#The Great Civics Lesson

[calicojack1718]

Recovering from the Disillusionment of Trump's Election and His Daily Explosive Diarrhea of Lies, Propaganda, and Other Bullshit

Reading time: 5 minutes I'm finding it difficult to figure out how to oppose Trump and everything he's doing. I find public moaning about it helpful. Maybe you will, too. Maybe together we can come up with some concrete plans.

Remembering the Resistance of 2017The Great Civics LessonUnderstanding and Responding to the Challenge of Trump2020: The Final Defeat of Trump and MAGA2024: Obeying in Advance by Corporate AmericaThe Search for Purpose and a Way ForwardImage Attribution Narcissism, Nihilism, and the Destruction of America or Why We’re so Fucked As many have observed, 2025 has been a no-good, very bad year so…

[pinkrangerv]

Nuance moment:

The sex registry is bullshit, but public sex is not sanitary, and if you're infected with something and don't know--you know how it's a few days between catching the cold virus from a sick person and getting sick yourself? yeah, STDs or other illnesses have that lag time too--you can transmit it by just...wiping your butt on something, essentially.

If you're having sex in the outdoors, too--like you're banging on a sandy beach or in a romantic forest--there's a risk to you, because there's tons of plants and animals that can cause allergies or carry contaminants, and by the way, did you know animals will just crap in random places? Yeah. Bad plan here.

Both of the above pose a risk to others and yourself, because either you catch something and take up hospital space that someone in an unavoidable situation needs, or you give something to someone else. This is morally wrong regardless of the law, because you don't want to give a kid your unwitting horrific stomach flu or be the guy in the ER with an exotic disease taking them away from the car crash victims.

That said, banging in a car\tent\shower\whatever is not dangerous. If you're not somewhere out of the way it's rude, but not dangerous.

This particular bit of nuance is on this post, specifically, not just as sex advice, but as a thought: Laws are meant to prevent danger, not enforce rude or polite, or even morality. So how would you, the person reading this, think about how to frame different laws around this? Because at some point, you'll presumably get a say in who makes the laws. You need to be able to see if their idea is reasonable, and that means you need an opinion on what's reasonable.

So think about it. What do you think?

it's also like. people hearing public sex and immediately jumping to "people will be PERVERTS fucking in front of CHILDREN!!!!" is, in fact, just the result of anti-homeless, racist, homophobic, and transphobic (specifically transmisogynist) propaganda and legislation going back Decades upon Decades upon Decades.

The phrase "public sex" has historically been used to criminalize sex work and homelessness, at increasing rates for people who are multiply marginalized.

If you've ever had sex in your car? You technically "belong", legally speaking, on the sex offenders registry. This includes alleys, abandoned buildings, forests, and more!

If you can't see how this framing has been pushed over time to make you have an incredibly reactionary response to the concept, immediately jumping to "public sex is for PERVERT DEGENERATES" then like. You're beyond saving at that point.

[thebrickinbrick]

What Is To Be Done In the Abyss if One Does Not Converse? Part 2

About two o’clock in the morning, they reckoned up their strength. There were still thirty-seven of them.

The day began to dawn. The torch, which had been replaced in its cavity in the pavement, had just been extinguished. The interior of the barricade, that species of tiny courtyard appropriated from the street, was bathed in shadows, and resembled, athwart the vague, twilight horror, the deck of a disabled ship. The combatants, as they went and came, moved about there like black forms. Above that terrible nesting-place of gloom the stories of the mute houses were lividly outlined; at the very top, the chimneys stood palely out. The sky was of that charming, undecided hue, which may be white and may be blue. Birds flew about in it with cries of joy. The lofty house which formed the back of the barricade, being turned to the East, had upon its roof a rosy reflection. The morning breeze ruffled the gray hair on the head of the dead man at the third-story window.

“I am delighted that the torch has been extinguished,” said Courfeyrac to Feuilly. “That torch flickering in the wind annoyed me. It had the appearance of being afraid. The light of torches resembles the wisdom of cowards; it gives a bad light because it trembles.”

Dawn awakens minds as it does the birds; all began to talk.

Joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from it.

“What is the cat?” he exclaimed. “It is a corrective. The good God, having made the mouse, said: ‘Hullo! I have committed a blunder.’ And so he made the cat. The cat is the erratum of the mouse. The mouse, plus the cat, is the proof of creation revised and corrected.”

Combeferre, surrounded by students and artisans, was speaking of the dead, of Jean Prouvaire, of Bahorel, of Mabeuf, and even of Cabuc, and of Enjolras’ sad severity. He said:—

“Harmodius and Aristogiton, Brutus, Chereas, Stephanus, Cromwell, Charlotte Corday, Sand, have all had their moment of agony when it was too late. Our hearts quiver so, and human life is such a mystery that, even in the case of a civic murder, even in a murder for liberation, if there be such a thing, the remorse for having struck a man surpasses the joy of having served the human race.”

