#authoritarian bullshit

[leo-fie]

Just once, once, I want a disaster movie that doesn't have all humans except the main cast turn into monsters instantly. It's just not how humans work. Quite the opposite in fact, in a survival situation, where the normal pressures of capitalism no longer apply, humans revert to their natural form of CARING FOR EACH OTHER! Not saying that violence and looting and stuff won't happen, but it won't be the norm.

What will happen is that the police state and the people in power will panic and assert themselves with brute force. For them it's about control, not the benefit of as many people as possible.

Listen to the Elite Panic episode of Behind the Bastards

Read Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built In Hell

Humans are at their core a social species. That's how we made it into the dominant species on earth. Anyone who wants to tell you that man is man's wolf or something is either someone in power afrait of loosing that power, or mistakes a situation with external preassures (like war) for human's nature.

[reasonsforhope]

Literally begging anyone who can vote in US elections to vote, and to vote against Trump. Which means voting for Harris, not abstaining or voting third party.

My family actually did move here from an authoritarian country, where voting literally didn't matter, they literally did throw out your vote, and they literally did assassinate citizens who spoke out against them.

We would all very much like to keep living in a country where those things are not the case!

You know, the same things that Trump and his stooges have openly said they want to do. And two of the main propaganda lines for why people in the US shouldn't vote, which is a lie.

Voting matters. The parties are not the same.

And make sure to vote in down-ballot races!!!

And like. The fact that voting matters in the US is a very real reason for hope. It is something you should genuinely appreciate. We can make a difference.

And a lot of people risked their lives or even died to earn that right, and it's a right not everyone has.

[notfleenz]

making new rules makes them for the other team as well. more people need to remember this.

[archivlibrarianist]

Necessary reading, here, from the digital director of EveryLibrary. From the article:

"THIS IS NOT A GOOD-FAITH DISCUSSION

"The first thing we need to understand when we’re messaging about book bans is that we are not operating in a good-faith discussion, and we need to stop acting as if we were. In a good-faith discussion, both parties agree to an honest, respectful dialogue with the willingness to change their view if facts and data are presented. However, book banners are neither acting honestly nor respectfully. They will not consume new information and change their minds once educated on the issue. The individuals and organizations banning books are not looking to be educated. They don’t care about learning about the Miller Test for pornography, they are not interested in reading the books to put their propagandist images of a handful of pages into proper context, and they aren’t going to change their minds about books being banned. We have to stop acting as they will do any of these things.

"...Pro–book banning messaging and propaganda is used as a tool to build political power and influence for people and organizations to elect or appoint individuals to positions that allow them to govern and control Americans." [emphasis added]

They don't ban books because they care about books. They ban books because they are bullies, and they want to control people.

Don't let them.

[thefugitivesaint]

I don't normally post politically oriented content because I'm here for art appreciation (outside of the occasional, poorly worded and under baked rant). With that said, after watching this video I thought I might pass it along given that it's a fairly concise overview of the anti-democratic and fascist oriented ideologies that have been circulating in Silicon Valley and it's billionaire class for years now. Much of it isn't news to me as I have been following the circulation of this virulent set of ideas myself since I have an interest in illiberal philosophy and how it manifests in reactionary movements. While not news to me, it might be news to you, dear reader. If some of the actions taken by the Trump administration seem baffling on their face this might help frame some of those actions into something slightly more understandable (keeping in mind that this isn't an adequate explanation for the next four years of American politics, it's just part of elucidating the context). Related material (an incredibly small sampling): The Daily Show: Brooke Harrington - Trump’s “Broligarchy” of Tech Billionaires (Brooke Harrington, economic sociologist at Dartmouth College and author of “Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism," sits down with Jon Stewart to discuss modern American oligarchies and the behavior of the ultra-rich.) The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism: "The world that they have brought into being over the past two decades is unquestionably a world of reckless social engineering, without consequence for its architects, who foist their own abstract theories and luxury beliefs on all of us." The Tech Right: Silicon Valley’s Ascendant Illiberalism Understanding the MAGA-Tech Authoritarian Alliance The Guardian piece, 'Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley' Also from the Guardian, 'How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa' (which traces how Musk and Thiel's South African and South West African boyhoods continue to influence Elon Musk and Peter Thiel's worldviews.)

Behind the Bastards - Part One: How Peter Thiel Became the Gravedigger of Democracy (and Part Two, Part Three, Part Four) (might be a bit much if you're not into the podcast which I sometimes have to step away from for months at a time) Edit for a late addendum: The Guardian: He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration "Curtis Yarvin is hardly a household name in US politics. But the “neoreactionary” thinker and far-right blogger is emerging as a serious intellectual influence on key figures in Donald Trump’s coming administration in particular over potential threats to US democracy.

