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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • ~×{ Why US supports Israel }×~

    The US wants a foothold in the Middle East. If they are strong allies to Israel, Israel in turn can act as a base of operations as well as power projection for the US. This can in future make it easier for the US (and harder for it’s enemies) to influence politics in the area and extract resources. The US isn’t opposed to Palestine, it just doesn’t care about it.

    ~×{ Why Biden isn’t acting }×~

    Biden isn’t halting weapon shipments to Israel simply because he doesn’t have to. So long as his powerbase - and the powerbase in the US at large - wants Israel as an ally. It would be stupid to go against what allows him power in the first place.

    ~×{ Morals & supression }×~

    Morals in politics are at best a tool and at worst meaningless. The only way morals could come into play here was if it could be stirred into a grassroots (or astroturfed) movement that a very large amount of voters got behind. A new faction could then form and gain power from that movement. You’ve probably noticed that the possibility of that happening is actively supressed though:

    • Encouraging a 2-party system makes it harder for new factions to be created. • Being Pro-Palestine is actively discouraged by people in power (not just in politics, look at celebrities). • Identity politics and Pro-Israel media making a grassroots movement harder to form.

    You could argue a grassroots movement is forming amongst younger voters though bypassing newsmedia. But you’d still need politicians willing to risk using the movement. Not to mention the 2-party system is currently shutting it down either way since neither Trump nor Biden support the movement.

    ~×{ Political Power }×~

    A politicians moves are dictated by what will let them keep or increase their power. Not by their morals or what they think is best for the country.

    The easiest form of power to understand is money. In a large company the CEO who holds all the money the company makes, uses that money to make decisions which impacts the company and subsequently shareholders returns. The CEO has power so long as the shareholders allow them to. If the CEO no longer gives adequate returns to the shareholders, they are replaced with someone who will. In a company workers don’t hold any power over the CEO. Therefore as a rule they receive no reward besides a salary.

    In a dictatorship the dictator uses the countrys money to reward the generals, tax collectors, police (and more) below them. Effectively giving them their return for their work. If the dictator doesn’t give adequate rewards or if someone else offers to give more rewards. The dictator is replaced via a coup. In a dictatorship the people don’t hold any power. Therefore they receive no reward and live impoverished lives.

    Biden uses his power to reward the people below him in accordance to the power the hold. • He rewards his party by granting positions of power and passing laws they favor. • He rewards political donors by giving out tax cuts, government contracts, or passing favorable laws. • He rewards his voters by passing laws or choosing where to invest their tax money.

    Keep in mind Biden follows the structure of power and doesn’t give rewards to lower power-holders that conflict with higher power-holders. For example Biden can reward companies with tax cuts even though it’s against the interest of the voters. This is because the power of the company is more valuable, since the power of voters is difficult to use in opposition to that reward. If Biden chose to reward the voters by raising the tax that the company had to pay. The power of the voters who would flip to vote for Biden would be less than the power the company holds. Therefore Biden would invite his opposition to reward the company giving the opposition power instead.

    When Biden initiated his studen loan forgiveness program. It was not something he did out of the goodness of his heart. He did it because it would give him voter power and wouldn’t conflict with his other stronger powerbases.

    ~×{ End }×~

    This started as a much shorter message but I ended up writing multiple praragraphs to explain why I believe Biden is doing what he is doing.

    This is only my basic understanding of how power structures work. I have never studied political sciences and this should all be taken with a pinch of salt.






  • Sand has what’s called a high thermal capacity. This means it takes a long time to heat up, but also a long time to cool down. Metals such as copper have a low thermal capacity relative to sand. You can quickly heat copper but it also cools just as fast.

    The chimneys of fireplaces was often surrounded by pockets of sand or similar material. This meant when the fireplace had a fire going. The heat would travel through the chimney and slowly heat up the sand. Once it became night and you extinguished the fire the sand and stone of the fireplace would slowly release the stored heat. Making sure the house was heated even at night.

    The relatively low cost of sand as well as it not having a significant reaction to heat (water would boil for example). Means it’s a pretty cost-effective material for storing thermal energy. Assuming the batteries are extremely well insulated the sand might stay warm for that long.

    (It’s been a decade since I studied thermal energy though)


  • I’ve started using SG-8P Punisher Plasma. I am a big fan of just exploding wave after wave, though I still need practise with it.

    Used Recoilless Rifle stratagem previously. But now I switched to Quasar Cannon which lets me use a Rover to help deal with melee. Considering buying the Senator for taking out un-armored targets at long ranges.


  • It’s both quite interesting and horrible how he essentially became typecast negatively due to racism.

