#and the regime WILL collapse

[victusinveritas]

Thursday roundup and a reminder that wishing will do nothing. Action gets the goods.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jared Yates Sexton at Dispatches From A Collapsing State:

At the end of last week I released an episode of Audio From A Collapsing State talking about the emotional toll of the first few days of the Trump Administration. I think it was pretty obvious that it was designed to be a blitz of executive orders and action intended to assert power. Authoritarianism is weaponized abuse and as it is realized it communicates to the subject an inability to stop the will of the authoritarians and reinforces a sense of powerful isolation. Well. We made it through the first week. It was hard. It was painful. And I’m sure some of us are worse for wear.

I want to emphasize once more the need for self-care. Any attempt to organize and fight back begins with protecting yourself and ensuring you’re all right, energized, and prepared for the next onslaught. Talk to people you can trust. Establish actual reality outside of this nonsense they’re peddling. Remember to continue thinking about a better future. Limit the time authoritarians can affect you by logging off and sealing yourself off. And try and find things that bring you joy and, if possible, produce tangible artifacts that demonstrate how projects that take time and energy lead to things. Considering the toll, I do want to take a moment today to discuss something hopeful. That’s difficult, of course, when the President of the United States is joking about seeking a third term between cutting off federal funding, flagrantly violating the law multiple times, attacking the Constitution, attempting to expel transgender people from the military and culture writ large, and immigration raids are ongoing. I’m sure that paragraph alone was tiring, because of course it is. Never mind that it doesn’t even begin to cover the things that have happened in just the past couple of days. But that feeling, as powerful as it is, also leads us to the subject of hope. Because it is overwhelming, because it is exhausting, because it is chaotic and unarguably wrong, we are beginning to see signs that this will not continue on unabated and unopposed.

The Backlash

It’s necessary sometimes to put yourself in the shoes of the authoritarian. This helps in understanding key components of the ideology, but also in anticipating what directions they might go. I’ve been doing this for years now and I can admit it isn’t fun in any way, shape, or form. Regardless, it does pay dividends. When it comes to the implementation of authoritarianism, there are different strategies. You could roll it out slowly, which we have seen to some extent over the past few years. Then, there are moments in which things speed up. Sometimes this comes after an especially painful and motivating crisis, like the burning down of the Reichstag or a terrorist attack. In these situations, things change very quickly.

The emotional experience of authoritarianism riding on the back of a crisis is chaotic-making and, as we’ve seen in the 21st century, it can lead to insane scenarios like the bipartisan backing of the so-called War on Terror. But, presently, we’re in a different place. Donald Trump’s presidency already feels like it’s lasted several months. This is a result of a flurry of action that runs counter to how most administrations tend to ease into place and take a measured, careful approach. Instead, Trump is carrying out the agenda given to him by the think-tanks and institutes run by his billionaire benefactors, engaging in gleeful cruelty, destroying any government projects that don’t benefit the wealthy, and handing everything over to the oligarchs who have bought him.

This is a vulnerable period for authoritarianism as it is a stark departure from what we have seen in the past. The blitz was meant to push us kicking and screaming into a reality of their choosing, but the haphazardly aggressive nature of the push gifts us an incredible opportunity. If we can manage to get out of the dirt, dust ourselves off, and begin to look for openings, we might very well find purchase we thought, and that feels, nearly impossible.

[...]

I want to start here by saying I do not believe that the most diehard MAGA acolytes will suddenly realize they backed the wrong horse when the consequences of Trump’s action take form. That’s not how any of this works. They hold a religious dedication to him and are inundated constantly with enough of mis and disinformation and propaganda to override any cognitive dissonance. Economic troubles and even the eradication of programs that specifically affect them will be blamed on the “Deep State” or insidious conspiracy theories. That’s not what we’re talking about here. But Trump’s orders to pause federal funding, slash programs, and the general dysfunction and chaos leading to consequences (including his weekend spat with Colombia affecting prices) will change the paradigm with some. There are many individuals, from all walks of life, who are going to be negatively impacted. This includes the funding of studies, experimental drugs and treatments, any number of other downstream effects will touch people’s lives. Some people are going to die. And, when you add that to the upcoming trauma of seeing friends and neighbors and community members, including children, being rounded up by aggressive mobs of ICE officers, it will generate backlash.

For some, this will be stuff they read about on the news, but for so many people this is going to be lived experience that affects their daily lives. Federal employees are already feeling it and the people associated with their programs have had enough in the first week. Now, we’re getting into god knows how many ongoing programs that are going to be cut or decimated. This is going to exacerbate pressure in so many workplaces and communities, and the catharsis Trump is offering his dieheards - the pleasure of seeing “elites” and vulnerable communities inflicted with pain - will have no reward whatsoever for them. Instead, it will be real material conditions. Despite what Trump and the oligarchs behind him think, there are ripples from all of this. We’re likely to begin seeing labor strife, community uprisings, and a changing of the tide. The furious nature of it all, not to mention how dysfunctional and unprofessional Trump and his billionaires are, only makes mistakes more inevitable and for consequences to mount. The question now is how this will be answered. And authoritarians are quick to violence and suppression.

