Quote
- Liking or upvoting a URL on a forum or social media that someone else posted.
- Commenting on a URL somebody else posted saying how much you enjoyed the content.
- Posting a URL on social media/discord server yourself, suggesting that others might also like to read it.
- Dropping a quick note of appreciation to the author via email or DM.
- Actually paying money for the content via Patreon, etc.
Stop benefitting from the internet, it’s not for you to enjoy, it’s for us to use to extract money from you. Stop finding beauty and connection in the world, loneliness is more profitable and easier to control. Stop being human. A mindless bot who makes regular purchases is all that’s really needed. — Cat Valente
You can be in my dream if I can be in your dream. - Bob Dylan
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” ~ E.E. Cummings
One of my favorite quotes of all time - When I’m in a slump, I comfort myself by saying if I believe in dinosaurs, then somewhere, they must be believing in me. And if they believe in me, then I can believe in me. Then I bust out. - Mookie Wilson, New York Mets, Left Field
Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in - Nick Cave
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
by Brian Bilston
I think Apple can either take a commission on all commerce they want on the App Store or they can be the exclusive place to get software for you iPhone and iPad, but they cannot be both. - Matt Birchler on Bitchtree
“Without labor nothing prospers.” — Sophocles
No celebrating the grind life, celebrating all the workers who actually make stuff, the under-appreciated bedrock of society.
One of my favorite quotes of all time -
“I will not stay silent so that you can stay comfortable.” - Mary Engelbreit
“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” - Jean Paul
have to admit that it’s breaking my heart to watch a new generation of anxious parents think that they can address the struggles their kids are facing by eliminating technology from kids' lives. I’ve been banging my head against this wall for almost 20 years, not because I love technology but because I care so deeply about vulnerable youth. And about their mental health. And boy oh boy do I loathe moral panics. I realize they’re politically productive, but they cause so much harm and distraction.
Female hair is either long or political. Sexual orientation is either heterosexual or political. Gender identity is either cis or political. Clothing is either gender stereotyped and boring or political. City infrastructure is either car-focused or political. Energy is either fossil fuels or political. Education is either white Christian propaganda or political. Everything follows the same pattern, tech included.
“There are moments when you cannot help but feel that your life is being controlled by some not-entirely-benevolent god. You skirt down a ridge only to climb it again; you climb a steep peak when there is an obvious route around it; you cross the same stream three times in the course of an hour, for no apparent reason, soaking your feet in the process. You do these things because someone, somewhere, decided that that’s where the trail must go.”
The Essence of Hiking
Consider the quintessential traits often attributed to every younger generation - regardless of the era. Idealism. Technological savvy. A desire to challenge the status quo. An anti-authority bent. Flip through the pages of history, and you’ll find these same attributes ascribed to youth movements across the decades, even centuries.
Thoughts on Joan Westenberg’s piece Generational Labels Are BS
Our rights and liberties are not gifts from the state, but “the inheritance of a long history of struggles” by abolitionists, labor leaders, feminists and countless others whose “radical” beliefs in human freedom and dignity challenged an unjust system. - Eric Foner in The Nation
Save the web by being nice by Andrew Stephens, my #Junited2024 entry
There are different levels of Niceness but roughly from least to most effort:
A great description of professional athletes “They exist for history, and we take joy from them because we accept that they are superior at an arbitrary assortment of skills that we have collectively decided have value.”
I write about how [Biden] is working to restore the principles of the period between 1933 and 1981, when members of both parties shared the belief that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. I write about how that liberal consensus broke down as extremists used the image of the cowboy—who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone—to stand against “creeping socialism” that stole from hardworking white men in order to give handouts to lazy minorities and women. Heather Cox Richardson
I’ve already said that we’re not banning books to keep kids safe, we’re banning books to keep afloat a view of the world that seemed to be dying.
Source: On Banning Books, Taking Notes for Others and Should you Write a Book? – 3 Threads – Curtis McHale by
Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. –Coco Channel