Lērisama wrote: ↑Tue Nov 18, 2025 5:05 am
¹ Although with significantly more sanity than you seem to be suggesting
Hey, I was a big fan of his blog. I was one of the top commentators. I'm literally advising him to be louder about his opinions on social media whether they are well-researched or not.
Sorry, I'd forgotten that. In which case I'd like to say to Raphael that if his writing¹ can impress both me and Rotting Bones, then it must be quite good.
¹ In a semi-random suggestion, your writing seemed to remind me of a frustrated opinion columnist. I have absolutely no clue how such things work, but it might be worth submitting some writing to places which might accept such things².
² Which again, I have no idea what they are, but presumably there's some places that might.
LZ – Lēri Ziwi
PS – Proto Sāzlakuic (ancestor of LZ)
PRk – Proto Rākēwuic
XI – Xú Iạlan
VN – verbal noun
SUP – supine
DIRECT – verbal directional
My language stuff
Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.
... brought to you by the Weeping Elf My conlang pages Yrgidrámamintí!
WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Nov 18, 2025 6:38 am
Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.
Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Nov 18, 2025 7:01 am
Thank you, Lērisama.
WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Nov 18, 2025 6:38 am
Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.
Yes, good point!
And what's more: the aversion of the impending doom will give us an even better life than what the fossilists falsely promise.
... brought to you by the Weeping Elf My conlang pages Yrgidrámamintí!
Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Nov 11, 2025 3:26 pm
Well, I'm not 34, but in my mid-forties. That's generally a bit old to enter a new field. And my adult life has been mostly a disaster. If I would have spend the last 20 years doing something like, say, studying medicine and then becoming a well-respected and much-beloved doctor in some local community somewhere, I might, now, be well-positioned to become a late entry to the great contest of politics. But instead, I have absolutely no (0) achievements to my name. A fortysomething with no professional references whatsoever would be unlikely to make a good impression on all that many voters.
You are not too old to start something new. I am in my mid-50s, and trying to start a new life as a solarpunk writer and prog rock musician. I don't know whether I will succeed, but I am self-confident enough to try. If you try, you can fail; but if you don't try, you will fail.
One of our Ph.D. students in our group started their Ph.D. this year at the age of forty. To echo WeepingElf and others,, it doesn't matter how old you are when you start or finish!
Somebody I know completed their history PhD after he had completed his career in nursing. So that reinforces the point that it is never too late to begin!
Thank you, but given that I start out with no higher education at all, under my calculations, getting a PhD would take me 8 years, starting next summer. Not to mention that my second attempt at going to university demonstrated that I'm very bad at preparing and handing in the kind of homework you have to prepare and hand in in academic environments.
Our glorious Chancellor has acted in such a way that it surprised even me. I mean, I never had a particularly high opinion of him as a human being, but that's about different fundamental values and priorities. Until now, I wouldn't have expected him to act in a downright stupid way.
What happened? He spent some time at the climate summit in Belém, Brazil. And as soon as he was back home, he made a speech to a business convention where he said that none of the journalists who had travelled to Belém with him would have wanted to stay there, and that he was really glad to be back home again.
I mean, really. When he talks fucked up shit about the less wealthy ones among his fellow countryfolk in Germany, that's one thing. But this kind of fucked up shit is actively harmful to Germany's interests. And for no reason whatsoever, not even a bad one. Yes, sometimes you have to talk bluntly, even if it has downsides. But there was absolutely no need for that in this context. He just blundered for shit and giggles.
What's especially galling about this is that Merz is from one of those corners of the political spectrum where people love to constantly lecture everyone about personal responsibility. Well, if he would actually believe any of that stuff, he would, now, resign and retire from politics. But of course people like that only believe in personal responsibility until they get asked to take some.
