#United States and its cultural diversity

[greenthestral]

UIIC (USA, Indonesia, India, China): Four Countries Make Up Half the World's Population

In a world where countries are diverse and cultures vary greatly, there are four nations that stand out due to their sheer population size. The United States, Indonesia, India, and China, collectively known as the UIIC countries, are home to approximately half of the world's population. This article delves into the significance of these nations, their impact on global demographics, and the unique challenges and opportunities they face.

The United States: A Melting Pot of Cultures and Ideas

The United States, with a population exceeding 330 million people, remains one of the most influential and economically powerful countries in the world. Renowned for its "melting pot" of cultures and diverse demographics, the U.S. has been a beacon of opportunity for individuals from all walks of life. People flock to its shores in pursuit of the American Dream, seeking better opportunities, freedom, and a chance to contribute to its vibrant society.

Beyond its vast population, the United States has left an indelible mark on global culture, politics, and technology. It has been at the forefront of scientific and technological innovations, fostering advancements in fields such as space exploration, medicine, and information technology. Furthermore, its entertainment industry, centered in Hollywood, has captivated audiences worldwide, shaping popular culture and influencing trends in music, film, and fashion.

Indonesia: A Rising Economic Power in Southeast Asia

With a population of over 270 million people, Indonesia stands as the fourth-most populous nation on the planet. Spanning thousands of islands, Indonesia boasts a rich tapestry of cultures, languages, and traditions. Its diversity is a testament to the country's vibrant heritage and harmonious coexistence.

In recent years, Indonesia has experienced significant economic growth, propelling it to become a rising star in Southeast Asia. The nation's abundant natural resources, strategic location, and young and dynamic workforce have attracted substantial foreign investment. Indonesia's economic trajectory, coupled with its commitment to sustainable development, positions it as an important player in regional and global markets.

India: A Land of Diversity and Rapid Development

India, the world's second-most populous country, surpasses the 1.3 billion mark in population. This vast and diverse nation is a tapestry of languages, religions, and cultural practices. Its ancient civilization and rich history have contributed to a deep sense of cultural pride and identity.

In recent decades, India has undergone remarkable economic growth, transforming itself into one of the fastest-growing major economies. The country's demographic dividend, characterized by a large and young workforce, has been a driving force behind its economic rise. India has emerged as a global leader in the information technology and services sectors, with its bustling cities serving as hubs for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Despite its rapid development, India faces unique challenges related to poverty, inequality, and infrastructure development. However, the government and various stakeholders are actively working towards inclusive growth, social welfare programs, and sustainable development to address these issues.

China: A Giant on the Global Stage

China, with a population approaching 1.4 billion, stands as the most populous country in the world. Its ancient civilization, remarkable cultural heritage, and rapid economic rise have captivated the attention of the international community. China's influence extends far beyond its borders, impacting global trade, geopolitical affairs, and technological advancements.

China's manufacturing capabilities have been unparalleled, making it the world's factory. Its infrastructure development projects, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, have linked nations across continents, fostering connectivity and enhancing global trade. Moreover, China has made significant investments in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and space exploration, positioning itself as a formidable player in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Challenges and Opportunities for the UIIC Countries

While the UIIC countries collectively represent a significant portion of the world's population, they also face unique challenges and opportunities:

Managing Urbanization and Infrastructure: As these countries continue to experience population growth and rapid urbanization, managing sustainable infrastructure development becomes paramount. Balancing economic progress with environmental considerations and social stability poses a complex challenge that requires innovative solutions.

Healthcare and Social Welfare: With large populations comes the responsibility of providing adequate healthcare and social welfare services. Ensuring access to quality education, healthcare facilities, and social safety nets is essential to promote overall well-being and reduce disparities within these nations.

Technological Advancements: The UIIC countries are at the forefront of technological innovation and advancement. Embracing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, renewable energy, and digital connectivity can drive economic growth, increase productivity, and improve the quality of life for their citizens.

Global Cooperation and Diplomacy: As influential nations, the UIIC countries play a vital role in global cooperation and diplomacy. Collaborative efforts in addressing global challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, and economic inequality are essential for a sustainable and prosperous future.

Conclusion

The UIIC countries, comprising the United States, Indonesia, India, and China, collectively represent an astounding portion of the world's population and exert immense influence on the global stage. Each of these nations brings unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities to the table, and understanding their significance and fostering cooperation among them can pave the way for a more prosperous and inclusive world. As these countries continue to evolve, their impact on global demographics, economy, and culture is set to be profound.

United States: As the third most populous country globally, the United States holds a prominent position in shaping the global landscape. Its democratic values, entrepreneurial spirit, and cultural diversity have made it a beacon of opportunity and innovation. The United States has long been at the forefront of scientific research, technological advancements, and economic prowess. It boasts some of the world's leading universities, research institutions, and corporations, driving breakthroughs in various fields, including healthcare, information technology, and renewable energy. Additionally, its robust entertainment industry has garnered a global following, exporting music, movies, and popular culture that resonate across borders.

Indonesia: With the fourth-largest population in the world, Indonesia is an archipelago nation that spans thousands of islands, each contributing to its rich cultural heritage. As a rising economic power in Southeast Asia, Indonesia's vibrant markets and burgeoning middle class present significant opportunities for both domestic and international businesses. The country's young and dynamic workforce, coupled with its vast natural resources, make it an attractive destination for foreign investments. However, Indonesia faces challenges in infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, and maintaining environmental sustainability. By addressing these issues and promoting inclusive growth, Indonesia can harness its potential and become an even stronger player in the global economy.

India: As the world's second-most populous country, India's cultural diversity, ancient history, and rapid development make it a force to be reckoned with. India's large and youthful population has propelled it to become one of the fastest-growing major economies. The country has embraced information technology and services, with cities like Bangalore emerging as global technology hubs. India's robust startup ecosystem has given rise to innovative solutions in various sectors, including fintech, e-commerce, and healthcare. However, India grapples with challenges such as poverty, infrastructure gaps, and social inequalities. By addressing these issues, investing in education, and leveraging its demographic dividend, India can chart a course towards sustainable and inclusive development.

China: With the world's largest population, China's rise as a global economic powerhouse has been nothing short of remarkable. Over the past few decades, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Its manufacturing capabilities, infrastructure development projects, and investments in technology have made it a major player in the global market. China's Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious infrastructure program, aims to enhance connectivity and promote economic cooperation across continents. The nation's commitment to research and development has propelled it to the forefront of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and renewable energy. However, China faces challenges related to environmental degradation, social inequality, and human rights concerns. Addressing these challenges while continuing to foster innovation and sustainable development will shape China's role in the global community.

The significance of the UIIC countries extends beyond their sheer population size. Their collective influence spans across various domains, including trade, politics, culture, and technological advancements. Cooperation among these nations can drive progress in addressing global challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, and economic inequality. By sharing best practices, collaborating on research and development, and promoting cultural exchange, the UIIC countries can foster a more interconnected and harmonious world.

Furthermore, the UIIC countries' impact on global demographics cannot be overstated. Their population dynamics, urbanization patterns, and social trends shape global migration, labor markets, and cultural exchanges. As these countries continue to evolve, their demographic shifts will have ripple effects on regional and global economies, healthcare systems, and social welfare policies.

