If this is a genuine question, then my answer would be: a whole bunch of stuff I was taught that wasn’t actually true.

The way American history was presented to me (and I assume lots of other Americans) in school was the rosiest tinted glasses version of our history that could possibly be constructed. We spent a whole lot more time talking about “breaking bread” with the native Americans rather than slaughtering them, and focused more on our early economic growth rather than the slaves on whose backs it was earned. Our involvement in various wars was characterized as “aid” or “ally-ship”, or even stepping in as the “savior” who made sure the good guys won. Our sociopolitical progress (women’s suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, etc) was framed as the goodhearted majority fighting against a smaller group of hateful bad actors, who all sort of magically disappeared whenever progressive legislation won out.

Simply put, it’s revisionist history designed to retroactively affirm all the “land of the free, home of the brave” shit, when in reality this is a nation whose economy was built on the backs of slaves from all over the world, and whose sociopolitical ideology has always been steered by a small group of cruel and cowardly men who want endless personal power and wealth, to the direct detriment of their fellow country-folk.

There are things I’m genuinely proud of. Like all those who came before me who made it possible for me to vote/get an education/walk down the street while black, female, and queer. There are great American artists, academics, inventors—all sorts of people who’ve made meaningful contributions to the world. Like any other people, we are not all the worst of us.

But holy shit the worst of us are SO worst. And they’re so loud, and they’re so rich, and they’ve stolen so many of our resources, and they’re doing so much fucking damage to practically everyone on earth, not to mention to the earth itself. And they’ve controlled the narrative for a very long time, have taught us (sold us) so much bullshit for so long that a lot of the things the average American is proud of are almost entirely fictional.

It’s… disheartening.

D you think they’ll stay that way?

Until we get robot cats. Or robot squirrels. Maybe a well-placed Furby.

I think the real problem is that you don’t seem to realize/care how gross and rapey you sound. That’s… maybe something to work on.

Yes, friend, I read the post. But frankly I don’t like keeping all my eggs in one basket, particularly considering how shit went down with Booklore.

I joined the new discord, and will make a donation once there’s a means to do so, but I’m not sure how long it will take them to get something up and running. The original dev also joined their discord and immediately started talking shit to everyone in there, so that was interesting. And the mods there also asked for logo ideas, and it pretty quickly devolved into an AI slop fest, which was disappointing. So. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve been using Calibre (not the web version tho) to fetch metadata and better covers and create .opf files before I upload to my server anyway. Kavita’s documentation says it will import metadata from an opf in the same folder, so it should work out of the box, yes?

Honestly Calibre has a LOT of features that I don’t ever use, which is why I wasn’t planning on running CWA. I don’t have any comics, but between Komga and Kavita, which would you say is better for books (most of mine are epub format)?

Oh goddamn it, I deployed this like five days ago. Been working on digitizing my whole collection for the past week cuz I liked it so much. Fuck lol.

Uh, anyone know any good alternatives???

Another thing is that people don’t seem to understand how ingrained bigotry is in America. I actually am willing to die for democracy, but I’m black and female. Me getting gunned down in the street by ICE wouldn’t even make local news because Americans are trained to disacknowledge the person-hood of anyone who isn’t an ablebodied cishet white man. I won’t have died “for the cause”, I’d have died to fill an empty hole in the ground.

Not necessarily saying that I and others aren’t willing to, just that it’ll be a lot more like throwing ourselves into a meatgrinder than like being hung on a cross.

I don’t doubt it. Just offering a piece of factual information. If it doesn’t mean anything to you, then there’s not much I can do about that.

Edit: Oh right, Orbán. You’re commiserating lmao. Well. Yup. Sorry, friend.

I mean, do you actually believe every German was a Nazi?

Completely unrelated, but Simple Sabotage Field Manual was a fun little read.

I mean, I’m interested in Russians who didn’t vote for Putin. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I’m also interested in Germans who were against Hitler, Italians against Mussolini, etc. Fascists victimize their own populace as well as others; basic human empathy dictates that no one’s victimhood is less tragic because of where they were born.

Not saying there’s not a bunch of maga morons fucking shit up, but if you think we have free and fair elections in the US, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

I think the problem is that, at some point, the powers that be decided that “better” is synonymous with “more appended zeroes”. We (and presumably any society) could ostensibly have kept growing indefinitely, provided we agreed that the ever-increasing personal wealth of the few (to the detriment of the many) does not constitute growth.

I think what Jeff is pointing out is that it isn’t uncommon for someone to be misinterpreted as a misogynist and, when called out, decide to lean into the misogyny rather than away, even if it wasn’t their original intention. In this instance, it’s a miscommunication that the OP handled in a way that made me laugh out loud, but I think Jeff is right, that there are also people who, in the same situation would have responded something to the effect of “I was talking about her vision. Maybe if you women weren’t all so [insert twitter-typical misogyny here]”, etc etc. Obviously that isn’t what happened here, but it has been known to.

Can you ask her to write a tutorial on how to enjoy getting ate out pls, cuz I can suck dick all day long, but the second there’s a face anywhere near my twat, I’m instantly closed for business. And I know my husband wants to too, I just… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Sorry this observation hurt your feelings I guess?

but I do think something needs to be done that doesn’t just hand wave it off as “let the parents do their job” because we don’t live in that world.

We absolutely could live in that world, but we’re never gonna get there if people like you continue to pass the buck to others who should not at all be tasked with being responsible for other people’s children—particularly not corporations run by billionaires who have been raping or facilitating the rape of children for decades.

Ah yes, “Deciphering Females”, the most enrolled course at Trust Me Bro University (accreditation pending).

Damn the incels turned OUT for this post lmao