#political divisions

[trendynewsnow]

Critical Election in Georgia: A Pivotal Moment for the South Caucasus

Today’s election in Georgia is being heralded as one of the most significant and contentious events for the South Caucasus nation, which is home to approximately 3.7 million people. The atmosphere leading up to the vote has been charged with emotion and intensity, reflecting deep divisions within the country. In a rally preceding the election, members of the ruling Georgian Dream party rallied…

[xtruss]

Too Hot to Work? America's Next Big Labor Battle

— By Giulia Carbonaro | August 14, 2023

A Newsweek photo graphic showing, from left, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Newsweek; Source Photo; Brandon Bell/Getty; Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP Via Getty; Angelo Merendino/Getty Images

American workers are dying, local businesses are reporting a drop in productivity, and the country's economy is losing billions all because of one problem: the heat.

July was the hottest month on record on our planet, according to scientists. This entire summer, so far, has been marked by scorching temperatures for much of the U.S. South, with the thermometer reaching triple digits in several places in Texas between June and July.

In that same period, at least two people died in the state while working under the stifling heat enveloping Texas, a 35-year-old utility lineman, and a 66-year-old USPS carrier. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 36 work-related deaths due to environmental heat exposure in 2021, the latest data available. This was a drop from 56 deaths in 2020, and the lowest number since 2017.

"Workers who are exposed to extreme heat or work in hot environments may be at risk of heat stress," Kathleen Conley, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Newsweek. "Heat stress can result in heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, or heat rashes. Heat can also increase the risk of injuries in workers as it may result in sweaty palms, fogged-up safety glasses, and dizziness. Burns may also occur as a result of accidental contact with hot surfaces or steam."

While there is a minimum working temperature in the U.S., there's no maximum working temperature set by law at a federal level. The CDC makes recommendations for employers to avoid heat stress in the workplace, but these are not legally binding requirements.

The Biden administration has tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with updating its worker safety policies in light of the extreme heat. But the federal standards could take years to develop—leaving the issue in the hands of individual states.

Things aren't moving nearly as fast as the emergency would require—and it's the politics around the way we look at work, the labor market, and the rights of workers in the U.S. that is slowing things down.

A Deep Political Divide

"There's remarkably little in terms of regulation, and of course, given our divided political views in this country—on the right, Republicans in general, are trying to resist more regulation that's premised on continuing global warming," Gregory DeFreitas, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy at Hofstra University, New York, told Newsweek.

There's a bill, initially introduced in 2019 and now revived by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, that would move in the direction of setting a federal standard for temperature levels, and other heat-related requirements.

The Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act would create a universal heat standard requirement through OSHA for workers threatened by hot working conditions.

"No worker should have to endure life-threatening heat to provide for their family. This would be an important step to protect Ohio workers on the job," said Brown in a statement available on his website. "We know too many workers still work in dangerous conditions, putting their health and safety on the line every day to provide for their families. There's not much dignity in a job where you fear for your health or your life."

Newsweek has contacted Brown for comment by phone but did not receive a response.

"Given the political divisions, it's hard to say what its chances of passage are, although you'd think that another record-setting year in heat would put more pressure on taking similar action," DeFreitas said.

Members of the Hays County Emergency Service Districts and the Kyle and Buda Fire Departments rest together while combatting a wildfire during an excessive heat warning on August 08, 2023 in Hays County, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

This political division over safety regulations in the workplace, according to DeFreitas, started during Donald Trump's presidency. "The minute Trump got in office, he declared war on regulations," he said. "In 2017, he cut OSHA's job safety rules, employers were not required to make as frequent accident reports, there were to be no surprise inspections of factories and workplaces," he said.

"As a result what you have is a weakened federal agency, but that fits with the idea of deregulating businesses and giving them more freedom—the so-called voluntary self-regulation, which was common under both the Bush and the Trump administration."

He added: "That's a deep philosophical orientation of the current Republican Party, regardless of what the dangers are, whether it is climate change or anything else, they want to cut as much regulation and regulatory steps as they can." Newsweek contacted OSHA but did not receive a prompt response.

Billions Up in Smoke

As well as harming or losing people, the country is losing money to the heat.

According to a recent study by the Adrienne-Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, housed at the Atlantic Council, the U.S. is already losing approximately $100 billion on average every year from the drop in labor productivity caused by the current level of heat.

