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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

I sometimes wondered if people thought I got there because of affirmative action. It was a shadow that students like me couldn’t shake, whether those doubts came from the outside or inside our own minds.

So (s)he had that "shadow" hanging over her, even though she got into the school on her own merit. The implication of that is that AA students would always have that sense of "Imposter Syndrome" and that somehow, this was acceptable and something to promote for others?

"You know you don't belong here. We know you don't belong here. But even if it's causing you some psychological damage (which you'll probably carry throughout your career), you should still do it because...it makes some people (us) look kind and non-racist. And that's the most important thing."

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GrannyPaine 1 point ago +1 / -0

I'd just like to point out that we've had that weird orange haze in the air months before any claims of wildfires started.

I've noticed as well that nobody has been talking about the volcanoes that have been popping off since 2020. In that year alone, there were 52 active volcanoes. I don't think Mount Etna has actually settled down in the past 3 years.

From the Wiki entry about the 1883 Krakatoa eruption:

The ash caused "such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration"

Sound familiar? Of course, Krakatoa was a massive eruption. But instead of one large eruption, would many smaller eruptions worldwide over a period of a couple of years cause a similar effect?

My thinking is that yes, all the volcanic ash is having an effect on the atmosphere. But you can't blame the volcanoes for "man-made climate change" and raise their taxes/take away their liberties, can you?

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GrannyPaine 5 points ago +5 / -0

I was reading comments on another site (nothing to do with politics but you know how conversations online can go). The people there - most of whom seem to be left-leaning - were absolutely slagging the Kennedys...especially RFK Sr.

It's another one of those down-is-up things. Even after pointing out the affairs the brothers had, etc. they still seemed like untouchable martyrs. But I guess now the word has gone out that they need to be demonized in order to prevent RFK Jr. from gaining any ground.

It's sad. And tedious. And obvious.

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GrannyPaine 3 points ago +3 / -0

But the money IS solving problems! All those bureaucrats and unionized govt employees and on and on...their problems are being solved. They have their salaries and their perks and their pensions and aren't accountable to anyone.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the ever-expanding needs of the bureaucracy".

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GrannyPaine 4 points ago +4 / -0

Apparently, they once had a system where, if a patient died under their "care", they had to put a certain kind of lantern outside their practice to let people know. People could make up their own minds if they wanted to take a chance with Dr. Hack or not.

I kind of like the idea.

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GrannyPaine 26 points ago +26 / -0

Funny how kids being "free thinkers" and being "able to decide things for themselves" suddenly becomes a Bad Thing when it goes against the agenda.

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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

Someone who used to frequent Tumblr back in the day said that the double mastectomies etc were basically this generation's "cutting".

Be a teenage girl. Want to fit in. Do damage to your body and then post it online for solidarity/asspats. Same thing, except this time the damage is far more "acceptable" than cuts on your arms.

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GrannyPaine 1 point ago +1 / -0

Spent some time outside yesterday, not doing any yardwork but just sitting in a chair, watching the clouds. The air smelled fantastic. Very cottage-y.

by NOTWOKE
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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

We had a long internet outage a few weeks back. We don't have access on our phones, just on our desktops. I didn't realize how hooked in I was until then. It was annoying to not be able to look up things, to find a recipe or to find something that I might need for a project. I hadn't realized how dependent I'd become...and I dislike feeling "addicted" to anything.

I thought at the time that all these people who have everything on their phones would probably lose their damned minds if they lose online access. At least older people have the fallback of having grown up without cellphones, etc. so can make adjustments.

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GrannyPaine 1 point ago +1 / -0

This was in the early 90s, so long after Carmen Miranda. I don't think her parents watched much TV but maybe there was something in a movie or cartoon that they watched?

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GrannyPaine 10 points ago +10 / -0

I knew a 5 year old who would dress up in her mother's hat and shoes and tell people she was "the lady from Argentina". Her parents did not take her down to Argentina to let her live out her life in her proper home.

(I could never figure out why she chose Argentina).

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GrannyPaine 14 points ago +14 / -0

Growing up, we always heard that line about Nazi Germany - "How could human beings allow such things to happen?"

And here we are. We were shown exactly how such things happen. Tell the people that draconian measures are needed "for the greater good" and encourage them to feel like they're the "better person" for turning on their fellow human beings. They'll toss everyone else to the wolves, either out of fear or to enhance their feelings of moral superiority.

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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

I thought "Obnoxious Narcissist Month" would be a good descriptor but it's way too wordy.

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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

Oh, great! Thanks for finding that!

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GrannyPaine 6 points ago +6 / -0

Odd. The name "Jimmy Savile" just popped into my head when I read your comment.

Since finding out about Savile's close friendship with Charles, I've just assumed that Diana was murdered because she saw what was happening and didn't want them to go after her sons, and may have been talking to others about it.

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GrannyPaine 3 points ago +3 / -0

Just finished a re-read of Vance Packard's "Hidden Persuaders" in ebook format. The last time I read it, it was the 1980(?) printing, in paperback. There were a few things in it that I was expecting to see that weren't there and now I'm not sure if I was thinking of a different book or if things were dropped out for some reason.

The weird thing is that the things I think were missing weren't very important overall, just three small things that certainly didn't affect the rest of the content. But it means I'm going to have to keep an eye out for an old copy of it (and good luck with me finding a paperback from the 80s!)

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GrannyPaine 6 points ago +6 / -0

I think the easiest answer is that China over-estimated its population. It helped them on two fronts - it gave them a larger population than India (so bragging rights for being the world's most populated country) and it probably helped people in the CCP scam more money. Inflating the population of an area, getting extra benefits or cash from the govt, stealing the amount that's actually surplus. I'm not entirely sure how their local governments are set up, or how many layers of govt there are in any given area, but I can see a potential for scamming.

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GrannyPaine 2 points ago +2 / -0

China has centuries of that sort of "other-directed" culture to fall back on, so going along with the herd and not "destabilizing" society is their way of life.

Citizens of countries like Canada do not share that mindset, so they're going to have "other-directed" culture forced on them. So yes, it is far worse than China.

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GrannyPaine 4 points ago +4 / -0

Funny how it's always cars causing the problems and not those constant shipments of crap from China, isn't it?

It's kind of like going on about climate change and Earth Day and oh god recycle why can't you use a cardboard straw???...then finding out that the stuff you've been dutifully recycling all these years has (through a series of sketchy deals with even sketchier characters) ended up in Malaysia, where they just dump it into the waterways, so it ends up in the ocean AND THEN you still get blamed, because now there are islands of garbage in the oceans.

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GrannyPaine 11 points ago +11 / -0

Using a portrait of Jackson (instead of an etching of a copy of a copy) would build a stronger case. They actually do have similar facial features but it falls at several points especially the mouth and the area right around the eyes.

Andrew Jackson was a pretty nice-looking guy and a statesman. No wonder he looks so sad in his portraits though - he was probably worrying that future peoples would compare his portrait to a blob of human excrement.

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