a repost of my highest effort meme to date.
keywords: gen y. gen z. post-pandemic. habit. habitat. habitus. hustle. freelance. gig economy. precarious work. precarity. labour. labor. class. grift. nomad. nomadism. investment. art. solutionism. near future. futurism.
I think we underestimate the psychosocial impact of losing your entire friend group and see them move away after college, and to some degree already after highschool. We can all rationalize it because that's just how our modern society works, but I think it leaves us with a subliminal feeling of being betrayed and left alone by our friends - people who were supposed to remain on our side and offer comfort and stability.
Ming Dynasty 1566 (tv show) is afaik the only tv show that matches The Wire in terms of being a systemic, panoramic, and patient protrayal of a political milieu (and without entertainment elements and way more subtle).
there should be a chad meme made of Justin Trudeau: boarding school bring up, nepo baby, wore black face at a party, rode the woke ticket to become PM of Canada for almost a decade, weakened the Canadian economy and foreign relations, retired scot free, now dating Katy Perry.
seen from this pov, so many of these brilliant minds were actually cunts to their wives. glad to see Hegel being based. i get how some might say i’m being anachronistic in judging them now, but no, they’re cunts as revealed by their beheviours in this matter.
This is extraordinary and profoundly symbolic: Ai Weiwei has returned to China for the first time in 10 years and says he concluded that Beijing is "more humane" than Germany which he describes as "insecure and unfree".
He gave an interview to Germany's Berliner Zeitung after his trip (https://t.co/P0NBgnCTTH) and here is what he said:
- He described feeling that Beijing had become like "a broken jade being perfectly reassembled" and said he felt no fear returning to the country.
- He complained that daily life difficulties in Europe (where he's lived for the past 10 years) are "at least ten times" what they are in China, criticizing European bureaucracy.
- For instance he said he reactivated his dormant Chinese bank account in mere minutes (with "still had a considerable sum of money in it"). He contrasts this with his experience in Europe: "In Germany, my bank accounts were closed twice. And not just mine, but my girlfriend's as well. In Switzerland, I was refused an account at the country's largest bank, and another bank later closed my account there as well. There were other similar incidents, which I won't go into detail about here. These processes are extraordinarily complicated and often irrational."
- He says that "with regard to the political climate, daily life for ordinary people in Beijing feels more natural and humane" than in Germany which "feels cold, rational, and deeply bureaucratic. As an individual, one feels confined and precarious there."
- Stunningly he says that in Germany, over ten years, "almost no one has ever invited me to their home. Neighbors from above or below exchange at most a brief nod." He contrasts this with China where, immediately upon his return, "perfectly ordinary people from at least five different professions lined up, hoping to meet me."
- He concludes that Germany now "plays the role of an insecure and unfree country, struggling to find its position between history and future."
As a European who's lived 8 years in China, I couldn't agree more: life in China is an order of magnitude less cumbersome than in Europe and daily life feels much more humane and warm, contrary to popular belief.
But it's one thing for me to say it, and something else entirely for China's most famous dissident. The man once celebrated throughout the West as the very embodiment of opposition to his country has now concluded that it is in fact Europe that's inhumane and "unfree".
i feel like the foreplay phase (ie manufacturing consent) for this coup (venezuela) is so much shorter than previous ones.
we’re living in a post-consent world.
i’ve been seeing a lot of new photos of Anthony Bourdain. it must’ve been nice to be so well travelled and known so many famous people like Woody Allen, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Noam Chomsky, Steve Bannon, Steven Pinker, etc etc
listening to We Are Charlie Kirk makes me wana rip my shirt off on a mountain top and with the camera to circle around me from above. and that’s how it feels to chew 5 gum