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deathropology · 2 years ago

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Highlights + Updates!

Hello! It's been such a long time since I've posted because I am. Bad at social media :-). Either way, it is currently Rock the Clock, and there's some down time so I'll give you a highlight reel of what the rest of last term was like from episode 52-57.

Episode 52: Tokophobia - Tying back to the previous episode, we took the time to discuss the fear of pregnancy and giving birth.

Sources

Cleveland Clinic, 12 April 2022. Tokophobia (Fear of Childbirth)

Jomeen et al, 2020. Tokophobia and fear of birth: a workshop consensus statement on current issues and recommendations for future research

Kathy E. Greathouse, 2016. The "Nightmare" of Childbirth: The Prevalence and Predominant Predictor Variables for Tokophobia in American Women of Childbearing Age.

Kristina Hofberg and Ian Brockington, 2000. Tokophobia: an unreasoning dread of childbirth

Léa Poggi, 2018. When Fear of Childbirth is Pathological: The Fear Continuum

Manjeet Singh Bhatia, 2012. Tokophobia: A dread of pregnancy

Rebecca Webb et al, Sept 2021. Interventions to treat fear of childbirth in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Episode 53: The Unification Church - This episode connects back to the beginning of the school year, where we had previously discussed Shinzo Abe's death and his ties to the Unification Church. A brief unpacking of the political/religious organization.

Sources

Erin Snodgrass, 2022. Mass weddings and cult accusations: Who are the 'Moonies' and what is the Unification Church?

Alia Shoaib, 2021. A gun church that glorifies the AR-15 and is led by the son of the 'Moonies' church founder has been making alliances with far-right figures

Why I Joined, 2022. Dr. Thomas Ward: Leftist to Unificationist

Unification Thological Seminary, n.d.. Ward, Thomas J.

Yim Hyun-su, 2022. [KH Explains] What is Unification Church and why is it controversial?

John Gorenfeld, 2022. Bad Moon Rising

John Gorenfeld, 21 June 2004. Hail to the Moon king

Congressman Danny K. Davis, n.d..

Lisa Kohn, 20 August 2018. I grew up in a cult — and there is nothing more intoxicating than knowing you have the 'Truth'

Thisanka Siripala, 15 September 2022. Japan and the Controversial Unification Church

Episode 54: Midwestern Mormonism - Keeping to the topic of religion, I wanted to make sure we did an episode about Mormonism in between The Brobecks and IDKHOW episodes, lol. This episode is more specifically about how some Mormons are starting to move back to the midwest.

Sources

KBIA, 31 January 2012. Mormons returning to northwest Missouri, 174 years after 'extermination order'

Pew Research, n.d.. Mormons - Religion in America

Church of Jesus Christ Wikia, 2023. United States List of Stakes of the Church

History, 7 October 2021. Mormons

James T. Duke, n.d.. Eternal Marriage

Mormon Wiki, 28 April 2021. Eternal Progression

BBC, 8 October 2009. Baptism for the Dead

American Experience, n.d.. Polygamy and the Church: A History

Brooke Crum, 21 July 2013. Mormon church to end door-to-door missionary practice

Rachel McRady, 12 December 2022. 'Sister Wives' Guide: Everything to Know About Kody Brown's Wives, Children and Who Is Legally Married

Episode 55: Organ Donation - A more fundamental-style episode, Jeffrey and I talked about how Americans can sign up to have their organs donated as well as being sure to make your wishes known to your family, friends, or both. Communication is key! A few weeks after this episode came the fed's big investigation into UNOS, which is quite unfortunate timing on our end, but hopefully there can be more equity in our donation process moving forward.

Sources

UNOS, n.d.. The history of organ donation and transplantation

One Legacy, n.d.. Organ Donation Step by Step

ISOS, n.d.. Illinois Organ/Tissue Donor Registry

Iowa Donor Network

Maggie Koerth, 3 April 2019. Our Organ Donation System Is Unfair. The Solution Might Be Too.

A.P., 9 March 2022. A man who got the 1st pig heart transplant has died after 2 months

Hanae Armitage, 30 August 2022. Stanford Medicine researchers take early, critical step toward growing organs

Episode 56: The Long History of Fanfiction - This is Jeffrey's solo episode for the term! I hope tumblr can take to this one as well :-).

Sources - Waiting on Jeffrey, will amend this post ASAP!

Episode 57: IDKHOW and Reincarnation... - I know this one could probably use its own post, especially because it seems to be the most relevant to tumblr's interest, but it would be unfair to separate my solo work out again I think you know? This episode starts off where I ended The Brobecks episode from last term. It was recorded JUST BEFORE some of the recent drama, there was very little evidence at the time I had presented this. Oh how cruel time can be...

Sources

Ryan Seaman and Friends, May 2022. Anthony Purpura

Genius Lyrics, n.d.. I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

TELLEXX, n.d.. Stress Evaluation

iDKHOW LORE, n.d..

Twitter, 21 October 2018. SRCH PRTY

The Brobecks, 2012. Quiet Title

Instagram, n.d.. iDK HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

Instagram, n.d.. Dallon Weekes

Instagram, 18 February 2023. 2nd album recording announcement

P.S. Here's a thing I intended to have for the IDKHOW solo post before winter quarter killed my soul...

#deathropology #radio depaul #chicagos college connection #posting this during rtc #just had a 2 hr show! playing ib!#trying to not fall asleep orzzz #anyways. i dont think im gonna tag all of this stuff because i dont want to clog things #episode 52 #episode 53 #episode 54 #episode 55 #episode 56 #episode 57 #revisit

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jewish-privilege · 4 years ago

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(...)

I was a 12 years old when I was attacked by a mob of children and called "Christ killer" — the same age Jesus was, according to the Gospel of Luke, when he lingered in the Temple of Jerusalem and impressed the elders with his intellect — so this issue is undeniably personal. That wasn't the first or last time I was bullied for being Jewish, but it was the only time I nearly died because of it: Those kids held my head underwater, chanting, "Drown the Jew!"

This incident sprang back to mind this month as Republicans tried to figure out what to do about Greene, a particularly obnoxious Christian right-winger who has suggested that a "space laser" affiliated with Jewish banking families caused the 2018 Camp Fire in California, expressed sympathy for the anti-Semitic QAnon fantasies, promoted a video that claimed Jews are trying to destroy Europe, posed for a picture with a Ku Klux Klan leader and liked a tweet linking Israel to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

(...)

None of this is surprising for anyone who is familiar with the history of American anti-Semitism. Greene is not an aberration, some inexplicable pimple of hatred that blemishes the American right's otherwise Jew-friendly visage. The American right has long had an anti-Semitism problem, and she's just the latest symptom.

This history of hatred "tells us much more about the anti-Semite than it tells us about Jews," Dr. Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, told Salon. After citing an Israeli historian who refers to anti-Semitism as a "cultural code," Sarna explained that beliefs that vilify Jews as malevolent plotters who secretly control the world have a long history in American political life. "These ideas, which I think many on the left frankly had thought were done and over with, we suddenly see them full blown," he said

Before the 19th century, Sarna explained Jews were stereotypically depicted as being cursed: They were "wandering Jews" for their supposed role in killing Jesus Christ. In the modern era, however, the stereotype emerged that Jews secretly controlled the world and were responsible for everything that a given anti-Semite might regard as sinister. During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant blamed the Jews for cotton smuggling and expelled the entire Jewish community from areas he controlled in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. When the populist movement arose to address agrarian economic concerns in the 1890s, Jewish bankers like the Rothschilds were a frequent target among ideological leaders like William Hope "Coin" Harvey.

(...)

There's a direct line between those conspiratorial fantasies ideas from previous decades and the anti-Semitic attacks of the 21st century. "Conspiratorial thinking, by its nature, argues that everything is connected," Sarna explained. "There are no coincidences and it eschews complexity. It believes there are simple explanations based on sinister individuals who are manipulating the universe. Unsurprisingly, in a Christian setting, those are Jews."

Those ideas can evolve — Sarna pointed out that the QAnon belief in a giant child abuse ring run by Jews is analogous to the "blood libel," the medieval myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children for rituals — but the underlying assumptions have been consistent. It just so happens that, in the modern right-wing incarnation, Donald Trump's cult-like following believes that "all the enemies of Mr. Trump are now child molesters."

(...)

[Jewish comedian Larry Charles] brought up community organizer and political theorist Saul Alinsky, a favorite target of the right. "He is almost like the devil in a way," Charles observed. "He's like this radical leftist Jew, he fits all the categories. He checks all the boxes."

"Shooting some of these movies, we would see reasonable people who have this blind spot," Charles said. "They have this crazy belief, and there were all different applications and manifestations of it, that the Jews control everything. That is like a mantra amongst a certain segment of the population."

(...)

With the election of Trump in 2016, those ingrained belief systems — which for many years had been kept outside the American political mainstream — became more prominent, and their adherents more emboldened. David Weissman, a military veteran and former conservative Republican who stopped being a self-described "Trump troll" after a 2018 conversation with comedian Sarah Silverman, told Salon about his encounters with anti-Semitism on the right.

Back when he still supported Trump, Weissman recalled, he got into a "little spat" with an alt-right commentator who calls himself Baked Alaska, who was recently arrested after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Ultimately they moved past it, Weissman said: "We both realized we were Trump supporters" who believed "Democrats were the bad guys." Once he left MAGA world, however, Weissman said "the anti-Semitism definitely escalated" in interactions with his former allies.

"When I became a Democrat, I was called 'the k-word'" and targeted by "anti-Semitic slurs and tropes," Weissman said. Trump supporters sent "memes of me being Jewish in the oven," and "put my name in parentheses," a common tactic used by the far right to target someone for being Jewish.

(...)

"Anti-Semitism certainly did not start with Marjorie Taylor Greene, nor did it start with Donald Trump, but we have seen an exponential increase in violent anti-Semitic incidents during Donald Trump's presidency," Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Salon. "That is no doubt related to the fact that he emboldened and aligned himself with white nationalism." She mentioned Trump equating the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville with the peaceful protesters by "commenting that there were very fine people on both sides," refusing to denounce white nationalism and telling the right-wing Proud Boys during one of the campaign debates to "stand back and stand by."

"White nationalism had existed in our country prior to that, and anti-Semitism as an element of it, but white nationalists had never had an ally in the White House until Donald Trump," Soifer said.

(...)

Donald Trump's supposed pro-Israel policies were closely aligned with those of Benjamin Netanyahu, and did nothing to correct for Trump's history of anti-Semitic words and actions. He accused Jewish Democrats of "great disloyalty" toward Israel (feeding into the stereotype that Jews have dual loyalties), removed any specific reference to Jews from a 2017 State Department statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day and has frequently used anti-Semitic dogwhistle terms by opposing "globalists" and describing himself as a "nationalist." When I interviewed Charlotte Pence, the daughter of former Vice President Mike Pence, she talked about her family's love of Israel but refused to answer a question about whether she believes Jews are going to hell — or discuss the creepy messianic theories underpinning the Christian right's support for Israel.

When I asked Larry Charles whether, based on his experiences, there's an opportunity to build bridges with anti-Semites, he was skeptical. "I have not seen a lot of opportunities for bridge building in the situations that I've been in," Charles explained. "The people that I've met through Sacha [Baron Cohen] were very rigid and dogmatic in their prejudices. There was no crossing that gulf with them. There might be tolerance, temporarily. There might be patience, temporarily. But there's no changing that belief."

I hope that Charles is wrong but suspect he is right, which raises the question of how American Jews should react to the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world. For want of a better alternative, I think the only solution is to be intolerant toward intolerance. House Democrats were right to strip Greene of her committee assignments, but that is not nearly enough. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter need to do more to limit hate speech, even if conservatives cry foul in bad faith (the First Amendment only protects people from government censorship, not consequences from private corporations). Right-wing politicians who attack prominent Jews in ways that can be plausibly construed as anti-Semitic, or by denouncing "globalists," need to lose their funding. People who oppose anti-Semitism must lead boycotts against right-wing media figures who cover for people like Greene, such as Fox News' Sean Hannity.

On a broader level, critics of anti-Semitism must recognize that this form of bigotry is part of America's long history of hate — a history which holds that only white, straight Christian "manly" men have a right to rule — and recognize our responsibility to be allies to African Americans and the Latinx community, Muslims and the LGBT community, women suffering under the patriarchy and the poor struggling to make ends meet. If we limit our empathy merely to other Jews, the implicit message is not that systemic oppression is wrong, but only that we happen to dislike it when our group is targeted. The Jewish tradition at its best instills a moral responsibility to see all the layers of oppression, and align ourselves with its victims.

[Read Matthew Rozsa’s full piece in Salon]

#marjorie taylor greene #antisemitism #american antisemitism

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angelsaxis · 4 months ago

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I don't care how many previous Democratic presidents have had a Republican in their cabinet because that's not the point that either I or the quote-tweeter are making.

Harris and her campaign have repeatedly talked about the dangers of P25 and the dangers of the Republican party and to my knowledge don't make this distinction between Maga and (presumably less bad?) Republicans that liberals keep insisting on.

(why lie and act like there's even that much of a difference between a MAGA and a Republican? They both have Trump/Vance signs on their lawns. They both hate everything the Democrats allegedly stand for)

I don't want a Republic in charge of national policy in any way, shape, or form. The entire Republican party is acting against my interests as a Black queer person. People would be less upset if Harris actually worked to court the vote of the liberals and leftists she keeps condescending, ignoring, or sneering at instead of fighting for the votes and support of the Republican party/a handful of voting Republicans.

So what if it's normal. That means I should accept it? Why would I vote Democrat if a Republican is going to end up in with power anyways? How long do I/we have to keep acting like Democrats reaching across the aisle while Republicans keep moving the pews back or acting in dirty underhanded ways is at all a good political strategy? I've been seeing this bullshit since I was in middle school. Democrats try to, want to, have to compromise. Compromise compromise compromise. And Republicans never make an effort to do the same. She could paint the whole damn oval office red and Republicans will still call her a dirty communist even WHEN she's to the right of Trump on something like immigration so I don't frankly see the point in going belly up for political enemies when she could just suck it up and actually promise to do things that people want.

Like sorry there's this thing that liberals do where any time someone makes a valid and justifiable complaint about a democratic nominee they act like that person has 0 understanding of the political process and that anyone who complains or has valid fears or grievances just Doesn't Get the 4D chess the nominee is playing.

YEARS of this compromising strategy and where are we? COVID killing thousands every month, disabled people abandoned, rights of queer people still in the toilet and the violence against us on the rise, police brutality and money to police on the rise, NO single payer healthcare (she removed that from her campaign!!), increased money to foreign aid and the military budget and increased support for the colonial violence of Israel while people here literally die in the streets and/or die homeless and/or die because of easily preventable diseases and/or die because they're simply too poor. We can't get minimum wage up to 15 an hour. Unions are striking left and right with mixed success. Again, billions to Israel. Again, nothing like free day care or preschool. Biden and Kamala have probably done some passably good things but all the ways this place has gone to shit completely overshadows any of their progress. We don't have Roe anymore and besides yelling at us to give them money and vote for them I don't see a coherent strategy from Democrats. Grocery prices are through the fucking roof and what'll help it is not destroying the environment (she supports fracking last I checked) and actually supporting workers rights (haven't seen anything about fed min wage from Dems in a minute).