Jared Yates Sexton wrote a solid piece on how we fight MAGA authoritarianism.

[ef-1]

i am seriously puzzled over this internal rbr battle and especially max siding with marko??? like all of this father-son anologies over horner was for nothing???

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this.

1. If you followed f1 in 2018 you know. By the 7th round Daniel was at 84 points to Max's 50. That was at the acme of negotiations. Daniel was tied with Lewis and Seb at 2 wins each. Famously during negotiations, Helmut told Daniel if the car is genuinely a contending car, then they'll let him have the championship this year but from then onwards Max would be the focus of the team. Even more famously is that apparently this set Christian off who tried to get him to shut up and like pinched him to stop talking or something lol. Christian reaffirmed that Red Bulls ethos was the fastest man wins and he told Daniel that Helmut was talking out of his ass but the damage was done.

^that is to say, Helmut has always been on Max's side and so in turn it's obvious Max and his camp will choose Helmut everyday of the week, there seems to be mutual fidelity there. This is not even going into the involvement Helmut had in Max's development.

^^ this also gives you a perspective of how long Christian has been cleaning up after Helmut

^^^In any case the car was not a contender and the nightmare had only began (Daniel's 7 in race mechanical failures and like 12 session problems which included qualis/practice/and grid drops)

2. I think if that fidelity is unconditional as reports are making it seem, it will unravel into a colossal shit show. Let's be honest, the old fossil is about to expire, Christian has been running the show for a while and what's left of Helmuts power is symbolic, Christian doesn't even want him to have that lol.

3. Max clearly has considerable sway in Red Bull so I get that he's throwing his weight around to protect his interests and loyalties but I genuinely don't see a universe where Helmut comes out of this on top. Christian IS Red Bull.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

The history of military aviation knows multiple examples of aircraft that appeared to be a complete failure. But nothing can beat the story of the first Soviet supersonic bomber – the Tupolev Tu-22. The troubles and the controversy of this bomber, that Tupolev himself referred to as “his most unfortunate creation”, could be seen through the variety of nicknames that the plane received during its career. Among the Russian pilots, the Tu-22 was called the “Pricker”, the “Man-eater”, as well as “Error-plane” and “Defectocraft”, but the most famous among all others was the name - “Supersonic Booze Carrier”(..)

P.S.A true story of what life was like under Russian socialism and those who are a littl e smarter than the average "Westerner" will also see the reasons why socialism DOESN'T WORK and the Soviet Union collapsed...

[mobiues]

i have so many things to say about the confrontational pie scene but to surmise: while i may somewhat understand s1lvie's frustration over mobius' overall seemingly flippant attitude, i do not actually think mobius deserves to be framed as though he did not care abt the state of things simply because he chose not to seek how his life was like on the timeline. mobius' interest to not see how his life was like is well within his right, something he gave viable reason not to pursue, and, most importantly, will not have swayed him either way to fight for the life he has now and/or what the tva could stand for when the multiverse war is on its way. s1lvie's undermining his efforts was not okay when mobius opened season two with him wanting to safely monitor and defend new branches against strong, unsure voices like dox

[run-of-the-milf]

The narcissistic baby in charge is throwing a tantrum 😂 Baby dictator got his feelings hurt and now he's lashing out awww 😂😂😂

This is so clearly a deeply unwell and insecure person, like this is so embarrassing and it's embarrassing for our country and the people who voted for him. It's disturbing that he has power because he so obviously cannot control his emotions and ego AT ALL

[victusinveritas]

Midweek roundup of political bullshit as the world burns.

[hmantegazzi]

Ok, but the lawyers with papers aren't the last line of defense. They are the first. And that's ok, that's a reasonable scheme of escalation, that allows for these disputes to be solved peacefully.

The problem is that, in the US, and together with executive orders and other regulatory measures, they are used as the first, the last, and the only line of defense, with actual legislation and organised political protest being relegated to an almost anecdotic place, whereas in the rest of the world it is precisely political protest and legislation what makes the bulk of what protects people against abuses of all kinds of powerful and petty tyrants alike.

And you can see right now how the typical US strategy fails: with a captured judiciary heeding to the wishes of an extremist administration, and the political opposition, both in the legislature and in the streets, paralysed.

Note, in fact, how the most active elements that have raised to stop this electoral coup aren't part of the establishment of the opposition party, but rather independents, civil servants, career advocates and marginal members of the party, all of them already discontent with the aforementioned approach since way before all of this started.

