Congresswoman Ilhan Omarhas warned that Donald Trump’s repeated personal attacks and dehumanising rhetoric
are fuelling a climate of political violence that could have dangerous consequences.
Speaking days after the president called for her to be thrown out of the country,
Omar said Trump’s incendiary language reaches “the worst humans possible” and encourages them to act.
“We’ve had people incarcerated for threatening to kill me,”
“We have people that are being…
As if we needed more proof that "free speech" is dead:
"Disney pulls ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indefinitely following Kirk comments"
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/17/disney-jimmy-kimmel-live-kirk-00570355
A UK family and a US family sue Meta for the alleged wrongful deaths of their teenage sons, who died by suicide after falling victim to sextortion on Instagram (Libby Brooks/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/d
Big thanks to the Fediverse Friends who wished me well or even just commiserated at the pain I've been going through.
I am feeling a lot better today, but I don't want to forget that pain, because I need to be mindful of the pain people are in every day. It's a struggle, it's a battle, and I wish we could all live pain-free lives.
I have the distinct impression that we could use most American "sci-fi" TV series (which seem to have a kink for post-apocalyptical scenographies) as a diagnostic tool for the autism spectrum.
For a moment, let's leave aside the tons of right-wing propaganda "hidden" in plain sight, and their excessive reliance on boring & worn out tropes (religious & cultish bullshit, irrational lack of communication & excess of anti-social behaviour, all vs all, ultra-low-iq characters*, psychotic & irrationally treacherous characters*, ultra-inconsistent character development used to justify "unexpected" plot twists, rampant anti-intellectualism...).
What could be used as a diagnosis tool is the incredible amount of strong inconsistencies that we can find in them**. It throws me out of the story every single time; and I suspect that it takes a certain kind of "uncommon personality" to feel that way about it, because otherwise these series wouldn't be so popular without real widespread criticism beyond cliches like "too slow", "it loses steam towards the end of the season", etc.
Many of those plots start in a gold mine of potentially powerful ideas... yet they consistently provide us with dirt & clay instead, while side-lining the "good stuff" as if it was too complicated for the populace.
Do you feel strongly about it? Do you feel like you can't verbalize it without being criticised as "too negative", or "too picky", or an "unbearable snob"? Do you wonder why it seems like nobody around shares your discomfort with these stories?
* : I feel this is a bit like the chicken & egg problem. Has the media conditioned part of American society to behave like dumb psychopaths as if it was something "natural", or is the media reflecting what was already there? Also, could we use other societies as models for these stories... just for a change? Please?
** : Just a tiny example: a "brilliant" engineer who builds a bridge out of fence parts and who doesn't bother to perform the most basic tests before trying it in a real setting and suffer the consequences: the bridge failing and her falling into the void. Bonus points for anyone who knows what I'm talking about.
I’ve spoken with my boss (he’s a bit of a dickhead but his heart’s in the right place) and confirmed that I won’t be getting fired for opposing Israel’s ongoing genocide and supporting the human rights of the Palestinian people to live with freedom and dignity like the rest of us but not everyone is as lucky.
Re: discourse about #FediSoWhite
I'm a white man. Was on Twitter throughout #BLM and gained an awful lot of free education from Black folks on there. That was the start of me consciously following diverse folks which is a strategy that's improved my life immensely.
Back on Twitter before the Muskening, there was a lot of diversity. Black Twitter was a thing, and not just first-world (anyone else remember "O jewa ke eng?"). When I went looking for people to follow to diversify my feed, I found them in abundance.
That's why it's so clearly false to me when people claim that the fediverse is secretly diverse, and why anyone making that claim sounds suspect to me. Sure there are a ton of great Black and other POC folks you can find on here, if you look hard. But it's nowhere near the levels of diversity and community that were on Twitter. Which you would know had you been following those people before, so now I have to assume you weren't, and wonder why you feel qualified to make statements about diversity even though you haven't made an effort to engage with diverse voices before?
Also, if you were actually following some of the excellent POC voices on here, you'd know that across different servers and interest groups, almost every group has had a discussion of #FediSoWhite at some point. If all the Black people you follow are independently talking about the lack of community and diversity here, you've either got to believe them or start putting on your clown makeup, and the later is absolutely a choice.
Wow. RIP Ace. One of the first to inspire me to play.
Still remember flipping through the TV channels randomly and stumbling on a KISS concert, being blown away by the guitar bursting into flames during a solo and rising out of his hands into the rafters.
#kiss #AceFrehley
Questions remain about how leaders at the Los Angeles fire department responded to a fire that leveled entire communities,
and who within the agency knew about concerns the fire could still pose a threat.
A former LA city councilor says the aftermath and recovery effort should serve as a Pearl Harbor moment for the city,
which should never again be in a position with flames encroaching on all sides.
The LA Times has published a series of bombshell revelationsabout th…