And, such are the windings of the exchange of speech, that, a moment later, by a transition brought about through Jean Prouvaire’s verses, Combeferre was comparing the translators of the Georgics, Raux with Cournand, Cournand with Delille, pointing out the passages translated by Malfilâtre, particularly the prodigies of Cæsar’s death; and at that word, Cæsar, the conversation reverted to Brutus.

“Cæsar,” said Combeferre, “fell justly. Cicero was severe towards Cæsar, and he was right. That severity is not diatribe. When Zoïlus insults Homer, when Mævius insults Virgil, when Visé insults Molière, when Pope insults Shakspeare, when Frederic insults Voltaire, it is an old law of envy and hatred which is being carried out; genius attracts insult, great men are always more or less barked at. But Zoïlus and Cicero are two different persons. Cicero is an arbiter in thought, just as Brutus is an arbiter by the sword. For my own part, I blame that last justice, the blade; but, antiquity admitted it. Cæsar, the violator of the Rubicon, conferring, as though they came from him, the dignities which emanated from the people, not rising at the entrance of the senate, committed the acts of a king and almost of a tyrant, regia ac pene tyrannica. He was a great man; so much the worse, or so much the better; the lesson is but the more exalted. His twenty-three wounds touch me less than the spitting in the face of Jesus Christ. Cæsar is stabbed by the senators; Christ is cuffed by lackeys. One feels the God through the greater outrage.”

Bossuet, who towered above the interlocutors from the summit of a heap of paving-stones, exclaimed, rifle in hand:—

“Oh Cydathenæum, Oh Myrrhinus, Oh Probalinthus, Oh graces of the Æantides! Oh! Who will grant me to pronounce the verses of Homer like a Greek of Laurium or of Edapteon?”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

NEXT WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

#15yrsago D&D-style map of C++ https://alenacpp.blogspot.com/2009/06/c.html

#15yrsago Passive-aggressive umbrella-cops foil Tiananmen reportage https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8082604.stm

#15yrsago Heartbroken cereal litigant loses suit over non-existence of “Crunchberries” https://www.loweringthebar.net/2009/06/reasonable-consumer-would-know-crunchberries-are-not-real-judge-rules.html

#15yrsago DC’s buried, secret government wires patrolled by rapid-response goon-squad https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002114.html

#15yrsago Visualizing how a dirty Congresscritter turned campaign contributions into earmarks https://web.archive.org/web/20090606211116/http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/06/04/vis-a-visclosky-or-how-i-learned-to-take-campaign-contributions-and-turn-them-into-earmarks/

#15yrsago TOSBack: EFF’s real-time tracker for changes in terms of service on popular Internet sites https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/06/03-0

#10yrsago Colbert viewers learned more about super PACs than news-junkies https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/stephen-colberts-civics-lesson-or-how-a-tv-humorist-taught-america-about-campaign-finance/

#10yrsago FCC’s website crashes, John Oliver’s army of Cable Company Fuckery trolls blamed https://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/2259240/fcc-website-hobbled-by-comment-trolls-incited-by-comedian-john-oliver

#10yrsago Secret service developing a sarcasm detector. Oh great. https://web.archive.org/web/20140604004533/https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=8aaf9a50dd4558899b0df22abc31d30e&tab=core&_cview=0 #10yrsago Five dumb things that NSA apologists should really stop saying https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/top-5-claims-defenders-nsa-have-stop-making-remain-credible

#5yrsago Empirical analysis of behavioral advertising finds that surveillance makes ads only 4% more profitable for media companies https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/empirical-analysis-of-behavioral-advertising-finds-that-surveillance-makes-ads-only-4-more-profitable-for-media-companies/

#5yrsago European legal official OKs orders that force Facebook to globally remove insults to politicians like “oaf” and “fascist” (as well as synonyms) https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/european-legal-official-oks-orders-that-force-facebook-to-globally-remove-insults-to-politicians-like-oaf-and-fascist-as-well-as-synonyms/

#5yrsago The New York Privacy Act goes even farther than California’s privacy legislation https://www.wired.com/story/new-york-privacy-act-bolder/

#5yrsago Joe Biden repeatedly claimed to have marched for civil rights. He didn’t. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/politics/biden-1988-presidential-campaign.html

#5yrsago Why is there so much antitrust energy for Big Tech but not for Big Telco? https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/why-is-there-so-much-antitrust-energy-for-big-tech-but-not-for-big-telco/

#5yrsago Magic for Liars: Sarah Gailey’s debut is a brilliant whodunnit in the vein of The Magicians https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/magic-for-liars-sarah-gaileys-debut-is-a-brilliant-whodunnit-in-the-vein-of-the-magicians/

#1yrago Ayyyyyy Eyeeeee https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/ayyyyyy-eyeeeee/

[taraross-1787]

Hi, everyone -- I had a new “this day in history” story written for this morning. It was about something that happened during the Civil War. It feels wrong to post that story, though, given the events of the weekend. I don’t want to tell a story about a time when we were divided. Instead, count me among those who are joining the call for unity today. With that in mind, I’ve pulled a quote from Ronald Reagan’s farewell address in January 1989. It’s reprinted below.

