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Piql is a Norwegian company that takes your data, pictures and other digital artefacts, encodes them in an open binary format and puts them on 35mm black and white film. To retrieve the data, you scan the film, use their open source software and there you go. Very long term storage as a combination of analog and digital. I like! Already used by museums and artists.
Technology that enables greater data security and longevity while reducing the risk of data loss and overall cost significantlyPiql
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What should our next #Monsterdon movie be?
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Okay, well, "Golden Voyage of Sinbad" has Tom Baker in it.
I also own this DVD. In fact, I have the whole "Sinbad" series, I think.
If this happens to you, insist on the return of the ‘broken’ RAM.
I've heard anecdotal reports of computer repair places "accidentally" breaking the ram and refunding the customer the catalogue price from six months ago, presumably to feed it into machines of more important corporate customers... so we're already at the scavenging-to-survive stage of AI economic collapse
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FFS.
I am old and tired I don't wanna do my own repairs anymore.
There is _so_ much to burn down. _So_ much.
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It is important to remember regarding States that one mass-murderoulsy oppressive aggressively imperialist reactionary, etc attacking the people living in another mass-murderoulsy oppressive aggressively imperialist reactionary State's claimed area does not change any of the other properties of either, they are both still institutionalized-violence based calamities.
Sometimes the magnitude of devastating outcome of one's acts can make it more immediately urgent than the other, but still can not negate the other's and usually is not for lack of desire to commit as horrendous or preferably worse acts – just difference in capacity at the time.
It's like with the expression "choosing between the plague and cholera" (in German, Scandinavian languages, French, Portuguese and probably more) where my answer is "no, thanks".
The plague does not negate cholera and vice versa.
It's a false choice.
Regarding States just as with the plague and cholera, you can oppose all States in a war, and generally should.
In fact, you can oppose all States, Statehood as a concept, and in many's opinion should.
Expressing opposition to one, does not automatically declare for the other. Only actually declaring for forcing the plague on everyone is being for doing so, while opposing everyone getting cholera doesn't.
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Have the major economies in the rest of the world figured out that the structure of the US economy where only 10% of the population is the majority of consumer spending is a gigantic opportunity?
90% of the population has been reduced to a permanent under class, meaning that there are all these people who if they had labor rights and the political power to defend their own interest would become customers?
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"America has been pushed into fighting Israel’s war"
Oh, that's funny. I thought the united states was pushed into bombing Iran because the u.s. regime is headed by a malignant piece of shit who enjoys power games and who has a staff full of people who mirror that thinking AND a portion of the u.s. polity has been looking for an excuse to destroy Iran for nearly a half century.
Israel is just the excuse that they stopped on after the first few excuses sounded too incoherent to stick.
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Additional note: when foodprices rocket, that is ALMOST ALWAYS the trigger for civil unrest and revolutions. (The other is a fiscal/tax/revenue crisis, caused by government turning into rent-seeking by the rich *and* trying to fund a war simultaneously, as with the French Revolution.)
Does this look familiar to you, too?
…For the northern hemisphere, fertiliser for next year’s growing season will be needed towards the end of this year.We can expect food prices to rocket.
And in the UK, we have only a single fertiliser manufacturing plant left
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The right in the U.S. is certainly pulling all the levers it can to drive unrest and system collapse: driving inflation, higher food prices, unemployment, flat or depressed wages, and making peaceful change through voting impossible.
It's starting to look inevitable to me. Maybe it's been inevitable since Citizens United, or even before that. No doubt they think they can ensure the outcome of civil unrest to their benefit. I really hope they're wrong.
Ever notice that almost all sci-fi that imagines a utopian future for humanity has its path through a system collapse/dystopia first (e.g., Star Trek)? I don't think we can imagine incremental change that results in a better society - just rip & replace.
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The current right wing coalition includes a lot of accelerationists. Also, they seem to be betting that 2024 will have been America's last election.
Even in real history, the period of relatively shared prosperity is referred to as the postwar period, as if the war was what made it possible. Surely the New Deal can't have any of the credit.
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Right-to-repair is a huge issue for farm equipment.
One of the reasons is not so much that the OEM prices are high is that the stocks of spares are sized based on the order rate against the high prices; you order it, they make it, and you get it many weeks later.
Combine "the software servers are down" with "the supply chain to the plant that makes spares is disrupted" with "fuel prices are too high for profitable farming according to the financial system" and food supply shrinks.
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What I think people don't get is that the farm skillset in the US is in old people (on the whole and by and large), COVID has been hard on them, and the ethnic cleansing has taken away big chunks of the skills base.
Compelled system change in a context where you've got some patrician landowners and invalidated-axioms agribusiness and not much else not going to hold together so well. Then throw in the extreme weather events, plural, the US has already had through the Midwest.
A lot of this has been driven by a desire to re-open Russia's sales channels so they can afford their war of conquest. (Dropped sanctions by the US, calls from the EU right, etc.)
We're seeing late stage Carbon Binge efforts to use military force to be the last supplier standing.
What we aren't seeing yet is the Coalition to Decarbonize; I think we're gonna, and then we're going to see military efforts to prevent any such thing.
Society insists you buy gas, even when there isn't any.
The USA could have been the driving force behind world electrification, but we didn't have the political will nor the insight.
Much like VHS videotape and the transistor radio, the US invented something, looked at it, said "meh", and continued doing what we were doing. Another country (Japan before, China now) looked and said "Ooooooh, we can use that!" Japan also did a similar move with small, excellent cars when the US couldn't be bothered.
China realized there's no future in polluting with coal nor in buying oil - it's a mug's game.
They made a calculated political decision to take over the world solar market, and to be the driving force behind world electrification. (Maybe something only possible in a command economy.)
Result? Lots of money coming into China for solar panels and electric cars / bikes. Economic destruction of the petroleum car and petroleum extraction industries. The world looking to China as the provider of energy needs, instead of the US and the Middle East.
Oh, and BTW, much cleaner air and water, and maybe slowing down climate change.
America invented electricity?
Faraday, Swan and many others would beg to differ.
@WellsiteGeo The US was well ahead in solar photo-voltaic technology in the 1970s; for what would have been his second term, Carter ran on a platform of 25% renewables by 2000.
A lot of oil money woke up and objected in ways which were most probably extra-legal in order to install Reagan. (They absolutely did know at the time that climate change would kill many, many people. That was part of Carter's stated motivation.)
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@PhilSalkie The US had both; what it didn't have was a way to stop the original October Surprise.
@otfrom It's de-facto everyone vs the US, once you realize that Russia and the US are the same entity. (Same aristocracy, same strategic goals, same issues with fading glory, same memetic capture by TESCREAL and mammonism).
From that perspective, one may recognize the UK ongoing political wrangle as being over whether the emotional comfort of identifying with the fading glory faction is worth the economic devastation.
@otfrom @graydon It's very much the case that China and the EU want an embedded CO2 tariff as a way of preventing the US from using older plants with a lower marginal cost of production from undercutting newer zero-CO2 plants which are still paying down their loans for the construction.
Not all zero-carbon industrial capital goods are as fortunate as electricity generation with the zero-carbon plant costing less to buy than the four-year running cost of the carbon-emitting plants. There's real pain involved in moving steel production to be zero-carbon.
When the timing is right, China and the EU will do a deal on a revised international trading system. India is a little further behind decarbonisation, but China will be looking for somewhere to sell its solar and wind goods once the Chinese market is mostly satisfied, so it wouldn't shock me if decarbonisation in India was astonishingly fast, maybe 15 years.
I don't think India can join. Too much incumbency.
It's kinda strange, really; is Xi's ruthlessness and the tottery state of China's economy a consequence of "get with the program or else, comrade" or is he doing the bloody-handed tyrant power consolidation thing? is it going to be possible to distinguish these cases in Xi's (or my!) lifetime? Probably not.
@graydon The verdict of 100-year-plus history may be that the UK got lucky by having the Brexit referendum before things got bad globally—as of 2026 there's a wide majority who think it was a terrible idea and want back in with the large, moderate neighbouring bloc.
(Situation weirded by (a) fascist ratfucking, bankrolled by the oligarchs, and (b) a gigantic protest vote (maybe as big as 60% of the voting electorate) saying "none of the above" to the old incumbent parties in an FPTP system.)
@graydon It's also old people because new people see the capture involved. A US farmer basically buys overpriced one use seed from a vendor that requires overpriced one use fertilizers and other products to grow, then they harvest it and have to take the price the tiny number of buyers will give them.
They were told this was where their behaviour was leading in the 1980s, so now there is no point being a new US farmer.
Even bailouts will just end up captured by the big corporations.
@annejohn Oh yeah. There's going to be a lot of that going on.
