Notices by Madeleine Morris (remittancegirl@mstdn.social), page 4

I want to point out that even those praising Harris for her performance are indulging in misogynistic stereotyping.

Words like 'baiting' and 'goading' carry the stench of underhandedness - things women do because they're not big enough to simply punch them in the face.

Confronting your opponent with their own words and acts is not baiting or goading. It's straight-up holding someone to account.

But the press have spent so long failing to hold him to account, we've bought in to the narrative.

What Obama did at the DNC with his gesture in reference to Trump's obsession with crowd size? That's goading.

But no one accused him of goading.

So it's Harris' fault that Trump can't muster a coherent sentence or a single true statement?

She 'baited' him?

Misogyny is fucking endemic in the media.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdnl9pg1wo

@cstross If I'm completely honest, happy endings do not haunt me. I love stories that stick with me a long, long time. None of them have happy endings. Some have tragic endings. Most have ambivalent endings.

But I do wonder if, as life begins to feel more precarious to most people, the craving for a happy ending becomes more acute.

@cstross I do wonder if - and I'm just speaking for myself here - it is a sign of privilege and relative comfort that I enjoy being haunted by non-happy endings.

@cstross I think the biggest problem with the Hero's Journey is that it was study meant to describe a common narrative structure that spanned stories from all over the world. When people began to use it as a guide, it became a problem. Reverse-engineering might be handy, but not sublime.

For many, there's an emotionally satisfying landscape to stories that roughly follow this structure, but if emotional satisfaction is all a writer is after, then just rewrite fairy tales over and over.

The media keeps talking to itself, asking why the media doesn't cover Trump's cognitive decline with the ferocity it covered Biden's.

It's like in all these years, they've learned nothing.

Supporters of Trump know he's been insane for years. They simply don't care. Because the permission he gives them to indulge their own dark impulses is far, far more pleasurable than picking a responsible president.

They will forgive him anything so long as it keeps validating their own obscenity.

#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon Self-satisfied Saturday

Well, enjoy this evening’s speeches!

#CatsOfMastodon Jacques and I are bidding you good night from España

Finally, the collar is on! And look at that elegant lining!
Kimonos and yukatas are constructed specifically to be taken apart and refitted and re-sewn for generations.
They’re constructed from 8 rectangles. There are no curves, no excess is cut and zero fabric waste. The ultimate environmentally friendly piece of clothing. #sewing #yukata

@CloudyMrs it certainly does. And what does it inform anyone of other than his personal glee? It’s just so much uninformative crap! @Indyposterboy @adrinux

@adrinux @CloudyMrs @Indyposterboy

The one thing I really appreciate about the Guardian is that they very clearly distinguish between hard news and analysis or commentary. So while they do have biases and blind spots, their reportage is gratifyingly free of unnecessary adjectives. They also do a pretty good job covering the rest of the world.

@Indyposterboy @adrinux @CloudyMrs

Fair enough. Show me!

And write to the Guardian's editorial email and show them examples of this. They should get a better reporter!

@Indyposterboy @adrinux @CloudyMrs

Okay, but are you sure they were news articles and not 'analysis'? Because he does a lot of it.

@CloudyMrs who do you recommend for good, factual reporting for Scotland?

So... someone asked me what news sources I use. This is a very good question, because I still feel that knowing nothing about what is going on in the world is unacceptable.

I'm going to preface this list by saying that there is no news organization without bias. The trick is knowing what their bias is. Also, I don't feel able to recommend news sources that are paywalled, because they limit access.

1/ The BBC World Service (available through the BBC Sounds app or online) is still excellent. It reports on global issues fairly evenhandedly. But there is a 'western bias' and their reporting from inside the UK is oriented via their general UK news departments and tends to be slightly right of centre.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service

2/ PBS is still one hell of a good news source in the US. While it may feel biased leftwards, a closer examination of its content proves it's actually traditionally centrist.

It doesn't cover the world much anymore and focuses on US due to a dramatic drop in funding.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/live

3/ The Guardian
This is the only online newspaper I still actually give money to. It's not paywalled, but their demand for donations is pretty aggressive.

It has a centre-left bias, but it's hard reporting arm is pretty scrupulous and easily identified. You can quickly see whether the post is reportage, analysis or opinion. This is helpful.

They also have fairly good global coverage, but tend to be Westerncentric. It will also let you sort by region.

https://www.theguardian.com

@br00t4c Would that be the Jake Tapper who couldn’t stop going on about video games while an anchor was trying to report, live on air?

Because we were both watching live and my husband and I both shouted ‘shut the fuck up’ at the screen in perfect unison. It was uncanny.