The Land Of Honk

Ever being a progressive sort striving to further the social justice agenda, I published my pronouns on my blog some time ago, and I’ll thank you lot to use them.
Several of my feminist friends deliberately click the button that says ‘male’ on their Facebook profile just to screw with the system, I’m sure they’ll be delighted to be informed by this beacon of progressiveness that they’re all transphobic.

I’ve decided on “Your Excellency”, suitably galling for someone to have to use when referencing me–the curtsey is obligatory–and also non gender specific. So there is that to crow about.
But on a more general note, it is not cool to stone the homosexuals anymore, I get that. I’m down with it for the most part, really I am. But according to the modern day pieties we are seemingly required to idolise the fuckers? I don’t recall being consulted on that one.

“Do what you want, I don’t care, just leave me alone.”
“You will be made to care.
Therein lies the problem. It’s not about fairness; it’s about submission.

You’d think that people who are allegedly overflowing with sensitivity and insight might register that continually barking instructions at people, instructions that are faintly ludicrous, and threatening to smear them if they don’t comply, while rejecting anything but deference as the act of an enemy, is not an ideal way to win sympathy or indulgence.
In a society that is so mentally weak that even American “conservatives” will fall for a 4chan troll that the OK hand signal is a secret white power gang sign, I think you may be a bit optimistic here. In a world so weak, the sheep is king.

You know, I typed the above on an Apple phone, which recently updated, such that it draws a red squiggly line beneath words it doesn’t like, such as “Cutekitten” or “Archdruid.”
It has no problem at all with “h8er.”

It’s not about fairness; it’s about submission.
It’s certainly an odd attitude to cultivate if what you want is merely fairness and civility.
With predictable modesty, the author of the drama above, Ez, claims to be “trying to leave the world in a better state than I found it.” And yet, he – sorry, they – is seemingly determined to frame any reluctance to comply with his – sorry, their – demands, however neurotic or grandiose, as an act of callousness and cruelty. As if denouncing practically everyone as “transphobic” and therefore the enemy, because they don’t care to wave their pronouns about, will somehow make the world better.

It’s certainly an odd attitude to cultivate if what you want is merely fairness and civility.
Aye – there’s the rub.
It never was and never will be about fairness, or civility. It’s about domination, power. They say the equality word but they’ve twisted that to mean whatever they want it to mean at any given moment, same as the racist word.

There are an awful lot of people in the human race, and always will be, who just enjoy bullying others and demonstrating their power over them. All the rubbish about “punching up”, and protecting people who have always been victims is just today’s can’t. In fifty years’ time the excuse will be something else, though the sadists and bullies of tomorrow will also be on the “right side of history”.

BTW – looks like another “fiber community” has succumbed to O’Sullivan’s Law.

looks like another “fiber community” has succumbed to O’Sullivan’s Law.
For those unfamiliar with the world of woke knitting.

I never knew knitters and nerds led such exciting lives!

I had the (probably unoriginal) thought recently that the left is under the impression that their brand of authoritarianism is better than the other guy’s alleged brand of authoritarianism (e.g., Trump and others on the right being Nazis/fascists). Then I had the thought that if they’re going by body count, they’re right.

On the other hand, it’s a good business opportunity for someone wanting to start a site for Trump-liking, Trump-neutral, and sane knitters.

Musashi Myamoto famously believed bokken were more dangerous than katana and could back it up. They’re heavy hardwood clubs not too dissimilar from a baseball or cricket bat, so if the rozzers confiscate those I assume they’d take your bokken too.
Assuming they don’t just seize it because it looks scary.

Assuming they don’t just seize it because it looks scary.
Can they do that?
That’s an offensive weapon, that is! [grabs shield]

…instructions that are faintly ludicrous, and threatening to smear them if they don’t comply, while rejecting anything but deference as the act of an enemy…
“A rider came among them, dividing them in two, saying ’permitted!’ and ‘forbidden!’ of all manner of things.”