One of the absolutely critical things about OODA loops is to get them working on the same time scale as the problem. Only nothing structural thinks the problem is "having food to eat"; you've got a supermarket problem of maintaining margins, you've got a financial problem of minimizing risk, you've got a shipping problem that reduces to scheduling, but no systemic representation of "people need to eat every day".
@urlyman I am not going to try to guess the price of fertilizer a year from now internationally, but Sarah Taber @sarahtaber has covered fertilizer prices right now in the US. We are not seeing an increase but the Farm Bureau is doing everything possible to get the US government to give more money to farmers.
But she is basing this on US fertilizer prices. I would love to hear what price changes are happening outside of the US.
youtube.com/watch?v=13gQAt7Ozx…
Headlines vs reality, fertilizer edition.The "prep the farm for planting" rush is on right now, so this is just a real quick overview of the fertilizer pric...Farm to Taber (YouTube)
Might be US-centric, but a REAL farmer has a reality check:
mastodon.online/@sarahtaber/11…
Did a quick video on how the "oh no fertilizer" headlines are clickbait.Farmer Reacts: The Fertilizer Panic Makes No Sense.
Headlines vs reality, fertilizer edition.The "prep the farm for planting" rush is on right now, so this is just a real quick overview of the fertilizer pric...Farm to Taber (YouTube)
this article predates the USA/Israel bombing campaign by a few days
theguardian.com/food/2026/feb/…
Weakened food security could tip into unrest after a cyber-attack, extreme weather or conflict, analysis findsDamian Carrington (the Guardian)
Manjaro 2.0 Synopsis This document covers the organizational, technical, management, and other changes we (the Manjaro Team, et al) like to see applied to the Manjaro Project.Manjaro Linux Forum
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“When Target said they were supporting us, it felt real.
It felt like they saw us. Target, especially in 2020, but for me even before, it kind of felt like Target was like for us.
Now people will often ask me, well, where's the smoke for Walmart?”
“No one forced them to handle business in such a disrespectful, sleazy, dirty way. That was a choice, and I think that communicates a lot about, like that tells me a lot about the people who are leadership at Target.”
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From There Are No Girls on the Internet: Why aren’t people boycotting Amazon like they’re boycotting Target?, Nov 28, 2025
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/…
#target #boycott #indivisible
Podcast Episode · There Are No Girls on the Internet · November 28, 2025 · 58miHeartPodcasts (Apple Podcasts)
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"Last week, actor and filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers won the Toronto Film Critics Association award for outstanding supporting performance in a Canadian film, for her role in the drama Sweet Angel Baby.
But, she returned the award shortly after her win once she learned that the acceptance speech she had recorded for the award ceremony had been edited, so that the section where she expressed support for Palestine was removed."
Good for her.
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Stop calling it “moving to the center” when Democrats capitulate to the far right.
If Democrats wanted to “move to the center” they would go left
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Old Democrats Must Go or Trump NEVER Will
Watch --> youtube.com/watch?v=XShCSF3ZA3…
Democratic Autopsy --> democraticautopsy.org/wp-conte…
Donald Trump is implementing the Project 2025 playbook faster than anyone anticipated, and old guard Democrats have no idea how to combat him. But there’s an...UNFTR Media (YouTube)
And stop calling the most blatantly fascist Democrats "moderate".
All Democrats are fascist-enablers. The most right-wing ones are full-blown Nazis.
The Political Compass: a 2-dimensional typology of political opinionswww.politicalcompass.org
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FR : fédi, c'est quoi la banque la moins facho en france où je peux migrer? En espérant que ce soit pas trop cher. Points bonus si l'appli closed-source n'est pas obligatoire, et je peux avoir un gadget séparé pour l'authentification à deux facteurs. Encore plus de points si je peux utiliser skrooge ( skrooge.org/ ) avec.
EN : fedi, what's the least fascist bank in france I can migrate to? Hopefully it's not too expensive. Bonus points if closed-source apps aren't forced onto me and I can use a separate device for 2-factor auth. Even more points if I can use skrooge ( skrooge.org/ ) with it.
#askfedi #duckduckfedi #bank #banking #online_banking #onlinebanking #foss #ethics #DataEthics
Skrooge allows you to manage your personal finances, powered by KDE. Thanks to its many features, it is one of the most powerful way to enter, follow, and analyze your expenses.Skrooge
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Does anyone have a screepcap or link saved of the interaction about a decade ago when a trans girl on reddit asked an adult cis man how often he thought about being a girl and his answer was something like "I dont think ive ever thought about that".
That interaction broke so many people and i wish i had properly secured it for posterity. My brain remembers the guys handle had Panda in it iirc.
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eg: closeted trans girl who will state "im not sure if im trans, i dont hate being a guy, im not sure if i want to be a woman but its an idea that comes up sometimes"
translation: I would make a pact with an unholy demon to be turned into a girl right now, please, are you an unholy demon? please tell me you are
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The sentence-to-sentence juxtapositions are next level.
"it hurts"/"no pain"
"no desire for change"/"yearn [...] to be reborn"
I hope she figured herself out.
Oh, no judgement. I used to fantasize about having waking up one day having been somehow Freaky-Fridayed into a girl's body, so I feel her vibe. Yet it still took me until my late 30s to figure myself out. 
More the English nerd in me being like, "Ah, masterful use of contrast to demonstrate a state of inner turmoil."
@glowtayto i am quietly plotting a freaky-friday marathon on my discord movie night crew.
All films where people swap bodies or create a version of themselves in another body (preferably gender swapping) ala Virtual Sexuality
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thread triggered by this seemingly evergreen Reddit post today?
@EmilyEnough no! i actually try to wait a few days between the original post going up online somewhere and talking about it here.
it is just that we're all such basic bitches that its groundhog day everyday
@EmilyEnough also just read the reddit post and thank god i wasnt drinking anything or my monitor would be ruined.
HILARIOUS on point, no notes, 10/10 definitely a cis man.
@valentine yeah, like i tend to think of three general categories of trans people coming to realisation:
1. those who boldly as a child walkup to their parents and say "Hey actually im X" - this to me is like a cryptid. I cannot fathom magical formulation exists that allows the trans kid to take everything theyve been told by parents/teachers/peers and say No you're all wrong.
2. those who pubertal changes are so stark it crushes them so heavily that they figure it out.
@valentine 2 continued: figures it out in early teen years, normally has terrible time trying to negotiate situation with parents, posts always tend to include crying in showers.
3. those who accept what they're told by parents/teachers, that they are their agab, and therefore self learn to crush any internal gender need feelings and build a cage around it, cage becomes more complex as life continues, puberty leads to more intense crushing of needs, mental health cracks begin from closet life
@valentine yes, 100% with you.
like on the face of it, i love that femboy exists as a (sometimes positive) term now. Because growing up the term for that space which i too inhabited, was crossdresser.
exact same discomfort that many i speak to in the "questioning" stage who use that label, if i speak with them in DMs enough the reality that emerges is to them femboy = hot and trans woman = deluded old disgusting
@valentine its those who use femboy as just the new term for trap,
thats where its like ah yes, tale old as time, every generation thinks just be young, hot and in denial forever is the solution to being trans.
@JoscelynTransient Yeah... Let me quote myself from some time ago:
"Where is the fucking religion when needed? I would literally sign my soul to the devil himself to become a woman."
@JoscelynTransient I think it depends on how you define "trans".
From the outside, it's basically "live as another gender", with a spectrum ranging from "occasionally/for fun" to surgery/name change/etc.
If from the inside it's "fantasize about being another gender", then it would explain your reactions just as well as that screenshot.
I posted something a few years ago along those lines here, and the overwhelmingly kind reaction has been to effectively include me as trans. But I am...
I know at least one such cryptid, and she's amazing. The self-assuredness that takes at such a young age is beyond the reach of most.
Myself I'm an unholy combination of 2 and 3. I voiced my truth to myself at 17 years old, concluded it unactionable, and then pushed for some other explanation for the next fifteen years. (And then still didn't do anything concrete for another half decade).
@valentine
@valentine there is a fourth group which is small but may hopefully get bigger: people who were told all their lives, by at least some of the people around them, that they are the ones who ultimately know their own gender, that being trans is an actual possibility for them. I know some kids like that.
It seems a little like the tragectory that sexuality has taken (and some of this will likely depend on where you are). Nowadays, there are a lot more kids who grow up knowing that they might be gay, that they can just pay attention to their own feelings of attraction. It's not perfect; those kids are still moving through a highly heteronormative world. But it is easier than it was thirty years ago.
@JoscelynTransient ... 100% convinced currently that I will never live as another gender. I say that being totally fine with people applying the trans label to me. But I don't really, in my mind.
(The TL;DR is, I'm comfortable as I am, but if I could physically gender switch at will, I'd be happy to flip back and forth. Only time would tell in which form I'd spend more time.)
I think there's room for an in-between zone of the trans spectrum. Perhaps that would also make it less scary?
