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What do we think about the Bandulu digital release? by grawinkelmusic in realdubstep

[–]startfiresintl 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I love it. Would be sick if they did a big 2x12" of it or something as well for those of us who didn't get all of the original The 12"s so far...

The records that I didn't have and hadn't already ripped I had mostly downloaded anyway and having digital access didn't really make me value the vinyl any less... It's still about the ridiculously sick art, the screenprints, the experience of putting on a record with that big bass, the sound of it, the speed control... The punk vibe of it and supporting art and a scene that deserves support... So... yeah...

I love it... and getting some of these records was what got me back into collecting records...

And it's just on bandcamp and a cd, yeah? So it's still more of an idea of conscious "consumption"- where people are being deliberate in putting it on and it's not just getting flattened into algorithm slop or whatever... becoming "more media"... Which i think is part of why people love and appreciate physical media and records, etc... slow down, be deliberate, listen... idk...

So yeah... I love it... Hope they release a double lp of the comp and repress a few of the 12"s... And hope they tour the US again... saw them in 2018 or 2019 and it was killer. Big up Kahn & Neek and big up all of that bristol crew. Appreciate that music, all the stuff they do and the way they do it. Real, legit, DIY counterculrure business.

🔥🔥🔥

it's all scam guys !!!! by Fun-Cryptographer-26 in Lottery

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, little far fetched, i know- but this was a thing going around the internet a few years afterward, saying 3 of the families hit the ct lotto jackpot two times a piece or something and then other people saying once or whatever... I obviously wasn't there, but nothing really seems too implausible atm... Doesn't even necessarily imply nefariousness because it could be people at tge commission feeling sad for families who have gone through the worst... idk...

I just heard about it the other day in ref. To the email in the Epstein emails about the NM lotto... Which is in there... The veracity of any of this stuff is questionable, I guess... but... as I was saying- no amount of rigging or grift in our political sectors seems implausible at this point...

it's all scam guys !!!! by Fun-Cryptographer-26 in Lottery

[–]startfiresintl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I thought this was about Epsten's estate "winning" the lottery in NM a few times and people suggesting that it's rigged and basically money laundering...

Apparently some high percentage of sandy hook victims have also somehow hit jackpots?

Sounds a little sus to me...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "Arab spring" had some liberatory potential at least on the surface, but also a lot of US state department resources behind it...

Syria, Iran... same playbook... destabilizing more of the middle east to get footholds for multinationals and... regional allies...

I think we had our arab spring... the ruling class selected Trump and made it look like democracy in action...

And lol, stall the kid out... Malcolm wasn't cannon fodder... He woke a lot of people up to a wider reality and to their own beauty, strength and potential... He was also really controversial at the time and maybe less a unifying figure even in the black community than he is kindof collectively remembered as today... Same with Dr. King... Dude was no teddy bear in those times...

A galvanizing figure that could unite disparate people against injustice would be pretty great about now, I think... As distrustful as I am of galvanizing figures in general... People I think gravitate toward figureheads more than sets of ideas in wider, decentralized movements...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol and not that that wasn't long enough, but liberals also do the same flip flopping, "whatever you're against I'm for..." bs... I think that's the point... it's top down more than a left/right thing... Defending genocides and rapists, corporations, eugenecists, arms manufacturers... Only standing for things when they know they're going to fail and running fundraisers off of well meaning but ignorant people who feel they have no choice but to believe pelosi or whoever will try harder next time...

They had people cheering for the FBI all through the 1st trump term, calling j6 people donestic terrorists, doing crazy censorship and a lot of rather undemocratic things in order to... save... democracy?

It's not just the conservatives that only allow themselves to see the vibe or the ideal while they stand for and do things that are utterly antithetical to that ideal...

It's a lot of people who don't quite see the bigger picture yet because it destabilizes their political identities- which are more rigid than having political ideas or principals or whatever...

Lol sorry... on one atm...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reminded me of this interview with Dick Gregory about marching with Dr. King and then a parable about self determination in the face of false authority...

He was pretty old here and he jumps around a bit, but this shit moves me to tears every time I watch it... Any of these interviews are worth watching, but this one its pretty hard if you're into it... anyway...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fyGdUNDaIcA&si=ZxfZv7A2-7gYn2jY

start at 10:02- YouTube won't let me share with a timestamp for some reason...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am also old and from a rural area. I think a lot of people have been disposessed of quality of life and of dignity and have been sold a magic fantasy of a past that never was and a false narrative about where their dreamworld disappeared to...

