“Enter Donald J. Trump, two-bit conman, television huckster, a denizen of gaudy casinos and smoke-filled back rooms, who conned himself into the biggest job of all. He is our guide to a new realm you won’t find on any map: a world of his own creation, where words like ‘truth’ and ‘lie’ no longer have meaning, where man’s darkest instincts are given license, and where things like human decency and tolerance are relics of a bygone day. Case in point: Mr. Donald Trump, a man with one foot in his mouth and the other… in the Twilight Zone.” 🔗
Why Gregory Peck Wore His Wife’s Ring on a Chain: After his wife Greta passed away in 2008, Gregory Peck was often seen wearing her wedding ring ona thin gold chain around his neck. “It keeps her close,” he once said. They were married for 48 years. Even in his final roles, he wore it under his costume. For Peck, love didn’t fade with loss—it became quieter, but no less constant. Friends said he touched the ring every morning, like a ritual. 🔗
Carlee Gomes, The Puritanical Eye: Hyper-Mediation, Sex on Film, and the Disavowal of Desire:
“The desire to exclusively engage with media and art made by ‘unproblematic’ artists is a direct result of Americans viewing media consumption as an inherently political act be- cause that is the supreme promise of Western prosperity and the religion of consumeri- sm, and because it’s seemingly all that’s left. We’ve been stripped and socialized out of any real political energy and agency. Our ability to consume is the only thing remaining that’s ‘ours’ in late capitalism, and as a result it’s become a stand-in for (or perhaps the sole defining quality of) every aspect of being alive today – consuming is activism, it’s love, it’s thinking, it’s sex, it’s fill in the blank. When the act of consuming is all you have left and indeed the only thing society tells you is valuable and meaningful, the act must necessarily be a moral one, which is why people send themselves down manic spirals deciding what, who is ‘problematic’ or not, because for us the stakes are that high now. 🔗
ErikUden@mastodon.de: Once libraries are nonexistent any modern fascist movement wouldn’t even have to burn books, but flick one switch and they’d be remotely deleted from your Amazon Kindle or similar digital “library”. Capitalists are already building the infrastructure to do this through DRM, so stop believing tech is apolitical - the defunding of libraries and paywalling of information are all part of this. 🔗
“Federal prosecutors said at trial that former Nevada state lawmaker Michele Fiore, 54, had raised more than $70,000 for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer who was fatally shot in 2014 in the line of duty, but had instead spent some of it on cosmetic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding. Trump just pardoned her.” 🔗
Sean West: A Friend Was Offered a Price Menu to Meet Trump and Team. They were holding a conference in Florida and the Trump team proactively reached out, asking if they wanted to make a donation in order to meet the President at Mar-a-Lago.
- $1mn secured a one hour meeting with President Trump
- $750K secured a meeting with VP Vance
- $500K secured a meeting with First Buddy Musk
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social: They’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for Donald Trump did real, generations-long damage to the United States and the west in exchange for essentially nothing of value. 🔗
carlsmagana: Nah, I want the Muppets to have special guest star Daniel Craig (like normal) but he gets killed right before the show backstage THEN world renowned detective Benoit Blanc shows up to solve the murder of famous actor Daniel Craig. 🔗
existennialmemes: This society could be so, so cool if everything wasn’t run by avaricious, bloodthirsty tyrants. Our technological capacity is at such grotesque odds with the average person’s daily experience. We could eliminate so much suffering, if only our resources were being equitably distributed. But instead robots are plagiarizing artists and writing term papers with imaginary sources. Meanwhile someone who wanted to be a glassblower is having a nervous breakdown because their kitchen is dirty and they’re sick of eating ramen in between fourteen hour shifts at their Real™ Job (Retail Mandatory Standing.) We’re just doing all of this so fucking wrong, all because some guys who are pathologically rich decided this was the only way to have a society. 🔗
knottahooker: I’d like to live through a week that’s not a whole new verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 🔗
It’s been very hard for me lately. I’m not in danger of self-harm, but I’ve been haunted this month by the second anniversary of a friend’s suicide. I also am frankly feeling gender dysphoria pretty strongly. It’s just a general weariness. 🔗