@JoscelynTransient I don't know if I got my point across at all, but I want to express my gratitude anyway. Because I can see that your response is meant to be encouraging, and it certainly is kind.
What I want to get across, though, is something else entirely. I guess it's more like this question whether turquoise is a shade of green, or a shade of blue.
There's evidence that this distinction is largely *cultural*. In some cultures it is strongly associated with one, in others with the other.
@JoscelynTransient THAT I got, and I'm very happy about. That's why I don't want to push back to the point of arguing, either.
Anyway, I hijacked this enough. Thank you for your thoughts!
@JoscelynTransient For what it's worth, this almost certainly relates to the relatively high statistic correlation of autistic and trans people.
The entirety of the autistic experienced, summarized, is "you do peopling wrong" - and that includes the expectations society projects onto your gender representation. It leads to a lot of introspection on what makes one "wrong", when one feels "right" on the inside.
Plus, personally speaking, there's a tad more distance between my mind and...
@jens @JoscelynTransient I have several friends from my pretransition days who are in somewhat similar boats that you've laid out. They're aware they could be classified as trans, that they have gender desire internally but dont feel the need to act on it or label it. In the end its their life and call on what is and isnt important.
However: "there's a tad more distance between my mind and body than other folk seem to experience"
This sounds an awful lot like dissociation.
@JoscelynTransient ... perfect sense to me if this was the source of some folks' dysphoria at least.
For me, it translated differently. I've just become stubborn about not letting others define me. And with time, getting more relaxed about this, too, because try as they might, they won't really succeed anyway.
Which is a large part of why I'm comfortable as I am.
@JoscelynTransient ... body than other folk seem to experience. I don't know if it's universal. But for me at least, it makes experimentation with the shell more "natural", because the ghost matters.
At least in principle; practice is where things get too hard to bother with for the most part.
It's less "yearning to be a girl", and way more "yearning to experience more lenses than one to experience life through".
I don't want to presume knowing what others feel, but it would make...
@JoscelynTransient How I feel about myself is very similar to turquoise.
Cishet folk assume I'm cishet, trans folk may want me to be trans simply because I am not obviously cishet.
I don't feel a need to be in either category.
Now the screenshotted post above, that's a little more on the side of one interpretation, but holding on to the other. I get the reactions folk had on this thread.
I just... want to urge you to also consider that turquoise is turquoise, not green/blue.
@jens @JoscelynTransient Denial is not something that a smart brain will simply overcome by being smart, that just means the brain is smarter at lying to itself. Worse, the smart person often thinks they're too clever to be tricked by their own brain.
And i dont want that to come off as stating either option is the truth. Just as long as you know the possibility and danger of the second, so you can recognise it if it occurs. I say that because you've replied to this thread..
@jens @JoscelynTransient you felt compelled to connect to it and talk about your own experience in relation to it - which means it must be important to you.
But if that second thing is true, and the gender desire you're talking about having is something that is in fact a core need that youve learnt to suppress then cracks will begin to occur in your psyche, body and life as it takes its toll.
@jens @JoscelynTransient Dissociation, depression, depersonalisation, hypervigilance, growing self harm and/or self destructive behaviour, loss of emotional depth, addiction, chronic illnesses, autoimmune conditions, and the big bopper: cPTSD.
The above are issues that arise and grow stronger from the human body not being able to have its core needs met. Ultimately ruining the persons ability to live happily and affects those around them as they collapse inward.
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"FBI counterterrorism teams on elevated alert
As part of the elevated alert, the FBI will likely increase surveillance on the ground and online"
Excellent, so now the US police state will have even more opportunity and justification to crack down on political opponents and flex their power even more
There really is no joke to make with Patel in charge, the joke is on Americans
Not to say the FBI were not completely corrupt before, bc they absolutely were
But its all so out in the open now
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money vs planet
you are either on the side of the planet, or you are the side of capital. pick a side, the waters are rising
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AI, while useful when used responsibly, is turning the social web into a white noise machine where it becomes more and more difficult to find the relevant signals.
I'm kind of hoping that it's just the flavor of the season. Like the metaverse was a few years ago. And NFTs. Those were flooding platforms for a few months as well.
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One thing is really funny though: The sum of all users seems to be incapable of learning anything from past fads so we keep running through the same motions with every new so-called trend. It's the same. Every. Single. Time.
The sad part though: All of this draws our attention that we could use much better to build relationships and solve actual problems.
---
From a comment I just made on LinkedIn.
"#Hungary's opposition #Tisza party widens its lead ahead of #Orban's #Fidesz"
🤞 🤞 🤞
If Hungary goes sane in April, and then if enough of the lazy entitled lumps in the #USA show up to #vote in November (after showing up in the #primaries to get real left candidates: BE THERE), then we can put a real dent on our emergent #fascism
Fuck your #cynicism
VOTE
Let's do this, "degenerate Westoids" 🤭
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I live close to the .hu border and I know some Hungarians.
They are as stupid as Austrians, Muricans or Russians.
Mark my words when it comes to elections.
@carbon_compound there's really no need to paint just some nations with a broad brush. Stupidity is an ubiquitous human trait.
There's reasons why people in Eastern Germany, Hungary and Slovakia voted for hard right parties. But i feel like it is currently very visible demonstrated that hard right parties lead down a path that fails even harder on these reasons...
i don't think anything we could ever say will get them to vote
so therefore we will indeed shame them, so anyone else listening who is not a lazy entitled lump does vote
Well, that's definitely a strategy, and you've thought about what you think will be the most effective, and I've got no evidence that it isn't, so go ahead I guess (not that you need my permission).
Me, I'm going to go ahead with trying to show people it's in their own best interests to vote. Maybe between the two of us we'll cover all the bases? :shrug:
so let's say you take one of these typical assholes whining loudly about how they won't vote until {X} happens
say everyone bends over backwards and makes {X} happen
they still won't vote. they will invent a new reason not to
this is their identity. making dramatic displays of their "moral superiority" to justify their indolence, entitlement, and alienation
of course, morality without action isn't morality at all, it's just ego masturbation
they're losers. literally: they lose
Yeah, the ones with a ransom list can just drift away for all I care - they will never accomplish anything, and I'm done wasting my time on them.
But there are still lots of other people who don't vote for other reasons: they're busy, they haven't got the habit, they don't think they can make a difference, despair, etc. And I do not want us speaking shorthand and saying "fuck non-voters" to push any of those away...
Littterer A is shown a video where someone litters out their car window and someone walks up and soothes their precious feelings and otherwise validates their behavior
Litterer B is shown a video where someone litters out their car window and someone walks up and smashes their side mirror while other people cheer
Which will make the litterer think?
Your problem is your false assumption people who don't vote have a valid reason. They don't. They're just entitled lazy assholes
@jztusk of course we do
So you go out there and validate and soothe the precious feelings of lazy entitled assholes and let me know how it goes. Good luck
Right. And the question is what is effective to achieve that
Validating bad behavior doesn't achieve that
We're talking about adults here
The idea that there is someone who goes "well i'm not going to vote because someone was mean on social media" is not a serious proposition
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 I'm afraid both Putin and the orange knuckle dragger will help their brownshirt buddy to win the elections...
Just as I don't think the midterms are going to be real. If they take place at all...
the vote is controlled by the states
i am not registering my disagreement with you i am registering my disgust with you
if you say the midterms aren't real, people have no reason to vote, therefore MAGA wins
is this what you want?
are you trying to help trump on purpose?
i don't think so
but *you are* helping trump with such ignorant cynical and cowardly words
do not say these lies about the midterms ever again
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Wow, easy, we're on the same side, we both want MAGA dead and buried.
What I'm trying to say is that these are different times, things have changed. Both Putin and Agent Orange see Orbán as their friend, and none of those three give a rat's ass about law or democracy.
Putin and Orbán have been playing dirty for years, there is no reason to assume the Tantrum Toddler is any different. Especially because he already promised that "you won't have to vote again, it's all arranged".
More recently he suggested the midterms were unnecessary, the Republicans should cancel them, and the state (i.e. he and his henchmen) should take over the elections in blue states. And what about the "find me enough votes" and seizing Georgia ballots?
I don't trust Krasnov, and I'm afraid that if the US people do, they will be lulled into accepting a red victory in November.
But if his popularity keeps free falling like it does now, he'll understand he can't get away with stealing the elections, so he'll cancel them completely.
A state of emergency would do, right? So I expect him to start a war in Iran. No, wait, not a war but a special military operation. If it goes well enough to boost his popularity, that's enough. And if not, he uses it to cancel (no, wait: postpone) the elections.
You got to understand that he and Putin are the same creepy, untrustworthy bastards. Only difference is that Putin has a brain of his own.
Waiting to kick this orange menace out because "the midterms will do that" seems fatally naive...