It’s not commented on much but the Great Pronoun Battle of the left is effectively over a bunch of words never used directly in the presence of a person, and which will always be effectively limited. First person pronouns (‘you’, ‘thou’) are never sexed, and if they are to communicate – to function, effectively, as pronouns and words – you can never have too many pronouns. So why does it matter so much if they don’t hear it anyway, and if they’re not used as a slur? It seems to be not so much about affirming of identity as policing of speech.

“It seems to be not so much about affirming of identity as policing of speech”
I wonder if the so-called mainstream media will ever catch on to this.

Gracious. What about gun collectors? What about somebody who’s a descendant of King Edward I or whomever and inherited Great-great-great-great-etc Grandpa’s sword and wanted to keep it in the family?

I think “Room for cream, sir?” will make a good pronoun for me. It will give these harridans important practice in a life skill.

“What about somebody who…inherited Great-great-great-great-etc Grandpa’s sword and wanted to keep it in the family?”
That does seem to be a bit of a problem in Airstrip One:
https://www.news.com.au/technology/terry-pratchett-creates-a-sword-with-meteorites/news-story/6e2beab31cfa115128dda892af56a500
“…Pratchett has stored the sword, which he completed last year, in a secret location, apparently concerned about the [power-mad] authorities taking an interest in it.”

“Everything before yesterday is wrong”
–mantra of the PC/SJW brigades
Like the French Revolution, they want everything to start over from day one, reset the calendar, the clock, and all the agreed upon conventions of civilization–especially language and usage. And that’s just for starters…

The unpersoning continues apace.

she still had to pay a price for her association with the film
Just think whatthey’ll do when they discover Mel Brooks’ oeuvre.

Fight Teh Patriarchy by sweating and smelling!
Apparently, stinky pits are a “made-up problem.” Users of, say, peak-time public transport can no doubt testify to the reality of body odour and its limited charms.
Previously in Slate.
And if the whole my-body-odour-will-topple-the-patriarchy schtick sounds familiar, you may be thinking of this lady here, among others.

@TimT
So why does it matter so much if they don’t hear it anyway
Because that means you’re not thinking about me just because you’re talking to someone else! That’s violence, you Fascist!!
On a serious note, one of the less endearing traits of narcissistic individuals is that they interpret as a personal attack the merest hint that you did not describe them exactly as they want to be described in a conversation with a third party two years ago on the other side of the world, which was related to them third-hand in half a sentence.
@Daniel Ream
Wait, the Welsh are white.
Wasn’t there an article somewhere recently proving they were black?

In other science news, you will be shocked to learn that Earth’s nearest neighbours have turned into uninhabitable hellholes.
It seems like only yesterday they were veritable Edens, clearly conservative policies are to blame.

So, on the one hand, John Zubrin (David, I don’t know how to turn that into an affiliate link for you. Feel free to edit as necessary), who’s almost certainly correct that going to Mars needn’t be expensive (relatively) and is within our technological capabilities.
On the other hand, Bruce Sterling, who when he’s not writing space fantasies seems to have more common sense than the average bear.
Personally, I’m with Sterling. Zubrin’s right about the cost and technology, but Sterling more right in that there’s absolutely no reason to bother.

In the grand tradition of successful explorers, Zubrin calls for a travel-light and live-off-the-land approach to Martian settlement. He explains how scientists can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars; produce fuel and oxygen on the planet’s surface with its own natural resources; build bases and settlements; and one day terraform–or alter the atmosphere of the planet in order to pave the way for sustainable life. As the landmark mission of the Mars Science Laboratory begins, Zubrin lays out a comprehensive plan to build life on a new world.

Any spacecraft needing more than a month or so of space travel has no “land” to live off of. Using present technology, for a craft fitted to support human life, it will take several months, one-way. Humans confined in a small space, living in psychologically draining conditions. But hey, if someone wants to take that on, go ahead. Just do it with your own money.
On the BOLO side, what with the 50th anniversary coming up one wonders what ol’ Buzz has in store for us. I missed the 40th anniversary shenanigans, to wit (via Wiki):

To further promote space exploration, and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, Aldrin teamed up with Snoop Dogg, Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, and Soulja Boy to create the rap single and video “Rocket Experience”, proceeds from which were donated to Aldrin’s non-profit foundation, ShareSpace.

