free2b u&mi
October 7, 2024 5:24 AM Subscribe
this is your free thread: what does freedom mean to you? please feel free to write about anything/rage against the machine
not raging against the machine? this is an 'ai overview' description:
the most recent free thread
not raging against the machine? this is an 'ai overview' description:
Feedom [sic] may refer to a catalog management platform, a community group in Detroit, or a province in Buenos Aires.other musicians have titled 'freedom', including Pharrell Williams, Beyoncé George Michael, & there is, of course, the title song
the most recent free thread
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
posted by kinnakeet at 5:33 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
posted by kinnakeet at 5:33 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
What's better than a free thread? Yep, you got it - 2 free threads!!!
Brilliantissimo!!!!
posted by dutchrick at 5:43 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
Brilliantissimo!!!!
posted by dutchrick at 5:43 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
Freedom to move around the world - which includes
a) freedom from harrassment for being a woman, fat, and a powerwheelchair user in public;
b) accessible footpaths, accessible curb cuts, accessible building entrances, etc.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:17 AM on October 7 [9 favorites]
a) freedom from harrassment for being a woman, fat, and a powerwheelchair user in public;
b) accessible footpaths, accessible curb cuts, accessible building entrances, etc.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:17 AM on October 7 [9 favorites]
Freedom also means being able to move around in safety - if someone else chooses not to get vaccinated against COVID; or to not wear an N95 face mask in crowded situations indoors; or to go out in public when they are contagious with COVID
then everyone who is chronically ill or Disabled (or who lives with someone else who is) is having their freedom of movement stolen by the selfish/inconsiderate person.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:19 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
then everyone who is chronically ill or Disabled (or who lives with someone else who is) is having their freedom of movement stolen by the selfish/inconsiderate person.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:19 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
Freedom also means the right of consenting adults to express their sexuality without harassment -
whether that be lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, polyamorous, or BDSM -
as long as everyone involved is an adult and is sober/sane enough to give enthusiastic consent (and there is no coercion of any kind)
no one else should be harassing adults for what they do with other adults behind closed doors.
(and no one should be discriminating against those adults for eg jobs, housing, healthcare because of their sexuality.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:23 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
whether that be lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, polyamorous, or BDSM -
as long as everyone involved is an adult and is sober/sane enough to give enthusiastic consent (and there is no coercion of any kind)
no one else should be harassing adults for what they do with other adults behind closed doors.
(and no one should be discriminating against those adults for eg jobs, housing, healthcare because of their sexuality.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:23 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
I don't know how this falls under freedom exactly, but :
Yesterday my 75 year old mother, who'd left Asheville early this week after sustaining damage and going three days of living without water, power and cell service was stocking up on water and supplies to take home at a supermarket here in Chapel Hill. When the cashier found out where she was from, he immediately started inundating her with questions about FEMA malfeasance, missing bodies, plots to steal land, etc--all the right wing talking points--and when she tried to gently correct him, he accused her of being a crisis actor and yelled at her about lying to the American people until she left the store in tears.
Today, I'm mired in paperwork trying to figure out whether I can recommend any business disaster relief programs to my clients (many of whom are tourism based in WNC) or if any apply to us because most of them are tourism based in WNC and trying to see if there is anything I can do to help coworkers/employees from 200 miles down the road. My sister, brother in law and nephew are still in an airbnb here because they don't have water and there are no preschools/childcare operational and at least they can work remote.
I'm feeling frazzled at all ends and every single time I look at a fucking Helene photostream, I see one more piece of my personal history destroyed and I try to hide somewhere to fall apart because it doesn't do anyone else any good for sure and what the hell is wrong with me I don't even live there anymore and my family is so, so very fortunate to have escaped with minimal damage and no lives lost when so many other people I know and love are suffering from such catastropic loss.
On the plus, because I'm looking for all the plusses, my cats are the best, it's gorgeous outside, people are doing wonderful, courageous, generous things to help, and I just ate an exceptional bown of oatmeal with hot apples and blueberries.
posted by thivaia at 6:44 AM on October 7 [18 favorites]
Yesterday my 75 year old mother, who'd left Asheville early this week after sustaining damage and going three days of living without water, power and cell service was stocking up on water and supplies to take home at a supermarket here in Chapel Hill. When the cashier found out where she was from, he immediately started inundating her with questions about FEMA malfeasance, missing bodies, plots to steal land, etc--all the right wing talking points--and when she tried to gently correct him, he accused her of being a crisis actor and yelled at her about lying to the American people until she left the store in tears.
