Its actually quite a bit funnier then that in practice, due to the alignment of fart pitch to lid angle, it creates a range of... you know just try it :D

Hal from Malcom holds up pretty well, quirky and flawed of course, but all in all a great father and husband. though it’s admittedly been a while since I went through it.

not sure about that. hal is definitely a bit of a bumbling idiot, especially next to his wife.

Alternatively, I think there is value in modern culture setting a high bar on this, if we could manage it. Perhaps it's better not to preemptively excuse the easier path of aligning w/ fascist causes, even to avoid one's own persecution. Better to reinforce that such alignment is reducing yourself, for future observers at least, to a similar distinction (despite of course the overwhelming cruelty of such a fate). I fear this ship is sailing however.

> Perhaps it's better not to preemptively excuse the easier path of aligning w/ fascist causes, even to avoid one's own persecution. Better to reinforce that such alignment is reducing yourself, for future observers at least, to a similar distinction

I don't think that's what this everyone-was-a-Nazi language is accomplishing, though. When someone uses the word "Nazi" they mean someone who is entirely unlike themselves or most people they know.

If we lean into this language, we risk forgetting that the vast majority of Germans in the 1930s were no different than the vast majority of us today—they had lives, jobs, families, and they looked the other way or even participated because they didn't want to rock the boat and risk those things. They were not Nazis, they were just citizens, but they enabled genocide.

I don't think that embracing the label "Nazi" for everyday Germans who never joined the party (and maybe even voted against Hitler when there was still a vote!) will scare people into standing up if they end up in a similar situation, it will just serve to create the sense that "1930s Germany was a really awful place with a lot of awful people and aren't I glad that I don't live there?"

If we take the approach instead of talking about how many ordinary people aided and abetted the Nazi cause by being silent—how they committed war crimes without ever being a Nazi—I think that will actually be more effective at teaching people how to avoid recreating the Third Reich.

On the other hand people look at themselves and their neighbours and think “can’t happen here because we aren’t nazis”

Doesn’t take many people to actually hold a nazi ideology to make it come to pass.

After all, “ The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”

Simplifying into “nazi” and “not nazi” is not helpful

I feel like you just restated what I said.

Yes, I could indeed see that being the more effective approach to stir reflection in those who would reflexively & categorically reject any such association with the label. Cheers.

That's a valid point.

Also:

Nazi imagery now symbolizes ultimate evil, but that's the effect of history and reflection and cultural symbols changing. Fascism, including in 1930s Germany, is always packaged up in appealing packaging. It seems appealing, promising national revival and cherished values.

People didn't sign up for overt evil; they got swept up in something that appeared reasonable and popular, or just said nothing about the same.

This is the real lesson that I think we're losing; that it's possible to be an ordinary person of ordinary good morals, and to support terrible crimes happening if one isn't careful.

Thank you for sharing this, I wish you best of luck in your journey to get it published.

Highly recommend Obsidian to anyone looking for a simple and effective way to organize their thoughts.

It's as good as someone's ability to come up with a system and stick to it.

Agree - I've been toying with the idea of using something more... formal, but rolled my own so to speak.

I have a script that runs on login that simply opens two files:

    1: this calendar week
    2: the last calendar week

... in vim tabs, organized in yearly directories. I live in the terminal anyway.

Making myself see the thing, by opening automatically, was the big part. That let me write more. Keeping the storage simple makes the data accessible and portable.

All of this applies to Obsidian and things too - but I enjoy this kind of tinkering

Love this. This really appeals to my way of thinking, it's oldskool, but extremely practical.

Glad I hit the mark! I'll provide a copy below. Fair warning: only tested on Linux, not Mac/BSD:

    NOTE_DIR="${NOTE_DIR:-${HOME}/notes}"
    CURRENT_NOTE=$(date +%Y-week%V)
    LAST_WEEK_NAME=$(date -d '7 days ago' +%Y-week%V)
    NOTE_PATHS=("$NOTE_DIR/$CURRENT_NOTE" "$NOTE_DIR/$LAST_WEEK_NAME")
    EDITOR="${EDITOR:-vim}"
    if [[ $EDITOR == *vim* ]]; then
        # Run the vim-like editor with tabs
        $EDITOR -c ':tab all' "${NOTE_PATHS[@]}"
    else
        # Run the editor without vim tab arg
        $EDITOR "${NOTE_PATHS[@]}"
    fi

The bit for '$EDITOR' makes this work for 'vim', but also 'gvim' (vim-X11) and 'neovim'.

The assumption for 'else' is that the other editors simply accept an array of arguments with no other direction required

Edit: I realize now I misspoke - no yearly directories [anymore]; dashed names instead! Apparently I quit that in week 10 of 2023.

IIRC, managing the directories added a few lines I didn't care to keep. I don't look outside of the two week window often :)

Thanks! As a fellow Linux geek, I love this so much.