Boozilla

"A mile long, you say?" --CVS executive

Still working my way through the Matthew Scudder series by Lawrence Block. I'm on book 4, "Stab in the Dark". The settings are dated, but for me that's a feature not a bug I also like his writing style (for the most part), very efficient but evocative.

I'd like to thank all the lemmies who suggest Kobo e-readers to folks. I love my new Kobo. It's so much better than my old Kindle. To be fair, the Kindle is several years old so it's not really apples to apples here. But I love how good the Kobo is AND I didn't have to give Amazon any money for it.

Anti-incumbent voting is way up across the globe. People are pissed off about inflation (corporate greed) and they just knee-jerk "vote them out".

Please remember that most people don't pay attention to the details of economic policies or politics very much. They only get a general "vibe" from whatever bubbled media and bot content they consume. People have voted against their own interests for generations because of this phenomenon.

I'll never forget years ago when my father was listening to Rush Limbaugh and that asshole Rush said, "I understand my listeners are hard working people who are very busy and simply don't have the time to pay attention to these political things so that's why you can just get your information here, I will tell you what to think." Not an exact quote, but close enough. That type of thing has been going on for generations.

I've heard it used to refer to Notebooks but only by much older people (and I'm already middle-aged myself). I've never heard a binder called that. But, the linked article does mention spiral-bound notebooks, so I wonder if that's why she conflated it in her mind.

I'm not a Jew but a few I know who are non-religious told me it is the basis of their cultural and family identity. There are blurry lines around religion, philosophy, and identity. And not just with Jews. There are quite a few Buddhists who practice it as a philosophy but no a religion, and countless other examples.

There's a guy on YouTube (Esoterica channel) who is a post-theist Jew who (occasionally) talks about this. He observes Jewish traditions and so forth, but he doesn't think God is real, etc. Fascinating channel BTW.

Anyway, I understand your confusion and I hope this doesn't sound condescending, I don't mean to be. I think you're overthinking it a little bit. I was in the same place years ago.

Hopefully a Jewish person answers you and explains it better than I did.

To give a super silly and reductive example: imagine you belong to a Star Wars fan club that you LOVE being a part of. Some of the members think the Force is real but you do not.

Sorry, my reading comprehension took a little vacation there!

Some cities have gaming stores with active groups and tournaments and learn-to-play events. Public libraries often have a calendar of community events. Restaurants sometimes have them, too. Community theater. Bridge clubs. Churches often have secular events like concerts, games, fairs, book clubs, etc. Maker spaces. Community college adult education. Hobby classes like woodworking and pottery.

Project 2025. They exposed their plan and now thry will implement it, and nithing can stop them.

A lot of folks on lemmy.world complain about how many posts are about the US and/or politics. I understand it can be tedious. But there are hundreds of lemmy instances to choose from, and some of those are not federated with lemmy.world, and some of the clients let you block instances you don't like. Get out there and explore and try things.

I wonder how the Joe Rogan bros who voted for this guy will like it when Project 2025 makes porn illegal. I bet 99% of the dipshits don't even know that is a thing.

I don't blame anyone for leaving. The country is lost. It will make me very sad to see the number of good people go down, but also happy that they escaped the hellscape that is coming.

The opposite of what I do. 😃