Denying the fascist tones of the Democratic party and acting like it's just the Republicans is rich. Again, genocide happening with full support from every aspect of the US government. Again, support for policing. They were just putting down student protesters and violating their free speech rights up and down the Ivy Leagues. Also if the Republican party is the evil fascist overlord party why the Fuck would you justify her trying to add a fascist to her cabinet? What progressivism is she gonna successfully put through when, by your own admission, the "full fascist" party is gonna be in control of something major?

Her entire fucking campaign has just been "haha we're not Republicans I'm not trump" it's half assed it's lazy she's not talking about the things people want to talk about and care about. She can go Fuck herself.

#like there has not been one reassuring thing about her campaign or her as a candidate #i can vote local i can vote state but her? getting my vote? no.#sorry if this isnt coherent but you people piss me tf off lmao

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sosation · 5 years ago

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On the Passing of Michael Brooks

I only relatively recently became aware of Michael, less than a year ago. In that time he has impacted my life more than any other media personality, more than anyone I’ve never met.

Even though the first time I voted was for Obama in 2008, my political consciousness really began during my 2nd stint of college at UTA circa 2014/15. My history undergrad was waking me up to the power dynamics and hegemonic systems that exist in our society. I was beginning to understand geopolitics under the tutelage of Dr. Joyce Goldberg and getting really wrapped up in 20th century diplomacy. The Snowden leaks had happened and the Michael Brown demonstrations in Ferguson were drawing attention to the militarization of our police forces and their tactics on US citizens. I began to see capitalism as consisting of, and causing and contributing too, countless problems. Then, the 2016 election cycle stoked my already burning interests.

During this time, there was little “left-tube” to be found. Since 2012, streaming on our X Box has been my wife and I’s primary means of entertainment. Slowly more and more of our time was being spent on YouTube. The Young Turks was really the only progressive voice on Youtube, to my knowledge, at that time. (I wasn’t yet aware of Pakman, Kulinski, Seder and Brooks.) And even though they were my primary source of news, I wasn’t crazy about the hyperbolic presentation, Cenk’s ego, or some of the attitudes expressed by various hosts at various times. That being said, I learned a lot. I was exposed to many many great journalists and they certainly helped me solidify and articulate many of the arguments I had been thinking and feeling during this time. I even became a Texas Wolf-Pac Volunteer right after Trump’s election.

I ended my bachelor’s and master’s programs under the Trump presidency. (May ‘17, Dec ‘18 respectively.) During this time I read and wrote more than I ever have in my life. Under Dr. Christopher Morris, Dr. Patryk Babiracki, and Dr. Pawel Goral, I read Marxist historical theory and studied the history of the Cold War from the perspectives of the US, USSR and Europe. I also began watching less and less TYT and more Secular Talk, David Pakman, and David Doel. While these shows are great, there was little to no international perspectives or geopolitical discussions happening. (Doel being Canadian accounts for something but, IMO, anyone who lives in the 5 Eyes is hardly a non-western perspective and therefore significantly less valuable in regards to gaining the insight of the peripheries of the globe. As the hegemonic “leader” of the world, Canadians, New Zealanders, Aussies and Brits, can point and laugh at the US all they want but they are taking our lead-systematically and economically.That’s not to say that their perspective is unimportant, just not the same as those outside the western sphere) Furthermore, there is still even less of a historical perspective being represented in regards to current events anywhere on YouTube. No one seems to have a long dureé, an understanding of how history plays out- again and again, and how capitalism is responsible for much of our recent history. Marx did. Michael did.

I began my teaching career in earnest last summer, 2019, as a Geography teacher. First time I’ve ever had a salary and the first time that I didn’t have to wear a hat (or hairnet) to work. My lunch was 2nd lunch, 12:35-1:15. Here in Texas, The Majority Report was live and it began showing up consistently on my youtube feed so I began watching them while I ate my sandwich and apple, before students from guitar club would show up for a quick lesson before 6th period. I had watched TMR before, particularly live streams on twitch during the first few primary debates this cycle. They reminded me a little too much of an east coast morning talk show for me to take them too seriously at first but I eventually began to see that while Sam is--well-- Sam, the others on the show had quite a lot to say and clear, logical and articulate reasons for their positions...especially this guy Michael. Once I heard that he had his own show it quickly became the most listened to podcast in my feed. (This in itself is no small feet. I’ve been listening to podcasts for hours a day (sometimes 8) since 2012. It, too, no doubt contributed to my education and understanding of our world during this same time period but that is another blog all itself.)

Michael was everything that I was looking for. He was unabashedly a Marxist. He was intelligent and enjoyed rigorous thinking and leftist theory. He was hilarious and did fantastic impressions. He also was compassionate, kind and empathetic. He was a humanist, in the truest sense of the word and he understood, and articulated to me, that Socialism is a humanist movement. After I became a patron, I once asked him on Discord what his credentials were and he said that his Bachelor’s was in International Relations, which explained so much. Again, he was the only media personality that I was aware of that was knowledgeable and curious about the same things I was. He understood history. He valued history and its importance, so much so that he dedicated a separate Sunday show just to “Illicit Histories” where he would invite Historians from all over the world to discuss leftist movements in their own countries and how we could apply those lessons here and vice versa. This was it. This is what was missing from our national discourse--an international perspective and voice, and a historical perspective and voice. Michael was both and he was damn good at it.

The Michael Brooks Show was an inspiration. Michael, Matt Lech and David Griscom were smart, eloquent, young men who articulated the systemic failures of our time, who critically discussed and analyzed our current political discourse and who pondered possible solutions based in history. The guests of TMBS, the network Michael created, really were the shining feature. Ben Burgis, Artesia Balthrop, Molly Webster, Glenn Greenwald, Adolf Reed, President Lula De Silva, Slavoj Žižek , Noam Chomsky, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Wolff...the list goes on and on and on. These people brought so much insight to the state of our world. Professors, Journalists, people who have spent their lives working on the cause, a cause for a better future, one based in humanity and empathy. Michael was able to bring his own empathy for humanity into his interviews, asking thoughtful direct questions that got to the heart of the issue-- while simultaneously bringing levity to a serious topic by making jokes in the voice of Gandhi, Mandela, Obama, or Bernie, to name a few. He, fucking, got it man. He understood how the world was connected. He understood that we are ALL humans, and that we all deserve to be treated with dignity, and he understood that Marx was right about a ton of shit and he wasn’t scared to remind you of that.

Michael, for me, was an exemplar. He was a role model. I looked up to him. I had no idea he was only 13 months older than me, I thought he was probably in his early 40’s just based on the amount of shit that he knew. My personal 10 year goal was to be on his show. I wanted to either become a writer or go back into academia. I even wrote into a show a couple of months back and asked him which was a better choice. He was honored to be asked such a heavy question but didn’t feel comfortable giving that kind of life advice and I don’t blame him. He recommended that I continue teaching high school if that’s what I enjoy doing, and I do, and I likely will. He has shown me how to speak up for ideals that are right, regardless of what people think. Like, I understood that in the abstract, but watching someone do it multiple times a week really put it in my head that I need to advocate for my position publicly. I tell people that I’m a marxist- which in Texas is unheard of, even among leftists. Mostly due to people not understanding labels and what that even means. So I tell them. Thanks to David’s weekly recommended readings I haven’t stopped reading leftist theory even though I finished grad school over a year and a half ago. If TMBS never existed I never would have had the opportunity to read any of that.

My heart bleeds for Matt and David. I can’t imagine what they’re going though. I want them to continue, to keep the community alive in his name. But I completely understand if that is just too painful.

I was thinking earlier, trying to find an appropriate historical comparison to his passing. There are many but as a North Texan, the one that I ended up landing on was the passing of Dimebag Darrell Abbot. He did a lot. He accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He inspired many to do things like him. It was entirely unexpected and not one person, not one, has a bad thing to say about the guy. Dimebag was adored. He listened to people, strangers, fans. He was kind and open-hearted and treated everyone with respect. Which made it extra hard when he passed. The same can be said for Michael. For Michael, since Socialism is more than just music, he inspired us to educate ourselves, to ask questions, to remember the periphery-Latin America, Africa, and Asia,-- to remember history and value it, to be compassionate, to educate others and to be active in our own communities.

He will be sorely missed. The one thing I keep telling myself is that his death has the potential to bring even more attention to his message-- to help further catapult this movement into something undeniable. To bring more awareness to how power works and to finally activate us to become, as Michael said at Harvard on Feb 1, 2020: machiavellian.

“...we still have to put work into reminding everybody that (Dr. MLK Jr.) was on the left. He wasn’t a guy who came out once a year and said ‘everybody should treat each other nicely. ...The other thing I loved about this speech was he talked about the fallacy- that certain Christians misunderstand love as a seeding of power. And then Nietzsche came along and rejected christian morality because he thought it was denying someone’s vitality- the will to power in a healthy sense, and he said ‘Love without power is sentimental and anemic. And power without love is abusive and corrosive’ I’m paraphrasing. And that was when I saw, I thought, ‘well here, ok, we know the left-wing Dr. King. Well here is the machiavellian Dr King, and I love it.’ I want the left to have Machiavelli, so we can have the strategy, the ruthlessness, the clarity, to actually win these battles. And be ruthless with institutions. And then I want us to learn how to be really kind to each other, welcoming of a broad set, and actually have a movement that has the capacity to do that.”

Let’s do the best we can to make that happen. Educate yourself about power. Educate yourself about ideologies. Read Marx and Engels. Read Slavoj Žižek and Adolf Reed. Read Michaels book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right. Don’t get caught up in identity politics. Never lose sight of class dynamics. Use this knowledge to educate others and make informed decisions. Register to vote. Run for office. Effectuate real change. Do the intellectual rigor that was happening on TMBS every week, multiple times a week. Thank you for all that you brought to us Michael, you will be sorely missed and I hope to see you at the clearing at the end of the path.

Anthony Sosa

7-21-20

#Michael Brooks #TMBS #History #Geopolitics #International relations #humanity #compassion #humanist #Socialsim #marx #economics

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skold · 4 years ago

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do all of them 👀 (the love ask)

GOD okay fine but only cuz i’m a lovesick heartbroken cancer venus

throwing it under a read more for length and i removed the questions i already answered

1. What do you search for in a partner?

emotional capacity/caring. interest in spooky things so we actually have shit in common. physical touch love language kinda energy. preferably also queer. says fuck gender roles. leftist.

3. What do you like about relationships?

god not to be such a cancer venus but literally everything

4. Do you get jealous easily?

kind of?? only in ceertain contexts. like if i’m in a d/s dynamic with somebody and it’s not romantic or exclusive then i might be low key jealous of their other partners but not to an extent where it’d ever be a thing. if it’s an exclusive kinda thing i’m pretty touchy about my s/o flirting with other people cuz of my own insecurities.

5. Have you ever had a jealous partner?

my ex bf wasn’t jealous so much as he was possessive. which was fine with me i don’t mind that

7. Where is the worst place to go for a date?

this might be an unpopular opinion BUT clubs/shows..... if i can’t talk to them what’s the point

8. What is the best thing to do on date?

taaaaalk i just want to talk to my person okay

9. Describe the worst date you’ve ever been on.

i went to the orange county fair with my ex gf once which like, it was alright, but it was fuckin hot and it was my last day in LA with her so we were both kinda sad and my dad also kinda ruined it by getting mad at me for how i spent the spending money he gave me to do whatever i want with lmao

10. Which is more attractive: a naturally attractive person or a person who puts in the effort to be attractive?

i have always said that anybody can be super hot if they style themselves in a way i’m into y’know. i mean. look at most of the band guys i’m into lmao most of them aren’t naturally that conventionally attractive or are downright weird looking

11. What is the best gift you have ever received for Valentine’s day?

i don’t remember if i ever got a valentine’s day gift??

13. When was the last time you got angry at someone you loved?

bro i get mad at my stepdad every fuckin day lmao

14. When was the last time someone you loved made you sad?

i am constantly fucking sad lmao but earlier this month i found out some of my friends organized something and didn’t invite me and that really bummed me the fuck out

15. When is it okay to be impulsive in a relationship?

i really don’t think impulsivity is necessarily a bad thing

16. What is the best way to break up with someone?

i mean. in person obviously. but if you’re long distance you should probably at least call the person lmao

17. What is the best way to ask someone out?

casually tbh pls don’t make it a Thing

18. Have you ever been asked to homecoming or prom? What was it like?

no lmao i was diagnosed with ugly fat and weird in high school so nobody ever was into me

19. Do you like planning dates or do you just go with the flow?

both are good!! like i like to have a Thing to do but then we can just vibe afterwards y’know

20. Do you believe you are high maintenance? If not, why not?

i probably am but only because of the trauma/mental illness cuz i need so much reassurance and comforting and i have a lot of weird hangups

21. Which is better: a lover who cares too much or a lover that cares too little?

imo there’s no such thing as a lover that cares too much?

22. Do you believe playing hard to get is necessary?

no lmao it’s fucking stupid. just level with me

23. Which of these do you prefer: an assertive partner or a submissive partner?

give me outgoing assertive in the streets and subby slutty in the sheets y’know

24. Does true love exist? Can you love someone fully despite all of his/her flaws?

yes!!!! i refuse to believe that it doesn’t

25. Are your standards “too high?”

i?? don’t know??? i don’t think it’s unreasonable to want a spooky leftist as the minimum requirements lmao

26. Have you ever fallen in love?

unfortunately..................

27. Is there an ideal age for marriage? What is it, if there is?

nah

28. What are your thoughts on arranged marriages?

[cancer venus noises] marriage should be for LOVE or for scamming the government

29. When was the last time you got rejected by someone you liked?

i don’t remember cuz i never shoot my shot lmao. probably when somebody ignored a tinder dm or something

30. When was the last time you rejected someone who liked you?

middle school?? i think??

31. Have you ever been cheated on?

32. Have you ever cheated on someone?

33. What are your thoughts on sex before marriage?

i do not care what other people choose to do with their bodies lmao

34. Do you know the difference between asexuality and demisexuality?

i mean i THINK so

35. What is the best relationship advice you have ever been given?

i honestly can’t think of anything lmao

36. Are you a heartbreaker or the heartbroken?

perma heartbroken

37. Can you love someone without knowing anything about his/her past?

i think so but like to truly love someone fully then no i think u do need to know someone’s past

38. Is the phrase “I love you” used too loosely? When should it be used?

i think as long as u mean it u should say that shit!! even if it’s platonic love or familial love y’know

39. When was the last time you said “I love you” to someone?

to my mom a couple hours ago when she went to bed

40. Are you the person who says “I love you” first or the type to wait for your significant other to say it?

i’m the one who says it first lmao

41. Have you met your significant other? If not, where do you think you will meet your significant other?

i’m single as fuck and i mean. probably on the internet cuz my person sure as shit don’t live in this horrible place lmao

42. Imagine if the people you knew in real life were the only people you could marry. Could you be satisfied marrying any of these people?

i would be happy to enter a scam marriage with any of my irl friends

43. Do you give second chances?

i be giving people infinite chances cuz i’m a fuckin clown

44. Have you ever been given a second chance?

more so as friends. my first ex gf and i broke up and we kinda tried the dating thing again but scrapped it cuz we just weren’t vibing but we’re still rly good friends

#Anonymous #asks

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

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The Man Who Helped Turn 4chan Into the Internet’s Racist Engine

In two decades, 4chan has evolved from a message board where people talked about anime to a casually racist but influential creation engine of internet culture, and now into a generator of far-right propaganda, a place where dangerous conspiracy theories originate, and an amplifier of online bigotry. This evolution, according to 4chan moderators who spoke to Motherboard and leaked chat logs, is in large part because of an anonymous administrator who used moderation enforcement, or lack thereof, to allow the influential website to become a crucial arm of the far-right.

