Friends is pretty good. I haven’t seen Seinfeld in a while and don’t know how it holds up, but I remember liking it when I watched it.

Is there a link to read this behind the paywall? Or am I the only one without a Bloomberg subscription?

I like him. I listened to him on Marc Maron, which is always neat because you get to know a bit more of the real person instead of the character he plays. Obviously, those people aren’t totally divorced. But his real self is a lot more cerebral than the stage version.

This is funny but I’m surprised Mint is at the bottom.

I guess I shouldn’t be. I didn’t really notice how popular it’s gotten. I’m used to thinking of it as a cooler Ubuntu.

The difference is between doing it secretly or in the open.

I assume I’m monitored on my work computer, but me and my company both know they aren’t supposed to.

When they admit it and make you look them in the eye and consent to it, that’s when the social contract unravels in a big way.

There’s a line from a great comedy in which an oligarch is berating his son for playing elaborate games to ruin the life of a schlub who once disrespected him, right after we see the oligarch at a party where people are shitting on glass coffee tables with prostitutes under them. The son says, “How is it any different from what you do?!?” And the dad says, in a posh Oxford accent, “The glass, son. The glass.”

I think figuring out how to find solidarity across the working class is a guidepost to revolution.

It’s more than okay to admit that it’s challenging. Anything else is just untrue.

I do think the effort is worth it. I think uniting for a better world is the prize we win when we figure out how to construct a society that accommodates as much diversity of thought and lifestyle as our civilization contains.

Peter Frase wrote an article (and soon after a book expansion of it) called “Four Futures” in which he examines this question.

According to Frase, the future we wind up with can be categorized into a Punnett square based on two questions: will essentials be abundant or scarce? And will they be distributed selfishly or universally?

If we have more than we need and we give it away universally, that’s Communism. If we have less than we need, but we share what we have and our burdens equally, that’s Socialism.

Now here’s the two you’re asking about. If we don’t have a populist revolution, we wind up with one of the bad ones.

If we have abundance, but it’s hoarded, we get Rentism. You can see outlines of this already. It’s where you pay for digital files that can be endlessly reproduced and are forced into subscriptions to continue using appliances despite the fact that their continued use is free to the company. This is the one you’re asking about. If we reached full automation, but still charged people for everything, you’d have a version of serfdom, likely with a basic income. The income would likely be based on a social credit system in which people who show the most obedience are rewarded with money to buy things that are basically free to produce. There might be a system of artificial scarcity to force people to devote a certain number of hours each day to unnecessary work or watching advertisements to receive income.

The last one is called Exterminism. You can read about it in the article. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

This is what I came to say.

I think because of the comedy it often gets overlooked as a genuine Star Trek show. And that’s a mistake.

Hard disagree.

The characters and stories stand on their own. The jokes are great too, but ultimately, I care about the characters and their journeys as much as I cared about the TNG Enterprise crew.

It’s got real heart.

I won’t argue that both have released some superfluous cash-in content, but can you really say that they’ve enshitified when we also get stuff like Lower Decks and Andor?

Both have produced mixed content, but they’ve also each released some of their best entries during the last five years.

Agreed.

This is so delightfully silly. This just made my day.

While I love Superman TV shows I am declining to spend the calories necessary to tell you if an AI fanfic you don’t like accurately represents Clark Kent’s personality.

I will, however, tell you that if you’re letting an AI fan fic live rent-free in your head, you’re got a mind virus. I advise that you cease consumption of AI fanfic crossovers that you disagree with immediately. I recommend giving yourself an orgasm to reset your hormones and then going to your nearest library and browsing their comics section until dinner time. You’re welcome.

I’m curious what people make of the broader allegations of a history of child endangerment and irresponsible behavior with kids beyond the lurid sexual accusations.

For instance, do you consider the claims that he held his new born over the railing of a balcony credible? Is that part of a broader rumor mill? What do you make of that?

I’m saying that considering the availability of credible accusors, I think you’re defining who counts as a credible accusors in a selective way to maintain your prior assumptions.

I’m not saying this to be snide or disrespectful. I’m just asking if it’s possible you’re letting a bias go unnoticed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_Neverland

Safechuck allege that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children–Safechuck from 1988 to 1992 and Robson from 1990 to 1996. They give graphic descriptions of Jackson’s alleged sex acts, including masturbation, oral sex and anal sex, which they say took place at his home, Neverland Ranch, and other locations.

Robson and Safechuck claim that Jackson said these acts were “romantic,” and that they did not realize they were inappropriate until adulthood.

Do you know the “no true Scotsman” fallacy? Because I regret to inform you that I believe you’re falling prey to it.

This is a topic that doesn’t get discussed much, but if you stop and think about it for a moment you might realize that we’re all aware of it, we just basically have a cultural taboo against thinking about it.

Have you ever noticed that sleepovers are almost always gender-segregated? Why do you thick that is?

It’s uncomfortable but true.

Have you ever heard of kids playing Doctor? It’s not like kids routinely engage in sexual acts, but left alone at night it’s very common for them to do things like undress and compare bodies. Often it’s benign, but without an understanding of safe touches, it’s easy for such encounters to be unintentionally harmful.

I hear stories like this, and I think the part people stumble over is that it’s very common for kids to explore their bodies and each other’s at sleep overs.

It’s not that hard to imagine his sleepovers being ordinary, kids sleepovers and also an environment in which he crossed some boundaries. That’s very common at sleepovers.