It's long past time that we remember who we are. God Bless America!

-------------

“[A]re we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. . . .

. . . . we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important -- why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, “we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.” Well, let’s help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.

And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ‘em know and nail ‘em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.

. . . .

I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”

[sailermoon]

I read such a great little non-fiction historical picture book for an assignment yesterday and it actually made me start crying but it really made me consider what we teach kids about civil roles and what it means to be a citizen in society and I was just struck by how the books theme was how disobedience to authority had been the right choice which goes against what we mostly teach kids about civic responsibilities in social studies

and there was an accompanying article about how another teacher had used this book and he had his students talk about what it means to be a good citizen and they listed stuff like honesty and following rules and laws and then they read the book after and they talked again about what it means to be a good citizen and he was like well he didn’t do any of this? and it was just such an amazing lesson on critical literacy and sparked conversations about the complexity of your role in society and what type of individual you strive to be

[warsofasoiaf]

So regarding the Fallout tv series, do you think the NCR is well and truly gone, or can it still survive? Because I always thought there was a story in askinf if the NCR can and will learn from the mistakes from the past, or just repeat the cycle.

In Fallout canon (the games, not the show), by 2 and New Vegas, the NCR is far larger than just Shady Sands and the surrounding environs - they've grown to include Vault City, the LA Boneyard, etc. With the resource crises that New Vegas has been talking about with the NCR, nuking a major capital city could easily cause the NCR to fracture into smaller settlements.

Of course, Shady Sands was nuked, and the show retconned Shady Sands to be in LA so that they could be destroyed in the Boneyard as well, which does not exactly strike me as sound stewardship of the Fallout canon. So the NCR can easily collapse just because the writers say it needs to, rather than expanding the resource crisis. Because research is hard.

The question of whether the NCR can learn from the mistakes of the past is a valid one. Caesar talks about plutocratic corruption of the NCR and despite the fact that he's a slaving expansionist, he's not altogether wrong to say that corruption in the NCR is leading it down the same path that the United States did when its leadership became the Enclave. He's not right either, of course, because Caesar's conception of "civic virtue" is a nation devoted entirely to him that falls apart after his death. More appropriately, the resource crisis that the NCR has is pushing them along the similar path to the Resource Wars of the United States. They're conscripting their younger generation and throwing them into the fire just like the United States did, in order to expand into the Mojave.

This message is muddled. Mr. House says "If you want to see the results of democracy, look out the window," but in practice, the Great War was actually fired by an autocratic world power (China) and the United States had long become an oligarchic deep state under control of the Enclave. Another issue of retcon comes with House being a member of the nefarious Business Council at the end of the TV show, which means that the House of Fallout: New Vegas makes the statement knowing full well it's a transparent lie, because writing coherent settings is hard.

Finally, the downfall of the NCR doesn't happen because of their refusal to learn the lessons of the past, it happens because Hank is big sad Rose left him for Shady Sands. Perfectly fine for the message of the Vault-Tec executive who saw other people as little more that guinea pigs for social experiments to destroy an entire civilization in a fit of pique, but that undermines the message of the NCR pursuing the same relentless jingoism that the United States to have them be destroyed. Because providing a satisfying payoff is hard.

Thanks for the question, Ikac.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Bob Dylan & The Hawks - San Jose Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, December 12, 1965

Artificial Intelligence is coming for us all — it's like we've all forgotten the lessons of Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. But what if Skynet was used for good?! Like cleaning up old Bob Dylan audience tapes?! Well, that's what we've got here, thanks to YouTube user Bob M, who has applied some AI tech to Allen Ginsberg's famed recording of Dylan and the Hawks in San Jose (the recording that for years was thought to be a Berkeley show from around the same time).

How does it sound? It's definitely an improvement, boosting Dylan's vocals and balancing things out, making for an altogether more pleasant listening experience. Don't expect miracles — this is still an almost-60-year-old AUD, but it's nice to clear away some of the sonic cobwebs. Now, as a friend rightly requested, can we get Skynet to work on the VU's Legendary Guitar Amp Tape?! Or "Sweet Sister Ray"???!!

Anyway, who needs an excuse to listen to such a cool performance? It's a great document, especially recommendable for the songs that weren’t played during the infamous 1966 tour – a rollicking “Tombstone Blues,” a majestic arrangement of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” (with a great solo from Robbie Robertson) and the only known Dylan-sung version of “Long Distance Operator,” which The Band would record later on. The performances here aren’t nearly as intense as they’d get in the next few months; there's a pleasant swing to things, an ease and warmth. And the crowd actually seems pretty into the then-new electric-style Dylan. At least no one’s calling Bob “Judas” here.

