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

We need to start contemplating this. It’s not easy to picture; if it is easy, you’re doing it wrong. But we need to do it. We need to imagine this while we still have the capacity to imagine.
We need to make sure that there is, somewhere in this authoritarian noise, a red line whose crossing actually matters because we •make• it matter.
If enough people know where their red line is, and if enough people are prepared to take action if the regime crosses it, well, •that• helps Minnesota — and the whole world.
/end

Well, yesterday I did take my recycling in to the coup. It was a good ride, but it was tough — occasional flurries of snow, and stiff wind. Today I'm very tired, and it's 3.7° *inside* the house. So I think I'm going to light the stove, which I normally don't do in daytime because I can't really afford the wood, and have an easy day.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #Roadhouse
The Animals:
🎵 Take It Easy
#TheAnimals
https://disquestchoc.bandcamp.com/track/take-it-easy
https://open.spotify.com/track/1M7LecLdQzwbDzCA3fHg3s

End fracking and LNG expansion
Beyond a petition — become part of a community for change.
The B.C. government needs to end fracking and liquified natural gas (LNG) expansion now. We know that consistent, concerted pressure from as many people as possible moves decision-makers, and our aim is to make it easy for tens of thousands of people to raise their voices together.
Sign the petition and join the collective people-powered movement to end fracking and LNG in B.C.

End fracking and LNG expansion | Wilderness Committee
Sign our petition and call on B.C. to protect communities from climate disasters by ending fracking in the province!

"LLMs work (somewhat) for coding computer programs. As everyone knows this is the highest form of human endeavor—unsurpassed by any other lesser activity such as project management, design, art or writing. Therefore LLMs will excel in every other field."
I really believe this is the crux understanding why so many programmers (including good programmers) fall for it in a way that can only be described as a cult, were any criticism is not only not allowed but reflexively is seen as either laughable or belligerent.
Anyway, LLMs are good* at writing code because writing code is easy and highly repetitive and doesn't actually take a lot of skill; unless it's novel ways to write code which LLMs cannot do.
Taking this as a sign LLMs can do other "lesser" activities is saying a lot about the hubris of programmers and not a lot of the capabilities of LLMs.
*for some definitions of "good"

I am still adjusting my software related goal setting to the AI age. I had a list of things I wanted to do for 2026 for my trading management site. I thought it was an easy list, not a stretch by any imagination, but still beefy enough that I figured it will be nice to take care of over the course of this year. Well, all the items on the list are done.... #ai

As salty as I am about it, there's also another way to think about this. For anyone who still has connections to folks on the right (which is perhaps unlikely for anyone on this server, I digress), the cult that has consumed them thrives on isolation and grievance.
The words "you were right" have the potential to cut through the programming and open up an opportunity for reconnection. The modern conspiratorial cult of the Right has been built partially around people who were told they were wrong or were crazy. In the vast majority of cases, they were wrong and even when they were right they completely misunderstood why, but we'll skip that for now. Liberals making fun of them (even the times when they definitely earned it) has pushed them further and further into their ideological hole.
The thing about those words, "you were right," in this context is that the way they offer reconnection also requires them to take one little step of betraying their ideology to accept them. So they must choose between maintaining allegiance to a pedophile or finally getting to feel superior after years of living in an illusion of persecution.
Under the ideology of the Right, admitting one is wrong is a weakness. It is admitting defeat. They have to "own the libs" by saying things, things that they know aren't true, in order to feel dominant. But these things are often so absurd that they end up being made fun of, feeling even more weak and pathetic, reinforcing their fear and alienation.
Offering what they're looking for can offer a way out, but only if they're willing to start to recognize the thing they've supported for what it is.
And they were right about some things. They were right that Bill Gates was a terrible person. I've had plenty of liberals defend him based on his philanthropy washing, but he's awful and always has been. The Epstein links make that blatant. They intuitively recognized him and didn't trust him, even if they were wildly off base about *how and why* he shouldn't be trusted... Even if their correct mistrust was leveraged into one of the most destructive conspiracy theories ever (vaccine denial and COVID vaccine avoidance).
They were right about Bill Clinton. He was always shady as fuck. Sure, the people who attacked him at the time turned out to be even more shady but that's not the point right now. He was connected to Epstein and that was always creepy as fuck.
And the Epstein thing was an open secret that liberals ignored for a long time. It was seen as some weird thing that right wing nutjobs believed about the Clintons. But it was true. Not all of it, and there has always been an antisemitic element to the right wing interpretation or Epstein stuff, but his whole pedophile conspiracy was always kind of real.
The whole "Illuminati"/deep state thing is a vast oversimplification, an attempt to make comprehensible an incredibly complex set of interlocking and emergent behaviors. But Epstein did very much want to remake the world, to create a new world order, and he absolutely played a part in it.
The Right wing nutjobs talked about global authoritarianism, Blackhawks flying over American cities, masked men with guns disarming and executing legal gun owners in the streets. That's all happening right now.
The "FEMA concentration camps" are not actually that far off. ICE and FEMA are sister agencies, both under DHS. I'd be more than happy to call that one "close enough" in order to hear some MAGA admit that ICE is, in fact, building concentration camps.
There was always a huge millennialist element to these things. They tended to be connected to "the antichrist." It was absurd, especially for me as someone who no longer identifies as a Christian. But I'll even acquiess that to a degree. The "the number of the Beast" is 666. That's just the sum of the Hebrew spelling of "Nero." Revelations focuses a lot on Nero coming back to life after his death. His death that involved a head wound, thus the line from Revelation 13:3:
> And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
The parallels between Trump and Nero are easy to draw, and Trump's ear wound feels pretty on-the-nose for this. I don't believe in "prophecy" in this way. I think that there are patterns, and useful patterns can become encoded in beleif systems. But I will, again, happily call this one "close enough" for anyone on that side willing to also acknowledge it. I'm happy to meet on that common ground, because anyone who accepts it must recognize that their duty is to fight against it.
A lot of these correct nuggets are embedded in a framework of religious extremism and antisemitism. The vast majority of the beliefs holding these together are wildly wrong and incredibly toxic. But by giving some room to feel validated, listened to, understood, can give some room to admit things that were wrong.
Cult de-programming starts with an opening. People have to talk through their own thoughts, hear their own inconsistencies. Guiding questions can help them untangle these things for themselves. And it all starts by having enough room to feel safe, to not feel cornered, to not feel stupid. Admitting mistakes means being vulnerable, and the MAGA cult is built on fear. It's built on exploiting vulnerability and locking it away.
De-programming takes a long time. It's not easy. It takes patience. But every person who comes out does so with a powerful perspective, a deep understanding, that can be turned back against it. The best people at getting people out of cults are former members. Some of the most dedicated antifa are former fascists who understood their mistakes and dedicate their lives to fixing them.