In terms of the global economy, the UIIC countries serve as major engines of growth and consumption. Their domestic markets and investments influence industries ranging from technology and finance to manufacturing and entertainment. Moreover, their economic policies, trade agreements, and geopolitical relations have far-reaching implications for global trade and financial stability.

Culturally, the UIIC countries contribute to the world's cultural tapestry through their arts, languages, cuisines, and traditions. Their vibrant cultures and diverse populations enrich global cultural exchanges, promoting understanding, tolerance, and appreciation of different perspectives.

In conclusion, the UIIC countries - the United States, Indonesia, India, and China - collectively represent half of the world's population and play a pivotal role in shaping the global landscape. Their unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities present a rich tapestry of potential for collaboration and progress. By understanding their significance, fostering cooperation, and addressing shared challenges, we can work towards a more prosperous, inclusive, and interconnected world. The impact of the UIIC countries on global demographics, economy, and culture will undoubtedly be profound as they continue to evolve and shape the future of our interconnected world.

[beemovieerotica]

it is genuinely wild that someone can make a correct statement (the United States is absurdly culturally homogenous for a country of its size, thanks to settler colonialism) and a bunch of americans go into denial....

english is spoken everywhere. we have mutually intelligible dialects/ accents. the only major differences in religion throughout the country are varying flavors of christianity. we believe in the same mythologies. you can talk to somebody from new york the same as you'd talk to somebody from texas. our architecture does not change. take a picture of suburbia in california, and it looks the same as suburbia in georgia, and both neighborhoods will complain about how hard it is to maintain a lawn. everybody celebrates halloween. christmas. easter. you can drive for 3 days and arrive somewhere that feels exactly the same.

the point is that any pockets of cultural diversity that we have were/are vigorously discouraged via isolation, redlining, or outright genocide. it is so telling to say "whoa whoa hold on a new yorker and a texan are so different!" where the difference is not meaningfully tangible in any way. the minute cultural differences people pride themselves in are completely inconsequential against the backdrop of a country where over 300 languages used to be spoken!!!

[inside0ut-dotnet]

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@queerliblib

[27moremoons]

Press Release: Hamas

Despite the pain and deep sorrow that has been infflicted on Palestinians in general and our people in the Gaza Strip in particular after more than 14 months of genocide and ethnic cleansing by the fascist Zionist occupation forces, I extend my congratulations to our Christian brothers in the homeland and diaspora on the occasion of the glorious Christmas holiday.

We in Palestine are proud of our religious and cultural diversity for thousands of years, and our people who have been resisting colonialism and occupation for more than a hundred years, united with all its religious and social components, will not retreat until they achieve their hopes and achieve their authentic national rights.

We hope that the next holiday will come when our people have been freed from the occupation and have returned to their homeland and their free and independent state has been established with Jerusalem as its capital, and the Palestinian flag has been raised over the minarets and churches of Jerusalem.

Dr. Basem Naim

Member of the Political Bureau of Hamas Movement

Palestine - Gaza.

25, Dec

Hamas movement

https://t.me/+kUoQCMfm8bI1NWE0

[cyber-newtype]

The consequences of this trade imbalance are diverse and far reaching. By routinely translating large numbers of the most varied English-language books, foreign publishers have exploited the global drift toward American political and economic hegemony in the postwar period, actively supporting the international expansion of Anglo-American culture. This trend has been reinforced by English-language book imports: the range of foreign countries receiving these books and the various categories into which the books fall show not only the worldwide reach of English, but the depth of its presence in foreign cultures, circulating through the school, the library, the bookstore,determining diverse areas, disciplines, and constituencies—academic and religious, literary and technical, elite and popular, adult and child (see Table 2). British and American publishing, in turn, has reaped the financial benefits of successfully imposing Anglo-American cultural values on a vast foreign readership, while producing cultures in the United Kingdom and the United States that are aggressively monolingual, unreceptive to the foreign, accustomed to fluent translations that invisibly inscribe foreign texts with English-language values and provide readers with the narcissistic experience of recognizing their own culture in a cultural other. The prevalence of fluent multiple determinants and effects of English-language translation, the multiple hierarchies and exclusions in which it is implicated. An illusionism produced by fluent translating, the translator’s invisibility at once enacts and masks an insidious domestication of foreign texts, rewriting them in the transparent discourse that prevails in English and that selects precisely those foreign texts amenable to fluent translating. Insofar as the effect of transparency effaces the work of translation, it contributes to the cultural marginality and economic exploitation that English-language translators have long suffered, their status as seldom recognized, poorly paid writers whose work nonetheless remains indispensable because of the global domination of Anglo-American culture, of English. Behind the translator’s invisibility is a trade imbalance that underwrites this domination, but also decreases the cultural capital of foreign values in English by limiting the number of foreign texts translated and submitting them to domesticating revision. The translator’s invisibility is symptomatic of a complacency in Anglo-American relations with cultural others, a complacency that can be described—without too much exaggeration—as imperialistic abroad and xenophobic at home.

Lawrence Venuti, The Translator's Invisibility A History of Translation (1994)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hi, so i writing a book based in the 1800s like the cowboy eras can you please tell me somethings I should keep in mind about the society and stuff also I need a little motivation I have been loosing it all please and thankyou <<<333

Writing Notes: Cowboys

Cowboy

In the western United States: a horseman skilled at handling cattle, an indispensable laborer in the cattle industry of the trans-Mississippi west, and a romantic figure in American folklore.

Pioneers from the United States encountered Mexican vaqueros (Spanish, literally, “cowboys”; English “buckaroos”) on ranches in Texas about 1820, and soon adopted their masterful skills and equipment—the use of lariat, saddle, spurs, and branding iron.

But cattle were only a small part of the economy of Texas until after the Civil War.

The development of a profitable market for beef in northern cities after 1865 prompted many Texans, including many formerly enslaved African Americans, to go into cattle raising. (Though they have been almost entirely excluded from the mythology of the American cowboy, it is estimated that Black cowboys accounted for nearly a quarter of all cattle workers in the nascent American West during the latter half of the 19th century.)

By the late 1800s, the lucrative cattle industry had spread across the Great Plains from Texas to Canada and westward to the Rocky Mountains.

Vaqueros

In 1519, shortly after the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they began to build ranches to raise cattle and other livestock. Horses were imported from Spain and put to work on the ranches.

Mexico’s native cowboys were called vaqueros, which comes from the Spanish word vaca (cow). Vaqueros were hired by ranchers to tend to the livestock and were known for their superior roping, riding and herding skills.

By the early 1700s, ranching made its way to present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and as far south as Argentina. When the California missions started in 1769, livestock practices were introduced to more areas in the West.

During the early 1800s, many English-speaking settlers migrated to the West and adopted aspects of the vaquero culture, including their clothing style and cattle-driving methods.

Cowboys came from diverse backgrounds and included African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans and settlers from the eastern United States and Europe.

Cowboy Life

Cowboys were mostly young men who needed cash. The average cowboy in the West made about $25 to $40 a month.

