPER heavy, but I also know a lot of intro books are full of BS that needs to be deprogrammed later(especially stuff that includes left-anticommunism) so I'm being cautious.

What would you recommend?

The Amazon Labor Twitter hasn't posted since April 2022. They have so far been unsuccessful in unionizing any other Amazon facilities. According to this article, the union's funding has dried up since 2022, and workers in the ALU sued the union for alleged anti-democratic practices in 2023.

Is it over for them?