That's "approximately the annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security ($51.7 billion) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($44.1 billion) combined (U.S. Government Publishing Office 2019)," researchers write.

The study estimates that, if no significant effort is made to reduce emissions or adapt to extreme heat, labor productivity losses could double to nearly $200 billion by 2030 and reach $500 billion by 2050.

For labor experts, there's no doubt that the extreme heat, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change and our collective failure to bring down carbon emissions on a global level, calls for drastic changes in the way Americans work.

"It's a huge but under-appreciated issue that we're dealing with, not just with outdoor workers, but also oil and gas field workers, people working in warehouses, construction workers," Kurt Shickman, director of Extreme Heat Initiatives at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, told Newsweek. "It's a huge swath of our economy that's already increasingly affected by the heat today."

When it's really hot outside, people work more slowly and they are more prone to make mistakes and have accidents, said Shickman. "You may have situations where the weather is so dangerous that you just physically can't have people outside, so you lose work hours," he added.

"We're going to need all kinds of dramatic changes in terms of factory design, warehouse design, and workplace design," said DeFreitas. "The bill is going to be very, very high unless we do something dramatic soon."

Shickman thinks that change is going to depend on regulation. "I don't think we can count on this being self-policed by businesses. It hasn't been so far."

A State-Level Battle

In the immediate future, protecting workers from heat stress—when it's so hot that the body can't keep its ideal internal temperature and can suffer heat stroke and exhaustion—is then up to state lawmakers and the businesses themselves.

California, for example, has set a maximum temperature at which outdoor workers can safely do their job, as well as introducing other regulations aimed at protecting employees, like more frequent periods in the shade and water breaks. More action has been taken in this direction in a handful of states including Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, and New York.

But while states like California have succeeded in introducing effective safety regulations, in other states similar attempts have been rebuffed by the opposition of industry groups and lobbyists.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott recently approved a law rescinding city and county ordinances requiring mandatory water breaks for construction workers—a move that generated much controversy and backlash from Texas Democrats. Supporters of the bill, on the other hand, said the law will help rein in local and county officials that have exceeded their authority and will give small businesses the consistency they need to invest and grow.

Heat waves cause distortion on the horizon as a pedestrian walks along South Las Vegas Blvd in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 30, 2023, as temperatures reach more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty Images

In Nevada, lawmakers for months have put off giving final approval to heat safety regulations adopted by OSHA, as the state's Department of Business and Industry discusses the concerns of industry groups over the new policies, as reported by The Washington Post.

"With our workers outside during extreme heat, requiring basic water and rest breaks is just common sense—and it will save lives," Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, told Newsweek. "As we continue to experience record heat waves, we need to hold employers accountable and protect workers across the country."

The Cost of Change

Investing in making the workplace safer for employees might cost companies more than they're willing to spend, even as they are losing workers' productivity and hours.

"A lot of the generalized skilled work, what we would call lower skilled work, is in warehouses," Lindsey Cameron, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek. "Warehouses are big, massive football fields. It costs a lot of money and a lot of infrastructure to try to cool down. And sometimes it's just impossible because you have all these trucks going in and out and people going in and out."

Some businesses have already moved to protect their workers from heat, knowing that the cost of ignoring the issue could eventually be higher than trying to fix it.

A construction worker moves materials as people sit and drink water along the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2023, as temperatures are expected to reach record highs. Brenden Smialowski/AFP Via Getty Images

Jose Garza, the national environmental health and safety leader at California-headquartered general contractor DPR Construction, told Newsweek that the company—which has over 10,000 employees—has implemented heat safety procedures that go beyond the state-mandated regulation, including introducing cooling stations, handing out electrolyte drinks, and giving more breaks to workers.

"We see it as the cost of taking care of people and the right thing to do," he said. "You can either plan for it or react to it, because if you're not planning for it, those breaks are going to happen when the worker is no longer able to work, when they're sick, when they're well beyond the point where their bodies are unable to cool themselves down."

Garza said that employers who care about their workers should go "above and beyond" available regulation to protect them from heat.

'A Long Time' Coming

Experts agree that change won't come from the businesses—and will likely not come soon unless there's committed political action.

