In addition to the other thread descendants, staring with u/[email protected]:

For all the removeding about capitalism, which basically every country on Earth uses for an economic system

This is only the case because it was instituted at gunpoint. The exploration, colonization, settlement, expropriation, amassment, warfare, thievery, and conquest of the world’s economy is soaked in blood, laden in exploitation of people, places, and things and destruction of the commons. You’d know that if you were subject to it. Or, if you’d paused to read, ask, or think about it for 5 seconds.

And, I can’t believe I’m saying this in public, “just because everyone is doing it, that doesn’t make it right.”

• We can vilify, undermine, and lead smear campaigns against unions under capitalism.

• We can break, or prevent, unions under capitalism.

• Our governments can attack us using local, state, provincial, and federal police forces whenever there is a perceived threat to capitalism.

Everything works fucking horribly with those 2781 billionaire capitalists robbing the world blind while blaming the victims.

Imagine that.

I forgot to say this in my previous response: I’m sorry that this happened in your state and I hope that Minnesota can do exactly what you’re describing. I heard the AG of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, talk on Democracy Now!

Wherever the shooter is, the state of Minnesota needs to take custody of him and any evidence. State-level courts need to try him for the homicide he committed. Minnesota needs to convict him at the state level.

If he’s only ever federally charged, the regime could try the case to appease public opinion. Even if he was convicted federally, -2 could/would pardon him.

That’s the thing. The regime says it’s legal. They’re lying. The state has a right to investigate federal exercise of power. If that right is removed, you no longer have a United States. It’s a fief.

I feel for you all. As I did 2001-2009.

Yes. Lest we forget, Philly PD bombed the city of Philadelphia.

Note: 9 MOVE members were convicted and imprisoned on questionable evidence in a similar, violent attempt to serve a “warrant”. Unless you, bot, believe that those not charged or convicted are guilty of crimes they were not even charged with, let alone the charges (contempt of court, parole violations, loud noise, animals, illegal weapons posession, threats) the warrants were being served represented in a land where people are innocent until proven guilty.

8 adults and 3 children dead. For what? Procedure? A monopoly on power? What of the 250 people and 60+ homes destroyed in the ensuing fire?

All this to say, America is mad racist. Still.

“West Philadelphia born and raised…”

Takes on a spin, no? I prefer the Roots.

Im ready for the hate, but I content myself that I’ve gotten through these before having kids:

• Fullmetal Alchemist

• Hellsing

• Voltron (80s, I think I saw them all)

• Serial Experiments: Lain

And since having kids:

• Neon Genesis Evangelion

• One Punch Man

Alex Jones

Steve Bannon

Stephen Miller

I read this in 2011, the same year I got my first iPhone and started teaching in a middle school.

Yeah, things have trended dystopian and proven this book prophetic in many, many ways

I can see you re-read it after. Hope you had a chuckle.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.

"One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.

“The other, of course, involves orcs.”

[John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey – Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]

Yeah, a whole-country general strike in America would only last a day, two tops. They don’t have the wherewithal to be good neighbours and politically aligned against monied interests the way a nation-state that has a deeper, older history can.

The history of America is money, interest, and interested money.

Southern plantations, 17th century land ownership, trade in enslaved persons, ranching, gold prospecting… and war.

War against the Indigenous, the French, the Spanish, the Mexica, the French again, the British, the Bolivarians, themselves, and then everyone else, forever.

The way to defeat America is to end its war-making capacity. Explosions, attacks, weathering, budget restrictions, out-competition, and mutually-assured destruction have all failed as gambits. What remains is to undercut the human element — wounding warriors without wielding deadly force. A loss in military preparedness, a disbelief in the stated mission, a war-weariness.

None of these things will stop the US. What will is a general strike, a new constitutional convention, and the reconstruction of the nation from the ground up.

Reside: Auckland or Barcelona, as long as I can make a living there and be in solid with a like-minded group of locals.

