General News Thread

[RoydGolden]

I kind of suck at explaining myself sometimes, so I'm just going to directly quote from a source that talks about what I have in mind. (A chapter in Strange Fake talking about the "membrane of the commonplace")

A number of incidents had taken place in the city, but they were not yet enough to destroy the daily lives of those who did not directly encounter them. At times, the "common sense" they had built up over the course of their lives paralyzed their senses. This side of panic, that common sense formed a membrane around people's daily lives that narrowly prevented them from seeing the oncoming madness. Or, perhaps, many of them had already noticed, and were trying to cling to a sense of security by feigning otherwise.

Not yet.
It's still OK.
It's not broken yet.
The city's still in one piece.
I'm sure things will be back to normal soon.

The membrane was filling up with wish after baseless wish that it would be so. That was why the people who sensed that, somehow, something was out of the ordinary felt happy, not uneasy. Happy that they were still in a full place. Happy that they were still this side of the border that separated the normal from the abnormal.

[...]

Suggestion, however, can only do so much. If the membrane — the sense of security — it cast was stretched too tight, it would eventually reach its limit.

While the phenomenon in the novel is at least partly supernatural, what's being described is a very real part of human psychology.

[asterism42]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41980922

Further proof, as if it were needed, that the gig economy is evil

[Mcjon01]

🙏🙏thoughts&prayers🙏🙏

[I3uster]

serious question to the US people does it actually still rattle you when this shit happens or do you just no longer care at all

[LJ3]

Like, what asterism posted or shootings

[Laserman]

Yes, it still bothers me that shootings still happen and that nothing is being done to stop them.

[Rafflesiac]

serious question to the US people does it actually still rattle you when this shit happens or do you just no longer care at all

I still feel like we need gun control, or at the absolute least any sort of effort whatsofuckingever to stop this shit but frankly I don't have any sort of reaction besides "here we go again" upon hearing about the latest and greatest Radical Christian Terrorist. Also I got to spend a year watching myself die in the news so I'm extra dead and deadened inside.

[Kareshy]

It just so happens we talked about this in a policy analysis class today and the professor literally forgot which shooting was which. And we all just kind of sat in awkward silence as we realized how many fucking times they happen and how the details really are just bleeding together like chapters of a novel that's gone on too long.

[Neir]

serious question to the US people does it actually still rattle you when this shit happens or do you just no longer care at all

So if i3uster says it it’s not bait, got it

[asterism42]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-41992344

Australians vote on gay marriage

[I3uster]

leo hasnt been here yet you dont know

[SeiKeo]

I've been to Australia.

[Spinach]

serious question to the US people does it actually still rattle you when this shit happens or do you just no longer care at all

Mass shootings make me angry. Singular instances of homicide through the use of a firearm don't really make me angry because I know that if Person A wanted Person B dead they could have used a knife or a baseball bat or any number of tools and got the job done just as well. But firearms easily enable large scale violence and the ease of access + sheer quantity of them makes it not so difficult for someone with the desire and will to commit such an act to acquire the tools to do it. I just recently commented in a conversation with you how easy it would be for me to get a Big Gun if I wanted to, and I surely hope you don't think it was a statement of pride. Just a statement of facts. I think it's sad that I or my little brother could get our hands on guns, and wish it wasn't the case, because there's no need or sense for it.

Hell, I had a shooting in my city last month. It's fucking infuriating, guns are stupid, hobbyist shooters should find some other hobby.

[mAc Chaos]

Don't you have a ton of guns though? You're a hobbyist...

[Spinach]

I don't own a ton of guns, when my dad got arrested the police confiscated everything from his safe except a 9mm pistol, which my little brother took and somehow it ended up in my desk drawer instead of in his room. I only want to get back the guns taken as evidence to sell my rightful share. My brothers can do what they want with their share.

I just happen to pull it out to take pictures for jokes, but that's because I'm perfectly capable of making jokes about things I disapprove of, dislike or am opposed to. Because I have a functioning brain and don't get my panties in a twist over jokes.

- - - Updated - - -

And FTR I've never shot this gun, nor do I plan to. I've only shot a handful of times in my life, several years apart from each other with the intent of seeing if maybe the years had changed my opinion about shooting guns.

Spoiler:

My opinion never changed.

[asterism42]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-41850498

Deaf singer Mandy Harvey made headlines around the world after being put straight through to the finals of America's Got Talent. But when she first took to the stage, she received death threats from within the deaf community for promoting a "hearing" activity.

idek anymore

[RacingeR]

That's dumb.

And I say that as someone with a hearing disability.

[RoydGolden]

That's dumb.

And I say that as someone with a hearing disability.

Some people really do seem to believe excelling above one's peers is a sin. The tallest poppies are cut first, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down, etc etc.

[Dullahan]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-zi...-idUSKBN1DF025

military coup in zimbabwe

[SpoonyViking]

Fuck. Poor Zimbabwe.