"It's really going to take both state and federal movement on this," DeFreitas said. "And I'm hoping that certainly in states like New York, where there does seem to be more attention to workplace safety, that they can move in the direction of the federal bill that's now stuck in progress."

"I don't think the United States has such a great backbone when it comes to climate issues," said Cameron. "We pulled out of the Paris Agreement [under former President Trump in 2017, but rejoined in 2021 under President Joe Biden]. I think there's going to be a lot more attention given to climate change, but it may take a long time to be able to see those changes."

[worldwatcher3072]

Bridging the Divide:

Combating Partisan Polarization in American Politics

In the realm of American politics, a shadow looms large – a shadow cast by the growing chasm of partisan polarization. As our nation grapples with complex challenges and opportunities, the stark divide between political parties threatens to stifle progress and compromise. In this blog post, we delve into the depths of this issue and explore potential strategies to bridge the gap and combat the corrosive effects of partisan polarization.

The Roots of Partisan Polarization

Partisan polarization isn't a new phenomenon, but its intensity and impact have become increasingly evident in recent years. Rooted in a multitude of factors, including ideological differences, media echo chambers, and gerrymandered districts, this polarization has created an environment where collaboration takes a back seat to confrontation.

The Consequences of Polarization

The consequences of partisan polarization are far-reaching. Legislative gridlock, where policy-making grinds to a halt due to an inability to find common ground, has become all too familiar. Public trust in institutions erodes as citizens witness their elected officials engaged in seemingly endless ideological battles, often at the expense of meaningful governance. Moreover, polarization can hinder innovative solutions to pressing issues, leaving critical problems unresolved.

Combating Partisan Polarization: Strategies for Unity

While the challenge of partisan polarization is daunting, it is not insurmountable. Here are some strategies that could help bridge the divide and promote more constructive dialogue and cooperation:

Promote Civility and Respect: Leaders from both sides of the aisle must set an example by engaging in civil and respectful discourse. Constructive debates and disagreements can lead to better solutions, but they should be grounded in mutual respect and a commitment to finding common ground.

Encourage Cross-Party Collaboration: Establish platforms and initiatives that encourage members of different parties to work together on shared goals. Cross-party alliances can demonstrate the potential for compromise and foster a culture of cooperation.

Foster Media Literacy: Educating citizens about media literacy can help counter the echo chamber effect, where individuals are exposed only to information that reinforces their existing beliefs. Encouraging critical thinking and a diverse range of news sources can lead to a more informed and well-rounded public discourse.

Address Gerrymandering: Redistricting reform can help mitigate the impact of gerrymandered districts, which often contribute to polarization by creating safe seats for one party or the other. Independent commissions and transparent processes can lead to more competitive elections and encourage candidates to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters.

Promote Civic Engagement: Encouraging citizens to actively participate in the political process can help counter apathy and disengagement. When people are actively involved, they become more invested in finding common ground and advocating for solutions that benefit everyone.

A Shared Responsibility

The task of combating partisan polarization is not solely the responsibility of politicians or policymakers. It is a collective effort that requires the engagement of citizens, communities, and institutions across the nation. By recognizing the dangers of polarization and committing to fostering a more inclusive and collaborative political environment, we can work toward a future where the United States thrives through unity, understanding, and progress.

In conclusion, while the challenge of partisan polarization is significant, it is not an insurmountable obstacle. By embracing a spirit of cooperation, promoting civility, and fostering a culture of open dialogue, we can begin to heal the divisions that threaten our democracy. Let us remember that the strength of our nation lies not just in our differences, but in our ability to come together for the greater good.

[iizuumi]

Guess Narumi isn't getting any paperwork done ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ms-boogie-man]

Angie/Maddie🦇❥✝︎🇺🇸

[lurkiestvoid]

You're being targeted by disinformation networks that are vastly more effective than you realize. And they're making you more hateful and depressed.

(This essay was originally by u/walkandtalkk and posted to r/GenZ on Reddit two months ago, and I've crossposted here on Tumblr for convenience because it's relevant and well-written.)

TL;DR: You know that Russia and other governments try to manipulate people online. But you almost certainly don't how just how effectively orchestrated influence networks are using social media platforms to make you -- individually-- angry, depressed, and hateful toward each other. Those networks' goal is simple: to cause Americans and other Westerners -- especially young ones -- to give up on social cohesion and to give up on learning the truth, so that Western countries lack the will to stand up to authoritarians and extremists.

