The Antisocial Socialist

Apocalypse dreams, yay!

( cut for dream + rape triggers )

Ugh. Just ugh.

I will never cease to be amazed by people who are all YAY APOCALYPSE! and want to help make it happen sooner. Also I really like the group's name.

This scary website that springheel_jack found is also pretty entertaining. Please do not buy me a "tribal" tote bag.

If you believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and sundry conflicts throughout the Middle East, will never be solved while current political and economic structures are intact, then I think you're likely right.

If you believe that said conflicts will not be resolved because you are the sort of curmudgeon who believes that people will always be fighting for some reason in one part of the world or another, then I disagree with you, but I'll shrug it off and not think any less of you for being cynical. I like cynics—I am one, at times—but if I didn't think a better world was possible, I'd have to pretty much give up, y'know?

If, however, you believe any of the following:

• there is something different about people in the Middle East that makes them fight more than people elsewhere, either because of a genetic factor or because of deeply rooted cultural values;

• Jews and Arabs have never gotten along and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on since the beginning of time and they never will get along because of something moronic written in some book somewhere;

• the ones who want to fight should be put on an island somewhere where they can duke it out and everyone else will shrug their shoulders and go on with their lives, and furthermore you are very clever for coming up with this solution all by yourself;

• "they" don't want peace;

• a resolution will only be reached once one population is deported or slaughtered; or

• the only way there will ever be peace in the Middle East is if a) the desert is turned to glass, b) the desert is turned into a parking lot, or c) someone drops a giant fifth-dimensional alien squid on a heavily populated area;

then really, you are an idiot, you lack historical perspective, and you are a racist schmuck. I got over that "turn the desert to glass" bullshit in high school at around the same time I got over Ayn Rand. It's basically the fascist end of the liberal "a plague on both their houses/cycle of violence" mentality and is just as absurd. The only reasons to think that you're living at the end of history are because you have an ego problem or are heavily invested in your own apathy, or both.

Yeah, just braid my hair and call me Pollyanna, motherfuckers. This too shall pass.

Your favourite apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction—tell me it.

(Because better late than never, and I'm clearly spamming your friends list anyway today.)

This month's read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I don't know if "enjoyed" is the right word for this sort of thing. It basically hit a lot of my literary kinks. Post-apocalyptic, check. Grimdark, check. Setting-as-character, check. Stylistic quirks, check.

Talking points, along with spoilers, under the cut.

( Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever )

I'm sure that there's more I wanted to mention—at any rate, discuss!

I was playing around in Google Maps, looking at my neighbourhood. I zoomed in. You could see the street view in photos, except instead of lush, tree-lined streets, there was a desert wasteland. Dust blew across pieces of debris and human skulls.

I rushed to the window to look outside, and then I woke up.

---

On another note, why is there flavoured mayonnaise? It's bad enough that there's regular mayonnaise; flavoured mayonnaise just makes me even more misanthropic. Still, I managed to work it into a story I'm writing.

Personally, I don't blame them. I know I get a little panicky when the tea cupboard starts getting low.

Sometimes, I hope that a revolution or a zombie apocalypse will happen before I need to make a decision about who and what I'm going to be when I grow up.*

* I suspect that a large percentage of the population feels this way, but is rightfully to embarrassed to admit it. The glaring exception is the religious right, which has turned this sentiment into a political movement.

In case you're curious. This would be a filler post, incidentally. I have homework. Please feel free to talk about why so many people think that they need to read Ayn Rand, or who the hell starts The Prince and doesn't finish it, given that it's maybe 120 pages long.

( Book meme )

( Dystopian movie meme )

Opinion Survey on the Use of Robots Capable of Lethal Force in Warfare!

Sample question:

45. Please list any specific issues or concerns that were not addressed in this survey that you may have with the potential military use of robots capable of taking human life. Be as specific as possible.

Sample responses:

• Making it easier for the U.S. to start wars without risking backlash over soldiers' deaths.

• Robot overlords starting wars on their own accord and turning us into their slaves.

Post your issues and concerns here!

(Hat tip: krinndnz.)