great stuff, but baby trap is fucking terrible, around my parts that's already demonstrably a fantastic way to make a lot of kids without real fathers (christ I almost sound like Glenn Loury)
I agree with much of that but I'm much better after a lifting session. It's a good hobby and I don't do it for others. Taking that away during covid made me crazy.
Perhaps the editors and that generation missed the bit about doing irony have a sense of humour but not getting completely black pilled or whatever the word for nihilism is these days.
Two thumbs up for free, or even heavily-subsidized, childcare - and long, long maternity AND paternity leave. It makes things far easier. Some of my inlaws in the States are forced into the "traditional" breadwinner dad at work and caregiver mum at home arrangement, because they don't have cheap childcare in Maryland. They felt struggling, unlike us in Queensland that could work double incomes once the maternity leave was over, because of the aforementioned childcare.
(But it's the childcare thing that makes me also sceptical of the "America, and the West more broadly, is entering a phase of decline" sentence. I can't quibble about the "America" part - I did see a lot of decaying and even rusting architecture when I last visited that States. But America isn't the West. It's a big cautionary tale to others in the West, however, if they choose not to ignore it.)
"But it turns out our practical life advice is too radical even for the edgiest gen. z's in America."
Maybe down the road you can explore the issue of why your wonderful advice often causes knee-jerk negative responses. Part of this may have to do with your audacity to suggest interference with individual convenience.
Much of American culture is all-in on no limits to our behavior on a personal as well as nation-state level.
Let's look at who survived the Soviet collapse. Your regular Ivan Ivanov's chances were slim. 7 million of them were killed by our new leftie hero Jeffrey Sachs's shock therapy. The country was ravaged by a Mad Max bunch of oligarch mobsters and outright vor v zakonye mobsters, as well as assorted KGB-affiliated raiders. The oligarchs had their roots in the Komsomol, so to survive the US collapse you would need to join a similar well-connected social network. Banker oligarchs survived better than extraction industry oligarchs like Khodorkovsky or media oligarchs like Gusinsky or manufacturing oligarchs like Berezovsky.
Of course the apex predators were the KGB itself, which planned and engineered the collapse under Andropov and his hand-picked minions Gorbachev and Kryuchkov. Putin himself declared to an FSB gathering after he won the 2000 election that he had accomplished the mission set out by Andropov for the KGB, namely the takeover of the state.
So if you want to be sure to come out on top, join the CIA.
Ordinary Russians' odds for survival depended on how good they were at blat. For that of course friends and acquaintances are essential, even if it means you have to screw them over sometimes. Babies were a no-no. Birth rates plummeted. It was a time of death, not birth.
Most Russians, when they had the chance, chose to flee the country, like our nefarious duo here. They fled West. Today it's the West that's collapsing, so time to flee the other way.
You are so agro and dim. I grew up in post collapse Moscow and my family lived through the collapse and suffered. I left during the best “stability/prosperity” years in 2010s as an adult.
Apologies for my mistake, so you're an exception to the rule, not that it matters. Or do you deny that escaping Russia was the best survival strategy for ordinary people?
Writing off ALL psych meds for ALL people is pretty irresponsible. In a country without even a semblance of a humane mental health system, it's unfortunately true that SOME meds keep SOME people out of jail or the coffin, including those around them. We need a much more responsible and evidence based pharmacological regime and Big Pharma are - like any Big Capitalists, almost entirely evil - but I personally know people whose lives were miserable or unlivable before eventual pharmaceutical intervention.
I agree with hierchloe. The baby trap stuff is horrible. I would add something to the manual.
Know How To Do Something Useful and be willing to share these skills with others. Whether its growing your own food, mechanical repair, childcare, teaching, etc., making yourself useful is a great way to build community. With the disintegration of the State and the New Feudalism of the oligarch class, mutual aid in all its forms is becoming increasingly important, especially if the brewing class-war becomes, shall we say, "kinetic".
Thanks for this article. It is good to be reminded that the Soviet Union was much more than the "Evil Empire" where real people lived lives not unlike our own.
great stuff, but baby trap is fucking terrible, around my parts that's already demonstrably a fantastic way to make a lot of kids without real fathers (christ I almost sound like Glenn Loury)
I agree with much of that but I'm much better after a lifting session. It's a good hobby and I don't do it for others. Taking that away during covid made me crazy.
I know man. But you bike a ton. Doesn’t that give you the movement you need to stay sane?