Today, I'm mired in paperwork trying to figure out whether I can recommend any business disaster relief programs to my clients (many of whom are tourism based in WNC) or if any apply to us because most of them are tourism based in WNC and trying to see if there is anything I can do to help coworkers/employees from 200 miles down the road. My sister, brother in law and nephew are still in an airbnb here because they don't have water and there are no preschools/childcare operational and at least they can work remote.
I'm feeling frazzled at all ends and every single time I look at a fucking Helene photostream, I see one more piece of my personal history destroyed and I try to hide somewhere to fall apart because it doesn't do anyone else any good for sure and what the hell is wrong with me I don't even live there anymore and my family is so, so very fortunate to have escaped with minimal damage and no lives lost when so many other people I know and love are suffering from such catastropic loss.
On the plus, because I'm looking for all the plusses, my cats are the best, it's gorgeous outside, people are doing wonderful, courageous, generous things to help, and I just ate an exceptional bown of oatmeal with hot apples and blueberries.
posted by thivaia at 6:44 AM on October 7 [18 favorites]
I live in Georgia (USA Georgia, that is) and I just fucking want summer to end. I want the freedom to wear something other than a Tshirt and shorts without being soaked in sweat. I want to think "oh goodness, it's chilly, I should put on a hoodie". I want us all to be free from the fossil fuel mafia.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:46 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:46 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
On topic: there are a lot of freedom-themed songs out there, but this is the only one that gets stuck in my head at 2am.
posted by thivaia at 6:47 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 6:47 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
I like having two free threads!
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:49 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:49 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
freedom means not having to go to that damned job in the morning
posted by pyramid termite at 6:52 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
posted by pyramid termite at 6:52 AM on October 7 [7 favorites]
i've been playing baldur's gate 3 again (fourth run) and i always end up playing a githyanki. i have loved githyanki since i first encountered them in the fiend folio in the 80s (a lot of you might know that we have the meef's own cstross to thank for their inclusion in d&d) and i can't tell you what it's done for my inner child to finally get to play as one decades later. the love for them is still as strong as it was back then, and it had me wondering why, exactly, i like them so much
i did not have happy childhood. it was abusive, it was lonely, and it was frightening. but here were these incredible people, in the worst of possible circumstances, who managed to free themselves and beat back their oppressors to the point where they created a flourishing civilisation of their own; one of beauty, and courage, and a fierceness for life
for a child in my circumstances, that was the ultimate aspiration to me. my life has much improved since then, and the post-revolution githyanki have a complicated history, but they still resonate with me. not just for my own struggles, but also as i look at people struggling just to stay alive against incredible brutality. i want them to win. i want us all to make it
"none of us are free until all of us are free", as the saying goes, and those words are a lot on my mind today especially
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:53 AM on October 7 [9 favorites]
i did not have happy childhood. it was abusive, it was lonely, and it was frightening. but here were these incredible people, in the worst of possible circumstances, who managed to free themselves and beat back their oppressors to the point where they created a flourishing civilisation of their own; one of beauty, and courage, and a fierceness for life
for a child in my circumstances, that was the ultimate aspiration to me. my life has much improved since then, and the post-revolution githyanki have a complicated history, but they still resonate with me. not just for my own struggles, but also as i look at people struggling just to stay alive against incredible brutality. i want them to win. i want us all to make it
"none of us are free until all of us are free", as the saying goes, and those words are a lot on my mind today especially
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:53 AM on October 7 [9 favorites]
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" - Kris Kristofferson
The truth of this has always rung true deep inside for me.
posted by briank at 7:11 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
The truth of this has always rung true deep inside for me.
posted by briank at 7:11 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
I have a free cat who has moved into my garden and is making me sad. I don't like him living out in the wet weather. I have provided him with a tent, which he uses. I have put him on a found pets site, with no response, and am working up to leafleting the neighbours. He is also making my own cat sad, or I would be investigating inviting him in.
posted by paduasoy at 7:30 AM on October 7 [4 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 7:30 AM on October 7 [4 favorites]
I don't believe in freedom, really? We're all chained to something and it's usually jobs.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:56 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:56 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
Freedom is the absence of craving.
posted by waving at 8:54 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
posted by waving at 8:54 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
Freedom to me means, among other things:
- Freedom from hunger & thirst, exposure to the elements, and other survival basics, so that I can make meaningful choices in life.
