#we don't boycott in this house

[mrszimmerman24]

Looking forward to all of his upcoming projects

To a 2025 full of Adam new projects and appereances 🥂

[eddiediazenjoyer]

whatever. no athena is not a "mishandled" character she is handled exactly the way that they want to handle her. she is not "at odds" with the rest of the show she is a vessel for a pro-police state message that is at the center of the show whether you like it or not. she is the titular cop in a copaganda show. do not forget this bc she had one singular episode where she realizes that incarcerating people is Bad Sometimes (but not on principle but bc it makes the cop sad :(. ) like. that whole storyline was still rife with copaganda (her being allowed by the Plot to exercise abuse of power by literally locking that guy in a trunk)(the dichotomy that they CONSTANTLY show between Bad Cops and Good Cops)(dennis saying that he won't accept the deal without athena's permission, implying that he Deserves that kind of punishment unless athena frees him from it and that prison absolved him in some way)(even them having the Real Bad Guy that's dichotomized against dennis being a child molester is fucking copaganda like. it's classic. they always remind you that Well we actually need cops and prisons bc then what do we do with people like him??? the really scary guys??? THAT'S COPAGANDA) like. that's the story. this in not undone by her not... what. arresting him on the spot and banning him from taking the deal????? talk about bare minimum. ik it's complicated and like. i like this show too but goddamn the bar is on the floor and it's crazy how easily people fold as soon as the Cops Are Good show has the cop show one moment of complexity regarding prison. guys. it's still the Cops Are Good show by DESIGN. it's not incidental

[fairuzfan]

Is there anything I can do to help Palestinians besides call my representatives and beg them to stop killing people?

This is a great question. There are a few things you can do—just off the top of my head:

BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) https://bdsmovement.net/

Direct Action https://www.palestineaction.org/

Urge your University/School/Organization to put out a statement denouncing Israel

Organize a Protest/Participate in a local one

You might already be doing this but while calling your reps, tell them that as a voter, you're unwilling to support them in the upcoming election unless they urge the White House to take a stand against Israel and stop funding them

Share art/writing/films around Palestinian culture

If you're part of a union, ask them what they're doing to urge their industry leaders to take a stand against Israel + pressure the White House OR urge them to start a strike/walkout/etc if they're not doing anything already

Talk with your friends IRL about Palestine, whether in an activist capacity or watching a movie or literally anything

Reach out to a mosque to see if you can help them with anything

See if your city/state council has put out a statement in support of Gazans. If not, try to push them to do so.

Donate to Palestine Legal or Direct Action if you have some money to spare

KEEP TALKING ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know some of these don't feel like they have as big of an impact on helping Palestinians, but we do need to make an effort not to forget their humanity in the face of continued erasure and the media's sensationalist rhetoric.

Talking on social media and posting—while not seeming like a lot—does SO much. I know in USAmerica, it's like yelling into a void, but political analysts are saying that most of the "Global South" has completely lost any amount of goodwill it may have had the past few years. Hopefully, countries will start to put sanctions and embargoes en masse on the US and Israel soon.

Our goals here are BOTH short-term and long-term. We hope for the life and liberation of the Palestinian people, so anything that you can think of might help at some point in the future is encouraged to at least try.

If anyone else has any more ideas, feel free to reblog and add on. Thank you for asking, and here is to a liberated Palestine where Palestinians can live and thrive without fear.

[sirfrogsworth]

Well, that's just not true.

The most famous protest in US history was peaceful and effective.

I just don't think these tiny protests with people waving snarky signs are doing much at the moment.

Activism and protesting need to be strategic and organized. If you can only convince 20 people to stand outside a Tesla dealership, that probably won't do much.

If you get 250,000, that is another story.

Smaller peaceful protests can work if you do them right. Like say, filling the lobby of Trump Tower.

I think activism requires action from many vectors. Sometimes that does require civil disobedience. Vandalizing Teslas seems to be scaring people into selling them or just not buying them.

And the boycotts in Europe are plunging the stock. If Elon loses the company, that would be huge. Apparently he used his Tesla stock as collateral to buy Twitter.

But the Left's biggest issue right now is lack of organization. We are so splintered. We are riddled with infighting. And it doesn't help that Democratic leadership is... uninspiring.

I really hope we can get our shit together soon. I think AOC and Bernie and Tim Walz doing town halls in red districts is a good start. The Republican leadership has directed reps to avoid speaking to the people.

Numbers work. I think they work better than anything. Authorities are scared of numbers which helps with the peaceful part. And if shit goes down, the authorities end up looking bad. When police arrested 60,000 people during Gandhi's Salt March, it was a real bad look. Because it was just a bunch of people walking and making their own salt.

I think activism needs to make our leaders fear the populace. But we also have to win hearts and minds. And sometimes those goals can be conflicting or we forget about one over the other.