Vacation: Lago Atitlán or Lombok & the Gilis. I’ve never been to an island in Oceania, so Indonesia is as close as I’ve experienced. Atitlán is tough to beat as it’s in reach to Xela, Chichi, and the much more touristy Antigua. Plus volcano hikes, kayaks, and lots of yoga spots. Good food, great people, and low cost. I wish only two things: more power to the Campesinos (particularly solar power and less cow dung heating), and fewer military-types on their gap-year.

Party: Seoul, as nostalgia. Or, if I had an unlimited budget, a Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague loop. I’m old. I deserve parties at whichever impact level I choose on that day.

I only remember it as fun. I don’t remember the quality, the plot, the characters, the setting, or the execution. I think I was trying to get into someone else’s pants. Maybe that’s the fun I remember.

I’ve also never felt a need for a rewatch or sequels.

Ok, noted. No to Now You See Me.

Any man who wants to know how to talk to a woman, should pay close attention to Neil meeting Edie.

Heat remains in my top 5 movie experiences, 30 years after I first saw it.

Supporting the Guy Ritchie films, for sure. Those should be right up OP’s alley.

Had tried to remember Wrath of Man with earlier as well.

Up the alley of Oceans movies:

• Now You See Me

• Ronin

• The Thomas Crown Affair (1995)

• Mission: Impossible octilogy (skip M:I-2, srsly)

• The Town

• Hell or High Water

• 3:10 to Yuma (either one)

• Assault on Precinct 13 (either one)

• 21 Bridges

• Baby Driver

Not as flashy as those you mentioned, but real thinkers, and excellent crime films:

• The Spanish Prisoner with Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Ricky Jay

• A Simple Plan with Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton

• Wind River with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen

• No Country for Old Men by the Coens with Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones

• Fargo by the Coens with Frances McDormand

• Drive with Ryan Gosling

• Cop Land with Sylvester Stallone

• Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

• Glengarry Glen Ross with 5 of the greatest actors of 20th century Hollywood. (TW: Spacey)

Used as insult by Uhura in first J.J. Abrams Star Trek (2009) film.

Urban Dictionary has an entry from 2004

I’m not going to pretend that I understand your culture, I don’t. But I can understand the “child of immigrants” position in the world that we share. I just started a LOT longer ago.

And I won’t belabour the point. I’ll sum up.

They moved here because of what THEY wanted. They also want you to be eternally grateful and follow their example. Except, you are a person, too. So, if they can’t see how glorious you can be, they can either watch you struggle with cognitive dissonance induced depression forever or they can let you grow, explore and find what you’re great at.

For the record, I needed a clean break from my dad to be able to rebuild my life. He was the role in my life that was toxic in the same way you describe your mom. That was in 2005. Incidentally, part of my story also had me leave North America for over a decade. I spent some time in Korea and China while I was away.

Value is a loaded term here.

If, as I assume, she means “economic” value — in a twisted, Judeo-Christian, colonialist, capitalist, explotative system — then, sure, value is assigned to money and only the top 0.001% of earners “have value”. Bully to the 99.999% of people on Earth who spend their lives delivering that value to the top. I hazard the guess your mom is one of those people.

Also, loaded into that term, if she has among her moral values those the western, chauvinistic, Biblical moral set, I might be inclined to question whether she lives up to her own values of charity, humility, and acceptance.

What everyone has is an “intrinsic” value; a unique set of experiences and gifts that has never existed before in the universe and never will again. We are here to delight in each other’s presence and potential. This doesn’t do much for the bottom line… until it does.

Collaboration on shared goals, building sustainable practices, and ensuring plenty for all are among humanity’s highest intrinsic, economic, and moral functions. Previously, I said that the values system your mom probably considers correct is twisted; that’s because in this system the highest functions are immense power, immediate profit, and absolute exploitation. These are ignored or invisible to most.

Your mom’s blindness and/or ignorance is what makes her tragically wrong.