Notices by A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck 🦆 (juliusgoat@mastodon.social)

"If one team playing the game stops following the rules, and nothing exists to stop them ... then you aren’t playing that game anymore. You’re playing a different game, defined by the people allowed to go on breaking the rules."

www.the-reframe.com/the-rules/

Lessons from the election: How defending a people-eating system is an electoral liability; how we don't win fights if we don't fight; how we aren't the opponent of those we won't oppose; and how those who do not lead us where we need to go are not our leaders.

https://www.the-reframe.com/being-more-like-republicans/

One good thing about this year is that for the first time in the history of the newsletter, I'm not announcing a move to some other site, and that is a considerable relief. Also, I spent the entirety of this year on the sunny side of 50, though I imagine the upcoming post-50 side is sunny enough.

Well, it looks like we've had another year. We got it fresh and now it's blown all to hell. We just keep having those things whether anyone thinks it's a good idea or not; and it looks almost certain now that in a few days we're going to have another one.

https://www.the-reframe.com/annual-round-up-2024/

And now we're witnessing a near total capitulation by our national institutions to the incompetent oligarchical American fascist party that will be taking the reins in a few weeks. This is a gang of empty-souled corrupt thugs and sex-obsessed bigoted religious creeps, and man fuck those guys I says.

For example, we had a slow seemingly inevitable crawl toward electoral defeat to some of the most horrible people the universe has ever produced, abetted at least in part by Democratic unwillingness to stop providing military and political support to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

And everyone in my life stayed healthy, and there was no water damage to my house, which isn't always the case in every year. Not bad!

However, in many ways, this year was not a great one here for decent people in my country of the United States of America, and even less great in many other places.

And I published my second book, the essay collection VERY FINE PEOPLE, with the help of all of you nice people, especially the patrons who support me at the level I still for some reason (laziness) call Founding, some 3 years after the founding. https://www.the-reframe.com/a-very-fine-publication-date/

In January, I wrote about my decision to move The Reframe off Substack, which is a platform I quite liked and upon which I had enjoyed quite a bit of success. I lay out the reasons here (Nazis, mostly). https://www.the-reframe.com/hello-i-must-be-going/

But that's what's ahead. Right now I'm looking back at the year that was.

I did a lot of writing on here, it turns out, and some of it I still like OK. So here are six essays from 2024 that I think are best.

I've got an essay teed up about that capitulation; a follow-up to last week's post about the murderous scam that is my nation's founding myth. And, because I can only stare at the eye of Sauron so long at a time, I'll do another palate-cleansing LOST recap soon.

https://www.the-reframe.com/a-system-built-to-eat-people-never-stops-eating/

I wrote about the billionaire system—the murderous scam upon which my country was founded—enabling our coming fascist tide, and lessons of opposition we can learn from the natural human system it captured and perverted for its evil intentions.

A tale of two murders: https://www.the-reframe.com/a-system-built-to-eat-people-never-stops-eating/

"Do I agree with the TV and newspaper pundits that violence is never the answer? I would hope to be one who is not oriented toward violence. I wonder at those who only ask the question of the less powerful. I notice that violence very often is framed as the answer, actually—as the exclusive property of the wealthy upon everyone else. The consternation seems to be saved not for the violence, but the reversal."

https://www.the-reframe.com/peaceful-solutions/

I wrote about the reaction to the shooting of a CEO.

"It seems to me that when you create a world where human life has been made as cheap as possible, you will eventually find you live in a world where your human life is deemed by others to be cheap, too."

https://www.the-reframe.com/peaceful-solutions/

Every conservative argument about healthcare, like every conservative argument about every other topic, is predicated around the proposition “in what way is our system helping human beings and how can we stop that?”

I wrote about the societal diseases of billionairism and narcissism that our country is suffering to a terminal degree, the reasons why building communities is the most effective treatment for it, and what that means for The Reframe.

https://www.the-reframe.com/we-cant-afford-billionaires/

Let's say we're on the subway in rush hour and it's a little crowded on the car, and I step on your toes. Say you tell me about it in this sort of fashion: "Ow!" or "Youch!" or "Gadfreys! My toes!"

How do I react?

Full Essay: https://www.the-reframe.com/rules-of-engagement/

3) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your boundaries, leave. If it's not safe to tell them, or you're not sure if its safe, withdraw from them without telling them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

2) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your pain, set a boundary. If somebody has proved themselves less safe than you thought, but you still think it's safe to do so, tell them that you're going to have to withdraw in some way from them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

In this coming age of fascism, it's going to be just as important to discover safe people as it is to discover unsafe people.

Three simple principles I think may work.

1) When someone hurts you, tell them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

https://www.the-reframe.com/rules-of-engagement/