And you probably don't realize how well it's working on you.

This is a long post, but I wrote it because this problem is real, and it's much scarier than you think.

How Russian networks fuel racial and gender wars to make Americans fight one another

In September 2018, a video went viral after being posted by In the Now, a social media news channel. It featured a feminist activist pouring bleach on a male subway passenger for manspreading. It got instant attention, with millions of views and wide social media outrage. Reddit users wrote that it had turned them against feminism.

There was one problem: The video was staged. And In the Now, which publicized it, is a subsidiary of RT, formerly Russia Today, the Kremlin TV channel aimed at foreign, English-speaking audiences.

As an MIT study found in 2019, Russia's online influence networks reached 140 million Americans every month -- the majority of U.S. social media users.

Russia began using troll farms a decade ago to incite gender and racial divisions in the United States

In 2013, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a confidante of Vladimir Putin, founded the Internet Research Agency (the IRA) in St. Petersburg. It was the Russian government's first coordinated facility to disrupt U.S. society and politics through social media.

Here's what Prigozhin had to say about the IRA's efforts to disrupt the 2022 election:

"Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once."

In 2014, the IRA and other Russian networks began establishing fake U.S. activist groups on social media. By 2015, hundreds of English-speaking young Russians worked at the IRA. Their assignment was to use those false social-media accounts, especially on Facebook and Twitter -- but also on Reddit, Tumblr, 9gag, and other platforms -- to aggressively spread conspiracy theories and mocking, ad hominem arguments that incite American users.

In 2017, U.S. intelligence found that Blacktivist, a Facebook and Twitter group with more followers than the official Black Lives Matter movement, was operated by Russia. Blacktivist regularly attacked America as racist and urged black users to rejected major candidates. On November 2, 2016, just before the 2016 election, Blacktivist's Twitter urged Black Americans: "Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it's not a wasted vote."

Russia plays both sides -- on gender, race, and religion

The brilliance of the Russian influence campaign is that it convinces Americans to attack each other, worsening both misandry and misogyny, mutual racial hatred, and extreme antisemitism and Islamophobia. In short, it's not just an effort to boost the right wing; it's an effort to radicalize everybody.

Russia uses its trolling networks to aggressively attack men. According to MIT, in 2019, the most popular Black-oriented Facebook page was the charmingly named "My Baby Daddy Aint Shit." It regularly posts memes attacking Black men and government welfare workers. It serves two purposes: Make poor black women hate men, and goad black men into flame wars.

MIT found that My Baby Daddy is run by a large troll network in Eastern Europe likely financed by Russia.

But Russian influence networks are also also aggressively misogynistic and aggressively anti-LGBT.

On January 23, 2017, just after the first Women's March, the New York Times found that the Internet Research Agency began a coordinated attack on the movement. Per the Times:

More than 4,000 miles away, organizations linked to the Russian government had assigned teams to the Women’s March. At desks in bland offices in St. Petersburg, using models derived from advertising and public relations, copywriters were testing out social media messages critical of the Women’s March movement, adopting the personas of fictional Americans.

They posted as Black women critical of white feminism, conservative women who felt excluded, and men who mocked participants as hairy-legged whiners.

But the Russian PR teams realized that one attack worked better than the rest: They accused its co-founder, Arab American Linda Sarsour, of being an antisemite. Over the next 18 months, at least 152 Russian accounts regularly attacked Sarsour. That may not seem like many accounts, but it worked: They drove the Women's March movement into disarray and eventually crippled the organization.

Russia doesn't need a million accounts, or even that many likes or upvotes. It just needs to get enough attention that actual Western users begin amplifying its content.

A former federal prosecutor who investigated the Russian disinformation effort summarized it like this:

It wasn’t exclusively about Trump and Clinton anymore. It was deeper and more sinister and more diffuse in its focus on exploiting divisions within society on any number of different levels.

As the New York Times reported in 2022,

There was a routine: Arriving for a shift, [Russian disinformation] workers would scan news outlets on the ideological fringes, far left and far right, mining for extreme content that they could publish and amplify on the platforms, feeding extreme views into mainstream conversations.