4chan attracted hordes of disaffected young men who trolled various other websites, creating popular memes (many of them racist or sexist) and originating a great deal of internet culture. In recent years, however, 4chan has evolved into something actively sinister: a hive of bigotry, threats of violence, and far right ideology. This rapid and severe descent wasn’t driven solely by the mass action of disgruntled young men.

One current and three former 4chan moderators believe the process was aided along by the de facto administrator of the site, a far right supporter with the handle “RapeApe” who helped turn the site into a meme factory for extreme politics. Motherboard agreed to let the janitors speak anonymously because they said they signed non-disclosure agreements with 4chan.

Because of 4chan’s often wildly offensive content, many assume that the site is completely unmoderated. But 4chan has a corps of volunteers, called “janitors,” “mods,” or “jannies,” whose job it is—theoretically—to make sure that content on the site abides by the rules. (4chan draws a distinction between more senior “moderators,” who are responsible for all boards, and “janitors,” who patrol one or two; we refer to them interchangeably because janitors also moderate discussion.) The janitors we spoke to and a major trove of leaked chat logs from the janitors’ private communications channel tell the story of RapeApe’s rise from junior janny to someone who could decide what kind of content was allowed on the site and where, shaping 4chan into the hateful, radicalizing online community it's known for today.

Started in 2003 by Christopher Poole, 4chan was initially a place for people to discuss anime. Since its founding, the site has expanded to include discussion boards on everything from travel to fitness to video games to origami. It now claims around 22 million visitors a month. Some parts of it are also recruiting grounds for Neo-Nazi groups.

4chan’s more recent extremist element can be traced back to an infamous board: “politically incorrect,” which is listed as "/pol/" on the site. Ostensibly devoted to discussing politics, /pol/ threads often involve users calling each other racist terms, arguing for the genocide of whole nations or ethnicities, or debating about whether different concepts are “degenerate”—a Nazi term of art for material (or people) that ought to be purged. Posters there celebrate and lionize some of the most notorious mass murderers of the last decade, from Anders Breivik to Dylann Roof.

The forum has popularized iconography like Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character reappropriated by some as a racist symbol of the far right that President Trump’s son has tweeted images of. According to academic researchers, 4chan's /pol/ has become one of the most prodigious factories for content on the internet. And the boundaries of its influence spread far beyond the borders of 4chan itself, affecting everything from YouTube to Twitter to mainstream Republican politics.

The politically incorrect board wasn’t always this bad. In fact, former 4chan moderators told Motherboard that /pol/ wasn’t added to the site until 2011, eight years after the site started. For the first few years of its existence, according to two former janitors, Poole intended the /pol/ board to siphon off the racism from other areas of the site so that other users could enjoy their own, board-specific pursuits.

“It was started as a containment board,” one former moderator told me about /pol/. According to chat logs and former moderators, in its early days, moderators at 4chan removed racist posts and users from other boards while ignoring them within one board, “random” (/b/, which was supposed to be a kind of “no rules, anything goes” space. /b/ is where many early memes were born, and is where the hacktivist group Anonymous came from). Such posts also sometimes slipped by on the /pol/ board as well, even though they technically violated the rules there. “Enforcement was more active in the past,” a former moderator said. In contrast to its current far right political climate, “4chan skewed extremely progressive when it first started,” according to the mod, although the use of bigoted and misogynistic language was widespread even then.

But 4chan has changed in recent years. Several studies of the site have shown that 4chan has become more racist, bigoted, and toxic in recent years—especially the /pol/ board. Ideologies propagated on /pol/ have become linked with violence and domestic terrorism. 4chan janitors' main job is to clean up and remove child pornography, lest 4chan draw the wrath of federal authorities, but they also shape the discourse there by setting the limits of acceptable discussion. If a thread goes off-topic or starts to get too racist, the janitors have the responsibility for asking mods to delete it and potentially issue bans against specific users.

According to leaked logs and the 4chan janitors who spoke with Motherboard, the manager of 4chan’s janitors is RapeApe. Relatively little is known about him, even by the janitors who spoke with us and worked for him, although he has been supervising 4chan’s day-to-day operations for around a decade.

In 2015, Poole announced that he had decided to sell 4chan to a Japanese businessman named Hiroyuki Nishimura. Nishimura previously owned 2chan, a Japanese website which inspired 4chan. Janitors who spoke with Motherboard described Nishimura as being almost completely hands off, leaving moderation of the site primarily to RapeApe.

“[RapeApe] basically fulfills the role of an administrator considering Hiroyuki [Nishimura], the actual admin, doesn't touch the site,” a current janitor told me. Poole and Nishimura did not respond to repeated requests for comment. RapeApe responded by sending an email that contained only a single link to a video of naked muscular men dancing.

Even prior to the site’s change in ownership, RapeApe functioned as the primary judge of what constituted acceptable content on the site, as well as the person who educated the staff on what did and didn’t cross the line. As Gamergate became a subject on the site in 2014, 4chan users began harassing women in the video game industry due to what they perceived as progressive bias in reporting on games. Eventually, RapeApe tried to stop 4chan’s campaign of intimidation. “[Gamergate] is no longer allowed on the video game boards. So said [RapeApe],” one janitor informed another in the leaked chats. When other jannies protested, RapeApe rapidly shut them down: “This isn’t a democracy,” RapeApe wrote. “Gamergate has overstayed its welcome. It is starting to cause a massive burden for moderation.”

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 12: Counterprotestors to the Unite the Right 2 rally burn a Kekistan flag, a white nationalist symbol, in the middle of 15th St. NW near the White House on August 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. Image: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In 2015, an anonymous former moderator leaked an extensive chat history of the janitors from 2012-2015 to a file-sharing service. One of the former janitors included in the chats confirmed their authenticity. According to a brief message posted with the logs, the leaker was unhappy with “the direction of the site.” From those leaked logs and the current and former janitors who spoke with Motherboard, RapeApe claims to be a military veteran who served in Afghanistan as well as a voracious reader, interested in video games, guns, and Warhammer: 40,000. He often complained about his family impeding his work and was afraid they would walk in on him looking at questionable or pornographic posts as he was moderating.

According to the janitor and chat logs (as well as a deleted Twitter account two staff members confirmed was his), RapeApe is also politically conservative and racist. One former janitor described him as “a typical right winger and /pol/ dude.” His Twitter account featured him responding approvingly to Tucker Carlson clips, urging another user to buy an AR-15 rifle for self-defense, wondering whether the state would force people to be homosexual and suggesting that Twitter was “staffed by leftists” who were deleting conservative users’ accounts. In conversations with other janitors in the leaked chats, he found humor in horrifying news about riots, shootings, and the Ebola epidemic—especially when that news involved Black people dying.

But RapeApe isn’t just a typical /pol/ user who happens to run the site. According to three current and former staff members, RapeApe shaped 4chan into a reflection of his own political beliefs. “RapeApe has an agenda: he wants /pol/ to have influence on the rest of the site and [its] politics,” a current janitor said.

Alone, RapeApe couldn’t steer 4chan to the far right. But he supervises a staff of dozens of volunteers who control discourse on the boards. According to the leaked chats and janitors who spoke with Motherboard, he instructed janitors on how to handle the more bigoted content on 4chan—and dismissed them if they deleted content he likes. He took a special interest in the /pol/ board, telling a novice janitor in the chat logs to “treat /pol/ with kid gloves. So long as they obey the rules, they are allowed to support whatever abominable political positions they want.”

4chan has an extensive list of rules posted on the site and each board has its own smaller set of edicts. A little-known and rarely enforced 4chan regulation, Global Rule #3, prohibits racist content on the site. But the leaked chat logs show many incidents of moderators and janitors discussing when racism got severe enough that it ought to be banned. Indeed, RapeApe himself deleted at least one thread for violating Rule #3 early on in his 4chan career, before he became a manager.

Once he became head moderator, RapeApe began to post reminders that moderators ought to be as hands-off as possible. In the leaked logs and according to current and former janitors, RapeApe pushed his staff into a position where almost no content could run afoul of the rule against racism. Instructing the janitors, RapeApe wrote, “And remember that with racism we're targeting the intent of the poster and not the words themselves.” One current janitor told me that in practice, within 4chan’s warped, irony-poisoned culture, this meant there was no way to ban a user for even the most flagrant, bigoted language or images. They could always claim that the intent wasn’t racist, even if the content unquestionably was.

"The plausible deniability excuse for racism—I was just joking, I was just trolling—is bullshit," Whitney Phillips, an Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University and author of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture, told Motherboard. "Intent can matter when thinking about the things people say, but it matters very little when considering consequences. Whether or not someone says a racist thing with hate in their heart, they're still saying a racist thing and that still contributes to dehumanization and the normalization of harm. Anyway, the very criterion is absurd, as you can't assess what's in someone's heart just by looking at the things they post, especially to a place like 4chan. The only reasonable conclusion is that, whatever might have been written in the site rules, this moderator ensured that there was no policy against racism. Instead it became a pro-racism policy."

The leaked chat logs show that RapeApe didn't want /pol/ to be totally unmoderated, despite allowing racist content. He was concerned with making sure 4chan wasn’t hosting illegal material. “Mostly I just want to keep the site legal,” he wrote to the staff in one message in the leaked chats. He posted frequent reminders to the channel to “take it easy” and ignore, rather than ban, racist content. In the leaked chats, RapeApe quotes judicial decisions on whether photos depicting animal abuse are illegal, concluding that they only rise to that level if the abuse is sexual in nature. In another case, he reluctantly told a janitor to delete some revenge porn, though not without belittling laws against it.

Nishimura’s purchase of the site in 2016 and RapeApe’s ascension to de facto administrator of 4chan coincides with an incredible 40 percent spike in the volume of racist and violent language on /pol/. Other, comparable sites and communication channels also pushed towards extreme conservatism independently of 4chan, so RapeApe and /pol/ certainly aren’t the only reasons why 4chan slid towards the far right. Some experts credited 4chan’s evolution to Donald Trump’s overtly-racist political campaign, others to an influx of new users, and still others to active interference and recruiting of 4channers by Neo-Nazi elements.

While other websites also host increasing amounts of violent and bigoted language, 4chan is an outlier even compared to other internet gathering places filled with similar ideologies. A VICE News analysis found that there was more hate speech on /pol/ than in the comments on one overtly Neo-Nazi site, the Daily Stormer. Mass murderers have posted manifestos on 4chan. White nationalists have used the site to coordinate protests.

When one Neo-Nazi group polled their supporters to discover how they came to the movement, /pol/ was tied for the most common gateway. Gab, another far right hotbed, contains about half the rate of hate speech as /pol/, and 4chan has 20 times more users. The only popular websites more toxic than 4chan are its much smaller offspring sites, like 8chan, now 8kun.

According to one current and three former janitors, RapeApe’s push for a hands-off approach combined with his preference for janitors who shared his political beliefs has shifted the website further into the extremes of bigotry and threats of violence in which it now operates. “He wants 4chan to be more like /pol/,” said one former janitor.

Over time, /pol/ has come to dominate the public perception of 4chan, overshadowing the quieter, less vile topic areas which make up much of the activity on the site. /pol/ is regularly the most active board on the site, but even so, it makes up a small portion of the total posts. Under RapeApe’s management, however, /pol/’s bigotry has metastasized.

“[W]hen RapeApe took over fully after [Poole] left, he put in a ‘laissez-faire’ policy of moderation, knowing exactly what would happen, that right wing ideas would dominate the site thanks to /pol/ spilling over onto other boards,” said a current janitor.

The /pol/ forum often hosts threads in which users talk about flooding other, unrelated boards with racial slurs and bigoted imagery. These “raids” expose users who were on 4chan to discuss other subjects to its unconventional, far-right politics. Posters who logged on to the site to chat about sports or browse pornography could find themselves learning about Neo-Nazi ideology instead. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor at American University and expert on far-right extremism, describes this phenomenon as “gateway content.” Simply by exposing people to hate speech, psychologists have found that it’s possible to desensitize them to further hate speech and dehumanize outgroups. By raiding other boards and giving users a taste of their ideology, /pol/ diehards hoped to bring them into their fold.

In one incident from the chat logs, when a moderator tried to clean up such an “invasion” of the science board, RapeApe wasn’t having it. Rather than delete the thread a janitor described as planning a raid, RapeApe argued that they weren’t doing anything against the rules. “Are they actually vandalising or defacing anything, or harassing people?” RapeApe added: “Because if they're just posting things, that's not really a raid.”

Current and former janitors say that one moderator named Modcat was fired for disagreeing withRapeApe's laissez-faire moderation policy.

“Some jannies got in trouble for overusing [global rule 3, against racism],” said one former janitor.

An analysis of the archives of the anime board (/a/) Modcat used to patrol, derived by scraping its past threads, shows that Modcat’s departure and replacement with another janitor had consequences on the language used there. Motherboard used a 4chan archive and wrote a program to scrape data from the board over the last five years, counting the number of instances of common hate speech terms against Black, Latino, Jewish, and LGBTQ people each day, as well as Neo-Nazi slogans. This program scraped text only and so did not include instances of speech within images, a common medium of communication on 4chan. Immediately after his departure, according to former moderators, /pol/ users raided the board, spamming Neo-Nazi slogans like “sieg heil” and “heil Hitler” in about one in every 50 posts. (Use of these terms had been negligible before Modcat left.) Even after the initial raid on /a/ subsided, there were long-term effects on the forum. During Modcat's brief tenure, the anime board had hate speech in only about one in every 50 posts overall. Since his departure, that has risen to about one in every 30 posts.

Leaked chat logs demonstrate other instances of seemingly politically-motivated firings. Not long after a janitor named yetsturdy argued that the use of terms like the n-word and stereotyped depictions of Jews violated 4chan’s rules, they were fired. (Leaked chat logs show janitors suggesting that his firing was due to arguing with another janitor). A janitor who described himself as a “lefty” in leaked logs was let go ostensibly for losing his anonymity, although another 4chan staff member with far right politics is open about his identity on Twitter and publishes newspaper editorials under his real name.

Others in the leaked janitor chats noticed the firings of their colleagues. One even alluded to RapeApe’s apparent agenda, asking him directly: “with all these janitors quitting/getting fired, is… is /pol/ winning?” (In the chat, RapeApe quickly denied that it had anything to do with /pol/’s political agenda, saying that the fired janitors had violated clear rules.)

