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?

A few photos from today's ride into the Tosa Village. The Menomonee River overflowed and this was a pretty bad scene a few days ago. It's looking better but there's a good amount of damage.
#tosa #wauwatosa

Good morning everyone! We are starting into our second week of vacation. We'll be seeing some friends.
Meanwhile, enjoy this photo from a bike and hike we did last year.
#hiking #wandern #mountains

You mean it fed directly into this promotional video. Having taken part as an invited expert on privacy and tech at the EU Parliament, I’ve seen firsthand how the points we raised at our meeting were entirely absent from the plenary session that followed and how the politicians went with their usual talking points and policies.
It’s good optics, though, right?
You want us to believe this? Publish actual changes in policy and link them to the contents of this meeting.

It's not often genuinely new #glaciology papers get into real @… journal - but in this one it's a welcome technial advance - IMHO we've put far too much confidence in models and satellite data - these are important but they *MUST* be supplemented with in-situ data.
This is a really smart idea. Looking forward to diving into it.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09347-7

Only to split it into smaller chunks, the reason: Pulling 8 #USB #cables one by one through one of those #LEGO

How does the #brain transfer #MotorSkills between hands?
This study reveals that transfer relies on re-expressing the neural patterns established during initial learning in distributed higher-order brain areas,
offering new insights into learning

Transfer of motor learning is associated with patterns of activity in the default mode network
How does the brain transfer motor skills between hands? This study reveals that transfer relies on re-expressing the neural patterns established during initial learning in distributed higher-order brain areas, offering new insights into learning generalization.

The rain has topped up the pool pond! 🙏 🌧️
It is overflowing at the overflow and only at the overflow, that I can tell :). I powered the pump up from its 40% (34W) to 75% (120W) to get things moving in the filter while we have the rain.
I might as well use it to allow it to clean the gunk out of the system naturally!
Still feels like I got rushed into filling it, but it is really satisfying nonetheless to see it functioning as designed in my head! lol
#poolpond #diy #backyardproject

"Lots and lots of things scare me but you just get on with it. Fright can transform into petrol, you just have to use it to your advantage."
—Judi Dench
#acting #coaching #inspiration

Imagine if we had investments like this into clean energy, infrastructure like fast trains or into healthcare.
Instead it’s all set on fire for bullshit autocomplete.