Luke

When I was a young boy
My father took me into the city
To see the Blue Jays play
He said "son when you grow up
You'll see them play the Rockies
And score 45 runs
in a 3 game series"

I know a lot of you have already heard or read about BDS Movement's call against Microsoft, and felt weird and bad about it all, but decided to move forward as normal because of some degree of ambiguity.

"What service is Microsoft providing?"

Here it is, clear as day. A direct line to death.

The BDS movement is calling for people to pressure Microsoft with divestment and exclusion from contracts, whenever feasible. We also call for boycotting Microsoft’s gaming products, with the following options as tiers of engagement: Cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription. Boycott Candy Crush, Minecraft and Call of Duty – flagship videogame franchises owned by Microsoft. Boycott all Microsoft Gaming products, including Xbox-branded consoles, headsets, accessories and all games published by Microsoft-owned publishing labels (such as Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Bethesda and Blizzard).

And I've obviously been saying this a lot lately, but BDS does not expect anyone to drop everything made by Microsoft all at once. They pick very specific targets in order to get as wide a coalition as possible, and in the case of Xbox, even suggest different tiers of engagement.

The fact that CBC was too cowardly to film this is indicative of a much bigger problem in media.

When layoffs come, they tend to target journalists who are "problems" for management, who question authority.

This is what you lose when you only keep the journalists who are deferential to authority:

The British media outlet ITV also went on a Jordanian airdrop and simply ignored the Israeli government’s illiberal demands:

www.itv.com/news/2025-08...

A journalist with Canada’s public broadcaster was not allowed on the Canadian plane air dropping aid into Gaza because of Israeli restrictions.

When she made it onto a Jordanian plane, she was not allowed to film what she saw on the ground in Gaza because Israel forbids it from being shown.

So you’re telling me the Wizard of Oz presented itself as a towering force of overwhelming technology, only to be unmasked as just some guy, off-screen?

Not fleeing: New report shows more wealthy residents in Mass., 2 years into 'millionaire's tax' Despite previous concerns, Massachusetts' "millionaire's tax" hasn't seemed to deter high-earners from continuing to live here, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies.

MA put in a 4% millionaires tax 2 years ago, & the GOP said we'd miss revenue targets & millionaires would flee. MA collected TWICE the projected revenues, & the number of millionaires went UP 40%.
www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

Yet, it is being human, a vulnerable creature alongside other vulnerable creatures, something we do more than something we are, that can make our hearts more open, the burdens of life more bearable, our social isolation less commonplace.

But what do I know? 🤷‍♂️

But being human, the far more difficult task, the far more daring task, the far more rewarding task, is so obscured! We can’t even begin to think about what it means because we are too enamored with being something *other than* human. Something surreal.

“Masculinity” therefore has no center, no core, no essence. It is bereft and empty, and its ruthless seeking of power and permanence is a reflection of its emptiness.

In this way it functions very similarly to whiteness; it oppresses the outsider and the insider.

From a young age, we have fed heterosexual cis men a banquet of lies. We’ve told them they are to inherit the world, that their place in it is either dominant or non-existent, that their bodies are as valuable as they are attractive, and that love is a scarcity, women get some, other men get none.

Even the slightest compliment from me, a gay man whose masculinity is viewed largely from my Blackness rather than my queerness, can light up their whole day. I like giving compliments to people in general, but my word, the number of men I’ve met who’ve never been told that they’re handsome!

With these three things in mind, when I chat with young straight men, I do not see as much anger as I do a deep anguish that comes with being unsure of one’s ability to be loved. The language one needs to ask for love, an already daring task, is not there. Babies cry for this, men sink into despair.

We haven’t made anywhere near as much progress talking about sex or gender in a way that compartmentalizes us less and brings us together more, even in progressive spaces, and that is a deep tragedy.

I've got a lot of feelings around this, still working on how to do words around them well, I'll come back to this later I expect

In particular the parts about men not being taught essential life skills for building their own healthy communities, or how we frankly almost never receive compliments.
It's a problem, and also it's really shitty seeing "progressive" people just mocking the concept of men struggling with it

This thread is so good, and really speaks well to the thing I always struggle with whenever things like "The Male Loneliness Epidemic" or whatever hit the discourse. Because yeah, the Manosphere is fucking garbage, but also like there are real problems there, that get brushed away by progressives

Nobody in its own right mind as ever proposed that we put a "parking conductor" or a little gate in front of every parking spot to be opened with a card to avoid parking fare evasion

But somehow, it's absolutely necessary that bus fare evasion is near zero, whatever the cost in terms of efficiency.

The moral panic of the anglosphere over bus fare evasion and proof-of-payment is quite something.

Especially when you think that we do accept another mobility-related widespread PoP system: on-street parking, which is entirely charged via a proof-of-payment + inspector system.

Saying “our best days are ahead of us” is a act of rebellion, an act of defiance. It’s spitting in the face of gloom and despair, of hopelessness and paralyzing cynicism.

Our best days are ahead of us.

I think you meant

EVERY
BODY
CLAPYOURHANDS

(seriously, maybe its my old man arc, but I like loud concerts and even I find it too loud)

Literally the top reason why I haven't been to a game yet this year, it's gotten so obnoxiously loud and constant that it's just not a very good experience

cc: atBlueJays

well at least we expelled a bunch of university students

Check out the colossal array of great Murphs in the replies.

you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am

Meaning and making is the point. That’s why the story of the person who makes a thing and their thinking about the thing is just as important as what is made. The is also the most elementary idea behind advertising — even if the goal is to use this obvious truth to lie. It remains true and obvious.

I’m not engaging with art on an output level. I don’t care how fast the machine does a thing or how many paintings or books the machine can produce. I’m looking at art as the creative evidence of human creativity and depth. If a machine does it instead, it says nothing to me. It means nothing.

I don’t know, if someone tells me that they don’t think what I do has value and are working to make sure that I’m replaced by a machine / unable to make a living from my art again, I’m not going to be out there championing the world they want to create and defending it as just as good as me.