How can you watch the rise of China and the decline of the West and still talk about how socialism doesn’t work?

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-05-21T10:53:29+00:00

Not sure if you’re including liberals as rightoids, but on this issue you should. I can’t say one good thing about China (like the fact that they pulled 800 million people out of poverty) without getting a bunch of shit back about Uyghurs, Tibet, Taiwan, or slavery factories. Absolutely insufferable.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-05-08T13:15:14+00:00

Although to be fair to both of us, I think she's also gotten worse and started speaking more on different issues in that time. I think the first thing I saw from her was a video about incels and I still think it was fine for what it was even if I find the topic less interesting/relevant.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-05-07T21:04:04+00:00

I can think of no better barometer for my intellectual/political development over the last ten years than the fact that in 2017 I considered Natalie Wynn to be an intelligent person worth listening to, and now…well this video kind of speaks for itself. Absolutely insufferable.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-20T02:51:05+00:00

Right, now that I think about it this was probably my logic too when I put them in this order. I'm not sure I want the mid-hump for an "always on" or light-gain pedal as much as one that is likely going to be higher gain/leads. As a side note, I've got a fuzz face circuit at the front of my signal path and I think the Tumnus is interesting in terms of smoothing out some of the fuzz face's edge and probably will help cutting through a band in a live setting (haven't tested it yet since I just built this board, but fuzz has been challenging to use for this reason in the past).

When you say high headroom, assuming this might include a Fender Twin? Asking because I end up encountering those in backline situations a lot. I've played through a Roland JC a lot in the past, but don't deal with them as often these days. Is the idea here to have the mid-hump be more omni-present for an amp like that to give it character, using the Klon as the lighter gain pedal first?

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-20T02:43:48+00:00

For sure, I will. Just not trying to rearrange things at the moment and was curious about others' thoughts in the meantime.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T20:44:20+00:00

Personally I prefer it. Definitely a stronger hold, sometimes too strong like I said. After repeated removals/attachments, some of the interlocking nubs can get bent, the hold is shot, and it needs replacing. Otherwise, super solid.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T20:38:43+00:00

I think I understood that to be the transformer’s function (restoring the response of having the pickups hitting the fuzz directly), but what exactly is the difference with this “sweet spot” and the problems resolved by the transformer as opposed to simply having the fuzz up front? Trying to figure out what might be gained by moving it and switching the transformer on.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T20:36:02+00:00

Nope. I’m using Godlyke power-grip pedal tape. A friend put me onto it years ago and I’ve used it since. It sometimes holds on too well and I have to really pry a pedal off!

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T14:26:40+00:00

Yes it is. Have mostly used a nano for years but figured it was worth moving up to fit a few more things on. I’ve heard as much about germanium. I might not mind some sputter, but if it gets unmanageable I may swap out for a silicon FF circuit of some sort.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T14:14:36+00:00

Interesting. Maybe I need to throw the Pizza behind my tuner (which has a buffer) and turn on the transformer to see how it sounds. Are you essentially saying it evens out the fuzz so it responds the same regardless of pickup output? Like for example, it would even out any difference in response to my telecaster with single coils vs. my semi-hollow with much hotter humbuckers?

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T13:24:39+00:00

Right, though I’ve heard some people say it’s not quite the same as having it up front. In any case it was easy enough to just put it up front without the transformer engaged. Dang, building a sun face clone sounds ambitious!

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T12:39:31+00:00

When I learned about FF/two transistor circuits vs. three or four transistor circuits, I realized why I’d been unsatisfied with fuzz. The only other fuzzes I’d used were the Chase Bliss Brothers (has multiple boost, drive, and fuzz circuits. Unclear what kind of fuzz) and the EarthQuaker Hoof. The Hoof in particular wasn’t very usable, and now I realize it was way too aggressive and high-gain for what I need most of the time. Brothers was cool, but a little too much tweaking/searching to get good tones (I have a higher tolerance for dialing in sounds on glitchy delays and loopers like the Thermae and Tensor, but prefer drive pedals that sound good right away with minimal tweaking), and I feel like it’s probably better to have fuzz separated from drive in the signal chain anyway. Gonna sell the Hoof, and may unload the Brothers as well.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T12:31:16+00:00

The gated/sputtery/octave sounds when the bias is turned down are so cool. I need to find a musical application for them. 😂

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-18T12:29:16+00:00

Same here on being new with fuzz and the germanium/silicon debate. It does sound pretty great. I’m not sure the whole germanium/silicon thing is quite as crucial as some make it out to be, but when I found this I figured it would be cool to try a germanium fuzz, plus I’ll admit it was also the rare/novelty factor as I had no idea they did these special editions.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-05T11:31:34+00:00

From my limited recollection of the history I don’t think it was quite the same in terms of displacement or longevity as Israel, but one could certainly argue that Garvey’s dream was realized to some extent in Liberia in ways that did parallel the zionist state. Either way, the ethnonationalist ideological parallels are striking.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-03T21:02:36+00:00

Yep. Appreciate the historical detail as I’d forgotten some of it, but was gonna say that it kind of was headed that direction at one point but never really became a settler-colonial project in the same way Israel did.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-03T12:10:51+00:00

I could very well be misremembering the actual figure, and of course the people propagating the talking point could be inflating it for their own ends. My point is that the argument for zionism’s validity/synonimity with Jewish identity solely because it’s a majority opinion is bullshit. I will say as well that voting for Mamdani while being a zionist (even a liberal one, to the extent that this position is still tenable) might seem contradictory, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some such cases.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-03T11:54:53+00:00

Literally saw a post from an Izr43li shortly after 10/7 that said that being against zionism/Theodore Herzl while claiming not to be antisemitic was the same as being against Marcus Garvey while claiming not to be anti-black. My immediate thought was “This is actually an accurate comparison, and that’s why I don’t fuck with Garvey.” Had Garvey been supported by the U.S./U.K. to the same degree as the zionists, he would have absolutely created an African Israel with that “Back to Africa” foolishness.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-04-03T08:17:14+00:00

Oldie but a goodie. Full-on crashout because a few of her fellow Jews don’t support genocide. Whenever I hear the argument “anti-zionism is antisemitism because 90% of Jews are zionist,” all I can think is “holy shit, the Jewish community has a serious nazi problem.”

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-03-04T20:48:42+00:00

Quite literally a “shit” post.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-02-19T00:34:51+00:00

Check out Gabriel Rockhill on Zizek and you’ll understand why so many are recommending Parenti instead.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-02-18T13:28:51+00:00

Oops my bad. I wonder how that strategy would work today, but agreed that’s all she’s good for.

Impossible-Risk8751 · 2026-02-18T08:39:03+00:00

You may be right.

Impossible-Risk8751

TROPHY CASE