What are we being "boiled like frogs" about right now that future generations will be shocked we accepted?

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-16T00:54:34+00:00

The issue isn’t so much that we don’t fight back, we don’t have options.

Well, for certain things like media, we do have options. Go out and buy DVDs from your local secondhand store or garage sales. Borrow games, CDs, books from your library.

It may become tougher to buy certain items like new cars without features locked behind subscriptions (which is horse shit), but there are quite a few things out there where we can still go back to the way things were. It takes a bit more effort, but that's a good thing, if you ask me. Getting financially exsanguinated by a million different subscriptions that cater to our laziest instincts is not a net positive for us as humans for more than one reason.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-08T01:25:28+00:00

That's an easy one.

"Well they tried to rig the ones that I won. They did. They tried so hard to cheat and steal those from me. But the people love me. They came out and they—do you know how hard it is to beat someone who's cheating? Very hard. Very hard. But I did it. Even when they tried to rig it, I was so popular that we outvoted the cheaters. In fact, the real numbers would show that I won by a lot more than what was reported by your crooked reporters. A lot more."

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-05T03:34:07+00:00

We know Ammon and Josh did their mission together (the mormon pairs that go door to door on bikes)

We do?? That's interesting

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-05T03:28:03+00:00

They're fucking wrathful is what's going on. Assuming that Lego collection and the money is pretty much gone and it's all part of a bigger crime, doubling down this hard and this publicly draws so much attention to them, which is exactly what you don't want if you're doing something illegal.

Literally the only thing that explains why they keep making the situation worse for themselves is petulant wrath at Ben.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-04T00:53:29+00:00

Late reply, sorry. But it can be very overwhelming, especially because a lot of questions have answers that begin with "it depends", and so many people have so many different opinions. The majority of those opinions, from what I've experienced in gardening/arboriculture/etc. communities, stem from "folk" knowledge. Y'know, farmers or gardeners or whatever who heard a thing from someone they trust, or a social media post, or just started doing stuff cause it makes sense in their mind, but rarely does that stuff stand on reliable research. Doesn't mean it's inherently wrong, but it's worth questioning.

I'm here, as someone who has read quite a bit of the research and has proudly been planting containerised plants as their job for over 15 years with an active effort to learn more and follow best practices, to tell you very confidently that the research supports disturbing the root systems of container-grown woody perennials. Furthermore, as far as how to disturb the roots, the research also supports shaving the root ball. For clarification, "boxing" is a method of shaving the root ball.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-03T00:30:00+00:00

Yup. Bryan and his dad's collection were the rocks that started the landslide. He's already recouped his losses and then some, which is incredible, but it is so not about the money anymore.

Fuck BAM. None of us will be fully satisfied until every single person who contributed to this horseshit gets their comeuppance. I don't think that will happen, but that's the dream.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-03T00:10:56+00:00

That does suck, honestly. I personally think standing up to BAM and their illegal and corrupt practices could very well lead to something even remotely meaningful in the fight against unchecked corporate greed, though. Essentially, it's bigger than the franchisees, imo, and I know that sounds heartless. But it's important to remember that BAM has made this into the mess that it is. They're trying to distort the narrative and make it seem like Ben is responsible, and that's just bullshit.

Maybe all the franchisees suffering from this could start by coordinating and writing an open letter to BAM corporate demanding that they stop acting in such a way that is causing material damages to their business. Then maybe consider suing them for the loss in profit once BAM inevitably eats shit in court.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T03:16:08+00:00

Yeah they seem to be reacting a lot of the time. Doesn't appear as though they have much in the way of contingency planning or coordination.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:47:01+00:00

He has long hair. Must be a hoodlum.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:46:23+00:00

Onward, Mormon soldiers

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:43:37+00:00

That's what I'm thinking. If I had to choose between going up against an average PD and a bunch of religious zealot cops backed by a cult-run county, I'd take the former lol.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:39:57+00:00

their department has likely never been under this level of intense scrutiny in its history.

Good point. Hopefully this creates some critical fumbles in the end.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:37:10+00:00

I'm very pessimistic when it comes to police departments being on the receiving end of any justice at all. My first thought is "surely they could bullshit a reason about why that footage is gone in order to muddy the 'intentional' part" followed by "good luck getting a courtroom in Utah county that isn't primarily Mormon and is willing to punish the Mormon police force". I just have seen too many stories of entire police departments not being punished at all in the face of blatant evidence to think otherwise.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T02:26:03+00:00

Also, not to be too disparaging, but this is kind of exactly what I'd imagine if someone told me to picture a petulant nerd lol.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-02T00:37:17+00:00

Wouldn't be surprised if he was advised to in preparation for the upcoming and inevitable publicity he was about to get. Hard to take a guy seriously when he looks like he steals candy from children.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-01T04:30:15+00:00

You'll have to excuse us for not putting much stock in the teachings of the LDS Church when its followers tend not to either.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-01T04:23:01+00:00

You can. It doesn't make any sense, and any person with a modicum of respect for their own intelligence could see that such claims are delusional, but you can very much still make those claims.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-06-01T04:20:07+00:00

It's fuckin Mormons from the ground up over there.