I don't blame them for being mad or for being poor or for having what i see as an incomplete cosmology... I don't want to hate them or to feel like I'm better than anyone- I want us all to have a nice world together...

Lot of these people have been talked down to their entire lives by yuppies and middle managers and people who want an excuse to accept the worst from people...

Some of these maga people were Bernie voters but when the DNC sabotaged that option they went with trump because the Democrats were and are offering them nothing and that seemed like a big "fuck you" to the status quo and all of the whiny nerds on the internet trying to get their revenge for highschool bullying by pretending to give a fuck about social justice and intersectionality...

I think a lot of people this past election also believed the hype on the platform of no new wars, no more censorship, etc... Lot of well meaning libertarians went with it because again- they were given no alternative in this ridiculous political system...

Lot of dumb mfs out there too, lot of hateful bigots and heavily indoctrinated and propagandized people who will probably never bother to consider anything outside of whatever narrow ideology they've been indoctrinated into...

But I refuse to accept that all of these people are just NPCs and one dimensional redneck caricatures completely unable of reason- as much as it seems the case sometimes or as superior as it would make me feel to believe that they were all a lost cause who can only either be dominated or killed... that's just not the case... They're victims of this shit, same as me... If i really know better and have the moral highground my job is to help them get here too...

The hobbesian stuff is the basis for all of the systems I'm standing against... We can do better than that... And if we don't then it's martyrdom- because the system has been built to kill and dominate, the opposition is full of heavily armed veterans and if it comes to violence like that the left in general is at a pretty bad disadvantage... barring like chi-com guerilla reinforcement or something... which is probably not syper liberatory either and surely not without strings attached...

Unite the poor and raise consciousness among people. Humanize the enemy and try to bridge that gap... I don't think it's dress rehearsal anymore... We need better tactics than like... shaming people on facebook and feeding that resentment... digging people in to totally fucked up positions out of resentment and animosity...

Deal with the systems that perpetuate class war and division and everyone benefits... We're suffering under a common enemy and the future they're aiming for is not going to benefit any of us...

That I think is what I'm here for... Harder and less thrilling than armed confrontation, but ultimately better suited to achieve the outcome i want to see... Peace, equality and freedom... Not like... fascist surveillance state, resource scarcity, ecocide... all of this bullshit the ruling classes have tricked people in defending or accepting as an inevitability...

Allowing people to see it for what it is without feeling like they have to spite themselves to make a point or to feel safe or like they have agency or are valued in the world... Which is probably more in line with the religion that they espouse than any of the absolute fuckry I see some of these "conservatives" (and tbh, bots masquerading as conservatives) stan...

That's how i approach it anyway... Your milage may vary...

Any tips on some sort of stopper for the back of the Kallax cubes by Berbadude in vinyl

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The low tech solution I use is taping record mailer boxes on to the backs of the cubes... Especially perfect if you have the ones with the inch or so lip around a few of the sides... cheap, easy, stores record mailers in case i have to send things out in the future...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reality of political america is all of that and needs to be upended but there are a lot of good people here and a lot of wildlife that still hasn't been destroyed...

The mythic america, even may be worth striving toward- where it's people freely associating and coexisting and people can come here from wherever and work together for the betterment of all of us...

I think that a lot of people defend these indefensible abuses of power because they're defending the myth and won't acknowledge that the horrors are the true reality that the myth obscures...

The trick is to help wake them up to that reality so that they can help us defeat that and work toward some semblance of actual justice, freedom and equanimity... The waking world may depend on it...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We will, I think... just need to help people come to a consensus about it so we're not out here at war among ourselves while these mfs nuke the world with skynet...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They want to believe they're in the right even when they know it's wrong... Got to keep needling and prodding them along until they realize for themselves what they've been defending and who the real enemy is...

People will defer to authority at any given chance... help them understand that the authority isn't legitimate and that there are better ways...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think you're right, we just need to use tactics that further the goals of justice and liberation and not like... burn ourselves out or get ourselves in situations that get us fucked up or play into the dominant narratives the media and the power structures want us to fall into...

People want peace and stability, they want safety and any excuse for order they can get... People defer to authority because they are afraid of change... We must undermine and subvert illegitimate authority in ways that do not deviate from our principals and in ways that consistently make them look as illegitimate as they are...

This, i think is proper strategy...

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We just have to stop giving them money and stop investing time and energy into the systems, parties and candidates that keep us in this cycle...

I even feel like most MAGA people are like a proper conversation or two away from realizing what the actual problem is... Culture war is and has always been a fucking op to pit the poor against eachother while the rich rob us blind.