There were ~90,000,000 people that did not vote in the presidential election. If we could reach them and win the House back, that could really limit the damage.

So we need to not just fuck shit up.

We need to win hearts and minds. Make some motherfucking salt.

If it were me in charge, I'd start organizing mass acts of compassion.

Set up food drives in places where egg prices are highest. Give out some free eggs.

Set up a job fair in places that have mass government job losses. Find small local businesses that are hiring. Have clothing donations for job interviews and people to help write resumes.

Set up free mobile health clinics in deep red places that are about to lose Medicaid. Free check ups for kids and veterans and anyone else. And some vaccines to piss off RFK Jr.

If we organize and help the people who Trump is hurting, we can win those hearts and minds.

Don't give up on peaceful action as a tool. If done right, it can be more powerful than anything else.

[rice-fae]

Boycott hoyoverse, please.

I used to be a big genshin impact lore buff, i played, i read, i was on forums, i made fanart, and then i was deeply disrespected by the game itself (this post is about natlan)

I am brazilian and i follow a religion named candomblé. Long story short, its from yoruba people who were sent to brazil as slaves, then went through a big process of spreading out to not just black people, but light-skinned people of lower classes like my family. We believe in the creation by Olorum, the power of Axé, and the Orixás.

Natlan, as of now, has two characters named Iansan and Ororon. These names come from not just the yoruba predecessors of candomblé, but also the religion itself, the Orixá deities Iansã and Olorum.

My religion, my deities. My mother's deities. The statuettes in my house. Their names are recycled cheaply to be used trivially. Never have we of candomblé ever gotten mentioned by AAA games or films that give such attention to detail like Genshin does, and we are disrespected. Our Gods are used like rags for someone's profit to be thrown away, washed out. They do not convey our beauty, our grit, our wonder, they do not convey us but they profit from us.

People love to tell us that it is just a game, but think again: games are not entitled to disrespect us just because of their nature. We are entitled to complain, to scream, because this is cruelty. You brutalize our image, butcher our names, for what?

When I was younger, I used to look at games with religious imagery very curiously. It was always weird to see the faith of the people I know be used for aesthetic reasons or just because it looks cool. The same has now happened to me, but times worse. People will say anything to justify this mockery and throw excuses to keep playing the product of a corporation that won't ever understand what it means to be us.

Boycott, complain, scream, because I will do it too. I regret the time I invested in playing, in reading, in watching, in dedicating myself to something that would never do me justice. It is not expensive to change a character's name, not even talking about the model. I don't plan on re-entering the fandom while it still lies unaware of the gross source material's true colors. Candomblé is not mythology, it's faith. We are alive. We have existed for centuries and will continue to grow, despite the challenges we face.

[scarlettgauthor]

A plea

Readers! Billionaire-haters! Comrades! I have a request for you, from the bottom of my self-published indie author heart:

Please buy your books from places other than Amazon.

I am not saying do not buy books. I am definitely not saying pirate books (authors need to be paid in order to keep writing). I am just asking you to shift your purchasing to a non-Amazon platform. Any of the non-Amazon platforms.

We all know that Bezos is using his bajillions of dollars to make the world an actively worse place. We know he's sucking up to Trump because all billionaires are the same, and all they care about is their money. We know he's at least partially to blame for this second Trump presidency. I think the world would be a much better place if Amazon didn't exist.

I hate Amazon and Bezos as much as it's possible to do, but I literally can't survive as a self-published author without selling on Amazon. I earned $1094.26 in royalties (through Draft2Digital) in January, and $863.46 of that was from Amazon sales. Even with the criminally low royalties I get from Audible because I choose to sell elsewhere instead of locking myself into their monopoly, I get between $200-300 a month in royalties from them as opposed to $75-150 a month from Author's Republic, which publishes my audiobooks to everywhere else on the internet.

I hate depending on Amazon, but I can't quit Amazon unless readers do.

My plea to readers is this: Get off Amazon. Get off Kindle. See if you can buy books directly from the independent authors you like (like through my shop on my website!). If you depend on Kindle Unlimited or Audible subscriptions to keep up with your voracious reading habits, try your local library instead. You can get so many books and audiobooks through Libby!

If I was getting 80% of my sales through avenues other than Amazon, it would be easy to take the financial hit and drop them. Currently it's the other way around, and unfortunately I do still need money to live.

I know for many people doing a complete Amazon boycott is not possible. I still occasionally use Amazon for stuff like printer toner, or camp chairs for a concert on short notice, or other housewares I would be happy to buy in an actual store except that in-person shopping has been so degraded by Amazon that's no longer an option. I'm not perfect, and I'm operating within a system that is stacked against me.

But books aren't any of those things. They're not two-day free delivery on groceries and pantry staples for a disabled person who can't safely leave the house. They're not a houseware that you'd have to drive a full hour to buy in person from the one shop that still has it available. There are so, so many other options available in the world for book purchasing, even if you don't have access to a cool local bookstore.

