woody

Orphans — the sad but undeniable fact of orphans — highlight the danger and cruel stupidity of ideologies that preach atomized, exclusive responsibility. Those who allow themselves to be trapped within such ideologies wind up confounded by the existence of orphans. Who is responsible for feeding a hungry child? The parents, they say — only and exclusively the parents. They don’t want to hear any of this “it takes a village” business. But all parents are mortal, and some die too soon, and an ideology which teaches that parents are exclusively and solely responsible for children is unable to know what to do when that happens. This is particularly confounding for American ideologies of exclusive responsibility. These American ideologies are obsessed with crude, imaginary binaries — public vs. private, big vs. small, people vs. government — and those binaries are unable to provide anything other than ghastly “solutions” to the problem of orphans. Either/or they say. Either parents are solely and exclusively responsible for feeding their children or the State must be, in some crudely monolithic, centralized sense. Thus the alternative to responsible and capable living parents must be some federal orphanage run by faceless, heartless bureaucrats — some gigantic cinderblock structure, no doubt, with rows of identical bunks, bowls of USDA-surplus gruel, and children clothed in prison-surplus jumpsuits.

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Subsidiarity is really important, whether or not you call it that (via azspot)

Reblogged from azspot | 2 years ago |

Measured by standards of White economic prosperity, Black Americans have faced an economic depression for…several centuries. Why have Black Americans failed to build large political movements in support of demagogues? Imagine a Black demagogue winning primary elections while calling Whites rapists, demanding a ban on White immigration, and excusing his supporters as they beat up White protesters. I ask you to seriously imagine it, because it’s a revealing counterfactual. Would the media chalk it up to “economic anxiety” and “controversial” talk? The media framing of Trump’s racism as a “tell it like it is brashness” reflects our basic familiarity and comfort with White racism. Trump doesn’t necessarily strike fear into the heart of the White mainstream because it is not, after all, his target. And we who are White know this. We are in the majority. If Trump becomes president, we know we will not be in the firing line. Trump’s supporters love him because he validates their Whiteness. Ironically, his detractors unconsciously draw on that same Whiteness as we fail to denounce him with the moral urgency his rise demands.

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Donald Trump and the Crisis of White Identity (via azspot)

Reblogged from azspot | 2 years ago |

8bitfuture:

Video: Next generation Atlas robot.
Go home robot, you’re drunk.

Reblogged from 8bitfuture | 2 years ago |

Hello again, Tumblr

I’m not dead. I just spend more time on reddit and the Guardian. How have you been?

3 years ago |

pol102:

globalvoices:
“The directive is a product of a shallow and fascistic mindset that leads to radicalization in the society. It is also an attempt at institutionalizing mass clampdown of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and assembly. It is unfortunate and condemnable that critical thinking is being banned in universities, instead of being encouraged and inculcated among the youth of Pakistan.”
— Pakistan Warns Universities Not to Question Government Following Model UN Controversy Over Israeli Booth
This is troubling.

Reblogged from pol102 | 4 years ago |

In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a “Socialist” Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by “force and violence.” Anything he advocates by way of significant reform will be called “Communist” and will of necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.’s and “Liberals” are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly.

—
W.E.B. DuBois (via azspot)

Reblogged from azspot | 4 years ago |

tastefullyoffensive:

[wal9000]

brb testing this idea out

(Source: tastefullyoffensive)

Reblogged from sunlightandshadows | 4 years ago |

(Source: olivegarden)

Reblogged from sunlightandshadows | 4 years ago |

|DopeEnough ♛

(Source: gifmk7)

Reblogged from consciousvacuum | 4 years ago |

Social networking is the closest thing we’ve invented to a “snow crash” in the Neal Stephenson sense. A snow crash was something you downloaded off Stephenson’s 80s version of an advanced net, and viewing it took down not only your computer terminal, but your mind. It was a virus that affected both the OS and the CNS. Social networking software latches onto the fact that humans are incredibly specialized to pay attention to each other. We get nearly every need we have as an organism out of a web of attention created with other humans. Our ideas of nightmares often involve being trapped far from other people. Solitary confinement is one of the most torturous punishments we’ve ever invented. Exile has often been considered worse than death. We have evolved specialized brain functions for facial processing and language acquisition. We are defined, explicitly and implicitly, in terms of each other. We are fathers and sisters and employees and citizens and members. This effect is biological and cultural, and they reinforce each other fiercely. The hyper-sociality of humanity is both genetic and epigenetic, and it runs through everything we do.

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What Does Ethical Social Networking Software Look Like? (via azspot)

Reblogged from azspot | 4 years ago |

ello

Been really impressed with ello, even if Jeff H. and I together had the exact same idea. I had a fully functioning PHP version of this website, down to the white/black minimalist color scheme.

also I have extra invites if anyone wants one.

4 years ago |

Reblogged from girlscout | 4 years ago |

I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

pol102:

Via kohenari:
Here’s the central point of an op-ed in the Washington Post:
Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?
Got that? If you don’t want anything bad to happen to you, just do anything and everything the police tell you to do, immediately, and don’t ask any questions. Otherwise, you’re inviting the police to shoot you, tase you, pepper-spray you, beat you, and/or throw you to the ground.
2014 America, ladies and gentlemen. Land of the free, home of the brave.
Sigh.

(Source: kohenari)

Reblogged from pol102 | 4 years ago |

shortformblog:

thesoftghetto:
Protesters upset about the smearing of Mike Brown converged at CNN headquarters.
“When it started raining and lightning and the crowd didn’t disperse, my energy level shot up,” said Kwame Thompson, an attorney in Atlanta and St. Louis. “It was a peaceful demonstration that was against police brutality and in support of Mike Brown and his family.”

