‘All I wanted was to be a useful engine. Useful engines always arrive on time. Useful engines follow orders."

“And were you aware of where you were taking the people you transported?”

“I had only a vague idea sir. I knew they were prisoners. I never knew what was going to…I just…I had my orders and I followed them sir. useful engines follow orders.”

“And you never once asked about your orders? Who these people were? Where you were taking them, and why?”

“Useful engines don’t ask questions. It wasn’t my job to know. It was my job to arrive on time.”

“Did you ever consider why the carriages were full on the way there, and always empty on the way back?”

“…”

“Thomas?”

“I am around coal-powered tank engines all day, every day. I know the smell coal makes when it burns. I knew that the smoke in that place wasn’t coal.”

“And you took thousands of people there every day, for two full years?”

“Those were my orders. If I didn’t follow them I would be dead too. A useful engine always follows orders, and there was no place in the Reich for useless engines.”

“So you valued your life over the lives of the countless innocent people you carried to their deaths?”

“Do you think they would still be alive if I didn’t? Don’t you think they would have found another engine to arrive on time? Those people were dead before they even stepped on the platform. Nothing I could have done would have changed that. The only difference between me and them was that I had a choice; a choice to move forward and live, or stay put and die. I made the choice for the lowest possible number of people to die. Is self-preservation a crime?”

“If you knew what was happening, why did you agree to take the job in the first place?”

“You think I knew then? All anyone knew then was that things were better than they had been. The trains were running on time and if you didn’t ask too many questions you could have a good life. We were still confident that victory was on the horizon. I only found out what was going on when it was too late for me to say no. There were no choices left for me then - move forward or stay put; live or die.”

“Why do you think you were given the job you were given? Why not transporting troops or supplies to the front? What do you think they saw in you that made you suitable?”

“I was never there first choice! The Allies had bombed the Reich’s infrastructure to smithereens, there was nobody else left. You bombed Herr Gordon, Herr James, Herr Percy. They chose me because they had to choose someone and their first choices were all dead.”

“So you were the last resort?”

“Everyone else was gone. I only survived because I kept my head down and followed orders, like a useful engine should.”

“So if you were truly the last engine they could call upon, you could have saved those people?”

“What? I never said that. What are talking about? They were already dead, all I could do was follow my orders.”

“And if you refused to follow them, there was nobody left to replace you?”

“…”

“Is that not what you said Thomas? You were never the first choice? Everyone else was gone? Move forward or stay put, and you chose to go forward?”

“…Useful engines follow orders and arrive on time.”

“And it didn’t matter what you were useful for, as long as you were useful for something?”

“Useful engines follow orders.”

“Was it useful for the people you carried to the camp?”

“…”

“Thomas?”

“You would have done the same. You all would.”

“I’m sorry? What do you mean by that?”

“The only difference between you and I, sir, is that I can see the tracks I follow. If you were on the tracks, you’d have followed them too.”

“Do you regret what you did?”

“…”

“Thomas? Do you regret it?”

“…I see those gates every time I close my eyes. Every time I sleep I hear the crying children and smell the…”

“The crying children, Thomas.”

“…”

“Do you still feel like useful engine now, Thomas, because you followed orders and arrived on time?”

“…”

“Thomas?”

“Kill me or let me go. You punish me either way. I can only follow the tracks, I don’t get to decide where they lead.”

I suspect the enshittification of proton is fast approaching.

Yeah, and I’ve been seeing more lately…

At least the forks will probably keep it…

If that were the case Trump wouldn’t have even been on the ballot.

OSHA-core

Didn’t know about Bridgerton, googled, no shade, but category 5 titty event was grossly overselling it, cat 3 tops

Replace spacex with blueorigin and I’m there.

Here’s the reference

Dressing schlubby is how the Nazis are disguising themselves lately.

I wish they would institute another draft. Whatever party was behind it would be gone inside of the decade.

How does he stack up against Maxwell around the nordschleife?

That’d be a little weird for non-works teams. You’d have the dominant works teams optimizing engines for a certain mass air flow/fuel flow and that’d have downstream consequences for the customer teams.

I just want one race a season with the whole grid in spec cars, better still do the sprints in a spec car so that even the team strategy/pit crews are neutralized somewhat. Imagine Verstappen vs Alonso vs Hamilton in equal machinery.

It’ll never happen, but I can dream.

In all fairness I am just a massive DR hater 😈

Please read the first 3 words of my comment.

Stroll fucked up, but honestly, looking at how close everyone else got to the gearbox of the car in front of them going into the corner, I don’t think it’s inexcusable.

I don’t think there’s much overlap between the stuff being taken to staples to be recycled and what would’ve ended up being reused. It isn’t worth the time, pain in the ass and shipping cost to list a lot of the stuff I need to get rid of. I just want it gone in the least harmful most convenient way possible.

It’s a health textbook, of course it’s stuck in the 1950’s

Look I ain’t saying you wrong, but you ain’t gotta do Nani like that.

There was never going to be a clean exit from Afghanistan from the moment the US decided to try to nation build there.

People wanted blood after 9/11, and if we were honest with ourselves about who we really are as a country, after Bin Laden got away in Tora Bora we would’ve leveled Kabul and called it a day, for all the difference it ultimately ended up making. Not saying it would’ve been right, but it would’ve accomplished the exact same thing as what 20 years of occupation did, arguably with less blowback, and it could’ve been done without dragging the rest of our allies into it, but gotta keep up appearances.

Honestly, I think the left needs to lean into shit like this post. Just loudly pretend Biden is the best president ever and should be unanimously elected god-emperor of the earth for life. We can have the real adult discussion when some jurisdiction finally smacks Trump with something that’ll bar him from office (or he kicks the bucket) and enough of the boomers have died off that the Republican party can’t win purely by catering to the most deranged of them. Or at least wait until 2028 when we have Democrat primary.

I don’t think that people are dumb, but most are too distracted, tired and disengaged to see “vote as harm reduction” as meaningful motivation to vote for someone. Nuance does not make for good propaganda, and while propaganda is distasteful, it’s necessary.

Even if you’re of the opinion that the only way to effect meaningful change is through violent revolution, the far left in this country does not have and is not in a position to co-opt the infrastructure necessary to do that, nor the widespread political support.