Even if you can't get to a Barnes & Noble.

Even if you don't have a good local library.

There are OPTIONS.

(I, for one, love Bookshop.org, but just look at the Books2Read link for Red, the Wolf, and the Woods! There are 14 non-Amazon retailers, plus I sell direct! Bookshop has just launched ebook sales to support local bookstores, too!)

Please, consider changing your book shopping habits! Ask your friends to change their book shopping habits! It's a small thing, but it's a small thing that means a big improvement for authors, and for the world.

Thank you.

[botgal]

Another important call-in has arrived.

Last Year's "Non-Profit Killer" bill, HR 9495, is now being brought back not as an individual bill, but as an amendment that House Republicans are trying to shove into their budget reconciliation bill. To the detriment of all. This hidden section would hand over the power to remove nonprofit status from Any organization the administration doesn't agree with.

YES. THAT EVEN INCLUDES WEBSITES LIKE AO3.

You can use this website to send a written message to your Senator AND House Congressperson. And you can use the script that comes with it to call your reps too. Please do so as soon as possible, as this is a matter of grave importance. They want to do these things in secret and rush them so we don't have time to react. This is and has always been their strategy. So please help this now if you can.

You can pare down the script from the above link for a call script. So please help by calling as well if you can. Thank you.

"As your constituent, I urge you to reject the inclusion of Section 112209 in the House Ways and Means Committee's budget reconciliation package — a dangerous provision known as the “Nonprofit Killer Bill.”

This proposed law would grant the incoming administration’s Secretary of the Treasury unchecked power to revoke the tax-exempt status of religious, charitable, and advocacy organizations based on vague allegations and even classified evidence that groups cannot challenge. It would undermine the First Amendment, violate due process, and open the door to politically motivated targeting of nonprofits — including those that speak out against U.S. foreign policy or advocate for Palestinian human rights.

This legislation follows other recent attacks on free speech, such as the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the Anti-Boycott IGO Act, which would suppress student activism and Americans’ right to boycott human rights abuses. Congress must stop this growing wave of unconstitutional overreach.

I urge you to:

1) Support any amendment to strike Section 112209;

2) Vote NO on any reconciliation package that includes this provision.

Publicly oppose efforts to silence protected advocacy and dissent. Please stand up for the First Amendment and nonprofit independence!"

[copperbadge]

Daaaa Vatican

@afraid-of-woodpeckers posted that the Pope should move the Vatican to Chicago a while back and like an asshole I put a poll on their post instead of making my own, but it was such a fun post and I saw so many people curious about some of the options that I decided I'd do another one. I'm removing a few of the previous options -- Trump Tower because the seething hatred of it gave it an unfair advantage, the Bean because it's so well known, and Soldier Field as the least-high-scoring from last time. I'm adding in a few I saw in comments, BUT ALSO.

I thought I'd offer context! So if you're not familiar with Chicago, before you vote, scroll down to below the poll and peep under the readmore, where I have provided photos and semi-humorous descriptions of the various Chicago landmarks. Come to Chicago! We have Architecture! And a Pope! Kind of.

Look down here for more information!

Merchandise Mart: The world's largest building when it was built in 1930, it holds so many offices it has its own zip code. A lot of it is wholesale, so there's not much reason for most people to go into it, but it's so highly visible that you definitely know it's there. Also known for the Creepy Row Of Heads.

Goth Target: A decorative former department store built in the early 20th century; after standing empty for several years in the early 2000s, Target moved in and created one of the greatest brand visuals ever. Inside it is a regular-degular Target; before the boycott I shopped there for groceries a couple of times a month. I've bought shoes there.

University of Chicago: known as the school where Fun Goes To Die, University of Chicago used to be compared to Hogwarts before JK Rowling ruined everything. They have produced numerous Nobel prize winners and several war criminals, so the church should feel right at home.

Navy Pier: A tourist attraction built on an old military pier jutting into the lake, impossible to tolerate in the summer when it's brimming with people. It houses tall ships, two theatres, a large food court, retail shops, a convention center, a children's museum, an IMAX cinema, and a ferris wheel. It's got a lot going on.

Oak Park but keeps claiming it's in Chicago: Oak Park is a suburb of Chicago, known for many Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings and for people who live there claiming to be from Chicago, which can be extremely irritating to those of us who actually are.

Union Station: A grand old train station which is also at this point such a fucking labyrinth that it has at least one escalator which, at certain times of the day, reverses directions. If you've seen The Untouchables, the baby carriage scene was filmed there.

The Old Post Office: A truly imposing edifice built over a major downtown roadway; it's known mostly for having stood empty with numerous broken windows for a decade due to some kind of ownership/zoning issue. It is now an office building with retail after Rahm Emanuel threatened to take possession of it using Eminent Domain.

