Yeah I think I agree with a lot of this too. Talking aliens in general is just a fun thought exercise and I trend towards a more boring 'based on the available data' read. It also makes me hopeful to think the solidarity I feel with mankind could extend even further.

My read on the Fermi paradox is also similarly noncommittal. I think it adds some texture to discussing the unknown but I agree there's nothing actually tangible there.

an underlying issue with the normalization of sex work in society is that some men are still weird as fuck about it and see the sexual exchange being reduced to a commodity as a reason they should be absolutely entitled to it; sex worker consent becomes an argument for them to make, when in the end these dudes maybe just don't deserve sex

I think, broadly, a less cynical reading is this; a universal constant might be that individuals within a collective will always tug and pull between distributive and accumulative resource management. Other species might experience an echo of our struggle filtered through their own conditions.

For as radically different as aliens could be I feel there's an equal possibility that they could be mundanely similar in certain ways. It's hard to imagine (based on our understanding of the universe) life evolving without natural selection giving way to evolution through competition and then pushing cognitive capacity by socialization etc. And if that path is typically followed I could easily see resource management being a broad filter for developing societies, wherein a struggle must be always be resolved where the collective is given priority. If not, the species is unable to reach a certain level of shared intellectual development for higher technologies/forms of society.

There would be exceptions to this of course, like the universe is infinite so there's going to be wildly different conditions giving way to unimaginably different societies - but I can see where OP is coming from and am kinda inclined to agree it might be a trend out there.

Everyone needs nukes unfortunately

I think piracy will always be attractive because not wanting to pay for something you intellectually recognise as completely free is rational behavior

Revolutionary optimism and trying to keep my life in order so that I can say I'm contributing as much to communism as I possibly can be has done orders more for my mental health and lifestyle than anything else. Years in therapy as a teenager gave me nothing but therapyspeak and self loathing; having a strong basis in theory and striving towards political actualization has made me friends, drawn me to fulfilling work and given me passion for learning skills and hobbies.

So I do absolutely agree, and have had similar thoughts to you. You can't say you truly want everyone else's lives to be better if you won't even do the work on your own.

(Note for above, I'm not dismissing therapy as generally beneficial, just that my experience was subpar and was not as helpful as empowering myself with theory/learning the true roots of my struggles)

This game has stayed with me in a really annoying way, wherein there's truly no way for me to replay it or get the same experience again. Pls comrades play big walk if you can, entirely unique experience, pure art.

I bring a 'kill the empire by playing youtube poops on a network of 27 bluetooth speakers set up around the sleeping quarters of the military occupying an urban center' energy that the libs really don't like

I so badly want to hear trump say the word 'bourgeois'

tbf I think some people are attracted to zombie apocalypse settings because most of these stories depict small communities providing for each other and having their basic needs met just by participating in survival labor

Don't listen too much to other peoples experiences. So many people have the 20s built up as the most important years of your life. Truth be told they can go either way. Mine were pretty boring and harsh but my 30s have been deeply satisfying in comparison.

carl is out here with banger ideas for no damn reason, damn. get this written as a chuck tingle inspired absurdist book, or genuine kink writing. whatever sells better