Enthusiastic sh.it.head

  • 53 Posts
  • 669 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 9th, 2023
  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.workstoA Boring Dystopia@lemmy.world•Are you using Lemmy / other networks to create noise in your life and to replace talking to people irl?
    3·
    2 days ago

    The benefits of a healthy online space for discussion premised on shared interest and (ideally) quality are immense, no doubt. Good participation can bring people more of those benefits, and it would be foolish to dismiss them.

    But at the same time, we folks in the West at least live increasingly atomized, lonely lives. While it’s certainly better than nothing, particularly if you experience barriers to IRL socialization (disabilities, mental health conditions, etc.), having your sense of community derived completely from the internet has drawbacks.

    The medium is particularly vulnerable to manipulation, whether through artificial means or simply groupthink as a product of the specific actors involved (intentionally or not). It can create spaces with weird feedback loops that inform crazy outcomes (think of the incel movement, extremist movements of many colours, etc.). And it removes a bunch of context from the interactions which, on one hand, is liberating (only your words matter, regardless of social position, physical appearance, place of origin, medical conditions, etc.), but on the other is limited (nuances of speech, facial expressions, physical proximity, physical context re: where the interaction takes place - this all adds to the meaning of a given interaction).

    As with most things, balance is key. Participate online, sure - you can have great discussions, build friendships, etc. - but recognize meatspace community has value, and should be tended to equally. We should be talking to the people physically around us more, and I truly feel one factor of the shit we wade through these days is that many don’t.

  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.worksOPtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•What are your favourite Wayback Machine links?
    2·
    3 days ago

    Me again.

    drtomorrow.com, 2001-02-01

    drtomorrow.com, 2014-05-17

    Epilogue

    Story

    It’s 2014. I’m writing an ill-conceived paper about LSD as a kind of ‘technological’ advancement in psychiatry and how that idea connects to themes in some American novels from the 1960s.

    While researching, I come across a blurb about Hollywood Hospital, a facility in Vancouver BC that conducted LSD trials with their patients. This eventually leads me to a finding aid for a collection of lecture notes at Purdue University’s Archives and Special collections, where I learned the last person known to have the hospital’s files was supposedly one Frank Ogden.

    Frank Ogden is an interesting character. A flight engineer during WWII, after the war he ran an airplane company at Toronto Island Airport. In 1961, after reading an article about LSD in a magazine he became interested in Hollywood Hospital’s activities. He sold his portion of the business, travelled to Vancouver and, in his words, “just knocked on the door”. With no medical background, but offering three months of free labour, medical director Dr. J. Ross MacLean hired him. Ogden took LSD under supervision twice, which was a relatively standard protocol for staff working with these patients. He then started working along side staff supporting these patients, which included ‘a large clientele from California’ - mostly said to be celebrities and the like looking for a kick.

    Fast forward. Ogden eventually transitions to a career as a futurist under the moniker Dr. Tomorrow, living in a houseboat in Vancouver. He did speaking engagements, wrote books, hosted a radio show, etc. He died at 92 on December 29th, 2012.

    Super interesting guy, and worth further digging into if you’re curious (I know I’m revisiting him now that I’ve written this, lol). But I noticed something interesting when I dug up his homepage. It was now redirecting to something called the Global Consciousness Project, a parapsychology initiative. This is a weird one - basically, the theory is that events causing widely experienced, shared emotions or attention could have an effect on the output of hardware random number generators, and fluctuations in output could be a measure of a ‘global consciousness’. It’s batshit, but fascinating at the same time. The questions I had at the time were “Why this, over anything else, as the redirect? What happened between May 3 2009 and February 17 2010 where this was the choice? Unrelated, but WHERE ARE THE FUCKING HOSPITAL FILES??”.

    I walked away. Ultimately, I had a paper to finish, and while fascinating this was becoming a timesink. But this man lives rent free in my head to this day

  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.workstoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.world•My son got Nikes so he doesn't get teased.English
    5·
    5 days ago

    Every serious bullying incident I ran into growing up ended when a kid got popped in the mouth. Every unserious bullying incident made no impact when I knew if it got serious, I could pop them in the mouth and likely come out on top.

    I’ve met way too many adults with personality issues that were a product of adults telling child them “physical violence is always wrong, just tell an adult, be the bigger person” etc. It always needs to be taught as a last resort, and it needs to be understood that even justified violence comes with consequences and other tools must be used first, but when you’ve done everything you’re supposed to and no one is helping to the resolve the problem, sometimes you have to do it yourself.

    It ain’t pretty, and it ain’t ideal, but it’s the way it is.

  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.workstoNews@lemmy.world•Evangelical church urges Trump admin to 'execute' LGBTQ Americans
    1·
    6 days ago

    There’s an in-universe argument to be made that the Devil has successfully corrupted the Christian church, its teachings and materials, and has for a long time. It’s not a new idea, though contexts have been different.

    Not a Christian myself, but I’d see loud propagation of this idea as an interesting counterforce to the current evangelical climate. For those folks who, for whatever reasons, remain Christians but think the outcomes of popular Christianity are fucked, this is a position to fight from.

    Anything that bolsters resistance against these particular chucklefucks is a good thing.