[100vern]

get to know your mutuals ★ tag game

@glossdebut tagged me in this so long ago and i only just remembered last night. i am SO sorry, my beloved. tysm for tagging me.

what's the origin of your blog title? i want vernon to collab with 100 gecs

favorite fandoms: ah, i'm not sure? aside from this blog and fanfic, i am not super active in any other fandom spaces. but i have been spending most of my online time in a svt server and i have a severance server with my friends, so just those i guess.

OTP(s)/shipname: me and jin despite whatever delusions mj has

favorite color: dark green. black. baby pink.

favorite game: pokemon crystal. i haven't played it since i was a kid, but it's still my favorite video game ever. it's not even the best pokemon game ever but it is to me.

song stuck in your head: surprisingly there isn't one rn which is how i know i'm getting closer to the correct dosage of adderall

weirdest habit/trait? i can only use specific utensils but that's the neurodivergence, i think

hobbies: reading, writing, refinishing furniture/antiquing, rehabbing cats apparently

if you work, what's your profession? broadcast operations for tv/radio

if you could have any job you wish, what would it be? mysterious english professor at a prestigious university that dresses like judy funnie

something you're good at: writing (i hope) <- keeping aqua's answer; rehabbing sick kittens, interior design i think?

something you're bad at: moving on from things that no longer serve me but are convenient (i am terrified of change), remembering to take my meds, putting my laundry away

something you love: the people in my life, cats, space age design, baseball, the city of philadelphia, tattoos, thunderstorms

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: right now it's all my severance theories. but also like aqua, early-mid 2000s bandom. politics but i don't dare.

something you hate: washing my hair but also how i feel when my hair is dirty

something you collect: photocards, but i haven't been super into it lately

something you forget: i have never forgotten a thing in my life (except taking my meds on time)

what's your love language? quality time

favorite movie/show: my favorite tv show of all time is psych, but i also love buffy, veronica mars, true detective (s1 only), lost, severance; movies - kiki's delivery service, home alone, a bunch of others i am forgetting bc i am not a huge movie person.

favorite food: i have never met a dumpling from any culture i haven't loved

favorite animal: cats

are you musical? hm. i'm gonna say maybe - i have taken instrument lessons throughout my life and was able to play and read music but i never stuck with them. my husband is a musician though so it kinda seeps in through osmosis. i know more about guitar pedals than i ever thought possible.

what were you like as a child? pre or post ptsd dlkfgjslg

favorite subject at school? in grade school it was always english and government classes (civics/world conflicts), but in college it was science. microbiology and infectious disease specifically.

least favorite subject? i liked math but i wasn't good at algebraic math (i am great at geometry and statistics tho). chemistry (took it 3 times in college lmfao). i also was not good at spanish but i nailed every other language class i took (french, italian, german).

what's your best character trait? i'm great in a crisis. nothing rattles me in the moment.

what's your worst character trait? i have no ambition dsdflksjg

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? my water bottle wouldn't be in the other room

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? ronald reagan. i just wanna talk.

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love): all you're giving me is friction (seokjin) by my most beloved @imnotshua

tagging: anyone who wants to! pls do this so i can be nosy and learn about u guys and not full like a burden by tagging people who may not want to be tagged <3

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

DOVE TALE

Again and again I find myself sheepishly admitting that Star Trek, as in the original series, is my all-time favorite TV show. It's a little embarrassing to acknowledge that, north of sixty years old, I keep going back for comfort and refreshment to the corny sci-fi show that I loved as a kid.

Worse yet, for all the show's sophomoric heavy-handedness and cultural chauvinism and ludicrous science and inconsistently applied social values, I keep finding relevance, even prescience in it.

For instance, this past weekend I watched the third-season episode, scripted by the redoubtable Jerome Bixby (also author of the story that became the Twilight Zone favorite "It's a Good Life"), called "Day of the Dove..."

You may remember it: Both the Enterprise and a crew of Klingons arrive at a planet, lured there under false pretenses by a powerful incorporeal alien Entity. Through a variety of mind tricks and matter transmutation, the Entity gets the Federation crew and the Klingons trapped together aboard the Enterprise, which is hurtling out of control on course to leave the galaxy.

Onboard, the factions are allowed their own turf, armed with swords--Scotty admires "a Claymore..."

...and psychically aroused to furious hatred toward their adversaries and even toward each other. They soon discover that the conflict between them is self-renewing; their wounds heal miraculously and the Entity allows neither side complete victory.

As a kid, I always thought it was a pretty cool episode. It had plenty of action, including swordfights, and the coolest and most badass of all the original series Klingons, Kang, played by the rumbly-voiced Michael Ansara...

...towering over Shatner...

It was also the only glimpse we ever got, in the original series, of Klingon women, notably Susan Howard as Kang's wife and science officer Mara...

In the course of the show Chekov, under the Entity's evil influence, attempts to violate Mara, although it looks like she could smack his little ass across the corridor with one hand.