Harold Washington Library: The main downtown library, adorned with owls on the corners and full of joy. You aren't allowed to vote for this one because it's my library and I don't want to fistfight the pope for it but I will. I'm not afraid to hit a priest.

Let's Rename It The Holy See-ars Tower: Fomerly the Sears Tower and then the Willis Tower, it looks kinda like a robot. When built it was the tallest building in the world; it is now the sixteenth-tallest. I just really liked that pun.

Museum Campus: A jut of land on the lake, housing the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and Field Museum, just north of Soldier Field. It's also apparently impossible to photograph well. (I got suggestions for all three museums but I was running out of poll options.)

Marina City: Known locally as "The Corncobs", Marina City has the most hideously awful floorplans of any apartment building I've ever been in. But they do look cool as shit.

Nuance / Ken Griffin will just put his name on it eventually: Ken Griffin is a billionaire hedge fund manager who likes to pay ungodly amounts of money to be allowed to put his name on things like museums and libraries.

[rubyvroom]

Would really like to hear more people talking about how to effectively protest in 2025. Standing in a public area holding signs is ineffective. Public shaming only works when your opponents have any shame (apologies to Stokely Carmichael) so what do we do?

Cities are blue overall. So is disrupting cities, blocking traffic, really going to be effective? It just becomes images on the news that people can dismiss as "city problems". Do we take protests somewhere else? Target city halls across the country in smaller communities to try to light a fire? Take it to people's houses? Protesting the Supreme Court justices at home seemed to freak everyone out quite a bit, is that the way to go?

The only way to hurt plutocrats is to hit them right in the money, so how do we do that effectively? I'm not convinced boycotts do anything? So what would actually hurt them?

I don't know if these discussions are happening in private, which would make sense but is frustrating for people who'd like to get involved, or if they're just not happening.

[soov]

despite whatever situations happened in our community, i want you to, PLEASE, PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING POST.

DONALD TR*MP JUST ANNOUNCED A PROJECT FOR THE ETHNICAL CLEANSING OF THE GAZA STRIP.

in his words : “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.” “I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wise guy. But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so — this could be so magnificent.”

i'm genuinely tearing up as i write this, and i beg you from the bottom of my heart, PLEASE, don't let this go unnoticed despite the things happening on enhablr or any other community. tr*mp is literally threatening to wipe gaza and all palestinians from the map.

there's an ETHNICAL CLEANSING AND DISPLACEMENT threatening to happen despite other country leaders avidly going against it. please, please don't ignore this, and don't ignore the fact that he said this right after a CEASEFIRE was announced. even then, gaza keeps being bombed and there's no sign of stopping or good news.

no matter where you live, i BEG YOU, BOYCOTT ANYTHING THAT MAY FUND ISR*EL.

boycott ANY brands that you can find near you. don't buy from them. don't buy from food chains you like if they support isr*el. don't buy from your favorite clothing brand if they support isr*el. don't watch a movie from disn*y, or any other entertainment source because / if they support isr*el.

a guide on how to boycott (almost) full list of brands you should boycott

DON'T STOP SHARING.

SHARE news from RELIABLE SOURCES about the things happening in gaza on your social media, DONATE, go to RALLIES, ATTEND to everything and any kind of event or parade that supports palestine in your city. EDUCATE yourself and the ones around you. DON'T DENY HELP to the ones here on tumblr. DON'T BE AFRAID of showing your support to gaza and palestine. the people there are the ones who should be frightened for their lives.

here is a long list of gazan aid.

additionally :

DAILY CLICK

ESIMS FOR GAZA

PETITION FOR FREE PALESTINE

WPF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN FOOD EMERGENCY

CAREFORGAZA SUPPORTING DISPLACED FAMILIES

SOME GFMS THAT NEED DONATIONS

MORE VETTED GFMS (please check the tumblr tags #vetted gfm #gaza gfm and similar for more gofundmes)

some accounts to follow : @.palestinianyouthmovement @.qudsn @.pslnational @.jewishvoiceforpeace

[mostlysignssomeportents]

No, “convenience” isn’t the problem

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in CHICAGO (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.

Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets, and then raise prices and abuse their workers and suppliers without fear of reprisal. Investors were chasing monopoly power, that is, companies that are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

The tactics that let a few startups into Big Tech are illegal under existing antitrust laws. It's illegal for large corporations to buy up smaller ones before they can grow to challenge their dominance. It's illegal for dominant companies to merge with each other. "Predatory pricing" (selling goods or services below cost to prevent competitors from entering the market, or to drive out existing competitors) is also illegal. It's illegal for a big business to use its power to bargain for preferential discounts from its suppliers. Large companies aren't allowed to collude to fix prices or payments.

But under successive administrations, from Jimmy Carter through to Donald Trump, corporations routinely broke these laws. They explicitly and implicitly colluded to keep those laws from being enforced, driving smaller businesses into the ground. Now, sociopaths are just as capable of starting small companies as they are of running monopolies, but that one store that's run by a colossal asshole isn't the threat to your wellbeing that, say, Walmart or Amazon is.

