“Columbia The Gem Of The Ocean” was almost the national anthem.

EDIT: One of its lyrics was “thy banners make tyranny tremble.” That wouldn’t work today, would it, considering we are under, well, tyranny.

Soviet military and intelligence efficiency was greatly exaggerated.

They should be subject to a citizens police review board.

Like that’s ever going to happen.

While I was in the process of disentangling myself from religion, the woman I lived with for nearly 10 years went off the deep end. Prosperity gospel. She became insufferable.

I made a much-needed escape, and met my wife a year later. She, like me, believes religion to be a social construct, intended to keep the masses docile and obedient.

Office with a public college, WFH 60%

I predicted back in 2000 that the net would become a big complex system of cable channels, you pay for every site you visit. It’s sure AF going that way.

Something wonderful is gone forever. Thanks America.

It’s not social media per se. It’s capitalism. The Internet was this vast frontier, where you could meet anyone. Little communities formed, we all just talked, and self-regulated any bad behavior. It was a gift economy, we all freely shared knowledge, files, culture.

In the past 20 or so years, economies of scale took over. Corporations bought up the server space and aggressively shut down small communities. Community is discouraged, keep scrolling and click on the ads! Marketing killed the internet.

Like walking from a free society into a police state. Micromanagement, hidden rules that you were expected to know and obey, a culture of informants.

Fascism.