Along with Chekov, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura all get to work themselves up into highly entertaining angry lathers in this one. Shatner's in particularly hilarious, wound-up form here: "Look at me...Look. At. Me." And there's the great moment when the hysterical Scotty, responding to Spock's attempt to calm him, says "Keep your Vulcan hands off me," but it sounds like he said "Keep your f**kin' hands off me."

But watching it the other night, it occurred to me that this episode seems unusually relevant these days. I noticed this a few years ago about the second-season episode "The Omega Glory" as well. The theme, about the dangers of fetishizing and theocratizing America's foundational documents and other objects of patriotic regard like the flag, seems like a pedestrian, basic civics lesson. But it turns out that our society needs to be reminded of it regularly.

Similarly, with "Day of the Dove," the message might seem, at a glance, like the usual honorable but ineffectual Star Trek platitudes about the horrors of war and the bondage of bigotry and the liberating virtue of tolerance. But now, in light of the revelations from the Dominion lawsuit, it has a strikingly specific subtext. Because, of course, the reason the invading Entity is attempting to create this hellish eternal conflict on the Enterprise is that it feeds on violent hatreds, turning from yellowish-white to a happy shade of red...

...when it sucks up some delicious fury.

It creates false narratives in people's minds to stir up their bloodlust--Chekov claims his brother was killed by the Klingons; Sulu later explains that the brother is imaginary, as Chekov is an only child--and feeds both sides with propaganda to gin up enmity. Essentially, the Entity is a farmer, planting outrage so that it can harvest rage.

In other words, the Entity is Fox News, and the "news" media machine of which Fox News is the most successful and egregious example. I mean, isn't it, kind of?

In this context, some of Bixby's lines take on an extra resonance, as when Kirk speculates "Has a war been staged for us, complete with weapons and ideology and patriotic drum beating? Even...Spock...even race hatred?"

Or, when Kirk says "It exists on the hate of others," and Spock replies "To put it simply. And it has acted as a catalyst, creating this situation in order to satisfy that need."

Or, again, Kirk's desperate appeal to Kang, in the climactic minutes: "...and it goes on, the good old game of war, pawn against pawn! Stopping the bad guys. While somewhere, something sits back, and laughs, and starts it all over again."

In the end, Kang is persuaded, a truce is ordered, and the weakened Entity is chased off the Enterprise to hearty laughter from both sides...

Kang slaps Kirk on the back and for a second it looks like Kirk is going to pass out. A lovely moment; I would highly recommend it for our nation right now. But as the Entity goes flittering off the ship into space, it's all too easy to imagine it scurrying down to some TV "News" Network on some unsuspecting planet.

[calicojack1718]

The Great Civics Lesson: The Reason Polls Show Agreement on Social Issues but Office Holders Don't

There has long been a mismatch between what people tell pollsters on topics like abortion and gun violence and how they vote. Here's a look at how political scientists explain the difference.

SUMMARY: There is a discrepancy between widespread public support for certain policies and the passage of contrary legislation, particularly regarding divisive social issues. What political and psychological influences explain this divide? How can there be so much agreement on what should be done, and so little action towards it? Personal perceptions, mainstream and partisan media narratives, and…

[jbeansblog116]

Critical Literacy: Reading Journal 3

I’m honestly surprised by the sort of shock seen by those being introduced to Critical Theory for the first time. In all honesty, it feels like something that should be straightforward for any teacher, but I was incredibly surprised to hear from my classmates that it is not. For those that haven’t heard of it before, Ira Shor in What is Critical Literacy? Differentiates it from “basic” literacy; it is almost entirely separate. She writes, “literacy is understood as social action through language use that develops us as agents inside a larger culture, while critical literacy is understood as ‘learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one's experience as historically constructed within specific power relations’’ (Shor 2). Coming from a student in Florida, I can understand in the current day and age how there is a lack of really anything “critical” being taught in a classroom. I understood that politics have developed strong ties in education, but I never realized how this is the way it has always been.

Shor adds, almost sarcastically, that, “In many ways, the project of critical literacy fits the savage and contentious time in which it emerged. In recent decades, America has been moving left and right at the same time though not in the same way or at the same speed, I would say” (8). I would say she’s right. I think now more than ever it’s important for students to be able to read and write critically. I could go on for days about how it’s being banned in order to keep those in power, in power and the average student clueless, but that’s another topic for another time. Instead, I’ll introduce another text we read this week that I feel segways into a proper way to involve students in a classroom. The piece we read was Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom by Henry Giroux. After being split up into groups to discuss the reading, I was surprised to find that my classmates and I had all picked one specific quote. It reads:

“What Paulo made clear in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his most influential work, is that pedagogy at its best is about neither training, teaching methods, nor political indoctrination. For Freire, pedagogy is not a method or an a priori technique to be imposed on all students but a political and moral practice that provides the knowledge, skills, and social relations that enable students to explore the possibilities of what it means to be critical citizens while expanding and deepening their participation in the promise of a substantive democracy. Critical thinking for Freire was not an object lesson in test-taking, but a tool for self-determination and civic engagement” (Giroux 716).

