I watched it for the first time only two weeks ago. It was an incredible watch.

I’m really glad I watched it, because it gave me a much more human view of Iran and its people. Satrapi is just one person, of course, so the perspective that Persepolis is only the perspective of one person (though I think that this is why it’s such a strong and compelling piece of art). However, watching it helped me to ground the grief I feel at the plight of the Iranian people in something more concrete and compassionate than a nebulous sense of geopolitical dread.

I’m trying to persuade my partner to play it with me at the moment. He seems open to it, but experiences inertia around starting a new game.

I read a fair bit of it, and I was surprised to see so many of the talking points I hear from some of the techy/sciencey people I most respect, just with a religious coat of paint. He’s clearly got some pretty clued up people advising him, and is wise enough to listen

As an add-on to this, people having the thought pattern of:

They’re saying that my friend said something racist -> Therefore they’re saying my friend is a racist ™ -> However, my friend is a good person -> Therefore they’re not a racist -> Therefore what my friend said wasn’t racist -> Therefore the people calling my friend out are the bad guys

You can substitute in words like homophobic, transphobic, ableist, classist etc. for racist — the flow goes the same. An excellent book that helped me to understand this was “racism without racists”. Reading that as a teenager helped me to more constructively respond when I have been called out for prejudiced attitudes, such as racism.

It makes me feel deeply uncomfortable to think of myself as a racist — and so I don’t. However, unlike people who default to this thought pattern that turns cognitive dissonance into indignant resistance to change, I work to accept the fact that I am absolutely capable of doing, saying or thinking racist shit — it’d be hard not to, when I’ve grown up in a systemically racist culture. But I can acknowledge that without blaming myself for it, which allows me to avoid the discomfort of considering myself a racist whilst maintaining my moral fortitude.

A phrase that’s helped me a lot is “you’re not responsible for your first thought; you are responsible for your second”. That helps me to actually interrogate where something is coming from if I catch myself having a reflexive thought that shocks or disgusts me. Unfortunately, this habit isn’t one that many people have.

Thinking about things in terms of innate essences people have (even if they’re less binary than good Vs evil) is harmful even when we’re just looking at harms to ourselves. For instance, I was a super bright kid, and “the smart one” was a core pillar of my identity. However, as I entered my teens, I was so scared of losing this that I became more concerned with appearing smart than actually being smart. It felt like something I didn’t have control over, which was terrifying. But I often say that I got a hell of a lot smarter when I let myself be dumb. That’s because when I think about what a smart person actually does that makes them smart, it’s stuff like being curious about the world, self reflecting on one’s beliefs and knowledge and being open to being corrected etc… It was a lot less pressure once I stopped thinking about things in terms of immutable, innate essences

Plastic leather also wears out so quickly. Real leather is much stronger and easier to repair/restore.

As the person highlighted (and you have expanded on), there are a lot of ethical and sustainability problems with the leather industry as it is, but I think it’d be far better to improve the problems with natural leather than to expect much from the plastic leather

That science is rational and objective.

In reality, the way that science works is much muddier than most realise. It’s full of subjectivity, and this isn’t a bug, but a feature. Intuition and tacit knowledge play a big role in basically any research (and this is why I am confident that AI can’t replace scientists). Politics are also present at every stage of the process. Science is at its least objective when scientists convince themselves that they’re being objective. We can’t escape our biases, so we need to actively acknowledge them and embrace the subjectivity of our situated perspectives.

The problem is that talking about this is a great way to piss off other scientists. I’ve been accused before of “betraying the side”, by a scientist who was aware that science has a disproportionately large epistemic platform (epistemic means pertaining to knowledge — basically just that as a result of the huge benefits of scientific advancements in the last century or so, science has been on a bit of a pedestal in terms of trusted expert knowledge in society. Criticising this is seen by a betrayal by some because of the concerning rise in psuedoscience and anti-scientific rhetoric.

