People don't like it when you dissent from their religious beliefs. On Twitter, those beliefs were in "The Science" and experts and vaccines and anti-racism, etc. On nostr, it's libertarianism, anti-state, anti-"war", anti-government. Two sides of the same coin really, that coin making politics one's religion and the state its center point. Ideally, one should allocate only a limited amount of real estate in one's mind to politics and the state. It should not be a religion such that when someone doesn't adhere to its edicts, you call them "statist" or "racist". Truth is those for whom the state occupies the largest mindshare are the biggest statists. Just as those for whom race occupies the largest mindshare are the biggest racists. A tell is when you disagree with them, they call you names rather than think through the disagreement. My views are judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. And judge government action by its harms and benefits to you and your broader interests, not whether it fits one label or another. You would think these were uncontroversial. And they mostly are. Until they come up against someone's religion. As someone who dissented from the bio-medical compliance, race-communist, trust-the-experts religion on Twitter and took some heat for it, the dynamic could not be more obvious. The main difference being the neolibs actually had power and they would use it to try and destroy your livelihood. The libertarian nostr people have much less and they'll just try to embarrass and insult you without consequence.

Went for a run Monday, was windy and chilly. Was stiff and sore from two Padel tournaments on Saturday. Two miles slow, maybe 11 minute pace. Seems like a small thing with all the other things going on in my life, but it's not. Showing up to the track IS what's going on in my life. That slow uncomfortable run is reality itself. The encounter with it is the point. It's not a matter of discipline or self-improvement or getting in shape. Just a basic connection that pervades everything. There is no other life but the slow progression into the wind on the track surrounded by sparse trees and ugly buildings. Going again today. Will stretch for five minutes against a tree afterwards as I always do.

14-YO overslept her alarm this morning (has a basketball game), luckily I realized and woke her up, and now she’s pissed at me for waking her up!

Idea to bookmark for later: real numbers are incompressible like reality itself. Pi and e are compressible reals, ambassadors from reality to the land of reason.

Try telling someone last summer it's hitting 72, and you're gonna be happy about it.

Much of the news is not created for your consumption but for geopolitical agendas. You can still react to it if you like, but your reaction is collateral damage of sorts. You were in many cases not the target.

Lots of people get confused by labels. When evaluating NFL players, people will say, but so and so was a first-round pick when he was taken 28th, and so-and-so is a second-round pick when he was drafted 35th. There's a much bigger difference between pick 6 and pick 28 than pick 28 and pick 35. The "rounds" are just arbitrary cut-off points. Similarly people will say "Trump promised no wars" and now he's attacked Iran. "War" is like first-round pick. You can define what's happening in Iran as a "war" and sick burn all the peace promises if you like, but the difference between this "war" and a war where we spend trillions, kill millions and destabilize an entire region is a lot different than kidnapping Maduro or taking out Khameni. If this does devolve into Iraq 2.0 or worse, that'a another matter, but if it's more like Venezuela, then it's not really contradicting the platform on which he was elected. Think a lot of people are conflating the two for clicks and outrage, but it's pretty obviously stretching one label to cover two very different scenarios. This is not an opinion on whether taking out Khameni (or kidnapping Maduro) was "good," legal or desirable -- we will only know that over the medium and long haul. Only that this conflation of two very different things is lowest-common-denominator posting.

Very unlikely we will have an Iraq-style war with Iran. Makes zero sense. If Trump were to do this, he'd get destroyed in the midterms, and a democratic would win the white house in 2028 and probably prosecute him and all his friends. He and his admin know this. They know no one who elected him wants an actual war. But "Israel is controlling him!" No. If he were owned by Israel such that he'd be forced to destroy his presidency and imperil his future, he would've sat 2024 out. Assume rational actors and work backwards. Probably the Iranian regime wants to settle, but if they did, they'd have to deal with all the hardliners they empowered. They can't just agree and get away with it. Has to look like they were forced. Just like Trump probably couldn't release the Epstein files given so many of his friends and people he needs for his agenda were/are compromised so he had to outsource to Massie even if Massie isn't in on the game. I could always be wrong, but it's rarely the case that rational actors do things that make no sense. There is always a reason, and not a stupid one like "Israel owns him dude."