I don’t know, is Geography a STEM discipline?
From Latin, same side/opposite side (across, beyond), most commonly used in chemistry to describe isomers, molecules which have the same formula, but different structures, not to be confused with ortho-, meta-, and para- which describe locations on a benzene ring.

One wonders how Columbus &c. ever managed.
What with the sea, sky, wind in their hair, familiar smells, fresh salt air, sunrise, sunset, rain, daily challenges, gravity, room to move around, more than three other people to talk to. A stop in the Canary Islands. Longest stretch of trip away from land being 5 weeks, and even then the crew was on the verge of mutiny. Yeah, same thing.

most commonly used in chemistry to describe isomers
Depends what you read, though doesn’t it? For most people, “most commonly” would not apply to anything much in chemistry.
I’m picking most people are much more likely to see “trans” in the sense of transatlantic than they are in 1 2-transdichloroethylene.
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The colonising Mars thing is mental. There is literally nothing on Mars that cannot be found on earth.
It can’t be terraformed — some people have watched far too much sci-fi. It has no magnetic core, so will always be bombarded with lethal radiation. It is much further from the sun than earth, so plants will grow only very fitfully at best using natural light. It has little to no water. It leaks any atmosphere into space rapidly.
If you are going to have a colony that lives inside all the time, why not just colonise Antarctica? It’s far easier to get to and far less hostile to human life.

Going straight to Mars is probably not the best approach. The Moon is much closer […] Might make more sense to build a bunch of O’Neill cylinders though and equip them with ion drives or solar sails.
I have to assume you’re taking the piss.
What with the sea, sky, wind in their hair, familiar smells, fresh salt air, sunrise, sunset, rain
You have a very odd notion of what a transatlantic ocean voyage to nowhere using early Tudor-era sailing technology is like.

“…the division of the Palestine Mandatory into Cisjordan and Transjordan, and so on.”
Transjordan is long gone: They were all thrown off buildings.

… it seems more likely leftist academics “co-opted the prefixes” from History and Geography…
There is, however, no evidence that leftists, particularly in Angry and Useless Studies where this idiocy was so recently spawned, have studied either (forget about Latin), so I would put my money on the magpie theory since at least one on their lot would have seen it in a high school chemistry or earth science class.

Cis and trans were appropriated from STEM.
I think you’ll find that they’re a great deal older than that and commonly used in geographical designations to indicate whether something is on ‘this’ side or the ‘other’ side of a mountain range or river. Cisalpine Gaul, anybody? The French term for the West Bank is la Cisjordanie. Then you’ve got Transvaal, Transkei, etc. in South Africa…

No one in his right mind would imagine a Mars colonization journey built along the same design architecture as the Apollo missions.
Which is precisely what we’re talking about when discussing going to Mars with today’s technology. The variations on Orion’s crew compartment barely exceeds that of Apollo. Riding on one of Elon’s rockets is not a viable option. The O’Neil cylinder or whatever has not had a viable POC on a realistic scale. This is my point.

Which is precisely what we’re talking about when discussing going to Mars with today’s technology.
I didn’t see anything that stipulated going to Mars using only existing rocketry. I’d expect *at least* Pilgrim Observer design, which is what, 1960’s tech? Hardly an Apollo crew module.
Even without O’Neill cylinder-style transfer shuttles, a string of TransHab modules would provide lots of space for the crew.
The Falcon rockets that Musk is producing would only be useful for sending modules of the inter-planetary vehicle up to NEO.
The biggest stumbling blocks to colonizing whatever and wherever we want are launch costs and politics. A Lofstrom Loop or Orbital Ring (both well within current technical capabilities apparently) would eliminate the cost problem (though the initial expense would be a challenge). The political issues are something for which I have no handy solutions:-(.