@hans
don't worry about it hans, i'm a hothead, i yell at everyone
in venezuela they still vote, and there the system in genuinely fucked
(not in any way trying to justify what the USA did in venezuela, just saying that venezuela's voting is rigged to high hell)
you have to vote. always. period
i'm just angry at any hint of a rationale that says voting is pointless
it's never pointless
the people of venezuela know. americans need to grow the same backbone as venezuelans
don't worry about it hans, i'm a hothead, i yell at everyone
I know you do, I'm not worried 😉
And yes, you vote, every time always, that's a democratic duty. The people have no power if they don't control the power. You don't take a taxi without telling the driver where you want to go. If you do that, you look pretty silly when you complain you didn't end up where you wanted to go.
But this taxi driver isn't interested in where you want to go to, he sets his own destination. Are you going to wait until he stops, or do you pull the handbrake and drag him from behind the wheel?
nah
it's more like a bus
we don't get the perfect location we want, we always only get somewhere nearby in approximation
and if we don't take the bus, because we want the bus to stop exactly in front of our house, then we're arrogant fools who aren't going anywhere
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Hehehe, you might have stolen that analogy from me 😉
But true, you'll never end up exactly where you want to go, but this bus driver is drunk and has already hit several cars. Do you remain silent and hope you reach your destination in one piece? Or do you force him to stop, and hold him down till the police arrive?
This isn't a "what do you think of my driving?" situation, this is "oh shit, this asshole is going to get all of us killed!"
See the damage he's already done in one year: a trade war with the rest of the world (illegally, says the SC), destroyed the US reputation among its allies, stopped all aid to Ukraine while cozying up to Putin, sent his thugs out to harass, arrest, deport and even kill people, goes after newspapers, universities and political opponents, openly accepted bribes and refuses to release the Epstein files.
Just to name a few things, the list is much longer then that. You have a convicted felon at the helm, one who has a long history of breaking the law, lying, cheating, stealing and being a pig.
There's nothing he won't do to stay in power, and the longer he is allowed to stay in power, the more he digs himself in.
It's easy to elect a dictator, it's hard to get rid of him once he's in control.
we elected biden in 2020
hungary might get rid of orban in april
is your message to the usa and hungary to give up, it's not worth even trying?
i don't think it is
but you have to see that that is the implication of your argument
is your message to the usa and hungary to give up, it's not worth even trying?
No, exactly the opposite! I hope you step it up and kick the orange SoB on the street now, and not wait for elections.
And I know those words imply radical actions. I hate violence, but sometimes it's the lesser evil...
@hans
all we have to do is vote
and you want blood in the streets?
what the fuck?
hans you're completely nuts on this topic
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 You're allowing him the time to dig himself in, by quietly waiting for what you expect will happen in more than half a year from now. Call me nuts, but I'm afraid you don't see the urgency of the matter.
The Gleichschaltung is in full swing, ICE is completely above the law, Congress is being bypassed, Orange has more than once promised to meddle with elections and he's about to start a war with Iran.
Play by the book at your own peril. And that of the rest of the world. You'll make future generations wonder why "they didn't stop him in time".
(With "you" I don't mean you personally, but the US people as a whole, of course)
@hans
hans i'm not a peacenik. if it comes to violence it comes to violence
my problem with you is tactical ineptitude
so listen, and learn:
before the vote, no one knows what someone is shooting for. and so they're isolated, and they're put down
after the vote, if the vote is denied, and people start shooting, then everyone knows why, and they all join in
do you see hans?
if you go to violence you better know damn well what the fuck you're doing. and you don't
think hans. or you're dead
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Ok, we are probably not going to agree on this.
You want to wait for a good reason before unleashing hell on the nazis, I think that that will give them enough time to prepare.
Just as Orange calls the war he started in Iran a "preemptive strike", I believe the US people should preemptively remove MAGA from power: to remove a threat before it can do its harm.
I believe you seriously underestimate the urgency for eliminating this very rapidly growing cancer, it's spreading way too fast to allow it another 8 months.
Then again, I'm not a US citizen, maybe I'm the one who underestimates factors that I'm not even aware of. And I'm not the one who would be risking his life in the revolt.
You're Dutch, right?
let me tell you of the story of a Dutchman
Marinus van der Lubbe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinus_…
he set the Reichstag Fire. he thought like you
the response was he gave the Nazis an excuse to seize all power
"unleashing hell"
i agree. if they deny the results of the vote. before that, you get isolated attacks that Trump will use as an excuse to seize more power
do you see the problem?
violence isn't the problem. *stupid* violence is. and that's what you're proposing
@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 Of course I know Van Der Lubbe, I mentioned him when Charlie Kirk was killed. I called that MAGA's Reichstag Fire moment.
But no, setting fire to a building isn't what I think should be done, and I like to think I'm not the simpleton that Van Der Lubbe was.
But let's conclude this discussion by accepting that we have a different idea of what needs to be done, and particularly about when.
Let's give a positive spin to it. I'm convinced we agree on one thing: we both hope I'm wrong 😉
@hans
i will set aside my hothead loudmouth desire to continue arguing, and yield to your noble sentiment 😁
who won the 2020 us presidential election? and who was president at the time?
thank you to everyone who showed up and voted then
you agree?
so get the fuck out of here with your cowardice and premature capitulation
vote, you spineless asshole
if fascism does destroy us democracy, it will be because of MAGA, and meek submissive fear-addled weak whiners
you CAN vote out orban
you CAN vote out trump
you CAN vote out fascism
fuck this weak whiny defeatism
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Do you vote?
If so good
That's what we need. Then we gradually iterate to better
Buy if you don't vote, go fuck yourself. You're the reason as much as MAGA why we are sliding to fascism
All these fucking lazy rationalizations do is serve various weaknesses and character failures that, in aggregate with other whiny losers, leads to fascism
That's it
VOTE
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@idahobucks Pauline Hanson would like an explanation please.
The existence/election of Fraser Anning might be a salutary example. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_A…
Australia has compulsory voting and a wider "universal" franchise than the US but still manages to elect and give power to utter bastards.
I don't understand what the point is
We should all vote, right?
PS: is this the guy who got an egg to the face from a teenager?
@idahobucks Anning is widely hated, yes. But also voted in.
Assuming that if people who don't vote did they would all vote against fascists isn't a safe assumption. Hungary elected Orban and his government more than once, for example.
Anning is from a nice white English-speaking country so a lot of USA voters find it easier to understand. Plus Australia has compulsory voting and a wider "universal" franchise than the US does.
Currently we have trump specifically because not enough showed up
The general idea that fascists can still win elections doesn't mean anything
On the average, fascists have an easier time of it when less people vote
@idahobucks A lot of my caution comes from the US habit of letting governments pick their voters.
The strategy of yelling abuse at non-voters might get a useful outcome, I don't know your local situation well enough to know. But in general yelling abuse is a poor tactic.
If we're at a place where people won't vote because someone was mean on social media, we're already doomed. Such immature people unable to advocate for their own needs and wants and are that emotionally addled, if they represent a large enough part of society, it speaks of such disgusting laziness and entitlement then just say good bye to it all now
And you certainly won't get such inept losers to vote by coddling their feelings
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I find the idea of "iterating to better" somewhat naive. Even with perfectly proportional electoral system elected individuals tend to reflect the worldview and education level of the general population.
Turnaround at the recent elections was merely the last straw. Underlying economic and social issues combined with uselessness of the Dem leadership played a much bigger role.
Even if Harris would win the problem would return in 4 years.
the problem is always there
defeating fascism is not "yay we won!" then it is all over forever. that is what is naive
it requires people to constantly vote and constantly show up
and so that is naive on my part:
that so many people "on the left" have the constitution and resolve to just fucking vote, something easy to do- relatively speaking compared to other forms of struggle
and that is the failure:
loser assholes who don't vote
they let us all down
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we lose an election?
we keep going
correct?
no
what we get is "waah waah we lost one election. waah waah this is so hard. waah waah i give up"
fucking losers
and so fascism has it easier. *because of* people supposedly on the left. supposedly, because the real left in days of yore had a fucking backbone
that's what we lack nowadays
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Voting tactically on a lesser evil is better than not voting at all. But
Overton's window shifting is a real thing. And last election's bad option may be the lesser evil of the next.
Average electoral district for the Representatives is around .76 million people. Successful campaign inherently requires a lot of money, connections and favours. This favours corporate candidates over progressives and coincidentally older candidates.
Last but not least i don't think US can vote itself out of the current kerfuffle.
i don't give a fuck
all there is the good fight in this world
then you can build on it IF YOU SHOW THE WILL TO FIGHT
if you spend your fucking time making arguments for how the fight is pointless, you might as well walk up to a fascist and ask them to put you in the concentration camp now
is that really what you want?
no?
so FIGHT, fucker
NO to fucking stupid weak bullshit rationalizing defeat!
