• 2 Posts
  • 66 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: December 13th, 2024
  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
    toSolarpunk@slrpnk.net•I am learning that people simply do not careEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    Yeah, my point is that one person’s utopia can be another person’s dystopia. Everybody wants to live in a better place, but nobody agrees on what “better” actually means.

    Some people crave structure and order, and don’t want to lose that in favor of increased self-determination. Others see structure and order as constraining and chafing, and see increased self-determination at any cost as freeing.

    Quite a lot of people also have a hard time viewing things long-term. IDK where you’re at, but a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck here, and I think they’re stuck in short-term thinking as a form of survival.

    Like I grew up poor poor, with shitty parents to boot, where you have so little self-determination that you just straight up learn that making plans only leads to disappointment. Long-term planning is a skill, and when kids grow up with parents that raid the piggy bank for beer money, they learn that planning is useless and spending all your pocket change on candy is better.

  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
    toSolarpunk@slrpnk.net•I am learning that people simply do not careEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    Disagree.

    Most people want to make the world a better place, we just can’t agree on what a better world would look like, and how to get there.

    There’s a lot of people out there, for example, who think that the “right to self determination” is a bad thing because they believe humanity has an intrinsic self-destructive aspect. I disagree, but they firmly believe that a dictatorship is the solution and I’m being unhelpful because I don’t want that.

    One of the hardest things I’ve been through in therapy was realizing that my parents really did think they were doing the right thing. They listened to the “experts” at church who told them that in order to protect their kids, they needed to hurt their kids. My mother dropped out of college when she got pregnant, and my stepdad is mentally ill, so neither of them were particularly well educated, and they landed in a cult.

    The road to hell is paved with good intentions, after all. People can be horrible and think they’re doing it for the greater good.

  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
    toWorld News@lemmy.world•Teenager jailed for playing anti-Kremlin song on the streets of St PetersburgEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    So, some of this is a bit of deep cut of Russian history, which is probably contributing to your confusion.

    Here's my take.

    I’d like to talk to you, But the TV is too loud— It’s pretending to be your head, Its speaker is so much like your mouth.

    The artist would like to have a conversation, but the person they want to talk to is just repeating the propaganda they see on TV.

    My country has risen from its knees In all its negative growth. I negatively agree with everything— Here’s my answer to your non-question:

    The USSR fell in the '90s, and the artist doesn’t think modern Russia has developed in a good way.

    Where have you been for eight years, Fucking inhuman beings?! I want to watch the ballet— Let the swans dance!

    Eight years is likely referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ballet bit is talking about how Swan Lake played on repeat during the fall of the USSR, as a placeholder to keep broadcast airwaves available for use as emergency broadcast. Because it has been so completely tied to the idea of political upheaval in Russia, it’s recently picked up steam again as a sort of shorthand for calling for protest and resistance against the government.

    Let Grandpa tremble in fear for his “Lake.” Get the nightingales off the screen— Let the swans dance!

    Grandpa was pro-USSR, the artist wants the empire to hurry up and fall already.

    When it’s all over, you’ll be silent And pretend you had nothing to do with it. Your face is more sour than a Crimean cherry plum: You’re clearly slightly depressed about something.

    Once the USSR had fallen, a lot of people tried to deny their support or involvement with it.

    The song repeats a few things, and the only thing left of note is that “Solovyov” has been a news anchor on Russian television since shortly before the invasion of Ukraine.