Notices by margot (emaytch@mastodon.social), page 2

probably the most difficult thing about reading this book and excerpting passages is how many i have to leave out simply bc they are so long i could never do them proper justice in this format

“It is generally the case that people are most zealously motivated by the worst plausible thing that could happen to them. For some, the worst plausible thing might be the ending of their bloodline in a missile strike. Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed. For others, the worst plausible thing is being yelled at.”

“This is the world we've created, a world in which one privileged sliver consumes, insatiable, and the best everyone else can hope for is to not be consumed. It is not without reason that the most powerful nations on earth won't intervene to stop a genocide but will happily bomb one of the poorest countries on the planet to keep a shipping lane open.”

“No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. (…) Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.”

“Suddenly the application stalls. For months and months everyone waits. Finally, the hotel manager has to find someone else for the job. There’s the same vague undercurrent of pride in my father’s voice as he tells me what happened, how apologetic the manager sounded. A wrong had been done but at least everyone acknowledged it was not rational.”

"Whatever mainstream Western liberalism is-- and I have no useful definition of it beyond something at its core transactional, centered on the magnanimous, enlightened image of the self and the dissonant belief that empathizing with the plight of the faraway oppressed is compatible with benefiting from the systems that oppress them-- it subscribes to this calculus."

“It is a reminder that, in times like these, one remarkable difference between the modern Western conservative and their liberal counterpart is that the former will gleefully sign their name on the side of the bomb while the latter will just sheepishly initial it.”

(cont’d) “Against such hollow gesturing, even the most unhinged Republican will always be able to say: Look, these people have no interest in your suffering, only in empty gestures; I'll do away with gestures, and make the right people suffer. It is an astoundingly effective technique, but would not be if the leadership of the Democratic Party had come to realize that sloganeering without concrete action means nothing.”

“There is something stomach-churning about watching a parade of Biden administration press secretaries offer insincere expressions of concern for Palestinians as the same administration bankrolls their butcher.

It is a reminder that the Democratic Party's relationship with progressivism so often ends at the lawn sign: (…) Hang a rainbow flag one month a year from some White House window. Most important, remind everyone at every turn of how much worse the alternative would be.”

this wouldn’t fit in a single post

"The very history of the word "genocide," meant as a mechanic of forewarning rather than some after-the-fact resolution, is littered with instances of the world's most powerful governments going to whatever lengths they can to avoid its usage, because usage is attached to obligation. It was never intended to be enough to simply call something genocide: one is required to act."

i have started reading Omar El Akkad's "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This"

look, all i’m saying is that trump masks are readily available and there’s evidence that corvids remember faces and attack people who abuse them, and that this would be pretty difficult to defend against

@wxcafe god, just say you want to be a sub already

i believe in 100% open borders except for ppl who think the US should become a monarchic dynasty. like come on our main thing is how much we hate kings

i cannot tell you how much i loathe how every website has a little popup chatbot that pretends to be a person now. your chatbot is not a person. stop pretending they are

seattle is the only city i've ever lived in where 'first sunset after 6pm' is practically an observed holiday

it will never not bug me when i dl or copy a photo from discord to post in a different chat and discord tells me its too big

hey can someone hook me up with some good fashion fedi. missing out on that since i get rid of all the other social medias

what the fuck https://www.theverge.com/news/608858/google-calendar-missing-events-holidays