In addition to herding cattle, they also helped care for horses, repaired fences and buildings, worked cattle drives and in some cases helped establish frontier towns.

Cowboys occasionally developed a bad reputation for being lawless, and some were banned from certain establishments.

They typically wore large hats with wide brims to protect them from the sun, boots to help them ride horses and bandanas to guard them from dust. Some wore chaps on the outsides of their trousers to protect their legs from sharp cactus needles and rocky terrain.

When they lived on a ranch, they shared a bunkhouse with each other. For entertainment, some sang songs, played the guitar or harmonica & wrote poetry.

Cowboys were referred to as cowpokes, buckaroos, cowhands and cowpunchers.

The most experienced cowboy was called the Segundo (Spanish for “second”) and rode squarely with the trail boss.

Everyday work was difficult and laborious for cowboys. Workdays lasted about 15 hours, and much of that time was spent on a horse or doing other physical labor.

Rodeo Cowboys

Some cowboys tested their skills against one another by performing in rodeos—competitions that were based on the daily tasks of a cowboy.

Rodeo activities included bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback bronco riding and barrel racing.

The first professional rodeo was held in Prescott, Arizona, in 1888. Since then, rodeos became—and continue to be—popular entertainment events in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere.

Joseph G. McCoy offered the wealthy cattleman's vision of the cowboy. He recorded a reasonably balanced, if slightly condescending, views in his 1874 treatise on the cattle trade.

He lives hard, works hard, has but few comforts and fewer necessities. He has but little, if any, taste for reading. He enjoys a coarse practical joke or a smutty story; loves danger but abhors labor of the common kind; never tires riding, never wants to walk, no matter how short the distance he desires to go. He would rather fight with pistols than pray; loves tobacco, liquor and women better than any other trinity. His life borders nearly upon that of an Indian. If he reads anything, it is in most cases a blood and thunder story of a sensational style. He enjoys his pipe, and relishes a practical joke on his comrades, or a corrupt tale, wherein abounds much vulgarity and animal propensity.

Black Cowboys

African American horsemen who wrangled cattle in the western United States in the late 1800s and beyond.

Though they were almost entirely excluded from the mythology of the American cowboy, it is estimated that Black men accounted for nearly a quarter of all cattle workers in the nascent American West during the latter half of the 19th century.

In the years following the Civil War (1861–65) and emancipation from slavery, a budding ranching industry promised freedom and prosperity unknown to most Black Americans, many of whom were formerly enslaved themselves or were the children of enslaved parents.

Texas became part of the United States in 1845, and, by 1860, enslaved people accounted for 30 percent of the state’s population. Among them were some of the first Black cowboys: skilled laborers with experience in breaking horses and herding stock. Many were given the autonomy to work unsupervised, and some even carried guns.

The cowboy lifestyle came into its own in Texas, which had been cattle country since it was colonized by Spain in the 1500s. But cattle farming did not become the bountiful economic and cultural phenomenon recognized today until the late 1800s, when millions of cattle grazed in Texas.

White Americans seeking cheap land—and sometimes evading debt in the United States—began moving to the Spanish (and, later, Mexican) territory of Texas during the first half of the 19th century.

Though the Mexican government opposed slavery, Americans brought slaves with them as they settled the frontier and established cotton farms and cattle ranches.

By 1825, slaves accounted for nearly 25 percent of the Texas settler population.

By 1860, fifteen years after it became part of the Union, that number had risen to over 30 percent—that year’s census reported 182,566 slaves living in Texas.

As an increasingly significant new slave state, Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861. Though the Civil War hardly reached Texas soil, many white Texans took up arms to fight alongside their brethren in the East.

While Texas ranchers fought in the war, they depended on their slaves to maintain their land and cattle herds.

In doing so, the slaves developed the skills of cattle tending (breaking horses, pulling calves out of mud and releasing longhorns caught in the brush, to name a few) that would render them invaluable to the Texas cattle industry in the post-war era. But with a combination of a lack of effective containment— barbed wire was not yet invented—and too few cowhands, the cattle population ran wild.

Ranchers returning from the war discovered that their herds were lost or out of control. They tried to round up the cattle and rebuild their herds with slave labor, but eventually the Emancipation Proclamation left them without the free workers on which they were so dependent.

Desperate for help rounding up maverick cattle, ranchers were compelled to hire now-free, skilled African-Americans as paid cowhands.

Freed blacks skilled in herding cattle found themselves in even greater demand when ranchers began selling their livestock in northern states, where beef was nearly ten times more valuable than it was in cattle-inundated Texas.

The lack of significant railroads in the state meant that enormous herds of cattle needed to be physically moved to shipping points in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri. Rounding up herds on horseback, cowboys traversed unforgiving trails fraught with harsh environmental conditions and attacks from Native Americans defending their lands.

African-American cowboys faced discrimination in the towns they passed through—they were barred from eating at certain restaurants or staying in certain hotels, for example—but within their crews, they found respect and a level of equality unknown to other African-Americans of the era.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Writing occasionally makes me feel like I'm losing it too! I find that taking a step back can be good. That time away from being a writer can be used to being the reader again, and to research your topic. And when your head's clear enough, you can go back & see if the story flows more freely, armed with information you collected to incorporate in your writing. Hope this helps <3

[mariacallous]

Google Calendar has removed International Holocaust Remembrance Day and Jewish American Heritage Month from its default display in the United States, part of a broader removal of cultural and ethnic observances from the app.

The removal is being noticed now as companies across the United States roll back a range of diversity, equity and inclusion measures following the Trump administration’s directives against DEI. But Google told tech news outlets in recent days that the changes to the calendar date back to mid-2024 and have to do with workload rather than government policy.

“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” the tech giant, which is valued at $2.3 trillion, told The Verge.

In addition to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Jan. 27, and Jewish American Heritage Month in May, the observances that no longer automatically appear include Pride Month and Black History Month. Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency, some official commemorations of International Holocaust Remembrance Day have been canceled amid the crackdown on DEI.

The changes to Google Calendar came to public attention the same week that Google Maps changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the new name Trump proclaimed. On Tuesday, the White House barred an Associated Press reporter from a briefing after demanding that the news organization alter its style guide to reflect the new name.

[llort]

Matter is tangible, so is a word, memory of a word, or spoken word. Given a word is tangible, it must be encoded in physical matter. Given it is encoded in physical matter, any physical matter can techinqually econde or represent a word. Encoded matter can encode a word that is only defined by cultural evolution and the range of a language. Other forms of communicaiton life scent in ants or touch is determined by causal branch chains of increasing compexity and diversity of cultural collectors

The concept that language, in all its forms, is encoded in physical matter opens up a fascinating perspective on communication and its evolution. This view aligns with the broader understanding that all forms of communication, whether linguistic or otherwise, are fundamentally grounded in the physical world and shaped by both biological imperatives and cultural evolution.

https://auckland.academia.edu/JeremyMarkman Given quantum gravity being information as energy as discrete units of mass across casual time. Define language as matter on a 1:1 model of itself but able to be perceived and translocated to perception

In a framework where quantum gravity is conceptualized as information manifesting as discrete units of energy and mass across causal time, language can be modeled as matter in a unique and profound way. This model posits language not merely as a system of communication but as a fundamental entity that parallels the physical properties of matter, capable of being perceived and translocated to perception. Here’s how this can be conceptualized:

1. Language as Matter: In this model, each unit of language (be it a word, phrase, or syntactic structure) is treated as a discrete unit of matter. Just as matter is composed of atoms, language is composed of these fundamental linguistic units. These units have mass in a metaphorical sense—they carry "weight" in terms of meaning and impact on the listener or reader. They occupy "space" within the medium they are used (spoken in the air, written on paper, displayed on screens) and have a "density" determined by their complexity and the depth of the concepts they convey.