FIGHT
#VOTE
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@klegdixal @moz @idahobucks Defeating facism isn't *just* voting out fascists. But it *includes* voting out fascists.
Vote.
Talk to people.
Stand up to your racist uncles. Not because you'll change their mind, but so that bystanders see that someone is challenging them.
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If what you are suggesting is that some folks won't vote because their feelings where hurt by someone on social media, then you seem to have identified the problem, because social media is being used by some very astute people to suppress their votes.
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therefore, anyone who is not voting, just because of their fucking feelings of resentment, helplessness, etc:
grow a fucking backbone!
the point of a vote is to advocate for your own wants and needs effectively
the point is not to vibe on social media wallowing in self-pity and despair, while your rights are stripped away
the left of yore, in previous centuries, would look at the "left" today and smack their foreheads
so many are so fucking weak
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@mastodonmigration @moz @idahobucks
"If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice."
Rush, Free Will
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then BLESS YOU
you are my hero
so why the fuck would you ever downplay voting in premature capitulation, which only helps MAGA
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Also, the chances of even very center-right dem candidates being anywhere near as awful as the MAGA are really slim. There may be a Tulsi Gabbard hiding somewhere we don't know about, but beyond that, not saying or doing Nazi s... is a fair recommendation compared to the alternative.*
* I say this as a European left-winger, meaning that even American left-wingers look quite right-wing to me.
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I agree with you
You're speaking of long term tactics, good strategy, a rational approach
I would prefer a real left candidate but barring that: hold the line, iterate, get real improvement the next round of voting
This is the only way to achieve anything
The lesser of two evils is still less evil
Of course for saying this we now incur the wrath of the seething howling toxic idealists
As if those assholes ever achieve anything in life except whining
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Write it, post it, send it: a rational approach to voting
Receive in reply: voices whining they don't get perfect, have zero plans, make zero effort, then help #fascism by not voting. Fucking losers. They howl about #shitlibs and #blueMAGA when in fact the only result of their ineffectual purity drama is to help #MAGA if they don't vote
Real life isn't a game of social media scorn, useless entitled #toxicIdealism whiners
Think. Act. Fight. #VOTE!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
And you literally can't tell who is the toxic supposed left winger and who is the MAGA sock puppet.
Personally, I take them all to be sock puppets and just block.
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@SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
Such a shame that you have to cry out like an Old Testament prophet to an indifferent, apathetic public, Ben. The palpable truth and wisdom of your jeremiad really shouldn't need such repetition, but sadly it does.
@copter_chief
@SherBeareth
@JonChevreau
@Harrybear @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks @copter_chief @SherBeareth @JonChevreau
eh, i'm a hothead. it has the appearance of a virtue, as long as i'm shouting at the right foolishness
@SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks If we're not careful, especially with the primary, we could validate some of the awful though.
The Overton Window has shifted now to make Newsom mainstream with his anti-trans and anti-homeless (anti-Labor in the big picture) policies.
If he's the nominee then he's the nominee, but real harm is going to result from it.
@gooba42
The difference between Newsom and any Republican is: Newsom is an opportunist, and the Rs are a bunch of white Christofascists with no mental flexibility. Newsom can be swayed by the public, whereas the Rs actively disdain anyone not one of them.
Mind you, I am not fond of him, but compared to the deep MAGAts, he is slightly better.
@SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
For once, this is not just about "the lesser of two evils". This midterm election November 3rd is different.
You are not voting:
republican versus democrat
red versus blue
You are voting:
fascism versus democracy
subjects versus citizens
trickle up versus trickle down
total control versus basic freedoms
no rights versus civil rights
It's not about the lesser of two evils. It's about #democracy winning over dictatorial autocracy.
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@NickSchwanck @MrBranch40 @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
whether we have free and clear elections
or we're being marched to concentration camps
or any situation in between:
you fight
always
all there is is the good fight in this world
any artificial line in the sand that says "past this point, stop fighting, it's hopeless" is a stupid lie
and the only reason we're even at this point is not enough of us were fighting to keep it good when we had it better
so we learn the hard way
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@NickSchwanck @MrBranch40 @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks We must live our lives as though we can always snatch victory back from the jaws of defeat, even if that's difficult to believe sometimes and the odds against us seem overwhelming. As others have pointed out, when governments resort to strongarm tactics to suppress dissent, that's when they're at their weakest.
Minnesota and Minneapolis have shown that consistent mass resistance *will* erode the resolve of the fascists. ✊🏼
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@NickSchwanck @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
A lot of USA voters did not know this in 2024.
More people see it now.
The regime exposed themselves with the killing and cover up of #ReneeGood & #AlexPretti.
That tactics used in #Minneapolis showed us that this is not business as usual.
The DOJ, DHS, FBI all lied despite evidence with the above and #Epstein .
This was 2024 but is also in your face exposed current issues we can fight against.
@MrBranch40 @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
At worst, it's a choice between getting half a loaf and eating rat poison.
"but i want gold encrusted steak"
"that's not on the menu"
"well if i can't get what i want i'm not choosing"
"if you don't choose, you'll get the worst option"
"it's not faiiiiir"
"rat poison it is"
#vote
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@MrBranch40 @SuneAuken @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
Yup, that's the last election in a nutcase - I mean nutshell.
I hope the woman who told a reporter she didn't vote because "the Democrats must be punished" enjoys her D-Con smoothie.
ah the ol' cut my nose off to spite my face routine
classic genius maneuvre that
(/s)
@gunstick @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
oh fuck you
there will be primaries
what the fuck is with you premature capitulation spineless cowards?
don't worry about it gunstick:
if people listen to your spinelessness and therefore don't vote, we can smile cheerfully at each other in the concentration camps because we won't have to worry about history or anything else anymore
fuck off with the premature capitulation
the vote is important
they still vote in venezuela, and their system is *really* fucked
why can't americans have the same backbone as venezuelans?
why be an impotent defeatist whiner?
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@gunstick @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
If you know of actions bringing people together as a force to be reckoned with, at a special time when midterms are on the minds of the reps up for re-election (all of the House of Representatives and a large group of Senators), while the world is up in arms against Trump in so
many ways, for so many reasons, when the economy is getting ever worse ...
then Spread the word for those as well
@brouhaha
> I guess if my county winds up with an awful coroner, it's my fault.
Well, for the incumbent, there is always the "study" of "How did they do the job?" I mean if their are credible complaints you can vote for someone new. Even that simple technique will 'evolve' better government as long as you vote.
Vote for Democrats, vote for republicans, makes no difference you are voting for fascists.
It is time people realize the truth.
Thanks for your input, moron
"BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" is so profoundly stupid, it's kind of funny
the actual quote is
"Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and most of them stink"
But again, you're a moron
the democrats fucking suck
and that's not the point
If only had had made one
scroll up fuckwit
do you make it a habit of reply guying in threads you didn't read just to edgelord with your amazing mindless cynical mediocrity?
Wow someone found a dictionary.
are you 12 years old?
if you are i apologize, i do not want to pick on a little kid
but if you're an adult
oof
well here's my point:
anyone who comes in with "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" is someone i do not respect. i instantly think they are so fucking stupid they are worthy of nothing more than mockery. there is no discussion to be had. there is no education to be had. there is nothing but wondering at how fucking dimwitted and dull some people are in this world
Luckily I am not concerned about your respect.
you're a good soul
you believe everyone can be enlightened
meanwhile, i got the block
which i'm completely happy with
i'm totally ok with calling a moron a moron
this may insult your sense of due consideration
but that's your way, this is mine
just sit on your gold toilet at 3 AM ranting some racist uncle shit in all caps, and you can lead the usa
you do have a gold toilet, right?
yes but it's all above us in the thread
it's not a matter of not telling someone, it's a matter of them not reading
i'm not trying to convince anyone of anything
if someone jumps in with "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" it's such an instant turn off due to the embarrassing display of a cranial cavity the size of a walnut there's nothing else to do except laugh or cringe
and how do you change that genius
or is your point to wallow in misery
i mean, you're pretty miserable, so you have that going for you i guess
I am a realist and don’t cloak myself in useless hope for a politician to come rescue us. you will be waiting a VERY long time for that to happen.
you're not a realist
you're a fucking moron
anyone who goes "BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" is a pathetic dimwit
that's it
there's nothing else to say on the topic
i reject everything you have to say, because i don't respect you. because you say completely fucking stupid things
I'm not sure who you're listening to, but people I know are talking about how to evade the police and guerrilla warfare and such. The Dems are talking about voting and laws, but they're in on the scheme. Everyone else is discussing survival of economic collapse and police states. The reason there's no pushback is not because we won't, it's because we can't. We've been systematically hamstringed as a society for so long....
