j4k3

NP. Be well, stay safe.

::: spoiler I got spayed by the stuff once while riding on a bike trail. It was a mentally off homeless person that was looking for conflict with any perceived enemy and I guess I fit the bill in a club kit on a nice looking road bike. I mean, no one can tell that the bike is a crashed and salvaged demo bike I was given as a perk of working in a bike shop for peanut shells and promises or that I'm just doing a quite miserable physical therapy routine and spend most of my day lying in a bed.

Anyways, I don't know what the state of the pepper spay was, like how old or brand, etc. There's no doubt that it was tossed by someone that this person managed to find.

While I am somewhat limited on a bike and certainly not in race shape anymore, I was an amateur racer in the past. I've ridden most days since 2009. The longest stretch I've ever done without riding is 8 weeks due to the crash that broke my neck, back, and totaled 2 SUV's. I still ride quite hard and can hold 20+ MPH and higher. I generally push right up against subanaerobic levels when I ride. This was the state I was in when I was sprayed right in the face at close range of less than 3 feet. I was traveling at 15-20 MPH at the time.

I could tell something was not right, but I had no idea exactly what I had been sprayed with. My sunglasses prevented direct eye exposure. I was soaking with sweat and it was all around my glasses. I immediately stopped hard and was around 20 feet away from the guy that was just standing there smiling and staring. I was in hard cycling shoes and Shimano road cleats, so I'm obviously not in shape to chase anyone down or fight with those on. However, upon stopping, it became clear to both of us that there was no immediate effect, and I might just have the option to beat the hell out of this punk. The dude panicked and darted into the cover of an overgrown riverbank.

From there I still rode about a half mile to a police station. By the time I got there, the effects started getting bad enough for me to begin to have trouble seeing and breathing at full lung capacity. It was annoying and a very irritating nuisance. However, I am conditioned for pain tolerance both naturally, (racing as a roadie is all about masochistic pain), and chronic spinal issues for over a decade. I will say, that pepper spray, which it clearly was after it took effect, barely phased me. I had to stop and try to wipe and rinse most of it off my face. I couldn't get it off my jersey, and that was irritating over my skin. I couldn't wash all of it off of my face either. It was getting in my eyes from sweat. I spent about 30 minutes stopped washing and wiping the crap off as best I could. Still, I soft pedaled around 8 miles back home from there. I could have easily and quickly gotten a ride home if I had called, but I wear my "it could be worse" worst days as a badge of honor.

My real point is that, if anyone pepper sprayed me personally, and if the effects were anything like in this instance, it would do little to stop me.

I spent awhile working in heavy industry with some of the most petty racist and stupid men I've ever put up with; exactly the type of person that is very dangerous to the LGBTQ community. I'm not particularly handsome but in that group I'm the pretty boy, but accepted mostly by force because I'm physically a large commanding build of a guy. My pain tolerance and toughness pale in comparison to that group. Working around those guys in my early twenties had a big impact on my tough character, but I'm only cosplaying next to some of the stuff I've seen. There are a few guys in that group that a couple of bullets are unlikely to stop unless they clip some vital wiring – of which there is very little.

I hate the idea of telling anyone to get a gun or have a last stand mentality for some sense of security. I hate telling someone that feels insecure to acquire something that is equally dangerous to themselves, (projecting my own psychology and chronic situation – not presuming, accusing, or insinuating). I just mentally abstract to the thought of the Gestapo taking people away in Nazi Germany. I'd rather die in a gun fight than get herded into a chamber. In the present, I don't think it will come to that, especially here in California, but I want to go on my terms under such a circumstance. No one has a right to take your life or judge anyone else. I believe in the Hippocratic oath's "First, do no harm" and by extension, 'live and let live'. Anyone violating this unalienable right deserves what they get, even at the hands of a guerilla insurgency of one.

Anyways, I would be very careful about choosing pepper spray and relying upon it. I'm sure there is variance in quality and chemistry. Still I would be very very aware of only using it in a situation where the primary issue is their pursuit of me after fleeing. In this limited capacity, I can see pepper spray as truly effective. I would not be able to chase someone at full tilt for very long after being sprayed. I would have been able to chase for 5-10 minutes before I was completely unable in my one instance of experience. If they were within a short distance or arms reach when I got sprayed, all bets are off. It then becomes rage then rage inducing spray. I'm not trying to scare or make things worse. Hopefully someone that has experienced it directly in an outdoor blind situation where I did not expect pepper spray or even know that it was pepper spray, is a helpful perspective. I can describe almost any situation like this in extensive detail and try to give grounding context as much as I can. Hopefully this gives a useful perspective. That is my reason for all the bla bla bla, plus I just care. Stay safe, seriously.

