Notices by Bernie the Wordsmith has moved to Neopaquita.es (berniethewordsmith@masto.es), page 4

PSA: Jesse Singal is trying to pull the "polite Nazi walks into a bar" trick on #Bluesky. Depending if the BS admins let him and his minions do their bidding, some people may flock to #Mastodon and fedi in general seeking refuge. Let's protect these people and let's be very vigilant. Fedi admins and coders: keep an eye in Singal's playbook and strategy. If successful, may inform his next targets.

¿Sabéis lo que es una warrant canary? Es una pieza de texto que se pone en la web o en un software para que, en caso de su desaparición, sirva de alerta si ese lugar deja de ser seguro. La Q de LGTBIQ+ era esa pieza, pero no lo sabíamos hasta que desapareció del PSOE

Gente que milita en partidos políticos: pienso que tenemos que llevar el problema del borrado queer a nuestras asambleas. Al menos, yo pienso hacerlo. No quiero que la historia me juzgue por no haber peleado los derechos de mis semejantes. Seguro que nos llevaremos chascos, pero la voz hay que ponerla

Leftists and anarchists of the #Fediverse, If you had to recommend only one #book to push a centrist right down the pipeline, which one would it be?

(Not a centrist myself, but was curious)

Edit to clarify: a book that would serve to attract a centrist to our side 😉

Humans can be amazing, see. We tend to ignore threats until they are right in front of us. Don't believe me? Let's talk about the 2008 crisis

As a white cis man on his forties, I would like to tell something to any people not belonging to a minority that, right now, may be thinking they'll be safe from what's happening. That people who is refusing to defend LGTBQ+ rights or being very fast to throw people under the bus:

They will come for you. 🧵

Be honest. Until that very moment, did part of you think that maybe you would be fine? I bet it did.

Maybe you saw the cracks in TV. But let me ask you something. When did you have the realization this was going to really, really affect everyone? Maybe when you got denied a menial credit. Maybe when your bank teller suddenly stopped being so jolly. Maybe when that friend at work came to you, nervous, and told you that he heard from a friend on HR that...

Need a more recent example? COVID. When did you think "oh shit, this is getting serious". No need to answer me. It's between you and yourself

But fine, I supposed we burned the common sense takes about greater good when we went into emergency mode because of the fascists, so let me use that fucking take with you because I'm one of you and my ass is not on the line yet: they will come for us too

When did we become so willfully ignorant, so morally bankrupt, to think that "hey, happened to others, may happen to you!" was a normal take? Fuck!!! ARE WE SO BROKEN THAT WE ONLY FIGHT FOR OTHERS BECAUSE THE SAME THING WILL HAPPEN TO US? The society I believe(d) in was the one that would help others and advance in rights even if our asses were not affected!!! We wanted things to be better so EVERYONE other than us WOULD BE BETTER!

Now you would expect that I will use the same extrapolation to talk about trans rights and bathroom bans. I may do it later. I have to do something first. Or more specifically, I have to say something, because it is boiling in my brain and it's suffocating, so here we go

Let me tell you something about the right (yes, I said the right, not the alt right, the extreme right, the far right. The fucking right).

The right needs an Other to blame and torture, always. Their model of society NEEDS a part of it to SUFFER so it can work. There is not a single societal model envisioned by the right that does not rest in an Other taking inhuman amounts of pain.

But of course, there is just a fair amount of misery that humans can take, right? Eventually the Other is exterminated. Or reduced to numbers that will not be enough for the society to function and place suffering again.

So another group of Others must be chosen.

Make sure you do not forget this. Because "cruelty is the point" has the rest of the fucking iceberg beneath it. A right-leaning society will always need people to kill

"But Bernie, do you really think that, should all the minorities be crushed, they will still go after people to torture?"

First, that question is sick and you should give your brain a shower. Second, yes. Hard yes. Fucking yes. That is the point. A right-leaning society will ALWAYS need people to kill.

So, regardless if it's for saving your own ass in the future, which means your moral compass disgusts me, or because you think having equal rights is a matter of fucking human decency, you better be vocal when you see shit going down. Otherwise, maybe your group will be the next that a right-leaning society puts on the blender.

The only way to fight against this trend, saving a revolution, is making sure we walk so fast that it takes them a lot of work to go in the opposite direction.

If you stop walking, they'll go back.
If you stop walking, they will kill people.
And when the others are killed, they will come for you.

I never entered in to politics. In my life. I was a journalist before and, because I was a fucking idiot, I thought politics was a matter for others.

They say one becomes more nuanced when aging. Well, fuck. I may need to call customer service because It's working backwards for me. I recently joined a party and I am planning to do as much amount of activism as I can.

If my old ass can deconstruct on its forties, anyone can. Join a movement, fight, engage in politics. Yes, be smart about your battles. But remember, if not for others, make sure you are not the asshole your kids will read about in History books.

Thanks for reading whatever this was.