I think Olivia Rodrigo is absurdly talented, but apart from that fact this video is worth watching because it says a lot about how Gen Z sees and experiences the world. I know, scientists attempt to convince you that there are no generational differences but obviously that’s 100% complete horseshit. (Why they want to perpetrate that con, I have not quite figured out yet but think about it frequently.)

Unlike a lot of artists, especially ones so young (she is 18), Olivia writes or co-writes her own songs so this more a real voice of someone of her generation, unlike Lorde’s output post Pure Heroine which were mainly a bunch of songs written by a mid-30s dude — and that’s exactly what those songs sounded like.

The video is making tons of sly references all over the place. I’m too tired now to write about them all, but I really like what the director and Olivia is doing there. The song and video of course is not only objecting to what the world wants someone like Olivia to be, but it is implicitly recognizing that in capitalism the rebellion against the system is also used for capitalistic exploitation and marketing, with no escape possible or even imaginable.

Thus, she (and the video) is walloping us with our submission to this system and its inescapability. We are all in this together (she’s saying), but does it matter, does it mean anything, if we are all trapped with no exit?

“The durations of both infectious virus shedding and symptoms were significantly reduced in vaccinated individuals compared with unvaccinated individuals” https://t.co/axNQPgv7E4 pic.twitter.com/4wQPW6oOLu

— Ryan (@ThatRyanChap) September 2, 2021

But….but…the libs said the vaccines don’t work and even if they do, they do nothing to prevent Delta from being just as infectious as not being vaccinated. (This one is not about Delta, but still applies more broadly.)

You mean…GASP…that was all LIES? How could this BE?

Talking with a woman today in her mid-20s and helping her turn off odious conversation view in email:

Me: Yeah, I don’t like conversation view either. It just makes where or when anything occurs so confusing. I guess it’s because I started using email in 1986 and just will never get used to it.

Her: Don’t you mean 1996?

Me: No, 1986. It was associated with a BBS, but it was email. Of course back then I only got like five emails a year.

Her: I didn’t even know they had email in 1986!

Email was almost pointless then as hardly anyone actually had an email address in those dark days, but it was still cool. Hey, at least she hates conversation view too, as is only right and proper. Turns out that not all of the younger cohort is lost. 😉

I was very lucky to meet my partner and wouldn’t change my life now even if I could, but knowing what I know now, I think I’d learn Norwegian and aim to meet a girl from Norway if I were 18 again.

Of course there are variations, but in general they aren’t prudes and therefore aren’t sex-obsessed, and have few to no of the sexual and mental hangups of culturally-traumatized American/North American women. And otherwise, with the exception of a few very Norwegian ideals, people there aren’t that much different culturally.

And they (the country, not the women) have cool fjords and stuff. Some of the women might have fjords too. I wouldn’t know.

I am so (and you are) sick and tired of living in this goddamn dystopian plague movie we’ve all been conscripted into as unwilling extras.

Still going to keep masking/distancing and will take my booster shot the instant it’s available, though.

Yelling at reality doesn’t work.

— Charlie Stross (@cstross) September 1, 2021

Why do so many liberals love pretending the vaccines do not work?

I’ve noticed, though, that it’s mostly done by people like Ian Welsh and Charles Stross (et al.) who already don’t go anywhere or do anything often — that is, they work from home and are introverts. I’m an introvert too, but I actually enjoy going out and engaging with the world.

I believe a lot of the lockdown lifer crap is just them reveling in wallowing in their loserdom, really.

One of my favorite artists I’ve found lately.

It is kinda weird that pediatric hospitals are like filling up partly with RSV patients but nobody cares about that. That one's acceptable (even tho it kills more children than covid every year) 🤔

— Angie Schmitt🚶‍♀️ (@schmangee) September 1, 2021

In my experience people fixate on one thing and panic about that, no matter its relative or absolute risk. During the 1980s, it was the aptly-named Satanic Panic for a while, then it was crack babies. Etc.

These days, it’s Covid in kids, even though the risk there is minimal. What’ll it be next? I am sure something silly and mostly-irrelevant as it always is.

Using a modern browser where real extensions don’t work (now all of them) is an exercise in frustration. It really was a good con, all the propaganda it took to convince the average person and even many smart people that fake security was enough to take away all control and configurability.

Of course, it had nothing at all to do with security but really was about further turning the internet into an ad delivery and surveillance and control network. Watching those same “smart” people get annoyed with you when you suggest that it’s not actually necessary to exert such control to make anything secure is witnessing the utter triumph of that propaganda. After all, the best kind of propaganda becomes self-reproducing because its subjects themselves believe it fully and proselytize without prompting.

I’ve learned a lot about how to con people from watching this play out over the years. People really will harm themselves greatly for very little reason, and discovering that has been a valuable lesson for me. Most people want to be fooled, and in wanting to be duped, must duplicate the con to others. To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare, it is the common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, and it is theirs in great revenue.