Blogs are Back! No, really, this time I swear

My writing hobby is in transit. Here's what's going on, in case anyone cares.

Mainly, I am shifting away from Quora. I've posted there for going on 8 years and enjoyed doing it, writing tons and tons of great material. I even made a little money! I've made more money literally doing nothing while my money accounts accrue interest, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it?!

Unfortunately, though, the site is now an unmoderated xChan trash pit of trolls, perverts, bigots, ChatGPT hacks, spammers, and other internet flotsam. I spend more time as a volunteer admin reporting losers and downvoting garbage material than I do writing. 

So I archived all my material and might open a secret page on mariocaiti.com ? Watch this space for details!

And some essays may get ported here. Well, what else am I gonna do with that stuff? Another blog? A Mario At The Movies thing? Blech....I considered opening a Letterboxd account for movies and TV stuff, but I have a feeling that's also a hotspot for bored teenagers and rude cranks, and I just don't have the energy anymore.

Lastly, I go to Mastodon for short takes and commentary. My account for creative work is mastodon.art/@gtrplayingman, and my account for mouthing off about hot topics is mas.to/@mariomakesstuff. Don't tell Mom about the second one...LOL

I'll see you there or on one of the vBulletin sites I frequent (that hasn't gone away either). Comment or see me on the "Fediverse" if you have any questions.

Blogs are Back, Baby!

 ...because where else are we gonna go?

I admit I was a little sad to see twitter turn into what it's turned into. Why was twitter important? Because it was the place where the whole world went to argue about politics and current affairs, get it out of our system, and get on with our day.

That space - dare I say safe space?! - is breaking down under a toxic storm of rampaging trolls, declining numbers of real people (or "normies" in the local dialect) and a basically incompetent management. People are re-entering the real world after almost 3 years in isolation and they're tired, so very tired, of the yelling and posturing and pointless, performative arguments that never end.

Here's when you know things are bad: is when the Meta sites are where you go to relax and find peace. (Not that they haven't had their share of bad stuff, but I covered that on my other blog.)

And Mastodon really wants to take it's place, but...

First of all, go to mastodon.com and you'll find...backhoes and stuff like that. I bet they're wondering why their website stats are suddenly through the roof!

No, you're supposed to go to mas.to - that's just for the basic site. For many categories and specialty servers, you have to create an "instance" with it's own compressed URL. I've seen howlr.me and mamot.fr and toot.thoughtworks ... you get the idea.

And you then have to set up your username in the context of said URL, and then establish the rules and framework for your instance, and manage it after it launches. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to explaining any of this to my elder relatives either...

But the closest thing to a homepage Mastodon has is mas.to, and when you scroll the preview? 

Yes, that's right. It looks exactly like twitter from about 2015. 

Including all the same people. ALL of them. 

Literally the only thing that changes is the colors, and you can tweet more characters. Sorry, did I say tweet? I meant toot.

Toot. Seriously.

Why is this any different from far right people leaving Fox News for Newsmax? Or leaving twitter for Telegram groups or sketchy apps like Parler or Gab? One sign your worldview is too toxic for anyone to deal with is when you describe everyone else in your life with terms like "normies", and another is when you have to leave the "public square" and find the secret clubhouses where freaks like you can tolerate each other.

But if that's how things are going to be, then I say get ready to adapt. Make a blog and include a blogroll (working on this as I type, really). If you want people to see the blog, make a Substack and promote it (not doing that yet).

Look for weird vBulletin sites that cater to stuff you like to do. They're harder to find because they might have bad SEO and Google discriminates against non-SEO-optimized sites regardless of how good they are. When you do find them, amplify them too. No algorithms, no AI...just word of mouth again.

Finally, if you have a good expertise in how the internet works, then set up tools that help people find what they're looking for and find their tribe online, without the interference of giant corporations or tyrannical megalomaniacs demanding obedience and silencing dissent.

We can do it!

Astronomy and Souls: Heretical Thoughts From A Random Guy

 If you want to watch something really depressing, skip the Fassbinder and Tarkovsky movies and try How The Universe Works on Science Channel. You haven't really experienced in your heart how small and insignificant we are in the universe until you've done a dive into astronomy.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the concept of a soul. What a weird idea, huh?

Think of what a soul is. An eternal being, filled with the greater consciousness and awareness, actualized and powerful.
So what does your deity do? It sends this powerful aware being to inhabit the body of a human. A human! A kind of sentient mammal, with a shy bladder and a fear of spiders and a constant, unending craving for pizza and porn. This eternal soul has to inhabit this simple creature for 80-90 Earth years...if it makes it that far.

And then when the mammal dies - in pain and alone - the soul is judged on the quality of the mammal's existence and participation in this dumb community we call a civilization.
And is sent to:

• Eternal suffering....or 
• Eternal pleasure

Does this seem fair? Why would a god set up a system like this? What is the reasoning behind the eternal souls' civilization running like this?

