Notices by Sara Joy :happy_pepper: (sarajw@front-end.social)

Do I know anyone who knows anyone who works for GOV.UK Visas and Immigration?

The online version of form MN1 has an outdated warning. I need to know if I can get on and use it. Thank you!

It says:

"Do not use this service if you are applying for British citizenship from outside the UK

An issue with this service is affecting all British citizenship applications from outside the UK. The problem should be fixed by Tuesday 4 February. Do not use the service until then."

It's now Sunday 9th Feb.

@ironchamber no you're not.

I don't know I guess the US system just assumes everyone will be reasonable and leaves the opposition completely powerless in the face of someone who isn't?

I mean I dunno, they're not being "let in" to the Treasury - who by? Armed guards? Whose?

Yeah it's... At least they're gathering in person and getting shouty but - what can they do? I'd like to see them just storm in but ... Yeah it's just all very wrong

An anti-DOGE rally is happening outside the treasury: https://www.youtube.com/live/mvocYI0zdy4

"Nobody Elected Elon"

@xandra hooowwwww did I only just come across this?! Yessss

Just to reiterate - I can't keep up with the egregious stuff coming out of the US "administration" right now - you're all safe with me.

I feel for you and how I wish this wasn't happening.

The quoted post is about LGBT+/trans people but I also display a disability pride flag despite not (yet) considering myself disabled.

I also stand with all non-white people, those who are native or others trafficked by slavery and colonialism, and everyone else who is marginalised.

https://front-end.social/@sarajw/109392435958351144

I just.. can't even. I'm so sorry. I'm also here.

I'm cis, white, hetero, non-disabled and living outside the US - so I'm at the very edge of the circle - you can dump out your stress and frustration in my direction.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_theory_(psychology)

Amazing point I just read in German on LinkedIn:

Paraphrased translation:

There is zero evidence that people who are AfD sympathisers will at some point have the feeling: "Ah, now there are enough restrictions [on asylum seekers' rights]. I can stop voting for AfD."

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/seebohm_ausz%C3%BCge-asypolitik-2015-2025-ugcPost-7290380417898086400-qBBe

...yes, I guess the Overton window moves over because the center/center-right thinks at some point their concessions will satisfy these people, and choke out the far right parties. Nope.

@skinnylatte I've learned to go to the places that have the least westernized menus.

I know if I see lots of characters I don't understand and then a really short nondescript translation into English, I'm about to have a good time.

"Crispy fish" and "spicy anything" always winners

"We do not do these things because they are easy, we do them because we thought they would be easy and now we care too much about them to stop."

- @hankgreen

Lol, Mastodon has the "reply guy" reputation, but posting here about blood glucose and low carb has only been met with interest and support - while on Bluesky, along with the interest and support I'm also getting:

- people telling me I'll hurt myself,
- that it's a fad diet (uh, that [pre]diabetics are advised to go on by medical research?),
- that I should just stop eating high fructose corn syrup and
- get some exercise.

Judgemental much?

Or mark it as a taboo violation and thus produce outrage, which the other side then takes pleasure in and gets excited about. You can complain about that, but you have to expect that a significant part of humanity now sees scandalizing the Hitler salute as nothing more than virtue signaling.

7/n

Anyone who then wants to reinterpret it, anyone who does not want to see the Hitler salute, does so on their own account. Anyone who, for example, thinks that they have to discover the older "Roman salute" as a supposed Musk reference right now is demonstrating above all their willingness to reinterpret it in a pleasing way.

3/n

So Elon Musk has stretched out his right arm and is letting everyone jump over it - the ultimate stick. So on the day of the inauguration, not only does Donald Trump's second presidency formally begin. The associated attention regime is also more visible than ever before.

4/n

Because that's what it's all about: attention. It's the most contested commodity in a world in which every snippet, every picture, video and quote is vying for attention every second. Trump and Musk are masters in this competition. Above all because they manage to use even negative attention for their own ends. See the Hitler salute.

5/n

Because what is happening now is predictable: Neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals can interpret the outstretched right arm as a gesture of fraternization and support. Moderate, well-meaning supporters see it as an escalated gesture of celebration. And everyone else is faced with an impossible choice: either ignore the taboo violation and thus contribute to its removal.

6/n

There is no need to make this unnecessarily complicated at the beginning. Anyone who raises their right arm in a sweeping and diagonal manner several times during a political speech in front of a partly right-wing extremist audience is doing the Hitler salute. There is no need for "allegedly" or "similar" or "controversial". The gesture speaks for itself, it is documented in the video.

2/n

A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute.

Elon Musk stretches out his right arm and everyone skips over it. Welcome to the new attention regime.

A commentary by Lenz Jacobsen (@jalenz)

Article is in German, will post a google-translation below.
https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-01/elon-musk-hitlergruss-amtseinfuehrung-donald-trump
Archived at https://archive.is/9mhEn

1/n

@skinnylatte guy sounds like people have given him some trouble when it wasn't "their" laksa

Spent some time walking through an electronics store today, and Oof.

I can't imagine any more, having to select these devices physically, comparing via those little notelets next to each thing.

Every phone, TV, vacuum cleaner, coffee machine, laptop - each looks largely the same as its brethren.

"That the Nazis were our enemies: My God, please, we didn't need Hitler's seizure of power to know that. That had already been completely evident for at least four years to every person who wasn't feeble-minded. (...)

Our personal problem wasn't about something our enemies were doing, but what our friends did," said Hannah Arendt in 1964.

https://mastodon.social/@peterjelinek/113810025878981325