#potemkin village

[kindsoulbuddy]

I made baby Audrey 2!

Here’s my process:

[earthconsciousness]

[kindsoulbuddy]

Aww her name is Patina! Like one of my characters on my YouTube channel:

A copper retriever with her unoxidised puppies

[kinialohaguy]

Potemkin Prison

Aloha kākou. “We can’t afford four more years of this,” said Tampon Tim Walz, and we agree with the buffoonish communist. We can’t take four more years of this Biden-Harris regime, followed by a Harris-Walz regime continuation. Our Nation and the World wouldn’t survive either. I thought Pedo-Joe Biden was cognitively indisposed, but Karmela Harris and Tampon Tim Walz are worse, collectively…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

""Inspection Tours Are All Prepared"," Kingston Whig-Standard. September 8, 1933. Page 3. ---- W. R. Givens Says Visitors See Only What Authorities Wish Them to See ---- Replying to the latest statement of Frank Regan, Toronto, barrister, regarding Kingston Penitentiary, W. R. Givens, former President of The Whig-Standard; says: -

"So far as I can see Mr. Regan's answer to me consists, first of a contradiction of the statement that he made a 'prepared' inspection of the Penitentiary and, second, of a criticism of me because I made no at-tempt two years ago to rally public opinion to demand a royal commiss- ion at that time.

"As to the first, I can only say that if Mr. Regan were as familiar with 'inspection' tours of the Penitentiary as we are here in Kingston, he would know that all these 'personally conducted' tours are 'prepared' - prepared, that is in the sense of the word that the visitor is shown only so much of the institution and only those parts of it that the authorities elect or chose to show him. No better proof of this can be offered than the inspection' of the institution made by the newspaper men of the Province a few days after the riots last year, all under the distinguished patronage and guidance of none other than Superintendent Ormond. Anxious to obtain all the facts possible, these newspaper men were nevertheless not only kept within a circumscribed area inside the Penitentiary, but were actually forbidden - ordered might be the better word - to ask a single question or to seek any, information other than, what was vouchsafed them by their guide.

"Hence when I used to word 'prepared' in regard to Mr. Regan's 'inspection' I used it advisedly in the sense of the word that all such inspections are prepared'. It was only on that ground (that he saw simply what he was intended to see and no more) that I could explain why Mr. Regan so valiantly rushed to the defence of the Maiden, Miss Penitentiary, and, snatching her from the hands of those whom he apparently conceived to be her would-be despoilers, hastily and kindly sheltered her under a heavy coat of whitewash. Or was it Kalsomine?

However, it is very clear that Mr. Regan since then has come to see the error of his ways - perhaps because of the testimony of his own client, Dorland, who, just released from the Penitentiary, condemns it bitterly, even to the point of declaring that men there are being driven insane by the system. Thus it is that Mr. Regan. recanting, now come to the exact point of view which I myself have taken, namely to quote his own words, that the authorities should be given every opportunity to further the reforms suggested, and failing this within a reasonable length of time the demand for a commission should be persisted in. Needless to say Mr. Regan's change of heart - from his white washing attitude to his demand for needed reforms-is a welcome one and will give added strength to the movement because, able lawyer that he is, Mr. Regan himself produced some very damaging evidence against the system, and must realize the need for drastic reforms.

"Regarding the second issue raised by Mr Regan, why I did not attempt to rally public opinion behind me two years ago, it is but necessary to say that just at that time, following my usual winter custom, I left for an extended six months trip. Under such circumstances, my inactivity is perhaps understandable.

As for the Dorland case, I fail to see why we in Kingston can be held responsible for Toronto's shortcomings. It is not for us, but for Toronto herself to butter her own parsnips and clean up her own civic back yard."

[bensbitterblog]

Potemkin Village Bitterness

When I graduated from college in 1998, I started working as a junior copywriter for a Fortune 500 company. At least that was what was supposed to happen, according to the movies. Unfortunately, I didn’t go to Harvard, MIT, or even the lowly Yale. If you aren’t related to a Rockefeller, a Gates or a Senator, it can be difficult to get into one of those. I heard it helps to have good grades to go…

[wilwheaton]

The Supreme Court’s review of the immunity issue delays indefinitely a jury trial of Mr. Trump’s role in obstructing the peaceful transfer of power — and therefore risks transforming our nation into a Potemkin village of democracy that bears the surface trappings of legal institutions but without actual checks on the executive branch of government.

