Tootfinder

TL;DR: what if instead of denying the harms of fascism, we denied its suppressive threats of punishment
Many of us have really sharpened our denial skills since the advent of the ongoing pandemic (perhaps you even hesitated at the word "ongoing" there and thought "maybe I won't read this one, it seems like it'll be tiresome"). I don't say this as a preface to a fiery condemnation or a plea to "sanity" or a bunch of evidence of how bad things are, because I too have honed my denial skills in these recent years, and I feel like talking about that development.
Denial comes in many forms, including strategic information avoidance ("I don't have time to look that up right now", "I keep forgetting to look into that", "well this author made a tiny mistake, so I'll click away and read something else", "I'm so tired of hearing about this, let me scroll farther", etc.) strategic dismissal ("look, there's a bit of uncertainty here, I should ignore this", "this doesn't line up perfectly with my anecdotal experience, it must be completely wrong", etc.) and strategic forgetting ("I don't remember what that one study said exactly; it was painful to think about", "I forgot exactly what my friend was saying when we got into that argument", etc.). It's in fact a kind of skill that you can get better at, along with the complementary skill of compartmentalization. It can of course be incredibly harmful, and a huge genre of fables exists precisely to highlight its harms, but it also has some short-term psychological benefits, chiefly in the form of muting anxiety. This is not an endorsement of denial (the harms can be catastrophic), but I want to acknowledge that there *are* short-term benefits. Via compartmentalization, it's even possible to be honest with ourselves about some of our own denials without giving them up immediately.
But as I said earlier, I'm not here to talk you out of your denials. Instead, given that we are so good at denial now, I'm here to ask you to be strategic about it. In particular, we live in a world awash with propaganda/advertising that serves both political and commercial ends. Why not use some of our denial skills to counteract that?
For example, I know quite a few people in complete denial of our current political situation, but those who aren't (including myself) often express consternation about just how many people in the country are supporting literal fascism. Of course, logically that appearance of widespread support is going to be partly a lie, given how much our public media is beholden to the fascists or outright in their side. Finding better facts on the true level of support is hard, but in the meantime, why not be in denial about the "fact" that Trump has widespread popular support?
To give another example: advertisers constantly barrage us with messages about our bodies and weight, trying to keep us insecure (and thus in the mood to spend money to "fix" the problem). For sure cutting through that bullshit by reading about body positivity etc. is a better solution, but in the meantime, why not be in denial about there being anything wrong with your body?
This kind of intentional denial certainly has its own risks (our bodies do actually need regular maintenance, for example, so complete denial on that front is risky) but there's definitely a whole lot of misinformation out there that it would be better to ignore. To the extent such denial expands to a more general denial of underlying problems, this idea of intentional denial is probably just bad. But I sure wish that in a world where people (including myself) routinely deny significant widespread dangers like COVID-19's long-term risks or the ongoing harms of escalating fascism, they'd at least also deny some of the propaganda keeping them unhappy and passive. Instead of being in denial about US-run concentration camps, why not be in denial that the state will be able to punish you for resisting them?

Much as white southerners acted like the election of a black man as mayor would be the death of the city as they had long known it,
white New Yorkers are now acting like the election of Mamdani will be the death of NYC.
Some of it is religious bigotry,
some of it is class panic,
but all of it is as unfounded as the reaction to the first black mayors a half century ago.

"Too Young to Die"
As the seemingly endless NYC mayoral campaign enters its final weeks, the howls of the Democratic establishment in the city are only getting louder. They've really convinced themselves that the election of a (gasp) Democratic Socialist will mean the absolute destruction of the city. Cops will quit! Billionaires will flee!

The ideas that finally bubbled up to the surface in The Point of No Return last night have been festering in the back of my brain for months. Because, although it's a bit inchoate, it's only saying out loud what most of us already know.
The job now is no longer to turn the ship around. We don't have the wheel, and those who do will not listen.
The task now is to build lifeboats. To build resilient spaces in which fragments of humanity can survive.

The Point of No Return
I can't stop climate change by myself. I can't create a sustainable future for my village by myself. To do either of these things, everyone else needs to work together. But badgering people, being frustrated with people, being angry with people (and yes, I am angry — very angry — with people I know, and like, and respect, very much) doesn't motivate them to work together. My very frustration, my very sense of urgency, makes me a liability. I should stop.

"the drops in sales volumes are largely the results of French and EU car manufacturer’s own strategic choice to prioritise large, more profitable models [.] Despite lower sales volumes, their operating margins have increased. This premiumisation trend is not new, but it has accelerated in recent years, to the point of backfiring, with manufacturers now facing a sharp drop in sales and factories standing idle.
Rolling back the EU’s 2035 targets won’t solve the problem."

Maintaining the 2035 target: Ensuring a viable future for Europe’s automotive industry - I4CE
In the run up to the publication of the European Commission’s proposals for an automotive package on 10 December, car manufactures have stepped up the calls to relax the CO2 standards and the 2035 phase-out of new combustion-engine vehicles by including some flexibilities. They highlight the challenges the industry has faced in recent years, growing competitive pressure from China, and insufficient demand for electric vehicles in Europe as reasons for the sector needing more time for the tra…

Final day of having the carpenter here. A lot of sawing. Built the dresser desk drawers, cut all the perspex into shape for the windowed doors that fit together now but still need gluing.
The dresser drawers are just about big enough to put the hairdryer in, so that's nice.
Still quite a bit for the other workers to do. Detailing for panels on the doors, gluing and hanging the window doors, handles and painting and touch ups. They reckon another 5 days work still, only two of which can be next week because I have stuff to do.
Must be weird being a builder and finishing your part of the job then never seeing it completed. He's done all this great work on it but will only see the completed work if he has to come back for something else. And he doesn't want to come back coz he's fed up of driving across London 😆

Almost reached the top!
(A wonderfully wild path along the cliff edge and glorious evening light on the way to Teufelstättkopf, with a view of the Wetterstein massif and Zugspitze in the distance...)
#FootpathFriday #LandscapePhotography

There is a cult of action at the heart of tech.
This cult says: don't mind that the systems are broken. Don't try and fix them. You can just do things, using you ubermensch will.
AI has plugged into this cult to promise 10x-ing your action. But instead your will becomes subservient to the machine.
Doing what is easiest is only going to make things worse. The only helpful course of action is to fix the system.

"Just doing things" is not a path to value
Action for the sake of action feels good, but the path of least resistance leads you to surrender your own agency.

Seeing the built-in drink holder for the first time...

The blueprint – How Lewis Powell’s confidential memo became the secret manifesto for corporate takeover.

The players – From Joseph Coors to Roger Ailes to Leonard Leo—and how they built a machine to dominate politics.

The turning point – The Citizens United case and how a speculative lawsuit became the legal scaffolding for unlimited dark money.

The threat today – Why disclosure laws are crumbling, how dark money came to dictate elections, and how the John…

MASTER PLAN: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America
A new book adapted from the award-winning podcast.

Within minutes of federal agents with ICE, the DEA and FBI arriving at the workplace,
a rapid response network mobilized to confront the agents carrying out an immigration raid at the Bro-Tex distribution center.
As community members rallied to halt the raid,
federal agents cordoned off the area and began trying to clear protesters.
Agents used pepper balls, OC canisters and pepper spray on the crowd
as they tried to clear a path for a convoy of their vehicles, s…

Insight from the Bro-Tex Raid: What Activists Saw While Confronting ICE - UNICORN RIOT
Unicorn Riot heard from two locals who mobilized in response to an immigration raid in St. Paul on the morning of Nov. 18.