Notices by Fifi Lamoura (fifilamoura@eldritch.cafe), page 4

@mekkaokereke Being mad at the past rather than informed by it is very ridiculous. But people like their myths about perfect people fighting for perfect justice, which we get sold by those who want to maintain power because it would be far more radical to understand that real change (for better and worse) is made by flawed, imperfect people (and that not all change is real change, particularly if it's actually really about preserving hegemonic power....in these situations categories can become very flexible, tokenism is a strategy to preserve power by presenting the illusion of change).

@mekkaokereke Yep. Also, White women got the vote in the US with a lot of help from the KKK because of worries about WASPs/White men losing power.

@cstross There have been indications of this and chatter about it for a very long time.

@evan um, I don't think that's the message voting for Jill Stein sends at all. Nobody really sees her as antiwar, they see her as a Putin apologist.

@clive They grew big and were widely promoted by institutions because they are employed to justify and rationalize exploitation and abuse. It's no coincidence that psychology is deeply integrated with marketing and propaganda, or that psychiatry can and is used as a means of social control. (TBC, I'm not anti-psychology or psychiatry, it can also be liberatory and inform us about ourselves, I'm just a realist about how it has been used historically and today*"

*Things like forcing addicts into treatment is a repeat of the criminal horrors of the past.

Is the US inviting in election observers from outside? It should.

Generally when people with power start talking about efficiency we should all be scared because it's really code for "incoming ruthlessness and greed, and privileging corporations over citizens." Being efficient is basically anti-human, it's viewing people and the world as an industrial machine not the glorious squishy alive chaos that is the natural world. Machine desires will not actually prevent billionaires from dying, no matter what ideologies they try to use to hide their basic fear of being mortal humans just like the rest of us not rich people. (This, of course, does not mean they don't get the opportunity to live longer than the rest of us because of the best medical care, lots of rest and relaxation, good food and lots of trees...if they so choose.)

@MediaActivist unfortunately the COVID cautious cohort also includes quite a few purists and people who aren't really concerned with the collective.

@tillshadeisgone 💯 It's shocking how many grown ass people still don't understand consent. There's an underlying belief that other people exist only for their use and entertainment, it's treating Othered people as exploitable objects and is dehumanizing and exploitative. Nothing outrages an abuser more than when the person being victimized creates a safe space beyond the reach of their abuse.

@evan Probably not. I went to the protest today though.

@aral Oh, definitely. I don't know enough about the foundation to comment on it directly but Meta should not be viewed as benign (no matter how lovely and well intentioned the employees the corporation uses to interface with a project like this is). I'd say it's hugely problematic in the face of the CEO claiming he's apolitical as a way to dodge both personal and corporate accountability. It is, of course, not an apolitical stance, merely a stance that refuses ethical responsibility.

I made a very tasty Madras curry with butternut squash, chickpeas, tiny potatoes, mixed greens (frozen spinach and fenugreek leaves, some fresh mustard greens) and coconut milk for dinner. It was delicious but not very photogenic. It will be even more delicious tomorrow.

@aral This is how structural inequalities get perpetuated and designed (unconsciously) into new systems, business as usual. Believing and even being "one of the good guys" doesn't prevent that, it actually kinds of guarantees it. Sure, nobody likes having to deal with resistance to their ambitions but you only get closer to equality and real systemic change when you let that resistance achieve actual momentum rather than getting mad it's preventing business as usual. Actual innovation and change IS often uncomfortable, especially for those who are comfortable.

I am not enjoying White men's racist commentary about hip hop right now. Particularly how it pretends that misogyny and exploitation in rock music somehow isn't just as bad or prevalent. Also, you never loved hip hop if all you don't know about female MCs and all the highly conscious hip hop out, that's your own misogyny raising it's ugly head along with the racism.

https://thewalrus.ca/how-a-canadian-rabbi-became-a-lifeline-for-gaza-residents/

@bouriquet @gimulnautti @breadandcircuses But, also, socialism and communism are dog whistles for Jewish and Black in the US. The racism and White supremacy is baked into the capitalism=democracy lie too.

@evan Women and queer people often have to worry about safety, this is another very important reason we sometimes choose anonymity to avoid making ourselves easy to track and abuse. I think a lot of cis men still underestimate the amount of quite extreme abuse the rest of us can be subjected to online and how that can easily move offline if we're easily identifiable.

@evan Wanting to post different things than you do on your main account, wanting some privacy from work or other related authorities, being on a number of different social networks, different social media accounts offering different things....and other benign and also harm related reasons. It's a bit like belonging to more than one social group or club in some ways.

@evan As many as they want!

We're in wild blueberry season here in Quebec and it is a good season. I'm not much of a fan of cultivated blueberries but I do love wild ones. As is often the case with fruit and vegetables, bigger is often not at all better when it comes to taste.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/wild-blueberries-vs-cultivated