Tootfinder

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MiddayShow
Bartees Strange:
🎵 Mustang
#BarteesStrange
https://barteesstrange.bandcamp.com/track/mustang
https://open.spotify.com/track/3J3hhvyT39MvDPJHMLpNqA

US political contradictions; knowledge systems
As Trump at least partially succeeds in constructing an alternate reality for his most ardent followers, it's tempting to think of his dogma as false, in contrast to some imagined "truth" which his non-followers are smart enough to believe in. But a more nuanced view of knowledge would admit that different groups of people have different shared truths, constituting different knowledge systems which each deviate from what's objectively measurable in different ways, and in fact they each accept different standards of what is objective, so there's not really a single "ground truth" we can even compare to to determine which of these knowledge systems is "more correct" (similar problems arise even if we only care about "more useful").
To make this more concrete, we can see that e.g., competing quantum physics theories, or likewise competing religious beliefs, have no reasonable basis on which to judge between them, either in terms of "truth" or "utility." So the Trump-dogma knowledge system, although bad, morally repugnant, etc., can't so easily be dismissed as "false" in my view. "Distorted" or "malignant" or "evil" or "contradictory" are better monikers, in my opinion.
But what I'm even more interested in thinking about is: in what ways does the current American liberal "common sense" knowledge system already bear the scars of past fascist lies & contradictions? I can think of a few:
"Columbus was an explorer."
This is "factually accurate" in the same way some of Trump's propaganda is, but it's also a cruel distortion of "Columbus was a child murderer," and it's a misrepresentation that serves an evil purpose, yet which is widely taught in elementary schools today.
Another: "dropping atomic bombs on civilians in Japan was necessary to end WWII."
Perhaps in the future we'll have "family separation & the 2025 ICE crackdowns were necessary to end the immigration crisis," although I dearly hope not.
"Reparations for slavery aren't reasonable," is yet another...
I'll close this rambling with a question: what other fascist lies have you noticed that are normalized in America right now from past Trump-like leaders (or even from less overtly fascist institutions)?

And in spite of massive amount of money, Microsoft Teams is still the biggest heap of junk I'm required to use by my employer.
I have resorted to using @… for communication with the team...
https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/114636321276154824
Ruth_Mottram - The big winnners so far under Trump are
Microsoft, Meta, Netflix, Palantir, Tencent, Broadcom and Philip Morris according to analysis by @financialtimes - In tempted to add Burns' ever relevant epigram: "What a parcel o' rogues in a nation"
Triumphing under Trump: the corporate winners and losers  - https://on.ft.com/43N2RCb

If you're planning to go someplace, plan to go some other place first. That way when you're late getting ready you can say, "Oh, we're late. Let's just skip the first place," and you arrive at the place you really want to go to right on time.
#TINOPOTGS

Once he had one leg in the White House and the nation trembled under his
roars. Now he is a tinpot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to the
forlorn pastors who belabor halfwits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind
the railroad yards."
-- H. L. Mencken, writing of William Jennings Bryan,
counsel for the supporters of Tennessee's anti-evolution
law at the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in 1925.

The big winnners so far under Trump are
Microsoft, Meta, Netflix, Palantir, Tencent, Broadcom and Philip Morris according to analysis by @… - I'm tempted to add Burns' ever relevant epigram: "What a parcel o' rogues in a nation"
Triumphing under Trump: the corporate winners and losers - https://on.ft.com/43N2RCb

I’m very tempted to speculate that this report is banned in corporate C-suite and HR:
Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried?
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/12/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried
What do you think?🤔

uspolitics, trump
I keep seeing smart people writing stuff like
> [the US] kept peace through strength balanced with restraint, and wielded influence through culture, values, and diplomacy
I understand that #Trump is terrible and some people feel tempted to idealize what they had before him, but we should be more discerning, or otherwise it becomes impossible to understand how this happened in the first place.
Let's start with some questions:
- peace where? and for who? was it true peace, or "Pax Romana"?
- are we going to take seriously that statement on "restraint"? after all the lies, internal witch hunting, sanctions, coups, wars, invasions, genocides, and last but not least, 2 unnecessary nuclear strikes on Japan?
Now, on "culture, values, and diplomacy". Sure. Why not. Not everything was going to be bad, right?
But the thing is, abusive husbands aren't bad all the time either. From time to time they know how to be sweet and seem to care: one present here, flowers the next day, a little bit of gaslighting, and fake apologies after that "accidental" slap.
Given enough time (if the wife is still alive), at some point the victim decides to leave, and then all hell breaks loose. Trump is the manifestation of that moment. He does not represent a change in #USA's nature, but a hidden side that was "always" there, just waiting to play its role.
Others believe this is because #US citizens have been intentionally dumbed down by a combination of propaganda and a disfunctional education system, and I'm sure it's partly true... But let's see what many of their most brilliant and educated citizens are choosing to do with their lives today: https://sfstandard.com/2025/03/12/stanford-students-want-in-on-the-military-tech-gold-rush/
So, all I'm asking is: please drop the act. It was always a clusterfuck.

(2014) Watch the 'Fed Up' documentary #documentary

Fed Up
Fed Up blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and weight loss, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history.

Smart Glasses mit Android XR, Meta Ray-Ban – wo bleibt Apple? | TNBT-Podcast
Themen: Neuigkeiten bei Android XR, Hands-on/Heads-on mit Metas Ray-Ban und Gerüchte über Apples Smart Glasses – plus Wünsche für visionOS 3.