@cy @idahobucks
just fucking show up in the fucking primaries and get real left candidates
happening in a few weeks
that's how we got mamdani
we can get 50 mamdanis if PEOPLE FUCKING VOTE
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@idahobucks
Sorry Ben yelled at you: I followed you.
You are both right, just about different things
The Dems right now are just non-active seat warmers. I don't see that changing, but they will fix the current, but broken, systems.
It's just fixing the ACA is barely a band aid, and Not going to war as a diversionary tactic the barest of minimums.
The primaries are our chance to elect actually socially conscious persons (Mamdani s) to Dem seats. Then the future has a chance.
@idahobucks
> I have no idea what to do...
Here's one: vote.
Here's another one: encourage other people to vote.
Here's a third one: get involved with groups (I like Indivisible; there are others) that encourage others to vote and act.
Will those, alone, fix everything? Fuuuuuuu-uuuuu-uuuuck No.
But it's part of the process that might work, and taking action is *always* better than not. Welcome.
@jztusk @idahobucks
We really have two choices:
Fight like hell by all means possible, and also vote so that we actually somehow win a rigged election and pull things back from the brink and move forward preserving and reforming some semblance of democracy
-or-
Fight like hell and don't vote, or at least don't vote hard enough to win the election, and then we'll need to fight even more and more violently and we devolve into a civil war and the entire Constitution falls apart and then even when the war is over we have to fight some more against the assholes to draft a new form of government that isn't actually worse than the one we inherited, leaving a lot of blood in the soil along the way.
I don't think voting alone will do it, but I definitely prefer option one over option two.
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@msbellows @jztusk @idahobucks
i think we should forget this stupid democracy thing and have a revolution
in the new system we'll have to figure out some way of governing that considers the will of the people
this authoritarian thing, while it sounds great with the gold toilets and such, tends to be unstable
i think there is something called a "vote"?
and then when we do get the vote, what we can do is never vote and just whine about how we need perfection and should have a revolution
(/s)
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ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES and M.S. Bellows, Jr. reshared this.
@msbellows @jztusk @idahobucks maybe an “anti-vote”; we vote against the politician we despise most rather than for the one we despise least.
Whoever has least votes wins. Still an evil bastard who will act in the own self-interest, obviously, but hopefully less evil than the other bastards.
people hate on AI, but i'm thinking, in terms of government, can it really be any worse than what we're doing to ourselves?
i say just hand all the keys to chatgpt
(/s)
@GentlemanTech @jztusk @idahobucks Praise me for not making this into a sex joke.
(Wait, did i just make this into a sex joke?)
@msbellows @GentlemanTech @jztusk @idahobucks
i don't know
are you trying to steal my idea for technodildocracy?
🤭
what are you doing? the machines love ME. ME ALONE! AAAAHHHH
🤭
@GentlemanTech @msbellows @jztusk @idahobucks
that's what i'm saying
machines may kill us
but it takes sadism only a human is capable of to engulf us in unimaginable suffering
@vgoller @msbellows @jztusk @idahobucks
yeah but i won't die in the revolution: i'm the main character, it's all about me
i got a real good swagger going on, my revolutionary cosplay is on point
i can't wait for mass suffering that makes our current suffering look like a nice walk in the park, and then when it's all done, we can face the same damn shit we already face all over again
yay revolution!
because voting is too hard
(/s)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@msbellows @vgoller @jztusk @idahobucks
hmmmmm....
I mean, of course THEY'RE biased in his favor.
Seriously, though, Read his bio in Wikipedia. The dude was a purist but not necessarily a good collaborator.
@msbellows @vgoller @jztusk @idahobucks
such as it is, such as it always was
M.S. Bellows, Jr. reshared this.
@msbellows @hanktank61 @vgoller @jztusk @idahobucks
very true
and we're all going to find that out soon enough
@msbellows @idahobucks
I'm with you on preferring option 1, but a frighteningly large number are attracted to the sheer drama of option 2.
When picking a movie to watch I can understand the appeal, but I'm our actual lives? I just don't get it.
@jztusk @msbellows @idahobucks
The American public has not faced certain kinds of threats other countries have in a long time, so they are ignorant about what they are risking. That the threat is obvious and real is besides the point. We're talking about morons
And I want those morons' votes!
Which is why, as much as I think Elizabeth Warren would make one of the best presidents we've ever had, I don't think she should be our candidate for president - she's kind of boring.
If morons are willing to give their votes for a bit of drama and excitement, and we can give those to them (without sacrificing too much of our beliefs), then I say let's find a way to provide them.
@jztusk @msbellows @idahobucks
literal cage match politics
@idahobucks
So during Nazi Germany, and fascist Italy you could join the party which would have inside elections. However typically Hitler, and IL Duce made the calls.
Trump is definitely a white/christian nationalist, that has said publicly "Republicans should nationalize the vote.". This IS fascism because it's one party declaring permanent power, and allowing people to have a voice if they join. In some of the U.S. you can vote gop ,and leave as if it's a real election. Vote.
Just wondering how calling someone names (although it feels powerful) gets people to the polls.
just wondering how coddling stupid bullshit that stands against voting (although it feels magnanimous) gets people to the polls
but to answer your question seriously:
it's for everyone else reading along, not the person i'm replying to. although i don't think i've convinced you of the veracity of my approach. but you probably already vote. so: 🤷
@idahobucks
Sure you can. You just need enough of the population to being committed for the change.
The state apparatus is a complex house of cards, and if people don't support it, it collapses.
People always forget that there's no true absolutist monarchy. The monarch is always supported by special interests, and they in turn by their special interests. If you lose the support of the army, or the railway workers, etc., then it's all over.
i completely support that
but even if there is some other way to remove #fascism than voting, the people working that angle will insist people still #vote, because it is merely another tactic in a larger war. the vote as a tool of vandalism/ sabotage is just a strategy
so even if you completely abandon voting in your mind, and you go to some movement working another angle to fight fascism, they will be saying "oh make sure to vote to fuck with them"
so you still vote!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
exactly
and so many hear me going "VOTE ASSHOLES" and think i'm saying "only vote, do nothing else"
no! not what i'm saying
do all the good things. protest, strike, etc
*and* vote
that is my message
meanwhile there are people out there saying "do all the good things *except* vote"
🤦
that is so fucking stupid
or an outright agent provocateur psyop from MAGA or geopolitical troll farm cosplaying left
voting is just another valid tactic
that's it!
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@Bongolian @LilithMonkey @HakeemG @idahobucks
of course
but we must now clarify that "voting is necessary but not sufficient" becomes "voting is not sufficient" becomes "i'm not voting"
not in your mind
but in the mind of certain entitled losers
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@benroyce
vote and organize. if that is stopped by fascism then, well, we'll go from there.
people talking violence before the vote are daft. before the vote, no one knows what they're shooting for, they're isolated, and they're put down
after the vote, if it is denied, and people start shooting, everyone knows why, and they all join in
Spent few days at Hungary in Nov 2924 (was swapping trains), and visited a state-sponsored exhibition adjacent to the city museum.
The city museum spent a lot of time talking about how the city population got massacred when the city was captured from Ottomans in the late 17th century.
Then you moved to the state-sponsored exhibition which outright mentioned that the massacre was good, actually, as it allowed large-scale infrastructure improvements.
Felt dirty just for being there.
VOOOOOTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEE
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
UK suffers a similar problem. Apathy. Nonvoters letting extremists get a toe hold.
There’s a Parliamentary election in Manchester today. The fascist Reform (private limited company) party have broken almost every electoral rule in the run up to it. The state media have platformed the fascists. Nobody has been censured.
Everyone is hoping that enough native Mancunians can see through the bullshit and get out to vote gainst them.
This is NOT helped by lying pollsters - fascists making up their own, the Greens deliberately misrepresenting data (caught by UK Full Fact).
We’ll have the answer tomorrow morning, until then we’re just hoping that people have more sense than turkeys that vote for Christmas.
They gave the fascists a bloody nose. Unfortunately, the vote was split between the two decent parties, but enough chose the Greens to beat Reform into second place.
The combined ‘sensible’ votes came to 65% BUT there was only a 47.2% voter turnout! Ouch. We have to find a way to interest folk in Democracy again.
The #Vox article I recently shared talked a lot about how the response to emerging authoritarianism magnified in other countries, after the threats posed by authoritarians to democracy became too large and too obvious to ignore.
