Notices by Looking for explanations… (susan60@aus.social), page 2

Yesterday I had an unpleasant conversation with someone. It got a bit heated, & accusations were made by the other party. Some members of the autistic community came to my defence. (Thank you!) I tried to scale back in the ensuing conversations, The other person clearly has some issues (don’t we all!) and decided to try to make me the bad guy. I didn’t take it on (but was probably masking to some extent).

On another platform, the outrage would’ve been stoked & possibly a nasty pile on could’ve taken place. Thank goodness we weren’t in that space. The people who came to my defence did so civilly & in a low key way, not designed to inflame.

I’ve tried to delete my part in the thread.

Whatever their problems are, they’re not mine, & nor do I want to aggravate theirs. I don’t owe them anything, but nor do I wish them harm.

I hope everyone has a lovely day (or night if you’re in that part of the world that has things the wrong way round.) 🥰

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there’s a line where the professor says, “Logic!”… “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?…”, the comment of an autistic person if ever I read one. 😂

We could ask the same about history. Absolutely everything occurs in an historical context. When we ignore history, we ignore context. We look at the small picture instead of the big one. There are different reasons for doing so, ignorance being the most common, but there are other reasons.

Some deliberately seek to ignore the past, for reasons of their own, to deceive &/or protect their own interests. Taking history into account might highlight their own interests, and the duplicity of their motives.

Some are driven to ignore it for other reasons, such as a desire to simplify the situation, making it easier to understand & find solutions, but at the risk of getting it badly wrong.

Some are driven by the desire to blame, to simplify the situation enough to make it easy to direct blame at a single person or group of people. And their desire to do so might be understandable. Their own situation might be so untenable, a solution so far out of their reach, that they are overwhelmed by frustration & anger. And who can blame them?

But does it help? Does it actually move them any closer to a real situation, or does it merely create a space to vent their anger, often at people who have little or no relationship to the situation & most certainly aren’t the key drivers? Does it allow the real culprits to gleefully walk away, free to continue in their machinations to rule the world, openly or from behind the scenes?

Divide & conquer was the call centuries ago, and it still works.
#history #power #politics

@bmacDonald94

He was an interesting guy, complex. Did some great work, but some stuff was questionable. I remember my mother taking massive doses of vitamin C in the 70s, on her cancer journey. (I refuse to call it a battle. Living with cancer is not a militaristic exercise.)

Whether they’re far right extremists (fascists), opportunistic right wing politicians, poor quality media outlets & the people who work for them or social media giants, people who spread these lies need to be held accountable. They are fomenting division & violence.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-10/how-disinformation-fuelled-britain-far-right-riots/104202956?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

We used to watch the news on tv almost every night. We don’t watch as often now, & didn’t last night, so this mornings news of the IT collapse was… odd. Bit like day of the Triffids.

Saw this in an Op shop in Elsternwick Melbourne Australia on Monday.

@bmacDonald94
Abhorrent.

Let Afghan women join the UN talks next week. It’s what the Taliban fear most https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/27/un-doha-summit-taliban-afghan-women-rights?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Does anyone know why I have some “filtered notification” & how I can fix this?

@Snowshadow
Definitely worth a look. The countries involved have a more socialist approach. They’re still functioning as capitalist economies, but governments & business assume much higher levels of responsibility for the health & welfare of their citizens & employees, & much less of a survival if the fittest approach.

@Snowshadow
I think Australia & Canada are more similar to each other than the US, which is good, but not good enough.

@Snowshadow

Our last conservative government was roundly chased out of power, but are already gaining territory. They were so utterly incompetent, but admittedly not as bad as the British Tories, & are now suggesting we push are climate goals back 20 years & use unproven tech like modular nuclear reactors instead of renewables. This is in Australia, with so much sunshine, wind & space to harness those resources. And some people are buying it.

@Snowshadow

The opposite here. Temperatures below 5deg Celsius are unusual in Melbourne, so 3.9 was a bit chilly this morning. Awful for people sleeping rough.

@Snowshadow
We managed to house the homeless during the first 2 years of the pandemic. Political will.

@Snowshadow
Have you seen the Michael Moore doco Where to Invade Next? Stupid title, but he looks at European countries with much better ways of providing certain services, working conditions etc. So much better than UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc.

I don’t get people’s utter complacency about Covid. In an audience of about 250 people at a concert last night, we were 2 of about 6 people wearing masks. None of the main choir were masked, but 2 of the junior choir (18-29) were & I admired their will to be different.

I’m trying to live my life in a pandemic. I’m not panicked, just taking precautions. My mental health would suffer too much if I further reduced my social interactions to reduce Covid risk, but I’m simply not capable of lying to myself & pretending that there is no need to take any precautions. And the fact that other intelligent people are capable of doing so is beyond my comprehension.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-16/children-with-long-covid-dismissed-doctors-myth-virus-harmless/103959078?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

I think that one of my neutered male cats is attempting to mate with my dressing gown. Kind of disturbing.

@PhoenixSerenity

The dressing gown didn't show a great deal of interest.

@PhoenixSerenity

One of their favourite toys is a long length of cord. they haven't managed to tie themselves up it it, but they do get tangled when we're playing with them and the cord. 😆

@PhoenixSerenity

I love that! George has managed to extract a few things from a kitchen drawer, but not a chopstick so far. He loves a little clear plastic lid from a little cleaning spray for my glasses, but keeps losing it under the furniture.