s'pose i best post this, you know what the media is like
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/01/23/3499514/irgc-10-hostile-spy-agencies-involved-in-recent-terrorist-riots-in-iran
Lately, I’ve been feeling burned out by how much people in my life assume things about me and my beliefs, so let's talk about it.
I spend some parts (not all) of my evenings online, usually from around 20:00 to 22:00 or sometimes even until midnight (00:00), not because I am consumed by politics but because I like to learn and reflect on how society could be better. I enjoy exploring ideas about justice, solidarity, and human rights in a way that feels meaningful to me. For me, spe…
Fair Vote Canada is pleased to announce the Teacher Resources section of our website. The first teacher resource has now been added.
A Fair Vote? Rights, Responsibilities, and Decision-Making in a Democracy is an exciting new resource for Grade 5 Social Studies teachers, which was developed by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto and Fair Vote Canada.
Scary Events (A Poem in Six Parts) by Brendan Reynolds
"The following poem was composed entirely using material found within Missing 411: Western U.S. and Canada by David Paulides and is dedicated to poet and cookbook author Ronald Johnson."
https://keep-planning.net/text/014
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.
The January wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles forced the state to spend billions in disaster aid
-- and delay tax filings for LA residents.
The cost of Medi-Cal,
the state-run health insurance program for low-income residents, ballooned to $6 billion more than anticipated.
Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff policies rocked the stock market,
which California heavily relies on for tax revenue.
And the state lodged a flurry of lawsuits again…
Over nearly nine months,
the lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to slash foreign aid funding
has ricocheted around the federal judiciary
but still has not reached a final resolution.
It has been reviewed by 21 judges,
spawned thousands of pages of filings
and lumbered forward
even after the administration dissolved the U.S. Agency for International Development,
the government office responsible for disbursing much of the contested funding.