From 8d4db49d7d3c1180da281ea34eb9a10e3d24553f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nathan Upchurch Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2026 11:46:46 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Content --- .../Now Burning_2026-09-02_10:54.md | 7 ++++ .../Now Burning_2026-09-04_12:36.md | 7 ++++ content/now/now_2026-09-06.md | 36 +++++++++++++++++++ content/status/Status_2026-09-12_13:49.md | 5 +++ content/status/Status_2026-09-12_15:45.md | 5 +++ 5 files changed, 60 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-02_10:54.md create mode 100644 content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-04_12:36.md create mode 100644 content/now/now_2026-09-06.md create mode 100644 content/status/Status_2026-09-12_13:49.md create mode 100644 content/status/Status_2026-09-12_15:45.md diff --git a/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-02_10:54.md b/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-02_10:54.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36ac52e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-02_10:54.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +--- +title: Mystery of the Goose Pear +manufacturer: Kyara Zen +date: 2026-09-02 10:52:47 +time: 10:52 AM +--- + diff --git a/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-04_12:36.md b/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-04_12:36.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7aa4719 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/now-burning/Now Burning_2026-09-04_12:36.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +--- +title: Shirakawa - White River +manufacturer: Shoyeido +date: 2026-09-04 12:36:36 +time: 12:36 PM +--- + diff --git a/content/now/now_2026-09-06.md b/content/now/now_2026-09-06.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49469e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/now/now_2026-09-06.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: Capitalism Forced Me to Move House +description: "This peasant has moved along." +synopsis: "This peasant has moved along." +date: 2026-09-06 +imageURL: /img/The_revolt_of_peasants_from_Haghpat_copy.webp +imageAlt: "A painting by Eduard Isabekyan: The revolt of peasants from Haghpat in 1903." +--- +:::info +This post is another that I accidentally published before I had time to properly review and revise. I forgot to mark it as a draft. I meant to tone it down a little, but here we are. So, sod it, I guess? +::: + +As I [wrote about before](/now/now_2025_11_28/), a person chose to use her economic power and privilege to displace six people from their homes; as a result, I was forced to move. I'm fine, but I would like to take a minute to consider freedom, a virtue American politicians love to pretend to care about, and what that word means: freedom for who? Freedom to do what? + +Since my parents chose to move my siblings and I from a lovely little town in the Scottish Borders to a tiny sulfur-scented cesspit in west Texas, I've heard over and over again "I bet you're glad to live in a free country now!"[^1] As I looked at the desert around me, dangerous and nigh-impossible to traverse without a car, breathed in [the fragrance of rotten eggs](https://www.theexamination.org/articles/oil-companies-leak-toxic-gas-across-texas-making-local-residents-sick) from the drilling for oil, saw school-mates wearing the same hole-riddled shirts day after day, and reflected on how reluctant my parents were to take me to the dentist or the doctor lately, it was all I could do to avoid spraining a muscle as my eyes rolled violently into the back of my head. + +The Declaration of Independence famously states that all men are endowed with certain unalienable rights, including those to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But how can we be said to have the right to life when its necessities are locked behind a paywall? How is it that we have the right to liberty when our employers dictate who will enjoy the benefit of the profits derived from our labor, or when a landlord can remove the roof from above our heads at any time? How do we have the right to pursue happiness if the vast majority of our waking hours are spent pursuing the means to stay alive? The facts are these: if we do not have the right to water, food, clothing, housing, a clean environment, medical care, and everything else necessary to live to the furthest reaches of our natural lifespan, we do not functionally have the right to life. If we do not have the right to life, liberty is meaningless, an uncaring jungle, and the pursuit of happiness is all but impossible. + +You are not free to enjoy stable housing, because your landlord is free to remove your access to your home at any time. You are not free to pursue happiness, because capitalists are free to lay claim to all of the necessities of life and withhold them from you unless you spend most of your life in servitude to them. You are not free to walk down the street unaccosted, because the right of a police officer to extend their arm does not end where your nose begins. There's plenty of freedom about for the wealthy and the occupying army who serve and protect them, but where is the freedom for everyday working people? It seems that we're free to work or starve, and that's about it. Oh, and we can say aloud whatever bigoted opinions we like without legal consequences.