2. Language as Perceptible and Translocatable: Language, like matter, can change states and be translocated from one medium to another while retaining its fundamental properties. For example, a spoken word (a sound wave traveling through air) can be transcribed into text (symbols on paper) and then digitized (data in a computer system). Throughout these transformations—akin to phase changes in matter—the core content, or the "mass" of the language, remains consistent, preserving the integrity of the information conveyed.

3. Language in Causal Time: Incorporating the concept of causal time, language can be seen as operating within and across time, influencing and being influenced by the context in which it is used. Just as particles interact in fields according to the laws of physics, linguistic units interact within the fields of human cognition and culture, shaped by past usage and shaping future communication. This interaction can be thought of as a form of linguistic gravity, where denser (more meaningful or complex) units of language have a stronger pull and can significantly alter the trajectory of a conversation or discourse.

4. Language as Information and Energy: Drawing from the idea that quantum gravity treats information as energy, language in this model can be seen as a form of energy transfer. When language is used, it transmits energy—in the form of ideas, emotions, and intentions—from one mind to another. This transmission can do work in the psychological sense, affecting changes in understanding, belief, or emotion, much like how energy in the physical sense can affect changes in the state or motion of matter.

5. Perception and Translocation of Language: Finally, the perception of language involves the decoding of these linguistic units of matter by the brain, a process that converts the "latent energy" of language into meaningful cognitive constructs. The ability of language to be translocated to perception involves its capacity to be understood and internalized by a receiver, who then converts it into thought and potentially into further linguistic output, continuing the cycle of information exchange.

In summary, defining language as matter on a 1:1 model of itself but able to be perceived and translocated to perception provides a rich, multidimensional way to understand communication. It highlights the tangible, impactful nature of language and aligns linguistic processes with fundamental physical principles, offering a holistic view of how language operates within and shapes our understanding of reality.

1. Tangibility of Language: When considering language as tangible, we recognize that words, whether written, spoken, or remembered, are manifestations of physical processes. Spoken words are sound waves, shaped by the movement of air through physical structures in the body. Written words are visual symbols, represented by ink on paper or pixels on a screen. Even memories of words are encoded in the neural pathways and synaptic connections within the brain. Thus, every aspect of language is tied to physical matter.

2. Encoding of Words in Physical Matter: The encoding of words in physical matter suggests that any material object could potentially represent or encode language, given the right contextual framework. For instance, a series of marks on a stone could encode a message if interpreted by someone who understands the markings within a cultural or linguistic context. This encoding is not limited to traditional forms of writing but can extend to any form of matter that can be manipulated to carry meaning, such as digital data formats, patterns in nature, or even arrangements of objects.

3. Cultural Evolution and Language Definition: The meanings of words and the structures of languages are not static but evolve over time through cultural processes. As societies change, so do their languages, adapting to new realities and integrating new concepts. This cultural evolution affects how language is encoded in matter, as the physical representations of language (such as alphabets, lexicons, and syntax) must evolve to accommodate new meanings and uses. The diversity of languages across cultures exemplifies how different groups of people have developed unique ways to encode their communication into physical forms.

4. Non-Linguistic Forms of Communication: Exploring non-linguistic forms of communication, such as the scent trails followed by ants or the tactile communication among animals, reveals that these too are encoded in physical matter through chemical signals or physical interactions. These forms of communication are governed by their own complex rules and can be seen as having their own 'grammars' or systems, shaped by the evolutionary needs of the species and the environmental contexts in which they operate.

5. Causal Chains and Cultural Collectors: The development of communication systems, whether linguistic or non-linguistic, can be viewed as the result of causal chains where each adaptation builds upon previous capabilities, influenced by environmental pressures and opportunities. Cultural collectors, such as societies or colonies, gather and refine these communication methods, leading to increasing complexity and diversity. These collectors serve as repositories and incubators for the cultural evolution of communication, ensuring that effective methods are preserved and transmitted through generations.

Understanding language and communication as phenomena encoded in physical matter, shaped by both biological imperatives and cultural evolution, provides a comprehensive framework for exploring how diverse forms of communication arise, function, and adapt over time. This perspective highlights the interconnectedness of physical reality, biological life, and cultural development in shaping the ways in which living beings convey information and meaning.

The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, also known as linguistic determinism, posits that the language one speaks directly determines the way one thinks and perceives the world. This hypothesis suggests that language is not merely a tool for communication but a constraining framework that shapes cognitive processes, categorization, and even perception and memory.

Correlation with Language as Encoded in Physical Matter:

Language as a Deterministic Framework: If we accept that language is encoded in physical matter, and that this encoding extends to the neural circuits and structures within the brain, then the strong Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that these physical structures (shaped by language) directly influence how individuals conceptualize and interact with their environment. The neural encoding of linguistic structures would thus predetermine the range of cognitive processes available to an individual, supporting the idea that language shapes thought.

Cultural Evolution and Linguistic Diversity: The diversity of languages and the way they are physically encoded (in scripts, sounds, or digital formats) reflect different cognitive frameworks developed across cultures. Each linguistic system, evolved and encoded differently, offers unique categories and concepts that shape the thoughts and behaviors of its speakers. For instance, the presence or absence of certain words or grammatical structures in a language can influence how speakers of that language perceive time, space, or even social relationships.

Physical Encoding of Non-Linguistic Communication: Extending the concept of linguistic determinism to non-linguistic forms of communication (like pheromones in ants or tactile signals in other species) suggests that these communication methods, though not linguistic, are similarly encoded in the physical entities (chemicals, body structures) and influence the behavior and social structures of these species. Just as language restricts and enables human thought, these communication systems define the perceptual and interactional possibilities for other organisms.

Implications for Cross-Cultural and Cross-Species Understanding: If language shapes thought as strongly as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests, then understanding and translating between different linguistic systems (and by extension, different cognitive maps) involves more than substituting words from one language to another. It requires an understanding of the underlying physical and cognitive structures that produce these languages. Similarly, interpreting non-human communication systems in terms of human language might miss essential aspects of these systems' meanings and functions.

Language, Thought, and Reality Construction: The encoding of language in physical matter, particularly in neural structures, implies that changes in language use—whether through cultural evolution, personal learning, or technological augmentation—can lead to changes in these physical structures. This neuroplasticity, driven by linguistic variation, supports the idea that not only does language determine thought, but that altering language can alter thought and potentially perception of reality itself.

Correlating the strong Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis with the concept of language as encoded in physical matter enriches our understanding of the profound impact language has on thought and perception. It underscores the intertwined nature of linguistic structures, cognitive processes, and the physical substrates that support them, highlighting the deep influence of language on individual and collective worldviews.