All of this took place against a backdrop of stagnating wages and skyrocketing housing, health, and education costs. In other words, even as the cost of operating a small business was going up (when Amazon gets a preferential discount from a key supplier, that supplier needs to make up the difference by gouging smaller, weaker retailers), Americans' disposable income was falling.

So long as the capital markets were willing to continue funding loss-making future monopolists, your neighbors were going to make the choice to shop "the wrong way." As small, local businesses lost those customers, the costs they had to charge to make up the difference would go up, making it harder and harder for you to afford to shop "the right way."

In other words: by allowing corporations to flout antimonopoly laws, we set the stage for monopolies. The fault lay with regulators and the corporate leaders and finance barons who captured them – not with "consumers" who made the wrong choices. What's more, as the biggest businesses' monopoly power grew, your ability to choose grew ever narrower: once every mom-and-pop restaurant in your area fires their delivery drivers and switches to Doordash, your choice to order delivery from a place that payrolls its drivers goes away.

Monopolists don't just have the advantage of nearly unlimited access to the capital markets – they also enjoy the easy coordination that comes from participating in a cartel. It's easy for five giant corporations to form conspiracies because five CEOs can fit around a single table, which means that some day, they will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

By contrast, "consumers" are atomized – there are millions of us, we don't know each other, and we struggle to agree on a course of action and stick to it. For "consumers" to make a difference, we have to form institutions, like co-ops or buying clubs, or embark on coordinated campaigns, like boycotts. Both of these tactics have their place, but they are weak when compared to monopoly power.

Luckily, we're not just "consumers." We're also citizens who can exercise political power. That's hard work – but so is organizing a co-op or a boycott. The difference is, when we dog enforcers who wield the power of the state, and line up behind them when they start to do their jobs, we can make deep structural differences that go far beyond anything we can make happen as consumers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

We're not just "consumers" or "citizens" – we're also workers, and when workers come together in unions, they, too, can concentrate the diffuse, atomized power of the individual into a single, powerful entity that can hold the forces of capital in check:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

And all of these things work together; when regulators do their jobs, they protect workers who are unionizing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

And strong labor power can force cartels to abandon their plans to rig the market so that every consumer choice makes them more powerful:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

And when consumers can choose better, local, more ethical businesses at competitive rates, those choices can make a difference:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/10/view-a-sku/

Antimonopoly policy is the foundation for all forms of people-power. The very instant corporations become too big to fail, jail or care is the instant that "voting with your wallet" becomes a waste of time.

Sure, choose that small local grocery, but everything on their shelves is going to come from the consumer packaged-goods duopoly of Procter and Gamble and Unilever. Sure, hunt down that local brand of potato chips that you love instead of P&G or Unilever's brand, but if they become successful, either P&G or Unilever will buy them out, and issue a press release trumpeting the purchase, saying "We bought out this beloved independent brand and added it to our portfolio because we know that consumers value choice."

If you're going to devote yourself to solving the collective action problem to make people-power work against corporations, spend your precious time wisely. As Zephyr Teachout writes in Break 'Em Up, don't miss the protest march outside the Amazon warehouse because you spent two hours driving around looking for an independent stationery so you could buy the markers and cardboard to make your anti-Amazon sign without shopping on Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

When blame corporate power on "laziness," we buy into the corporations' own story about how they came to dominate our lives: we just prefer them. This is how Google explains away its 90% market-share in search: we just chose Google. But we didn't, not really – Google spends tens of billions of dollars every single year buying up the search-box on every website, phone, and operating system:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Blaming "laziness" for corporate dominance also buys into the monopolists' claim that the only way to have convenient, easy-to-use services is to cede power to them. Facebook claims it's literally impossible for you to carry on social relations with the people that matter to you without also letting them spy on you. When we criticize people for wanting to hang out online with the people they love, we send the message that they need to choose loneliness and isolation, or they will be complicit in monopoly.

The problem with Google isn't that it lets you find things. The problem with Facebook isn't that it lets you talk to your friends. The problem with Uber isn't that it gets you from one place to another without having to stand on a corner waving your arm in the air. The problem with Amazon isn't that it makes it easy to locate a wide variety of products. We should stop telling people that they're wrong to want these things, because a) these things are good; and b) these things can be separated from the monopoly power of these corporate bullies:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/divisibility/#technognosticism

Remember the Napster Wars? The music labels had screwed over musicians and fans. 80 percent of all recorded music wasn't offered for sale, and the labels cooked the books to make it effectively impossible for musicians to earn out their advances. Napster didn't solve all of that (though they did offer $15/user/month to the labels for a license to their catalogs), but there were many ways in which it was vastly superior to the system it replaced.