Yarvin, who considers liberal democracy as a decadent enemy to be dismantled, is intellectually influential on vice president-elect JD Vance and close to several proposed Trump appointees. The aftermath of Trump’s election victory has seen actions and rhetoric from Trump and his lieutenants that closely resemble Yarvin’s public proposals for taking autocratic power in America." Venture Capital Extremism

[thashining]

Hey Denmark

[democratthatlovesguns]

You might be a racist dumbass, if [part 1]

You were told incessantly and shown unquestionable evidence of exactly the type of piece of shit racist cunt Donny the Con really is. And you were shown that he did not give one fuck about you or your family, but you just could not bring yourself to vote for the black woman that was running against him.

How can you know you were made a fool and that Trump was able to successfully reach deep down into that place where your misogyny and racism lived?

Let me give you an example: maybe you are a farmer in the mid-west, your neighbors are all white and you all bleed red white and blue, and maybe you've worked the farm just like your ancestor did and you're proud of the work that you do and Americans like me had the utmost love and respect for you. But Donny the Con convinced you that because the color of my skin is nonwhite, that I cannot possibly want what is best for America.

Maybe you used to count on the federal government to provide contracts that allowed you to sell your farmed goods overseas or maybe sometimes (if things were not great) people like me called our representatives and demanded that your loss be subsidized with federal tax dollar, because we believed you should not go to ruin, due to just one bad season. It's not charity, it's empathy, it's about Americans helping American when they need it ... It's understanding that you did not use the money on whores and booze, because "it's free money."

Remember that when Christ resided in your heart, you had no problem selling your farmed goods to the US government for them to send to troubled areas around the world to provide meals to women and children whose only fault was being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you let that place in your heart that was previously occupied by Christ, to be overtaken by a false orange piece of shit god, because you let him convince you that because the color of my skin is nonwhite - that I do not want what is best for Americans.

Maybe I don't know what's best for Americans? But what I do know is that what's best for America, is to ensure that Americans like you can sell your harvest and get paid a fair price for your efforts and labor. I know that renaming the Gulf of Mexico will not feed your family.

I know that you likely will not be able to leave the type of nest egg that you wanted to leave for your children and your grandchildren, now that Princess Elon has determined subsidies for small farmers are a waste of money. And again renaming the Gulf of Mexico is going to do nothing to assuage the worry/concern you feel for your family's financial security now.

But you could not vote for the candidate that promised to protect exactly what your dreams were.

It's all good right? Who cares if you can't afford to pay for your daughter's college? Who cares if you can't help your son acquire his own tract of land and help him start his own farm to provide for his family? Who cares right? AS LONG AS THE RICH WHITE MAN GETS TO NAME THINGS WHATEVER HE WANTS, TO "HUMILIATE" A COUNTRY OF PREDOMINANTLY NONWHITE PEOPLE, ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD, RIGHT?

This is how you know, YOU'RE A RACIST MISOGYNIST FUCKING CUNT. And we will never let your children and your grandchildren forget, that this was your choice.

[ohyeslawd]

Google Project 25

What is Project 2025?

The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a well-funded (eight-figure) effort of the Heritage Foundation and more than 100 organizations to enable a future anti-democratic presidential administration to take swift, far-right action that would cut wages for working people, dismantle social safety net programs, reverse decades of progress for civil rights, redefine the way our society operates, and undermine our economy.

A central pillar of Project 2025 is the “Mandate for Leadership,” a 900+ page policy playbook authored by former Trump administration officials and other extremists that provides a radical vision for our nation and a roadmap to implement it.

Project 2025 Snapshot

Proposals from Project 2025, discussed in detail throughout this guide, that they claim could be implemented through executive branch action alone — so without new legislation — include:

Cut overtime protections for 4.3 million workers

Stop efforts to lower prescription drug prices

Limit access to food assistance, which an average of more than 40 million people in 21.6 million households rely on monthly

Eliminate the Head Start early education program, which serves over 1 million children annually

Cut American Rescue Plan (ARP) programs that have created or saved 220,000 jobs

Restrict access to medication abortion

Push more of the 33 million people enrolled in Medicare towards Medicare Advantage and other worse, private options

Expose the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of increased discrimination

Deny students in 25 states and Washington, D.C. access to student loans because their state provides in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants

Roll back civil rights protections across multiple fronts, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related (DEI) programs and LGBTQ+ rights in health care, education, and workplaces

[odinsblog]

This is the deeply homophobic + transphobic autocracy that tankies worship so much 😒

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The Russian Justice Ministry on Friday said it has filed a lawsuit with the nation’s Supreme Court to outlaw the LGBTQ+ “international public movement” as extremist, the latest crippling blow against the already beleaguered LGBTQ+ community in the increasingly conservative country.