Follow up with comsological evolution and the strong anthropromoprhic prinicple

The strong anthropic principle posits that the universe must have properties that allow life to develop at some stage in its history, specifically because observers (like humans) exist. This principle suggests that the universe's fundamental parameters are finely tuned in a way that makes the emergence of observers inevitable. When considering cosmological evolution—the development and changes of the universe over time—this principle can lead to profound implications about the nature of the universe and its laws.

Correlation with Cosmological Evolution:

Fine-Tuning of Universal Constants: The strong anthropic principle implies that the constants and laws of physics are not arbitrary but are set in such a way as to allow the emergence of complex structures, including life. For example, the specific values of the gravitational constant, the electromagnetic force, and the cosmological constant are such that they allow galaxies, stars, and planets to form, creating environments where life can develop. This fine-tuning is seen as necessary for the universe to evolve in a way that eventually produces observers.

Evolution of Complexity: From the perspective of cosmological evolution, the universe has undergone a series of stages that increase in complexity: from the Big Bang, through the formation of hydrogen and helium, to the synthesis of heavier elements in stars, and finally to the formation of planets and biological evolution on at least one of them (Earth). The strong anthropic principle suggests that this progression towards complexity is a fundamental feature of the universe, driven by the underlying need to create a context in which observers can eventually exist.

Multiverse and Observer Selection: One way to reconcile the apparent improbability of such fine-tuning is through the multiverse theory, which posits the existence of many universes, each with different physical constants and laws. In this framework, the strong anthropic principle can be understood through an observer selection effect: we find ourselves in a universe that allows our existence because only such universes can be observed by sentient beings. This ties the evolution of the cosmos not just to physical laws but to the very presence of observers who can contemplate it.

Implications for Fundamental Physics: The strong anthropic principle challenges physicists to think about fundamental laws in a new light. Rather than seeing the laws of physics as universally applicable and inevitable, this principle suggests that they might be part of a larger landscape (possibly within a multiverse) where different laws apply under different conditions. This perspective could drive new theories in physics that seek to explain why our particular set of laws supports the complexity necessary for life and observers.

Philosophical and Theological Implications: The strong anthropic principle blurs the lines between science, philosophy, and theology. It raises questions about the purpose and intent of the universe, suggesting a teleological aspect to cosmological evolution. This can lead to philosophical debates about the nature of existence and the possibility of a higher purpose or design behind the unfolding of the universe.

In conclusion, when considering the strong anthropic principle in the context of cosmological evolution, we are led to view the universe not just as a series of physical events unfolding over time, but as a process that is somehow oriented towards the creation of life and observers. This perspective invites a broader understanding of the universe, one that incorporates the conditions necessary for life and consciousness as integral to the cosmic evolution itself.

[theglowsociety]

The United States is home to a diverse array of Black-owned businesses that have made significant contributions across various industries. Here are five notable Black-owned enterprises:

1. RLJ Lodging Trust

Founded by Robert L. Johnson, RLJ Lodging Trust is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns premium-branded hotels across the United States. The company focuses on acquiring and managing hotel properties in urban markets and has a significant presence in the hospitality industry. 

2. Urban One, Inc.

Established by Cathy Hughes, Urban One is the largest African-American-owned broadcasting company in the U.S. It operates numerous radio stations and the cable network TV One, providing content that caters to Black audiences and highlighting issues pertinent to the African-American community. 

3. The Lip Bar

Founded by Melissa Butler, The Lip Bar is a cosmetics company that offers vegan and cruelty-free beauty products. Starting with bold lip colors, the brand has expanded to a full range of makeup products and is now available in major retailers like Target, promoting inclusivity and diversity in the beauty industry.

4. Carver Bancorp, Inc.

Carver Bancorp is the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, one of the largest African-American-operated banks in the United States. Founded in 1948 to serve African-American communities, the bank provides personal and business banking services, focusing on economic empowerment and financial literacy. 

5. Pinky Cole’s Slutty Vegan

Founded by Aisha “Pinky” Cole, Slutty Vegan is a plant-based burger chain that has gained national attention for its innovative vegan comfort food. With multiple locations and a food truck, the brand has become a cultural phenomenon, promoting veganism within the Black community and beyond.

[finalgirlfall]

Neoliberalism denies society's power to shape human subjectivities, instead imagining a free-willed, autonomous individual unaffected by material circumstance. It also decontextualizes and dehistoricizes human agents and their objects, in effect de-culturing the world in a way that allows commodities (and, according to Olivier Roy, religions) to be sold and consumed transnationally by diverse individuals in sundry places. At its core, then, it depends upon a fancifully imagined human subject that is completely unfettered by its history and social locations. Neoliberalism, write the anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff, "re-visions persons not as producers from a particular community, but as consumers in a planetary marketplace: persons as ensembles of identity that owe less to history or society than to organically conceived qualities."

Sean McCloud, "Haunting Desires: Agency in an Era of Possessions," in American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015), 107.

[uispeccoll]

Voices from the Stacks: Phillip G. Hubbard

Image: Phillip G. Hubbard in May 1990 (Faculty and Staff Vertical Files RG01.0015.003).

Phillip G. Hubbard was an engineering professor, administrator, civil rights champion, and distinguished member of the University of Iowa community. He was the first Black professor at the university and spent more than 40 years advocating for students and providing counsel to six presidents. In 1971, he became the first Black vice president at any Big 10 university.

Image: Hubbard in 1966, after being appointed dean of academic affairs (Faculty and Staff Vertical Files RG01.0015.003)

Hubbard was born in Missouri in 1921, but his mother moved the family to Des Moines, Iowa—where the schools were desegrated—so her children could have a better education. Hubbard attended North High School and shined shoes to save up money for college. He first came to the UI as an undergraduate student in 1940, when the university was still largely, if informally, segregated. Black men were excluded from university housing, and all students of color were discouraged from using the cafeteria and attending social events. Like many Black male students, Hubbard lived with a local Black family during his undergraduate years because of housing discrimination in Iowa City. Years later, Hubbard and his wife, Wynonna, would welcome Black students into their own home.

In 1943, Hubbard enlisted in the Army reserves but eventually returned to the UI to finish his BS in electrical engineering, graduating with honors in 1947. That same year, he was hired by the university as a research engineer, making him the first Black faculty member at the UI. He went on to earn an MA in hydraulics and mechanics, a PhD in engineering, and became an assistant professor in 1954.

Image: 1968 University of Iowa Hawkeye Yearbook

As the civil rights movement reached its peak throughout the United States, Hubbard helped to found the Committee on Human Rights to combat housing and employment discrimination in at the UI and in Iowa City. They investigated complaints and lobbied for Fair Housing ordinances, which were adopted by the city in 1964.

Hubbard was appointed dean of academic affairs at the UI in 1966, becoming the first Black administrator at a university in the state of Iowa. In 1971, he was named vice president of student services. During his leadership tenure, he was a staunch advocate for students of all walks of life. He fought for better undergraduate support and engagement and was admired on campus for his willingness to listen to student concerns. His steady relationship with students helped see the university through the turbulence of the Vietnam War and protests that rocked the campus.

