Notices by Ben Royce 🇺🇦 (benroyce@mastodon.social), page 2

"#Netherlands launches fund to lure top #scientists, like those fleeing the #US"

Smart

A term the #USA has lost familiarity with, and will lose a lot more of

https://nltimes.nl/2025/03/20/netherlands-launches-fund-lure-top-scientists-like-fleeing-us

#science #europe

@RnDanger @dogzilla

holy shit! i had no idea. today i learned: devo was not only at kent state during the massacre, but the massacre inspired the creation of devo:

https://www.kent.edu/art/news/remembering-may-4-interview-devos-jerry-casale

There was a #women's half-#marathon in #Kyiv #Ukraine earlier this month called the Kyiv Pink Run (everyone wears pink)

The runners unexpectedly intersected the funeral procession for a fallen warrior in Ukraine's #war against #ethnofascist #imperialism

And then this happened:

(the text in #Ukrainian at the end references their running friend Natalka Samoilenko, killed by Russia in #Bucha in 2022, they were running in her #memory: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fartlekua/posts/1302450504308834/ )

#UkraineWar #HeroyamSlava #Honor

@inthehands @weyoun6 @tshirtman @mloxton @tarheel

i love that guy

so much entrenched hate in our world

and out of nowhere this old dude just waltzed in with a practically effortless "i was bigoted, but i was wrong, thank you for educating me"

such a breath of fresh air

@tshirtman @mloxton @tarheel @inthehands

agreed. in this regard, #socialMedia can be a force multiplier for good as well as what it is now: a force multiplier for #bigotry and #plutocracy

but that makes our communities a target

so we need something like #fediverse where we can squash the #trolls without "freezepeach" #bigoted morons and #centralized #corporate social media indifference or tacit support for #ignorance and #hate

@weyoun6 @tshirtman @mloxton @tarheel @inthehands

But there must be some higher order effect we can tap

Arguments combined with something else

Arguments alone seem tiny

@inthehands @StillIRise1963 @tarheel

study the history of #chile, #southkorea, #spain

look at #serbia, #georgia, #hungary today

corrupt, murderous regimes, opposed

they fought! they're fighting!

what you about you #usa?

i will not listen to arguments saying #american #democracy is doomed:

hopelessness

cynicism

it only helps #plutocrat-#bigot malice

you fight

you #vote

now and forever

that matters

"but it should be easy"

never is and never will be

#america:

show a fucking spine

@inthehands @StillIRise1963 @tarheel

why i'm posting this now

#midterms2026 means enough #democrats to stonewall #trump

but as the time draws near you will hear the same old whiny lies:

"both sides the same"

"corruption is everything"

"nothing matters"

"waah waah"

some of it is real #toxicidealism

some of it is #geopolitical #trollfarm #psyop

advertising their fake #leftist bonafides, like an american flag profile on #twitter injecting a #maga #kremlin agenda

people fall for it

last year i had heated arguments with nonvoters

putting aside #geopolitical #trollfarm accounts working a #psyop, some of them were real (that's why they work this psyop: #toxicidealism is real)

the #democrats suck

but the choice matters

you *build* on it

you iterate

you don't expect perfect, then pout when you don't get it

#Midterms2026:

#vote, motherfuckers

@tarheel

yup

voting is part of the struggle to maintain your #rights

ignorance of the consequences comes from #privilege

nonvoters on the left are exactly like #MAGA this way: they don't know and they don't care how *they* are fucked

because what's important to nonvoters is masturbating their ego in an ivory tower of perfection, and if they don't get perfect, they feel #entitled to not #vote

utterly fucking ignorant to the fact they live in fucking reality and they are impacted, personally

@tarheel

when i castigate #nonvoters i hear:

"you're turning them off"

fuck that

if someone lacks the capacity to see the stakes, that's on them

it's not our job to soothe and trick them with emotional appeal. that's #MAGA tactics

what's happening now is they are learning consequences

the hard way

*even then* they will shift blame. never taking ownership of their #alienation

the problem is them

not how insensitive we are to their fucking precious feelings

#vote #midterms2026 you fucks

More #history removed from #US Govt websites

This time, the famous #NavajoCodeTalkers

The #Dine created a code from their language #DineBizaad. Throughout the Pacific Theatre of #WWII they were crucial for communications: #ImperialJapan had no way to understand what they were saying

And now the #bigotry in charge has blotted their contributions

Their webpages are now 404, and the URL renamed with "#DEI"

This stupidity and hate will not end. And will turn worse

https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2025/03/17/navajo-code-talkers-trump-dei-military-websites-wwii

#KwameTure aka #StokelyCarmichael

@Gargron

i was at the louvre a year and a half ago

plenty of excellent photogenic spots i tried to take full advantage of

archways entering le louvre are great, the play of the light, but the weather has to cooperate

@MontyRunner @v_d_richards

we have to

regular americans

#US #army Maj Gen #CharlesCalvinRogers

Received the highest #military decoration in the #USA, the #MedalofHonor

On Nov 1 1968, the #VietnamWar, despite a horrific injury, Rogers rallied his men in defense of their base and led the battalion until a major attack was repulsed

The #Trump regime removed him from the #DoD website

Not only is his page now 404, they changed the URL

The word "medal"

in the URL

for the bio of this exemplary man

was changed to

"deimedal"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/defense-department-black-medal-of-honor-veteran

@timezoneless

the usa is decaying. partly because we have taken this airhead "tolerate even the intolerant" approach, leading to trump

now our civil institutions are being killed, so there is not top down law setting standards for us

so now it is up to us as individuals to push back on the intolerant

and we only have to do that because we didn't push back earlier, our politics failed us

the only approach, whether by law or by individual (now), is pushback: we show intolerance of intolerance

@Gargron

i hope you kept a screenshot, or kept the "first post!" itself

soon to be in Mainz Germany at the Gutenberg Museum next to the old printing presses

same energy

@geonz @CStamp @timezoneless the reverse in fact. MAGA is depriving us of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They don't understand that though, because on their terms, "happiness" is sadistic abuse

@timezoneless

don't talk to me, talk to karl popper:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

it is absolutely correct

-1 X -1 = 1

same as:

"i hate gay people"

--->

"i oppose you because you hate gay people"

these are exact opposites, not the same intolerance merely because they take a negative stand against someone. what matters is *who* and *what*

furthermore, it is a moral imperative to be intolerant of intolerance