Get a gun, learn to shoot. It is a matter of controlling your nerves and breathing. Squeeze, don't pull the trigger. With a rifle, pace your controlled breathing and fire on the repeating high points of your breath. Take out all the Nazis you can if they come knocking.

Yes

WiFi is a standard protocol. Russians are also clever with electronics. Gaining favor with the new guys is as easy as giving them an old phone. WiFi still works.

I don't think most people fighting for Russia are super indoctrinated on the Russian side; opportunistic, morally corrupt, maybe, but not super jaded. Even if you're fighting in dubious circumstances, the level of NK dystopian cult insanity is next level crazy. I can't picture anyone that is around those guys being totally passive about the extent of bowdlerization and disinformation present in NK. Like you've got a bigger humanitarian obligation to show those kids that they are living in The Hunger Games IRL.

IRL social network is a major factor.

People are a product of their environment and opportunities. Genetics have nothing to do with hierarchy and display. Wealth is the dumbest and most primitive form of display that fundamentally harms and kills millions of people, enabling humans with the least ethics to peacock around. This is the behavior of subsentient unevolved imbeciles, like if publishing a scientific paper involved a gladiator death match fight with and rival publishing author. Wealth as hierarchical display is barbaric stupidity. If any alien civilization were to exist in some childish fantasy universe and somehow find us in time and space, wealth hierarchy would be seen as a primary reason why humans are if no regard as nothing more than primitive farm animals or parasites as they are unable to transcend to full sentient behavior as a species capable of acting in the best interest of all. Humans are nothing more that sentient cosplay that constantly devolve into sadistic murder orgies of war over meaningless distinction and sadistic torment over the fundamental needs of other humans at every level from relationships to neighborhood, community, region, continent, and world.

The answer is applied game theory in the present. Doing right for everyone, and systematically dismantling systems of exploitation.

Wealth hierarchy will end in a violent and tumultuous way within the next century once the first successful resource acquisition of a M-type astroid in near Earth orbit is achieved. Japan is leading that effort in the present. There is more resource wealth in a single M-type astroid than all of the Earth based resources accessed in the Holocene. That will make wealth as it is now totally irrelevant. The future is in space after we make that transition. At that point, the biggest limitation is cyclical elemental balance and heat budget. The primitive concept of wealth becomes nonsensical and totally irrelevant. Deep gravity wells and planetary differentiation due to gravitational separation are the real creators of human scarcity.

Wealth only buys connections and opportunities. It has nothing to do with merit. Multi generation wealth is a massive hindrance to humanity as it removes any connection between merit and achievement and acts as a barrier to humans of real merit. This is why you are fundamentally only a product of your environment and opportunities. Promoting true merit is healthy for humanity, however anyone that is born into wealth has proven nothing and is a destructive obstacle of progress and achievements. These are the indications of corruption exploitation and a failed system when such individuals lead. Intelligence is not genetic. You do not know of the great things Einstein's parents or children discovered. No community produces better. No gene pool is superior. We are a reflection of the opportunities we have. Most people have very few if any opportunities in life. The rich can fail countless times and still try again and again. This is meaningless and harmful as it concentrates power and opportunity amongst the incompetent and incapable.

You know that nature programs saying "complex social hierarchy?" It is part of that. Everything we do is part of it. There are multiple forms of hierarchical display. Our primary form is the insane use of the means for fundamental survival, aka wealth. This is a very primitive and barbaric form of display. Academia and visual media arts use reputation as a form of hierarchy; sports use meritorious achievement. We are only animals determining class and rank. No one living can opt out because ostracization is still a class and rank, as is simple survival.

Writing about a very hard science fiction future pushed me into this space. Particularly, what are the implications of post scarcity if one completely discounts the argument that, 'it is an idealist utopian fantasy,' and tries to address the real complexity of humanity.

Not chain; it's knit cos

I do not care about dox. I have nothing to hide, like a need for anonymity. I only care about corporate targeted manipulation focusing on my immediate interactions like page dwell time and targeted suggested posts, studies, and products used to manipulate me with politics and advertising

Who needs a blow?

You underestimate the power of the antivax covid cult wing of WoP. They can't taste after full covid, therefore they can't smell... pitchfork hillbillies prevail to war on women and minorities as the true neo Nazis.