So let's review how this turns out: your soul, the soul inhabiting you, gets lucky - really lucky - and is sent to heaven. And there you are, you eternal being that picked the right team in the comparative religious studies sweepstakes, with your parents and your favorite movie stars or angels that look like them a lot...drinking all your favorite drinks, eating all your favorite foods, and having fun parties with your favorite celebrities or angels that look like them a lot....for billions and trillions of years.

But most importantly, you're on the edge of God's country club watching all the hundreds of billions of souls who did not luck out (As P.J. O'Rourke perfectly put it, "It's hard to get into God's heavenly country club") writhing and crying and acting out the most upsetting extreme horror movies ever made (and a few we humans wouldn't dare make) for your amusement. For billions and trillions of years, you, the blessed soul, watch this.

These souls inhabited people who by any objective measure were good people, who worked hard, who endured hardships and pain on Earth. But they worshipped the wrong God - or called bullshit on all of it - and now they are in the great torture chamber under the ground in Russia (perfect place for hell, I'd say). Doomed to billions of years of horror movie pain and anguish. Billions.

And you watch what the demons do to these poor souls...and then go back to your heavenly orgies of pleasure.

If this is your dream of your life's redemption, what does it say about you?

And think of these timelines...billions and trillions of years of this.

This is where astronomy, e.g reality, comes into this scenario.

In about 7 or 8 billion years, the sun will explode. All stars die, the sun is a star, and scientists think that is when our sun will die. As it dies, it will inflate into a red giant, and burn the Earth and then devour it. (Same with Mars. Sorry, Elon.)

So does that mean hell will be demolished along with it? Holy scriptures do suggest that hell eventually ends...but not heaven.
How will you residents of God's country club feel about your show being ended? Will you miss the grand guignol show, the billions of years long Heironymous Bosch orgy of misery and unhappiness, performed by the infidels and unworthy for your endless pleasure?

Oh, and it gets better! Trillions of years hence - and yes, your lucky blessed soul will be around for trillions of years! Think about that - all the stars in the universe will die. And the universe will become a desolate, cold, black, endless, empty tomb.
Forever.

How will life in your eternal holy country club / pleasure palace feel then? Will you care? Will the clouds you hang out on debating the important things and indulging your pleasures on still be dappled in sunlight generated by your god? Or will you just switch to nightclub mode?

Can you understand why the faithless have problems with your faith yet?

Religion is the original psy-ops. It was dispatched for noble reasons - to keep our uncivilized ancestors from killing and raping each other - but over time, it has become a monster that has caused untold suffering and misery on Earth. Think of how many problems we have in this world because of religion.

Science is hard, and it teaches us hard realities that are painful to deal with emotionally and psychologically. But science has a moral imperative, sort of - to tell the truth, no matter how much it hurts.

So science has that advantage. 

Don't you like science better?

Thanks for reading. See you all in hell.

A Walled City Theory Of Economics, by a guy who knows it's a good idea

So, these crazy kids with their socialism. What's up with that?

And these CEOs having the wealth of nations, am I right?

Pure socialism was bad. Pure capitalism was bad. Pure libertarianism is bad. Pure communism is really bad.

Every nation or district where these were attempted have resulted in failure. Look it up.

So what's the answer?

Well, I'm no economist. Reading Paul Krugman on twitter doesn't count. But I gotta believe the following is a good idea, and would love an explanation of why it isn't.

I think of it as a walled city approach. Each side represents a filter of letting in the good stuff and filtering out the bad. Like this:

SOCIALISM

Everyone has a job, stock in the company, and makes a living wage according to their rank. Good!

Innovation and growth is stifled by the "common good". Bad!

COMMUNISM

The government regulates businesses to eliminate corruption, fraud, and poor quality in the marketplace. Good!

The government takes all the money and property and doles out rations. Bad!

CAPITALISM

The individual has a right to make money and grow as a professional or business owner. Good!

The individual can hoard the wealth of nations while their employees starve and everyone starves. Bad!

LIBERTARIANISM

The individual has a right to land, money, and related freedoms. Good!

The individual can do what they want and never contribute back to the community. Bad!

All the good stuff is inside the walled city, all the bad stuff is outside in the dark. Result: Utopia!

Cool, huh? Like our government filtered in the good aspects of democracy and a republic and filtered out the bad. Or at least, they did...but that's a topic for another day.

It will never happen, of course.
Because greed is inherent in humans - we are, at the end of the day, another breed of mammal trying to dominate each other for resources and mates.
Or as the Real Golden Rule puts it: them with the gold makes the rules.

Our Economic Utopia Nation will still have problems with outside nations siphoning off resources and greedy "alpha" persons inside fighting to hoard power and resources, until it's not workable anymore and we have to start over.

You know....like our country is doing now.

