Notices by Nate Cull (natecull@mastodon.social), page 18

So if you're believing that conflict is eternal and can never be resolved...

... then I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm going to enjoy your stories, because I just don't fundamentally believe that that is a true description of the actual world.

'Neoliberal Realist' fiction, to me, is the piles of depressing stuff we have where individuals must constantly fight each other for survival at every level, where there is no hope of ever seeing another's viewpoint or working in common.

Neoliberal Realist fiction is Fight Club. It's Zombie Apocalypse stories. It's online multiplayer gaming and the cult of winning at all cost. It's Survivor and Hunger Games and the whole genre of 'reality television'.

It's the fascist myth of eternal conflict.

It is economic neoliberalism - 19th century, Dickens-era economics, if you like, revived as a deliberate pushback *against* the leftward swing of American politics in the 1930s - that sees humans as fundamentally individuals who can never share anything, can never aspire to any higher unity.

If this author is bothered by the idea that humans should be able to grow past their conflicts, that conflict is NOT irreducible... then I submit that that author is bothered by leftism, not neoliberalism.

I find this an interesting article because I almost totally disagree with the author's definition of 'neoliberal'.

https://lithub.com/the-problem-of-neoliberal-realism-in-contemporary-fiction/

To me, 'neoliberalism' (an actual, and *conservative*, economic theory; very little to do with political liberalism as it is understood in 21st century America) is predicated precisely on the notion this author believes: that conflict (competition) is irreducible and cannot be resolved.

If we want to leave neoliberalism, we must also leave conflict.

Narrator: It seemed as if that mighty desert of houses had found a voice for its fear and solitude.

Martian: We have updated our EULA

Narrator: The desolating cry worked upon my mind. The wailing took possession of me. I was intensely weary, footsore, hungry and thirsty. Why was I wandering alone in this city of the dead? What was this dark document that scrolled endlessly down my dialog box?

Martian: Please like and subscribe to our EULA

Narrator: I clicked Yes. Abruptly, the sound ceased.

@rick_777 We could save a whole character if we coded Tuttle and Buttle to the same address, I mean what are the odds of a mismatch

and the Subnormal Numbers

Band name:

Sigmoid Freud

Bad idea:

A physical Ctrl-F mechanism for paper books

I'm thinking wind-up clockwork and photocells, maybe

OR: maybe trained hamsters wired together with electric eels?

Would depend on whether preferring dieselpunk or biopunk aesthetics. Perhaps ship with both, and have a user-configurable selectable option.

Bad idea:

A physical Ctrl-F mechanism for paper books

I'm thinking wind-up clockwork and photocells, maybe

@JoYo Worse: very often an *actual project website* will link to videos rather than, y'know, a paper. Or a white paper. Or a page.

I didn't spend five years in kindergarten laboriously learning my ABCs just to throw all that out and mainline Youtubes, y'all

Dear everyone who is considering making a video of yourself talking rather than just writing the *exact same words* into a text file, a blog post or a PDF:

Unless you're specifically targeting people who literally cannot read...

Please don't.

Sincerely, A Person Who Doesn't Have Literal Free Hours To Hear You Slooooowly Say Something It Would Take Me Five Seconds To Roead

Dear everyone who is considering making a video of yourself talking rather than just writing the *exact same words* into a text file, a blog post or a PDF:

Unless you're specifically targeting people who literally cannot read...

Please don't.

Sincerely, A Person Who Can Read but Doesn't Have Literal Free Hours To Hear You Talk

@CarlMuckenhoupt It turns out that humans are easy to manipulate, given a few sleeper crow agents installed at key media organisations around the globe.

The Guardian, love 'em, have never been more 100% wrong in their entire career

<< To watch the final episode of Stranger Things 3, you first have to watch the preceding seven episodes of Stranger Things 3. And, oh boy, are those a slog. >>

@enkiv2

Yes Brain, but where will we find a plexiglass tube, an electric fish, an electrostatically charged sphere, an oscilloscope and a permanent magnet at this time of night?

https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/cia/behavioral/C00022052.pdf