- Freedom to spend my time and effort on the things I think are important (aka the freedom from being forced to work for someone in order to be able to afford the basics)
- Freedom to come together with my community to make choices affecting our collective needs and circumstances (and not to have those choices imposed on us by others)
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 8:55 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
- Freedom from hunger & thirst, exposure to the elements, and other survival basics, so that I can make meaningful choices in life.
- Freedom to spend my time and effort on the things I think are important (aka the freedom from being forced to work for someone in order to be able to afford the basics)
- Freedom to come together with my community to make choices affecting our collective needs and circumstances (and not to have those choices imposed on us by others)
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 8:55 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I don't believe in freedom, really?
you're free to do so :)
briank, i hadn't realized Kris Kristofferson wrote the song [wiki] i'd known most through Janis Joplin, thank you! listening to this again today, a verse i hadn't thought about before resonated: “from the Kentucky coal mines to the California Sun” as a path to just transition in energy generation
posted by HearHere at 9:17 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
you're free to do so :)
briank, i hadn't realized Kris Kristofferson wrote the song [wiki] i'd known most through Janis Joplin, thank you! listening to this again today, a verse i hadn't thought about before resonated: “from the Kentucky coal mines to the California Sun” as a path to just transition in energy generation
posted by HearHere at 9:17 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Thivaia, I'm so sorry that happened to your mom. We live in such dark times.
I did get to see some raging against the machine that helped restore some of my faith in humanity. Friday afternoon a driver on Macallister knocked a cyclist over, then tried to drive around him and leave. One of the Urban Alchemy staffers saw this, jumped in front of the car with his arms spread out and yelled at the driver to stop, and about a half dozen of his colleagues surrounded the car. They ended up having to get out of the way, but it slowed the car down long enough for a passing SFPD car to nab the driver. So good on Urban Alchemy, especially when they're outside all day in the middle of a heatwave.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:34 AM on October 7 [6 favorites]
I did get to see some raging against the machine that helped restore some of my faith in humanity. Friday afternoon a driver on Macallister knocked a cyclist over, then tried to drive around him and leave. One of the Urban Alchemy staffers saw this, jumped in front of the car with his arms spread out and yelled at the driver to stop, and about a half dozen of his colleagues surrounded the car. They ended up having to get out of the way, but it slowed the car down long enough for a passing SFPD car to nab the driver. So good on Urban Alchemy, especially when they're outside all day in the middle of a heatwave.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:34 AM on October 7 [6 favorites]
whoa thivaia I too am sorry for you mom, that's just awful.
I never lived in NC but I did spend some time there as a child. (right in the Ashville area). it's such a pretty place, but the culture is not as great as it could be :(
posted by supermedusa at 9:42 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I never lived in NC but I did spend some time there as a child. (right in the Ashville area). it's such a pretty place, but the culture is not as great as it could be :(
posted by supermedusa at 9:42 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]
We are all in some sort of chains. We'll be free when we die.
posted by Czjewel at 9:50 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 9:50 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
"Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves.[…] it is the world
That brings the iron."
posted by clew at 10:05 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
That brings the iron."
posted by clew at 10:05 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
Thank you, everyone, for making this free thread. I look forward to the free threads every week, and I enjoy reading about what everyone is thinking about and working on.
As always, I send all my best wishes to everyone who is searching, struggling, or working through dark times.
Sadly, the father of one of my friends passed away on 5 October. My friend and his sibling are going to put together a Celebration of Life ceremony at some later date to be determined, but we are getting together on Wednesday for lunch. He lives on the other side of the continent, so I can't imagine the logistics that he has to go through to come here. I have feelings around seeing him again because I have known him since we were in kindergarten but we have become more distant in the last few years. Yeah, on the one hand he has a demanding career that does not leave him much spare time for a social life, but on the other hand, I feel like I have not been a very good friend to him, and I sense he may be keeping his distance. I will see how things go when we meet again this week.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:29 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
As always, I send all my best wishes to everyone who is searching, struggling, or working through dark times.
