exactly; there will always be piracy as long as piracy is needed, a post-piracy world is a utopia, even in the worst dystopia people find ways to “pirate”

Those words can mean those things, but communism is also used to describe a political system. After all, part of the definition of communism is statelessness which is entirely about the politics and not the economics (source).

Also, just as democracy might be used to describe a political system, it commonly taken to mean liberal democracy, and thus in most contemporary contexts implies an economic system of capitalism.

So I just think it depends on the context what people mean by these terms. Of course you can try to define communism only in economic terms, but since the term is so abused and “inflated” it’s hard to claim it has any singular or absolute meaning.

Depending on who you are talking to, communism has practically opposite meanings, for example, in public schools in the U.S. they teach that communism is when all economic activity is controlled by a centralized state, which is ironically the exact opposite of how Marx defined communism.

The same can be said of democracy.

Yet Caitlyn Jenner isn’t exactly using her money to help the trans cause… It requires more than just money, there has to be a political movement and adherents to that movement who have the money and other relevant resources to effect change.

I use hot water to rinse the soap off the razor as I’m shaving. There might be a little bit of residue that builds up, I try to hit it with some hot water. If it’s my straight razor I sometimes carefully wipe the blade with a towel before stropping (this helps dry it and prevent rust, as well as remove any remaining soap scum).

On DE safety razors I take a q-tip and sterilize the blade with 70% isopropyl alcohol which happens to also clean the soap scum off. I sterilize before shaving to help prevent infections to the follicles that can be caused by bacteria that start to live on your razor. Another recommendation I’ve heard is just to store your razor in 70% alcohol, but I prefer my way.

I’ve been using imgur for additional photos, but I’d like to know what the lemmy community recommends in general.

omg 🤦‍♀️

Thank you! Is there a reason Dale Earnhardt is in these memes? Is he a leftist Nascar driver? (Maybe your video will answer my questions, but I don’t have the time to watch an hour long video essay right now, though I’m quite interested and hope to in the future, thanks for the link!)

I see he died in 2001, so all the reasons I could think of as to why he’s in two memes representing the Left are falling short …

I’m out of the loop - who is the person with the “Plus” hat? Maybe the same person as in this meme?

Yes! I do think it’s usually physical books, and books I have grown overly attached to reading, where I can’t bring myself to finish them.

Asimov’s Foundation trilogy comes to mind, I had a physical copy that had the whole trilogy as one book, and just as the third book was coming to a climax I quit reading it and shelved it. It’s been so long I barely remember the plot now, lol.

All good points! I have the same tendency to pick up and drop books based on mood and what’s going on in my life. I recently just picked back up Sapolsky’s A Primate’s Memoir which I had abandoned years ago after reading roughly the first half. Picking it back up, I enjoyed it so thoroughly I became a bit avid in my reading and finished the rest of the book in a week or so (which is rather fast paced for me).

I like the metaphor of reading being like listening to the radio. I often feel guilty for dropping books or not powering through (there are many, many books I have read the first quarter or so of and shelved with the intention to finish another time). Probably healthier to have a more free and less “driven” mindset towards reading books.

Sometimes I drop a book because I enjoy it so much I don’t want it to end, I want it to always be there and to relish it later. This is a bit silly - there are always other books, but I also will forget the plot over time and eventually the book will be enough like new that I can enjoy re-reading it.

That seems like a wholesome perspective, thanks for sharing it!

People lie because they want people to think they are smart.

I remember when I was a kid, I was amazed by my grandmother who could finish a whole novel in a few sittings across a day or two when she would come and stay with us. I once mustered up the courage to ask her how she learned to read so quickly, and she explained that she doesn’t actually read every word, but just scans for major plot points. I felt silly, and unsure how to respond - it seemed to me she wasn’t reading, but I didn’t want to imply that. lol

She wasn’t trying to appear smart, I think she just didn’t want to suffer the boring parts, so she scanned ahead to the juicy bits. That’s such an interesting and different way of approaching reading than I have, I’ve only recently started to skip an introduction or preface if it didn’t seem crucial to the book, something I would have previously considered antisocial or rougish, haha.

I’m using an ancient Nexus tablet with the Android app “MoonReader” (one of the only apps I have paid for); I would prefer a different setup, to use a FOSS app or not use a tablet, but most physical ereaders seem to have issues with PDFs, no?

I would want something I can just load files on (no walled garden); I currently use syncthing to transfer books to my tablet.

That’s an interesting perspective, as I have always felt insecure for being a slow reader. I feel like people in my world see it as a sign of being less intelligent, and while I would like to think slower reading helps with my comprehension, I also just feel like it’s not much of a choice for me (I mean, the alternative to slow reading for me would be something other than reading, like scanning; it seems people who can read faster than me are somehow also more competent or intelligent).

Definitely worth reading, I remember it being better than the first book.

I’ve read both Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, and while you can tell the general arc she was going for with the next book (and can imagine the broad strokes of what would happen next), I never felt there was a lack of closure for the story.

They are emotionally difficult books to read, so it’s also hard to recommend them to people, but I would encourage you to not let the lack of a third book prevent you from reading the first two, they are worth reading on their own merits. The Parable of the Talents especially has significance to the situation in the U.S., as some say it predicted Trump.

I don’t think anyone has recommended the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson yet.

I tend to be a slow reader and it can take me a long time to finish a book, but Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are two books that gripped me such that I basically spent every waking moment reading the book until I finished (I think in both cases I finished the books in less than 24 hours).

No, unfortunately she did not finish Parable of the Trickster before her death. :-(

yesss! and any broth really could work here in substitute for more flavor, but beer and onions is a bomb combo, especially with brats

haha, good to know - thanks!