The record labels responded by suing tens of thousands of people, mostly kids, but also dead people and babies and lots of other people. They demanded an end to online anonymity and a system of universal surveillance. They wanted every online space to algorithmically monitor everything a user posted and delete anything that might be a copyright infringement.

These were the problems with the music cartel: they suppressed the availability of music, screwed over musicians, carried on a campaign of indiscriminate legal terror, and lobbied effectively for a system of ubiquitous, far-reaching digital surveillance and control:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/nonbinary-families/#red-envelopes

You know what wasn't a problem with the record labels? The music. The music was fine. Great, even.

But some of the people who were outraged with the labels' outrageous actions decided the problem was the music. Their answer wasn't to merely demand better copyright laws or fairer treatment for musicians, but to demand that music fans stop listening to music from the labels. Somehow, they thought they could build a popular movement that you could only join by swearing off popular music.

That didn't work. It can't work. A popular movement that you can only join by boycotting popular music will always be unpopular. It's bad tactics.

When we blame "laziness" for tech monopolies, we send the message that our friends have to choose between life's joys and comforts, and a fair economic system that doesn't corrupt our politics, screw over workers, and destroy small, local businesses. This isn't true. It's a lie that monopolists tell to justify their abuse. When we repeat it, we do monopolists' work for them – and we chase away the people we need to recruit for the meaningful struggles to build worker power and political power.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/give-me-convenience/#or-give-me-death

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[thethief1996]

Gaza has been completely cut off from the world and from each other. Gazans with Turkish SIM cards have been able to make contact with the outer world and said rescue teams don't know where to go because they don't know where bombings have happened. There's no way to call ambulances. At night, due to the electricity cut, Gazans are left in complete dark only lit up by the airstrikes. They have no way to know what's happening on the next street over. Meanwhile, Israel is publishing AI rendered videos of tunnels under Al-Shifa hospital to manufacture consent for its bombing. Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is housing hundreds of refugees.

This was meant to cut off Palestinians from the world, because we are sympathizing with their first person accounts and it makes Genocide Joe look like a genocide denier when he casts doubt on the death toll (a note on this, Israel has called the Gaza Municipality to threaten them with bombings. They want to erase every record that Palestinians exist in Gaza).

It's not up to us to feel defeated. Israel denies the very existence of Palestinians, and when we turn around and give up hope, we are washing our hands of any work towards liberation and becoming complicit in the zionist narrative. The people of Gaza are alive, the people in the West Bank are alive and the 5.6 million refugees denied the right of return are alive. Mosques are using their minarets to send out help signals. We're being asked to be their voices, so let's be their voices.

Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can't common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the "disengagement of Gaza", you have to learn more.

Read Decolonize Palestine. They have 15 minute reads that concisely explain the occupation (and its colonial roots) and debunk popular myths, including pinkwashing.

Read on Palestine. Here's an amazing masterpost.

Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe).

Keep yourself updated and share Palestinian voices, looking to inform yourself from the sources. Palestinians have asked of us only that we share, tweet and post, over and over. Muna El-Kurd said every tweet is like a treasure to them, because their voices are repressed on social media and even on this very app. Make it your action item to share something about the Palestinian plight everyday. Here are some resources:

Al Jazeera

Anadolu Agency

Mondoweiss

Boycott Divest Sanction Movement

Palestinian Youth Movement

Mohammed El-Kurd (twitter / instagram)

Al-Shabaka (twitter / instagram)

Mariam Barghouti (twitter / instagram)

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Motaz Azaiza (instagram) - reporting directly from Gaza. He's been offline since yesterday. Keep him in your prayers.

Take action. You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don't be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:

Carrefour

HP

Puma

Sabra

Sodastream

Ahava cosmetics

Israeli fruits and vegetables

Push for a cultural boycott - pressure your favorite artist to speak out on Palestine and cancel any upcoming performances on occupied territory (Lorde cancelled her gig in Israel because of this. It works.)

If you can, participate in direct action or donate. Palestine Action works to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the UK and USA, and have successfully shut down one of their firms in London.Some of the activists are going on trial and are calling for mobilizing on court.

Call your representatives. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works, even more if you live in a country that funds genocide.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls, here's a document that autosends emails to your representatives and here's a toolkit by Ceasefire in Gaza NOW!

FOR PEOPLE IN EUROPE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace targeting the European Parliament

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN GERMANY: Here's a toolkit to contact your representatives by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN POLAND: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN DENMARK: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN SWEDEN: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN FRANCE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN THE NETHERLANDS: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN GREECE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN NORWAY: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN ITALY: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN PORTUGAL: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN SPAIN: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN FINLAND: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRIA: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN BELGIUM: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN ROMANIA: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN UKRAINE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA: Here's a toolkit by Stand With Palestine

FOR PEOPLE IN CANADA: Here's a toolkit by Indepent Jewish Voices for Canada

Join a protest. Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Here's a list on tumblr

Global calendar

Another global calendar (go to the instragram of the organizers to confirm your protest)

USA calendar

Australia calendar

There will a National March on Nov 4th in Washington, with the participation of 200+ organizations. If you can, get a group of friends and attend.

