Notices by David Benfell, Ph.D. (benfell@infosec.exchange)

Silly me, I thought John Fetterman’s constituency is in Pennsylvania and that this explained his rabid support for Israel and enabling of white Christian nationalism.[1] After all, he lives in Braddock, a Pittsburgh suburb. There are a lot of synagogues in Pittsburgh, especially in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where it is not at all uncommon to see orthodox Jews walking down the streets. But oh, how I was wrong.

His constituency is in Israel and with what sure looks like a scam mental health charity in New York City.[2]
[1] Abby Vesoulis, “How John Fetterman Became ‘Trump’s Favorite Democrat,” Mother Jones, July/August 2025, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/05/john-fetterman-donald-trump-favorite-democrat/; see also David Benfell, “John Fetterman's forked tongue,” Not Housebroken, May 24, 2025, https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/john-fettermans-forked-tongue
[2] Georgia Gee, “Fetterman Went to Israel on NYC Mental Health Nonprofit’s Dime,” Intercept, May 28, 2025, https://theintercept.com/2025/05/28/john-fetterman-israel-paid-trip-nonprofit/

Apparently the Russians fail to understand that Donald Trump is an irresponsible person and will not accept the obligations anyone expects him to fulfill.

From: @ZhiZhu
https://newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/113469889523407978

@QasimRashid You're trying to make sense of the senseless. I studied conservatism for my dissertation, so trust me: This is a hopeless endeavor.

@Polychrome @mikemccaffrey If the Gorn are indeed obligate carnivores, then we cannot fault them for it. The critique applies to humans as omnivores with the ability to choose.

In this, it is evil because we are moral agents who have chosen evil. If the Gorn lack this choice, we would not understand them as choosing and they are therefore blameless.

All that said, I was not clear that the Gorn are obligate carnivores. Is that so?

@mikemccaffrey @Polychrome I agree that's a good point.

On the second part of this, as a vegan, I sense an inconsistency.

We say the Gorn (who were portrayed every bit as harshly in the original series) are "objectively evil" for viewing other life as food and incubators. Good. This is fine.

But the reason this is evil is that we view this other life as sentient and entitled to autonomy. The Borg would be evil for the same reason: They assimilate without consent, depriving assimulants of autonomy. Furthermore, these assimulants are utterly expendable, exploited as soldiers.

@lethargilistic @anarchismhub

The cops weren't the target. A credit union was. And cops are already paranoid, with the consequence that they too often use excessive force.

So you've pretty near precisely failed to answer the question.

@anarchismhub

So what, exactly, does this accomplish besides:

1) making perpetrators feel good;
2) reinforcing the association of #anarchism with chaos and disorder.

What?

New instance, new #introduction.

I see this instance has a *nice* *long* character limit for posts.

I have a Ph.D. in Human Science (2016, Saybrook University), which is about the experience of being human in social contexts. It is the mother of the social sciences but is now, at least in the English speaking world, and at least as far as I can tell, a dead field.

I studied #conservatism for my #dissertation. And yes, the #Democrats are far too #conservative for me.

Once upon a time, a very, very long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a computer programmer. It was the wrong career choice.

I am a #vegan #LibertarianSocialist (recovering #anarchist) mostly from the #SanFrancisco #BayArea in #California, presently residing in #Pittsburgh, #Pennsylvania, hoping to move to #erie

In #kyriarchy, I mostly focus on #classism and #ageism, but since arriving in Pittsburgh, have been confronted with blatant #racism (and yes, many white people here do see it). But #SocialJustice has to be for everybody; to focus on any one identity, to the exclusion of others, is nothing more than to elevate that identity over that of the predominantly wealthy white males who are now in charge.

I oppose all #imperialism and #SettlerColonialism, not just U.S. and NATO imperialism and settler-colonialism. Having lived on the underbelly of #capitalism most of my life, I am #anticapitalist and ferociously opposed to #neoliberalism. I oppose physical and structural violence.

