josemanuel @josemanuel@qoto.org

@urusan The only movie that has ever scared me (in any of its versions, except the original) was _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_.

@aurochs

> I remind you that the US has never threatened to use them after WWII

Well, the US never threatened to use them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki either, but they nuked them anyway. And they did that on civilian population and not as a form of self-defense. At least Putin has said: “We'll do whatever it takes _if Russian territory is invaded_.” Zelensky, on the other hand, has advocated for preemptive nuclear strikes against Russia.

And, to be honest, I'd rather have a warning before my whole city gets wiped out when I go about my daily life, like it happened in Hiroshima.

Oh, also: didn't the US use chemical weapons in Vietnam? Because I believe they did. Does Agent Orange ring a bell?

Finally, have you heard about the Wolfowitz Doctrine?

https://wikiless.tiekoetter.com/wiki/Wolfowitz_Doctrine?lang=en

(The link there doesn't mention that the EU was also explicitly cited as a potential objective of that doctrine. _They're not our friends. They never were_.)

> Russia is also an imperialist country

Maybe, and that's why I wouldn't support them either if they wanted me by their side. I never supported the invasion of Ukraine. (I still don't, now.) I did say, though, that pushing Russia's buttons was not the way to go—if we wanted peace. And I was right.

> Finally, the NS2 was sabotaged by Russia, not US.

Show me some proof beyond “because I (or some political stooge) say so”. There is no logical reason for Russia to blow the pipeline. They already had a button to stop the gas from flowing towards Europe. And whenever they wanted to use it, they just said: “Oh, we're sorry. There was a mulfunction in the pipeline. You'll have to live without gas for a couple of weeks.” No need to sabotage something that could still be useful once the relationship gets back to normal.

Biden, on the other hand, did threaten to destroy the pipeline a few months ago. Condoleezza Rice (remember her from the Iraq war?) said in 2016 that the US didn't want Russia to sell us gas, that we should be buying from them instead, as it (surprise, surprise!) is happening now.

I exclude any European country here, even though we can easily be that stupid.

So the only one that had a reason to do it and was around at the time of the sabotage was the US. _Blanco y en botella_.

@ElMichel Haced con ella lo que hacen mis tíos con mi madre: decidle que las cosas son dos horas antes y así sólo llegará media hora después.

@thor To be onest, I think it would have been disrespectful in Spain, too. Not because she called for attention, but for the way she did it. Snapping your fingers makes sense if you're calling an animal, not a person.

The way I'd do it would be to raise my hand until the waiter acknowledges me. Otherwise, it depends on how crowded the place is, and things like that.

@thor I was just thinking about that today. I'm not loud or extroverted (quite the contrary, I think), but whenever I deal with people from the Nordic countries and I try my hand at humour, it's not only that they don't laugh (that's perfectly fine, my jokes are terrible), it's that they don't even consider the possibility that I could've been speaking in jest.

It's like speaking with Vulcans.

@thor Yeah, I guess it isn't.

@thor I thought my name was a dead giveaway.

@thor I am Spanish, Thor. You really didn't know that?

The problem with nuclear energy was never one of pollution, but of it being potentially dangerous _if anything goes wrong_. (And a lot of things can go wrong with the current state of the technology.) Personally, I think the question we should be asking is: “Would you be willing to have a nuclear power plant near your house knowing that it would be run by your friends and neighbours?”

Gracias, empresa para la que trabajo, por utilizar MS para casi todo. (Para todo lo demás, Amazon.)

@kingu_platypus_gidora@octodon.social Yep, apparently Ubuntu does that now. And the fact that people notice it means it works, so in time it will probably expand to more brands instead of just Ubuntu itself.

@aurochs

> Would or would not Switzerland have gotten invaded if it didn't have an army?

I don't know, but the truth is, not even Hitler did it.

> On the other hand, I think Europe is on the line, wether we are in NATO or not.

I failed to see the threat we were supposed to be under a year ago. Our gas supply was guaranteed back then, but it isn't right now. A nuclear war was not on the table a year ago, but it is now. The only difference is that the EU decided to side with the US on an issue that had absolutely nothing to do with us.

> About neutrality, I think it is often selfish position, and sometimes just evil.

Better to be neutral than slaves to an imperialist nation. I mean, look at the NS2 pipeline. They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

I had fun today on Fedi. Thank you to everyone involved.

@wolf480pl Of course not, it would have ruined the fun. But I'm glad you don't see the resemblance.

@wolf480pl Please tell me that's not some kind of electricity-powered penis.

@esheep And also of crawltimes, but all is not lost, for there must be flytimes, too.

@natecull Most people associate the 90s with “grim, gritty” aesthetic, but they weren't like that at all. To me, the 80s aesthetic is much uglier, what with all that sweaty makeup and shit. The 90s were a reaction against all that. To me, what you call ‘grim’ and ‘gritty’ was simply ‘honest’ and ‘true’. The 80s had a phony and artificial quality in my opinion. And I lived through both decades.

Think of LPs like _Nevermind_, David Bowie's _Outside_, or Marilyn Manson's _Antichrist Superstar_. Their sound could be considered dirty and noisy by some, but in reality it was a very controlled noise, designed to sound good. That sums up the 90s aesthetic quite well, I think.

At our hearts, we wanted to create a beautiful future out of a grim and gritty present. The Cyberpunk idea from the 80s, while cool in theory, was not what we wanted in practice.

That's why I consider TNG a legimate product of the 90s, much more than DS9 or Voyager, which were the equivalent of Nu Metal, a bad imitation of the 90s real _ethos_.

@urusan

@ink8@the9thcircle.club I'm not familiar with Barbie lore. I just read all that on Wikipedia.

But what you said could explain why Ken and Barbie are canonically just friends now.

@trinsec

@aurochs Does Switzerland need an army? It's a neutral country. It never gets invaded. Why can't we be like Switzerland?

I wouldn't be opposed to more military spending if we got out of NATO and declared ourselves a neutral block. But being part of NATO puts us in the line of fire in exchange for nothing. Its purpose is to put us all in a more precarious situation. It only makes us more insecure by blindly following the US imperialist lead.