Five years later, the politically incorrect board’s conflict with the rest of 4chan has been settled: /pol/ won. After years of declining volume both there and on the site in general, /pol/’s activity (in terms of the number of users and posts) is on the rise once again, according to a site that tracks 4chan. Jumping upwards in May 2020, /pol/ boasted the highest number of posts per day since election day in 2016, when ecstatic users celebrated Trump’s victory by calling for a second Holocaust and harassing journalists.

/pol/’s surging popularity coincides with a boost for the rest of the site as well. According to SimilarWeb, a company that tracks web traffic, 4chan has risen to become one of the top 400 sites in the United States in terms of engagement and visits. The domain now rivals or exceeds major news sites in terms of the number of visitors: it gets more traffic than abcnews.com, for example.

And the /pol/ channel continues to create massive amounts of right-wing content. RapeApe’s “meme factory,” as he described /pol/ in one leaked chat log, is chugging along smoothly. “[RapeApe has] basically fulfilled his intentions,” a current janitor told me. “[4chan] exists as a fully developed political tool used for propagating memes and propaganda.” 4chan’s content sometimes spreads beyond its esoteric corner of the internet into the mainstream discourse, using a well-established pipeline running through Reddit and Twitter into more popular channels.

Journalists have chronicled the outsized influence 4chan has had on our culture and created many theories to explain its slide into racist extremism, connections to the rise of Donald Trump, and a surge in white nationalist movements around the world. Disaffected young men across the globe have participated in creating a hateful melting pot of conspiracy theories, bigotry, and hate speech with a massive, global audience.

We can’t know exactly how much impact the rhetoric on the site had on the world or the full extent of its influence on the broader political landscape. But we can dispel some of the mystery about how 4chan became filled with hate. Like every other platform, 4chan’s evolution stems in part from the choices made by its administrators about what speech is acceptable and what is not. Facebook allowed Holocaust denial content until Mark Zuckerberg decided not to; Reddit allowed its Donald Trump-focused subreddit to popularize 4chan’s content until it shut it down. 4chan became the dangerous cesspool we know today because of the choices of a site administrator who wanted to amplify far right content and an owner who doesn’t care.

The internet is one of the most powerful technologies the world has ever known, but why that power so often results in dehumanizing and hurting people is not as mysterious as we sometimes assume. It is the direct result of the choices people with control over internet platforms make.

The Man Who Helped Turn 4chan Into the Internet’s Racist Engine syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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yanzinator · 2 years ago

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1. Name? Saul Goodman (or some other alias)

2. Prounouns/Gender? He/Him cis supervillain

3. Sexuality? No I'm fat

4. Country? Very anti

5. Top 5 fandoms? Terraria, music in general, hypixel skyblock minecraft dungeons (only f5), earth, scp

6. Whats your most forbidden snack? I don't eat illegal stuff! I only eat normal things like chocolate butter sandwiches, peanut butter n butter sandwiches or jelly and butter sandwiches

7. Would you pet a bug? I probably would accidentally kill it if I tried

8. Weird fact or story? Im an extremely religious leftist and because of that, political opinionwise i fit in with no one i know because everyone around me is either non religious (or not jewish entirely) or exteremely right leaning except for my mom.

9. What does the color blue taste like? A cool refreshing glass of water

10. What was the most beutiful thing you've ever seen? My little brothers getting along!

11. What was the stupidest thing you've ever done? I'm not comfortable talking about it. Instead I'll tell you about the time i tried climbing over the fence seperating the porch and a 30 story drop in the hotel my family was at when i was i think 8. Thank God my mom was there to stop me, she wouldn't let me on the porch alone for the rest of the trip and a few trips after that.

12. Stupidest thing youve seen/heard? My first younger brother doing the above 5 years later. This time I was responsible enough to know that I should stop him because my mom was inside

13. Hyperfixiation song? I always have one but it changes ever two weeks to a month. Right now its kill the lights by set it off, but it will probably change soon.

14. Profile story? My name has two parts, yanzin is a combimation of my irl nickname and last name, ator was added because it sounds cool, it goes really well with the in in the end of yanzin. The blog title comes from when i was big into among us and i got into this discord lobby where half the lobby was wearing toppat hats and calling themselves the toppat clan. I really liked the joke so i kept it going into other lobbies, it rarely landed though. Eventually i made a discord server for my friends and called it the toppat clan because i was still doing the joke. By now the server is dead but it still holds a special place in my heart after two years of awesome interactions i had there so I decided to put it into my blog. The profile picture is a character art that i commisioned of sort of an original concept. The first iteration was when i discovered that minecraft added an option for a second skin layer, I always wanted to have my own skin and at the time i had a single layered custom skin so i wanted to make something with the new feature, after a lot of expirementing i ended up with a black green layering thing that made it look completely black in 2d but had a cool visual effect in 3d, later i added a face and "hair" shapes to the head as well as unique shapes to the arms and legs. I wanted to use my minecraft charcter as a pp for discord so i tried to draw him and decided to change his features to be more person like in my drawings, the drawing turned out terrible but they were good enough as a reference picture that the person i commisioned on fiverr could make the masterpiec on my profile! Since then I use it for pretty much everything and my current mc skin is modeled after tbat drawing.

15. Child dream career? Videogame maker

16. Adult dream career? Programmer

17. Thoughts on cilantro? Idk sounds like something id put on creamcheese.

18. Have you ever been banned from a location? I dont know if this counts because my mom banned me not the establishment but the porch in the hotel my family was staying at. See above.

19. Most cursed food combo? I'm very picky with what i eat so the most cursed thing i can think of would be corn on pizza

20. Trans rights? What are you asking me for? I haven't studied any driving theory or drove a car ever, i don't know the first thing about transitioning let alone when to go right or left.

@bettinalevyisdetermined @89animegirl @pukicho @friarpants @agelessorca @hotvampireadjacent @seven-oh-four @red-swimmerz @max-out-of-ten @questionablepastries

Sorry if one of you is already tagged i cant possibly go through all the notes.

“I just came from r/196” ask game

Saw another post. I think I should invite y'all to one of our longstanding traditions. Answer the questions then tag 10 (or more) people. I'll go first.

Name? Frankie

Pronouns and gender? he/they/it, transmasc

Sexuality? Lesbian

Country? USA

Top 5 fandoms? Bungou Stray Dogs, Cosmere, All for the Game, Fundiesnark (not a series but I'm too deep in it to not consider it a fandom), .....the tornado fandom? (they're my special interest)

What is your Most forbidden snack? The preserved bones at the Atlanta Bodies Exhibition. They looked so crunchy...

Would you pet a bug? If it's big enough, it is pettable.

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. I like to drive around rural areas and photograph old, sometimes abandoned locations in the dead of night. I have been literally chased out of towns by foot and by car on two separate occasions. The second time this happened, "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus came up on shuffle and that's the soundtrack my friend and I tore out of town to. Also every "guy" I've dated except for my most recent ex (who has big egg energy) is a lesbian now.

What does the color blue taste like? Creme brulee

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? The appalachian mountains of Tennessee in the middle of summer. There's kudzu everywhere. On the backroads, there were several old, dilapidated Baptist churches barely hanging to the side of the mountain. I wonder how many of them were still in use.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? Short version: my friend's house almost got broken into by this dude who'd been stalking us for months while we were home alone. Instead of calling the cops, we decided to confront him with a bow and arrow (me), a hatchet, and a baseball bat (him). The plan was that if it went badly, we would simply throw his corpse into one of the many lakes in the neighborhood and let the alligators eat his remains (this was Florida). Why? Because we were afraid of having our home-alone privileges revoked. Luckily for us all, the guy fucked off and we never saw him again.

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? My ex thought that Jackalopes were real. Also, a nurse I was doing rotations with apparently thought that "Witness Protection" was for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Hyperfixation song? Young Enough + Bleach by Charly Bliss

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? Profile pic; I'm transmasc and I'm currently obsessed with TriStamp. Username; It was my fake internet name when I was like 13. I won't change it because I want my mutuals to recognize me, and because I do have a viral post associated with this name.

Dream career as a child? Doctor (funnily enough I'm now in nursing school)

Dream career as an adult? Professional Jester. Not a comedian. I just want to be some weird little guy who dresses silly and you can hire me to roast your boss at work parties.

Thoughts on cilantro? Delicious

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? I honestly can't remember? Probably... but in recent memory I've mainly banned people from places.

What is your cursed food combination? Pineapple on a hotdog with grilled onions. It Slaps.

Trans rights? TRANS RIGHTS

Tagging: @rocket-mankoi @mostlymarco @atleast8courics @jazzlike39 @gemsweater72 @limbobilbo @ameliaaltare @redcrane112 @theoneofwhomisblue @twinkenjoyer @theultimatecarp and anyone else who wants to jump on

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a-room-of-my-own · 6 years ago

Link

This is an edited transcript of a talk given by Dagny on May 9, 2019, at the Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver, B.C. The audio from the full event, #GIDYVR: Gender Identity and Kids, can be found on YouTube.

My name is Dagny, I’m a detransitioner. I’m here to demonstrate what can happen when we allow a teenager to make major medical decisions that will affect her body for the rest of her life. I’m also here as one-fourth of the Pique Resilience Project, a coalition of four detransitioned young women — Jesse, Helena, Chiara, and myself. We all identified as transmen in our mid to late teens, and by 19 or 20 we had all desisted, detransitioned, and returned to being women. Three of us took testosterone for at least nine months, and I actually started testosterone six months before I turned 18, after my therapist diagnosed me with gender dysphoria at 16. The Pique Resilience Project was founded in January after we all came together to share our stories, our similarities, and our differences. We discussed what we could do to share our stories with everyone — with the people that need to hear them.

As we’re all aware, this is an extremely heated debate, and I’m going to say some things that a lot of people are going to disagree with. But ultimately, everything I’m going to say comes from my own personal experience and from what I believe as a result of that experience — an experience that too many people are unwilling to take seriously. We, the Pique Resilience Project, have been called liars, attention-seekers, right-wingers, and bigots.

We’ve unfortunately been profiled numerous times on far-right Christian journals, and not once, to date, on mainstream, leftist news media, which I find interesting, given the amount of coverage trans issues have received these last five years. I think that this indicates a fear of straying from the path — a fear of saying something, even if true, that goes against the grain.

We’ve been absolutely inundated with one narrative, one option, one story, since this issue hit the mainstream. We’ve been given only one option, at the risk of unspeakable, devastating consequences: if a teen says she has gender dysphoria and wants to be a boy, then she should — must — be allowed to transition. That’s the story we’ve been sold, and it’s the only story we’ve been sold. And detransitioners are an inconvenient contradiction to this story.

We’ve been given only one option, at the risk of unspeakable, devastating consequences: if a teen says she has gender dysphoria and wants to be a boy, then she should — must — be allowed to transition.

I’d like to discuss my experience being a trans teen. I did have early instances of what would now be called gender dysphoria in my childhood. At 11 or 12 I felt incredibly humiliated by the fact that my breasts were growing, and that I would have to start wearing bras. My period was a source of angst and hatred from the moment I first started menstruating. I’d heard that these things were supposed to be exciting for young girls, but they just made me angry and afraid. I thought there was something wrong with me for feeling that way. And maybe most predictive, I had a Yahoo answers account, and when I was in grade seven, I made a post with a title that was something like, “I’m a 12-year-old girl but I want to be a boy.” I remember that the answers were mostly dismissive, but there were a few that instructed me, a 12-year-old, to look into transsexual surgeries. But I didn’t like any of the answers; I wanted there to be a boy-button — something I could click that would just make me male. My family wasn’t religious at all, but I remember being that age and lying in my bed at night, and telling God in my head that I would start going to church if I woke up a boy.

My dysphoria exploded when I turned 15. This was when I started to actually identify as trans. Like so many other trans teenagers, I first started courting my own trans identity because of of two factors in my life: One, I had trans friends — two of them, both older than me, both female-to-male (FTM), like me, and two, I had a sharp increase in my social media use. I was never very active on social media before I turned 15, but within months of creating an account on tumblr and following several LGBTQ resource blogs, I had decided that I was non-binary.

Within months of creating an account on tumblr and following several LGBTQ resource blogs, I had decided that I was non-binary.

This identity felt like a game to me. It was a fun distraction — a quirk that made me special and interesting, if not to others, then at least to myself. But then that wasn’t enough, and I wondered, “Should I take this further? How far can I take it?” Then I graduated to fully identifying as a transman and I threw myself headlong into the traditional process of being trans: new name, new pronouns, new clothes, new binder. I started to get very, very serious about starting hormones. And it stopped being a game.

The first place I tried on this new identity — a transman — was online. And I just want to say that I think that it’s incredibly important for everyone — parents, yes, but also teenagers and therapists and lawmakers — to understand what kind of impact social media can have on a developing mind. I, in essence, became a different person after I started using tumblr. It’s an unhealthy, upsetting, and toxic environment to even observe, let alone participate in, as a teenager. Unfortunately it’s also way too broad of a topic for me to fully cover right now, so I’d recommend reading Helena’s exposé on tumblr’s culture. Part one is available to read on our website, and there are two more parts to come. It is vital reading if we’re going to begin to understand how so many teenagers feel and how they regard the world after using social media.

My online experience, having been affected by that level of group think, that level of moral policing, and the constant implicit threats of social exposure and ostracization made me an intensely internal and anxious person. It made me paranoid about the motives of people around me — I saw my parents as bigots because tumblr told me to; because they held out for so long to prevent me from starting hormones. Anyone that slipped up and misgendered me was, according to tumblr, an enemy.

One incident — one “she” — had the ability to make me absolutely hate someone. Tumblr’s version of morality and justice made me — an impressionable, insecure teenager — feel like my only safe place was in my head, where I would never be misgendered. I didn’t feel safe online either, but I couldn’t allow myself to critique my online peers. Even though I had learned all these unhealthy beliefs and behaviors from them, they had also taught me that they held the moral high ground. So I adopted and parroted tumblr’s ideals, and my identity was unconditionally validated.

One of these unhealthy beliefs I held was the belief that if you have gender dysphoria, you must transition. And anyone that appeared to stand in my way was a transphobe — an alt-right bigot. If I, myself, questioned my actions, I was suffering from internalized transphobia. No matter how much genuine concern others may have had for me — by now, a miserable 16-year-old — they were committing an unforgivable act if they just asked me, “Why”? Why do I want to be a boy? Why do I want to change my body?”

My answer was invariably, “Because I have gender dysphoria and I have to.”

Anyone that appeared to stand in my way was a transphobe — an alt-right bigot. If I, myself, questioned my actions, I was suffering from internalized transphobia.

And that’s the context we’re living in now, the only one that we know. Until now, with so many detransitioners coming out, the only narrative we’ve really heard has been the same, over and over and over: I had gender dysphoria, and so I transitioned. I had gender dysphoria, and so I transitioned. That’s the context we’ve been living in for about five years now. But we have to move past that. It’s been three years since I detransitioned, and I still have gender dysphoria. It’s rare for me to make it through a single day without thinking, at least once, “I wish I was a man.”

But it’s so minimal compared to what I felt at 16. And now, I have no intention of transitioning. It was ultimately a mistake for me to transition in the first place. I thought, at the time, that I had no other choice. Living and being content without medically transitioning didn’t feel like an option for me, or for so many other detransitioners.