Which hopefully means some of the useless American lumps who didn’t vote in 2024 or somehow believed a vote for #trump would “lower prices” are paying attention to how the #republican party is burning everything down, and will help us vote them out.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
nonvoters are as bad as MAGA
they don't fall for the same psyop, they fall for a different psyop than the one played on MAGA, but coming from the same agenda
that agenda is: goose the right vote, suppress the left vote
so for MAGA they give excitement, encouragement, support
for the left they give helplessness, scorn, defeatism
and it fucking works
*because* so many on the left don't have a fucking backbone
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@Ox1de @mastodonmigration @moz @idahobucks
well we're going to be yelling at each other until there is only one human left
that's all we've ever done and ever will do
regardless, we vote
anyone who can't vote because "people yelling too much" are just weak fools
@Ox1de @mastodonmigration @moz @idahobucks
Well I'm not yelling at you, I'm yelling at nonvoters
And I fully expect them to not care. Or even double down on not voting because I yelled at them. As if someone motivated by emotion is an ally or even on the left. They're just useless entitled lazy assholes
The point of yelling at such people is for the sake of everyone else reading along
Who understand and identify those who don't vote: weak whiners, and resolve not to be like that themselves
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
It's only a shame that, if the 2024 autopsy rumors would be correct, the Democrats [were] supressing their own voters.
i reject that topic
the #democrat establishment is a red herring
anyone not acting, on the basis of spineless #democrats, is a moron
#Mamdani showed us:
you show up in the #primaries, reject #Cuomo
then show up in the general #election, reject Cuomo again
get the real left in power
all the while dem central is hostile to Mamdani
that should excite people!
if instead people whine about the establishment and don't #vote, they are weak losers
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
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@dzwiedziu @Wyatt_H_Knott @moz @idahobucks
I had this in my feed this morning, relevant part at 1:46
youtube.com/shorts/lHvfsbg0A10
TLDW: non-voting citizens is a way bigger problem than non-citizens voting. It's telling which of these "issues" MAGA (and Maple Maga) gets worked up about.
MS NOW’s Ali Velshi is here to discuss the state of our union, voter participation, the Canadian-US divide and so much more. New pod out now! #theweeklyshow ...The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart (YouTube)
@dzwiedziu @Wyatt_H_Knott @moz @idahobucks
Clowns can't distinguish between "suppressing their own voters"
and
STRATEGY.
I assure you, people who liked the idea of Bernie also liked the idea of Fetterman
(and I say this as someone who did vote for Bernie in the primary. But nah, HE couldn't get it done because HE IS BAD AT POLITICS)
"being visibly popular" is only half the job. Maybe less.
@jrm4 I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but he kind of was, no? He knew how to get primary votes in certain parts of the country, but not the South.
@DrSaucy @Wyatt_H_Knott @moz @idahobucks
fair
but i would say psyops against people purporting to be on the left is more an appeal to their vanity and pride: "oh look how moral i am to stand above the ugly world, and not participate" (when in real life their immobilization only helps fascism)
morality without action is not morality, it's ego masturbation. and all action is imperfect. so we act in the good direction. anyone who can't is serving a psychological need, not an ideological need
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
@Wyatt_H_Knott @gunstick @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
if gallows humor gets out the vote, i'll do 10,000x gallows humor
@Wyatt_H_Knott @gunstick @brouhaha @moz @idahobucks
it's better to not be punch drunk
but if you are punch drunk, keep punching
😅
@dnkboston @dzwiedziu @Wyatt_H_Knott @moz @idahobucks
"The South" is a strong proxy for "Black People" -- the voting backbone of the party.
And if you suck at getting that, you suck at the job, period.
Again, I voted for him in the primary, but he proceeded to fail so hard...
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The reality of being a trans person living in a red state is being aware that at any moment I might need to become an intra-state refugee.
If anyone is fleeing Kansas and needs a safe place to stop overnight on the way east, hit me up. I'm in Missouri. I can save you a hotel stop and feed you.
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PSA: The Amazon wishlist doxing threat is much greater and more immediate than folks might realize. Attack works like this:
Stalker who wants your address opens an Amazon seller account and lists themselves as a third party seller for any item on your public wishlist. Then, they order the item from themselves as a gift for you. Bam, they have your address.
In particular, attack does not depend on an existing third party seller having poor PII handling hygiene, like the articles have implied.
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I live in a rural area of my state. This means that everyone living here has to get a USPS PO Box
We get the double edged sword of
...dealing with entities and online vendors that do not accept our PO Box address as valid.
...but also that we are still suceptible to the privacy issues despote that our mail doesnt come to our physical location.
For those interested, USPS has an optional service for PO box holders to use the post office street address to receive packages from Amazon, UPS, FedEx, couriers, etc.
Amazon accepts a post office street address, as well as a PO box, for deliveries, as do most, if not all other carriers and couriers. The exceptions to this may be for insured, bonded, recipient-only, or other such restricted deliveries.
Some Amazon sellers do not ship to PO box addresses but the post office street address seems to be acceptable.
The post office acts as agent to sign for packages if necessary and packages are held for pickup at the post office for some number of days.
The packages are delivered to the post office and do not go to the regional sorting facility. As far as I know the USPS does not permit forwarding of packages to other addresses.
Many post office box lobbies are visible from the outside, where people can loiter and watch a box or boxes of interest for people to collect their mail. Loiterers are usually easy to spot.
And that is about as much as I know about it.
@raymaccarthy @darwinwoodka The idea of a wishlist and the store letting you buy items on someone else's wishlist for them is that it's privacy-preserving for the recipient. They don't have to give their address out to people they want to be able to receive gifts from. Only the store that they already shop at and that already knows their address gets to see it.
What Amazon has done is broken that promise - the whole purpose of the wishlist system - by letting third-party sellers (to whom Amazon needs to disclose the recipient address for shipping purposes) in on wishlists. Now anyone wanting to get your address just needs to sign up as a third-party seller.
so to be clear, just setting the lists private is an immediate mitigation?
I haven't touched this feature since... apparently 2020 (and have only ordered one thing from Amazon since WaPo declined to endorse Harris and I dropped Prime like a hot potato). if I can take it private now and reconsider the existence of these lists entirely when I have more time to do so, that is better for me.
aha, ok.
I miss when amazon was a way to buy books directly from them and that was it...
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I'm hoping we can use this opportunity to get people off of Amazon.
partychickens.net/@mason/11612…
Public service announcement: Amazon hurts people. If you use Amazon, you're okay hurting people.Here are some references. There are many, many more.
2024: Why Amazon Is Bad for Society: Examining the Hidden Costs of Convenience
historytools.org/consumer/why-…2023: Exclusive: ‘I Feel Like I’m Drowning.’ Survey Reveals the Toll of Working For Amazon
time.com/6248340/amazon-injuri…2023: 41 Percent of Amazon Workers Have Been Injured On the Job, New Report Finds
cued.uic.edu/pain-points/2024: Amazon’s Biggest Delivery: Millions of Pounds of Plastic Pollution
foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/07/…2019: 10 Ways Amazon Violates Human Rights
greenamerica.org/blog/10-ways-…2025: Why So Many People Are Boycotting Amazon: 11 Major Complaints Explained
marketingscoop.com/consumer/wh…2023: The Local Harms of Amazon and What State Lawmakers Can Do About Them
economicliberties.us/our-work/…2025: Amazon's Environmental Impact: Unpacking The Harmful Effects On Our Planet
shunwaste.com/article/why-is-a…2024: Amazon workers struggle with injuries and low pay despite company’s profits
prismreports.org/2024/06/05/am…Why So Many People Are Boycotting Amazon: 11 Major Complaints Explained - Marketing Scoop
Amazon features a number of benefits such as Prime Delivery, Prime Video & in-house delivery services. But, why do people hate Amazon?Tom Wells (Marketing Scoop)
I would have expected that wish listing something would mark that exact product from that exact seller as the thing you want. Like... I want this known authentic doodad from this known reputable seller.
Is that not the case?
@Ragashingo that's what they're taking away, as I understand it. So I think it's the case _now_, it will shortly _not_ be the case.
So if you're lucky, you can now get the same thing from a third-party seller. If you're mid-lucky, you can get something passing itself off as the same listing from a third-party scammer. If you're unlucky, your address gets leaked to a third-party stalker.
Clearly I wasn't the only person who read that mail this morning and thought "oh no".
Amazon should have been stopped in their tracks when they first allowed third parties to link their counterfeit items as just being a different seller for the same genuine item, rather than a separate product listing.
The whole late-capitalist fascist hell we're in is a consequence of letting companies do things that were long-illegal and would have been prosecuted as racketeering if not for "with computers" tacked on to the business plan.
Come on guys, we sit on mastodon lamenting the sorry state of the world, and then everyone signs into an amazon account??? If our actions are to give money to an organization that aggressively works to destroy the middle class and liberal democracies world wide, then our words are meaningless... 
Quoting The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hopricy: hypocrisy is the greatest luxury....
@TrimTab The middle-class ableism is strong with this one. Amazon is evil, but often the only way for disabled people or people in rural areas to get affordable items without leaving the house.
Going out to a store is a luxury for those with the time and physical ability.
Postage is a disability tax.
And an Amazon wishlist has for a long time been the easiest way for people to buy things for others without them giving out their address. It is a form of mutual aid. It is not our>
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Emma needs ☕️ and paying work reshared this.
