This is awesome! Are these all from “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” or were there other sources for the text?

Brought to mind the song “Radio Silence” by Zella Day

If I were in your shoes, I would probably mention the change in tone/word choice to the lead on the project since you have a good relationship with them. Just mentioning that you noticed the change and aren’t sure about it doesn’t need to be combative, and I would be truly shocked if it cost you the job. Depending on your state it might even be illegal to fire you for something like that.

I personally would not take a stand or refuse to do the voiceover or anything like that. I would make it clear that I would do the voiceover using the script as it is written. I would think of it as providing feedback rather than making demands, which seems like it would be within the purview of a QA reviewer.

This way you can at the very least get more information about the situation - find out whether this was an intentional change. If so, it may be time to start making moves so you can eventually drop this company.

Have these all used the same candle or do you switch candles sometimes?

Would you ever use a candle that isn’t white?

Tariffs on Chinese goods are a good thing. And I honestly see why the next logical step is tariffs on Mexico because Chinese companies are already building in Mexico so they can assemble there and ship across the border and circumvent tarrifs.

I think China manipulates markets and damages the global economy while making consumers feel like they don’t need to value the products they buy because they are so cheap. And I don’t think we should be letting China off the hook for the Uyghur genocide/gluttony of human rights violations.

Buy local. I wish it was easier to buy American manufactured stuff.

Love this one!!

Do you feel that your current emotions impact your work a lot?

I have collapsible metal ones… I bet yours clog way less when you’re drinking a thick smoothie, mine can be terrible. Are yours dishwasher safe?

I bring up blacklisting because it is the clearest demonstration of intentionally starving people that comes to mind. Sure, Stalin wanted collectivization to go off without a hitch. Problem was, there was a hitch. So he decided it would happen anyway, starving people be damned. Imo good governments don’t intentionally starve people in order to achieve their goals.

To me your argument boils down to “the ends justify the means.”

How do you defend the “blacklisted” villages? I don’t detect any remorse in the material you have cited, just concern over making sure his policies are being properly enacted. It seems pretty clear to me that Stalin considered the loss of life in Ukraine to be worth it in order to drive his agenda forward - why else would he have allowed policies that forbid farmers themselves from eating the food from the fields they tended? Why else would he have allowed policies keeping farmers from traveling for any reason? To ensure that they produced food for the rest of the union, which would focus on industrial output. You can argue that he was right - without such rapid industrialization, they almost certainly would have lost to the Nazis imo.

Also, don’t conflate socialism with collectivism. I never said that the gains made in terms of education, life expectancy, etc. were possible without socialist policies. You can have socialism without collectivism/without stalinism. I think it’s much better that way.

*there wasn’t a country better for the working class that survived

Imo you can’t just ignore all the people who died as a result of the rapid industrialization and collectivization. And how great is your life if you have to change everything about what you say and how you act just to appease party officials?

I don’t want to ignore all the great things that happened during the Soviet era. I think you’re right about better access to education and many of these other things, but there are so many asterisks.

I argue that the same things could have been achieved without collectivization and without so much political violence. Social support programs are great, but they should be available to everyone, regardless of how much you support the prevailing political party.

And just how sure are you that Stalin would have gone back in time to prevent the Holodomor? I’m unconvinced - it quelled an inconvenient uprising.

If you look at the holodomor I think it’s hard to continue painting the Soviet Union as having uplifted the proletariat. Soviets starved their people to achieve rapid industrialization - a tradeoff that most of those who died would probably not have agreed with. IIRC most historians say that collectivization was a horrible failure and was not good for the working class.

First hand accounts of life during stalinism make it clear that people had to develop weird mannerisms to avoid making it seem like they were disloyal/anti-party; basically everyone walking on eggshells all the time.

The conversation around “tankies” reminds me heavily of “neolibs” - loosely defined in the minds of the folks discussing them. Basically a catch-all term for your own idea of what a liberal outgroup should be.

The app I use (“Boost”) made it extremely easy, it’s pretty much just as easy to use as reddit or instagram I would say - maybe even easier.

Washington was a pretty bad president if you were Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois).

Great article, but I’m surprised it didn’t end with them saying they planned to follow up with the indigenous people and use their knowledge to help fill in the gaps…

Yet another example of western science thinking we have to reinvent the wheel - the person they interviewed said that all these “new” species were already known to the locals. Obviously we just needed to ask.

Agreed. There’s a lot of stuff that reminds me of teeth in this one, maybe that’s why?

I wonder if the stars were brighter in the painting when it was new or if they come across more strongly in person or something… It would be an awful lot of effort to make such an accurate night sky and then not make it visible.

And if the comet is what the painting is celebrating, why not make that brighter too?

My partner says this almost looks like a long exposure aerial view of a city at night, like how there would be trails of headlights and brake lights.

I feel like the restricted use of color in this one really draws my eyes to the center. Nice work!!

Loving this one!!

Reading about this is making me feel sick. It’s so sad how many people’s lives have been negatively affected because of this Masliah’s dishonesty. I think people who fake research like this belong in jail.

Sadly I think low key dishonesty is even more prevalent than what this guy did - the way we dole out money encourages researchers in every field to cherry pick data so that they can keep getting funding.