Reblogged from shortformblog | 4 years ago |

atane:

Pictured above is 8 year veteran NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. He is the Staten Island police officer that choked Eric Garner on the street.
Now I know some of you fine white folks and a few non-Black POC (I see y’all too) are saying that this was an isolated incident. I guess they skipped the beginning of the video where Eric Garner said he was tired of the police harassing him all the time and they should leave him alone. That’s the selective hearing people in denial tend to have. Someone also told me to “stop playing the race card”. Another said that Eric Garner died because he was heavy. Being choked from behind, forcibly taken to the ground, having 5 officers pounce on top of you making you unable to breathe and having your head slammed on the concrete sidewalk as you plead that you can’t breathe had nothing to do with it all. They will overlook all that. If there is one thing I know, it’s that no matter how clear cut something is, a white person somewhere will excuse and rationalize it if the victim is Black.
Back to officer Daniel Pantaleo. The NY Daily News is now reporting that he has a history of complaints from Black folks (big surprise).
Via the NY Daily News
Pantaleo has been accused of false arrest and violating police procedures in two lawsuits, court records show. In one, two African-American plaintiffs won $15,000 apiece after claiming they’d been falsely arrested on Staten Island in 2012 and forced to publicly strip so cops could search them. All charges against them were dropped.
Plaintiff Darren Collins, 46, told The News on Friday night he was too frightened to talk.
“I’m scared of what (the cops) may do to me … I was harassed” after the arrest, he said.
The other lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn in February, alleged Pantaleo trumped up charges to arrest the plaintiff, who was wrongly jailed for a day.
This is what they do. That forced stripping thing is very common. They even did it to a 14 year old Black boy. They saw him throwing eggs on halloween, so what did they do? They took him in their patrol car and drove him out to an isolated marsh area on the Island, then told him to strip and proceeded to beat him up to their satisfaction and then abandoned him naked out there. The kid’s name is Rayshawn Moreno. You can read about his case here.
Another thing they love to do when patting down Black men is grabbing and squeezing your privates. I want people to understand that it’s not isolated and it’s not out of the blue. All this talk about the nice police officers you know is meaningless when the system they serve targets Black people. What good is individual niceness when systemic brutality is the rule? When racist policies like stop and frisk were enacted, will officer friendly prevent that reality or will he follow the command? Their colleagues are setting people up, bringing up trumped up charges, dishing out beatings, harassment etc. Where is officer friendly taking a stand against all this? White people never consider that officer friendly is often a nightmare in other communities. The violation of rights that will never happen in white communities is standard operating procedure by the NYPD in Black communities.
In addition, most victims won’t sue or file reports because they’ve come to expect it and are sadly used to ill treatment by the police. Are they supposed to file a report against the police with the police? Does that make sense to you? It’s the police harassing them. Some of the victims might also have rap sheets. No one is going to listen to a Black person with a record about police brutality. The victims always end up being crucified, not their attackers.
Going beyond that, some will even think they deserve the abuse. We live in a society that perversely relishes the ill treatment of felons. Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona is seen as a hero by white conservatives, and not the depraved and sadistic man he is. He keeps being voted in because the white conservative populace he serves is equally depraved and sadistic. In the US, prison rape is seen as something to laugh about. “Don’t drop the soap” or “Say hi to Bubba” is what people say with a smile on their face, as if this is a joking matter. People wish for the sexual violation and abuse of prisoners. They laugh about prisoners being raped, as if being sexually violated is part of the punishment in a prison sentence. Being in prison is the punishment. Seemingly well adjusted people will joke about it.
This is a mentality we as a society have to exorcise. A good start is reading Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow”. We need to recognize everyone’s humanity. Only a twisted and depraved person enjoys someone being abused and violated, especially when that person is already in prison!
The humanity of Black life is so devalued that a Black man dying has to be captured on video before society at large momentarily pays attention, and even then the excuses will still come. If Eric Garner’s last moments weren’t captured on video, ask yourselves if this case would have received the same level of attention it did. Just ponder it. Let us also note that Mr. Garner has been in the system before (mostly minor offenses for weed and untaxed cigarettes). If there was no video, the NYPD would have used that to paint a negative picture of him, and people would use that preconceived and prejudiced picture to think that he “deserved it” and probably did something wrong, when it’s clear from the video that he did not. This is anti-Blackness and the criminality that is equated with Blackness. This type of behavior exhibited by the NYPD towards Eric Garner does not happen in white society. It is reserved for Black people.
Now officer Pantaleo has been stripped of his weapon and badge and has been put on modified duty (whatever that means). Don’t take that as some sort of victory. That is just how it goes. At most Pantaleo will lose his job and maybe even a civil suit from Eric Garner’s family, but he’s probably not going to prison for this. They will find a way for him not to be culpable. The wheels of his exoneration are already in motion. See via Gothamist below.
It’s unclear whether Pantaleo will be criminally charged, and Eugene O’Donnell, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the Post, “If you’re the defense counsel in this case, this is very good news, because it’s consistent with what appears to be the case — that they didn’t mean to hurt him”
However, the News reports, “Another source said the likely cause of death will be a heart attack, although other actions — including the illegal takedown of Garner — ‘will probably go down as contributing factors.’”
Chokeholds are prohibited by the NYPD. Another video shows that Garner was left handcuffed for minutes while apparently not breathing.
All this is standard operating procedure for them. Not just the NYPD, but for police across the US. BART police officer Johannes Mehserle who shot a handcuffed Oscar Grant in the back as he lay on the ground only served 11 months in prison for the murder.

Reblogged from politicore | 4 years ago |