Notices by Erin Conroy (chargrille@progressives.social)

Disgraceful. I couldn't believe this was real, #Google's swift, eager embrace of a demand that was preposterous 24 hours ago.

The most powerful men in the world lending an oar to the fascist ship is both entirely believable and entirely revolting.
They are your enemies, if you are not a fascist. So let's act like it. It's gonna get real uncomfortable, folks. Self-preservation requires stripping as much power from these men as possible. The internet will feel harder.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/27/google-maps-to-show-gulf-of-america-after-government-updates.html

They are also changing Denali, in Alaska, to "Mount McKinley," - which was its short-lived rebranding in the 19th century by white colonists.

There's nothing that requires Google to do this act of racism.

We can win, but we do need to focus our energies, & not indulge in comforting fantasies. (e.g. "someone else" is taking care of it).

Imo it's wise to give the bulk of your online attention to those who offer concrete practical steps, however small they may feel or seem. Join those who are taking action to help others, in any small way. If that feels too much today, believe me I get it: then do something to help yourself. Slice it thinner until you find yourself moving in a healthy direction.

I say all that knowing that at the moment, this isn't me, though I used to focus heavily on practical avenues for action.

I am mainly offering advice to myself, I guess.

Also, analysts are important, so important, and a clear analysis is a form of action in itself. I can't do without @tzimmer_history, e.g. But we don't need hundreds of analysts in our feeds. It's probably better if we use them more like salt for the meat of practical action.

Just something I'll be paying attention to, for me

My aspiration is to redirect my own attention to whatever degree it needs to be re-directed, to the helpers. And to return to offering options for concrete actions, when I identify a problem on here.

Historical analysis of fascism is what I've done for over 30 years now, so I am not going to become a new person, but please always feel free to add to my posts, any opportunity for action that you know of. I will try to do that myself.

We can help each other that way. I would be grateful.

Some people on here who I know are always really great at offering actions, both mutual aid & politic-y:

@ncw413
@seachanger
@blogdiva
@Crookedlilhouse @inquiline
@Turntwo363
@gregggonsalves
@hannu_ikonen

I'll add more as I remember them.

I have used Rogan's List for nigh 10 years and it's wonderful. https://susanrogan.substack.com/

This may be helpful, as well: https://michelehornish.substack.com/p/my-response-to-the-question-what

@inthehands OMG Paul. 💯 💥

Very good points.

And, it's important to remember that while the houses that survived the fire did so because their architects & builders had taken care to prepare them, they also needed luck,. This important for us to remember. Take everything so seriously, and remind yourself history is contingent on what you do, and what I do. Nothing in the social and political world is self-executing. You may have grown up in a world that felt that way, so you slacked off. No more!

https://substack.com/home/post/p-155799722

The options and opportunities to contain the spread of fascism are endless. They are small, large, in-between, and constantly being created by YOU, ME, and everyone.

Heroes are birthing themselves daily:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/one-woman-s-mission-to-rewrite-nazi-history-on-wikipedia

Platform choice is one of these decisions that will contain fascism, or keep giving it fertile ground.

It may seem small, or hard, but choosing to build up this diversely-owned platform instead of an easier route on a privately-owned, monopolistic system, will make our job of containing fascism vastly easier in the long run. And we need every advantage we can build for ourselves.

So thank you for building here, it does matter structurally. If we use other SM sites, let's use them to build here

atm I am sad, tired & need to build stamina. My goal is to: do all I can, support you all in doing what you can, and do better at seeking & creating communities that are sources of support - wells of strength we rely on & turn to.

Because the right wing has worked hard to develop the skill of sapping us with division.

Airing conflict is good, & also we need ways to repair breaches & tolerate what is yet to be repaired. That can't mean unspoken demands that the less powerful just suck it up.

The small core part of me that has hope and love is genuinely excited to be a part of healthier communities. I guess there is some freedom in this massive loss, in that we really just have to get on with that. I hope more people will recognize that there is such terrible danger in "reconciling" yourself to working with fascists. Because there is no working together, & there is no reconciliation in fascism. Fascist power RESTS on continual provocation of conflict/scapegoating - or it can't grow.

https://longreads.com/2018/12/04/the-case-for-letting-malibu-burn/

"By declaring Malibu a federal disaster area & offering blaze victims tax relief as well as preferential low-interest loans, the Eisenhower administration established a precedent for the public subsidization of firebelt suburbs. Each new conflagration [saw] reconstruction on a larger… more exclusive scale…renters displaced…by wealthy pyrophiles encouraged by artificially cheap fire insurance, socialized disaster relief…For people of color…it was absolutely off-limits"

This moment is interesting to me.

It's a little like a scan that uses contrast dye to help clarify internal function of body systems. Some people are willing to show their immoral beliefs that help our sick system function: i.e., that some of us (most!) are marked for violence, & in their eyes, our deaths are pre-approved, unremarkable.

But a few big men are special, set aside as privileged from violence. Their deaths are un-acceptable, to be noisily declared unfair. Worthy of social insurance

For some people, literally anything is accepted to justify or excuse their murder, & offer a helping hand to their killer: a hoodie is suspicious, Skittles could have looked like a gun to the right-wing murderer.

For others, literally nothing is accepted to excuse their murder: e.g., profiting personally from a position of power & responsibility which the CEO used to intentionally cause his company's paying customers to die.

OK.

It's useful to have diagnostic tests.

So, I guess what I’m saying is: Whatever is motivating the armchair moralizer scolds, it isn’t nonviolence.

And, one thing that you & I can do, right now, is to really look at the people who are making excuses for the vast majority of the killing. In this case, any fair reading of reality demonstrates that the United CEO, and his collaborators are killing way more of us. They make choices to kill their own paying customers, so that they make themselves & their families into multimillionaires.

We are responsible for the media diet we’re consuming. Imo this dye test shows who’s clogging our arteries.

"UnitedHealth Shares Fell After DOJ Probe Became Public: Chair sold stock before investigation was revealed"

UHC was notified of DOJ's antitrust probe in early Oct 2023
Oct 13: Q3 report
Oct 16, unusual sales made by high-level UH executives
Oct 17, UH Chair sold an unusually large number of shares for $46m profit

Feb 15, CEO Thompson made a large sale - his only one, ever - right before news of FBI's probe of UHC made public on Feb 27 sharp losses
UHC down 15% since, vs DJIA's 8% rise.

DOJ probe was "reviewing whether #UnitedHealth’s acquisitions have consolidated its position in some markets in a way that violates antitrust laws…[DOJ] has reportedly been looking at potential monopolies in the managed-care industry since at least mid-2023."

"Typically a company’s general counsel would declare a blackout period barring trading in light of a sensitive investigation, according to John C. Coffee Jr., a corporate governance expert at Columbia Law School.

UHC didn't do that.

But I guess none of these multi-millionaire FBI suspects were Black children wearing hoodies or carrying Skittles, so even though they actually deserve to have their potentially criminal activities scrutinized in the public eye for months on end, we will probably instead be treated to endlessly empathetic media junk-food treatments by wealthy white pundits who focus on the suffering of their family members.