Joshua A.C. Newman @JoshuaACNewman@dice.camp

I'm not as radical as I used to be.

I think my views are mostly the same, I'm just older now, and so they following generations are carrying flags further than I could.

It's a good thing... even when I don't fully agree/understand.

If you're planning to cross the U.S. border, it's more important than ever to know your rights. Print and take along a copy of our handy border search pocket guide: https://www.eff.org/document/eff-border-search-pocket-guide

But the measure of a life isn’t in excitement, whether we find a burning car to pull someone out of. We can all change the world with small actions, minute by minute. Buying, calling, voting — or not.

And of inestimable power: the kind word, or the harsh one.

Most of the stories we tell about triumphing over evil involve swords and guns and Chosen Ones, because diplomacy and workaday bureaucracy aren’t exciting to read about.

The dark side to this is that we know perfectly well that we are not the Chosen One, and that absolves us of striving to be great. Our job is to wait around for the special one to rise up.

But nobody’s coming, blossoms. Turns out we have to save ourselves.

A lot of fiction revolves around a Chosen One: the farm boy who is the secret king, or the one in the prophecy, the one who learns they can do magic.

On the surface this looks like a fantasy that any of us could achieve greatness.

You don’t need to be the Chosen One to save the world. And you don’t need to save the world alone — in fact, nobody can.

But YOU have to save the world. YOU.

Do what you can, from where you can, and no less than that. But that’s really all it takes, if it’s enough of us.

Hey, today is the anniversary of Blade Runner! I wrote this article a few years ago about Roy, the actual protagonist! https://glyphpress.com/talk/2016/the-question-is-not-whether-deckard-is-a-replicant-but-whether-roy-is-a-person

(Follow through for my piece about Pris!)

Remember, pals, the demand to be NICE is a tool society uses to keep mostly-women from advocating for themselves and others.

Nice is for suckers. Be brave instead.

You can't convince me this isn't the best way to browse Mastodon.

#brutaldon

More thoughts on Eclipse Phase:

- Body horror works much less well in a setting where people take regular mind backups and routinely download themselves into non-humanoid bodies.

- "Infected by a nanotech virus" is the new "driven mad by an eldrich tome". Except an infection that erases the victim's identity is less interesting than madness that twists it.