Image: Hubbard featured in the 1967 University of Iowa Hawkeye Yearbook. He was known around campus for his dedication to uplifting students’ voices

In 1967 Hubbard spearheaded the Rust, Iowa, and Le Moyne for Expanding Educational Horizons (RILEEH) program, which created partnership between the UI and predominantly Black colleges in the rural south. RILEEH facilitated student exchanges, teacher training, and graduate research to help support under-resourced academic institutions in Mississippi and Tennessee. Later, Hubbard would recruit faculty from these same institutions to help build the emerging Afro-American studies program.

As part of his work to promote cultural studies at UI, Hubbard chaired a newly created committee on Afro-American studies in 1968. He encouraged students of all backgrounds to take classes in this emerging field. He saw inclusivity and cultural competency as vital in higher education, believing the university should produce well rounded students who are prepared to live and work in a diverse world. He advocated for the Afro-American Cultural House and the Chicano Indian American Cultural Center (now called the Latino Native American Cultural Center), understanding the importance of creating a welcoming and supportive environment for minority students.

To that end, Hubbard created Opportunity at Iowa in 1987, a program aimed at increasing diversity at the university through the recruitment and retention of minority students and faculty. This included scholarships, outreach to underserved public schools in Iowa, and summer workshops for highschoolers.

Image: Daily Iowan clipping announcing the newly created Afro-American Cultural Center. Hubbard was a huge advocate for the house and helped them secure their first location in 1968.

After more than 40 years of service, Hubbard retired from the UI in 1990, though he continued to advise Opportunity at Iowa. A year later, Union field (located south of the Iowa Memorial Union) was renamed Hubbard Park in his honor. In 2001, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Iowa City Human Rights Commission.

Hubbard passed away in 2002 at the age of 80. Today numerous scholarships, medals, and awards bare the Hubbard name, including the Philip G. Hubbard Human Rights Award and the Wynonna G. Hubbard Scholarship. As we reflect on his life and legacy, we should strive to honor Hubbard’s commitment to human rights and his dedication to uplifting students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Image: Hubbard with Students in 1983 (Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs).

Image: Dedication of Hubbard Park in August 1991 (Daily Iowan Archives)

Image: Hubbard Park today

To learn more, view the finding aid for the Phillip G. Hubbard Papers (RG99.0248), or visit us in person or online at the Iowa Digital Library. You can also search the Daily Iowan archives for articles on Phillip Hubbard’s work, or check out his autobiography My Iowa Journey: The Life Story of the University of Iowa's First African American Professor on InfoHawk+.

-Anne M, Olson Graduate Research Assistant

[mostlysignssomeportents]

For 40 years, Big Meat has openly colluded to rig prices

On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

Noted socialist agitator Adam Smith once wrote, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Smith was articulating a basic truth: when an industry grows concentrated, it grows cozy. Cultural differences between dominant firms are homogenized as top executives move from company to company, cross-pollinating attitudes and approaches. Ambituous, firm-hopping workaholic top brass make all their friends at the office, and so their former colleagues from one or two jobs back remain in their social circles.

Once an industry consists of half a dozen firms, the people running those companies constitute an incestuous financial polycule. They are executors of one anothers' estates, best men and maids of honor at one anothers' weddings, godparents to each others' kids. They play on the same softball teams and take family vacations together.

It would be heartwarming if it wasn't so costly to the rest of us. Remember Smith's maxim: "the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Class solidarity among corporate executives forms a united front to screw us in every conceivable way, from corrupting our politicians to maiming and cheating workers to gouging buyers.

That's the basis of American antitrust law. When Robert Sherman was stumping for the passage of the Sherman Act, America's first major antitrust law, he thundered "If we will not endure a King as a political power we should not endure a King over the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life. If we would not submit to an emperor we should not submit to an autocrat of trade with power to prevent competition and to fix the price of any commodity":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/

Or rather, that was the basis of American antitrust law – until the Reagan era, when the fringe theories of the Nixonite criminal Robert Bork were elevated to a new orthodoxy. Under Bork's conception of antitrust, monopolies were evidence of excellence. If a company puts all its competitors out of business, that must mean that it is "efficient."

In Bork's fantasy world, the only way a company could attain dominance is by being so beloved by its customers that every competitor withers away. Governments that bust monopolies aren't protecting the public from "autocrats of trade"; they're overthrowing the winners of an election where you "vote with your wallet" to pick the best company.

But Bork and his co-fantasists couldn't quite manage all that with a straight face. They grudgingly admitted that a certain kind of bad monopolist could hypothetically exist, one that used its "market power" to raise prices or lower quality. Only when these offenses against our "consumer welfare" occurred should the state step in to protect its people.

This may sound good in theory, but in practice, it was a dead letter. The consumer welfare test isn't as simple as "If prices go up after a merger, punish the company." Instead, the government had to prove that the price raises came from "market power," and not from an increase in energy or labor costs, or some other "exogenous factor," like Mercury being in retrograde:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/10/you-had-one-job/#thats-just-the-as

And wouldn't you know it, it turns out that the mathematical models prescribed to distinguish greed from unavoidable circumstance inevitably "prove" that the monopolist wasn't at fault. Surely, it's just just a coincidence that the priesthood that understood how to make and interpret these models were Chicago School Economists who sold model-making as a service to companies that wanted to raise prices.

Pro-monopoly economists insist that this isn't true, and that their theory still has room to prosecute bad monopolies and cartels where they occur – more, they say this is already happening. In particular, they insist that "greedflation" can't be real, because it would require the kind of conspiracy that Smith warned of, and that their sickly antitrust enforcement is sufficient to prevent:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

This strains credulity. After all, the CEOs of giant companies in concentrated industries openly boast to their shareholders about how they've used the covid and Ukraine invasion shocks to hike prices to increase their profit margins – not just cover their additional costs:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/23/cant-make-an-omelet/#keep-calm-and-crack-on

While excuseflation is new, open, naked price-fixing by industry cartels is not. Take the meat-packing industry, dominated by a tiny handful of giant corporations whose executives literally ran a betting pool on how many of their workers would get covid each week while working in their cramped, unventilated factories:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55009228

These companies have seen their margins soar – up 300% over the lockdown – while their payments to ranchers and growers cratered:

https://www.reuters.com/business/meat-packers-profit-margins-jumped-300-during-pandemic-white-house-economics-2021-12-10/

All this might leave one wondering whether there isn't something a little, you know, "conspiracy against the publick"-y going on in Big Meat?

Let me tell you about Agri Stats. Agri Stats has been around since 1985. Every large meat packer pays to be a "member" of Agri Stats, and they each submit weekly, detailed statistics about every aspect of their business: all their costs, all their margins, broken out by category. Agri Stats compiles this into phone-book-thick books that each member gets every week, telling them everything about how all of their competitors are running their businesses:

https://www.agristats.com/history

The companies whose data appears in this book are anonymized, but it's trivial to re-identify each supplier. Tyson execs hold regular "naming process" meetings where they go through new books and de-anonymize the data. A Butterball exec confirmed that he "can pick the companies for rankings with 100% certainty."

