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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2025

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  • lol i feel like i’ve been suddenly cast into an argument i didn’t realize was gonna happen, nor do i understand why i’ve been roped into it. i did not say, nor mean to imply that i thought you were denying the famine happened. you very clearly stated that you thought no one believes that it didn’t happen. i was just pointing out that in fact, some do. my first comment was in response to bubblybubbles, trying to figure out their take. you may think no one would deny that the famine happened, but it seemed like bubbles might think we’re both gullible rubes for thinking it did.

    i also rather object to your ‘very narrow frame of view’ comment. that was just uncalled for. and for what? because i’m trying to learn about stuff and am willing to admit i don’t know everything?


  • some do, actually.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor_denial

    it seems like the arguments that it was a genocide hinge on more than just the famine itself. a lot of people consider genocide to encompass more than just murdering people, but also the targeted destruction of a people’s culture.

    from what i’ve read, if the famine wasn’t deliberately engineered, then it was certainly a world-class bungle, where stalin et al made consistently stupid decisions that made the situation worse. they didn’t need to enact and enforce laws preventing people from gathering leftover grain left in the fields. they didn’t need to prevent starving people from leaving their home towns in search of better conditions. they didn’t need to focus on exporting food while their own people resorted to cannibalism. they didn’t need to demand so much tribute, even going door to door taking food from people’s cupboards, and taking from the seeds set aside for next years planting.

    i can totally get suspecting malice, rather than accepting that that level of incompetence was genuine. while i haven’t personally studied the subject enough to have any concrete conclusions, the genocide question seems less cut and dry than you make it out to be.






  • depends on the festival, and whether or not the girl you’re looking for is at that festival, i suppose.

    story from me, an introvert: a while back i went to a slosh (like a munch, but with booze) at this bar in SF that was also an arcade, and it was in a big ass old theater. i made two friends that night, and they and I and my partner played 4 player pac-man, and mario kart, and DDR, and bunches of other games, and several years later our group of now like seven people with shared interests all meet up regularly to play board games and watch cartoons together. anyways, the lesson here is that arcade-bars are sick and this one had 25¢ plays of DDR and alcoholic slushies.








  • convert to a gear that makes it way more energy

    nah, see, a gear is basically just a fancy pully. it can make it easier to pedal up a hill, but only by making you have to pedal many more times to do so. each turn of the crank arms takes less force, but you have to do it many more times. it isn’t actually reducing the energy requirement, and it isn’t multiplying your energy input.

    what you’re describing here would be some kind of magic.



  • If you don’t know less than 50% of Americans have a passport. The ones who don’t, I really see the limitation in their thinking.

    why do you think it’s a thinking problem? applying for a passport costs money. travelling to another country costs even more money. not everyone has had access to the same opportunities.

    anyways. i haven’t gotten to travel out of the US, but it certainly ain’t because i wouldn’t like to. it just isn’t financially feasible for a lot of people here.


  • a legal monopoly on violence is the cornerstone of the states power. while there are definitely valid reasons to want to restrict access to the tools of violence, the state will always have that access, and if it restricts the general populations access to same, it becomes far easier to oppress them.

    also, if we’re gonna ban weapons, i’d like to start with SUVs.




  • i guess it was just too petty to even consider. i wouldn’t have guessed anyone would read that much into something as trivial as a handful of downvotes. calling everyone ‘pathetic’, ‘triggered’ and ‘unable to take criticism’ over something as minor as downvotes honestly hadn’t occured to me. as you say, downvotes are cheap.