China is joining in with AI

[A couple months ago], the New York Times reported on a new disinformation campaign. "Spamouflage" is an effort by China to divide Americans by combining AI with real images of the United States to exacerbate political and social tensions in the U.S. The goal appears to be to cause Americans to lose hope, by promoting exaggerated stories with fabricated photos about homeless violence and the risk of civil war.

As Ladislav Bittman, a former Czechoslovakian secret police operative, explained about Soviet disinformation, the strategy is not to invent something totally fake. Rather, it is to act like an evil doctor who expertly diagnoses the patient’s vulnerabilities and exploits them, “prolongs his illness and speeds him to an early grave instead of curing him.”

The influence networks are vastly more effective than platforms admit

Russia now runs its most sophisticated online influence efforts through a network called Fabrika. Fabrika's operators have bragged that social media platforms catch only 1% of their fake accounts across YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Telegram, and other platforms.

But how effective are these efforts? By 2020, Facebook's most popular pages for Christian and Black American content were run by Eastern European troll farms tied to the Kremlin. And Russia doesn't just target angry Boomers on Facebook. Russian trolls are enormously active on Twitter. And, even, on Reddit.

It's not just false facts

The term "disinformation" undersells the problem. Because much of Russia's social media activity is not trying to spread fake news. Instead, the goal is to divide and conquer by making Western audiences depressed and extreme.

Sometimes, through brigading and trolling. Other times, by posting hyper-negative or extremist posts or opinions about the U.S. the West over and over, until readers assume that's how most people feel. And sometimes, by using trolls to disrupt threads that advance Western unity.

As the RAND think tank explained, the Russian strategy is volume and repetition, from numerous accounts, to overwhelm real social media users and create the appearance that everyone disagrees with, or even hates, them. And it's not just low-quality bots. Per RAND,

Russian propaganda is produced in incredibly large volumes and is broadcast or otherwise distributed via a large number of channels. ... According to a former paid Russian Internet troll, the trolls are on duty 24 hours a day, in 12-hour shifts, and each has a daily quota of 135 posted comments of at least 200 characters.

What this means for you

You are being targeted by a sophisticated PR campaign meant to make you more resentful, bitter, and depressed. It's not just disinformation; it's also real-life human writers and advanced bot networks working hard to shift the conversation to the most negative and divisive topics and opinions.

It's why some topics seem to go from non-issues to constant controversy and discussion, with no clear reason, across social media platforms. And a lot of those trolls are actual, "professional" writers whose job is to sound real.

So what can you do? To quote WarGames: The only winning move is not to play. The reality is that you cannot distinguish disinformation accounts from real social media users. Unless you know whom you're talking to, there is a genuine chance that the post, tweet, or comment you are reading is an attempt to manipulate you -- politically or emotionally.

Here are some thoughts:

Don't accept facts from social media accounts you don't know. Russian, Chinese, and other manipulation efforts are not uniform. Some will make deranged claims, but others will tell half-truths. Or they'll spin facts about a complicated subject, be it the war in Ukraine or loneliness in young men, to give you a warped view of reality and spread division in the West.

Resist groupthink. A key element of manipulate networks is volume. People are naturally inclined to believe statements that have broad support. When a post gets 5,000 upvotes, it's easy to think the crowd is right. But "the crowd" could be fake accounts, and even if they're not, the brilliance of government manipulation campaigns is that they say things people are already predisposed to think. They'll tell conservative audiences something misleading about a Democrat, or make up a lie about Republicans that catches fire on a liberal server or subreddit.

Don't let social media warp your view of society. This is harder than it seems, but you need to accept that the facts -- and the opinions -- you see across social media are not reliable. If you want the news, do what everyone online says not to: look at serious, mainstream media. It is not always right. Sometimes, it screws up. But social media narratives are heavily manipulated by networks whose job is to ensure you are deceived, angry, and divided.

Edited for typos and clarity. (Tumblr-edited for formatting and to note a sourced article is now older than mentioned in the original post. -LV)

P.S. Apparently, this post was removed several hours ago due to a flood of reports. Thank you to the r/GenZ moderators for re-approving it.

Second edit:

This post is not meant to suggest that r/GenZ is uniquely or especially vulnerable, or to suggest that a lot of challenges people discuss here are not real. It's entirely the opposite: Growing loneliness, political polarization, and increasing social division along gender lines is real. The problem is that disinformation and influence networks expertly, and effectively, hijack those conversations and use those real, serious issues to poison the conversation. This post is not about left or right: Everyone is targeted.

