Dаn̈ıel Раršlow 🥧 @pieist@qoto.org

There's a common behavior on the intarwebs that we need a word for.

When you ask for advice on how to do or avoid doing a thing, there's a category of person who will invariably respond by questioning your desire to do or not do that thing. Often aggressively/defensively, as they themselves are invested in doing the opposite of what you're asking about.

Examples from my own experience:

"Now that ebay will no longer simply credit a card, is there a way I can sell on ebay without giving them my bank account info?"

Response: replies from people who insist there's something wrong with you for not wanting to give ebay your bank account info. Nothing actually useful.

"Does anyone know of a decent webmail server that's not written in PHP?"

Response: Whole lot of deeply butthurt "what's wrong with PHP????!!?!?!" replies. (Answer: far too much to go into.) Not one useful answer.

What people like that need to do is not reply. Y'know, because that's what you do when you don't have an answer. But instead they go for the hard derail.

Sealioning is a great word for a certain kind of reply-guy behavior, that of badgering you to engage them on something you've said or which they've chosen to infer from what you've said. This isn't quite that. It is however bloody irritating.

And yet they'll still claim there's a Democratic "Deep State".

"Don't worry, Darlin'
Now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and
none of this has happened yet."

-- Bruce Springsteen

While mastodon isn't remotely as toxic as Twitter, it's a lot bitchier, with a vastly higher proportion of self-appointed policing of others' posts.

I don't know if anyone remembers lawn darts. Just found a vintage set online -- not on eBay, they're probably banned there -- and am laughing my head off at this warning, which is rather like saying "not intended for smoking; do not expose to flame" on a pack of cigarettes.

The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.

-- Garry Kasparov

In the midst of my despair, it must be said that Obama and Biden weren't doing shit about climate change either. This doesn't even rise to the level of cold comfort, but it's true.

These geese that cross the road in the marked crossings in Cambridgeshire UK...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qv915xwwzo

..remind me of when a few weeks ago, I crossed a busy street in a NW Portland neighborhood, one which had a press-to-activate pedestrian signal. As soon as I started across I realized that a coyote had joined me. Apparently he or she had been lurking nearby waiting for someone to come along and push the button.

Amusing that Trump has been talking about 2000% tariffs right about the time it was noticed that he's charging $60 for bibles he's getting from China for $3.

I wonder if whoever did the arithmetic for him also mentioned that it's not a tariff if it goes in the seller's own pocket?

Columbus Day
is when ppl who think immigrants
are thieves, rapists & murderers
get to celebrate an immigrant
who stole, raped & murdered.

- John Fugelsang

I'm still amused by profiles on that other site that read something like "Had enough of Musk, moved to Threads: <link>" and similar.

Yes, fed up with being monetized by an unaccountable oligarch with a less than transparent yet wholly disturbing agenda, therefore...