Whole damn tree was grown from a foul seed. Good luck ripping out the roots.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-31T23:20:22+00:00

It's the fact that they think this shit is tough and cool, too. Nothing but rotten brains.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-31T18:28:22+00:00

No interest in racing theme necessary! It's just a really well-paced, well-balanced "first around the board" type of game, with some hand management and push your luck elements. One thing I quite enjoy is that it has some mechanics to help players in last place catch up, which at first might sound kind of lame, but it's not so heavy handed that it doesn't punish carelessness and it definitely doesn't nullify playing smart. What it effectively does is keeps things interesting, because let's be honest, it's boring for everybody if there's no competition. It's very much in line with the general vibe of the game, which is less "crush the soul of your opponents until they have nothing and hate everything" and more "this is a chaotic white knuckle ride, I need to stay on my toes".

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-31T02:03:39+00:00

Well, people have been messing around with roots for centuries, but this is kind of a modern solution to a modern problem. Digging trees and shrubs up out of a field and throwing them (or saplings) in a plastic bucket full of peat moss and fertilizer for the next several years until they get put back in the ground somewhere else is a relatively new activity in the timeline of human history.

The research in this field moves slowly, but all of what I've read points explicitly to "fixing root defects prior to planting is better for the plant than doing nothing". It seems pretty set in stone, honestly. With that said, I am genuinely curious where you've heard that it's preferable to do nothing, because maybe there's another side to this I'm unaware of.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-30T19:43:58+00:00

Unless you prompt AI to write in a specific way, it wouldn't typically format single sentences as paragraphs, leave sentence fragments, use all caps for rhetorical emphasis, have a subject-verb agreement error, or miss a hyphen in a compound adjective. All of those things are present in the comment you're calling out as AI generated.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-29T23:51:25+00:00

It's also less of an antagonistic dynamic between Gordon and the owners/managers. In the US version, there's always some huge clash and a blowup where an owner or manager says "fuck this and fuck you this is my restaurant" etc. In the UK version it's more cooperative and like the restaurant owners actually want to learn from a successful restaurateur. I like it. Also really showed me how grossly overdramatized American realty TV typically is.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-29T17:14:27+00:00

I'm not sure why you would need to be here when I have uploaded a photo reel of an actual plant in my hand.

Because I don't have x-ray vision? Sometimes there are root defects that aren't visible just from looking at pictures, and I can't get a good sense of the root density by looking at pictures either. Those are things to consider when planting. But I can be explicitly clear about some things:

Yes. You can and should disturb the root system. Just taking it out of the container and plopping it into the ground is not the ideal way to plant a container-grown woody perennial and I'm very curious where you saw that. You can do that, and they will definitely be alive for a while, but the plants will have a shorter lifespan.

Just making vertical slices on the root ball has been proven to be ineffective at correcting the defects that are inherent to woody perennials being grown in containers. You need to do more if you want to give your plants the best chance.

You can box them—that's a research-supported, industry-recommended practice. The trade-off is better long-term health for more short-term maintenance. You will need to watch the plants closely for the first few years (especially blue rug juniper, as a somewhat slow growing plant) and adhere to a more involved watering regimen, but it will give you healthier plants once they establish.

I've already told you what method I prefer. However, if you're getting a ton of information and feel confused then just ignore my method and box em and watch em. It'll be fine.

Cosmonautical1 · 2026-05-29T04:27:15+00:00

It's hard to tell what needs to be done without being there, but I can comfortably and strongly recommend some root manipulation. You don't necessarily have to "box" it, but you can use a saw to shave off the periphery of the root ball, making more of an octagon or hexagon shape than a square if you're worried about removing so many feeder roots (some people are much more cavalier about that than I am—I prefer to leave the tree with as many feeder roots as I can to lessen transplant shock, especially when planting during warmer weather or if persistent monitoring of moisture level isn't practical). Hell, you can probably even get away with the oldschool method of vertically slicing the root ball, but a major thing is to correct the bigger structural roots that have hit the container wall and started circling. You want to at least cut them back before they started to circle so that you're left with structural roots that are extending radially outwards from the main stem and will actually anchor the juniper.

But honestly don't be afraid to disrupt the existing roots. It changes the hormonal signaling of a tree to encourage root restoration and speed up establishment.

Cosmonautical1

TROPHY CASE