For me, I liked the idea of having a pedagogy be more than just a tool that was used in a classroom; it’s not just a teaching method. Every class I’ve taken so far in my graduate studies has viewed it as such. Giroux really takes it a step farther, arguing that Freire’s version of critical pedagogy keeps kids not just engaged, but also giving them the ability to come to their own social and civic ideas and values. Yet, I feel that it needed more concrete ways to introduce these topics and reading skills to students.

During class discussion, our professor stated that there is an inherent power imbalance between the teacher and the student, and the education system as a whole is based off of it. Some may argue that it’s the way it should be, but I disagree entirely. I think not allowing the students to have some sort of power in their own classes leaves them feeling ostracized; having been a student (and still being one), I’ve felt this way. While the teacher may respond to their questions, they aren’t truly heard. I think a great pedagogy that could get students thinking and writing critically would be the blank syllabus. By having students argue for and selecting specific works from an anthology, they are forced to relate their own experiences to why a class should read a text as they advocate for it’s inclusion into the class syllabus and schedule. By having students able to vote and select some of their texts, it restores their power in a way that benefits class discussion and thus an inclusion of their different perspectives. While the anthology would be approved by the professor, the students themselves pick what exactly suits them, their needs, and their expectations for the class. This wouldn’t be a cure-all solution, as everyone learns in different ways and what works for some may not work for all, but keeping things the way they are without some sort of intervention or reworking is just, bluntly, ridiculous.

[bright-tatters]

Tatters #31

The telegram came from Leonard Ingrace, the senile Councilor from Tatters and Fortune’s most fractious puppet.

FORTUNE WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP SENDING CHILDREN UNDERFOOT STOP CEASE THIS AT ONCE STOP

Fortune did not bother with anything so crude as a telegram. Instead he wrote in dark red ink:

A civics lesson, Councilor. We were invited to bring our best to a field trip. I consider the trip a success. The students involved are to be commended.

Please address my request regarding the inter-Ward transfer regulations. This overhaul will measurably improve our manufacturing throughput. Time is of the essence.

Cordially,

F

He had to trade his letter for one incoming from Central. Really worried now, Fortune opened the message. It was marked from Florence Sperant of Lamp Ward, who had absolutely no reason to complain about him.

Mr. Fortune,

I had the pleasure of meeting your protégée at the Parthenon this morning. I stopped her before she could do anything. I am intrigued by her implications but disturbed that you should act through an innocent agent.

Central is no place for your indentured servants.

Florence Sperant Councilor, Lamps Ward Council of Light, Photia

Well, the red ink was still on his desk.

Councilor, It gives me great pleasure to know that you enjoyed the encounter.

Please believe me when I say that I do not send children into Central for spying. I have never met the six who attended the Parthenon; they were selected by local teachers. I do not wish to interfere with their growth, apart from college tuition when appropriate. Consider it a scholarship for the gifted. Just as you would grant for any of your constituents.

The extraordinary can grow in the poorest soils, if managed.

Very sincerely yours, F

[anthonybialy]

Liberally Wrong About Israel

Israel has some nerve surviving.  It’s like they’re trying to encourage anti-Semitism.  The country that keeps fighting just because others keep punching also embarrasses its critics.  Scolding about hunting terrorists embodies how the left sees everything.  Honorary North Koreans get war sides wrong like it’s the economy.  The next round of printing cash will be the one that lets us buy what we want.

Figuring oppression is innate leads to reflexively seeing who’s its victim.  The only way to exacerbate warped claptrap about incessant mistreatment is to identify the alleged oppressor incorrectly.  Of course, atrocity’s enablers do that.  One side targeted the other, which is inconvenient for foes of coherent timelines who think corporations discovered greed after Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Ask who Hamas admirers think were World War II’s bad guys to at least get some giggles out of their shame.  Uncannily siding against one particular faith also involves thinking loser countries have gotten robbed.  The Third World party isn’t having much fun.

The team with less surely must be exploited.  A faction that’s unable to devise anything surely couldn’t be resentful against one that can: in fact, we’re told they’re just trying to get their stuff back.  The alternative is that hard work and creativity lead to success, and we can’t let conservatives start to think they’re right.

Believing there’s a finite amount of wealth is the standard belief of the useless.  Forget trying to actualize any: those who mooch off the productive can’t even conceive of contributing.  Personal desires motivate the philosophy of the ironically selfish as they condemn the greed of those who desire to keep what they earn.

There sure is a lack of empathy amongst those who claim to care about everyone else.  Retailers offering value resemble Israel building an outlet out of sand, and such entrepreneurship spurs resentment in social justice studies majors.