It’s time to change that. It’s time that we become aware of how much pain and negativity this narrative is causing. The fact that I thought I had only one option was an incredible source of misery, desperation, terror, and obsession for me. I was already an unhappy teenager; I didn’t need the added pressure of a life choice I felt had to be made and carried out immediately. And this — my experience — was back in 2013. A long time before now, when we’re transitioning eight-year-olds in California, and giving eight-year-olds mastectomies. I can only imagine the pressure that kids feel now… That parents feel… It’s time we stop telling kids that every single one of them that experiences gender dysphoria as a 15-year-old will still be experiencing that same level of gender dysphoria at 21. At 20, or 19. That’s what I was told — by activists, and peers, and medical professionals. When I went to my endocrinologist for the first time, my dad asked him, “If my child goes off testosterone, what changes will be permanent?” And the endo essentially cut him off and said, “Oh. No one ever goes off testosterone.”

It’s time we stop telling kids that every single one of them that experiences gender dysphoria as a 15-year-old will still be experiencing that same level of gender dysphoria at 21

There’s this belief that telling teenagers that their dysphoria may pass is wrong — ethically and factually — and I just want to know why? What’s so wrong with telling a teenager, “One day you will feel better.” There’s nothing wrong with that. I think that if the activism that pushed for teenagers’ ability to medically transition truly cared about kids affected by gender dysphoria, they would allow for a discussion that doesn’t manipulate teenagers — that didn’t make impressionable, insecure, unhappy kids feel like they have to transition now, or else.

So we need to change the narrative. That’s my intent. And that’s a larger intent of the Pique Resilience Project: to diversify the narrative. We only have one mainstream story, and we need more. And slowly, we’re getting more. The detransition narrative is growing. It’s getting bigger — more people are hearing detransitioners’ stories every day. And, by extension, we’re starting to see the first glimpses of a third narrative. The PRP has received at least two messages from parents telling us that after watching videos about detransitioning, their teenagers decided that they have Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and that they would not transition. They realized that pursuing different options was a better solution for them and their experience.

One fix is not going to solve everyone’s individual problems. Medically transitioning is not going to help every teenager feel better. In my view, the proclivity to provide teenagers with hormone replacement therapy and instant affirmation ignores the larger problems. Why did I want to change my body? Why did I hate being a girl? Why was being a man so much more favourable?

Ultimately, the opportunity to transition made my teenage dysphoria worse. This narrative told me that my hatred for my female body was justified — positive, even. It told me that the only way to feel better was to destroy my body — my female parts.

My role models were all older transmen who had, like me, been lonely, angry, weird girls. Hearing and identifying with their stories taught me only that holistic self-acceptance was a sham and that real authenticity could only come from synthetic hormones and surgeries. There was no room for me to love myself if my identity depended on self-hatred.

We need to start treating teenagers with patience and compassion and maturity. We need to stop telling them that their suffering will last until they buy a new body. More than anything, we need to stop telling them that they have only one choice, and only one chance.

#gender critical #feminism #detransition #transition #transgender #gender dysphoria #teenagers #Ftm

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dispatchesfromafghanistan · 5 years ago

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The Last Postcard from Afghanistan - September 24

September 2019 Anniversaries:

18th anniversary of the Sep 11 Al Qaeda attack on the US

18th anniversary of the US attack on and invasion of Afghanistan

18th anniversary of Ahmad Shah Masoud's assasination by Arab 'journalists'

18th anniversary of the 'New Era' in Afghanistan

18th year of my involvement with the Afghan system of higher education

Elaborations:

Eurocentrism, American exceptionalism and an imperial mind-set assume, indeed compel and demand, that the entire human race must, forever, know about '9/11'. No doubt this was a major crime, but there are other significant 9/11s (Cheli)-and Afghanistan- which are hardly ever mentioned. Osama Bin Ladin and some of his Al-Qeda followers were not an Afghan creation, but Saudi-American-Pakistani agents who were invited by then Afghan pres. B Rabani and flown by Ariana Airline from Sudan to Jalalabad in the Summer of 1996. Bin Ladin had lived in Pakistan and worked closely with the Afghan mujahideen (the CIA, Mukhabarat, and ISI mercenaries) against the then leftist PDPA regime in Afghanistan. There were no Afghans among the 19 terrorists who attacked three locations in the US on Sep. 11; 17 were Saudis and two other Arabs. They planned the attack in Spain, Germany and Arizona; they took flying lessons in the US, and they used high- jacked American civilian planes in kamikazi fashion attacks on US soil. The Afghans had nothing to do with the 9/11 crime, but still, they have been subjected to and endured the most heinous collective punishment in recent history. It is said that some in the US government knew of the plot, but failed to act. When after 9/11, Washington demanded of Taliban to turn Bin Ladin over to the US, the Taliban refused, saying there was no extradition treaty between the US and Afghanistan. The Taliban also tried to avoid any confrontation with the US, and proposed that Bin Ladin could be tried by a neutral third party. The Bush administration, including the very same Dr.Khalilzad, 'the peace maker', refused the Taliban offer to negotiate, and the US launched the attack on and invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001. The attack was preceded by US/CIA special forces descending on Panjshair and distributing bags of money to the Northern Alliance leadership who helped the invaders. The December 2001 Bon conference was engineered by Lakhder Brahimi, Khalilzad, and the European Union which deliberately excluded the Taliban from the proceedings. Brahimi now says that was a fatal mistake. The Afghan attendees voted twice for Mr.Satar Seerat to be the interim president of Afghanistan, but again it was Khalilzad who engineered the crowning of Mr.H.Karzai as interim head of state. And when the Loya Girga in Kabul, overwhelmingly voted for former king Zahir Shah to be the constitutional head of state, again Khalilzad sabotaged the people's decision. It should be pointed out that for decades, Kalilzad the opportunist, has been dreaming and scheming about becoming Afghanistan's president, hence his complete turn around and talking to the Taliban in Doha endlessly. He belongs in the Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and C.Rice camp. He is the Afghan Ahmad Shalabi. Pres Trump's impulsive decision to cancel the 'peace' talks must be a huge disappointment for Khalilzad.Since Oct.7, 2001, the US/NATO have been relentless in waging an unjust, illegal, and immoral war on Afghanistan, using and testing the most powerful and vicious 'full spectrum' war technology and techniques, ranging from 'the mother of all bombs' to death-squads. Although there has been some attempt at 'nation-building' here, the overall damage done to Afghanistan may take a full century to repair. As I get ready to depart for Oregon, here is a summary of where things are.

The War:

Clearly, not only has the 'war on terrorism' failed misereably, but as is abundantly clear, terrorism has in fact exploded globally, including white terrorism in the US itself. As I type this, there was a massive explosion at a political rally by candidate/president Ghani in Charikar, killing at least 26 and wounding countless. An hour later there was another explosion near the US embassy and the defence ministry in Kabul's green zone, killing 24 and wounding many. Armed opposition controls half of Afghanistan, and more so at night including roads, schools, clinics, the tax system, etc. The armed opposition can and do hit with deadly force and success anywhere in the country, including Kabul's 'green zone.' An estimated 100 Afghan National Security Forces are killed daily. About 4000 civilians are killed yearly. The ministry of public health just said that in the last 12 months, 3300 civilians were killed (40) two nights ago by US-ANSF bombing at a wedding in Helmand, and about 20,000 injured. Due to nation-wide violence and uncertainty, we the expats at AUAF in Kabul are under full lockdown for the entire month of September. In addition to the Taliban, there are now 18 different insurgent/terrorist groups including Daesh(ISI) fighting the foreigners and their puppet Afghan government. The US/NATO forces and its Afghan proxy the ANSF, have escalated the war leading to numerous military and civilian casualties. There are attacks and counter attacks everywhere-cities, towns, and villages. No one is, or feels safe or secure anywhere. Civilians all over the country are caught between the armed opposition, government forces, and the Resolute Support forces and CIA trained #02 death squads, and are either directly killed by 'mistake' or become 'collateral' casualties. Many have called for war crime investigations.There is a world wide understanding and admission that the 'war on terror' has boomeranged, that the US has lost the war in Afghanistan, and that there is no military solution to the Afghan situation, hence the cancelled US-Taliban negotiations in Doha. The forty year turmoil in Afghanistan has wreaked havoc on everything in this country.

Diplomacy:

Realizing the US war on Afghanistan was a failure and a mistake, apparently, the Obama administration tried to engage the Taliban in 2010, and for pragmatic political reasons, those attempts have been intensified over the last year in the so-called Doha talks. Somethings should be pointed out though. Pres Trump's decision to engage the Taliban is essentially based on electioneering and US economics. This is why the talks were entirely secret and just between the US and the Taliban with the complete exclusion of the US- installed and supported Afghan government and others. The talks were mostly about the American troop withdrawal and not about peace in war-torn Afghanistan. They were called 'peace talks' after the Afghans protested for being excluded and delegitimised. The US chief negotiator Dr.Z.Khalilzad, a reactionary Afghan-American, is exactly the man who excluded the Taliban from the Bon Conference in December 2001 and has been trying very hard to stay in the limelight, some day install himself as head of state in Afghanistan, or snatch an undeserved Noble Peace Prize. Some here call him 'our Ahmad Shalabi'. No one, including Trump, the US Congress, or the Afghans know exactly what he has been saying/talking about with the Taliban. Hence his subpoena by Congress last Thursday. Khalilzad says he and the Taliban have been talking about: US troop withdrawal, a guarantee by the Taliban that they will not allow anyone to launch terrorist attacks from Afghanistan, intra-Afghan dialogue, and a cease fire. No question that the Afghan problem has become extremely costly, violent, and complex, and while some in and outside of Afghanistan want it solved, there are forces who want to continue the carnage. These include the US military-industrial complex, American warlords, the evengelists, the Afghan-international drugs, weapons, human and other mafias, certain ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Afghanistan's near and abroad neighbors, the poor and unemployed Afghans, and son. There is tons of money to be made out of human suffering. And many thoughtful observers believe that regardless of peace treaties, there will be no peace in the country for a while. And all this dishonest talk of 'Afghan owned' this and that is nonsense. This is an occupied country and the country's destiny is in other peoples' hand and the Afghans own little or nothing. No human or other rights.The question is why diplomacy was rejected early on and who if anyone will be held responsible for the astronomical human and material costs and the crimes committed?

Politics:

Afghan politics, the government, and the entire political culture have always been ethnicized. The country was founded by Ahmad Shah Abdali, from the dominant Pashtoon ethnic group, who have dominated the political system and government structure whether it was a monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, a republican, a leftist regime, the Taliban or the current 'democratically' elected presidential system. It must be said though that the Pashtoons may be the privileged dominant group in name, but the vast majority have been left out of any planned progress in the country. Other ethnic groups have had to acquiese grudgingly to this arrangement. But since 2001, this power structure order has been challenged both in and outside the political system, and the Pashtoons have had to accommodate the other major ethnic groups and share power. But this power sharing has created enormous tensions, and has affected, deformed, perverted and corrupted the notions of power, politics and the political process deeply. It has produced a dysfunctional kleptocracy/plutocracy. There is now a week left for the presidential election. and there are 15 candidates. The front runners are the incumbent A.Ghani-a Pashtoon and Abdullh the current CEO-a Tajik. A great deal of horse-trading, wheeling and dealing, promises, maneuvers, even cash have been deployed to put the various tickets together. All presidential candidates have tried to be 'inclusive' and choose 'leaders' of other groups as running mates so to get support from various ethnicities. In fact, nascent political parties, movements, and groups are all invariably ethnic based, the dominant ones being Pashtoon and Tajik.. Even the candidates' dress symbolizes, project, and signify who they are and whom they are trying to mobilise; and so Mr.Ghani wears a national dress including the turban, largely a Pashtoon attire. While Abdullah the sheik 'model' wears expensive brand name western suits. All 15 candidates have assembled their tickets from the various token ethnic groups with not even a handful of women, thus hoping to attract those groups' votes. So-called ethnic leaders and/or strong men are the same warlords from the anti Soviet /PDAPA jihad in the 80s- thanks to the CIA-Mukhabarat-ISI sponsorship. All elections including on university campuses, in the last 18 years have riddled with fraud, deceit, manipulation, etc. These mujahideen have assembled/stole enormous amounts of money, power and privileges and still hold society hostage If and when old, their sons are automatically anointed as their replacement. It is all in the family.There is very little ethnic crossover for any reason. The political compaign now is particularly vicious between Ghani and Abdullah, both partners in the J.Kerry- made so-called National Unity Government in 2014. There is enormous tension, anxiety, uncertainty, and hostility in the country, some predicting and fearing another civil war between North and South, Pashtoons and the Others. Yesterday, about 40 politicians and prominent Afghans at former pres Karzai's home called for postponing the election; because they think it could plunge the country into a deep and serious crisis. As a sign of things, we the expats at AUAF have been put under complete lockdown for all of September. There may be competent, committed, and decent individuals in the government, but the system as a whole is ineffective, inefficient, incompetent, corrupt, indifferrent, insensitive, self-absorbed, and out of touch. It is a classic living example of 'the rentier state'. It seems unable and unwilling to perform anything we expect of a government, from regulating traffic to protecting the country's terretorail integrity; security to healthcare; employment to clean air. Even now, 75% of the government budget comes from foreign aid. The current government has little to no legitimacy in the eyes of the people, who are left like orphans to fend for themselves. Groups and individuals scream, yell, demonstrate, strike, protest, block, sit-in, petition, etc, but the teflon government shows little to no response. I wonder when and whether the Afghan spring may arrive to install a government of, by ,and for the people. It must be pointed out that the West has been directly complicit in this state of affairs and must accept responsibility.

The Economy:

The 'war on terror' and the infusion of massive licit and illicit foreign capital into Afghanistan ( called Foreign aid) has produced a severely deformed economy. In a perverse way, the country really is a land of 'rags to riches'! People who had nothing have become multi millionaires; there may be a handful of billionaires; this in a fourth world country! And they are not shy to flaunt their wealth, power and privileges. This new class hold foreign passports, have largely exported their wealth, and sent their families abroad to Dubai, Turkey, India, and the west. If they are in the country, they live in mansions behind huge blast walls, have guards, travel in armored SUVs with armed escorts, shop in boutique stores and department stores, eat in fancy restaurants, send their children to elite designer schools, vacation abroad, have access to the government, foreign military bases, NGOs, and foreign embassies. They are the comprador class, the contractors, the hucksters and hustlers, the mafias, the smugglers, the criminal syndicates, partners of the kleptocracy, agents for multinational corporations, and the investors. They are this country's 1%. Collectively, this class with assistance or complicity of its foreign handlers stole most of the $125 billion in foreign assistance over the last 18 years. On the other hand we have the people 60% of whom are officially under the poverty line, and the 'middle class' who are food secure. 75% of the labor force is engaged in agriculture which still uses traditional ways and means with little help from government or the foreign aid industry. There is limited industry and social service sector. The economy is largely informal and/or underground with narcotics being one-fourth of the GDP. Since the country can harvest just 30% of its water with the rest flowing out to Iran and Pakistan, this has an adverse effect on agricultural production and life in the country. There is endemic poverty in both cities and the rural areas. Per capita income hovers around $500. Two million have been displaced by war, violence, droughts, floods, conflict and son. Streets are crowded with men, women and child beggars. Millions of children work to support their families. Corruption has been normalized. 70% of the government budget still comes from foreign assistance. With a week before the presidential election, the economy is on life-support. I have never seen such poverty in both urban and rural areas. Though this is an agricultural country, but it can not even feed itself and must import grains. This grotesque inequality, poverty and degradation have led to massive violent and nonviolent crimes, white and blue collar crime, organized and retail crime. People live in fear. The culture has been gangsterized, criminalized, degraded, perverted, and trivialized. The government itself is a vast, corrupt and criminal organization. Pompeo finally declared so, and stopped a $160 aid to the Afghan government. Anyone who can, is leaving the country, even risking their lives. A recent Gallup poll ranked Afghanistan at the top of the world's misery-unhappiness-suffering-hopelessness index. Under these circumstances, war has become a means of livelihood for millions! This country has enormous resources such as water, minerals, rare and precious metals, oil, gas, gold, copper, fertile land, fruits, herbs, and people. It is indeed a shame and a crime that its people are so poor and oppressed.