It’s a different form of training. Lifting builds the foundation, and cycling is the performance of the foundation.
During pandemic I increased my biking just to fit in more activity. It’s not building the same tissues but it would tire me out of worry sometimes.
I gotta find purpose for the food I’m eating.
Do you eat a lot of food? I feel it might be a vicious circle.
It depends on my activity level.
During the pandemic I scaled back on calories. Everything was out all the time, and I felt like I shouldn’t maintain the same diet for less activity.
I’m reasonable with my disorders.
Lynch also had a paper route while filming Eraserhead. He'd take breaks to go deliver newspapers. :)
Perhaps the editors and that generation missed the bit about doing irony have a sense of humour but not getting completely black pilled or whatever the word for nihilism is these days.
Two thumbs up for free, or even heavily-subsidized, childcare - and long, long maternity AND paternity leave. It makes things far easier. Some of my inlaws in the States are forced into the "traditional" breadwinner dad at work and caregiver mum at home arrangement, because they don't have cheap childcare in Maryland. They felt struggling, unlike us in Queensland that could work double incomes once the maternity leave was over, because of the aforementioned childcare.
(But it's the childcare thing that makes me also sceptical of the "America, and the West more broadly, is entering a phase of decline" sentence. I can't quibble about the "America" part - I did see a lot of decaying and even rusting architecture when I last visited that States. But America isn't the West. It's a big cautionary tale to others in the West, however, if they choose not to ignore it.)
this is a good point, but when the dollar washes out it's taking the West (and the world) with it at least for a while
"But it turns out our practical life advice is too radical even for the edgiest gen. z's in America."
Maybe down the road you can explore the issue of why your wonderful advice often causes knee-jerk negative responses. Part of this may have to do with your audacity to suggest interference with individual convenience.
Much of American culture is all-in on no limits to our behavior on a personal as well as nation-state level.
Let's look at who survived the Soviet collapse. Your regular Ivan Ivanov's chances were slim. 7 million of them were killed by our new leftie hero Jeffrey Sachs's shock therapy. The country was ravaged by a Mad Max bunch of oligarch mobsters and outright vor v zakonye mobsters, as well as assorted KGB-affiliated raiders. The oligarchs had their roots in the Komsomol, so to survive the US collapse you would need to join a similar well-connected social network. Banker oligarchs survived better than extraction industry oligarchs like Khodorkovsky or media oligarchs like Gusinsky or manufacturing oligarchs like Berezovsky.
Of course the apex predators were the KGB itself, which planned and engineered the collapse under Andropov and his hand-picked minions Gorbachev and Kryuchkov. Putin himself declared to an FSB gathering after he won the 2000 election that he had accomplished the mission set out by Andropov for the KGB, namely the takeover of the state.
So if you want to be sure to come out on top, join the CIA.
Ordinary Russians' odds for survival depended on how good they were at blat. For that of course friends and acquaintances are essential, even if it means you have to screw them over sometimes. Babies were a no-no. Birth rates plummeted. It was a time of death, not birth.
Most Russians, when they had the chance, chose to flee the country, like our nefarious duo here. They fled West. Today it's the West that's collapsing, so time to flee the other way.
You are so agro and dim. I grew up in post collapse Moscow and my family lived through the collapse and suffered. I left during the best “stability/prosperity” years in 2010s as an adult.
Apologies for my mistake, so you're an exception to the rule, not that it matters. Or do you deny that escaping Russia was the best survival strategy for ordinary people?
Writing off ALL psych meds for ALL people is pretty irresponsible. In a country without even a semblance of a humane mental health system, it's unfortunately true that SOME meds keep SOME people out of jail or the coffin, including those around them. We need a much more responsible and evidence based pharmacological regime and Big Pharma are - like any Big Capitalists, almost entirely evil - but I personally know people whose lives were miserable or unlivable before eventual pharmaceutical intervention.
News you can use! I love it!
I agree with hierchloe. The baby trap stuff is horrible. I would add something to the manual.
Know How To Do Something Useful and be willing to share these skills with others. Whether its growing your own food, mechanical repair, childcare, teaching, etc., making yourself useful is a great way to build community. With the disintegration of the State and the New Feudalism of the oligarch class, mutual aid in all its forms is becoming increasingly important, especially if the brewing class-war becomes, shall we say, "kinetic".
Thanks for this article. It is good to be reminded that the Soviet Union was much more than the "Evil Empire" where real people lived lives not unlike our own.
Was this rejected by heavy traffic??