The Supreme Court Should Not Come Between Trump and Voters

[schraubd]

Tech Bros Are Weak Men

When I look at men like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, I see men who are fundamentally weak. That sounds judgmental. And it is, to an extent. But maybe not quite to the extent one thinks. All of these men were at one point self-identified Democrats. Zuckerberg flirted with a run for President before he realized that nobody, you know, liked him. Bezos positioned the Washington Post as a guardian of democracy before taking it dark. As these men, and others in their cadre, have pivoted to the right, one narrative one often hears is that they were effectively bullied into changing their views by mean anti-big tech sentiments amongst progressives. This is far too pat (not the least because Republicans certainly held their own in highly publicized attacks on the big tech companies), but what is fair to say is that these men say themselves as having promoted liberal causes and they did not get the adulation and adoration from Democrats that they felt they deserved. They were not feted as heroes. They were not recognized as titans of industry. They were not handed the reins of leadership. They weren't even generally recognized as progressive allies. They continued to face pressure and mockery and criticism -- much fair, some not -- and they were deeply, deeply resentful for it.  It's most obvious in the case of Musk, whose desperation to be liked is transparently obvious and who has transformed an entire social media platform into a Potemkin village of praise for the new tsar. But one sees it across the cohort -- this frustration at not being loved, and the beckoning temptation that if they just sold out then at least somebody would cheer them and make them feel like part of the team. In theory, this shouldn't matter. For those with requisite moral fiber, one does the right thing because it's the right thing, not because one gets plaudits and cookies from it. But in practice, it is a very ordinary vice to thirst for validation and gravitate towards whatever community seems most liable to hand it out. In the face of that temptation, it takes a strong man to align with a given set of values when others holding those same values can't or won't provide that respect. And our big tech bro leaders? They are not strong in this way. They are weak -- weak in a way that is very familiar and very human, but weak nonetheless. And we all must unfortunately live with the consequences of their weakness. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/6hV84Mx

[osmanthusoolong]

I’m already seeing, on the worst of all social media sites, the fine representatives for the Burger Eagle Institute For Freedom and Democracy and their fans, making terrified and breathless proclamations that Red Note, and indeed, all Chinese social media platforms, are suspect. That they exist in their entirety as Potemkin villages to convince the vulnerable masses of usamericans that China is a country full of people, many of whom are cool, friendly, funny, and interesting. That they’re carefully managed actors doing all that for the nefarious purpose of fooling the poor usamericans into believing that they could well be human, and have things in common.

The self-absorption is honestly astonishing

[kindsoulbuddy]

And now for something completely different….

[aloysiavirgata]

Your own take to the old "ust but they got married for convenience" prompt please. Thank you☺️.

Virginia Is For Lovers, the slogan claimed, but she knew it was for straight married people of the same race. Ideally white. Ideally Protestant.

Ideally fertile.

***

“It doesn’t have to change anything,” she murmurs. “It’s just a Potemkin Village for the court.” Her eyes are big and hot and searching and desperate. Her eyes are the color of Lake Tashmoo in high summer. He lost a little girl once, Scully lost a sister. There mustn’t be any more.

“Okay,” he says, and does not touch her. “Whatever you need,” he says and does not say, “Love is as strong as death. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.”

***

Her eyes as hot as the burning skin of her daughter in Mulder’s arms.

His daughter, he knows in his secret heart. He loves Scully, loves Emily, like carbon loves hydrogen. Like oxygen loves silicon. Like the ocean loves the moon.

“Mulder,” she says, with her raw honesty. With her raw beauty. With her raw love. Her daughter, pale and aflame and doomed. The only thing she wants and so, vicariously, does he. He would burn himself to keep them warm, their blue eyes like binary stars.