Feel free to add more resources. Check the links, there are too many protests and tumblr has a word limit for text posts.

[traegorn]

"Actual leftism involves making pragmatic moves" you say?

"Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory."

-Marx, 1850.

Perhaps gain more than a vibes-based understanding of leftism before speaking on it. PA voter here, voting 3rd party.

Ah, we gotta theory bro here who thinks leftism starts and ends with Marx. Believe it or not, we've learned a few things in the last hundred and seventy five years. When we talk about making pragmatic decisions, we know that incrementalism is the only way progress has been made.

Here's the thing, you can't boycott an election. It's a two party system. EIther Harris or Trump is going to win, and Daddy Revolution ain't coming.

Time to put the book down and take some actions that will make an actual difference, and if Trump gets a second term, we don't be able to do that.

Your vote for a third party will only help put Trump in power, which will set us back another twenty years. There will be two seats up on the supreme court, which would cement the conservative majority. Trump has stated he want to use the US Military to round up his political opposition, and is using Nazi rhetoric about immigrant populations. Trans rights are under attack, and the only thing that's stopped it at the national level is the Republicans not holding the white house. Trump wants to pull aid from Ukraine, which would allow Russia to continue their genocide there.

In 2016 we were fighting for a higher minimum wage, and now we're fighting for basic rights that were destroyed by those four years of Trump.

And, like, the people in Gaza want us to elect Harris, as do other members of that community.

So if you really do claim to care about the things you say you do, you'll do the right thing and vote for Harris.

Because if you have the values you claim you do, I can't think of any reason other than selfish ego why you wouldn't.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #9018:

"Harry Potter is a badly written series anyways" Okay and?? Like it's good that we're able to talk about the flaws in her work more openly, but going on and on about how HP is bad/problematic every time we talk about her anti-trans behaviors is just distracting from the problem.

Like, HP could have been perfectly written. It could have been free from those problematic elements, free from her un-thorough understanding of systematic racism, etc. And guess what? It still wouldn't change the fact that shes a raging TERF who actively donates to anti-trans campaigns. People talk about how bad it is to have your Hogwarts house in your bio or wear HP merch even if you got it years ago or even to pirate the books/movies because "it tells the companies that HP is still profitable" (which I'm pretty sure defeats the purpose of piracy but w/e), wouldn't that stuff still be just as bad even if HP was good?

That's the real concept of "separate the art from the artist". It means recognizing that good people can make bad art, and bad people can make good art. That one's fictional creations does not inherently translate to what they actually believe IRL. Sure, it is debatable that the problematic elements of HP don't represent JK's actual views is debatable, but how good or bad HP is as a story doesn't change how important it is to boycott her products/the franchise/whatever.

[theravenkin]

hey followers and mutuals:

just a reminder that you can help suffering palestinians from afar. it feels hopeless, but there's always something we can do.

you can donate. i've been donating to the palestinian children's relief fund; there's also a chapter on campus at my university. there are other organizations you can donate with, too: unicef and launchgood are good ones too i think. it doesn't have to be a hundred dollars at a time; give whatever you can afford. just remember why you're giving in the first place.

you can boycott. boycott starbucks, boycott mcdonald's, boycott nestle products, coke products, unilever products...there are so many fucking companies with their hands in israel's pockets (and vice versa) right now. even better, the boycotts are working. starbuck's stocks have dropped like crazy in the past couple of weeks; the world is feeling our collective effects. boycotts work if we stick to them. go to bdsmovement.net to learn about more companies you can boycott or pressure.

you can call your representatives. call and email your representatives every single day. you can call the white house. you can tell them that you are a registered voter and that you will not be voting for any candidate who does not demand a ceasefire. tell them that you will refuse to support any elected official who accepts bribes from AIPAC (such as democrats Brian Higgins, Gregory Meeks, Joseph Morelle, and Ritchie Torres of NY and Pete Aguilar, Ami Bera, and Julia Brownley of Cali). flood those motherfuckers with messages. it does more than you think.

you can share. get on social media and find those palestinian journalists and civilians who are sharing in real time scenes from Gaza. it's gruesome and it is horrifying, but people (especially those so removed from it) need to see it to understand. western media can only spread so much propaganda; when you've seen those dying children, people crying and searching through rubble for their families, something is bound to change. go to instagram and follow motaz (@motaz_azaiza), bisan (@wizard_bisan1), plestia (@byplestia), the heroes on the ground in gaza, risking their lives. they start each new post with "i'm still alive", often worrying that they may not be for long. palestinians are begging the rest of the world to listen and to tell their story in case they don't make it. they just want to be remembered. that's the very least we can do.

