#Resistance

[reboundttv]

Good rule of thumb:

Literally anywhere online where you can post your thoughts is likely one shitty law(yer) away from being a treasure trove of all your worst thoughts, uploaded to the government to use for God Knows What.

Do Not Organize Online, unless it's through something that is (almost certainly) guaranteed to not already be compromised, or can be leaked, to the Worst People You Know. That includes Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, fucking Friendster.

hi, i’m your local laid off discord employee, here to talk about exactly how safe it may or may not be to talk about Political Activism on discord. my credentials here are that i was a senior member of discord’s trust & safety team, which is the team that handles bans, legal investigations, and legal compliance. (my speciality was in child safety, anti-grooming, and taking down CSAM, but i also worked occasionally in low level terrorism issues and assisted that team in investigations.) i also know most of the people still working there in these capacities.

the tldr and most important thing to know is: i do not recommend you plan, discuss plans, or use any kind of hyperbolic (or not) language about violence to government officials or anyone in that vicinity on discord. please use signal instead.

a discord trust & safety employee is technically able to see any message you’ve sent under your account, going all the way back to the beginning of your account. unless you have manually deleted a message, it is viewable to a tns employee. now: it is a tremendous part of being on a tns team that we did NOT invade user privacy without cause. cause was usually: another user reported something you said, and we thought the reported message indicated you might be doing something elsewhere that was illegal (for example: a user says “i’m talking to this girl but she’s in high school lol.” i would then try to find evidence as to whether or not there was a child safety issue there. in this example, we’d require clear admission of age from both the user and the alleged high school girl, and then clear evidence of sexual talk between them, and go from there.) finding evidence required looking though all of that user’s messages.

most of the tns team, as i know them, are pretty resolute about not going further in looking than would be needed for action. most of the tns team that i still speak to is very much on the side of blue. your general conversations are probably perfectly safe, and we were very good at figuring out quickly if someone has reported you maliciously. i don’t believe you need to worry too much about your porn and fanfic and all that.

HOWEVER: reported content must be investigated, and discord can, and has been, legally subpoenaed to turn over user information. again, this has nominally been in Very Evil cases (CSAM and grooming, school shooting threats, murder admissions, etc.) but that could change, either at the federal level, or at the discord policy level. discord, like any social media company, could easily be pressured or forced into taking on different internal policies that could get you in serious trouble if you are organizing violent or “illegal” resistance. if that happens, there is a scenario where this incoming administration is given access to your messages.

again: please do not organize your political or social resistance on discord from now on. please use signal to ensure your maximum safety. do not panic if you have already talks about things on discord: you can easily delete your messages, and that WILL remove from an employee’s view. do that and use signal from now on.

stay safe. i love you. 💕

[kropotkindersurprise]

November 17, 2024 - An incendiary bomb was thrown at the entrance to Netanyahu's residence in the town of Caesarea, causing a fire at a security post. [video]

[monetizeme]

[victusinveritas]

Reminder: Allies out there, allyship takes action, not just cute posts like this.

[resisttrump]

Republicans have shifted so far right that they became Libertarians and no one is talking about it.

The republicans are the problem, get rid of all of them!

[unic0rnsandmurder]

One of my life's hard-won lessons is that people basically do what they want to do.

If someone is treating me poorly and they do not respond to my requests to stop or change their behavior, that's not because I didn't ask the right way. It's because this is how they want to act.

So I'm going to skip the political recriminations that the left didn't offer the right messaging or that Dems need to work harder to appeal to [insert demographic here] voters.

The voters had the information they needed and they have made their choice. It is not our job to coax people into caring about others/the planet/their own future. Voters are not cats hiding under the bed. It's insulting to everyone to act like they are.

This is what most of the voters wanted. Accepting that fact means we are in a much better position to do real good where we can instead of continuing to bang our heads against the wall of indifference.

I reject the idea that I have to make caring palatable for people who don't wanna. Letting go of that "obligation" to perfect the message frees my energy for things that will actually move the needle.

Remember the Pirkei Avot: "You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it."

[sailing-ever-west]

the trolley problem vs. systemic oppression: a comic.

[houseofpurplestars]

Americans: "self-immolation is pointless, it's tragic, it doesnt matter, no one cares, its mental illness..."

The rest of the world:

[Image id: a billboard in Sanaa, Yemen in memory of Aaron Bushnell. /end id]

The text reads:

Top: "I will no longer be complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Free Palestine".

Bottom: "The martyr of rejection to the American Genocide / the American soldier Aaron Bushnell"

@Aldanmarki

[haroldjaffe]

Image description:

A text post by user Fesshole (@fesshole)

Text:

As a teenager in Neustrelitz (East Germany), I painted small stones purple and left them all over town. Did it for years. It drove the police and Stasi nuts. It meant nothing. It just felt good to do something they couldn't control or understand.

[izzylimon]

PLEASE SHARE

[jloisse]

Don’t stop talking about Palestine 🇵🇸

[gael-garcia]

They Do Not Exist (1974) by Mustafa Abu Ali (watch)

from PalestineCinema.com:

Salvaged from the ruins of Beirut after 1982, Abu Ali's early film has only recently been made available. Shooting under extraordinary conditions, the director, who worked with Godard on his Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere), and founded the PLO's film division, covers conditions in Lebanon's refugee camps, the effects of Israeli bombardments, and the lives of guerrillas in training camps. They Do Not Exist is a stylistically unique work which demonstrates the intersection between the political and the aesthetic. Now recognised as a cornerstone in the development of Palestinian cinema, the film only received its Palestine premiere in 2003, when a group of Palestinian artists "smuggled" the director to a makeshift cinema in his hometown of Jerusalem (into which Israel bars his entry). Abu Ali, who saw his film for the first time in 20 years at this clandestine event noted: "We used to say 'Art for the Struggle', now it's 'Struggle for the Art'"

[hopepunk-humanity]

ANTI-CAPITALIST AFFIRMATIONS

i am allowed to spend my time creating things, even if they are not beautiful.

there is no such thing as a "real job." all forms of work are real and valid.

there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy.

doing nothing is good for my soul.

i am not defined by what i produce.

my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements.

i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is enough to spend time doing something i love.

i will not let society decide what success looks like. i can define what successful life looks like for me.

[bfpnola]

[resisttrump]

There is no more tolerance left.

[because--palestine]

"what does international law mean for Palestinian children in Gaza today? It has protected neither them nor their parents. It has not protected their families or communities, it has not protected their lives or limbs, it has not protected their hopes or homes. We are a proud and resilient people that has endured more than its share of agony.

It is so painful to be Palestinian today. "

Today at the international court of justice hearing on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, held back tears as he appealed to the judges to uphold international law in the Palestinian territories and help secure a two-state solution 'in which the two-states live side by side in peace and security'.