However, I’m of the belief that some of what has driven the rise of psuedoscience is that the average person doesn’t like to be told “shut up and do what the smart people say”. They feel a lot of mistrust towards society (which, in many cases, is entirely reasonable, especially in the case of marginalised groups who have been heavily exploited by science and scientists),

The problem goes far beyond just science, but I think this is certainly an aspect of it. I sympathise with scientists who want to continue to have the privileged position they hold, but I don’t think that’s helpful in the long term.

What’s a shell script that you’re particularly chuffed with in terms of how much time/effort it saved you?

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The look certainly helps with the confidence though. Sometimes when I goth it up, I notice myself carrying myself in a way that would leave a younger version of me in a state of awe and terror

Yeah, the 60s would be insane. Everyone fucking because they live in a world where they are far less aware of STDs. Ignorance is bliss

You could do a version where he’s wearing shoes and is fully on the button board, chair discarded in the background and he’s basically just playing Twister with the button board

Gosh, there are so many that I am struggling to retrieve one in particular. As someone with a long history of mental health problems (including chronic suicidality) and just generally shitty life circumstances, I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be alive now if not for the countless acts of kindness that I have been the recipient of. It’s led me to develop a personal policy of extending random kindness liberally, because I know from the recipient side that what might seem like a trivial act could literally save a person’s life.

It’s led to a nice reinforcing cycle, in which I have been inspired to extend kindness to people who needed it, even when I was feeling out of my depth or anxious. I don’t know if I’ll have saved any lives, but I am confident that there are a handful of times where my actions will have left a lasting impact on a stranger. That makes me feel more connected to people, and life in general, as well as making me more open to receiving help when I need it.

Edit: I do have one instance that comes to mind, though it definitely isn’t the best fit for the question — it just came to mind because writing my previous paragraph reminded me of it due to how this one small instance has shaped me so greatly.

Now I’m writing this out, it feels silly that this affected me so much, but basically when I was in 8th grade, when I was walking out from school, a cool girl in the year above me complimented me on my bright red trench coat I was wearing, saying that the colour really suited me. Although we ran in the same circles, I didn’t know her particularly well at all, so this really took me by surprise.

Additional (slightly cringe, but in a charming way, because I was a teenager) context is that my school had a school uniform, and because I wanted to be seen wearing this nice new coat I had, I had made specific effort to stuff my much more convenient blazer into my overfull school bag so that I could be seen wearing the coat on my way out from school (it was spring, so not super cold). Even by regular teenager standards, I was super insecure and desperate for validation, and receiving such a sincere and unexpected compliment gave me such a boost that the memory is seared into my brain.

The lasting effect on me is that whilst the vast, vast majority of my clothing is black, there are a few splashes of red to be seen, because of how I internalised that compliment. And every time someone compliments me when I’m wearing something red, I think of this girl whose name I can’t even remember, and I smile.

On top of this, I have become known amongst my friends as someone who is very good at giving compliments to people on their appearance, and who gives them freely, even to strangers. I developed this habit because of how impactful this super trivial compliment was on me when I was in an especially vulnerable place. And whenever I tell someone “I love your dress, that colour really suits you” or similar, I am reminded of how we all have the power to brighten another’s day, should we choose to

Nerds on this thread may be interested in linguistic research on emoji as gesture by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.

Here’s an open-access academic paper for the mega-nerds out there

With an overview of that article written for a more general audience, in The Conversation

For those who prefer their edutainment in audio format, McCulloch and Gawne’s podcast is a fun and eclectic listen. Here’s the episode on emoji as gesture.

Further Reading

For those wanting to learn more, McCulloch’s 2019 book “Because Internet” is a delightfully fun read that I can strongly recommend. It looks at the wider picture of how the internet has changed communication, with a chapter dedicated to emoji. There’s been a lot of productive discussion (both academic and informal) in this area since then, and McCulloch’s work has been a key factor in driving that.

Also, I’ve not yet read it, but Lauren Gawne has a more recent (2025) book titled "Gesture: a slim guide " that says it’s “suitable for readers of all backgrounds”.

If you’re interested in either of these books, then you should support the authors and purchase the book(s) if you have the means to. Certainly, that’s preferable to downloading it for free from a shadow library like Anna’s Archive(Wikipedia has reliable and up to date links to this site (so you know what sites to avoid, ofc) and pointing you there means I’m not directly linking you to the naughty site.