(Further Tumblr notes: since this was posted, there have been several more articles detailing recent discoveries of active disinformation/influence and hacking campaigns by Russia and their allies against several countries and their respective elections, and barely touches on the numerous Tumblr blogs discovered to be troll farms/bad faith actors from pre-2016 through today. This is an ongoing and very real problem, and it's nowhere near over.

A quote from NPR article linked above from 2018 that you might find familiar today: "[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we'd surely be better off without voting AT ALL," a post from the account said.")

[diaryofaphilosopher]

Subconciously, we see an attack on ourselves and our beliefs as a threat and we attempt to block with a counter-stance. But it is not enough to stand on the opposite riverbank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal white conventions. A counter-stance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counter-stance refutes the dominant culture's views and beliefs, and for this, it is proudly defiant. All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counter-stance stems from a problem with authority - outer as well as inner - it's a step toward liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

— Gloria Anzaldua, “La concencia de la mestiza”

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Speech Liz Cheney gave at the Utah State Capitol!

~BR~

[asm5129]

…after the civil war, a few key mistakes were made.

the south’s economy was destroyed because it was reliant on slave labor, and never really fully recovered. And suffering breeds resentment.

On top of this, no one *wants* to believe their ancestors fought for something objectively evil. So the states rights narrative was appealing.

And in trying to heal the divide in America, many confederate leaders were not granted simply mercy in the form of a pardon, but actively given power once more.

And while slavery was dead (outside of prisons, anyway), black Americans were still considered inferior. The Reconciliation era included tremendous violence against black Americans.

In many ways white Americans healed through white supremacy.

Essentially, concessions were made to heal the divide that ultimately failed to address the problem that caused the war in the first place—whether anyone other than white men were included in the phrase “all men are created equal”.

Healing division inevitably includes concessions and compromise, but the way it was done in the aftermath of the civil war was fundamentally flawed because it treated a problem that still existed as if it had been solved. When you let racists back in power, they will do more racist things, whether or not the institution of slavery for African Americans still exists.

When we try to heal from where this country is now, we must learn from that history. People in the south don’t deserve for people to see them get hit by a deadly hurricane and hand wave it away as “they got what they voted for”, but neither should we allow those who have lead red states down the path of fascism have a say in what healing looks like.

In order to reconcile with one another, we have to be willing to sit down and have conversations with one another like people. There will be people who are not willing to do that, or who will try to take advantage of it, and we can prepare for that.

But we do need to be able to coexist.

We can start with the basics. Do people have enough stability? Can they afford food? Do they have support when they need it?

And then we can talk to them about what they need to address that.

It’s telling that the main issue people voted for Trump for was the economy. People are suffering, and even though Kamala’s economic proposal was very good she didn’t always do the best job explaining it, especially for those who would need it most who are often not super educated. And ultimately it wasn’t enough of a change, and what’s more, it asked people to be patient and not angry. Trump is able to gain the support he has because he taps into deep suffering and anger and gives it a target.

Kamala didn’t give legitimacy to that anger the way they needed.

these are my thoughts on healing the division in America, i suppose. I hope you find them interesting.

**Btw, these thoughts are mainly informed by information from the documentary *Civil War (or Who Do We Think We Are)* and the book *Democracy Awakening* by Heather Cox Richardson, both of which I highly recommend to help grasp a deeper understanding of why America is where it is today.

[ghost-rattz]

the fucking transmisandry on this site is insane. “no matter what stage of transitioned a transmasc person is, they always have an advantage over a transfem person” HELLO?

the moment we pass we get othered; people assume we’re misogynistic if we pass as well as any cis man and if we aren’t misogynistic it somehow has to do with the fact that we’re “not like cis guys”. either way we’re ostracized

if i have to hear “all men are bad, oh except trans men and gay men” one more time i’m losing it

[contemplatingoutlander]

America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education

This is an excellent article in The Washington Post about how our school systems have begun to reflect the political divisions in our nation, with many red states legally banning discussions on racism, sexism, and gender issues, and many blue states legally requiring those kinds of discussions. This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if the don't subscribe to the Post. Below are some excerpts:

Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19. [...] The divide is sharply partisan. The vast majority of restrictive laws and policies, close to 9o percent, were enacted in states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, The Post found. Meanwhile, almost 80 percent of expansive laws and policies were enacted in states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

The explosion of laws regulating school curriculums is unprecedented in U.S. history for its volume and scope, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies education history and policy...states have never before stepped in so aggressively to set rules for local schools. [...] [A] nationally representative study from the Rand Corp. released this year found that 65 percent of K-12 teachers report they are limiting instruction on “political and social issues.” “What the laws show is that we have extremely significant differences over how we imagine America,” Zimmerman said. [...] In practice, these divisions mean that what a child learns about, say, the role slavery played in the nation’s founding — or the possibility of a person identifying as nonbinary — may come to depend on whether they live in a red or blue state. [...] Almost 40 percent of these laws work by granting parents greater control of the curriculum — stipulating that they must be able to review, object to or remove lesson material, as well as opt out of instruction. [...] Another almost 40 percent of the laws forbid schools from teaching a long list of often-vague concepts related to race, sex or gender.

[...] At the college level, among the measures passed in recent years is a 2021 Oklahoma law that prohibits institutions of higher education from holding “mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling,” as well as any “orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping.” By contrast, a 2023 California measure says state community college faculty must employ “teaching, learning and professional practices” that reflect “anti-racist principles.”

Some experts predicted the politically divergent instruction will lead to a more divided society. “When children are being taught very different stories of what America is, that will lead to adults who have a harder time talking to each other,” said Rachel Rosenberg, a Hartwick College assistant professor of education.

[awesomecooperlove]

💥💥💥

[tomthefanboy]

I see a lot of haters mocking the "just vote blue" strawman online this week.

I don't know anybody who was saying or thinking "voting blue is all you have to do". Nobody thinks that electing a democrat will "fix the country" or make our problems go away.

We are screaming about voting because it's the bare minimum, entry level, welcome to adulthood part of the political process and people STILL DON'T GO TO THE POLLS!

Look at the numbers from the 2024 primaries. Every single one of these elections had a dozen or so ADDITIONAL RACES being decided, some even had ballot measures and special elections added in but the turn out was TERRIBLE!

And the 2022 mid terms where the Democrats lost the House seats?

Voter turnout for the 2022 U.S. congressional elections was the second highest for a nonpresidential election year since 2000, with 52.2% of the citizen voting-age population participating. 

"Just over half" was a RECORD!

You haters need to focus your energy on activism that doesn't involve attacking your allies. those of us trying to get people to vote aren't the problem.

And if you haven't done so this month, make sure to make sure you're registered.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Loud cheers erupted inside a packed high school gymnasium after the Brandon School Division rejected a call to remove books dealing with sexuality and gender identity from libraries.

[...]

The school division was inundated with calls, letters and emails after a delegation at its May 8 meeting, led by former school trustee and grandmother Lorraine Hackenschmidt, called on the division to set up a committee to review the content of books available in school libraries, and remove titles deemed inappropriate, including "any books that caused our kids to question whether they are in the wrong body."

Before the vote, board chair Linda Ross said there were many "errors and untruths" in Hackenschmidt's presentation.

Ross said that by denying the possibility that people could feel like they are born in the wrong body, "you are denying the reality of others. Because it is not your experience does not mean that it is not the reality of others."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[ms-boogie-man]

Ahem…

If at this point, you are supporting the political establishment's candidate, Kamala Harris — 'cause let us face facts here, RINOs like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney are supporting her and it is totally obvious that the two political parties are and have been a uni-party playing good cop/bad cop with Americans — then you are doing so out of ego and selfishness, or just plain ignorance

Have fun with that yo

… and if I am wrong, I do not have an ego and I will gladly admit I was wrong and apologize. You heard it here, bae

Angie/Maddie🦇❥✝︎🇺🇸

Meme by Angie

[halluciniwaynia]

one of the most annoying things about looking at discussion for yuri shows like oniisama e and utena is that i can smell the biphobia coming off the lesbians who talk about these shows like women liking men somehow makes them lesser than those who don’t and more deserving of the violence they receive. like there’s a very historical precedent to the way that bisexual sapphicism has been ostracized and divorced from women x women spaces, to the point where any woman shown to have a distrust of men is somehow assumed to be a lesbian without considering that bisexual women actually go through something similar