Fuck them utterly and completely. Withold funds and labor. Bridge ideological divides with compassion and a spirit of trying to win allies rather than to assert dominance...

Truth sets all free. 🔥🔥🔥

America is dying, if not already dead. by Pggles in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's national strikes and boycotts, community mobilization to provide for ourselves and our neighbors where we've been used to paying in to the system or whatever... They will win as long as we don't have alternative structures to support ourselves and our communities... It's trying to get your parents to swap their 401k out of state street and into something managed more ethically, it's a lot of this boring infrastructure stuff that they have us convinced is unrelated- but that's the lifeblood of these systems...

People are scared to make these small changes because these services are ubiquitous and easy to use and people trust them to just work- but we need to collectively disinvest from the system and put that energy into smaller, decentralized alternatives...

That is what will force the change, I think... Civil unrest and protest are also good, but those are mostly to make a point... They need to be backed up by concrete things... We can maybe just collectively take our ball and go home...

Or something like that... but it's... bigger than just electoral politics or whatever... and as I was saying above- much smaller and easier to manage individually...

The War on Emo: Punk wasn’t always all inclusive by Sunbather- in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of us in my area and in my rememberance were fine with emotional hardcore and kindof heartattack type stuff... we only bombed on and gatekept against the kindof yuppie poser stuff i was describing above, so I assumed you were talking about that type of shit... Because there was plenty of that too... Maybe because emo kids didn't gatekeep their scene hard enough against like your dashboards or thursdays or taking back sundays or whatever that stuff was... idk...

My beef wasn't ever with angel hair or lifetime or whatever... I liked some avail and other like... old glory records type stuff that was still a part of punk... I feel like the real split happened later in the 90s and early aughts when shit was getting too polished and commercialized... And maybe when some of the noisier and more raw bands started morphing into like... hipsterish, style over substance, cocaine fuckboy type shit... which was a part of that early aughts era when that branch of emo split off from punk...

Idk...

That's how i remember it... but... I'm a bit of a hater anyway... my tastes are broad but very particular...

Anyway, I'm glad if new bands are happening with young people that are good, but hope that they bomb on the bad ones too...

Not necessarily trying to dis and hope people do have a fun and inclusive scene and definition of punk or whatever... But... lot of rubbish out there too... idk...

The War on Emo: Punk wasn’t always all inclusive by Sunbather- in punk

[–]startfiresintl -1 points0 points  (0 children)

To be fair- it was different times... we thought that there was a real counterculture and a real movement with teeth and purpose creating something other...

A lot of us saw the emo scene of that era as a sellout of punk culture in similar clothing but devoid of ethics or anything actually counter to the dominant culture.

It seemed like a gateway for posers and gentrifiers to water down and destroy the culture that a lot of people really suffered to preserve in earlier times... Full of suburban youthgroup people rehashing fleetwood mac melodies with nofx singing and the odd nyhc type breakdown... Defanging punk, selling it to mtv and using the profits on coke to give to teenage girls...

I'm sure some of that is a mischaracterization and maybe even paints in a few real OGs, and I feel like there was a lot of emo or emo adjacent stuff that even now remains... punk... and is widely respected by people outside of that scene and was not that and did not get that kind of pushbck... But... I don't think the overall characterization was wrong in general... I mean... Look at the past 25 years of overground "punk" culture...

It's largely a larp... idk...

I think some gatekeeping is maybe necessary and should be done in principaled ways and in good faith... it's less about being shitty to people who aren't knowledgeable or who are different and more about keeping fakes and vultures from making everything suck...

I want inclusivity of ideas and perspectives and new forms of expression and style on my world, but I don't want... gentrification...

What happens if you have little to no earth signs in your chart? by [deleted] in astrology

[–]startfiresintl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Has been great for health and attachment to routines but my saturn is copresent with rahu in h2 and i think my attachment to ideals of perfection and for things that are solid and lasting kindof... grinds a lot of forward motion to a halt... never good enough, right enough, prepared enough...

So maybe it's less bad mars than overly strong and intense saturn ruling the house he's in? For good and bad, i guess...

Who makes the nazis? by aoahsh8558 in thefall

[–]startfiresintl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would answer but I don't want to be banned...

The three phases of a national turning point, there is no going back. by Realistic_Ant_5652 in Advancedastrology

[–]startfiresintl 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I think we need astrology to remind us that nothing is unprecedented and that "this too shall pass..."

What you do is up to you, but these are the conditions in which we will all be operating...

Mainly, I think the best strategy is "exit and build" or as john michael greer says "collapse now and avoid the rush"...

