I remember many years ago, one girl who was on the academic team with me asking me how I knew all the stuff that I did.

I said, “I read more than anyone you’ve ever met. I read two books today already.* Will probably read a couple more when I get home. I just read a lot.”

At that time, like Ian Welsh, I’d sometimes finish three or four books a day. I often was reading 10-15 books at a time. I could do this because I used my own and my sister’s library card to check out that many books, and sometimes my mom’s card, too. That’s how by the time I was 12 I’d read well over 3,000 books, and nearly every book in the library that I had access to. Seriously, there were entire 20-foot long shelves that I’d read literally every single book on it.

I don’t read at that pace anymore, or rather, I don’t read full books as much. More articles, scientific papers, and the like these days. Since the internet is getting worse, though, I find myself returning more to books. I doubt I will ever exceed the frantic pace of my youth, however, as the books I read then were mostly easier and I think more deeply now when I read. Also, I suspect I actually was smarter in many important ways then and I just could not read like that now.

*This is when I used to read books in class rather than paying attention or doing schoolwork. Could usually knock out a few books a day just in school. Sometimes, I would not even bring schoolbooks to school so I could fit more books I actually wanted to read in my bookbag.

When I was a kid, I could hold my breath underwater for a really long time. My sister was envious but she didn’t have the discipline and perhaps the lung capacity to get better at it. With the idea that she’d stop bothering me about it, I told her that my secret was that I could breathe underwater like a fish.

I also told her how to do it — that is, breathe underwater. That’s how my sister almost drowned herself. I didn’t think she was quite naive enough to believe me, but she was in fact incredibly naive (even taking the age difference into account).

Of course, as I was for anything that happened with my sister, I was blamed for her half-drowning. It didn’t help telling my parents that “I can’t help if she’s just stupid.”

No, that did not make things better at all.

About climate change, there will be a significant portion of the population that denies it’s occurring even as their cities are flooded, their relatives die, and their world comes unhinged. I’d say 20-30% because that’s about how many religious fundies there are, and though those don’t necessarily overlap, the number of people who believe or disbelieve anything against all evidence is always about that much.

We’re not built for the society we’ve created. I know that conservatives don’t believe that humans evolved at all and that liberals believe there was no evolution above the neck, but we evolved in far different conditions and we just can’t handle the much larger-scale messes we’ve made.

Look at this silly, vapid, facile shit.

That brilliant constitutional scholar killed hundreds (much likely far more) brown civilians in drone strikes during the course of his presidency. I guess it’s only racist, though, if someone you don’t think is “cool” does it.

How can these people be so dense? So without a single clue? Yes, I know that Trump has killed more, but that just means both of them are war criminals instead of just one of them.

Or, put it this way. I kill three people and you kill a dozen. We’re both still murderers. There’s not a “better” murderer here.

Seriously, I can’t understand these people’s mind malfunctions. How can you think so poorly, be so closed off from reality? It’s because I guess people really do care far more for appearance than reality, for coolness over making the world better, and “go team go” over anything else at all.

Toni Collette’s and Ann Dowd’s performances in Hereditary — A++, would recommend.

I was looking at information on Netflix stock and came across the executive compensation figures.

That’s just cash compensation. We really fund the important things in this society, don’t we? Capitalism — so efficient.

Alphabetic writing is cultural appropriation from the Phoenicians.

Are you Phoenician? No? Then stop writing. You didn’t create it. You don’t own it. Just stop. It’s not yours. It’s theirs.

1) There’s something so whack about thinking that (e.g.) being a female homosexual & not wanting to do dick (sorry, this is where I am now) is ‘discriminatory’ in a morally bad way. Let’s allow there’s a set of females on the planet who will never be attracted to penis. Never.

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) August 13, 2018

It’s just such a bizarre idea that people’s sexual preferences are morally wrong. Like, that stuff is pretty damn fixed. It’s not easy to change. It’s probably not changeable for the vast, vast majority of people pretty much ever. If so, it’s a long, slow process that will not be helped by calling them racist or TERFS and/or berating them.

This means that they absolutely won’t change. In general, people are just attracted to what they are attracted to. It’s not a choice. It’s not something that is under conscious control. People should be allowed to be completely discriminatory in whatever way they want to be in who they engage in sexual activities with (within the bounds of morality and the law).

These people who think otherwise are — and I mean this with all the insulting power that can be embedded in this word — fucking crazy.

This is gas station food in Germany (I didn’t take this photo, but have seen it for myself):

Also notice the prices. Any one of those sandwiches would taste better than any food you could get in the US. Why is American food culture so terrible?