Identifying who’s victimized is a challenge invented by those who don’t like anything easy.  Israel is a shark tank surrounded by a sea of predators.  Pretending it’s the neighborhood’s aggressor is a common hobby for those who coincidentally also damn cops instead of criminals.  America’s vanishing property spike resulted from Democrats getting everything they want.

The keffiyeh crew announcing which place they prefer enhances their emblematic cognitive dissonance.  Offer the chance to live anywhere in the Middle East including Gaza for the real chance to live with allies in earthly paradise.  A relocation to somewhere more diverse is not just an opportunity to flee racist police state America but a chance to put values into practice.  Funding moving expenses would be a great grant program for a civically-minded wealthy free market fan.  As for the beneficiaries, they should scout locations for a pride parade.

Creating a comfortable country out of nothing is a testament to ingenuity.  Those who think government is the source of productivity are outraged.  Liberty’s opponents get to loaf because of it.  Uncannily, they universally think Israel’s thriving must be either a matter of random luck or predatory plundering.

Israel is not good at colonialism.  They occupy land that was theirs since the dawn of recorded history that nobody else wanted.  Demanding their share of something that belongs to someone else is how Israel’s enemies inspire affinity in Western leftists.

The joke about God’s chosen people living in the one Middle Eastern place with no oil is funniest because they didn’t let it bother them.  Sighing about what’s unfair before working to withstanding it offers a crucial life lesson about what to do with what we’re handed.  Israel possesses something way more valuable than fuel.

The gift of developing character by working hard isn’t the most fun one to receive, but it’s rather useful in this rather imperfect world.  As a result of overcoming not being handed a cushy life, Israelis established the one country you’d want to live in if you were in the vicinity.  Their concocted pleasantness is exponentially cozier than living on the quad with student commies.  Only one of the two groups can obtain their own groceries.

Israel defends itself after manufacturing prosperity.  Of course they’re despised by the left.  Responding righteously to an assault seems a little too close to exercising Second Amendment rights.  A concealed carry country shows why the virtuous deserve to arm themselves.

Screwing up identifying aspects of reality is the pinko brand.  Outrage is reserved for daring to suggest punishment for illegal immigrants who tally second crimes.  As for citizens, they particularly adore those who have turned to shoplifting as a career.  Looking at the global scale involves presuming terrorists have legitimate beefs.

Bad guys have regrettably good friends.  Woke lunatics express sympathy for the turnstile-hopper instead of the commuter who occasionally foregoes lunch to afford a ride.  The concert slaughterer motivated by having land that was never theirs and nobody wanted stolen will always find backing from the 2020s’ purveyors of radical chic.

The only crimes indolent adversaries of society care about are imaginary ones.  Justice’s warpers maintain a grievance toward Israel like it’s a supermarket that uses plastic bags.  New York City is once again renowned for muggings, but at least villainous pizzaioli can’t cook with coal.

Political junkies who got every policy they want fume at how lousy conditions have become.  Avoiding troublesome notions about consequences is common amongst those who put sanctimoniousness in place of sense.  Zealots who conclude their cause is righteous will do everything possible to demonize heathens.  If they’re fighting for the survival of millions, then anyone opposed must be diabolical anti-social justice goons.  Acting obnoxiously is part of the commitment to preening.

Israel made it when nothing in the natural realm went its way.  I wonder if there’s a term for that.  Persevering when everything tells you to quit shows character at its best, unlike what its frothing critics flaunt.

If class warfare warriors really believed in conquering persecution, they’d be praising Israel nonstop.  Instead, the Hamas Campus Camping Club decided the side fighting back against human demons who massacred music festival attendees is the one perpetrating genocide.  

Doing the right thing when it’s unpopular is decried by fans of the trendy.  Declare pronouns along with contempt for the one country that happens to be Jewish.  Uproar over preserving their existence could be based in more than anti-Semitism just because the shriekers hate everything connected to that particular religion, including those humans and nation that practice it.

The republic that wouldn’t take its beating like a bitch will never be forgiven for it.  Using weapons just makes the mean war even more repressive.  Seeking out grievances while impugning the one place with genuine ones is how leftists stay consistent.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

YES I AM STILL DOING OC-TOBER! I DON'T CARE THAT IT'S MID-NOVEMBER, I'MMA FINISH THIS DAMMIT!

By the way. Remember when I told you I did prompt 21 last time? Yeah that was a lie, that was prompt 20. TODAY is prompt 21, draw your OC with your favorite character

I have a lot of favorite characters from a lot of favorite medias, but I have firmly decided that my favorite book of all time is Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison. It's the second book in a series, and it is SOOOOOOOO good.

Anyway, my favorite character from that book is the blue fairy Serge. He's a fashionable model of professionalism who is waiting for his asshole boss to retire so that he can fix the fairy-godparenting business to help children in need instead of just rich brats. All of his carefully laid plans are abruptly hijacked when he gets an apprentice in Jasper, the crimson fairy who RADIATES dramatic theatre kid energy. I refuse to spoil anything else though.