[^2] + +Capitalism has had its chance. When unfettered by regulation, it [sent victorian five-year-olds to be mangled by machines during twelve to fourteen hour shifts in textile factories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_the_British_Industrial_Revolution). When tempered by government as a result of over a century of workers *literally [fighting and dying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike)* for the most meager protections, it continues to churn out poverty, homelessness, and [preventable deaths](https://capitalismkills.info/) [by](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/communists-capitalism-stalinism-economic-model) [the million](https://invisiblepeople.tv/capitalism-kills-nearly-1-million-americans-per-year/) as [a matter](https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-land-of-the-dying-alarming-study-shows-u-s-killing-its-own-population) of [policy](https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/18/life-under-capitalism-early-deaths-a-silver-lining-for-corporations/). Existence is not success. If an economic system is incapable of ensuring that all people are granted the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is simply not fit for purpose. We've tried letting it run loose. We've tried regulating it. We've tried mixing in a little socialism in the form of social welfare programs. It keeps ruining lives all the same. Capitalism is a failed experiment. + +The wealthy would like us to believe that the alternatives to an economic system that benefits them at the expense of the rest of us inevitably results in the Pol Pots of the world. They conveniently forget to mention that there are over a hundred years of communist political theory written with the explicit goal of [avoiding the natural consequences of allowing power to concentrate in the hands of a few fallible humans](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-are-we-good-enough). When people recount the crimes of communist regimes, they somehow forget to mention the communists that were critiquing, organizing against, and being killed by these regimes as it happened. + +I recognize that to many people, some of the points I'm making will sound like lunacy, but I would like those people to consider that A. there are a great number of very intelligent people who favor economic systems other than capitalism and it might at least be worth trying to understand why that is, and B. in a capitalist world, it is in the interest of every major power, institution, and decision maker that you stay as ignorant as possible regarding alternative theories of economy and governance, and this is reflected in the news, education, and entertainment you consume every day. + +With all that said, I have moved lol. Unpacking everything is going to take time, and as I no longer have access to a lovely large office to work and make incense in, we're going to have to be somewhat creative with how we configure this place. I quite like the street I'm on, and the neighborhood seems nice. It's also a benefit that there is not a cancer center for dogs across the street—that sure makes for some depressing scenes when you're sitting on the porch. I'm going to miss walking to the river to feed the ducks frozen peas and smell the locust blossoms, though. I missed my last chance to do that and I was so sad I wrote a haiku about it: + +> Inside cool houses
+No tall locust trees blossom
+How I wish I'd left + +I'm going to have to be intentional about visiting the river when the locust trees are in bloom. In the meantime, I have a new neighborhood to explore and a new home to make. And the person who chose to upend six lives for her own benefit is going to have to contend with what is now a very, very uncomfortable place to live as all of its charm and our years of work to make it liveable have moved out alongside us. + +[^1]: The stereotype is true. There really are Americans who believe that anyone who does not live in the U.S.A. is at risk of arrest at any moment for thought-crime. +[^2]: Criticize capitalism, however, and you are branded an extremist and put on a list. How sweet does freedom taste! diff --git a/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_13:49.md b/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_13:49.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0daff1 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_13:49.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +--- +date: 2026-09-12 13:48:54 +emoji: 💰 +comment: Guy creates a fake classified program in the CIA and uses it to hide $40M worth of gold bars in his basement—work expenses, he says. [You can't help but respect the initiative](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/11/cia-officer-gold-bars-tentative-plea-deal). +--- diff --git a/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_15:45.md b/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_15:45.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b84541 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/status/Status_2026-09-12_15:45.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +--- +date: 2026-09-12 14:44:08 +emoji: 💩 +comment: "[Good read](https://tante.cc/2026/09/07/the-function-of-llm-based-math-proofs/) on LLM mathematical “proofs.” TLDR, like most of the LLM hype, they're bunk." +---