Echinocentric @Echinocentric@social.cleverlibre.org

UNREAL! "Elon Musk Allows Editor of Neo-Nazi Site The Daily Stormer Back on Twitter." This vile person is the one I sued after he and the his followers threatened to kill me for demanding Trump denounce white supremacists. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/neo-nazi-website-hit-4-1-million-defamation-penalty-n1016886

Elon Musk seems to think it’s ok to allow white supremacists and Nazis on Twitter as long as they aren’t tweeting overt hate speech, but the problem with that is that it inherently sends a message that their ideas are worthy of consideration — even though we know the endpoint of those ideas is violence, death, and ultimately genocide. Those ideas are not, in fact, worthy of consideration. 2/

Now seems like a good time to talk about how far-right extremists are using the Overton Window theory to force their ideas into the mainstream. The premise here is that today’s fringe ideas/beliefs can become tomorrow’s normal by shifting the boundaries of acceptable discourse. You do that by introducing people to more & more extreme ideas, so everything else seems reasonable in comparison.

eg, when “praising Hitler” becomes the comparison point, low-key bigotry suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. 1/

The concern isn’t that letting Nazis back on Twitter (or any other major platform) is going to make people suddenly start thinking Nazis are good. The concern is that when people get used to hearing their ideas, other extreme ideas start sounding kind of reasonable and even acceptable. That’s the Overton Window, and it explains a lot about what’s going on right now. Far-right extremists use this tactic more effectively than any other group I’ve ever seen. 3/

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. - Anne Herbert

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

Isaac Asimov #Quotes #EmotionalIntelligence

#Brexit

Glen Etive in Scotland has fantastic dark skies when the weather is clear, however the looming mountains greatly reduce the area of sky available to you. A bit of pre planning allowed me the opportunity to photograph the Milky Way between two mountains as its core set on the horizon. I used a Nisi Natural Night filter to help reduce the light pollution appearing just above the mountains.

#Photography #AstroPhotography #Scotland #DarkSky

Despite how sharks are portrayed in movies and reality tv, here’s what to remember 🦈

Sharks kill 5-10 humans each year.

Humans kill ~100 million sharks each year (and that’s a conservative estimate).

Many species are now threatened with extinction.

Don’t fear sharks. Protect them.

The vicious cycle of monopolization:

1) Corporations argue that their growth is just part of the free market.
2) Use their monopoly power to gouge consumers.
3) Take a portion of their profits to make political donations.
4) Lobby against antitrust enforcement.
5) Repeat.

If you are concerned about "free speech," you should probably be concerned about the top Republican candidate for the presidency calling for the Constitution, which includes the First Amendment, to be suspended.

"Most people don't really want the Truth. They just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth."

Friedrich #Nietzsche
#Quotes #EmotionalIntelligence

The school reopening debate in this pandemic has been the first time well-off white parents, who wanted a break from their kids, were confronted with an argument they themselves had typically reserved for struggling poor and Black parents: You made the choice to have a kid, deal with what that means.

…they did not take it well.

Influenza maps for the fourth week of November in 2008, 2012, 2021, and 2022.

Flu maps for all weekly reports for 2008-present are available on https://iowacovid19tracker.org/influenza/ in the nationwide and Iowa-exclusive vizzes.

It seems important that the immediate past President of the United States and the likely Republican nominee for President in 2024 has called for suspension of the Constitution. We cannot ignore the normalization of such an outrage. Every news show should be focused on this.

Lots of ink spilled over the years about conservative white resentment and how much we need to pay attention to it, and understand it better, and accommodate it more.

About time attention was paid to the resentment the rest of us feel, forced to live in a country that accommodates resentful white conservative as a 1st priority, no matter what they do, no matter how wrong they are, no matter how destructive they become.

The reason capital-aligned right wing groups are spreading disinformation about the efficacy of things like masks, vaccines, and air filtration/ventilation in combatting COVID is that they don’t want demand for new workplace protections/regulations imposed on businesses.

“Everyone is going to get COVID and you can’t stop it” is a lie meant to absolve business of any responsibility or liability to workers.

What’s YEdolf Hitler up to today?

Anyone still posting on Twitter is actively helping the fascists achieve their goals. Musk is banning leftist accounts and hate speech is up 61%.
STOP TWEETING!
FIGHT THESE BASTARDS! FIGHT THE FASCISTS!

With Elon Musk going on about Hunter Biden, he sounds a bit like he belongs in the new GOP Congressional majority, and not in the board room.