The crackdown, which began a decade ago, slowly but surely chipped away at LGBTQ+ rights. In 2013, the Kremlin adopted the first legislation restricting LGBTQ+ rights, known as the “gay propaganda” law, banning any non-critical public depiction of “nontraditional sexual relations” among minors. In 2020, Putin pushed through a constitutional reform to extend his rule by two more terms that also outlawed same-sex marriage.

In 2022, after sending troops into Ukraine, the Kremlin ramped up its rhetoric about protecting “traditional values” from what it called the West’s “degrading” influence, in what rights advocates saw as an attempt to legitimize the war in Ukraine. That same year, the authorities adopted a law banning propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” among adults, too, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ people.

Another law passed this year prohibited gender transitioning procedures and gender-affirming care for trans people. The legislation prohibited any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records. It also amended Russia’s Family Code by listing gender change as a reason to annul a marriage and adding those “who had changed gender” to a list of people who can’t become foster or adoptive parents.

“Do we really want to have here, in our country, in Russia, ‘Parent No. 1, No. 2, No. 3’ instead of ‘mom’ and ‘dad?’” Putin said in September 2022 at a ceremony to formalize Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions. “Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed in our schools from the primary grades?”

(continue reading)

[conkreetmonkey]

yk what. Maybe I will hop on the trend and take a break from American political news for a while. I don't even live there so it won't affect me, unless it does in which case Canadian news outlets will report on it. I trust my muties will let me know if the shit really hits the fan. There's no way I won't hear, anyway, my housemates are all pretty into the news anyway. I really don't stand to benefit from any of it, and in the situations where I genuinely need to be informed of something, I'll still find out. All it'll do is make me upset, and I really don't need that in my life rn. thx @gummy-worms-in-my-brain for suggesting it last night. I thought about what you said, and you were right, so. Blocking some tags, setting up some filters, all that jazz.

[crazycatsiren]

Just blocked a bunch of tankies.

My gods they disgust me so much. 🤮

[archivlibrarianist]

In its continued fuckery, the so-called Department of Education released a 1/24/2025 statement screed of lies claiming that reports of book bans are a "hoax".

The ALA responds here:

"In their cruel and headlong effort to terminate protections from discrimination for LGBTQIA+ students and students of color, the Department of Education advances the demonstrably false claim that book bans are not real.

"Book bans are real. Ask students who cannot access literary classics required for college or parents whose children can’t check out a book about gay penguins at their school library. Ask school librarians who have lost their jobs for protecting the freedom to read. While a parent has the right to guide their own children’s reading, their beliefs and prejudices should not dictate what another parent chooses for their own children."

The ALA has a toolkit that you, a patron, as well as any library worker, can use to advocate against censorship in libraries and education.

Contact your legislators and the White House. Tell them you're tired of your First Amendment rights being disregarded.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

I wasn't able to talk about it because my internship went from 9 to 9 and i just got home..... But like y'all have no idea how much of a shitshow voting count today was. Nov 5 ass type of elections

[nando161mando]

statism is oppressive no matter how it's spun 👍

[democratthatlovesguns]

The Enemy Within

What you are seeing now, is how stupid JD Vance, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk believe the majority of Americans to be ...

With good cause, since a small majority did vote for these fucking dumbasses.

A self-accusation: the plan all along was to bring an end to democracy in America, as Trump promised ("you won't have to vote again"). His dumbass supporters hailed that as promising, because they too want to bring an end to democracy.

It is their firm belief that America would be best if only certain "born into the right family" people are allowed to govern. They believe that only upper middle class Christian nationalists should be allowed to make laws and hire the "right" people to enforce them.

JD Vance knows that Donald Trump and Elon Musk (Co-Presidents, Inc.) are the true enemies within to the greatest most prosperous democracy the world has ever known.

We stand with the party (Democrats) that will always consider all Americans to be of equal worth and with an equal privilege to have a place at the table and a say in governance. WE STILL BELIEVE WE HAVE THE BEST REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN - AND WE WILL DO WHAT WE MUST TO KEEP IT.

[den-kunn]

so I was right.

my seidan Havik hc is now canon.

but now there's racism :D