Human beings have #HumanRights. These rights are not constrained by their governments' failures to ratify certain human rights treaties.

#Borders exist to mark off territory controlled by elites whose competition accounts for most if not all wars and to deny human beings on the "wrong" side of an arbitrary line rights and privileges available on the "right" side. This cannot be justified ethically. I am hostile to #xenophobia

Finally, I am pessimistic about the future of humanity. #COVID19 and the #ClimateCrisis demonstrate our unfitness for survival.

This is an addition to my self-introduction which is now pinned to my profile..

As COVID-19 (notice the intentional omission of a hashtag) seems to be on yet another upswing, it's worth repeating that we had an opportunity to contain and defeat this virus. In our haste to resume #capitalism, we blew off that opportunity.

We have collectively decided that the great god #capitalism demands and should receive human sacrifice. We have also collectively decided that COVID-19 is "over." Those are not my decisions and not decisions I'd have made. But we made them.

People will die who didn't need to die. People will suffer who didn't need to suffer. Long COVID will affect more people.

I understand all that. And I have kept up on the vaccinations. But I am not going back to wearing a mask except in places that specifically require them. I am not participating in or tolerating the hype over the resurgence. Because we decided we were going back to "normal" despite ample evidence to the contrary. Evidence simply does not matter and, on COVID-19, this is nearly as true for the political left as it is the right.

Humanity's response to COVID-19 demonstrates our unfitness for survival, right along with our response to the #ClimateCrisis. And frankly, in view of how this society has treated me my entire life, I welcome human extinction.

I've been reflecting a great deal lately on how this social world has treated me, bullying me since birth, denying me, even in nearly 23 years of looking, even the slightest semblance of a real job, leaving me stuck enduring Uber's abuse.

Human extinction cannot come soon enough.

From: @itsveganjim
https://mastodon.social/@itsveganjim/111598106974069192

The last paragraph startles me. The judge clearly fails to appreciate that Rudy Giuliani's defamation of the election workers did real and significant damage. The very point of defamation laws is to halt such damage.

I hate to say it, but a judge who fails like this will likely fail to assess appropriate damages and penalties even if he recognized that Giuliani's utterances met the legal definition.

From: @GottaLaff
https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/111568910020667169

@Jorsh @Miriamm @angiebaby When I was an undergraduate, I recognized that many of the articles I was finding in literature searches supported leftist policies. And so I tried, really hard, to find articles supported right wing views.

They weren't there. But there are nuances.

If you lean right, how interested will you be in social issues? Your way of knowing will be some way, somehow ideological. You might be satisfied with "God's plan" (even if the entirety of the Old Testament stands in refutation). You might be satisfied with capitalism (as "God" takes care of the "select"). You might even be satisfied with Donald Trump's used toilet paper.

Needless to say, none of this passes muster in academia. So you will find academia a hostile place. And because you really don't care about the differences, you might label it "liberal," "socialist," "Marxist," "communist," or even "fascist." But you certainly won't pursue advanced degrees and even if you do, academia is about the last place you'd want to work.

Which is to say that the perceived "leftist" bias in academia is in part due to self-selection. There are other problems as well: A methodology that favors empirical data will be scorned as embracing a way of knowing that, in conservative epistemology, ranks far below the way conservatives think things should be (their "truth" is what they want it to be and, yes, this is the naturalistic fallacy). And there's not really a good way to tell how much of it can be attributed to which factors.

@jeffowski

I think a difference between how Charles Dickens portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge and our current elite cannot be cured with information.

The ghosts of Christmas could appear to our present oligarchs and they wouldn't change a thing. As cruelty is the point for Donald Trump's supporters, the power and privilege the wealthy have over us is the point for them.

If you doubt this, consider their failure to respond meaningfully to the climate crisis, which will impact their children even if not to the same degree as it will everyone else's children.