@hex@kolektiva.social2025-10-16 08:24:42
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.)
@aral@mastodon.ar.al2025-08-16 08:12:07
Yeah, I knew some lovely people who worked at Twitter too. And did you know they once had unfettered API access and anyone could create their own client? Some of us loved that so much we built things that helped legitimise them as an open platform. And then one day they just switched that off.
Legitimacy is gold to venture-capital-funded startups. They need people with it to convince everyday folks that this latest iteration of the same old rug pull is different. Until they’ve grown s…
@aardrian@toot.cafe2025-09-17 17:53:00
Four old posts updated this week:
For Google’s AI Edge Gallery:
https://adrianroselli.com/2020/03/i-dont-care-what-google-or-apple-or-whomever-did.html#:~:text=Go…
@cowboys@darktundra.xyz2025-10-16 17:55:50
Why the Cowboys' matchup with Commanders is more important than you think https://insidethestar.com/why-the-cowboys-matchup-with-commanders-is-more-important-than-you-think
@servelan@newsie.social2025-09-17 03:26:52
"There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech," Bondi told Stephen Miller’s wife Katie during an episode of her podcast. "We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
A Not-So Normal Tuesday - Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/a-not-so-normal-tuesday
@mia@hcommons.social2025-10-16 14:23:51
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social2025-09-18 02:09:40
If you read what Jimmy Kimmel actually said...this is free speech in any democracy in the western world, his comments weren't even hateful or inciting. The USA is transforming into a fascist state before our eyes.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/17/charlie-kirk-jimm…
@rasterweb@mastodon.social2025-09-16 15:27:49
Week Without Driving
> "If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day."
Monday, September 29 – Sunday, October 5, 2025
@muz4now@mastodon.world2025-10-17 12:28:01
I’m a musician, so I can’t stand Spotify. However, I know that a bunch of you reading this (and even a few of my fans) still use it. You even pay them a monthly fee so their billionaires can keep getting richer while musicians get nothing.
So here’s what I’m asking: if you haven’t completely chucked Spot E. Fie out the window as we all should, please listen to this.
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social2025-08-17 14:21:10
Read all about Chatcontrol and why we should resist it. This sentence is extremely scary.... "Specifically, this AI will have to be built by WhatsApp/Meta so they can monitor us on behalf of the EU" 😱
https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/chatcontrol-in-brief/