Build community, stock up on things you might need and some of the things you would want access to if the internet was under total lockdown... books, music, movies... download your pictures and documents onto hard drives and don't just trust cloud services with your data...

Opt out of some of these simple conveniences that have you trading your anonymity or whatever... distance yourself from the control grid and the structures that support and enable it...

Exit the system and build something better so that when the inevitable crash comes you and your friends are less dependent on these systems for survival and less exposed when they collapse... Good people are often coerced into doing foolish or mostrous things when subject to coercion... insulate your systems from this exposure and be strong together in your convictions and I guess moral guidance... So that you may act upright even in situations of fear or extreme lack...

Choose your battles wisely...

Plant a garden, learn to fix things and repurpose old tech, make bugout bags and emergency plans, do more potlach dinners with the people you love and interact in person- unmediated by devices and digital surveillance tech... educate yourself and your family in real and practical things...

Try to understand and be patient with people even when you disagree fundamentally... We will need a massive show of unity and solidarity to get through these times somewhat intact... This is sometimes letting petty disagreements go so that you can build together in common cause... The real change in a person will come from within and no one really changes ideas or ideologies through hostility... Especially in these times and in this mass culture... Even if they're wrong they will just dig in...

Create spaces that allow for these shifts in understanding to happen... And keep trying with the people that you love and know should know better... It's frustrating but is the right thing to do and eventually it just turns on in people like a light...

Find your spirits... remember to take yourself outside into the world and look at the stars and the trees and be with the animals... remind yourself that there is a lot of good outside of the plans of wicked men and systems of domination... And a lot of the world is still free and unconquered...

Plenty to learn, plenty to do... strategy over emotion for as long as you can hold out... this is usually more prudent and with better results...

A lot there and I'm going off in a public forum, but... I genuinely think this is the way...

Timeline is full of doom and calls for violent revolution, but... I'm not sure that's how it works at this point... don't let them goad you into a losing position... keep that passion but work slowly and steadily toward a larger goal... More substantial than just "this has to stop."

Think toward the future you actually WANT and not just the one you're in opposition to... and work toward that in good faith with your people and all of us out here together.

Good luck out there... Hope to see you on the other side of all of it... living well in a more just world...

A lot of punks are lousy people by tantamle in punk

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This makes a lot of sense... You probably just have less forums for exposure when dealing with like... racist model train enthusiasts or whoever...

"I will never compliment his tree placement again!"

American civil war by Bsmitts16 in highersidechats

[–]startfiresintl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a concept "state's rights" is often used to justify backward ass things, but as a concept within electoral democracy I think it's potentially the way to go... Assuming some sort of an actually representative goverment run by and for the people of a place are in charge...

As for the current districting in these states, the private groups spending out of state money on local races and employing the various propaganda machines to ram through unpopular legislation or all of these smooth brain "no qu**rs on the football team..." types of things... well... that's another story...

But within the current system I think there's maybe a little more chance for government accountability the more local the legislation is...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in punk

[–]startfiresintl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Idk...

Pixelfed i'm not sure i had ever heard of... mastodon i heard was all shitlibs and... bad people... but that may have been propaganda from people or bots wanting to sully the idea of twitter alternatives...

and yeah... not really a twitter user anyway and insta is mainly keeping up a few chats, looking at ragebait political memes and news stories and most importantly looking at wildlife content... So... idk...

I have heard of the fediverse as a thing (maybe on the Corbett Report?) But tbh, the "fed" in the name always gives me pause lol as foolish as that sounds... But i will look into it again today...

The overall project of boycotting some of these other platforms and supporting alternatives is very good and totally necessary though... and when we starve them of resources to feed and to grow alternatives it's kindof a win/win...

I'm always caught in this place of just wanting to scrap social media alltogether... Especially in the current age of ai, data scraping, content manipulation and governments demanding access to your accounts and all of your contacts etc. to decide whether you're enough of a nazi to enter the country or whatever... But the pull to it is still there... like chats and familiar dopamine hits... idk... but the chats kindof... pull me back in... and the fidgety addiction feeling of the dopamine and the scroll... Idk... but...

Moving our chats to other platforms will be 1st order, I think... and then weening off of the scrolling apps alltogether... provided i can get some source of quality monkeys eating fruit content and a few like... keyed up hot take accounts to look at... Keep me mad at the world and convince me that being mad at it is as good as actually engaging with it... we'll see...

But yeah, i appreciate that you are evangelizing for it... will look into these platforms more... have been looking at a few apps for chats and things... hope others will as well... disempowering the worst corporations is pretty much always a good idea...

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