I think it's less about meatspace and more about interactions which may have conflict or friction. Those can happen online, but it's so much easier to walk away from those online or never invite conflict to begin with. The atrophy of our conflict-management skills is the problem, not online itself

The Pi-hole (pi-hole.net) does a fine job of blocking most of the Roku advertising, FWIW

The phrase "the perfection of capitalism is oblivion" haunts me. No friction, no conflict, no meaningful interaction; just endless, perfectly smooth, utterly predictable patterns of production and consumption

My grandmother grew up in Italy, and she told me that aristocrats there taught their sons all the "womens'" household skills (cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc.) so they could tell if the servants were doing it correctly. I'm not sure I believe that, but she taught me and I'm teaching my kids anyway.

I'm starting a new conspiracy theory that the idea of imposter syndrome was propaganda to keep smart people from realizing their full potential, you're welcome to join the club

I always liked the way she characterized witchcraft to Tiffany Aching as guarding the edges between things: life and death, night and day, right and wrong. Nothing more real than an edge, and likely as not to cut you if you're not careful with them (especially metaphorical ones)

And that everybody getting the chance to do service work would build vast amounts of empathy and solidarity. It would be a good thing if everybody had to spend a year or two stocking shelves or slinging fries!

Running noscript.net in my browser is a gigantic pain and yet still totally worth it to block all of the stuff sites load up in the background that eats ram

I think there's a level of perceived precarity that has changed somewhat, and maybe that's driving some of the disconnect. Look at the switch from defined-benefit pension plans to 401Ks. I think people are feeling that there's less to catch them if they fall, and more things trying to push them over

I got this useful bon mot from a middle school teacher recently.

In response to, “I DONT UNDERSTAND,” he calmly said, “okay what steps have you taken to understand?”

And that’s when I realized that a lot of folks have no steps.

I try not to be a doomer in public but I was 100% expecting this. Once they've shown a willingness to break a law, why would they start following it again?

If it's any consolation, we didn't get around to seeing F4 until now too, and we also very much enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed all the character moments; watching the guys try to install the car seat had me laughing so hard my wife thought I was going to pass out

Oh, I'm not saying that gets them out of learning anyway, just that understanding the thing you're missing can sometimes help with that process