Sadly, the father of one of my friends passed away on 5 October. My friend and his sibling are going to put together a Celebration of Life ceremony at some later date to be determined, but we are getting together on Wednesday for lunch. He lives on the other side of the continent, so I can't imagine the logistics that he has to go through to come here. I have feelings around seeing him again because I have known him since we were in kindergarten but we have become more distant in the last few years. Yeah, on the one hand he has a demanding career that does not leave him much spare time for a social life, but on the other hand, I feel like I have not been a very good friend to him, and I sense he may be keeping his distance. I will see how things go when we meet again this week.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:29 AM on October 7 [3 favorites]
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
I've read 1984 numerous times (and will again, most likely) and every time I ponder Orwell's choice of "granted" here. Why not "seized" or "demanded"? But then who am I to criticize? I just wish he hadn't been quite so prescient.
posted by scratch at 10:54 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
I've read 1984 numerous times (and will again, most likely) and every time I ponder Orwell's choice of "granted" here. Why not "seized" or "demanded"? But then who am I to criticize? I just wish he hadn't been quite so prescient.
posted by scratch at 10:54 AM on October 7 [2 favorites]
Wyndham Hill/Soul of the Machine/ Colin Chin.
Ayers Rock
posted by clavdivs at 1:01 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Ayers Rock
posted by clavdivs at 1:01 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I signed up for chiefthe's letter writing project and a lovely handwritten letter appeared in my mailbox recently. As September had been a turd-filled dumpster fire for me (and a lot of my friends, alas) it was such a nice thing to happen that I literally burst into tears at the letter box. I am in the process of attempting to write back and I'd just like to say that I'd finish it faster if the universe would stop fucking me over for five minutes. Please!
In slightly happier news (and with some inspiration from Phunniemee) I managed to find the three bags of clothing I was going to donate 8 months ago, added another five bags to the mess, and actually put it into the donation bin! And I started tackling my late mother's wardrobe too. Progress! Grim, but progress nonetheless.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:15 PM on October 7 [3 favorites]
In slightly happier news (and with some inspiration from Phunniemee) I managed to find the three bags of clothing I was going to donate 8 months ago, added another five bags to the mess, and actually put it into the donation bin! And I started tackling my late mother's wardrobe too. Progress! Grim, but progress nonetheless.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:15 PM on October 7 [3 favorites]
I'm feeling frazzled at all ends and every single time I look at a fucking Helene photostream, I see one more piece of my personal history destroyed and I try to hide somewhere to fall apart because it doesn't do anyone else any good for sure and what the hell is wrong with me I don't even live there anymore and my family is so, so very fortunate to have escaped with minimal damage and no lives lost when so many other people I know and love are suffering from such catastropic loss.
Oh thivaia I am so so sorry and I know exactly, but exactly, what you mean. My whole immediate family is here in Oregon now and we are all just. . doing this. Falling apart in pieces at every photograph and harrowing video and I'm just so furious that there are people out there making it worse when it is already just about as bad as it could be. I am so sorry for your mom and I think you should complain to the supermarket. Or go punch the clerk or both, maybe.
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:32 PM on October 7 [2 favorites]
Oh thivaia I am so so sorry and I know exactly, but exactly, what you mean. My whole immediate family is here in Oregon now and we are all just. . doing this. Falling apart in pieces at every photograph and harrowing video and I'm just so furious that there are people out there making it worse when it is already just about as bad as it could be. I am so sorry for your mom and I think you should complain to the supermarket. Or go punch the clerk or both, maybe.
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:32 PM on October 7 [2 favorites]
Freedom means I can safely walk outside right now, look up at a clear blue sky, and view the street in front of my house, dry and empty of debris. Folks in the Southeast don't have it so easy, I've heard.
posted by SPrintF at 3:53 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 3:53 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Freedom would be being able to get out of my own way. Freedom would be executive functioning and internal automation.
posted by ApathyGirl at 5:14 PM on October 7 [3 favorites]
posted by ApathyGirl at 5:14 PM on October 7 [3 favorites]
Well that's a first. Metafilter had now managed to invade my dreams. Don't shame people who are stuck on cable Internet, folks.
