But normal has nothing to do with us

Arabic lessons. Written in Arabic and Javanese, 14th to 16th Century.

Like not the horrible video on hrt, no of course not. Loudly and proudly declaring "we don't hire transfems here at scishow"? Nobody gives a shit!

August 1, 2026 - Every morning in Gaza, the search for water begins.

Video journalist Bisan Owda follows children carrying heavy water containers, families waiting for water trucks, and the people working to keep one of the few desalination plants still running.

Along the way, Bisan reveals what has been destroyed, why clean water has become so hard to find, and what it now takes to provide water for millions of people in Gaza. [video]

Abstractions are a necessary way of understanding the world. Nothing we see or touch exists in a literal sense—it's all atoms (which even themselves are, like, quarks or some shit?)—abstractions are how we manage to look at a puddle of atoms and experience it as a pretty coat, or how we manage to look a much larger puddle of atoms and social relations and experience it as a country.

(Another term for abstraction in this sense is an "ideal", but I prefer abstraction because it's more intuitive to use as a noun.)

Abstractions are necessary, but tricky. We can't get around using them, but we should strive to be conscious of the abstractions we are using, and measure our expectations against observable reality. Both humorism and modern medicine are abstractions of the human body's internal systems—neither is entirely accurate, but one of them has proven to be a more effective tool than the other (although there is still, naturally, much room for improvement). The purpose of the "scientific method" is to systematically measure our abstractions against reality, and consciously adjust them to be as effective as possible.

The abstraction of matter, of a law of nature, the abstraction of value, etc., in short all scientific (correct, serious, not absurd) abstractions reflect nature more deeply, truly and completely. From living perception to abstract thought, and from this to practice,—such is the dialectical path of cognition of truth, of cognition of objective reality.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: Conspectus of Hegel’s Science of Logic - Book III (Subjective Logic or the Doctrine of the Notion)

The concrete is concrete because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse. It appears in the process of thinking, therefore, as a process of concentration, as a result, not as a point of departure, even though it is the point of departure in reality and hence also the point of departure for observation and conception. Along the first path the full conception was evaporated to yield an abstract determination; along the second, the abstract determinations lead towards a reproduction of the concrete by way of thought.

Karl Marx: Grundrisse: Introduction

When I got home I opened up my PDF of the book to grab screenshots from a section that had me seething with fucking anger. It is a part in chapter 2 related to the US decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

For the sake of hammering in the point I’ll post the relevant 6 pages even if it’s a bit long.

From pages 55-60 of the 2023 updated edition of the book:

I knew in my mind how atrocious the atomic bombings were in the first place, but I had never internalized how much of a needless inhumane act against humanity this was.

“Elysium…The world needs a term of endearment.”

My favourite words from Disco Elysium.

(Bonus:)