Alien vs. Purrdator.

Somehow Canada’s telecom sector is trying to put a massive one in downtown Vancouver.

Interesting question. Most people in general are at least somewhat trapped in their identities (i.e. the survival instinct defining who we are and where/with whom we believe we do or don’t belong), if they lack the self-awareness to detach from it at least a little. Many people get more and more entrenched in various aspects of their identity as they grow older though, regardless of how compassionate or misanthropic they are.

“People who like people” is an extremely imprecise term. Depending on upbringing and early life experiences, even folks with a “rich social network” aren’t guaranteed to be empathetic/compassionate people. Such people may have a better chance of hitting that ideal on some level, but they’re at risk of duplicating the status quo (maybe with slight improvements?) unless they were able to have meaningful social experiences that humanized a diverse swath of people from their wider community, thereby reducing blind spots. If they only saw people like themselves all the time, then what they really have is just a social advantage (connections) that they may well take for granted or treat as the “norm.” On the flipside, people who had a hard upbringing or severe trauma but were able to work through healing their traumatic wounds to a certain extent? They can end up becoming the most emotionally wise and compassionate people around. It’d be cruel and ridiculous to expect that from everyone though, so I liked a suggestion I heard from a researcher a while back to have mechanisms to address potential deficits in a politician’s likelihood to care about their constituents.

All propaganda is part of an ongoing war of ideas (and identity, really). If people only hear from one side all the time and other viewpoints aren’t even debated but just get socially discouraged or outright suppressed, most are liable to just believe what they hear the most &/or what reinforces (or flatters) their personal idea of who they are. Even if they see good evidence of errors, omissions, or fabrications in the most widely accepted narrative, if people feel like they’ll become an outcast or that they’re losing a part of their identity by questioning what they’re told, most will give in to the natural inclination to run for what’s “safe” and comfortable in the moment. It takes a lot to pry people away from even small parts of the conventional wisdom they’ve heard non-stop from family, friends, news, entertainment, their employer, their colleagues, etc.

To be sure I’m addressing your question properly and that we’re not talking past each other I’d need to know which specific people you’re thinking of, but just speaking generally off the top of my head, this is a sample of the kind of thing I meant:

• Generations of propaganda promoting countless forms of division and/or social hierarchy. This dilutes democratic efforts by pitting people against each other who should be on the same side. Not just the most well-known forms of bigotry but also the tendency of a lot of people to adopt the everyday elitist attitude that they’re smart while most other people aren’t, or that something obvious to them because of their own life experiences or education should be obvious to everyone else regardless of other people’s varied life experiences or education.
• A human tendency to conform to and defend the status quo at all costs (because our brains are always seeking stability), even when it runs counter to our own needs or values. This has been increasingly exploited by major political parties across the West to get people to vote based on vibes and personal affiliations rather than demanding trackable progress toward specific measurable outcomes. The UK is now shaping up to become an exception to this. Over there, urgency to end austerity has caught on as the outcome most people want, and now the debate is naturally shifting toward whether people believe the right way of doing so is to tax wealth more than work (Greens), or to kick out immigrants in the (in my opinion misguided) hope the wealthy will then decide they’ve taken enough and gladly share with whoever’s left (Reform).
• Unfortunately, power in and of itself begets “people who don’t like people.” There is a well-documented phenomenon for people with any level of power over others (could be wealth, elevated social position, a prestigious job, etc.) in which their capacity for empathy becomes impaired, which leads to all sorts of cascading effects that get reflected in both public and private institutions. (I’ve heard at least one researcher talk about ways to directly counter this with special coaching for people who get elected as public representatives, but it was a long while back so I’d have to do some digging to find that discussion again.) I think this covers leaders who think they’re doing the right thing but are woefully out of touch as well as the dangerously ambitious ones who might have convinced themselves otherwise at first but really only got into politics for clout and prestige.

Even if they can be simplified down when speaking abstractly, there are so many reasons for that when speaking practically, it’s hard to know where to start. :/

Same. For me it feels more like a happy armadillo, ready to curl up and roll away if shit goes down.

Did I miss something? Is that a reference to what actually happened to the table?

Buried near the bottom:

At the same time, the law lets local governments enter into non-disclosure agreements with companies for up to a year, temporarily limiting public access to details about proposed projects.

Hiding water usage is apparently a standard tactic the proponents of these projects use so they can straight up lie about their drain on the environment. I also didn’t see anything in the article about any kind of pollution.

Double Matrix all the way, oooh my god. (It’s starting to look like a Triple Matrix!)

There isn’t only one reason for that to happen. I have two old smartphones around. Both are no longer usable with any worthwhile mobile service in Canada. The first (and oldest - originally mine before becoming a hand-me-down to a relative) went out of use after the elderly person who was using it had it active for a year or two but then stopped bothering with it due to his illness keeping him at home and preference for larger screens in general. The other I’d still be using (still use it for some things!) if I could. I have always used my computers, phones, etc. as long as I could get away with but for #2, I had to get a newer (but used) phone to keep service after the end of 3G in Canada. The new phone is definitely nicer in some ways but I wouldn’t have changed phones if I had a choice. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Vance had a visit with the last pope at the Vatican, right before he died. At the time, Francis was trying to get him to acknowledge biblical teachings to love your neighbour (and I think that ICE was the antithesis of this), and not the vaguely dystopian stuff Vance was pushing about only only offering respect/kindness/compassion to the people closest to you.

If you watch the video of this, Trump keeps emphasizing “Door Dash Granny’s” (on her shirt) husband needs cancer treatment. That could be scripted or she could be a real Dasher that got paid some (probably very small) payoff to do this. Either way it’s just a photo op where he tries to play up how his Big Bill throws pennies at poor people by not taxing tips (which from what I’ve heard have often been stolen not just by restaurant managers/owners but even through apps in some cases).

I have an older Aura that isn’t allowed library books. :/

Sounds like the start of Cory Doctorow’s book Radicalized.

2010 was too long ago. :')

(Rest in peace, Paul Vasquez. Thanks again for sharing the beautiful sight you saw that day.)

I got the impression those were light fixtures in the back, but who knows for someone that wants a bathtub next to glass double doors. (I could own all the land for a good distance around, and I’d still be uncomfortable with that.)

*Jeremy Bearimy, but yes.

9, with wistful moments of 3

The only way this wouldn’t be supremely disappointing would be if they were keeping all staff and only introducing this for lower-importance sequences to reduce the famously insane workload. But yeah, I know I’m only kidding myself to even entertain that idea.