Shouting "Crowded Theater" In A Fire: Responding to a real emergency with some baffling shit that only serves to delay an actual course of action

"we need revolutionary stories now more than ever" bitch we need an actual revolution. stories that satisfy our urge for justice create an artificial sense of catharsis that placates us and makes us less likely to seek justice in real life

If you are okay with this, if you think this is justified, if you think people living on the street have brought this upon themselves, if you think this is good leadership, you may be able to fool yourself that you care about others but you don’t fool me

the right is not interested in reducing crime. they've been presented with the empirical evidence over and over on effective ways to reduce crime and they don't want to do it. they actively fight against these measures. they want a crackdown that makes them feel good.

*observing a man being choked to death* listen man, I'm with you in your struggle but only if this stays completely peaceful

You have more in common with the average Iranian citizen than you do with the people that run this country

my two big takeaways from yesterday: 1: despite the overall state of America, a lot of people don't suck and are energetically Against All This Shit 2: Cop Worship is so deeply embedded into our political culture that only a hard reboot will change anything

As the old joke goes, an American diplomat and Soviet diplomat met up, and the American says "I really admire your country's propaganda." The Soviet says, "True, it is good, but it is nothing compared to American propaganda." The American, confused, responds "We don't have propaganda."

on January 6th, while attempting to overthrow an election, multiple rioters wore Nazi paraphernalia. they declared their intent to murder elected officials. the right stood steadfastly behind them and are now more powerful than ever. you can stand behind someone waving a Mexican flag.

(Zoomer Tiktok in sepia tone and old timey garb) yo this shirtwaist factory in New York City can produce thousands of women's blouses a day and employs hundreds of fallen women!

There's no such thing as the real world, some immutable set of conditions that we all must contend with, the world is put into motion by choices that we make. If we can't even begin from the basic premise that none should suffer we've already conceded.

I do wish that more stories about the El Salvador prison where Trump disappeared people would note that it’s only different from US prisons in that it’s in another country, not because of the conditions. People are tortured and put in grave danger on American soil every day in our prisons.

After Trump was elected the first time, there was also a lot of talk about making iPhones in the US. At the time, I co-edited the sci-fi outlet Terraform, and asked @timmaughan.bsky.social to imagine what such a future might really look like. With his permission, I'm republishing the story in full:

Crucial thread!

ATTENTION INDIEDEVS Show off your art style

"What if, rather than blaming Palestinians, Arab Americans, and American Muslims, these pundits had seen their treatment—under Biden and for decades before him—as central to the Trump-led repression looming before us?" Noura Erakat on the imperial boomerang www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

This is the endpoint of carceral thinking, which is itself dependent on rugged individualism. Everyone is responsible for themselves, no one is responsible for each other, any harm preventable in hindsight is the fault of the victim. It's the opposite of solidarity.

Dude, what the FUCK is going on in this Netflix OJ Simpson docuseries?

And this doesn’t even mention all the other repulsive nonsense like NFT’s, Metaverse, self driving cars, etc they tried to push on us. What people do want is healthcare, housing, free TIME for themselves, but those things are a direct threat to the power that capital holds over labor.

the AI scam

Sorry if it's cringe or virtue signaling or whatever but unqualified and unconditional love and support to every trans person on earth. You will win and I will help you.

starting a thread of NPC names I invented that made my D&D party so mad they yelled at me

baby’s first polemic! i wrote about why i object to the term “the female gaze” for @mid-theory.bsky.social’s forum on the gaze 👀 mid-theory.com/2025/02/05/a...

headline: Elon Musk has constructed the Howling Engine, which converts the anguished cries of children into cancer democrats: in these dark times, the american people need us to reach across the aisle

Just donated to Trans Lifeline to help our friends and family being persecuted by this new regime. IF you have some $ to spare, please consider doing likewise? Even a few bucks helps. But if not, some real LOUD support from the cis community would also be great. ❤️ link: translifeline.org/donate/

I want to make it clear that Biden’s expansion of the detention facilities in the U.S., as well as Obamas bullshit with Guantanamo, made this possible. When you see so many people yelling that liberal policy leads to fascism, this is what we mean.

there is no "defensible use case" for chatgpt. do your own work and use your own brain or fuck off

😃

This is basically what C-3PO did in the original Star Wars movies and everyone was constantly telling him to shut the fuck up

Hey I just wanna stress something that is always true but in this presidency and political climate is double triple quadruple true: no matter your industry, never ever ever trust HR. Confide in them nothing. You’re not disabled, you’re not trans, whatever. They are beholden to their bosses. Not you.

gosh it's a good thing elon saved free speech from cancel culture

DEM SENATOR: Well there’s always next time 😃 a hearty “good game” to my colleagues across the aisle as they shepherd our great nation in the spirit of collaboration and teamwork! 🦅🫡 REPUBLICAN SENATOR: Does anyone know when it’s technically legal for me to kill this [SLUR NO ONE HAS SAID SINCE 1889]

Literally every company now youtube.com/shorts/hL9pl...

Calling the richest person in the world (who is also a massive racist and far right ideologue)’s attack on the liberal state (worker protections, civil rights, unions, food safety, social security etc) “ambitions to tame Washington’s sprawling bureaucracy” is genuinely evil. We are absolutely cooked

How not to write an “automation” story: interview no workers, no labor leaders, only talk to CEOs and industry flacks, uncritically regurgitate rightwing “labor shortage” myth, casually discuss low wage workers (actual humans, with lives and families) as a mere burden on the corporate bottom line.

Look at what was taken in “sweeps” of homeless encampments. projects.propublica.org/impact-of-ho...

find it very funny to see another round of "if the minorities would be nicer online then dems would listen" when every single minority doing things the 'right' way get mostly 'thanks for your concern' and right wingers trying to straight up kill them and others get "respectable bipartisanship"

We don’t have to imagine the civil rights movement. We had BLM, cop city protests, and pro-Palestine protests and all were put down by police and not defended by any of your pro-police Democratic colleagues.

still so sick of hearing all this "russian agent" shit as if america isn't it's very own oligarch ruled fascist empire who, in the 90s, forcibly turned russia into what it has become via economic sanctions and a soft coup

Notice again articles about deportations never bother interviewing or seeking comment from any impacted party, no migrants or migrant rights groups. The sources here are entirely ICE. DHS, Republicans and Biden officials. The humans on the other end of these policies simply don’t register at all

they’re one of the leading causes of death and the only thing people are willing to do about it for the most part is give away more and more public space and deference to them.

Does that mean I think everyone who drives a car is a nazi? No. But cars make people more isolated and hostile, train them to be fearful and angry towards everyone around them, and premise your own personal convenience over the wellbeing of everyone and everything around you.

one of my central beliefs, really genuinely and sincerely is that cars are fundamentally evil and indoctrinate people into extremely reactionary ideology. I am not joking.