The Useless Tree.

There was an old and crooked oak tree by the village shrine, every branch twisted and gnarled. The tree was large enough to shade several thousand oxen and was a hundred spans around. It towered above the hilltops with its lowest branches eighty feet from the ground. More than ten of its branches were big enough to be made into boats. There were crowds of people around it, a marketplace.

Passing the old tree, Hui Tzu, a carpenter's apprentice said to Shih, the master carpenter, who without even turning his head, walked on without stopping:

“What a useless tree that is. Its trunk and branches were so crooked, so distorted and full of knots. The wood is so beautiful, but it cannot be cut up, no straight plank can be made from it. The tree serves no purpose at all.

*There it stands beside the road. No carpenter will even look at it. Even you don't look at it master.” *

Shih the master carpenter replied:

*“The tree on the mountain height is its own enemy… The cinnamon tree is edible: so it is cut down! The lacquer tree is profitable: they maim it. Cherry, apple, pear, orange, lemon, pomelo, and other fruit trees. As soon as the fruit is ripe, the trees are stripped and abused. *

Their large branches are split, and the smaller ones torn off. Their life is bitter because of their usefulness. That is why they do not live out their natural lives but are cut off in their prime. They attract the attentions of the common world. This is so for all things.

That tree is useless. A boat made from it would sink, a coffin would soon rot, a tool would split, a door would ooze sap, and a beam would have termites. It's worthless timber and is of no use. That is why it has reached such a ripe old age.

Every man knows how useful it is to be useful. No one seems to know how useful it is to be useless.

This tree has been trying for a long time to be useless. It was almost destroyed several times. Finally it useless, and this is very useful.

So for this big tree, no use? It is planted in the wasteland, in emptiness. People walk idly around it, rest under its shadow. No axe or bill prepares its end. No one will ever cut it down.

Useless? You should worry!”

that's really cool. yeah, anything involving either chemistry, manufacturing, or blacksmithing I would safely assume I'm not the expert in the room. I bet lots of people are same

weird! never seen the spelling "eyrie" but I'd probably be fine with understanding "aerie" from context. I looked it up too and apparently that's the same word but ae is NA style

so is Virgin 😜

right? I had to check myself: "am i that pretentious that I use this many words average people don't know?"and there's no good way to ask that question without sounding even more pretentious

man my OED app has been giving bullshit words of the day like "frenzy" "prestige" "vacant" and stuff ive known since i was a kid, and here on twitter you get gems like "verve" which is an actual WotD

Probably because 40 out of the 50 voters in those counties voted red.

What's your point, though? I'm not sure if you're pointing out that this is basically a population density map in order to argue something in particular? Because it seems like OP's entire point was that while the majority of Americans are not conservative, people disguise this fact by NOT using population density maps to demonstrate political spreads.

So, yeah, people live in cities. And most Americans swing left. Glad we can both read the map and agree on its message 👍

the only PVP i need is CHESS

I'm guessing the 33% vote rate is due to your intro, not your explanations?

So their data set was people attending a gender identity clinic? Looks like they were at least getting Tx

There's still time.

running from debt is very different from getting money. debt follows you, perhaps even more easily than money.

I'd move for half a mil

FOMO is death anxiety, the light that illuminates all consciousness

I know you wanna believe the world is shit, but try to remember that this probably isn't even real. Don't get lost in your social media feed. Don't take curated content as a representative sample of reality. Worst case scenario, someone crafted a story... which is a story older than our timelines themselves.

reminds me of JP Sartre: by disparaging the jews, the anti-semite instantly puts himself into a superior group without having to actually do anything.

Nationalism works the same way. "I belong to THIS socially constructed group! We do such great things!" as if they built the community from the ground up and weren't just thrown into a world with systems already in place independent of them that helped produce the things they're proud of...

Like sure community is a thing but at a certain point doesn't it get quite arbitrary what you take credit for? and doesn't that also mean we have to take credit for all the bad things too? every Palestinian would become Hamas and every American a drone pilot. those are precisely the reasons I am not patriotic and i dont find "shut up, frog" jokes funny. "just" tribalism? "just" a wee cheeky bit o fash in the mornin?

nahh I don't believe that any given person has some magic key phrase that would change their behavior instantly

I fucking wish there were though, therapy would be so much easier

ppl who punch faces are already face punchers. just dont talk to face punchers

don't beavers eat wood

I wonder if you wonder why there's so many normies getting radicalized right at the same time

Lemmy uses a Karma system too though...