    (Source Wikipedia) Throughout Hayakawa’s career, many segments of American society were filled with feelings of anti-Japanese sentiment, partly from nationalism rising from World War I and World War II.[51] Hayakawa was constantly typecast as a villain or forbidden lover and was unable to play parts that would be given to white actors such as Douglas Fairbanks. Hayakawa stated, “Such roles [in The Wrath of the Gods, The Typhoon, and The Cheat] are not true to our Japanese nature… They are false and give people a wrong idea of us. I wish to make a characterization which shall reveal us as we really are.”[52] In 1949, he lamented, “My one ambition is to play a hero”.




  • ElwynntoBikini Bottom Twitter@lemmy.worldtoxic
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    4 months ago

    Dealt with (and still do to some extent) being scared of feelings when I started transitioning. Not being allowed to feel things was reinforced in my at an early age and it’s a lot of work to undo it all. I hope todays youth aren’t facing the same stigma when it comes to feelings and being vulnerable because it can really fuck you up. It really is the opitome of toxic masculinity.






  • It’s not too private at all. I often times find talking about it helps relieve some of that stigma.

    To give a better understanding, the background to my anxiety and other issues come from bullying, a verbally abusive father, social isolation, and being transgender (male to female). All of this caused me chronic depression from a very early age. And a lot of issues in dealing with stress, anxiety, stigma & emotion.

    When any if not all of those emotions become too much I have no healthy way of dealing with it. I can’t sleep, constantly fidget, extreme negative emotions and thoughts, withdraw myself, & and become suicidal (assuming I have no relief for some time). The way that self-harm comes into this is that it sort of… releases some of those issues. I’m not 100% sure of how it actually works. But when my self-harm was very active, often times the only way to sleep was to cut myself. I couldn’t sleep while all those thoughts and emotions ceaselessly raced through my head.

    Of course it wasn’t just for sleep. When things became too much to bare I cut myself then too simply to relieve it. One of the biggest problems with self-harm is how it easily and quickly escalates. Just like how 1 cigarette a day won’t be enough for a chain smoker, you build up a kind of tolerance. You cut more and cut deeper.

    Warning graphic stuff!

    hidden or nsfw stuff

    I started with simple epidermis or dermis cuts. This depth of cuts are what you might get from day to day life and the scars will eventually fade given 6 months to a year. Then it quickly progressed into open fat cuts (hypodermis), the kind you definitely go to hospital to get stitched or stapled (I didn’t). And at one time I ended up with a fascia cut which is really bad.

    The above picture only shows to hypodermis. But underneath you have fascia followed by muscle and then bone. The escalation to hypodermis happened in only 2-3 months. And as such my left leg is entirely covered in thick scars at this point.

    In essence self-harm acted as a release valve for everything that was bottled up inside me, whatever it may be.

    Sorry for the long post. I hope I was able to answer your question :)




  • That sounds like a truly horrible experience to have happen. I’m glad to hear you’re starting to recover, though that is often exhausting on its own.

    I avoided alcohol for most of my life simply because I feared becoming addicted to it. Now that I’m in a somewhat better place I’ve carefully joined in on social drinking. And I can definitely see how easily alcohol could become an addiction. It can free your nerves and worries. Not to mention it is widely socially acceptable to drink, as compared to other drugs or behavior.

    Hot water melting the ice of a windshield is such a good metaphor. It really gives an understanding of how easy it is to turn to the “easy” solution. Rather than spending 5 minutes scraping the ice off your windshield.

    I would say self-harm is akin to restarting your car because it’s making that weird noise again. It temporarily removes the noise but it never fixes the actual issue. So eventually the noise gets worse and you restart more and more until your car gives up and dies.


  • ElwynntoWhite People Twitter@sh.itjust.worksDecriminalise all drugs
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    8 months ago

    I’d agree but feel the need to highlight a difference between chemical addiction and addiction for the sake of escapism. Though both can absolutely be present at the same time. I am neither a psychologist or neurologist, but have some experience. I’ve largely dealt with addiction in the forms of self harm, as well as an addiction to sugar.

    Self harm absolutely was about escapism. And the addiction was not chemical other than the brain creating a need for it in order to soothe negative thoughts and feelings (anxiety, trauma, stress, sadness etc…).

    Sugar on the other hand was a mix of escapism and chemical addiction. When I felt worse I naturally craved more sugar. But even when I felt glad or elated I would still crave it.

    I can’t speak on addiction to drugs like heroin, opiates, cocaine, among others. But in my experience of addiction to self harm and sugar. Punishment would only end up deepening the addiction as I sought to escape the punishment through addiction as well. Even if that punishment was self-inflicted.