Tootfinder

This is as good a time as any for a thought experiment.
You're in Nazi Germany. You know about the camps, you know what they do, you see the ash fall, you smell it. People who resist alone are killed, some are sent to the camps too. You're afraid to even talk to people about it for fear that they'll turn you in.
You think back to when the camps were being built. You had all the warning signs, but you didn't know how to interpret them. You could believe it would happen. You thought you'd have a chance to vote him out. You thought there might be another way. You thought maybe things would turn out differently if you just sat tight, kept your head down, kept yourself safe.
You see a family being dragged from their home. You know they will be killed. You want to fight, not just for them but for yourself. You opposed Hitler, and at any point you know you could be on the list... Even if you do nothing.
You wish you could rise up, shoot the SS, open the gates, fight it all. You know you aren't alone, but you don't know how to connect with the people who want the same thing.
Using the knowledge we have now, what should you have done in the preceding months and years to connect, to build a community that would open up all paths of resistance?
There were people who resisted. We know it wasn't enough.
Gun laws in Nazi Germany were very similar to US laws in that Nazis were largely free to own guns and everyone else was not. Unlike the US, where "others" have historically controlled using the fear that they might be randomly executed, Germany did codify it. Red flag laws were one more step in the US towards that codification, and there will be more.
When Nazis were taking away those guns, the social networks didn't exist to make resistance possible for most folks. But some Jews were able to resist.
It wasn't the guns that made the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising possible, though they definitely helped. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was made possible by labor organizing in the precessing years.
If there were more uprisings like that, the Holocaust could have been stopped if not prevented. Social networks make resistance possible. Guns are only useful tools to resist authoritarianism *after* you build a community able to support that resistance, and they are only one of many tools made useful by that community.
Getting guns is easy, and not always necessary. Building community is hard. Guns won't keep you safe. Community will.
Single acts of resistance may slow the machine down, but to actually bring down a monster you need to be able to attack more than once. You need a society of resistance. If you are afraid now, build that. Talk to people while it's still safe to do so. Ask them where their red line is. Talk to neighbors. Figure out your network.
Take the steps you need now to keep your neighbors safe, to keep yourself safe.
#USPol

"no elegant solution to FizzBuzz exists"
https://www.gayle.com/blog/2015/5/31/the-problem-with-the-fizzbuzz-problem
…

"Liam, who had recently turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents ... in the region over the last two weeks, the district said...
An agent had taken Liam out of the car, led the boy to his front door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in, “in order to see if anyone else was home – essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, the superintendent said in a statement.
"

@… if you say I’m the same as someone who has directly endangered my loved ones, who I paid a significant social cost for calling out when nobody else was, I’m not going to be calm and rational about it! I’m okay with looking like an asshole about it!

Raiders Predicted to Reunite Fernando Mendoza With 15-TD WR https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/elijah-sarratt-mock-draft-fernando-mendoza/

Awake At 3am
This podcast is for the mums wide awake at 3am, replaying the day, doubting themselves, and wondering if anyone else feels this way...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/awake-at-3am/

What's that? I've published a new article on my website?
All other writing has been on hold until I finished it, but my data review of 2025 is finally done 😅 🎉
I have absolutely no idea if it will be of interest to anyone else, but I love these posts. And this year's was using **even more** of my own, home-grown data, captured directly via the very site it now lives on 😁
#IndieWeb #YearInReview #DigitalHomesteading