Notices by Madeleine Morris (remittancegirl@mstdn.social)

@nilsskirnir I don't know either. But you're asking really meaty questions. @GutterPoetry @murdoc @Profpatsch @DarkAthena @johnnyprofane1 @bmacDonald94 @actuallyautistic @actuallyadhd

@nilsskirnir Seconded! @GutterPoetry @murdoc @Profpatsch @DarkAthena @johnnyprofane1 @bmacDonald94 @actuallyautistic @actuallyadhd

@murdoc @Profpatsch @DarkAthena @johnnyprofane1 @bmacDonald94 @actuallyautistic @actuallyadhd

Re: autism spectrum disorders. I just wanted to remind people that, in many lower income countries, kids are simply not diagnosed. Partly because of the standards of health systems but also because many other cultures interpret neurodivergence differently. Often it's simply not pathologized.

I taught for 18 years in Vietnam and none of my autistic students had formal diagnoses.

I was brought up to believe that the larger the picture you can take in, the more fully informed you'll be. It's not a bad strategy for looking at the world, but, especially now, it has its downside.

And while the media will sometimes seek to tell a big story through a close-up view of one person's life (and this is a powerful narrative approach), it usually opts for generalities.

The same is true for economics, and the impact of all these DOGE firings 1/

One thing I've been mulling over for a while is what I've perceived as dramatic decline in trust in public institutions. It's hard to make an effort to defend institutions you don't trust. And because they're usually faceless, when people lose trust in one public institution, it's curiously viral. We begin to look at all public institutions with the same wary, jaded eye.

It's almost futile to pick a single date for the decline. It's somewhat arbitrary.
2/

I'm going to choose the 2008 financial crisis. I choose it because, unlike 9/11, no hostile force from outside did this to us. We did it to ourselves. It was a moment we should have pulled the emergency cord and demanded a serious restructuring of our financial systems.

While there were some policy gestures to address the circumstances that led to it, they've been pathetic.

Our biggest sin of all was a failure to reform the way we measure economies. 3/

My hypothesis is that, for most people, we've lived through the longest economic depression in history. That 2008 was the start, and we are still in it. And nothing most economists use to report on national or international economics reflects this very basic reality: no one today believes their children will be more prosperous than they are.

If I could pick a single event that contributed the most to the rise in the Right we're seeing now, it's that. 4/

“The purpose of freedom of speech is to allow people to speak truth to power. […]The argument for freedom of speech is because it’s dangerous for the powerless to speak the truth. […] We don’t have freedom of speech so that the people who have 300 billion dollars can spread lies”
Timothy Snyder https://youtu.be/8I-p2u-a3jc

Now that I've had some time to read and digest what Vance said at the security conference, I think he made a massive error (and probably doesn't know it).

Most of Europe are reluctant patriots. Most of them really don't get into rah rah patriotism. It embarrasses them.

But the arrogance, ignorance and insulting nature of Vance's address can be played, if EU leaders are smart, very well to their advantage. #USPol #Europe #FarRight

@br00t4c I think the Ukraine should offer them a better salary.

@MAKS23 The US is no longer a reliable NATO member. The other members, I am fairly sure, have privately started to make other plans.

As tensions rise in the world, I know I can get a little hair-triggered on here. So I wanted to bring this up with my neurotypical companions.

A response from a #neurodivergent person can look, superficially and at first, a lot like trolling.

It isn't the same, and the underlying intentions are entirely different. But that phenomenon of getting what seems like a pedantic, almost aggressive question can easily be interpreted as trolling.

Check people's profiles before responding.

While it has been the signifier for all the loftiest of aspirations, I want to unpack the concept.

We are not free. Humans are not free. Animals are not free. Plants are not free. Much of our lives is determined for us by evolution. Our DNA encodes for many things that deny us freedom.
We're not free to be taller, or pick the skin we're born into, or the language we're taught at birth.

Perhaps what we really mean by 'freedom' is 'freedom to..." Because we have some choices.

With #Musk in charge, this is what happens if you don't bleed or just die quietly, without complaint.

https://apnews.com/article/tesla-china-lawsuits-musk-investigation-58b10ccace488784fcc63646ab78b410

@StillIRise1963 Sometimes I think if we could wean ourselves off this spectacle, we'd stop imagining these people are somehow fighting for us, and fight for ourselves.

@StillIRise1963 It really, really is. I think a lot of people don't recognize it because it's language and discussion and feels more intellectual. But you are spot on... it is utterly meaningless reality TV masquerading as something intelligent.

@StillIRise1963 It is the verbal equivalent of WWE wrestling. We totally need to stop consuming this crap (and yes, I mean me, I have almost completely weaned myself off it)

"it was never the Navy’s intention to “not recognize the awesome accomplishments of individuals and groups of people in the past, but there’s just ways of doing it to make sure that we align with our Commander-in-Chief, all the way down the chain.”

And that's how Nazism works.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2025/02/10/army-navy-remove-web-pages-highlighting-womens-military-service/

I am reminded of how many German Jews died or were horribly wounded in WWI and assumed that would buy them leniency with the Nazis.

This erasure of women's service is fucking obscene.

These women who gave their lives, their limbs, their mental health for their country... only to have that country ERASE THEM FROM HISTORY.

Fuck this MAGA cunts.

@grayface_ghost I looked for you. He's not writing. They are using something he said - which was pretty vague - and using it to grind their own anti-trans agenda.

Not a fan of Streeting myself. But he did not write the article.