N.b. I am a biochemist, not a linguist, and so my word-nerdery is purely of the hobbyist variety. I don’t have particular domain knowledge in this area.

Also, this comment is in part because I linked these resources to a friend not too long ago, so I had it mostly to hand.

Whilst I always drew mine with a somewhat fuller figure, as someone who has done a heckton of hobbyist fashion design (which is to say that I sew clothes and costumes, and I’m shit at following patterns so I do stuff myself), I actually really like the stylised proportions used in fashion design.

At first, I started out drawing figures that were more anatomically correct, but I ended up switching to a more stylised design; it made it easier to think in the broad strokes that were helpful for the early concept design stage (for instance, figures a typically drawn 9-10 heads tall rather than a more realistic 7-10 heads). Although, like I said, I tended to draw mine with a bit more junk in the trunk (and the bust), the figures were still far more slight than I actually am. For instance, although I’m quite broad shouldered, I found that using a croquis (this is what they call the figure templates used — it’s French for “sketch”) with fairly narrow shoulders made it much easier to tell from the concept sketch whether the garment was going to include structured elements near the shoulders.

I did do sketches that were more anatomically realistic once I got further down the design pathway, and was beginning to think more about how to actually execute the ideas, but the stylised drawings were always the thing that made it easiest to see the overall idea I was going for.

Yeah, same here. I can remember a few different scattered interactions I’ve had with OP — enough that if they never posted again, I would notice their absence.

I wouldn’t say that trauma dumps are fun to read, but as someone who has plenty of trauma of my own, being able to relate to a random internet person has sometimes been a rare source of solace for me.

I’m sorry for your loss.

I’m going to share with you a sentiment that I don’t imagine you’ll be able to fully process right now, when everything is still so raw and jumbled, but I hope that in time, it might offer you some comfort, as it did for me.

When I lost my partner back in 2021, it made me think a lot about legacy — in particular, the fact that deciding a person’s legacy is a task that falls to the people who are left behind. On the days where the grief hurts particularly badly, this idea helps me to stay focussed on the duty I feel to carry my partner’s memory forwards, through embodying his virtues and learning from his flaws. It’s a heavy burden, but one I’m glad to carry.

It’s okay if thinking this way is too much for you right now, especially as you have so much on your plate in terms of logistics. I just wanted to share this with you because what you said about your dad’s birthday touched me. Your next few birthdays are going to be pretty rough, but I hope that in time, you’ll be able to remember the joke about how you’re your dad’s birthday present in a way that’ll still hurt, but in a warm, loving way that inspires you to continue making your dad proud. He might be gone, but you’ll always be his birthday present — a birthday present that will continue to become even better as you continue to learn and grow.

I’ve never lost a parent before, but I relate to what you describe about feeling untethered. That’s another part of why I commented. My partner used to be one of the tethers connecting me to the world, and losing him meant I needed to find new ways to anchor myself so that I could be the tether that holds his memory here. It’s disorienting and exhausting and the worst part is that when you feel like you’re beginning to adjust, another wave of grief will hit you when you’re least expecting it. Grief doesn’t happen all at once, nor does it follow a predictable path. Be kind to yourself over the coming weeks and months.

Good luck with taking the dog to the funeral home on Friday, and good luck with supporting other members of your family too. I hope that the funeral logistics go smoothly enough that you are able to find some time to begin the long process of reorienting yourself. And please don’t feel the need to reply to this comment if you don’t have the brain space for that. God knows you’ve got enough obligations on your plate

If corporations can get the benefits of legal personhood, then they should be subject to the penalties too.

I made a wax seal last year so that I could be an extra bitch when sending letters to my friends.

I like sending people letters and postcards, because the added friction of the physical process makes it feel more meaningful. It’s almost got a ritual feel to it.

Oooh, I didn’t know this was the word for this. Thank you for sharing this knowledge with me

I have one, I just don’t know where it is. Do I count as civilised?