I'd love to know what you think. This will, of course, be roundly poo-pooh'd by the people who stand to lose the most in Utopia. But wouldn't you love to live there? Why or why not?

Status of this blog and my online footprint

Hi. I haven't posted a ton here. I've been busy with the work related blog, which has done as well as Blogger blogs do these days. Am I going to have to join Medium?

But I sometimes miss this corner of my internet acre, and should probably tend to it more.

But what to write about? If there's one thing the world needs a whole lot less of, it's fat old caucasian men blathering about current affairs. People like that are what made the world such a mess lately. Anyway, my non-work twitter and Quora have eaten into that well of ideas.

That leaves...what? 

The occasional essay or short story (I'm not a poet, and I know it). I'm recording music again, finally, and will start posting it on my music YouTube (backing up to Vimeo, and of course mariocaiti.com). Animations and any visual arts I finish will go to Behance, with maybe some Instagrams because I want a reason to lurk there. I don't trust social media with my creative work, and neither should you.

So no plans here. But come say hi sometime.

I should update the blogroll function here, at least. Webrings and blogrolls are the cure for social media, so let's all do that.

Why are you a Democrat?Why are you a Republican?

Hello again. I've been reading a lot of grieving and wondering lately about how some people remain loyal to their political party, despite being around unsavory characters and ideas.
And I have some thoughts on that. Of course I do, that's why I'm here. Why else would I be?
You don't choose your party, your party chooses you. Where you stand on certain issues determines where you're going to land. (Insert Harry Potter witticism here. Gd forbid we not reference nerd culture during a serious discussion.)
Here's a quiz for you to demonstrate:

Is abortion
a) murder
b) a woman's inalienable right to choose
?
Are semiautomatic assault rifles
a) weapons of mass destruction
b) a citizen's inalienable right to defend their home
?
Are latinx migrants in cages on our southern border
a) trespassers on our sovereign land
b) refugees deserving of civil rights
?

I could go on, but you get it - you're answering these questions because they matter very much to you, and those answers determine which side of the political fence you will always be on.
So who's in that camp with you? It shouldn't matter, should it?
They're not going to be your friends, necessarily. As a member of the BAB+ camp, I wish I wasn't around people like Moby or Michael Moore, but that isn't going to change my core values. And people in the ABA+ camp probably don't like being in with people like Sheriff Clarke or Sean Hammity, but that's not going to change their core values either. Why would it?!
That goes all the way to the top. Me being in this camp with The Squad or them Clintons doesn't change my core values, and someone else being in the camp of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell doesn't change theirs. And you're going to see this proven as the elections grind on.
So that's a trope I'd like to see go away on twitter - "How can you stand to be in the party of ?" I won't hold my breath, though.


This blog is for random essay topics. For my formal blog about work stuff, go here. Thanks!

Unpopular Opinions: #walkaway is bullshit

I've dusted off this old blog because I have something to say about the upcoming election and current political climate. (Something about these times that's making that impossible to ignore, n'est ce pas?) In the bowels of the hell pit that is Twitter, something called the #walkaway (or it's more explicit variant, #walkawayfromdemocrats ) is being reported and promoted. It's the concept that Democrats are so in love with Trump because he created jobs, and so tired of Democrats because political correctness, that they're all going to vote for their Republican candidates.

Is this a joke? Of course it's not a joke.

#Seemslegit

For. The. Love. Of...
Because certainly, it's been a monologue I've been hearing all over my community. Yours too, I'm sure:

"You know, I was a liberal person with liberal values. But then I saw Dana Loesch and Sheriff Dave Clarke basically go full stormtrooper on social media, yelling about how much they would love to see gun owners massacre liberals in the streets. And I saw Stephen Miller literally leering at me from the podium on CNN, ordering the citizens to obey the President without question, and then heard he was delighted to see the suffering of children taken from their parents and thrown in internment camps - or left in the desert for traffickers to pick up and take away. And I read that Steve Bannon, his trusted Senior Adviser, really liked racist novels, and J. Beauregard Sessions, our Attorney General, thought the KKK were too softly liberal for his tastes.
"And I saw the President overseeing it all, conducting himself like a two-bit mafia boss, running the show from the luxury resort he still owns even though that's got to be against the law, right? And I saw him spend more time speaking/performing to his adoring crowds in stadiums, mocking victims of sexual assault and the handicapped, whipping them into violent frenzies against the press and anyone sort of liberal, than doing any actual governing.
I saw him basically tell police in Long Island they could do whatever they wanted to suspects because Latino gangs. I saw him give his personal cell phone number to a sworn enemy of the United States, defying the advice of his Secret Service and security force in general, while belittling the Prime Minister of Canada and The Pope.
"And I thought, "Wow! Trump conservatism sure is the way to go!"

Yeah, that's totally what happened.
Who believes this stuff?

...oh.
#thatsnotMelania



Know your history