yeah, according to our mayan guide when i was there the human sacrifices never happened… but they were extremely inconsistent with their stories and also believed that the number of days in the solar year is connected with human body through the number of joints so i wouldn’t take their word for it.

when i was listening to what guides in other groups were telling about the same spots and traditions i noticed that each and every one of them had their own fantastic and completely different story and many of the things they were saying were clearly wrong (e.g. that the descent of kukulcan shadow play only happens on two particular days of the year).

oh shit… i was there on that day! and i missed it…

after living in the US for some time i think i’m starting to get it…

one thing about the life in the US that the hollywood movies don’t show you very well is that the country is extremely tribal. the stories of diversity or of outsiders building their american dream are almost pure fantasy - you don’t make it in america because of the environment but in spite of it.

the way things work here is that you have to be a part of a group and you habe to stick with that group no matter what. because otherwise you are done. that’s why it is so hard for either democrats or republicans to admit when their politicians do even the most insane shit. that’s why people would rarher risk their kids lives rather than go against their peer group and vaccinate them. and that’s also why it is so important that the couple is “white” and not black, latino or (god forbid) mixed…

racism, xenofobia, nationalism and mysoginy are just side effects of a society that is split into constantly competing groups that reserve all the benefits for their own members… constant positive and negative discrimination that forces everyone to fall in or be left behind and that is stoked by any entity interested in exploiting those fragmented groups more easily.

this is a problem with fediverse in general imho.

the tools admins and users have are blunt (defederate or block). with all sorts of content moderation policies and opinions you will inevitably end up either alienated from everyone or surrounded by people that think and talk just like you.

fediverse does offer many advantages… creating a better online “town square” is just not going to be one of them.