Nathan J. Robinson, at Current Affairs:

All else equal, depressed people know more than people who have not been depressed. I do not mean that more intelligent people tend to be depressed. I mean simply that a person who is depressed has had an experience that a person who has not been depressed has not. They know the depths of human misery, and this is important, because it means they know that misery exists and what that means for a person. This does not automatically make a depressive more empathetic. But it does make them aware that all is not right with the world, that there is a terrible darkness in it. It helps them see through cheerful lies about how wonderful everything is and how we should all just appreciate it and be happy.

A problem is that the people who think they matter the least are unlikely to think they have the capacity to do anything vital and important. (Unlike Trump, who thinks everything he does is vital and important.) But with so great a gap between human potential and the world we have actually made, every single human mind that can be put toward the project of improving the world needs to be. The brutal Social Darwinism embodied in Donald Trump will triumph unless the modest and compassionate assert themselves and believe in their importance. Every last person is needed for the mission of resisting the descent into cruelty; all forces that can be mobilized must be mobilized.

If you've ever wondered — as I have — why we go on despite all this: I recommend reading the whole thing.

for real: this would make a fantastic anime opening theme!!! "Blood cells pixelate and eyes dilate" is an Extremely Anime Line

i tell you what, i never listened to fall out boy until a few years ago, but if you've never given them a real shake, this album stomps

(their first three albums are all very good, energetic, singalong parties)

Tim's "Inverted Review Of Final Fantasy VI" is a hell of a read. Lots of bad words, because it quotes directly from dipshit 90s teens. It is heavy. Tactile. I'm glad I read it.

I sat on the edge of my bed in my cargo shorts and hiking boots after my shift mutely pushing carts, measuring the heft of Chrono Trigger‘s turgid box. I’d bought it on faith alone. I tried to guess at how many pages its manual had. A confusion found me. It didn’t leave for a while. I think now that at last, with nonchalance, my hole had finally found me.

I'm pretty sure it's gonna get taken down in the next few months, because we're rearranging the site and not bringing everything over. Not everything on the internet will wait forever for you; much less than you think. In part, reading this made me reflect on how much of our tangible world has eroded in the last three decades. Details like a plastic case clattering into a video rental dropbox slot; craning to see an arcade machine's screen over the sweaty shoulders of taller teenagers; the heft of a box bought on faith alone. The world feels more immaterial now than ever, now that the external world is forbidden, now that we've been taken away from each other by the world's grimiest morons, now that the few places left to go, you can't go there. Life wasn't better back then; that's clear and painful, too. But there are pleasures, and there are regrets, in the tangible.

It's here.

this is one of my favorite records from the last few years

Here's the link! Bone appetite.

HELLO

Here are a few products I use and like that will give me some credit if I refer somebody!

VIBES: Marijuana is still illegal in Georgia because we're dipshits in so many ways, but CBD oil is okay! And guess what: it's really helped my anxiety this year to take a very small amount of CBD (for me between 5 and 10 mg is all I need to just relax enough to sit still and type code into the computer without freaking out every ten minutes). The easiest way for me to get it has been through Feals, so if you want $20 off an order that gives me $20 too, you can use this link!

DOMAIN NAMES: lol, if you want a domain name, my favorite registrar is gandi.net. Gandi lets me do whatever the heck I need to with a domain; I've had trouble with most of the other ones for various reasons (Hover and others are simple but constrained, but NEVER buy anything from Godaddy), but I've had nothing but good luck with Gandi for many years now. Use this link to get 6 months of free simple hosting if you need that, and 20% off a domain name, and they'll give me $5 which I will use to renew one of our podcast domains, probably!

WELL THOSE ARE THE CODES I HAVE, if they come in handy, great. If not, that's perfectly fine!!! No one is an official sponsor of my posts!!!!!(obviously)!!!!

(oh yeah you can also buy me a "coffee" if you want, I'm about to post a video over there too so follow me even if you don't subscribe! ko-fi.com/nicksplendorr! thanks bye)

sorry — right round the clock

New songs from jeff rosenstock, including this one, called "DEPT OF FINANCE."

It has been a terrible year

But it’s not gonna stop moving forward
Even if it feels like nothing’s ever gonna change,
the sun’s gonna rise in the morning
and you have to live anyway

And I’m sorry I sunk into silence
At the moment you needed someone to ease the pain
But I want you to know that I miss you
I just didn’t know what to say
I just didn’t know what to say
But I shouldn’t pretend
I can be a good friend
If I don’t do it the right way

I haven't been a good friend this year. I think I heard "happy birthday" from fewer people this year than any other year of my life. And that's fine; I haven't celebrated other people's birthdays, either. It feels so weird. Everything in our lives is being corroded by abuses of power and negligence. Everything fun I took for granted a year ago — even when I was reaching the bottom depression-wise — is gone. It's just gone! No hangouts with friends. No karaoke. No cafes, no restaurants, no bars, no shows.

And half the time... I just haven't known what to say. But that's a shitty thing to prioritize. Knowing what to say. But when friends have texted saying, "how are you?" or "what's up" it feels impossible to respond. and I know they know that, and are feeling it too! but still. and anybody I've remotely let down? it's felt impossible to apologize, even though it can happen in an instant, even though I start the conversations in my head.

this all sucks, so, so much. the isolation we didn't anticipate. the endings we couldn't prepare for. the inscrutable future that feels truncated on both sides; the old world is gone, and the new world can only be visualized in horror. "But it’s not gonna stop moving forward, even if it feels like nothing’s ever gonna change." And.... yep!!!

...

For Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Andres Guardado, Tamir Rice, Oluwatoyin Salau, for the countless victims of violence everywhere.

As this is being released the air in California is hazardous to breathe, the current president has repeatedly used Nazi imagery for his re-election campaign and the police are still shooting people because of the color of their skin with no signs of slowing down, despite a worldwide outcry for peace. In fact they are fighting those cries with chemical weapons deemed too brutal for conventional warfare.

Wishing you love and safety.

...

WELL, BACK TO WORK