Society and Culture:

Forty years of invasions (USSR, USA, NATO), war, violence, upheaval, displacement, migration, and fratricide have disfigured and fractured society deeply. Families and communities are torn apart. There is hardly a family or community which has not directly or indirectly been affected by the four-decade upheaval. People have been killed, maimed, exiled, disappeared, lost, gone crazy, have become addicts, bought and sold, dismembered, imprisoned, widowed, orphaned, etc. People are alienated and estranged from each other. There is little mutual trust, fondness, respect, help, or belonging. Older ethics, morality, conventions, and nicities are disappearing. It is a struggle of all against all and a struggle for survival, money, power, and glamour. A vicious and ugly social Darwinism prevails at all levels and all aspects of life. Lies, deceit, fraud, treachery, disloyalty, betrayal are all normatised. Ethics, morality, guilt, and shame are almost vanished from daily life. Life for the rich and the poor seems to be all about money, power, privilege, networking, consumerism, appearance, getting ahead, and/or getting by. The end justifies the means. You can now rent, buy, hire men and women sex workers, goons, assasins, and/or suicide bombers. Everything is negotiable and everyone/everything has a price. A small segment of the population seems to lead the good life, the majority simply endure life and suffer . Alien and imported culture dominates most things from language to hair style, to food, to values, to household furnishings, social etiquette, mourning to entertainment, to dress, to cosmetic surgery. There are about 100 TV networks pedling trash, vulgarity, soft core pornography, consumerism and mindlessness materialism. People, especially urbanites prefer things foreign be it fruit, clothing, machinary, language, manners, food, education, medicine, and products you name it. People inevitably opt for the imported stuff regardless of the quality, inauthenticity, fitness, price, or threat and damage to indigenous ways. Most things about the country, from war to peace, education, foreign policy, technology, economic policy, trade, and commerce, aspects of language are decided from outside. People appear resigned and reconciled, they lack initiative, throw their hands in the air and see their destiny in the hands of Allah, the Americans(and other foreigners) and/or the dysfunctional government. There is little to no collective or individual sense of agency. People seem bewildered, anxious, fearful, uncertain and hopeless. They entrust themselves to God, fate, the extremists, or the West. Since society and culture seem to be under siege, certain elements, including the Taliban, have become extreme xenophobes rejecting all things foreign, hence the polarization of society between tradition and modernity, urban and rural. The country is in a very deep crisis, but very few seem to realize or care.

Education:

At the invitation of the first post-Taliban minister of higher education, Dr.Sharif Fayez, also an Afghan American academic, I arrived in Kabul in early March, 2002. I could not believe what I saw. I literally wept when I saw how my middle and high schools, like the entire country, were ravaged by the prolonged wars. The education system from top to bottom was severely limited in scope, purpose quality and quantity. Like the country itself, education too had become a wasteland. The ministry of higher education building had no running water so we had to use an outhouse. And I lived in a simple house with no in-door plumbing. There were just two old manual Pashto and Dari typewriters. Very few of us had phones. There was no internet or computers, or other technology in the building. Electricity was irregular so we begged UNESCO to get us a generator. There were just five public universities with about seven thousand students, mostly men. Other than delapidated buildings, there was nothing to little else you expect at a university.The system was isolated, archaic, underfunded, substandard, dysfunctional and useless. The system was gripped by mediocrity, tradition, ideologies, culture and religion. We had a monumental challenge to rebuild the education system. A few international organizations arrived to help. What I do remember was our commitment, dedication, determination, hope, and optimism. Afew Afghans and internationals believed we could modernize and rebuild the Afghan higher education, even against all odds. Everyone was thirsty for a good education. Although I was a tenured and full professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and had full responsibilities, but seeing the desperate situation in Afghanistan, I had to find ways to help. So L and C was kind enough to allow me to teach my full load at L and C during Spring and Summer and spend August to January in Kabul every year from 2002 to 2014. I served as senior adviser and handy man to the minister from 2002 to 2006. Around that, the government including the ministry of higher education, started to become ethnicised. Thus in 2006, I joined the University of Massachusetts team to design and teach in its MA program for university instructors from all of Afghanistan, at the Kabul Education University. KEU was later renamed Shaid Rabani Education University. Later the U of Mass and I designed an MPPA( master of public policy and administration) program at Kabul University, and I taught in that program during 2012-215. Since I worked two challenges jobs between 2002 and 2013, I began to feel tired. Late in 20013, I was offered a full time position to design, direct, and teach an MA Ed program at the American University of Afghanistan. This was to train 1000 trainers from two year teacher training institutions from all of Afghanistan. So I resigned my position at LC and joined AUAF as full professor and director of MAEd in 2013/14. In the summer of 2015, I was asked to design, teach in, and direct another. MA program in education and law enforcement at AUAF for the police academy instructors. That program ended on Sep.1, 2019.There has in fact been a big increase in the number of students, schools and tertiary institutions both public and private since 2002. There are now some nine million pupils, attending some 217000 schools; 38 public institutions and 140 odd private institutions of higher learning with 140000 and 150000 students. Half of the public schools have no buildings! Education is free from first grade to college. Most of the private universities are run in large rented houses.Though some 5 million school-age children and 93% of college -age youth still have no access to school and the quality of education at all levels is substandard. At the same time 80% of the women and 65% of the men in the country are illiterate. Most of what is called education is out of sink with the country's socioeconomic and cultural reality; it is shallow, substandard, and dysfunctional producing millions of un/underemployed academic prolitarriate constituting a huge socioeconomic problem and a time-bomb. There are reasons for this state of affairs. Insufficient funds is the main reason, with the country spending one the lowest amount per student in the world. Lack of capacity to run effective and efficient organizations is another reason.The two ministries for education can not even spend one-third of their development budget. Leadership changes is another reason. Government organizations are crippled by ethnic, political, or personal factionalism. The notion of an independent, competent, clean, secure, and stable civil service does not exist here.There have been 8 ministers of higher education and that many ministers of education since 2002; and to my knowledge, none were trained professional educators. All appointments at all levels are politicized and ethnicized, based on bribes, nepotism, or deal-making; the patronage and poenage system prevails. Most international experts are themselves under and/or unqualified and out of touch with the local realities. In case of women and girls 'culture' itself is a huge barrier to their education. And schooling and education are not viewed so much as a means to transform the individual or the society, but a way to make a living and/or get ahead.

As my departure nears, I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, I have spent a lot of time and energy here over the last 18 years, trying to make a difference. I have endured frustration, hadship, stress and strain, and even risked health and life. And I care deeply about family, friends, coworkers, indeed all the people here who have to endure so much. Any people should not be subjected to so much brutality, pain, suffering and deprivation.. It offends and pains me greatly. And I have contempt for the predatory class and the various criminal syndicates for their inhumanity. To me they are almost like animals. And I also hold the US ruling class and its 'allies' responsible for this state of affairs. On the other hand, I know full well that there are limits to our endurance, and I feel that for now, I have reached my limits. And my wife Tahmina needs/wants out of here too. We know what lies ahead for us in Portland, but the US is by no means Afghanistan and we expect better. So if all goes well, we depart Kabul and arrive in Portland on October 2nd. I will, after a two weeks readjustment period, be happy/available to share my observations with anyone who is interested and concerned. Please feel free to share this report.Those interested, can Google Zaher Wahab Tumblr, and read these reports starting in 2009.

Zaher Wahab

Kabul Sep. 24,2019

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Saturday, July 24, 2021

Virus’s impact (AP) The eruption of COVID-19 last year caused the proportion of people working from home in the U.S. to nearly double. The share of employed people working from home shot up from just 22% in 2019 to 42% in 2020, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was among the striking findings of an annual government survey that documents the far-reaching impact the viral pandemic has had on Americans’ everyday lives since it struck in March of last year. Because of the pandemic and the widespread social distancing it required, people on average spent more time last year sleeping, watching TV, playing games, using a computer and relaxing and thinking—and less time socializing and communicating in person—than in 2019. Adults also spent more hours, on average, caring for children in their household. The survey also lends support to concerns that the pandemic worsened isolation for millions of Americans. With people working from home or attending school online, the time they spent alone increased. Among Americans ages 15 and over, time spent alone each day increased by an average of an hour. For those ages 15 to 19, it rose 1.7 hours per day.

Medical debt (NYT) A new study put the amount of unpaid medical bills held by collection agencies at $140 billion last year, up from $81 billion according to a similar analysis carried out in 2016. The analysis looked at 10 percent of all TransUnion credit reports and found that about 18 percent of Americans have medical debt that has been sent to collections. Over the period from 2009 to 2020, the largest source of debt owed to collection agencies became medical debt. The $140 billion, to be clear, is not an estimate of medical debt; that figure is far higher, as the $140 billion is merely the debt that has been passed along to the vultures.

Crews make progress on huge Oregon blaze (AP) The nation’s largest wildfire raged through southern Oregon on Friday but crews were scaling back some night operations as hard work and weaker winds helped reduce the spread of flames even as wildfires continued to threaten homes in neighboring California. The Bootleg Fire, which has destroyed an area half the size of Rhode Island, was 40% surrounded after burning some 70 homes, mainly cabins, fire officials said. The fire, which was sparked by lightning, had been expanding by up to 4 miles (6 kilometers) a day, pushed by strong winds and critically dry weather.

Thousands of bullets have been fired in this D.C. neighborhood (Washington Post) Markeith Muskelly, a barber who has spent half his 52 years cutting hair in Southeast Washington, has seen people get shot on the street outside the shop where he works. Last fall, he saw a man die there. The shop is tucked into a corner of the Benco Shopping Center, a mainstay in the Marshall Heights neighborhood for six decades. Its plate-glass window has long offered a view of one of the most dangerous streets in the District. In the neighborhood where Muskelly works, gun violence has affected generations, bringing a sad realization that, for some, that the danger may never end. A Washington Post analysis shows that in a recent period of a little more than three years, crime scene technicians found 2,759 bullet casings—byproducts of shootings involving rifles, pistols and shotguns—in about a one-square-mile area that includes Benning Road in Marshall Heights, with Benco between them. Bullets have struck people, pockmarked parked cars, embedded in walls of homes and shattered windows of businesses filled with patrons. Patrol officers carry “quick clot gauze” used by troops in war.

Volunteers hunting for Mexico’s ‘disappeared’ become targets (AP) The mainly female volunteers who fan out across Mexico to hunt for the bodies of murdered relatives are themselves increasingly being killed, putting to the test the government’s promise to help them in their quest for a final shred of justice: a chance to mourn. Those who carry on the effort tell tales of long getting threats and being watched—presumably by the same people who murdered their sons, brothers and husbands. But now threats have given way to bullets in the heads of searchers who have proved far better than the authorities at ferreting out the clandestine burial and burning pits that number in the thousands. Two searchers have been slain the past two months. Fear has always accompanied the searchers. They go to wild, remote, abandoned places where terrible crimes have been committed. But up to now, they mostly shrugged it off.

Cuba’s communist authorities have long feared change. Street protests show the risk of resisting it. (Washington Post) On a farm not far from the town where Cuba’s protests first erupted this month, police investigators last summer carried out a major sting operation. Their target was not a dissident activist, but a dairyman nicknamed El Rey del Queso: The King of Cheese. His offense? Operating a clandestine factory that produced tire-sized hunks of cheese for private sale in Havana. Authorities arrested the King, confiscated hundreds of pounds of yellow queso and produced a news report about the bust on Cuban state television depicting him as a villain. Cuba’s communist authorities have for decades treated private entrepreneurs as a threat to be contained, not encouraged. Long after China and Vietnam embraced market reforms, using material prosperity to buttress authoritarian rule, Cuba has clung to an economic model based on centralized planning and state control. The July 11 protests that shook Cuba’s rulers showed that model might be their biggest vulnerability, as its weak foundation is further eroded by the decades-long U.S. embargo, additional Trump-era sanctions and now the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s economy contracted 11 percent last year, according to government data. Cubans are spending hours in lines to buy basic goods they can barely afford. Hospitals have been overwhelmed by covid patients, and medicine is scarce. Power outages are turning stifling summer heat into an explosive fuse. “Unless the government makes profound changes, I think people will take to the streets again,” said Camilo Condis, a Cuban entrepreneur and business advocate.

Haiti leader’s slaying exposes role of ex-Colombian soldiers (AP) As the coronavirus pandemic squeezed Colombia, the Romero family was in need of money to pay the mortgage. Mauricio Romero Medina’s $790 a month pension as a retired soldier wasn’t going far. Then came a call offering a solution. When Romero answered the phone on June 2, another veteran, Duberney Capador, offered what he said was a legal, long-term job requiring only a passport. But Romero had to make a decision fast. “Talk about it with your family and if you are interested, see you tomorrow in Bogota, because the flight is the day after tomorrow,” Romero’s wife, Giovanna, told The Associated Press, recalling the conversation. A month later, Romero and Capador were dead and 18 Colombians were reportedly in custody, accused of taking part in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. It’s a case that dramatizes Colombia’s role as a recruiting ground for the global security industry—and its murkier, mercenary corners. Colombia’s Defense Ministry says about 10,600 soldiers retire each year, many highly trained warriors forged in a decades-long battle against leftist rebels and drug trafficking cartels. Many—including a number of those involved in Haiti—have been trained by the U.S. military. Those soldiers make up a pool of recruits for companies seeking a wide range of services—as consultants or bodyguards, in teams guarding Middle Eastern oil pipelines or as part of military-like private security in places like the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan. The UAE paid Colombian veterans to join in the battle against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Italy makes health pass mandatory for many leisure activities, in bid to pressure the unvaccinated (Washington Post) Italy on Thursday significantly ramped up pressure on its unvaccinated population, announcing that a digital or printed health pass would be necessary for accessing a range of everyday leisure activities, from theaters to indoor dining. The decision puts Italy in a rare category along with France among Western nations that have been willing to leverage certain freedoms and equalities now that vaccines have become widely available. Italy is essentially betting that it can revive its slowing vaccination campaign—and avoid future, onerous restrictions—by creating heavy incentives for inoculation, in the kind of step that would be politically unthinkable in the United States. Italy is looking for ways to avoid a new round of closures and curfews. For now, every Italian region is “white”—meaning that life proceeds almost as normal, and people can stay out as late as they want. That has made for a joyful Italian summer.