The abominations by #ICE continue to increase. #CHN_Action has simple letter to Congress asking them not provide more funding to ICE and DHS until they take responsibility for their abusive behavior - and change their approach. It's easy to send to your Congresspeople; it's easy to customize. You …

Demand Congress stop funding DHS’ and ICE’s inhumane and lethal tactics amidst ongoing investigations.
Reckless disregard for human life is rampant in the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and their neighbors and supporters. From Chicago to California, immigrants have been killed during ICE raids and traffic stops. And there have been at least eleven non-fatal shootings by ICE and Border Patrol agents in places around the country, including another two victims in Portland, Oregon.   The killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis is not an isolated tragedy, bu…

The abominations by #ICE continue to increase. #CHN_Action has simple letter to Congress asking them not provide more funding to ICE and DHS until they take responsibility for their abusive behavior - and change their approach. It's easy to send to your Congresspeople; it's easy to customize. You …

Demand Congress stop funding DHS’ and ICE’s inhumane and lethal tactics amidst ongoing investigations.
Reckless disregard for human life is rampant in the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and their neighbors and supporters. From Chicago to California, immigrants have been killed during ICE raids and traffic stops. And there have been at least eleven non-fatal shootings by ICE and Border Patrol agents in places around the country, including another two victims in Portland, Oregon.   The killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis is not an isolated tragedy, bu…

Majority of the people I see recommending moving to Matrix are running on the main home server.
Which is fine, it's the easy path to get started but be aware that roots your identity in that homeserver.
My _personal_ take is that I consider public community chat to be ephemeral, which is why I've never been particularly concerned about using Discord.
Other than encouraging use of a forum for long form & persistent writing that can be discovered / linked over tim…

I keep seeing Americans who want to do something about the state of our #politics, but feel like no action they can take will do enough to fix things, so it’s not worth trying.
It’s easy to feel nihilistic. So I’d like to propose an alternative - a 10% improvement approach to political change, of sorts.
It comes from my #PTSD treatment: the idea that no one approach, skill, or intervention can make the #trauma just go away instantaneously. So instead, us humans are left with 10% solutions - things that help a little bit, for some amount of time.
The key to healing is to develop an ongoing set of multiple different solutions that you rotate through based on what feels feasible on any given day / moment. Each one helps a bit. 10%, 5%, 1%. But eventually, you get to making big changes that felt impossible at the start.
The same works for political change and activism. Sure, going to any one protest, or calling your representative, or boycotting a brand, or changing one person’s mind, or donating to one fundraiser won’t fix the entire broken political regime. But it will help A LITTLE.
And if a lot of us continue to find ways to do things that help a little, it will end up doing a lot more.
A movement starts with a thousand little steps that don’t look like much on their own.
Take that little step. Then another.
#USPol #activism #socialChange

The existence of Israel is a manifestation of European antisemitism, both historically justifying the project of Zionism and European governments continuing to fund Israel instead of addressing the core role of antisemitism in maintaining (at least) the conservative elements of the neoliberal order.
If antisemitism props up Israel, then a core part of dismantling Israel (and thus saving the lives of Palestinians) is addressing European antisemitism. There are Israeli Jews who would leave if they felt safe to do so. There are Jews demanding Israel be armed, because they don't feel safe anywhere else.
Protest, boycott, take whatever action you feel is appropriate. There is a limit to your ability to convince governments to stop funding genocide, but you can learn about antisemitism and you can work to fight it, especially within "The Left." You can learn to distinguish between legitimate critiques of Israel, and antisemitic ones, and you can stand and call out antisemitic ones.
Honestly, this is some of the easy work that I think a lot of people don't consider even doing, don't even realize it is a thing that can be done.
I'm talking to Israeli folks who identify as being on the Left. It's hard because they've been through a lot of propaganda. Israel is a cult that terrorizes its members. This is important work that can have a huge impact, because it focuses on dismantling the networks of support that reinforce what's happening now.
Meanwhile, I still run into wild things like "Rothschild" conspiracy theories among people who identify with the idea of supporting Palestinians.
Not only can you support the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people while opposing antisemitism, but you must actually do both in order to do either. They are exactly the same fight, and anything short of both is thrashing against oneself.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PositiveVibrations
Hopeton Lewis:
🎵 Take It Easy
#HopetonLewis
https://dubstorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/hopeton-lewis-take-it-easy-with-the-rock-steady-beat
https://open.spotify.com/track/5VOrFGEXCJMT5aiDL5Iiaa

#resist #protest #humor #FelonInChief