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, these books are incredibly detailed: "bird weights, freezer inventory, and 'head killed per operating hour.'" Within the cozy meat cartels, Agri Stats acts as a clearinghouse that allows every business in the industry to act in concert, running the entire meat-packing sector as a single company:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-10-03-lawsuit-highlights-why-meat-overpriced/

As interesting as the list of Agri Stats members is, the groups that don't get to see Agri Stats' "books" is just as important: "farmers, workers, or retailers." Agri Stats also offers consulting services to its members. As an exec at pork processor Smithfield put it, Agri Stats advice boils down to four words "Just raise your price."

Agri Stats ranks its members based on how high their prices are – they literally publish a league table with the highest prices at the top. Meat packers pay bonuses to their execs based on how high the company's rank is on that table. Agri Stats meets with its members throughout the year to discuss "price opportunities" and to advise them to "exercise restraint" by restricting supply to keep prices up. When one Agri Stats member considered leaving the cartel, Agri Stats wooed them back by telling them how to make an additional $100k by raising bacon prices.

The reason Dayen is writing about Agri Stats now is that the DoJ Antitrust Division has brought an antitrust suit against them. This is part of a wave of antitrust actions brought by Biden's DoJ and FTC, who, along with his NLRB, are shaping up to be the most pugnacious, public-interest force against corporate power since the Reagan administration:

https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/29124-doj-sues-agri-stats-for-complicity-in-meat-market-manipulation

All this enforcement isn't a coincidence. It comes from an explicit rejection of neoliberalism's core tenets: inequality reflects merit, monopolies are efficient, and government can't do anything. In Biden's DoJ, FTC and NLRB, they're partying like it's 1979:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

What's amazing about the Agri Stats conspiracy to raise prices is that it's been going since the Reagan administration. It's a smoking gun proof that "consumer welfare" never cared about price-fixing and robbing the public (can a gun still smoke after 40 years?). There was never a time when consumer welfare antitrust cared about consumer welfare. It was always and forever a front for "a conspiracy against the publick," a "contrivance to raise prices."

Big Meat has been robbing America for two generations. Some of those stolen funds were used to corrupt our political process. The meat sector gets $50 billion in public subsidies and still gouges us on prices and rips off its suppliers:

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/02/usda-livestock-subsidies-near-50-billion-ewg-analysis-finds

Which means that it's possible that we're simultaneously being ripped off with meat prices and that meat prices are artificially low. Try and wrap your head around that one!

The do-nothing, pro-monopoly neoliberal antitrust is a virus that spread around the world. The EU's antitrust laws were reshaped to mirror American laws after the war through the Marshall Plan, but since the late 1970s, European lawmakers and enforcers have ignored their own laws (just like their American counterparts) and encouraged monopolies as "efficient."

This Made-in-Europe oligopoly, combined with energy and grain shocks from Russian invasion of Ukraine, created the perfect storm for European greedflation. As food prices spiked across the EU, Austrian hacktivist Mario Zechner set out to investigate Austrian grocers' pricing. Using the grocers' own APIs, he was able to compile and analyze a dataset of prices at Austrian grocers:

https://www.wired.com/story/heisse-preise-food-prices/

When Zechner open-sourced his project, collaborators showed up to expand the project across other EU countries, and an anonymous party donated a huge database of prices stretching back to 2017. The data reveals clear collusion among the grocers, who raise prices in near-lockstep, and use gimmicks like cyclic price drops to hide their collusion:

https://github.com/badlogic/heissepreise

Not every grocer has an API, and even the ones that do have APIs could easily block Zechner and co from accessing their data. When that happens, they could – and should – turn to scraping to continue their project. They should also scrape grocers elsewhere, including in Canada, where grocers rigged the price of bread:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/25/deep-scrape/#steering-with-the-windshield-wipers

Because Big Meat's "conspiracy against the publick" isn't unique to meat. It's in all our food, it's in all our goods, it's in all our services. The fact that the meat industry was able to rob American buyers, ranchers and farmers for two generations under a 200' tall neon sign that blinked "AGRI STATS AGRI STATS AGRI STATS" night and day is frankly astonishing.

But there's never just one ant. If the meatheads running Big Meat were able to do this in broad daylight since the NES years, imagine what all the other industries were able to get up to in the shadows.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[queerprayers]

Is it okay for a Christian to practice yoga? I feel extremely conflicted because my faith in God is so important to me, and I’ve read so many opinions all disapproving. It feels blasphemous to say, but I feel so close to and loved by God when I practice it, it feels like a prayer to the God who has always known me. It makes me more patient and loving to others and to the body He gave me. Do you have any thoughts on this? Is it a betrayal?

Hi, beloved!

I do not consider myself an expert by any means (and am a white US-American who has never trained in genuine yoga), but as someone who's practiced yoga for years, while I don't particularly see it as part of my religious practice, it inevitably has spiritual connotations because it involves caring for myself, balancing my emotions, and reconnecting with the world around me.

There are so many kinds and traditions of yoga, and of course many (like worship of Hindu deities) are incompatible with Christianity. Aspects like Buddhist meditation do not come from or embody Christianity, but are not completely alien and can be (in my opinion) learned about/incorporated. There is no one yoga, and so to practice it (in the more general sense that most non-Buddhist/Hindus/etc. do) is not devoting yourself to all its tenets.

Honestly, I think it's a good thing that you're aware of its non-Christianity, because if you were to just take the practice without thinking and rebrand it as Christian, that would be deceptive and appropriative. There's not a clear line between what's appropriation and what's not, and yoga has been so secularized already, but I think it's good to live in the tension of understanding that what you (and I) are calling yoga is very different from classical yoga, and that it is from (if you're not Indian--I don't know your background) a different culture and framework. Be curious about the origins of yoga, the ways "Western" culture has secularized and commercialized it, and the ways you connect with it.

I think there's a lot of boring opinions out there about how Christians shouldn't do anything even associated with "paganism," and anything spiritual without a picture of Jesus on it is evil. There is no Christianity without other religions, and throughout history Christianity has been heavily influenced and enriched by its connection to other traditions and its existence in diverse cultures. There is no pure Christianity, is what I'm saying. It's all mixed up in what humans are and the different ways we try to look at God. We may (and Christians do) believe that there is one Truth, but add any more information to that belief and none of us agree. And there is no practice or ritual that someone else hasn't done to a different God.

What's more interesting to me is investigating specific teachings of kinds of yoga, and how they relate to Christian philosophy. It is useless to call something pagan or heretical without understanding specifically how it contradicts the faith. There are criticisms that I think actually matter--inner knowledge/elevating yourself through spiritual practice/uniting with the divine is very gnostic, which you could totally be down with or agree with its being labeled as heresy. Christian understandings of the body differ widely--certain bodily states/experiences being equated with mysticism is not something I go for, but you can find that in some traditions. I don't find detachment (as found in Buddhist meditation) Christian at all, nor the idea of practices to escape suffering (we are in fact called to suffer).

