@feloneouscat I once said "The Metric is the Madness" and now feel both smart and very depressed :/

@feloneouscat I love efficiency but the problem is most people's idea of efficiency gets in the way of the RESULT.

Is it delivery of services? Time? Cost?

The Unaccountability Machine, a book I keep touting, notes that if you have one simple measure, you basically loose your mind trying to reach it.

@AskTheDevil yeah. Or more likely, remember.

And hey who better, you're THE DEVIL!

@AskTheDevil you make a great point. We're teaching people to negate being HUMAN. As a friend who worked in social media put it, we've set up a race to become the emptiest husk.

And then people go mad.

@Coctaanatis you'd think we'd learn, overall.

@redenigma @Cartephilia that seriously concerns me, among other issues.

It's weird when people act like welfare or medicare or social security are some Great Crime Against the Natural Order.

I mean I can find jokes from China 2000+ years old that include reference to welfare programs, from rice to firewood. We've been taking care of each other in various ways since forever, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

@Cartephilia I'd also add we have very vulnerable technical, economic, infrastructure, and social systems. We built a lot we don't understand and don't maintain well.

Outbreaks of violence, mass protests, monkeywrenching, etc. can have vast downstream effects, some unpredictable and amplifying.

So if things break down, we're in for surprises.

Something not discussed enough is that whatever is going on politically, it's a race against climate change affecting very delicate systems, many of which are run by complete grifting idiots.

Considering the anti-vaxx crankery about to come down the pipe, I pretty much assume I'm going to spend winter 2025 barely going anywhere and masked up when I do.

What a lot of people miss is last winter was brutal in many areas, between RSV, COVID, and flu. With less people being vaccinated and less caution, with federal signoff on stupidiy, it'll be pretty horrible in 2025.

And that's not counting if bird flu gets worse.

@AmericanPartisan The thing that amazes me is how people diss California despite all it does. And honestly, that happens to a LOT of states (yes, even red ones).

@gshevlin I thought Cascadia ended at Oregon, or are you saying just take the entire band of the east coast.

Really think the California Separatist parties are bracing for new members.

@cylon_dxd Really kinda sprinting towards it.

Among the many concerns about the incoming administration is one of responsibility.

From how to handle climate disasters, to oncoming bird flu, to the inevitable backfire of tarrits, to community pushback against deportation. These kinds of events that will require sober analysis of goals, results, and impacts.

Which of course we won't get. Internet memes and pandering slogans don't turn the power back on when the Texas grid goes under, or vanish the bodies piling up from another pandemic.

@Maude its when the community stories start going you're gonna see something happen. When one person's mom is hauled away and he tells another, and things start networking.

If we get a "network" effect it could happen VERY fast.

@Maude I think the realization will settle in within 6 months.

If you're wondering who really won in the 2024 election, I think it's China. Russia is worn down and is now a client state. America is turning on itself and about to crash it's economy.

Meanwhile China, objectionable as it may seem, looks very stable to the rest of the world.