Welp. This will be stupid.

I haven’t seen an analysis from your perspective before. Lines up very well with my experience from the Southern US.

Having exported myself from the deep South to Yankee land, “Y’all have a good one!” never fails to brighten the day of someone working a cash register.

In general, folks up here really like southern politeness. They think sugar wouldn’t melt in my mouth. I get stopped in stores to talk all the time. Pretty frequently, they just give me a discount. I thought Yankees were supposed to be rude, but they’re actually really nice in public.

Found this but I don’t know how credible it is. From around the same time.

Article says numbers written, title says branded.

It’s not good, nothing about this is. However, I’m not seeing actual hot branding to foreheads.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/1/headlines/israeli_forces_detain_beat_and_brand_palestinians_after_deadly_west_bank_raid

Upvoted even though your comment created intense loathing and a little rage within me.

Looks like Ruger is not a part of this other than them buying Marlin who did it back in the day.

So I get 10 years of wealth before you harvest my soul? Just sign on the dotted line? Is this ink made from blood?

I’d watch the fuck out of that.

SPEAK UP, F**ET! FADDER CAN’T HEAR YOU!

Spacedicks was a terrible place full of terrible people, but I still feel like something has been lost.

Thank you for bringing this up. Anytime this fuckwit is allowed back in the public eye, this should be right at the top to help invalidate the shit he spews.

I mean, I have a home server setup with 32 terabytes of NAS in a RAID 5 running the *Arrs and Jellyfin pulling from Usenet. Also running Calibre and paying for Anna’s.

Like I told a friend that got huffy with me over how I do my sailing, “I been pirating since you had babyteeth.”

You can be prickly if you want, but increased piracy is a symptom of a service problem. If Netflix hadn’t gone to shit, I’d still be using it. I’m considering paying for Samsung’s art subscription for my TV.

I will pay a reasonable price for convenient media. Make it difficult or expensive enough, and I’ll sail the high seas. Time is money.

I’ve been paying for a Pandora subscription for about a decade. Worth it. (Piracy is a service problem.)

Their recommendations for similar bands, auto play, and making stations from a band or song has let me discover so much music over the years.

“cornbread with no Jiffy”

Real cornbread isn’t that sugared junk that comes in a box.

Dang. My grandmother died last fall. I visited her right before she passed. I’m estranged from the family. Didn’t go to the funeral. Found out she’s buried next to my father when I went to visit his grave before moving.

She had two cast iron skillets she made cornbread in. Crunchy crust. Beats anything you’ve had in a restaurant. When I was little she’d put a hot slice in a bowl of milk and I’d eat it like cereal.

My girl has her grandmother’s skillet. Her and the kids like the Jiffy stuff but she makes me real cornbread because she knows it’s important to me.

Post it, please?

Hey, shalafi! I always like seeing your comments. We’ve talked before.

Managed to get my family moved out of the deep South. We’re in a purple state now. The MAGAts are going nuts around here. Like primates throwing shit but instead it’s red white and blue campaign signs.

How’s it going in your neck of the woods? The Qnuts come up with anything new lately? Seeing anything spooky?

Keep your head down and your powder dry, brother.

I’m in my forties. Was raised with an apocalyptic mindset.

I really hope you’re right. Our family motto is pretty much hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

We keep a well stocked pantry, recently bought a little play farm and moved to a purple state instead of deep red. The move was a positive change for my family. COVID and political insanity gave us the push we needed to take the leap. Our friends and family mostly went deep down the rabbit hole and we didn’t have ties holding us anymore.

Anyhow, I don’t have warm fuzzies about the future, but about all I can do is build a new life in a new place for my people. Crazy is lower where we are now, schools are better, cost of living is cheaper, weather is cooler and less violent. Long term, possible grandkids are positioned better for climate change, we’ll have our little farm producing our own meat and some vegetables.

Honestly, I really hope things continue to improve. You’re right, many things have gotten better. However, I’ve seen friends and family spouting insane shit and a New York city slicker con man be worshipped. It feels different. The parallels between the Nazis and this terrify me.

Wow, you’re catching all the down votes for this. For a valid opinion. Way to go Lemmy. Points don’t matter here, so whatever.

Anyhow, I don’t have your optimism about this at all.

Would you describe yourself as a generally optimistic person?

Is it a feeling or do you have a chain of logic that causes you to conclude there will be a positive outcome?

I didn’t figure my way out until I was in my 30s. Been out of it for over a decade.

I was brainwashed, my head was full of carefully crafted indoctrination. My extended family will almost certainly never be free of it.

We were subjected to an evil process from an early age. It’s not our fault. Losing the hate and guilt is also a process. Go easy on yourself. Takes a tough person to change their entire worldview. Only a few of us make it out.

I’ve used my Kyocera Brigadier as a hammer on wood and plastics before.

It also really upsets people when I rap it on a table or throw it at the wall to show how tough it is.

Had it for five years, maybe a little more. Battery is getting weak. Needs a factory reset. Storage is 96% used. Keeps on working, it fits in my pocket, no case required.

Badass. I’ll enjoy reading about it.

If I were younger and had more free time; it would be fun to infiltrate these groups.