What I want to say with this is that it's very different to be a compliant "opposition" and to be a lawyer that risks their own integrity by suing the government, or an organiser coordinating a massive protest, or a junior representative making a fuss in Congress knowing that no one there will have their back.

All of them are doing radical political action, at a huge personal cost, even if the means they are using right now are still legalistic, because those means are yet to be exhausted, and they are working.

Their biggest problems right now are coordination and legitimacy, and both are the kind of things for what political parties are made for. So either they seize the chance to oust the collaborators inside the opposition, or ditch it and make their own party, but for any of those things, they need a lot of support, of new people taking charge of extra tasks, because they already have their hands full.

Do you want a US workers' party that defends people like you for real? Now it's the perfect time to build one.

“This thing is legally dubious and therefore technically unenforceable.” Is not a “useless liberal gotcha” it’s how legalism works in this country. Tying up stupidly worded EOs in court is the quickest way to keep them from being implemented. It is the definition of “doing something.” But it doesn’t usually involve much tweeting so of course a certain type of leftist feels obligated to mock it.

[whatevernatureis]

People on Bluesky were saying that right now it's the February 2020 of fascism in America and I think that's right

[thoughtlessarse]

The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said that currently 'the conditions are not met for safe, voluntary, dignified returns to Syria.' Austria's government has said it is offering Syrian refugees in the country a 'return bonus' of €1,000 euros to go back to Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The move comes as several countries across Europe have already begun deliberating what to do with their Syrian refugee populations. "Austria will support Syrians who wish to return to their home country with a return bonus of 1,000 euros. The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt," Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer said in a statement posted in English and German on X. Nehammer said on the day al-Assad was ousted that the security situation in Syria would be reassessed to determine whether deportations could go ahead. Deporting people against their will is not possible until the situation in Syria has been deemed safe, so the government, led by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has said it will focus on voluntary deportations. Austria has also stopped processing asylum applications filed by Syrians, in line with several other European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic. But all of those countries agree it is too early to consider returning refugees to Syria. The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said that currently "the conditions are not met for safe, voluntary, dignified returns to Syria."

continue reading

[hussyknee]

It's about shooting the messenger. They hate the scenario you're positing and panicked about the truth of it, so they treat you as the one who wants to cause it so they have an outlet for their anxiety. Liberals hate believing the systems that support them become untenable when they exclude more and more people, and prefer to keep a death grip on and sink with them while screaming and blaming everyone else all the way down.

Not mad just perplexed. "It is possible for this thing to happen that would be very bad for many people so we need to prepare so we can help people if that happens" I say. "But if that happened, it would be bad and people would die!" everyone says. "Yes so we need to prepare" I say. "But the current system is so sensitive to minor upsets, it would be so much worse with a larger disruption!" they say. "Yes, so we will need to make a way that we don't have to rely exclusively on the current system to survive." I say. "But many individuals wouldn't survive a disruption because the system has problems in these ways!" they say. I don't know what to say because I don't know if it would be perceived as agreeing or disagreeing, or how they would feel about either.

[truthwars]

Rebels Overthrow Assad in Syrian Civil War: A Turning Point

The Syrian civil war reached a critical milestone as rebels overthrew Assad's government. Key cities like Damascus, Hama, and Homs fell with little resistance, signaling a collapse in Assad’s military morale. #Syria #Assad #Rebels

The Syrian civil war reached a pivotal moment as rebels overthrow Assad and his government. They quickly captured key cities like Hama, Homs, and Damascus. The minimal resistance from Assad’s forces points to a major morale collapse within his troops. On X, one user posted, “Assad and his family have fled the country,” signaling the end of a regime that once held Syria under strict control. Why…

[dostoyevsky-official]

not now, kitten. daddy's regime is collapsing

[getvalentined]

Thinking a lot recently about the constant comparison of Oblivion to Skyrim, particularly claims that Oblivion is superior in every way strictly by virtue of quest length and the greater grandiosity of the organizations in Oblivion, and I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what's actually going on with Tamriel during the time period of Skyrim. Even though it's like...one of the core concepts of the main storyline.

Putting most of this under a cut for length, but I just...I think people misunderstand what's going on here. This is not a "One Game Good Other Game Bad" post, it's an analysis of a major, key difference in story basis between the two that I think gets lost in the (frankly asinine) argument about which is superior.

See, everything in Skyrim sucks. Every organization you can align yourself with is falling apart. Literally every single one.

That's the point.

To summarize:

The Companions (equivalent to the Fighters' Guild) are about a dozen strong, literally cursed, and their most beloved leader gets murdered very early in the storyline.

The College of Winterhold (equivalent to the Mages' Guild, not to the Arcane University) has seemingly only been saved from collapsing into the sea because a master of Restoration fused himself with the structure itself when the Sea of Ghosts tried to tear it down a little under a century ago and his presence is constantly physically "healing" the foundation.

