Poogona

joined 3 years ago
[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

I KNOW MORE ABOUT HAGFISH THAN ANYONE IN THIS THREAD

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Here's a data point for you regarding Christianity (coming from someone who is not particularly spiritual at all full disclosure)

For a while before the first crusade, the church gained a huge amount of popular support and devotion when it managed to enact the Truce of God which basically forbade the constantly feuding warrior elite class, the knights, from pillaging on a few days of the week. It was mostly done as a way to give the peasantry a chance to actually do some agriculture amidst all the pummeling, but the peasantry understandably saw the church as an institution that acted in their interest. Fast forward to the first crusade, and there was almost a mass hysteria event as people, whose only chances at comfort for their whole lives had pretty much been downstream of the church, believed Pope Urban's propaganda about the Turks wholeheartedly.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I don't subscribe to the idea that religions are some kind of evil anti-intellectual force to be eradicated, their becoming the providers of people's material needs represents a failure of some kind. The hierarchical structure of the average major religion just lends itself too easily to exploitation imo.

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

THE POINT OF LIFE BECOMES OBVIOUS WHEN YOU ARE BITING INTO THAT-A DELICIOSO AUTHENTIC PIZZA PIE

also talking

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

I have had a few nights where I just climbed out of bed with no sleep before sunrise and just stood outside feeling numb and lost

But you know what? I told people about it, most of them couldn't say more than "same dude," but a couple of people chose those moments of admission to invite me to their discord, have a chat, etc and it kept my head above water for a while longer

Nights like those will come again for sure but today I'm flush with the love again

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Hey friendo how you doin these days?

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 0 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Feel lonely -> say to others "I feel lonely" -> others try to make me feel less lonely -> feel less lonely

It's amazing how simple this process looks when you remove "cringe hard enough that you pull your own face off" from between each step

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

that clip of zizek saying he finds tulips disgusting because of the way they are telling the bees "cohm and schkrew me"

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Man drawing these is so fun I love s y m b o l s

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

I played it as a college grad and at the time I was thinking "wow this really would have smoothed out some rough times back in my teenage years"

At that age demographic, media has an incredible responsibility to the consumer, it can be what keeps their mushy brains from collapsing inward, and all the extra attention it paid to showing you how to think about the characters outside of the context of the game really paid off for it

[–] Poogona@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

No mistaking agamids, love em all

 

How is this even possible

(Not that I don't know the answer, as my intellect is flawless)

 

This funky-looking snake is the Tentacled Snake

To answer your question, the tentacles are little sensory organs. They hunt fish underwater, so maybe they help? They have a better tool than those tentacles for hunting fish, though, and it's behavioral.

For context, fish have a few extremely quick "starts" that are deeply embedded instinctive responses to threats. They happen quicker than a larger animal can really even think, and they start with a specific bend of the body. The most studied (and the most common I think?) is the "C-start", so named because it involves the fish bending its body into a C-shape away from a threat before they start swimming away.

Snakes have quick predatory reflexes, but a fish small enough for them to eat will be quicker. To overcome this fact, tentacled snakes have an incredibly simple and elegant trick.

To put it simply, the snake "herds" the fish into its mouth. It will slide in alongside the fish out of striking range, and suddenly flick a few vertebrae down the length of its body, on the opposite side of the fish from where the snake's head is. When the fish then instinctively "c-starts" away from the movement, it flees directly into the snake's waiting mouth.

Yes, this snake abuses the fish's aggro mechanics for maximum farm efficiency

 

Title is a relationship I see brought up a lot when people are trying to figure out what individual compulsions or tendencies might be at the root of fascism, conservatism, etc. I remember Matt Christman bringing up the trauma of WW1 when describing the rise of European fascism and also describing Glenn Beck's awful Xmas special coming from a trauma-inspired hyper-sentimentality. (The state of Israel seems relevant here too but it feels super obvious and uninteresting to add it)

It makes a kind of intuitive sense to me, this idea that wounded people who lack the emotional vocabulary understand how they are hurt would propagate their trauma onto others and let this drive their politics. But I'm also annoying and therefore cautious of things that make intuitive sense, and this feels a little too "just-so."

I dunno, this site has a bunch of smarty pantses who have read about more things than funny-looking animals, which is all I know. Has anyone read anything or have anything to share about this relationship? I like a good narrative and it is a very compelling one

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