Brains are weird.
posted by wierdo at 4:16 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
Brains are weird.
posted by wierdo at 4:16 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
I like the line in Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning' when he recalls his reluctance to dash out of the concentration camp, as the other prisoners were doing and reclaim his freedom at the first possible moment after 'liberation' - a word that cannot have sat easily with a man unwilling to see his freedom as being in the gift of another.
Mandela was the same. He reports in his biography how if the guards on Robben Island demanded the prisoners leave their beds at 5 a.m. they must get up at 4 a.m. undemanded and start their day under their own volition in some essential if limited sense. His practical genius for recreating a persuasive facsimile of agency, of the prisoners' capacity to act freely in prison, is one of the most impressive features of the biography.
Both are powerful demonstrations that freedom is very much about what I choose to make of my circumstances.
It would be madness to suggest that circumstances don't matter (food and drink anyone, not being beaten daily anyone? ) of course they do. Shalamov in Kolyma Tales, his staggering account of life in the Gulag, asserts that there are circumstances in which any kind of freedom is impossible. He writes, "Each time they brought in the soup... it made us all want to cry. We were ready to cry for fear that the soup would be thin. And when a miracle occurred and the soup was thick we couldn’t believe it and ate it as slowly as possible. But even with thick soup in a warm stomach there remained a sucking pain; we’d been hungry for too long. All human emotions—love, friendship, envy, concern for one's fellow man, compassion, longing for fame, honesty—had left us with the flesh that had melted from our bodies...."
And yet his own life, his own journey thru the appalling bestial Gulag argues otherwise, he fights, he chooses to be kind, he recognises kindness in others, he is appalled by the sexual depravity of prisoners and guards, he makes choices. His very struggle to exist speaks of agency and agency is a huge chunk of freedom.
Please heaven and anyone else listening that there is always something I can do, that it will always be down to me to make sense of what is happening to me, even if it is in every other respect beyond my control. Then I will be free.
posted by dutchrick at 5:23 AM on October 8
Mandela was the same. He reports in his biography how if the guards on Robben Island demanded the prisoners leave their beds at 5 a.m. they must get up at 4 a.m. undemanded and start their day under their own volition in some essential if limited sense. His practical genius for recreating a persuasive facsimile of agency, of the prisoners' capacity to act freely in prison, is one of the most impressive features of the biography.
Both are powerful demonstrations that freedom is very much about what I choose to make of my circumstances.
It would be madness to suggest that circumstances don't matter (food and drink anyone, not being beaten daily anyone? ) of course they do. Shalamov in Kolyma Tales, his staggering account of life in the Gulag, asserts that there are circumstances in which any kind of freedom is impossible. He writes, "Each time they brought in the soup... it made us all want to cry. We were ready to cry for fear that the soup would be thin. And when a miracle occurred and the soup was thick we couldn’t believe it and ate it as slowly as possible. But even with thick soup in a warm stomach there remained a sucking pain; we’d been hungry for too long. All human emotions—love, friendship, envy, concern for one's fellow man, compassion, longing for fame, honesty—had left us with the flesh that had melted from our bodies...."
And yet his own life, his own journey thru the appalling bestial Gulag argues otherwise, he fights, he chooses to be kind, he recognises kindness in others, he is appalled by the sexual depravity of prisoners and guards, he makes choices. His very struggle to exist speaks of agency and agency is a huge chunk of freedom.
Please heaven and anyone else listening that there is always something I can do, that it will always be down to me to make sense of what is happening to me, even if it is in every other respect beyond my control. Then I will be free.
posted by dutchrick at 5:23 AM on October 8
I am pondering the concept of freedom today, and what it means in the context of human relationships, where there are obligations. To what extent freedom is or should be possible. To what extent selfishness is or should be.
I don’t have an answer.
posted by corb at 7:48 PM on October 8 [3 favorites]
I don’t have an answer.
posted by corb at 7:48 PM on October 8 [3 favorites]
42!
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:54 PM on October 8 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:54 PM on October 8 [1 favorite]
Freedom to me means being free to think what I want.
posted by honey badger at 9:26 PM on October 9 [1 favorite]
posted by honey badger at 9:26 PM on October 9 [1 favorite]
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posted by The River Ivel at 5:28 AM on October 7 [10 favorites]