Whatever your Christian tradition is, and whatever kinds of yoga philosophies you've encountered in your practice, hold them up to the light together. They may have no contradictions at all, be different ways of approaching the same thing, or be completely opposed to each other. Come from Christianity, be tied to it, use it as your lens--and, solid on that foundation, move. Check out Barbara Brown Taylor's Holy Envy if you find teachings that aren't your own that you kinda wish were.

Ultimately, caring for the body, nonviolence, mindfulness, cultivating discipline, creating peace and balance--these are things that should be present in every Christian's spirituality. Whatever my specific critiques of different yoga philosophies, I understand why they exist, and can see how they would fulfill. Yoga has helped me immensely with my extreme emotions and struggles with transition, as well as chronic pain. I am thankful for this ritual that gets me moving and thinking, keeping me from either being completely disconnected from the world or too stagnant and grounded.

It is not for me to say whether yoga is enriching your Christianity, but you've already said it, I think. You've named the good fruit that has grown. Don't make it your Christianity--but it sounds like it's a beautiful part of your life, and makes you more able to live out Christianity. Most of our lives have "pagan" origins. We do not betray God by living--we betray God when we are not curious, when we forget what we were made for, when our bodies become more important to us than others', when we make an idol out of "self-improvement," when we curl inwards and try to find truth there, when we pursue bodily pleasure or a lack of suffering instead of Love. Live in the tension of participating in a world where we are but pilgrims.

Do not worship the self that God gave you, but do not betray it for worldly voices--whether they're devoted to other gods, or they're devoted to Jesus in a way that costs them community. Receive your self as a gift, a creation still warm from God's fingertips. A creation that can learn how to touch your toes, if you work at it. A creation that moves on and off the yoga mat, using whatever fulfillment was found to serve the world we live in, for now.

<3 Johanna

[mindfulmuse88]

Unbiased: The DOD says no federal resources will no longer be used for "special observances" (Women's History Month, Pride Month, and more)

Disclaimer: I am neither Republican nor Democrat. Everything is unbiased and factual.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that it will no longer allocate official resources, including man-hours, to host cultural awareness month celebrations. Their statement reads in part:

"Going forward, DOD components and military departments will not use official resources—including man-hours—to host celebrations or events related to cultural awareness months. This includes National African American/Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month. *Service members and civilians may still attend these events in an unofficial capacity outside of duty hours. However, installations, units, and offices are instead encouraged to honor the valor and achievements of military heroes from all backgrounds while focusing on the *character of their service rather than immutable characteristics."

Additionally, a memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)—a division within the DOD—has been circulating online, indicating that the agency will also pause its involvement in these observances in line with executive orders banning DEI initiatives. The memo states:

"Effective immediately and until further notice, the Defense Intelligence Agency will pause all activities and events related to agency special emphasis programs. Additionally, special observances hosted throughout the year by the command elect and special observances committee are also paused."

The memo further lists the affected observances, including Black History Month, Women's History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Month, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month. However, it clarifies that this does not apply to federal holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Juneteenth.

Why is the DOD taking this action?

This decision ties back to two executive orders signed by former President Trump:

"Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing"

"Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions"

These orders put a hold on government spending for all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, giving the administration time to reassess what, if anything, should receive funding in this area. Since hosting celebrations or observances could be classified as DEI-related spending, they must be paused to comply with these orders. Whether this pause will become permanent remains unclear.

What about Black History Month?

Many have asked whether Black History Month will still be officially recognized. On February 1, 2025, President Trump signed a proclamation acknowledging Black History Month, continuing the tradition upheld by every president since 1996. The proclamation reads:

"Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2025 as National Black History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities."

However, the use of government funds for Black History Month observances remains a gray area. The executive order on DEI spending states:

"Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great."

What qualifies as "making America great" is subject to interpretation by the administration. This is one of the key justifications the Defense Intelligence Agency cited when deciding to pause non-federal observances, including Black History Month.

What happens next?

At this point, the long-term impact remains uncertain. As with many policy shifts, time will tell how this decision will play out across different government agencies. For now, the DOD has made it clear that government resources will not be used to fund these observances, but individuals can still participate on their own time.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Rather at Steady:

Of all the complaints, grievances, and gripes coming from the White House, the great majority have been directed at an aspect of 21st century America that Donald Trump just can’t seem to handle: diversity, equity, and inclusion. These three words tie him in knots. DEI raises his IRE. Several of the executive orders he’s signed since taking office are aimed at eliminating DEI programs within the federal government, in education, and in the private sector. Trump has weaponized DEI in the ever-worsening culture wars. It has become the go-to for killing any program that enables a diverse workforce or student body, studies underserved communities, or tackles institutional bias. He also uses it to absolve himself. Midair collision? Blame DEI.

For Trump, rooting out any and all DEI is fulfilling a campaign promise to end “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” in education. Some might call it a blanket excuse to blow up programs he doesn’t like. Just tag it DEI and be done with it.

This White House wants everything to be “merit based.” Trump has convinced his supporters that DEI stands for “didn’t earn it.” This is hypocrisy, especially when you consider some of his Cabinet appointments. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pretty much kills their argument for merit-based hiring. Let’s take a step back for what’s known in television as the wide shot. Here’s what this is really all about: white men whining. You can’t call it a dog whistle, because that would suggest Trump is trying to hide his derision for DEI. He is not. His executive orders are announcing that it is open season to be brazenly, unapologetically racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, xenophobic, ableist — pick your bigotry. The MAGA backlash to DEI is an outgrowth of the identity politics that have taken a greater hold in the United States over the past 10 years. The reaction has been building for a while but has recently grown deeper and stronger.

The 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage could be seen as the start. The #MeToo movement, which was partly a response to revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, took hold in 2017. The police killing of George Floyd spurred the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. White males have had a disproportionate share of power in the United States since its founding. But the country’s demographics are changing, with the U.S. becoming less white. In the year 2000, 69% of the population was white; just 20 years later, that percentage was down to 58%. The group making the biggest population gain is Latinos. Is it any wonder Trump still wants to build that wall on the Mexican border? And recent trends will continue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, white people may still be a plurality but no longer a majority in America by 2045. Trump is desperately trying to stop the clock, and even reverse it, with his executive orders.

So far the orders have:

Put all government DEI employees on administrative leave and ordered each federal agency to eliminate their positions.

Ended all diversity programs in the U.S. military and federal agencies.

Rescinded a 1965 executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in federal contracts.

Directed his Cabinet secretaries to “prepare up to nine civil investigation targets” along with “other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

Required all federal contractors to eliminate DEI programs, which includes all grant recipients.

Cumulative far-right outrage over programs seen as helping and promoting people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants, combined with the fear of straight white men losing status and power, has brought us to this crossroads.

[...] Trump’s anti-DEI bent is more than a bigoted policy. It is anti-science, anti-education, and anti-American. The country cannot afford to have this covered over or forgotten.

Love this column from Dan Rather: Donald Trump’s war on DEI isn’t about “merit”, but about protecting White male entitlement who see their standing threatened.

[futileexercise]

“…the Kennedy Center website still includes a passage about the core mission…reflect the cultural diversity of the United States.”

Uh oh… Trumusk’s Kryptonite word: diversity. That’s why he’s gung ho to f*ck with the Kennedy Center and associated artists.