Robi Locksley: “I’m going to tell you why so much of conservative comedy isn’t funny.
“And it has nothing to do with punching down instead of up, or lacking empathy and curiosity. Those are all definite hallmarks of conservative comedy, but they’re not why it’s so unfunny.
“It’s because conservative comedy, for the most part, isn’t created to make anyone laugh. It’s created with the intention of upsetting some stereotypical other. And the idea of that other being upset is what conservatives are laughing at.
“When a conservative tells an anti-trans joke, they’re doing it with the intention of upsetting the version of trans people that lives in their head.
“And when conservatives laugh at that joke, they’re not actually laughing at the joke itself. They’re laughing at the idea of their idea of a trans person being upset because of the joke.
“Conservative comedy is created to cause harm, and that harm is what conservatives find funny.”
Leavitt: “It’s only because of the United States of America that the French aren’t speaking German right now.”
@jackjenkins.me: … just gonna point out she is saying this just 50 yards or so from Lafayette Square, which sits immediately outside the White House and includes a giant statue of General Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the Revolution and a visible reminder of the key role France played in securing US independence.
@birrion: Hating Nazis should be the default position.
@alexdmub: “My favorite college professor once said, ‘There are two normative positions everyone needs to hold: Nazis are bad, and slavery is bad.’ Anyone who doesn’t meet both of these criteria shouldn’t be taken seriously.”
You are allowed to say, at any point, I cannot support this. Even if you did before. Even if you were unsure. You can at any point say, This has gone too far. And while the best time to say that was earlier, the second best time is now.
@aeirlys.bsky.social:Do Not Comply In Advance: bossy, already a cliche, implies permission to comply later. Fuck You, Make Me: leads by example, directs yelling at opposition instead of allies, easy to chant at a protest or put on a banner.
@NoLieWithBTC: The Pentagon is about to brief Elon Musk on the US military’s plan for a potential war with China. This means that Musk now has access to the country’s most important military secrets.
nothanks-anyway: “Look into the history of resistance to fascism, it will make you feel better. Lots of people hid. Lots of people resisted in small ways. I heard of a woman who skipped stitches in the gas masks that the Nazis forced her to sew. You are not guaranteed tomorrow, you could be in a car accident or have an aneurism. And it would be a terrible shame for you to miss out on the good parts of your life, if you’re always waiting for a sword to drop. Panicking over your safety in three months isn’t a good way to actually stay safe. I think humanity lives in cycles, and that we are living in a part of the cycle that requires us to be resilient and adaptable. I look back on history and the examples are there. Nothing is inevitable about this.”
lolitalempicka: My favorite quote by Freud is definitely the one where he’s writing to his fiancée and he’s like, I’m gonna make you eat so much. You are just a little weak baby, and I’m a big cokehead.FOUND IT:Woe to you, my princess, when I come. I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn’t eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body, wrote Sigmund Freud to his future wife, Martha Bernays, on June 20.
tatanarchist: Is anyone else just, like, constantly filled with rage about their position under late capitalism and how we are expected to just keep playing this game that we know will literally kill us, is already killing people all over the world, and yet everyone around us is somehow fine with going about business as usual–pretending we are free by being able to choose between different ways of being exploited? There is nothing more dehumanizing than being forced to partake in a system that is actively detrimental to our survival as human beings, that is so physically, psychologically, and spiritually destructive. And I don’t know how to deal with this anger anymore.
@TetraspaceWest: The average voter doesn’t understand why criminals get trials. Giving innocent people trials, sure, then they get to prove their innocence. But criminals? That just sounds like an expensive process between them and their imprisonment, and gives them a chance to wriggle out of it. You can see the intuitive model of how criminal justice works in shows, where cops identify criminals, and then have to come up with a way to trick the legal system (which wants criminals to sometimes walk free) into imprisoning the criminal.
@beecycling@romancelandia.club: Corporations want you to think ‘red tape’ is a bunch of arbitrary rules to frustrate business. But most of it is regulations that protect people. That make water, food, drugs and buildings safe. That protect you in your workplace and your children in their school. That make sure your home is safe, your car is safe, the plane you take is safe. That’s why when you try to evacuate a burning building, there is a fire exit and it’s not locked.
@ColumbiaBDS: Breaking: Columbia University has just suspended, expelled, and revoked degrees from 22 students for protesting genocide in Palestine.
@BallouxFrancois: A university degree is a qualification, not a morality clause. A University revoking degrees for ‘wrong think’ makes a total mockery of its mission. This is also the most authoritarian ‘right-woke’ nonsense I’ve come across in a while.
“It’s entirely possible to provide food, clothing, shelter, housing, education and medical care for every human being on the planet without fighting a war or ripping anybody off or handing over control of yourself to someone else.”
“God, grant me the patience to work with the unjust systems I cannot change today; the courage to strategically enact progress when I know I can; and the wisdom to know that, despite structural oppression, I still can make a difference. Amen.”
FDR, 1938: " … the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
KenBob Creations: This pathetic moron [RFK Jr.] claims the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by flu vaccines. The first flu vaccine was introduced in the 1930s and they weren’t widely available until the 50s. This is the idiot the Orange Buffoon put in charge of HHS.
@qephatziel: “If you’re hiding a friend in your attic, and his mortal enemy comes to the door and asks if he’s there, the ‘question’ is a lie. They’re really asking ‘can I come in and kill your friend?’ ‘No’ is a completely truthful answer to that question. A lot of life works like this.”
Vomiting is the last true Zen state that a person can experience: a moment of complete worldly abandon and absolute, total thoughtless focus. Shitting is supposed to be that, too, but phones have ruined it. Nobody’s on their phone while they’re puking, and if they are, then God has truly lost.
prokopetz: In my less charitable moments, I can’t help but suspect that the real reason “inspirational” stories about “Disabled Folks Beating the Odds™” are so enormously popular is that they reassure us that “Disabled Folks [who don’t] Beat the Odds™” just aren’t trying hard enough.
I keep hearing people ask, “Is America ready for a woman president? Or a gay president?” Funny thing is, I never heard anyone ask if America was ready for an incompetent, vindictive, mentally unstable, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, traitorous egomaniac … and yet, here we are.
Yung Pueblo: It is normal to feel down, tired, and emotionally exhausted when you are going through a big transition. Especially when you have to let go of something good for the chance at something better. Great changes are not meant to be easy, they arise to inspire your growth.
Nemik, Andor: “So much going wrong, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It’s easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident.”
@katefeetie: Is the Left “obsessed” with gender, sexuality, race, etc., or are they just constantly having to defend people in marginalized groups against a Right wing that’s actually obsessed with gender, sexuality, race, etc.?
Dr. Audrey McMahon, MSF child and adolescent psychiatrist: “The children themselves have begun to question their belonging to humanity. We have to ask ourselves - is this the world we want children to grow in? Is that the world we want for them?”
Terry Pratchett: But … history was full of the bones of good men who’d followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh, yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right where they started, following bad orders.
Laura Jane Grace: Growing up, I never had a role model to show me that you can be trans and live a happy life. I hope that I can be that source of hope for someone out there who’s struggling.
“Bullies aren’t just teenagers in high school. They are also adults in offices with nice titles who thinks they have the right to break the spirits of others so they can feel better about their miserable lives.”
@crispinoblong: If reproduction, heterosexuality, and cis-ness for everyone are so natural, then why do these values have to be violently enforced by the state?