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Post by petrushka on Nov 2, 2020 0:23:56 GMT -5
More and more I begin to feel we are living in John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar", people running amok wherever you go. Paris, Nice, now again Canada, US goes without saying, London, Christchurch, ... Disgruntled people driven into homicidal rage, arming themselves and randomly killing other people whom they do not even know.
It is so truly disheartening. We had such dreams in the early 70s, "peace and love", "a better world", and it's all turned to shit. Not 20 years
later the 'neoliberal' dehumanizing ideology swept the western world and turned those values on their head.
Even worse: I just watched a video about the conspiracy theories around 5G technology, anti-vaxxers, and right wing (speak neo fascist) Q-Anon all more or less congregating in the same places; every single one to my mind ignorant people talking about things they don't understand hence they make up fairy tales about them (like: thunder is Thor rumbling across the clouds in his goat cart) and they think they have drunk from the fount of wisdom. Not a clue amongst them. I tried watching the video to the end, but I found it so disheartening, I had to turn it off. They smirk and gloat about how many followers they have on facebook or instagram, "we are just asking questions" they crow, but do they actually go looking for answers? No, if someone gives them the answers they reject them out of hand.
When the first train was about to run from Nuremburg to Fürth there were doctors claiming that the speed of 25 km/h would make passengers go blind.
Would someone please invent a cure for "stupid"?
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Post by Handy on Nov 2, 2020 1:05:19 GMT -5
Petrushka, if stupid was painful things might improve.
I just looked up Nuremburg to Fürth. Now a mask is required and 1.5 m social distancing.
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Post by lessingham on Nov 2, 2020 4:12:18 GMT -5
As Voltaire said, you can only tend your own garden.
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Post by petrushka on Nov 2, 2020 6:33:32 GMT -5
Petrushka, if stupid was painful things might improve. I just looked up Nuremburg to Fürth. Now a mask is required and 1.5 m social distancing.
I like that "when they ran out of coal the train was pulled by a horse"... {sniggers}
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Post by Handy on Nov 2, 2020 12:17:35 GMT -5
I see the wheels did not have flanges on early railroads. The track had a grove or a side plate to guide regular wagon wheels. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlatewayA friend was an apprentice railroader and I looked at his training materials, especially the wheel and track combinations tried in the past. I even got a first-hand tour of the wheel truing pit in the repair shop. Cool! I didn't see any horses in the shop on my tour, so maybe things improved. I did see a furnace that burned waste oil from the locomotives to heated the shop. According to some railroad experts, oil does NOT wear out, it only gets contaminated. If the contamination can be removed, the oil is still serviceable. The catch is what does it cost to remove the contamination?
Yes to Lessingham's - Voltaire garden, or as Baza said my side of the street or tending to my shit is what I need to focus on.
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Post by mirrororchid on Nov 3, 2020 14:20:13 GMT -5
Even worse: I just watched a video about the conspiracy theories around 5G technology, anti-vaxxers, and right wing (speak neo fascist) Q-Anon all more or less congregating in the same places; every single one to my mind ignorant people talking about things they don't understand hence they make up fairy tales about them (like: thunder is Thor rumbling across the clouds in his goat cart) and they think they have drunk from the fount of wisdom. Not a clue amongst them. I tried watching the video to the end, but I found it so disheartening, I had to turn it off. They smirk and gloat about how many followers they have on facebook or instagram, "we are just asking questions" they crow, but do they actually go looking for answers? No, if someone gives them the answers they reject them out of hand. The appeal of believing you're one of the "elite" makes such cultish conspiracy groups appealing. The crossover appears to be deliberate to marketing entities that apparently make money off this sense of belonging. People suffering from loneliness can be recruited for causes that cannot attract those with busy, full lives. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rabbit-hole/id1507423923By the time you're done, you feel the humanity we share with these often well-meaning people. An enlightening series for we, the "sheeple". |
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Post by petrushka on Nov 4, 2020 14:30:55 GMT -5
As Voltaire said, you can only tend your own garden.
And I give your Voltaire
Pastor Martin Niemöller in 1946 after having been freed from a concentration camp:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Footnote: Niemöller was a staunch conservative who supported Hitler initially, even had an audience with him.
Didn't save him from being shipped into a concentration camp when he did speak out ...
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Post by jerri on Nov 5, 2020 3:47:37 GMT -5
As Voltaire said, you can only tend your own garden.
And I give your Voltaire
Pastor Martin Niemöller in 1946 after having been freed from a concentration camp:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Footnote: Niemöller was a staunch conservative who supported Hitler initially, even had an audience with him.
Didn't save him from being shipped into a concentration camp when he did speak out ...
Bravo! Petrushka |
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