Notices by The Sleight Doctor 🃏 (apostateenglishman@mastodon.world)

@StillIRise1963 I think Americans are waking up. They're just waking up painfully slowly...one by one, like there's time for that shit.

It's going to take some catastrophic event to speed up the process. It brings me no joy to say this, because so many will suffer, but the economic shock the Trump admin is about bring may actually do it.

@jmax @StillIRise1963 ...and of course you're talking as much about the Great Depression in America as you are about the rise of the Third Reich in Europe.

Double whammy for Americans. It's so fucking sad that people have to relearn the lessons of history again and again and again.

A reminder that France brought out the guillotines right about now.

@Perrin42 @Janeishly

These things happen. It's not a big deal. 🧐

@Janeishly I saw someone say something like "Facebook is where all the boomers and Gen Xers who need help with their computers live. The fedi is where all the boomers and Gen Xers who *designed and built* the damn computers live".

If the spontaneous, international campaigns to destroy Tesla weren't working by seriously hurting Musk in the only place he can be hurt - his wallet - then there wouldn't be media campaigns to stop them. And there wouldn't be right-wing conspiracy theories that these efforts are being funded by George Soros (or whoever the bogeyman is these days).

Exactly as I said early on, Tesla is Musk's Achilles Heel, so go harder. It's pissing him off, and that's better than nothing.

@Lana I love how they can walk right into the point, and not even feel the rake handle slapping them in the face. 😆

@hakan_geijer This a great guide, however, it's worth mentioning that if you're going to some protest or direct action, it's a good idea to buy an unregistered SIM and take a decoy handset with location settings turned off and a VPN turned on.

You don't have to be a cybersecurity expert to just not use your everyday comms tech. Way easier and probably safer.

I don't know which is scarier, that an actual FBI director is suggesting the UFC should train its field agents, or that the media is largely taking the proposal seriously.

MMA is a sport with strict rules for that specific arena, not a complete fighting system suitable for chaotic situations with no time to limber up, civilian clothes (!), no rules and no referee. Many of the moves you'd need to escape such a situation are banned from UFC!

Plus who trained the elite commando units, Mike Tyson?

When SpaceX launched a Telsa into space, the "mission" had no scientific value. There were no instruments on-board sending back data. There wasn't even a destination, it was car-shaped space junk flung haphazardly into the void.

Nothing but a publicity stunt to inflate Telsa's stock and make Musk even richer. So it sure would be a shame if everyone helped make Telsa a radioactive brand, and Musk had to default on any loans collateralized by its stock value.

Today, Telsa is his Achilles heel.

@crazybutable @petrillic @ColesStreetPothole "Freedom of speech" has become race- and sex-coded. It's a dogwhistle for "absolute right of white, cishet males to dominate public discourse without fear of contradiction".

Similarly, "cancel culture" is code for "people with the temerity to publicly disagree with me", and "woke" is code for "non-white cishet male perspective or anyone who thinks other perspectives matter".

As you say, it's reactionary culture war bullshit.

Hundreds of locals are currently kettling a small disorganised collection of right-wing groups, including Nick Tenconi, in Manchester, England.

The police are standing around not taking sides.

Today in Manchester, England. An apparently spontaneous gathering of hundreds of antifascists are blocking UKIP and Parents Against Grooming from entering Piccadilly Gardens. The police have so far appeared clueless as to what to do about this unexpected show of public resistance.

#AntiFascist #ResistEverywhere

Remember when Kurt Cobain with Nirvana did their truly soul-chilling, off-key cover of Lead Belly's song, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on MTV Unplugged?

Awful fact: Lead Belly - among Kurt's biggest influences - was also responsible for the earliest audio recording of the phrase "stay woke", in a spoken afterword to the 1938 song "Scottsboro Boys", recounting the tragic story of nine Black teens and young men falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931.

#BlackHistoryMonth

This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's breakdown of what it can gain access to via subpoena from the various "secure" messaging apps. As you can see, if you're using Signal even the FBI can only see when you first registered and when you last logged in. That's it.

Use Signal.

@mastodonmigration @heliomass It's a big improvement, but wouldn't prevent the scenario of being *offline* for a few hours, only to return to 200+ notifications from strangers all spoiling for a fight because some large account whipped them up by QTing you out-of-context.

At that point, the damage is already done regardless of whether you withdraw the QT.

But if you catch it straight away? Yeah, that would stop the abusive behaviour in its tracks. So I guess the answer to you is, "yes and no".

@mastodonmigration @heliomass These details of implementation are in that category of ideas so simple and obvious, no-one has thought of them before!

The whole opposition to QTs comes from control being with the QTer, thus opening up a vector for coordinated harassment. I know what it's like being bombarded with aggressive comments because some 5-figure follower account has rallied their minions with a QT.

Even as someone who isn't vulnerable, it still raised my stress levels through the roof.

There's a nationwide day of protest at noon on February 5th (Wednesday), planned for all 50 states of the USA. Those wishing to help in this visible push-back against tyranny should assemble at their local State Capitol building.

My advice as a lifelong activist is to be mindful of those who are more vulnerable than you are. If you're fortunate to be from a demographic less likely to be targeted by police, spend some of those privilege tokens and position yourself accordingly.

#StopProject2025

@nullagent I am loving watching this tech bubble collapse like a flan in a cheap oven. It's glorious. 😆

Irony is dead.