@TrimTab >fault that Amazon has become a behemoth, eating up more ethical competition.
Campaign for regulations instead of blaming the most vulnerable members of society for using what little tools they have to live.
Emma needs ☕️ and paying work reshared this.
There was an email from Amazon UK about this change.
Not that my address is that private, I'm not hard to find but I've set all my lists to Private for now 🙂
very important information
#1bit #pixelart #ドット絵 #픽셀아트 #像素画 #пиксельарт #dotchke #citrus #pixel_dailies @pixel_dailies
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What's happening with our Black men, y'all?
Black men found dead hanging from a tree
Feb. 18, 2026 - Kyle Bassinga, Age 21 - GA
Sept. 15, 2025 - Demartravion "Trey" Reed, Age 21 - MS
Sept. 15, 2025 - Cory Zukatis, Age 36 - MS
Sept. 11, 2025 - Javion Magee , Age 21 - NC
June 18, 2025- Earl D. Smith- Age 58 - Albany, NY
Found dead hanging from a metal chain from a commercial bldg.
Sept. 17, 2024 - Javon Givan, Age 29 - New Mexico
#blackmastodon #blacklivesmatter
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vibe check
we must brutally punish billionaires for:
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millennial fulcrum reshared this.
@StarkRG good distinction, extremely well said.
this poll is about punishing individual billionaires who damage society economically by creating income inequality and for abuse using sexual violence.
I know all billionaires damage society economically, and that some billionaires don't abuse anybody using sexual violence.
but this sentiment-check asks which of the two do we think should be punished.
the topic of billionaire category elimination is a separate topic I'm also interested in.
@rbmath I don't think it's possible for anybody to forget the rest!
but these two items specifically are being checked because I am curious to understand if the news media's choice does or does not represent public sentiment with regard to how it is all being front-page vocal about punishment of billionaire sex crimes whilst remaining completely silent about punishing the financial terrorism of billionaires impoverishing millions into homelessness and death's-edge survival.
@sashin 🤣🤣🤌 good lord
I don't think billionaires would use community-first social media. they'd spontaneously combust.
millennial fulcrum reshared this.
well put.
that influence terrifies me. particularly a scenario where they learn to weild it decisively, instead of the current model of prattling along reactively and weilding it chaotically. which is plenty bad enough!
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The best advice I have for new nerds: Refuse to pay rent.
Don't subscribe. Don't lease. Don't use their cloud. Don't slip down the freemium slope. Don't create accounts on their services.
Buy it once. Run it local. Avoid commercial software.
It'll be a huge pain and you'll be an outsider but it'll be endless, interesting, and hard fun that'll pay you back with a curious mind and an understanding of the fabric of our intellectual infrastructure that will make you light-years more capable, useful, and healthy than the "AI" zombies.
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@fluffydotorg streaming for discovery purposes is fine - beats the old model of “I liked this song, I’ll buy the CD” and then find out the one song was the only good one after you’re out $15.
But if you like an artist, buy the album. Get a physical copy that will be yours permanently.
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I understand, many reasons exist that make paying rent seem better and you're not wrong, exactly. You are, however, missing my point.
The situations that make us want to pay rent *are* what make us zombies. 🧟 Working the hard fun in order to own our stack *is* what makes us capable and curious.
Notice the reasons why paying rent makes sense and then ask yourself, "Who made that situation? Why is that the convenient path? Does a different choice, no matter how inconvenient, even exist?"
Look around for people living a different way and then modify it for yourself, day after day.
You'll get there. I believe in you.
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Palantir Technologies is suing Republik Magazine over an investigation into Palantir’s activities in Switzerland, published in December 2025. The lawsuit demands a counterstatement and is currently being heard by the Zurich Commercial Court.
Read the story that made Palantir sue us — now available in English. #palantir #freemedia
republik.ch/2026/02/18/how-ten…
Internal documents show how the country finally rejected pitches by tech company Palantir.December (Republik)
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Palantir is suing us. Your support helps us fight back. Stand with independent journalism!
Support our work with a one-time contribution for this article — or become a member of our cooperative to sustain our ad-free journalism in the long term.
One-time contribution: republik.link/contribution-plt…
Monthly subscription (from CHF 11): https:/ republik.link/monthly-pltr
Annual membership (from CHF 222): republik.link/member-pltr
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Sensitive content
Attached: 1 video A house needs more than 1 bathroom. Traffic jams all too common with just 1. #caturdayHoward Chu @ Symas (Mastodon)
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In rapid succession:
- former British royal arrested
- former Korean president sentenced
- former Norwegian PM charged
- former French and Brazilian presidents imprisoned
And then there’s Trump and the Republican-appointed justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/madd…
In many democracies, criminal suspects are often held accountable — even if they’re politically powerful, even if they’ve served at the highest levels.Steve Benen (MS NOW)
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Well, for those of you concerned that you've just been labeled a domestic terrorist, take heart in the fact that you're joined by at least a third of the country. The most dangerous thing about declaring war on a large swath of your own citizens is, what if they take you up on it?
#uspol
So what exactly does it mean when the President signs a "domestic terrorism," or rather a national security directive declaring anyone left of Bull Connor is a terrorist? Well, I'm glad you asked, because for the most part US corporate media either didn't bother to report it, or treated it like another in Trump's long line of unhinged executive orders that are terrifying, but do not by themselves spring the full power of the US government into action. As this important article published by independent national security state critic Ken Klippenstein makes abundantly clear - this order has teeth, and represents "a declaration of war on anyone who does not support the Trump administration and its agenda."kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-n…
Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”
"With the mainstream media distracted by the made-for-TV drama of James Comey’s indictment, Trump has signed a little-noticed national security directive identifying “anti-Christian” and “anti-American” views as indicators of radical left violence. Called National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, it’s being referred to as “NSPM-7” by administration insiders.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left wing terrorism,” Trump’s homeland security advisor Stephen Miller said, referring to the issuance."
Okay you'll have to forgive me for heavy quotations, because what Ken articulated here, still hasn't sunk in enough to factor into the analysis of most corporate media minions. NSPM-7 is not only the backbone of Trump's authoritarian agenda right now, but if indeed America does become the nazi dictatorship of Trump (and the right)'s dreams, this barely reported national security directive may be the critical reason why. Since we already covered who NSPM-7 instructs to target (everyone who isn't a MAGA nazi and opposes Trump's fascist agenda, even nonviolently) I want to focus on the forces the Swine Emperor is bringing to bear on not just protestors, and activists, but scholars, media critics, elected officials, and literally anyone who isn't nice enough to nazis.
"NSPM-7 is fundamentally a law enforcement directive, and it dispenses with the complications of using the active duty military or the National Guard in pursuit of political violence. It directs the Department of Justice to focus the FBI’s approximately 200 Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) to the new mission. The FBI network of task forces comprises over 4,000 members—including FBI personnel and task force officers (or TFOs) from more than 500 state and local agencies and 50 federal agencies, including special agents, police officers, intelligence analysts and surveillance technicians. First established in New York City in 1980 to systematize FBI and NYPD cooperation, today there are task forces around the country, including at least one in each of the FBI’s 55 field offices.
For the Trump White House, the beauty of using an already existing network is that it bypasses Congressional oversight and scrutiny and even obscures federal activity to governors and legislatures at the state level. States, cities, and local police have already signed Memoranda of Agreements with the feds to fight terrorism and officers are already assigned as task force officers."
You read that correctly; by signing NSPM-7, the Swine Emperor just repurposed the entire federal counterterrorism apparatus consisting of thousands of murderpigs spread across the country to go after wine moms who call him a nazi, journalists who report on the nazi shit he does, and politicians who criticize his nazi regime in the public discourse. It's a microwave COINTEPRO operation, made to order.
"Now, with Donald Trump’s directive retooling the counter-terror apparatus to go after Americans at home, this means monitoring political activity, or speech, as an investigative method to discover “radicalism.”
The focus on speech is evident throughout NSPM-7. The directive says that political violence is the result of “organized campaigns” that often begin (with the left) dehumanizing targets in “anonymous chat foras, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions.”
Of course, NSPM-7 is written in enough right wing newspeak about "fomenting violence" to throw casual observers off the trail, but I think the part where NSPM-7 tells us who decides what is terrorism gives the game away.
“The Attorney General shall issue specific guidance that ensures domestic terrorism priorities include politically motivated terrorist acts such as organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder,” NSPM-7 says.
So Pam Bondi gets to decide who is a terrorist now and yes folks, that says "civil disorder." Or, you know, a protest. Cool country we got here, huh?
#Trump #Fascism #NSPM7 #StephenMiller #PamBondi #PoliceState #COINTELPRO #Dictatorship #FBI
Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”
New directive targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinionsKen Klippenstein
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