Practice. Visualization exercises. We have this weird idea that people are just supposed to be good at social interactions. Like, people will spend their entire life honing their skills at sports or baking or chess and then expect you to just be cool with talking to strangers.

Here's a basic visualization exercise. Visualize people you're comfortable around, see them smiling and happy, maybe laughing, but notice how they make you feel, how comfortable and relaxed you are, and as you do that imagine there's a bright colorful energy around them and the more you feel those feelings notice how the energy becomes brighter and more vivid. Do that until you've really got a feel for the taste of that energy. When you think you've got a really good hold on it, create a physical trigger for yourself that you would feel comfortable doing in the presence of other people; maybe it's tapping your cheek or waist, maybe squeezing your forearm, or maybe drawing a symbol like a heart in the palm of your hand. But take that energy and imagine a bond forming between doing that trigger and that nice relaxing energy wrapped around the people you've been thinking about. Really let that bond solidify and link up.

Then, break. Do something silly like waving your arms and doing a raspberry or something to erase the scene you've been thinking about.

Then repeat. And do that a few times every day, as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable with it.

And then, once you think you've got a handle on it, imagine yourself walking up to someone you want to feel comfortable around and do the trigger, and imagine that energy reaching out and wrapping around them and pulling them into the safe and comfortable space you keep people you're okay with being around. Really focus on the feeling and vibrance of it all.

Just keep practicing doing that. And then eventually, try it live.

Yeah, he must've had amazing stage presence.

Also, did you know that Solidarity Forever uses the tune from John Brown's Body?

A lot of songs use that tune. As Utah Phillips put it: The wobblies liked to steal the hymn tunes because they were pretty, and changed the words so they made more sense.

Gotcha. If you ever wanna see the real face of this shit, search 'crabs in a bucket sermon' on YouTube. Endless results of preachers who claim the son of God sacrificed himself also telling their parishioners they gotta get theirs and fuck everybody else.

Lol, yeah apparently there's quite a few believers. Glenn Beck did a demonstration on his foxnews show way back in the day and iirc the frog jumped out and he never acknowledged it.

In the US we have slaves.

I'm familiar with that one, though I hear it's a myth.

This is an ad. A bad one. Run away.

I think this is the same thing you're saying looked like they were puppets and I can see that, since it does look like the sorts of motions that would be used to convey emotions and actions with the limited range of a puppet.

Yeah, limited is a good word for it, I think. Like you can almost see the strings pulling at them based on the stiffness of the joints. Also, glad it wasn't just me.

ah, kinda like it less now.😅

Are you not familiar with the Crab Bucket's use in the wild, comrade? It's a story often used by evangelical preachers and motivational speakers in the US to encourage individualism and encourage people to abandon the "haters" in their life. That graphic I posted is the use of the phrase "crab bucket" in books. That spike starting in the late 80's almost assuredly began with a flood of self-help and personal productivity books popularizing the parable. It is neo-liberalism's essence.

Tbh, it wasn't till Girls Band Cry that I even thought about CGI, but their characters felt so much like puppets that it bugged me. Not helped at all by the actual marionette in the opening sequence. This tho... This looks like shit. The characters often look like statues with environment painted on. Eew.