The Polyamorous Misanthrope

And that's not a joke or an exaggeration.

If criminals don't have rights, then all the government has to do is find some excuse to label people as criminals, and those people will no longer have rights. It's what literally every tyrannical government in all of history has done.

either because A) she was f*cking right and what he felt for her was not love

Thanos: now... when exactly do I get the soul stone?

Red Skull: I... you... NEVER! never, you idiot! why would you even think that wold work??

Thanos: you said if I sacrificed what I loved most, the stone would be mine...?

Red Skull: right. yes. I said that. but that's a logical contradiction, because if you sacrifice anything for the stone, it means you value the stone more, so nothing you sacrifice can ever be what you value most. how could you be a centuries old war tactician and dictator and not understand this?

Thanos: how am I supposed to get the stone then?

like without government intervention, strawberry jam would have wood in it. like it's a thing. food companies realized that they could use less of the expensive strawberries as ingredients and just use wood. there are laws you cannot legally call it strawberry jam if you do this. you have to call it a strawberry product or spread. food companies are always trying to get that shit through. they have lobby groups pushing that all the time

it is more expensive to put metal detectors in a food processing plant. companies want to cut costs. it is a legal requirement in a lot of countries to have them. so it forces companies to install them.

also to do routine inspections. that is a government requirement. so are building codes. a lot of codes are the bare minimum. like some companies will exceed the code and have more protections but a lot don't. like if it is not in the code, they don't do it. so that's why having governing bodies that regulate building safety, worker safety, food safety and product safety are crucial. because without them, your employer will not see the need to have exit doors with quick release handles, or do routine fire sprinkler inspections or have road salt for the sidewalks. some of it is basic fucking stuff.

companies when left alone do not regulate themselves. it's been historically untrue. companies want to give you a product that is cheap for them to make and that they can sell at the highest price so they can get the most profit. for everyone who loves capitalism, that's what it is. the free market will not self-regulate. if you don't have anti-monopoly laws and anti-wage theft laws and workers' protections, the open market will not fix that organically.

Wool farming, if done with an eye on animal welfare*, does absolutely nothing to harm a sheep or alpaca. It’s no different than a haircut. And just like a haircut, it’ll grow right back. If your argument is that sheep may be cut in this process—very occasionally a sheep may be nicked. To be clear, I say NICKED, not cut. Think about shaving your legs or face and hitting a bump, and ow, you bleed a couple drops. That is what may, rarely, happen. But RARELY, because farmers are going to take damn good care of the animals who keep them in funds. Should it happen, it’s as much an accident as you finding that bump while shaving.

Likewise y’all should be promoting ethical beekeeping and honey farming. Bees are unique among livestock in that if they don’t like their keeper, if they think the hive is shitty, they can, and will, just…leave. You can’t put a collar or ear tag on a bee. Bee populations are declining and they’re incredibly important in our biodiversity (as pollinators, yes, but also in other ways). And bees do, indeed, make too much honey for themselves. That’s why they swarm. A nest gets too full of comb, or they outgrow it, and they just dip. Swarming is dangerous because it leaves the bees vulnerable—the queen is mostly unprotected, they have only as much food as they could carry with them so if it’s late in the season they’re dead meat, humans spot swarms and freak out and send exterminators because they don’t realize swarms aren’t dangerous as long as you’re calm….it is, BY FAR, better to have bees in a hive that never overfills, where they can be checked for parasites and diseases that would destroy the colony or even an entire apiary and can receive honey substitute rather than starving to death if winter should be particularly harsh or long, and where an excess of their natural product and instincts can be siphoned off for the benefit of humans with no detriment to the bees.

Honey is less harmful to us and to the planet we live on than agave syrup, stevia, or cane sugar. It does not rely on any kind of slave labor (again: if the bees weren’t happy, they’d leave). It does not upset entire economies. And by its nature there are more independent keepers than there are giant conglomerates, which is better all the way around! (Although the conglomerates are trying to change that, so like. Support your local beekeepers.) Plus, old no-longer-needed honeycomb is made of beeswax, which can be used in all manner of things in lieu of more harmful chemicals like phthalates. There is no downside here!

“Never do anything involving an animal ever” should not be the goal. That completely ignores that we are animals that grew up in a complete ecosystem. “Do the least amount of harm and be good stewards, because this planet doesn’t belong to only us” should be the goal.

Wool and honey. We can argue another time about eggs. For right now let’s agree that sheep, goats, alpacas, and bees make far more of these products than they will ever need, that in some cases an excess can even be detrimental to them, and that it is a GOOD THING to find a way to live in balance rather than poisoning our world with “vegan leather.”

And did you know? The strength of your thigh muscles is correlated with better longevity. And conversely, small thighs correlate with mortality

This is one of the many reasons that I call fatphobia a death cult. Thinness is not a virtue. Thinness is not an indication of health.

Where my Salem folks at? (I know, I couldn't resist. I've something of a personal attachment to that particular town). But in all seriousness, say hello to Salem's own Charles Lenox Remond, abolitionist and elder brother of Sarah Parker Remond, whom you learned about back in Lesson #54. Born in either 1810 or 1812 (records are unclear), Charles holds the distinction of being one of the first Black men to publicly lecture audiences on the subject of abolition --this was significant at the time, as the only orators willing to hold forth publicly on that subject were contemporaries like William Lloyd Garrison and Lucretia Mott. While not formally educated, like his younger sister, Charles was taught to read and write by his entrepreneurial parents: his father a free person of color from the Caribbean, and his mother a prominent Bostonian whose parents had fought in the American Revolution. Charles followed his father into the barber trade and established himself in the Salem community, making acquaintances and connections as a normal part of his daily job.

At some point in the early 1830's, Charles joined the abolitionist movement and began penning essays for Garrison's The Liberator. His talent for lecturing and orating also came to the fore and he joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. Eventually he was in demand to speak at public meetings all across New England in also New York and Pennsylvania; his easy wit tempering his militancy. He also aggressively lobbied on behalf of Free Blacks in the northern states; in particular advocating to end segregation on trains. In 1840 Remond went on a lecture tour of Europe, and while in England attended the world's first Anti-Slavery Convention in London, as the United States' sole Black delegate. The prestige that came with this speaking tour also helped to throw greater light onto his other cause: womens' liberation. In 1855 at that year's national Colored Convention in Philadelphia, Remond not only fervently spoke up for Black liberation but also for womens' rights, pushing for Mary Ann Shadd (Cary) to be named as a delegate... and pointedly walking out (along with Garrison) when she was passed over (see Lesson #38 for more about her). At that convention he also famously proposed that Blacks were obligated to walk away from any church "that discriminated against them in seating or at the communion table;" a resolution which was ultimately adopted.

Tricky one cause the kernel's built around creating the need for salvation from a higher power, and you'll have to change up a lot of the systems for evaluating your own and others' moral worth to avoid operating with a deficit when there's no inbuilt release valve.

In the first GIF, he smiles with his hands clasped together as the caption reads, “Millions of you watched me as Eric in ‘Sex Education’...”

In the second GIF, he grins and clasped hands while the caption reads, “And maybe 12 of you watched me in ‘Doctor Who’...”

In the third GIF, he shrugs with both hands thrown outward as the caption reads, “Hey, maybe that’s why I kept crying.”

In the fourth GIF, the caption reads, “And even though I have since regenerated into Billie Piper...”

In the fifth GIF, the camera cuts closer to his face as he gives a baffled sideways look. The caption reads, “I don’t understand it either.”

what do the initials spell? (I was *this close* to being DMV)

what are the the different abbreviations/contractions/etc? (Michael Hunt, William Stroker, Richard Small, etc)