‘Messy’ fight (Washington Post) KUNDUZ, Afghanistan—Around 3 a.m., a small team of elite special forces were halfway through an operation to retake a sliver of territory along the city’s northern edge when a police unit assisting them refused to advance. Hours later, the police fled, ceding the territory back to the Taliban. For weeks, the Afghan military has struggled to hold provincial capitals such as Kunduz after a surge of Taliban attacks that came as U.S. forces withdrew and U.S. air support dropped. Afghan ground forces are increasingly used to fill the void. Their capabilities are uneven, however, resulting in government advances that often rapidly evaporate. Experienced and motivated elite units are leading the battle to retake territory. But the troops called up to secure those gains—army, police and irregular fighters—often have little training and are less inclined to fight. First Lt. Abdullah Ansari, 30, led the elite unit retaking territory house by house in Kunduz earlier this month. He said the debacle on Kunduz’s northern edge made him miss working with U.S. troops. “Now everything is just messy,” he said.

Death rates soar in Southeast Asia as virus wave spreads (AP) Indonesia has converted nearly its entire oxygen production to medical use just to meet the demand from COVID-19 patients struggling to breathe. Overflowing hospitals in Malaysia had to resort to treating patients on the floor. And in Myanmar’s largest city, graveyard workers have been laboring day and night to keep up with the grim demand for new cremations and burials. Images of bodies burning in open-air pyres during the peak of the pandemic in India horrified the world in May, but in the last two weeks the three Southeast Asian nations have now all surpassed India’s peak per capita death rate as a new coronavirus wave, fueled by the virulent delta variant, tightens its grip on the region. The deaths have followed record numbers of new cases being reported in countries across the region which have left health care systems struggling to cope and governments scrambling to implement new restrictions to try to slow the spread.

Typhoon to bring heavy rains to Taiwan, China over weekend (AP) A typhoon is forecast to bring heavy rains to Taiwan and coastal China over the weekend, days after the worst flooding on record in a central Chinese province caused at least 51 deaths. Forecasters say Typhoon In-fa is moving toward China and expected to make landfall in Zhejiang province either Sunday afternoon or early Monday morning. Zhejiang’s bureau of emergency management said on its microblog Friday that it is raising its risk warning to the second-highest level and calling on all localities to take preventative measures. Those usually include recalling fishing boats to port and relocating people living in vulnerable coastal communities. Fujian province to the south has issued similar orders. On its current track, the eye of the typhoon is expected to pass north of Taiwan while still bringing considerable rain to the island.

#headlines #news

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tinderthecity · 7 years ago

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Mr. Mindful

It’s been a while, but I thought it would be fun to post a keeper of a date from a while back, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

I began dating again sometime in October. It’s always helpful to give yourself time to heal after a rough breakup, so naturally I tried to jump back in almost immediately. I didn’t want to go right back into Tinder or Bumble, it felt overwhelming, but luckily social media is really creepy about their advertising and for a while I saw an ad floating around for a dating app called “Meet Mindful,” which is for people who are into mindfulness (they have a dating app for everything now, I know). My thought was - wow, maybe this will help me immediately weed out people who have a fundamentally different understanding of the world than I do.

You’d think at 26 I’d be less naive.

Early on I started talking to Mr. Mindful. After some chatting he asked me to grab dinner at a pizza place that served gluten and dairy free pizza, so naturally I agreed.

As I started walking to the pizza place that Friday, tears started streaming down my face, and then I broke into full out sobs. I pulled myself together by the next block, and then I was back in sobs two blocks later. It was a cycle for about 15 minutes. I texted my girlfriends, I called my mom, I had been really solidly single for a little over a month and I realized I just wasn’t ready.

I told Mr. Mindful the truth, I gave him a little back story to my situation, told him I was crying, and that I didn’t think it was fair for either of us if I went on this date. His response was extremely understanding:

“Hey Chloé, as much as I wish you didn’t cancel on me, I appreciate you letting me know your situation, as I can understand that. I’d be willing to try and meet up again at some point.”

So wonderful. Points for Mr. Mindful. I was extremely relieved and skipped gleefully all the way home.

About a month later I started to feel comfortable with the notion of dating again, I re-opened my Bumble and Tinder accounts, and I was baby stepping towards opening up. Around that same time Mr. Mindful texted me asking if I’d felt comfortable to try and meet up again soon.

I had actually considered reaching out to him myself, after his kind and accepting response the last go around, I was willing to give it a shot.

We decided on the pizza place again, and this time as I walked to our date I didn’t cry once ;D

When I first meet him, I realize pretty immediately that I’m not entirely attracted to him, but that’s ok. I also realize pretty immediately that he is VERY awkward. He has a hard time looking at me when he speaks and instead focuses his attention on shifting around his utensils and swirling around his water.

I know some people can get really nervous on first dates, I also know some people have more awkwardness to them than others, so I never want to make a snap judgment or shut down into discomfort, it’s always my goal to make the situation as chill, casual, and comfortable as possible, so I do my best.

We small talk and chit chat about life (as he continues to not look at me). He asks me about my job situation, I explain that I was just offered a position at Fordham University, that I plan to get my masters degree while I’m there and hopefully at some point in the future, my Ph.D. because I would love to end up teaching in higher ed.

He then responds by saying “I just don’t like the extreme leftist agenda of higher education.”

…………….ummmmmmm excuse me? if you know me, I don’t think there’s much I need to say about this. But even that aside, what a way to respond to someone’s life trajectory..

Our conversation continues (I preface by saying I kept my tone very calm and cordial to keep that chill first date environment):

Me: Tell me more of what you mean by that Him: I just think our society is trying to engrain natural male behaviors out of us

.....?!?!?!

Me: Like what kind of behaviors? Him: I think men are more naturally aggressive, and we’re told not to be. Like young boys at school on the playground want to rough and tumble and the teachers tell them to stop. I think it just ends up getting pent up and then men do stupid things when they’re older. Me: I understand what you’re saying, but I think it’s more so about time and place. First of all there is a liability when it comes to children being injured at school. Second it’s about teaching kids when and what is appropriate. For example, the little boy I used to nanny, we could tell he wanted a physical outlet so now he is in martial arts where he has that outlet with boundaries, and they teach them things like “we use common sense before self-defense, we never use martial arts to be abusive or aggressive, etc.” I also know quite a few men in my life who have actually said they feel as though masculine expectations have been harmful because it never allowed them to fully express their emotions or feel vulnerability and weakness in a healthy way. Him: Yeah but I mean there also comes a point when you have to toughen up and know you’ll be ok and move on. Me: I think it requires a balance.

At this point I KNOW this isn’t going to work but he seems comfortable with the conclusion we’ve reached. He’s talking to me about how he wants to be a life coach to young guys …….. (still not looking at me)

So in this moment, and even now far removed, my thought is that because Mr. Mindful is a kind of petite, small framed, socially awkward guy, he blames what he perceives to be his “non-hyper-masculine” persona to be the cause of his social unease. Whereas I think he just has some social unease regardless and were he to just own his own self as he is, he would have greater ease no matter the “level” of masculinity. Just my thoughts.

It comes time to pay our bill and he says he’ll get it. I ask if he wants to split and he says “you can get dessert.”

…. oh so we’re not done here.

Not knowing how to back out of this one I say I know a place across town, it’s near the train I know we both have to take to get back home so I figure it’s at least in the right direction. To which he responds - “Do you like to dance?”

I obviously like to dance, but Idk what I’m walking into here so I say - “it depends.”

He says there is a swing dancing place in midtown that he wanted to take me to and he could teach me how to dance.

Ok it’s a Thursday night, it’s already 8, he wants to get dessert AND swing dance downtown, I have work in the morning, and I honestly want this date to be over 5 minutes ago. I tell him I’m having breakfast with some friends in the morning before work (I had a show with them the following night.. close enough) but that we can do dessert and maybe swing dancing can be for another time. He unhappily agrees.

We wait for the cross town bus and he keeps inching closer to me as I inch further away. By the time the bus arrives we’ve moved at least 5 feet from where we started. All the while he guesses my Myers-Briggs on the first shot (ok that was kind of impressive) and I find out that he’s a scorpio (should’ve known.. ;]).

We have our dessert, hop on the train, and as I go to get off at my stop he gets up to get off with me. He lives a good 3+ stops north of me so I’m confused, I also would prefer a guy not know where I live when I hardly know him. He walks me part way home and says - “I don’t like saying goodbye on subways. I had a great time, lets do this again some time”

In order to avoid the potential first kiss I say yeah, hug him, and get the hell out of there.

He texts me the next day. At this point, I think the messages will speak for themselves.

Prepare yourself.

Needless to say, after this exchange I blocked his number.

I was a bit concerned that he may still have access to me via the app, the only hiccup was, in order to block him on the app I had to go to his profile, and this app also tells you when people go to your profile..... a bit of a glitch in the system.

So of course, contact me on the app is exactly what he did.

His apology follows...

I reiterate.. prepare yourself

Him:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me:

I think I can officially say that my first experience back after a year and a half was definitely.... more entertaining to read than to experience first hand!

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

#dating #online dating #Dating Apps #tinder #tinder and the city #bumble #meet mindful #mindfulness #love #romance #spirituality #valentinesday

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xtruss · 5 years ago

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Big Takeaways From the Biden-Sanders Debate

I Our experts weigh in on the first head-to-head debate between the two main remaining Democratic contenders.

— By Elephants In The Room Contributors | MARCH 16, 2020 | Foreign Policy

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders square off at the Democratic presidential debate in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 2020.

No live audience, podiums spaced wide apart, elbow bumps between the candidates—the unfolding coronavirus pandemic was front and center at Sunday’s primary debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Elephants in the Room team offers their expert analysis on the first direct matchup between the two main contenders left in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

In the Shadow of the Pandemic, It Was Game, Set, and Match

— by John Hannah

The only real drama in the debate was whether former Vice President Joe Biden, through some act of involuntary self-sabotage, might disrupt his near-inevitable march to the Democratic nomination. It didn’t happen. Not even close.

On the contrary, in the first half of the discussion devoted to the only issue that currently matters to Americans—the coronavirus pandemic—Biden came off strong, competent, and experienced in wielding the powers of government. He said the country is at war against the virus and needs to be laser-focused to mitigate the damage, both to save lives and to limit the economic devastation wrought on ordinary people. He focused on ramping up capacity to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed, including enlisting the full capabilities of the U.S. military and other parts of the government that can provide disaster relief. He promised that no American would be denied testing or treatment for lack of funds. No one would lose their jobs for being sick. No one would be evicted from their homes for not being able to make their mortgage. How exactly all of this would be accomplished and at what cost was left to decide for another day. Biden’s message was that this is war—an existential threat to Americans’ way of life—and that the United States will do whatever it takes to win and get its people through it.

Biden was especially good in parrying Sen. Bernie Sanders’s effort to pivot from the coronavirus crisis to his signature proposals of “Medicare for All” and the need to radically transform American capitalism. We need to deal with this crisis now, Biden implored. This is not the time to politicize it by indulging in ideological hobbyhorses. Practical results to help the country survive the next few months, not revolutionary disruption that would exacerbate instability and uncertainty, is what average Americans need from their government, Biden suggested. Pointing to Italy as a country whose health care system is on the verge of collapse because of the virus, despite having the kind of public health care system backed by Sanders, was particularly effective.

Biden’s performance on the coronavirus was game, set, and match—especially when coupled with his headline-grabbing commitment to name a woman as his running mate. The rest of the debate seemed small by comparison to the enormity and urgency of the challenge now thrust upon the nation (and indeed the world) by the pandemic.

For the select audience that paid attention to what passed for the foreign-policy section of the debate, my notes read as follows: Sanders (still) has a soft spot for leftist authoritarians who may have killed and imprisoned millions, but made the trains run on time. On both immigration and climate change, Biden needs to be careful about being savaged by the Republicans. In his understandable effort to reach out to the progressive wing of his party, he runs a serious risk of further alienating a white working-class electorate that moved decisively to President Donald Trump’s populist message in 2016. An all-out assault on fossil fuels and fracking demonizes an industry that has transformed global energy markets over the past decade to the United States’ great geopolitical advantage, while employing tens of thousands of average Americans in well-paying jobs. Declaring war on them may not be wise.

Biden also showed another vulnerability when he, however legitimately, attacked Trump’s harsh immigration policies. Biden needs to be careful that his calls for humanely dealing with the undocumented are coupled with sufficient concern for the necessity of maintaining adequate control of the United States borders—one of the primary responsibilities of any sovereign government. The failure of repeated U.S. administrations to provide that basic reassurance played a major role in Trump’s ascendance. Trump will no doubt exploit it again if Biden proves incapable of striking a balanced tone. He clearly didn’t find that tone when he seemed to suggest an equivalence between undocumented migrants surging across the U.S.-Mexican border and the millions of Italians and Irish who immigrated legally a century ago.

But that’s all small potatoes at the moment. Biden sealed the nomination last night. It’s all over except for the exact timing of when Sanders ends his campaign. Then attention will turn to the critical question of whether Sanders can (and will) mobilize his army of impassioned revolutionaries on behalf of Biden’s more conventional form of progressivism. Will they accept half a loaf or stay at home and sulk? The country’s future may ride on the answer—assuming the coronavirus doesn’t ruin us first.

Wrong Prescriptions on Health Care and Climate Change

— by Robert A. Manning

Bernie Sanders’ answers to questions about the coronavirus pandemic revealed him as an ideologue. He simply dusted off his familiar “Medicare for All” proposal, even as Biden—correctly—pointed out that Italy, Europe’s most disastrous victim, enjoys public healthcare for all. Sanders made Biden look presidential, as the latter spoke of coronavirus as a national emergency that calls for extraordinary measures, regardless of health care plans.

The most disappointing exchange was on that Democratic hobbyhorse, climate change. Both candidates failed to address the reality that reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is no short-term project, but requires a sustained long-term effort and an all-of-the-above approach. Sanders’ proposed ban on fracking, a technology that has allowed the United States to dramatically reduce emissions by replacing coal with cleaner-burning natural gas, would be worse for the climate as it reverses the shift away from coal. And while more research and development is needed, no investment will change near-term reality: The potential of wind and solar power will remain limited until there are more cost-effective ways to store energy. The transition to a post-petroleum economy will be a slow process. Smart policies can accelerate it, but both Biden and Sanders seemed to be promising a lot more than anyone can deliver.

A Game-Extending Debate Whose Format Could Hurt Trump

— by Peter Feaver

Some debate performances are game-changers, and some are game-enders. Most, however, are just game-extenders. Sunday’s much-anticipated mano a mano between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders fell into the last category. Biden did not finish off Sanders —but as the front-runner, Biden did not have to. More importantly, Sanders did not inflict a mortal blow on Biden—and he really did need to do that to have any hope of changing the trajectory of the race. Now, barring some sort of coronavirus-induced surprise, tomorrow’s primaries are likely to further cement Biden’s grip on the nomination. Yet if Sanders is fixing to pull out of the race any time soon, he did not hint at that in the debate.