you can have conversations. talk to your friends, your family. post on social media. address it directly. it will be uncomfortable. you dont have to be aggressive about it; just try to appeal to people's humanity, present them with the facts, and if you must, show them the gruesome footage from gaza or the badly veiled propaganda from israeli officials. do anything you can to get them to care. tell them how they can help. get people talking about it, even just thinking about it.

you can educate yourself. i've learned more about the history of israel and palestine in the last few days than i ever had before. and let me tell you: learning the objective facts of history makes it 200% easier to know who to support.

you can support your muslim, jewish, and arab friends. they all need it right now. check in on them and see how they're doing. let them know that you're trying to do something; even though it feels small, it will mean something to them, i promise. let them know you're there and you support them.

please please share and do whatever you can to help those suffering without food, water, electricity, or medical care right now. don't be afraid of the issue because it's "sensitive" or "controversial". it's uncomfortable to face, but it should be more uncomfortable to allow thousands to die while we do nothing.

free palestine. 🇵🇸

[fromchaostocosmos]

At 33, Mamdani is the youngest candidate by far. A state Assembly member from Queens affiliated with the left-wing Democratic Socialists of America, he also has less experience in elected office than many of his competitors. And in a city that’s home to about 1 million Jews, Mamdani is a longtime critic of Israel who has supported the movement to boycott it.

Some Jewish New Yorkers have sworn him off, because of his progressive politics or his stances on Israel or both. But others might well vote for him, political insiders say.

Why is this worded like this? I find this really disappointing for a Jewish new site to use type of wording because it implies that Jews are anti-progressive when in fact that is not the truth at all at all. And when you break down Jewish voting trends we are both historically and currently very progressive in what we vote we for, in a overwhelming way. And I don't just mean that we vote for Democrats, but that in we vote for progressive policies type of way.

As for the comment by the political insiders well that is just condescending and obnoxious.

“They’re going to vote for Mamdani, the younger people,” Hank Sheinkopf, the New York Democratic strategist, said in an interview. “I think there will likely be a generation split. And that will be shocking to the Jewish leadership.”

I think he is actually wrong. See young non-Jewish kids might vote for him and the few Jewish kids on campuses that are used as objects by groups like JVP and their ilk might vote for him since those are the really loud voices you might think that is how all young Jews feel.

But the reality is most young Jews in New York are not chanting antisemitic slogans and hanging out with JVP and joining the encampments.

No most of them are trying not to be harassed, most of them are dealing with horrific amounts of anxiety caused by antisemitism, most of them dealing with antisemitic on a level they have never had to before.

And so while Mamdani might have claim to have progressive values these young Jews are not going to want to vote in someone who help further embolden the horrific antisemitism that is going.

So this strategist is just plain wrong.

His progressive stances extend into the Middle East, where the Democratic Socialists have long taken a strongly anti-Israel stance. In Albany, he sponsored “Not on Our Dime,” legislation that would prohibit nonprofit organizations from “engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity” — a bill that, some worry, could penalize the charitable activity of many of the city’s Jewish organizations. Mamdani has also expressed support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel — though he hasn’t said whether he’d seek to have New York City participate if he became mayor. In December 2023, he participated in a five-day hunger strike outside the White House to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. More recently, he also spoke out against the detainment by ICE of Columbia University campus protester leader Mahmoud Khalil, and, in April, he appeared on the Twitch show of the left-wing, anti-Zionist streamer Hasan Piker — a vital gateway to younger voters where Piker regularly criticizes Israel. Among Mamdani’s big-name supporters are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among the highest-profile critics of Israel in Congress, and the Sunrise Movement, a climate group that is explicitly anti-Zionist. As Mamdani’s star has risen, scrutiny on him has increased. On Friday morning, Politico reported that Mamdani declined to sign a state Assembly resolution recognizing Holocaust Memorial Day in New York on Jan. 27, and that he also declined to sign a resolution congratulating Israel on its 77th anniversary. (Mamdani signed Holocaust Memorial Day resolutions in 2021 and 2022, and publicly condemned the Holocaust on his social media.) In a video his campaign released that evening, Mamdani accused Politico of “falsely claiming that I refused to condemn the Holocaust,” calling the article a “baseless accusation.”

All of these things will not get Jews to vote for him and they will not young Jews to vote for him because young Jews know who Hasan Piker is and his track record. Young Jews know AOC and her track record. Young Jews know what it means when someone refuses to sign a resolution recognizing Holocaust Memorial Day.

And what it means when that same person had no problem signing the same resolution in prior years, but only has a problem when Israel is the news.

While a student at Bowdoin College, he also co-founded the college’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which he credited as the “entryway” to his political career.

This is very telling and explains a lot due to the history of that group and what it currently has been doing.

Antisemitism is not progressive. Antisemites do not get to be called progressive and their actions do get to be called progressive. He is not progressive. He is antisemite and a hypocrite because what else to call someone who claims to care about bigotry and hate, but is then a bigot and hateful.