Actually, I do want to come back to masculinity under patriarchy and whiteness under white supremacy because I think it's worth talking more about. The "man" under patriarchy (at least "Western" patriarchy) is represented as power and independence. The man needs nothing and thus owes nothing to anyone. The man controls and is not controlled, which is intimately related to independence as dependence can make someone vulnerable to control. The image of "man" projects power and invulnerability. At the same time "man" is a bumbling fool who can't be held accountable for his inability to control his sexual urges. He must be fed and cared for, as though another child. His worst behaviors must be dismissed with phrases such as "boys will be boys" and "locker room talk." The absurdity of the concept of human "independence" is impossible to understate.
Even if you go all Ted Kaczynski, you have still been raised and taught. This is, perhaps, why it is so much more useful to think in terms of obligations than rights. Rights can be claimed and protected with violence alone, but obligations reveal the true interdependence that sustains us. A "man" may assert his rights. Yet, on some level, we all know that the "man" of patriarchy acts as a child who is not mature enough to recognize his obligations.
White violence and white fragility reflect the same dichotomy. "The master race" somehow always needs brown folks to make all their shit and do all the reproductive labor for them. For those who fully embrace whiteness, the "safe space" is a joke. DEI shows weakness. Yet, when presented with an honest history adults become children who are incapable of differentiating between criticism and simple facts. *They* become the ones who must be kept safe. The expectation to be responsible for one's own words and actions, one of the very core definitions of being an adult, is far too much to expect. Their guilt needs room, needs tending, needs caring. White people cannot simply "grow the fuck up" or, as they may say of slavery, "fucking get over it."
And again, interestingly, it is *rights* that they reference: "Mah Freeze PEACH!" I find it hard to distinguish between such and my own child's assertion that anything she doesn't like is "not fair!" No, these assertions fail to recognize the fundamental fabric of adult society: the obligations we hold to each other.
At the intersection of all privilege is the sovereign, the ultimate god-man-baby. Again, referencing the essay (https://hexmhell.writeas.com/observations-on-domination-and-trump)
> This is where it becomes important to consider the ideology behind the sovereign ritual. Participation within the sovereign ritual denotes to the participants elements of the sovereign. That is, all agents of the sovereign are, essentially, micro dictators. By carrying out the will of the sovereign, these micro dictators can, by extension, act outside of the law.
While law enforcement is the ultimate representative of sovereign violence, privileges allow a gradated approximation of the sovereign. Those who are "closer" in privilege to the sovereign may, for example, be permitted to carry out violence against those who are father away. The gradation of privilege turns the whole society, except for the least privileged, into a cult that protects the privilege system on behalf of the most privileged. (And immediately Malcolm X pops to mind as having already talked about part of this relationship in 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf7rsCAfQCo.)
"This is the season of the spirit, the lesson if you hear it, is make it last all year."
#Christmas #HappyHolidays
🪮 New light-powered gears fit inside a strand of hair
#optics
the Irish word for diarrhea is buinneach so that's at least kinda cute. like im shitting out little bunny poops
there's also sciodar which is marked as "informal" and that's good, im glad I can casually refer to my buinneach with the bros
Moody Urbanity - Old & New IV 🔆
情绪化城市 - 新与旧 IV 🔆
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite
The weekend is coming in about 45 min from now, and I am thinking to change distro, just for the fun of it.
I been using PopOs for the last few years. I love the cosmic desktop but I feel in my left pinky toe that I need a change. Even just for a lil while till the stable release will come out of pop on rust…. Maybe, arch? Fedora? Windows! No! I apologise, that went too far.
#linux
phpc.social is now running Mastodon 4.5.0, released a little over three days ago. Thanks for your patience on this upgrade, which went a fair bit smoother thn the last non-patch-release bump. Have fun quoting folks! #mastoadmin
Strategic Experimentation with Private Payoffs
J\'er\^ome Renault, Eilon Solan, Nicolas Vieille
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06180 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.06180 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.06180
arXiv:2512.06180v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We study a strategic experimentation game with exponential bandits, in which experiment outcomes are private. The equilibrium amount of experimentation is always higher than in the benchmark case where experiment outcomes are publicly observed. In addition, for pure equilibria, the equilibrium amount of experimentation is at least socially optimal, and possibly higher. We provide a tight bound on the degree of over-experimentation. The analysis rests on a new form of encouragement effect, according to which a player may hide the absence of a success to encourage future experimentation by the other player, which incentivizes current experimentation.
toXiv_bot_toot
I recently bought a couple of shares in Nvidia. The way I see it, either: 1. The bubble finally pops like I've been waiting for, or 2. I make a bit of cash off the back of this grift.
If #1 happens I'll be happy, if #2 happens at least I get a consolation prize.