So the Democratic primary is likely to limp along for a few more weeks. President Donald Trump is the beneficiary of this, for every minute Biden has to position himself for the primary is a minute he does not get to position himself for the general election. The coronavirus lockdown could, in theory, provide a window of opportunity for Biden to refocus his campaign on Trump, but not if he has to spend the next few months going through the motions of finishing off the nominating contest. And woe betide him if he conveys the impression that he is just “going through the motions,” because that is one way Sanders could revive, phoenixlike, to be a threat at the convention.

In the meantime, while the debate was far more substantive than previous ones, it was not very revealing on foreign policy and national security—at least not revealing of any surprises. Sanders showed that he still can’t break free from the far left’s rigid double standard that blames the United States first while winking and nodding at what totalitarian regimes wrought in the previous century. Biden showed that he, like most Republicans and other Democrats, still cannot talk with candor and persuasion about Iraq. He needs to have a better explanation for his vote in Congress supporting the Iraq War, and former President Barack Obama’s administration’s role there, since this will be one of the most obvious lines of attack from the Trump team. For Biden, it won’t be enough merely to point out that Trump has mishandled Iraq as well—that is true, but it will only land if Biden can better explain what he has learned from several decades of playing a key role in managing Iraq affairs.

One final takeaway: Most observers seemed to agree that the no-crowd format made the debate more substantive and less of a carnival. I bet that scares the Trump campaign. Trump emphatically does not do well in such an atmosphere, and I doubt very much that his campaign would want to accept a format where Trump cannot play to a noisy hall. A shrewd move for the Democratic Party would be to insist on this format going forward. Even if they can only force Trump to accept it once, that could lay the trap for a game-changing moment in the general election.

Ironclad Commitments

— by Dov Zakheim

Sen. Bernie Sanders was more passionate, but former Vice President Joe Biden held his own. Biden made two ironclad commitments: to name a woman as vice presidential candidate, and to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. Sanders made no commitments to speak of. As often as Sanders harped on his usual targets—the banks, the oil companies, the drug companies, the insurance industry—Biden invoked his years with Obama.

Both men showed their age; neither could refrain from dredging up his opponent’s decades-old votes and statements. Both studiously avoided addressing their failures in attracting key constituencies: for Biden, young people and Hispanics; for Sanders, suburban voters and African-Americans. Biden demonstrated his superior experience in matters of national security and foreign policy. Sanders tried to skirt those subjects, except when attacking “authoritarians.” After two hours of back and forth, it is unlikely that either man changed anyone’s mind.

Biden’s Lead is Good News for Trade

— by Clark Packard

For free traders, former Vice President Joe Biden’s likely nomination is a relief. While Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump are unapologetic protectionists, Biden’s record, while mixed, is generally positive. Given the increasing support free trade enjoys among the American public, Biden has an opening to clearly litigate the case against Trump.

First as a senator and then as vice president, Biden supported every major trade initiative—including the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and the creation of the World Trade Organization the following year. In 2000, Biden voted in favor of normalizing trade relations with China, paving the way for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. As vice president during the administration of former Barack Obama, Biden supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

To be sure, Biden’s record isn’t perfect; he voted against the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, and for quotas on steel imports. There were other votes that would normally have given free traders pause, but compared to the sprint toward 1930s-style protectionism under Trump, they are minor apostasies.

Trump will surely point to Biden’s support of NAFTA and trade with China as a reason voters in the Midwest can’t trust the former vice president.

On NAFTA, Biden has no reason to be defensive. In 2016, the U.S. International Trade Commission found that NAFTA produced small but significant economic gains. Not only that, Trump’s much-advertised replacement for NAFTA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is only a minor rewrite of its predecessor.

China is more complicated. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization was a good idea and made sense at the time. It remains a positive development: Beijing has cut tariffs since joining the World Trade Organization, and the United States has more influence over China’s trade policy and practices now that Beijing participates inside the system. All is not well with U.S.-China commercial relations, though. Much of the concern stems from actions taken by Beijing in recent years, including abuse of intellectual property, forced technology transfer as a condition of doing business in China, theft of trade secrets, massive industrial subsidies, and cyberintrusions into commercial networks.

Now is the time for a responsible hawkishness toward China’s economic practices. Even after the so-called “phase one” deal between the United States and China, tariffs now cover about 70 percent of imports from China with an average rate 6.3 times higher than when the trade war began.

By abandoning negotiations toward a Pacific trade agreement and levying tariffs on imports from China, Trump’s irresponsible policies have weakened the United States economically and hurt its ability to influence Beijing’s commercial practices. Biden will need to fully flesh out a China policy, but his instincts toward multilateral engagement are vastly superior to erecting an “economic Iron Curtain,” as former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson dubbed the Trump tariffs.

The Candidates Are Ignoring Other Countries’ Lessons

— by William Tobey

The Democratic presidential debate last night led with the coronavirus crisis and what the United States should do about it. Yet even as the United States has struggled with a timely response to the pandemic, the candidates did not much address the valuable lessons offered by other countries.

South Korea stabilized its outbreak with free, easily accessible, and unlimited testing, administering more than 250,000 tests at a pace of up to 20,000 per day. As a result, the number of new cases there peaked on March 3, and has generally trended downward ever since. Seoul has apparently turned the corner without widespread lockdowns. Hong Kong and Taiwan focused on screening and quarantining travelers from coronavirus hot spots, as well as social distancing, and have managed to keep the rate of infections per capita down to a fraction of that reported by China. Singapore used technology and big fines to enforce quarantines. China exercised the state’s immense power to enforce massive lockdowns. While the data from China is less authoritative than from South Korea, new cases appear to have peaked in mid-February, after an initially slow response. One small indicator beyond the numbers: At the moment, China is the only country in the world where Apple stores are open. So much for the states that appear to be coping.

For now—and much remains to play out—the biggest failures appear to be in Italy and Iran, the two worst-hit countries after China, as measured by the total number of infections. There, the number of new cases appears still to be accelerating. They also have much higher infection rates per capita than those reported in China. Moreover, there is reason to believe that the numbers reported in Iran substantially understate the true extent of the outbreak. What both nations’ responses seem to have in common is a failure to act quickly.

Once we are past the crisis stage of dealing with the pandemic, various nations’ strategies will be compared to infer best practices. Important lessons will be learned. Perhaps more important, though, will be the debate about how differing political systems responded. Were China and Russia more successful, or Europe and United States? Did democracy or dictatorship do better? Do transparency and civil liberties matter? Or is it optimal when unlimited state power is put to the purpose of public health? The coronavirus outbreak is likely so momentous that it will be the leitmotif of the debates sparked by China’s rise over which political systems are most effective at advancing the health and prosperity of their people, and so which should be emulated. The pandemic is, therefore, a matter of international security on several levels, and its consequences will last far longer than the outbreaks.

Elephants in the Room is a blog about U.S. foreign policy in the age of Trump, written by experienced GOP policymakers, scholars, and others not currently working in the new administration. It is curated by co-editors Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.

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go-redgirl · 5 years ago

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Don’t Forget: New Hampshire Winner And Dem Frontrunner Bernie Sanders Has A Lot Of Crazy Plans; Here are 19 Of His Insane Policy Proposals The Federalist ^ | 02/12/2020 | Emily Jashinsky and Madeline Osburn

With a win in New Hampshire, a maybe-win in Iowa last week, and a month-long surge into second place nationally, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is now in strong position to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. It’s been a long road for the curmudgeonly man from Vermont, who spent years toiling on the fringes of official Washington. Of all things, the event that ultimately launched him into the Democratic Party’s mainstream turned out to be a binary 2016 primary contest with Hillary Clinton, a match-up in which the contrast ultimately benefited him more than her.

So, here we are, in February 2020, and a self-identified democratic socialist appears poised to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. That could easily change, and the party establishment will work hard to ensure it does, but let us not take for granted how stunning it is that a man as radically leftist as Sanders is the likely nominee as primary season heats up.

As Sanders and his supporters boast, he is not a normal Democrat candidate. He is the most radical member of the Senate. His platform would make him the furthest left major party nominee in the modern era.

Sanders is a European-style ideologue who seeks to radically transform the government and the economy, dismantling the system of free enterprise, and he’s not bashful about that. To be sure, his success has pushed other candidates left on issues such as health care and higher education, but Sanders still stands as the most radical candidate, which makes him the most appealing to many of his supporters.

As Sanders surges in the nominating contest, the sheer extremism of his platform should not be normalized simply because he’s earning a decent slice of the Democratic primary vote. It’s in that spirit we present this list, which conveys the radicalism on which Sanders has built his career and staked his campaign.

1. $34 Trillion Socialized Health Insurance Overhaul

Sanders would ban private insurance and implement single-payer government health care. Under his Medicare for All proposal, “federal spending on health care would still increase by 10 percent of G.D.P., or more than triple what the government spends on the military,” according to The New York Times.

2. Mass Bailout of Student Loan Debt

The senator would bail out student loan debt for “45 million Americans,” totaling “about 1.6 trillion,” according to his campaign website.

3. Making Higher Education ‘Tuition Free’

As with many of his policy proposals, Sanders’ oversimplified justification for providing free college is: Countries in Europe offer it for free, why can’t the United States? Unlike in Europe, however, tuition is precisely what made the United States the top country in which to study, and the reason students from all over the world flock to the United States for education.

Additionally, the costs of state-run universities in Europe have not ballooned to pay for the ever-expanded services American universities now must offer to remain competitive (luxurious gyms with lazy rivers, behemoth athletic departments, and gourmet dining halls). In 2016, Sanders’ opponent Hillary Clinton knocked his free tuition plan because it relied on state governors, including Republican governors who often cut spending, to put in state money.

4. Implementing ‘National Rent Control’

Sanders’ campaign has pledged to spend $2.5 trillion to build 10 million government housing units. He also wants the federal government to further invade every state’s housing laws and local economy by enforcing a national “rent control standard.” He proposes using the federal government to wage war against gentrification and zoning laws.

5. Instituting a Moratorium on Deportations

Sanders’ immigration plan includes ending deportations of illegal immigrants and offering citizenship to the 11 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

6. Effectively Abolishing ICE and CBP

Sanders wants to eliminate the federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, that protect our country’s sovereign borders and protect U.S. citizens from illegal immigrants who commit acts of violence and organized crime all over the United States.

7. Enacting a Green New Deal

Sanders is a supporter of Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., Green New Deal, which calls for the banning of fossil fuel energy production, such as oil and gas, which is the lifeblood of American industry. The initial version of the Green New Deal also called for banning cars, meat, and air travel, while also promising to provide all Americans education, healthy food, housing, and government-guaranteed jobs. Sanders has admitted his climate plan would be an “expensive” $16.3 trillion.

8. Approaching Abortion as Population Control

“Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders answered ‘yes’ and spoke about abortion when asked at a CNN town hall event Wednesday night if population control would play a part in his administration’s policy for dealing with climate change,” RealClearPolitics reported in September.

9. Admiration for Dictators, Communists, and Bread Lines

Sanders has long admired and praised tyrannical dictators such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and the USSR’s Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1985, Sanders visited Managua to celebrate the anniversary of Nicaragua’s authoritarian Marxist regime, and often claimed that “the real truth is not being told” about the Nicaraguan dictators in U.S. press.

Last year, footage of Sanders from the 1980s surfaced, in which he praised socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and claimed bread lines in communist countries are a “good thing.”

“It’s funny sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing,” he said. “In other countries, people don’t line up for food, rich people get the food and poor people starve to death.”

10. Banning Hydraulic Fracking, Which Would Cripple the Economy

Sanders introduced a bill just last month that would “ban the process of hydraulic fracking.” According to Fox Business, “The Global Energy Institute, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, published a report in 2016 claiming that the U.S. would lose 14.8 million jobs by 2022 if a fracking ban were instituted.”

11. Issuing ‘Dozens’ of Sweeping Executive Orders to Implement Major Policies

A campaign list of “potential” Sanders executive orders obtained by the Washington Post “includes unilaterally allowing the United States to import prescription drugs from Canada, directing the Justice Department to legalize marijuana, and declaring climate change a national emergency while banning the exportation of crude oil.”

“Other options cited in the document include canceling federal contracts for firms paying workers less than $15 an hour and reversing federal rules blocking U.S. funding to organizations that provide abortion counseling,” the Post revealed.

The report further said Sanders is considering “lifting the cap on the number of refugees accepted into the United States and immediately halting border wall construction” in addition to reinstating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

12. Hiking Taxes, Even on the Middle Class

Sanders was forced in June to admit the middle class would pay more in taxes to fund his health-care overhaul. Brian Riedl in City Journal points out how Sanders’ elaborate plans will require even more money than his tax plan would generate.

“Sanders’s agenda is virtually impossible to pay for. Adding $97.5 trillion in new spending to an underlying $15.5 trillion projected budget deficit (under current policies) creates a ten-year budget gap of $113 trillion. Yet Sanders’s tax proposals would raise at most $23 trillion over the decade.”

13. Making Taxpayers Fund Political Campaigns

“The FEC no longer acts like enforcement agency, and needs to be replaced to effectively regulate campaign finance. And to address the outsized influence large corporate donors have on candidates, America must move to publicly fund federal elections in order to ensure a fair playing field free of the corrupting influence of large donors,” Sanders says on his website.

The senator’s platform also includes “A new system of Universal Small Dollar Vouchers [that] would give any voting-age American the ability to ‘donate’ to federal candidates,” and the Federal Election Commission “determin[ing] the appropriate threshold candidates must meet in order to qualify for public financing.” (Assuming it still exists.)

14. Allowing Convicted Felons to Vote

Asked in April whether Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should have the right to vote, Sanders replied, “Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that, not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.”

15. Eliminating the Electoral College

Sanders came out in favor of abolishing the Electoral College in July.

16. Legalize Marijuana in the First 100 Days with Executive Action

According to his website, a President Sanders would legalize marijuana almost immediately, not through legislative action with Congress, but using unilateral executive order. He would also “vacate and expunge all past marijuana-related convictions.”

17. Eliminating Nuclear Power

Sanders aims to phase out nuclear power.

18. Nationalizing the Internet

Sanders has a $150 billion plan to make the Internet into a public utility and radically change the Internet as we know it. His “High-Speed Internet for All” plan would break up big Internet service providers such as AT&T and Comcast, and force local governments to buildpublicly owned broadband networks. High-speed Internet is now a “basic human right,” according to Sanders’ proposal.

19. Eliminate Billionaires

Sanders was quick to adopt Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s idea to impose a “wealth tax” on the richest Americans, but he was also quick to make it rake in even more money for his grand plans. Sanders’ wealth tax would affect more households and with a higher top rate than Warren’s plan.

When The New York Times asked Sanders if he thought billionaires should exist in the United States, he said, “I hope the day comes when they don’t.” He added, “It’s not going to be tomorrow.”

He also said he wanted to tell “the wealthiest families in this country they cannot have so much wealth.”

Emily Jashinsky is Culture Editor at The Federalist. Madeline Osburn is Staff Writer at The Federalist and Producer of the Federalist Radio Hour. Photo (Donna Light/AP)

TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections

KEYWORDS:2020; 2020 dem primary; barbara green; bernie; bernie sanders; billionaires; breadlines; college communist; debt taxes; democratic socialism; dictatorship; conomics fracking; feel the bern; green new deal; hillary rotten clinton; ice; immigration; progressives; radical student; socialism

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