The Thieves' Guild has lost the favor of every possible patron deity, having been outright cursed by Nocturnal after one of her Nightingales murdered another and stole the gift she offers her champion, while the boon that the organization's founder claimed from her in ages past (the cowl) is missing.

The Dark Brotherhood has been all but completely dismantled, the Night Mother's tomb in Bravil having been raided and struggling to persist without a Listener for over a decade; the bodies of the Night Mother's children have been lost and she's essentially being smuggled from region to region in an attempt to find a safe place to continue operations.

The Empire itself has been kneecapped, forced into a traumatic treaty by a fascist regime determined to strike the beliefs and culture of anyone not Altmer off the face of the planet; the Thalmor have gone so far as to torture and radicalize the figurehead leader of the Nords in order to use their own nationalism and superiority against the Empire, sparking a civil war that will further weaken the Empire and allow the Aldmerri Dominion to destroy it wholecloth.

This extends out into the rest of the world, too! We have confirmed existence of Hist-deaf Argonians. The Dunmer are floundering to recover after the quadruple-whammy that is the fall of the Triumverate, the destruction of Vivec City when Baar Dau finally made impact, the Red Year, and the Argonian uprising. The Bosmer are literally endangered due to habitat loss following a super-isolationist cultural shift due to wars with the Khajiit and Altmer. The Void Nights were devastating to Khajiit culture and population in ways that have yet to be fully explained.

The world is falling apart. Everything is dying.

And then Alduin shows up.

We all kind of talk about Alduin carrying on as World-Eater through the course of the Skyrim storyline like it's him being a piece of shit, since he'd started it ages ago and was just displaced in time to land on the Last Dragonborn's head in the Fourth Era, but I don't think that's the case.

Based on the state of things, I think Alduin arrived right on time. I think it's the end of the world. The only reason he "should" be stopped is because the Last Dragonborn has the capacity to stop the world from ending in a more down-to-earth sense than just defeating Alduin: they can't save everyone, but they can "fix" every single organization that's holding "the world" together.

They can align with the Imperials and keep the civil war from further crippling them, keeping the Empire from being too weak to push back against the Aldmerri Dominion.

They can save the College of Winterhold, the only group in the right place at the right time to stop the Eye of Magnus from opening, and in doing so make sure that the Psijics are able to put it somewhere nobody else can find it.

They can lead the Companions, cure the curse for those members who don't want to run with Hircine after death, which bolsters their spirits enough to keep doing what they can even when everyone else is trying to kill each other. A single neutral martial force in the middle of a civil war.

They can regain Nocturnal's trust for the Thieves' Guild, restore the Nightingales, and in doing so they can return the luck that was stolen from them as punishment for Mercer Frey's transgression. They can even reclaim the Crown of Barenziah and award the guild with a paragon to increase their newly-regained luck.

They can hear the Night Mother, becoming Listener for the Dark Brotherhood to restore the balancing force of Sithis in the world, purify the most broken Sanctuary the Brotherhood has ever had, and finish a story set into motion way back in the Third Era—Emperor Titus Mede II is murdered under the order of a Motierre, a descendant of a mark the Brotherhood specifically kept from dying during the Oblivion Crisis.

The Last Dragonborn can't do anything outside Skyrim—there's nothing they can do for the Argonians or the Bosmer or the Khajiit, and they can only do very little for the Dunmer via work in Solstheim—but they can work with every single guild or guild-adjacent group, strengthening the Empire to stand against the biggest threat to Tamrielic culture since the First Era, and in doing so they can make it so the world isn't ready for Alduin to eat it.

The Hero of Kvatch exists when Tamriel, and presumably Nirn as a whole is in the prime of its life, that's what makes the Oblivion Crisis such a big deal. This is a world that isn't ready to give up, it still has the strength to fight, it just needs someone standing at the head to direct it. The Last Dragonborn comes into the story when everything is falling apart and nothing really feels worthwhile, when it's hard to see why the world is worth saving. They have the chance to prove that there's still some life left here, that the world isn't too far gone to save—Alduin arrived right on time, it's the Last Dragonborn's job to change that.

I can see how coming from Oblivion to Skyrim would feel disappointing and hollow, but I'm pretty sure that's literally the point of the story.

Oblivion tells you the world is worth saving because it's got so much left to live for, even with the odds stacked so high against it. Skyrim asks you whether a world that's dying is still a world worth saving, and it's up to you to prove that it is.

[victusinveritas]

[adventuringalchemy]

I JUST SAW AN NSFW MEME OF IVOR BEING INTO RIGGING AND I HAVE NOT BEEN IN SUCH VISCERAL DISAGREEMENT IN MY ENTIRE FUCKING 25 YEARS OF LIFE