“Marry me,” he says, his lips tremulous and tender. His Jewish lips lips in Good Christian Alexandria, Virginia. He wants to suck at her mouth like a bruised June peach. He wants his head between her pale, firm thighs.

But he dips his well-bred head, hands her his mother’s 3.25 carat brilliant-cut diamond. It’s flawless and beautiful and absolutely obnoxious.

Scully looks at him, broken and vulnerable. Scully looks at him like she wants to die for him, wants to fuck him, wants him to sneak Emily’s tooth from under a pillow into his hot, lonely, gingerbread palm.

Time stretches like it does in the cold void of space. At the top of Everest, at the edge of a black hole.

“Yes,” she says, into the sweet, infinite dark.

[aurevoirmonty]

« Les progressistes, qui célèbrent le vivre-ensemble, se gardent bien de l’appliquer dans leur vie privée. Ce qui la régit, c’est au contraire l’endogamie. On collectionne les nounous africaines, les cuisines du monde et les auteurs édités par La Fabrique. La créolisation fait partie du baratin à la mode à l’heure de l’happy hour dans le 20e arrondissement et des pique-niques aux Buttes-Chaumont, le hype de la gentrification parisienne. Les terrasses bruissent de conversations autour de Virginie Despentes et d’Aurélien Bellanger, avec de gros roulements d’yeux et des silences à la limite de la catatonie quand vous dites que Lucie Castets a le cerveau d’une langouste rose. Mais ça, c’est la façade du village global Potemkine : derrière les sourires apprêtés et le décor en trompe-l’œil, très peu de diversité. Tout le monde la fuit secrètement. Les gens sont anti-mélangistes. Même Pap Ndiaye a mis ses enfants à l’École alsacienne. La distanciation sociale est le premier des gestes barrières qu’adoptent les parents : l’évitement, passé un certain seuil de tolérance ethnique, qui nous rappelle combien les logiques affinitaires recoupent les logiques identitaires. Ainsi fonctionne le séparatisme. »

François Bousquet, « Racisme antiblanc à l’école. La vérité interdite. » in revue Eléments n° 210 (en kiosques)

[starzec]

Potemkin village, Twardogóra, December 2024, from Anew series

This is still not a summary of this year, but I find it a nice link to a photo I'd posted almost a year ago – here. I said that 2024 will be a year of expanding Anew series, and in fact it was. Really happy to work on this documentary and expand it further. I hope that the next year or two will bring more forms of publishing this body of work.

[schleyer]

ah no we're actually relatively advanced compared to you otherworlders who reincarnate into our world it's just that we have dozens of potemkin villages dotted around the place because you people are rubes and it's surprisingly lucrative bilking money out of you earthers by making you think we're humble peasants and quaint medieval city folk

[poppetsisters]

wait, i have a better question: can a city be false? not in the sense of a potemkin village, since those weren't even fake and even if they were it was for a fleeting trickery.

can a city be false?

I think so, it would depend on your definition of false. If you're saying a city is built on false values or a lie, then I would argue most North American cities are ideal candidates.

If you're saying a city is false in that it's ingenuine, then I would point to the specific example of Niagara Falls, Ontario, which as far as I can tell only exists to cash in on the spectacle of it's namesake landmark.

Maybe Wannado City? The indoor playground where kids can roleplay being adults? It's a fake city, but it's also not claiming to be a real city. Does a false city have to claim it's a real city to count for your question?

Cop City is the closest I can think to something that is called a city but is not functionally a city. If you ask me, Cop City is Wannado City for people who wannado fascism.

I guess you could also say a city is false if it's called a city but is functionally a town (big shrug).

But if you're talking about literally false, that the city is not real, then I can only point to fictional cities like Wakanda or New Donk City.

Fun question tho.

[azspot]

It's most obvious in the case of Musk, whose desperation to be liked is transparently obvious and who has transformed an entire social media platform into a Potemkin village of praise for the new tsar. But one sees it across the cohort -- this frustration at not being loved, and the beckoning temptation that if they just sold out then at least somebody would cheer them and make them feel like part of the team.

Tech Bros Are Weak Men