I can't make it a fucking day without making a sardonic, cynical joke based on old sci-fi nerd shit till BAM yeah, getting degrees in poli sci and econ were a waste of time, my nerd sense as a child ( + the ability to discern fantastical elements from plausible elements of a story) was all that was actually needed to learn about the future.

So anyway, Ghost in the Shell timeline it is then.

Obviously minus the impossible robotic/cybernetic tech.

Season 2, Episode 14 of Stand Alone Complex.

Most of the episode is a flashback to the 2020's, where its established that America invades Mexico with the goal of stopping the cartels, and both sides are using PMCs/Mercenaries.

(Blackwater never went away, they just changed names a bunch of times, now they've merged/consolidated with a bunch of other similar PMCs into Constellis... Trump pardoned 4 of the Blackwater guys in the Nisour Square massacre in Iraq at the end of his last term, so they're obviously in his rolodex)

Yep, we're overworked, overstressed, underpaid, don't have time to be informed or do / learn how to do critical thinking.

Doesn't change the fact that we're astoundingly ignorant, and increasingly illiterate.

You've provided an explanation (which is not actually simpler, my single sentence summary of your points is), but that does not change the actual fact that 54% of American adults cannot read a children's story to their own kids, even if they had the time.

Combine that with short form social media addiction amongst children markedly reducing attention span and cognitive ability generally, and the actual reality on the ground is even worse.

If you want a practical, functional conversation geared toward solving the problem, you have to face these facts.

If you want a short lament about the state of society and its general anti intellectualism and ignorance, the person whose take you are calling shitty and thoughtless is actually a pretty concise and accurate remark.

Is it a shitty take to say 'Under Trump, trans people / latin immigrants / the poor are fucked'?

Does that require an in-depth explanation of how and why that statement is true to not be a shitty take?

... This overexplanation, this attitude that 'no you must make clear that you understand all the context before you can have an opinion' kind of attitude is precisely what turns off people who have short attention spans and don't have the time or are literally incapable of doing their own research.

It is the exact stereotype that Republicans have been successfully utilizing for decades against Democrats, that they're all stodgy elitists who talk down to anyone who is not as enlightened as them.

... Which is over half of adult Americans.

Keep running with it, you'll have the moral highground when the flood of economic and climactic disasters washes us all away, with no regard to how many times you can say 'i told you so' before you drown.

You're not a nice person, are you?

At one point I set up an LLC, planning to do stuff with it, but never did.

I am a business man.

I bet you that my non functional business, with 0 assets, 0 liabilities... is in better financial, net worth shape than a whole lot of other businesses.

Hire me for DOGE, Elon.

Is Ghost Song available?

Except that that is largely not even true.

87% of games made before 2010 are completely commercially unavailable.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/14/23792586/classic-game-preservation-video-game-history-foundation-esa

They do not even want to be in control of retro games to be able to sell them indefinitely.

With the exception of certain, wildly popular games they know they can still charge a high price for, they do not want the vast majority of retro games to be legally available at all.

Further, with books, film, other kinds of art... a legal carve out exception does exist for the purposes of academic study and research.

Basically, accredited academic institutions have the ability to rent those out to students, people writing studies on media and cultural history.

Video games? As of this ruling, nope, they are special, studying the history of video games functionally requires breaking the law.

They just get shoved into the vault, never to be seen again, by anyone, ever.

She's had so many terrible ideas that she is actually personally banned from stepping foot on every Indian Reservation in the state, about 1/5th of it's land.

Private Investment firm.

Motherfucker is a VC bro.

Anyone else remember when the Republicans attacked Mitt Romney in the primaries for basically just being a corporate vulture?

Oh well, sure, why not. A venture capitalist for Sec Navy. Not even business experience as a supplier or contractor for the Navy.

So anyway, the US is now about as legitimate a government as Russia, post Soviet collapse.

Third world country with a Gucci belt, nuclear power with a nakedly corrupt oligarchy in charge.

(Yes I know third world has to do with nonaligned during the Cold War, pretend we all know its colloquial usage.)

It means exist in the same space, interact with regularly.

Given that it is Thanksgiving in the US, after we just elected a corrupt rapist fascist who promises to destroy the economy, environment, etc., this is almost certainly about it being fine to not go to or not invite your insane QAnon/MAGA family friends to Thanksgiving.

Council is sea-questered, do not disrupt!

We are now up to 3.1 C of warming by the end of the century.

If we actually all followed the Paris Accords, starting now, we'd still be looking at 2.6 to 2.8 C by end of century.

We basically blew through 1.5 C this year.

(Notice how mainstream news in the US basically just stopped emphatically reporting on this?)

So, basically, we will likely continue to do far, far less than the mitigation required to even stabilize the warming... until modern global capitalism first stalls, then collapses under the weight of its own externalities.

... At which point billions will die over about a decade from starvation/climate disasters.

And that's just humans.

Actual ad material from the state-wide anti-drug campaign of the puppy murdering, covid denying Kristi Noem, who is now the future Homeland Security Secretary.

CORN.

Also lead in home paint.

It's (at least part of) where the 'paint chip eater' meme/joke of boomers comes from.

I can only hope this also kills the 'i am a youtuber/influencer, buy my astoundingly overpriced merch' business.

Kleptocratic Kakistocracy.

All the immoral, criminal idiots are in charge, have no idea how to do anything effectively other than privatize the state and funnel wealth into the pockets of themselves and their buddies.

But also fascist.

And also theocratic.

You have evidently not had the misfortune of listening to shareholder meetings of anything involving Elon Musk.

Oh sure, there are numbers. They're almost all aspirational, or outright lies/misdirects to focus on some other metric that looks better...

But, somewhat more seriously, it is pretty common in shareholder meetings for many different publicly owned companies to only report non-specifically-legally-required concrete numbers if:

A) The board/CEO thinks they are really good.

B) Someone specifically asks for an exact, precise number, which is not as common as you might expect...

... and even then, the easiest thing to do is just say 'I don't have that in front of me right now, I'll get back to you on that' when its almost always the job of this person to know that number and have it ready for that meeting.

imo this works better with the Neko Arc cover.

Because, due to their logic destroying upbringing and reinforcement in adult social settings, they have perfected the ability to explain away every obvious, inconvenient fact within the framework of a network of conspiracy theories utilizing magical thinking that they invent or adapt on the fly to justify themselves never being fundamentally wrong or ignorant.

People seem to either be forgetting or just not be aware that Q Anon did not die.

It morphed into a conspiracy infused, new form of Christian fundamentalism, where Donald Trump is literally a messianic figure doing God's will. He was prophecied by modern prophet/preachers, and if any of their prophecies were erroneous, that is because literal demons intervened on Earth, and a supernatural battle is currently taking place on Earth.

You jest, but there are also significant numbers of people who advocate eating raw, uncooked meat and organs as well.

Hell, I remember when people drinking urine for its supposed health benefits were extremely rare... now about a decade later, sadly that movement is picking up steam as well.

Americans seem to have a unique and exceptional susceptibility to ... literally anything promoted as a health product, all you have to do is package it in enough psuedo science bs, with either a hefty helping of 'basically all mainstream medical/dietary knowledge is a conspiracy' or spiritual/aspirational bullshit about manifesting your chakras.

This is a country where at least a third of people believe evolution is fake, where a third believe astrology is real.

Sagan's nightmare has come true.