Notices by Raccoon 🏳️‍🌈 :unverified: (raccoon@writing.exchange)

@dan613 @mekkaokereke
Agreed. Thriller is honestly pretty meh, outside of being a song to play at Halloween. Billie Jean, like Smooth Criminal and Dirty Diana, is a song to rock out to year round.

@fredbrooker @evan
This is why we need to keep supporting efforts to undermine the party system and First Past The Post.

(Though to be fair, Joe Biden is actually a good president, and the mainstream media is just not reporting on it, so we also need to undermine that, hence why Mastodon/Fedi is a good project)

@fredbrooker @evan
I don't necessarily disagree that we need to see more politicians below retirement age, simply because there's a strong lack of representation for anyone who isn't going to die in the next couple decades, or even has to wait to collect social security instead of having to work, but that's a systemic problem, a demographic problem, not a problem of Joe Biden.

We're asking your issue with Joe Biden himself. Objectively speaking, he's getting the job done.

@fredbrooker @freemo @evan
But Biden isn't senile. There's no evidence of serious mental decline. He's acting as he always has.

Remember, Trump was the source of the idea that Biden is suffering from age-related conditions, repeating a lie until it's forced into discussion is basically his primary tactic in undermining democracy and rule-of-law. The stability-hostile mainstream media repeats it because Biden has been effective and stable, the opposite of Trump.

@freemo @cjd @georgetakei
> he raped a few people
As young as 12, allegedly, but you know, peer pressure can be tough, especially when you're trying to impress a cool guy like Jeffery Epstein.

But yeah, I would agree that the words have been devalued: when evil Nazis show up, everyone is afraid to refer to them as evil Nazis, we have to water down the language to things like "Alt Right" or "MAGA", despite the fact that they are clearly evil, and despite the fact that their "ideas" are Naziism.

@matt
Alright, thanks, I just wanted to make sure that staff was active and assenting before I fully moved over here. I will finish that transfer when I get a chance at the computer...

@matt
Hey, looking to move here from @Raccoon@mastodon.art after they blocked Hachyderm (after Kolektiva and others) because I'd rather be able to reach more people.

Just wanted to make sure I'm in the right place...

I write Violent Dark Fantasy, Political Hot-Takes, and Experimental Fanfiction, some of which is overtly "horrific" and/or "fetishistic", and I monetize my writing. I also work in Artificial Intelligence and post about AI Safety on another account.

Is that kind of stuff OK here?

@matt
To clarify, this is not a rhetorical. I am asking if I should move here with this sort of content, or not. I don't see anything about it, and you don't have official rules, but I want to make sure before I re-establish, so I'm asking...

Is this stuff ok?

@matt
For a site dedicated to writers, Writing.Exchange has a very small character-count, half of what the other mastodon servers I'm on have.

Think we could get the char-count doubled to 1000? Maybe with a little extra for CW space, like 1024?

Remember that the main tool in the Putin #propaganda arsenal is to claim victimhood, to accuse us of "#Russophobia", to claim #NATO exists solely to threaten them, to claim peace will not be possible because we simply hate #Russia, to claim #asylum-seekers fleeing his #draft will not be welcomed with open arms, to claim that Russian "voters" are in solidarity with him to discourage dissent and encourage us to lash out at #Russians when we share a common enemy.

Putin is the enemy of humanity.

Lately I've seen talk about #Russian people, claiming they support the war.

Remember that #Putin's propaganda efforts go both ways. By lying to his people about the war, he manufactures excess consent. By shutting them out of our feeds, we give them less ways to learn the truth of his #genocide in #Ukraine.

By lying about the nature and scope of #AntiWar sentiments, saying it is small protests of the draft, Putin makes dissent seem fringe to everyone, in #Russia and outside.

(contd.)

How did I make the mistake of unfollowing @dgar??

Random #factoid...

#EleanorRoosevelt was in a 40 year lesbian relationship with a journalist, #LorenaHickok, who was apparently her exclusive partner after president #Roosevelt died. Before #FDR was president, this was considered exotic, but not important enough to report. After FDR died, it was considered too scandalous to report, as cold-war era anti-LGBTQ sentiment had begun. It was revealed in letters long after they'd all died.

Just some #Queer #History for y'all.

@evan
There's also #Yanukovych, The former president of Ukraine, and known Putin conspirator, voted out after attempting to join the Russian Union against the will of the people, who has spent the last 10 years attempting to collapse the democracy of Ukraine and working for Putin's interests. His recent sentence, in absentia, for high treason, isn't just necessary for democracy to continue in Ukraine, but for rule of law itself.

@evan
Once again though, these are not prosecutions of political rivals. #Bolsonaro, #Yanukovych, and #Trump are not being prosecuted under the authority of a political rival, nor are they being prosecuted for being a political rival.

They are being prosecuted by independent government officials for undermining rule of law and attempting to overthrow the democracy itself.

@evan
This is highly dependent on what we mean.

Do we mean the government, when semi-controlled by one party, should not prosecute a member of the minority party, ever? (As in, the DOJ under Biden prosecuting Trump)

Or, what we already have in the US, the president can't be involved in the prosecution of his own political rival? (As in, how Biden is completely refused from the Trump prosecution)

I see people trying to use this both ways and getting very confused, but I'm going to agree.

@evan
And to clarify...

President Biden is not prosecuting former President Trump. Anyone who thinks Biden is involved in that prosecution is simply misinformed.

The DOJ, which Biden technically oversees, has independently decided to prosecute Trump, and recruited members of The Republican party to handle the investigation and prosecution. Biden isn't allowed to be part of that.

So no, Biden is NOT "prosecuting his political rival".

@evan
Yes. I actually posted about them.

#Nevalny is clearly being persecuted for his opposition to Putin overthrowing the democracy and becoming a dictator.
His prosecution has no place in a democracy.

#Bolsonaro basically did what Trump did: lost the election on fair terms, then attempted to overthrow the democracy and install himself as a dictator. For a democracy to exist, it must prosecute this kind of behavior.