It’s unfortunate that “cargo cult” is such a useful and familiar way to explain fetishism (a word that also comes from colonialist nonsense!)

But I’ve had success still using it as a sort of one-two punch first explaining fetishism and second explaining how the phenomena is almost always colonialist projection.

or “improving society for everyone magically benefits me too”

If westerners need magical narratives to dial back their hyper-individualism I’m all for it.

What do you think our Pizza Hut is?

Holy shit I’m only 2 episodes in but The Rehearsal S2 is high art

Dentistry is like therapy in that they’re both necessary but capitalism produces such perverse incentives that it seems easier to just ignore problems and die young

The degree to which that’s true is more due to survivorship bias and US culture than quality of theory or praxis imo, but regardless of reasoning I agree with your conclusion broadly. Internet “activism” involves way too much purity testing and not enough pragmatic engagement. The [org] that feeds the children gets my support, even if it happens to (somehow) be anarchist or trot.

The second step after learning initial theory is going out and applying it, even if that means in a less-than-perfect org. The third step can then be critiquing the org and altering course, but too many leftist skip the real-life engagement part of the dialectic. My first org was a fairly radical DSA chapter and I met a lot of good people, including other MLs.

hasbro execs drooling at the thought of a double-rotating format

explorer

oh wait is that one eternal? lol so many different formats nowadays

looking for a leftist group

ask the representative if their org is anarchist or trot

he doesn’t understand

pull out illustrated diagram explaing what is anarchist and what is trot

he laughs and says “it’s a good org sir”

pay for membership

its trot

gonna give it an honest go because a lot of trots are still comrades but damn I wish there were more options lmao

Watching a dental lecture and the professor proudly talks about using ChatGPT for a case example. Lazy but whatever

After presenting the case he asks students for first steps

A few make suggestions, he singles out one as being too early in the process

He then reads the ChatGPT response and it mentions that suggestion as the first step.

He says, “ah, I was wrong, I guess you do do that first!”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Landlords provide housing in the same way insurance companies provide healthcare. It’s cynical neoliberal semantic dancing.

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Ark

Seems like a pretty reasonable semantic shift to me.

based

We have will, it just isn’t perfectly free. Our consciousness emerges out of a confluence of intersecting forces, and itself has the ability to influence the flows around it. But to pretend it’s removed from those flows and forces, or exists in some vacuum, is nonsensical, as is pretending that there isn’t some essence behind the signifier “self”.

perfection

Wait can you just leave the space between studs empty then?

Paywalled and not worth the 5 seconds it would take to bypass it, but did they at least mention the safe alternative: soaking?

I just don’t like them as signifiers in general, personally. They’re shorthand for something but what that something is isn’t clear to the listener nor even the speaker.

It’s not something I’d nitpick in general, and the examples you gave are harmless. But at best they’re not very imaginitive or interesting descriptors, and at worst they’re thought-limiting and tend to perpetuate dominant norms.