In the Land of Tyme (the world where this book is set), witches are created by selling their souls to the Great White Fairy in the Sky (who's an asshole, but not explicitly a satanic allegory). To maintain their lives and powers, they have to consume innocence, usually accomplished by eating children. Witch and fairy magic do NOT mix, don't play nice with each other, repel each other, and make the users of both physically weakened and ill. It's like poison.

While Hazel's done some heinous stuff, she's not a cannibal, and she only preys on other evil people. Serge has no way of knowing this, and would be absolutely horrified in a number of ways if he met a child witch, while Hazel would just be confused.

Everybody go read The Land of Tyme series by Megan Morrison, it's been intricately worldbuilt to a degree that I would actually describe the books as lessons on civics, ethics, and politics disguised as fractured fairytales. They're REALLY REALLY good. Anyway.

[thepowerisyouth]

Eh mental health is annoying. Buying & cooking cheap low-FODMAP diet is annoying. My best top note for now is I'm using this blog to practice writing. I need more practice in it. I only know business, accounting & economics stuff. Its stupid stuff. Theres too much actual fraud everywhere that its annoying

Also I use mobile so formatting sucks cause Nvidia GPUs, or Arch dont like tumblr site. Or tumblr site dont like tumbkr site

Also also I 100,000% support all my fellow ones-and-zeros and their identity. Everyone is welcome here.

Except transphobes/zionist/long list of others but you get it. I'll help harrass any of those types endlessly if someone wants to tag me, and bring me in on an argument like that friend you call for backup with fights

Im unhinged so who's to say exactly what will end up here but this is also a completely public blog to me friends, family, hell, even acquaintances i dont give a fuc.

Blog should be expected to be roughly as child-friendly as simpsons or bobs burgers. But also boring like a civics/economics lesson sometimes. Yay

--------

I (and my husband) am ex mormon. Its a weird thing. Look into it if you havent recently. Realllllyyyy look into. Takes time to figure it all out in this fuckin fucked up world.

I just moved a year ago. Didnt watch the US stock market as much as I normally do. Had my first snowstorm 10 weeks ago, that was.. fun to handle while ill prepared. About 6 weeks ago I was hopping back on the market and notice its a huge tech bubble about to pop and all the conditions Ive been warned about my whole career imply this is not good. Just took a little more thinking & digging and I'm a little too confident to stop talking about it now.

(Oh I'm also care-free as fuc so I dont really read or desire to change past posts more than lil-nitpicks. More informative for the reader & myself-in-the-future-reading that way)

And I'm not kidding I do love feedback & questions. Its a very public blog tho so I get that part for sure.

If you search "life story" in my tags I had that pinned for a min Im just moving shit around rn

Being poor sucks. Will write more on that later.

---------------

First of all-- the exact timeline of an "economic shock" is literal insanity. Dont worry about the exact timing of any of this-- just know its doomed to happen soon.

Here are some effects I predict of this upcoming economic downturn

If anyone comes across any sources for these events that support my arguments please feel free to add in comments, reblogs, etc.

This concise list is mainly for my own reference, but it would be great to add to it if any one has something to add!

0.5. US Stock market collapse-- I have no desire to try and predict this one exactly. Too many conspiracies are actually correct about this big guy. Lets just say 7 US Tech stocks are worth 25% of the entire worlds market, roughly. "Too big to fail"-- I believe is the phrase

1. Corporate (slightly later will be residential by extension) real estate crisis: currently way too overvalued. Most of the houses, land, & urban corporate property we see could stand to decrease by about 60-90% from its current price.

2. Bankruptcy crisis: similar to the after-effects of the 70s inflation-- we can expect to see a huge wave of bankruptcies affecting a variety of business: from the micro-self employed; to the small business with leased buildings; to the largest corporations who commit massive accounting fraud & hope to escape accountability in time

3. Bank runs-- there is an extremely high overreliance on the Federal Reserve, who does not have good control over this situation. Once it becomes clear that there is a crisis (we call this a catalyst event)-- bank runs for physical cash are a surety. Hard to say how long a crisis like this might last. I should ask my siblings who lived near the SVB bank crisis hotspot (but those were rich fucks they do their "bank runs" over the phone)

3.5. Global currency collapse, which takes effect in every single local, state, & national economy at slightly different times. This means prices lower. Much lower. But takes time

4. Whatever the fuck the geopolitics is gonna do???. Its weird. You got Russia wanting to invade Europe? (Look at global economic forum 2024) Trump wants to let them. Biden wants to be an establishment corporate ass. North Korea has changed its #1 public enemy to South Korea (dont remember my source but it was a couple months ago). USA is stationing more troops in Taiwan, but probably only because of semiconductor technology?

The scope of our global financial woes are larger than can be explained in any of our lifetimes. Its much, much closer to pre-revolution France or the late 1920s. Big change is coming. Itll be soon

5. More to come