Erica Brooks

@ebrooks.bsky.social

Posts

Trying out yet another birdsite alternative... She/her. Middle-aged white cishet lady trying not to be a jerk. #ActuallyAutistic. Profile pic by Camilo Aguire.
Mastodon: @[email protected]

Posts Replies Media

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Erica Brooks

Since so many of you have cancelled the NYTimes, here is a gift link to an incredible story. Really it is two stories, interwoven, about themes I’ve been thinking about - kidnapping, misogyny, inheritance, survival, and trauma — a sometimes difficult read and very thoughtfully considered 🎁

The Kidnapping I Can’t Escapewww.nytimes.com Fifty years ago, my father’s friend was taken at gunpoint on Long Island. Then he went on with his life — and that’s the part that haunts me.

Something I noticed a lot during Trump is that the news read like a fantasy novel where Trump was the protagonist and everything that happened mattered only as story beats in his ultimately sympathetic and triumphant character arc.

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Erica Brooks

The first step in 2025 was to Overton Window the first steps Which were a committed and continuous attack of the most consistent unprotected people Materially and narratively And none of these shock writeups include reflection about who that is/was and how to support them

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Erica Brooks

Capitalists, burning the world to death: I just don't think other systems work in the real world

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Erica Brooks

What I'm concluding from the mild amount of "Oh, that's.... OK actually" I'm feeling when reading ministerial updates is that 14 years of tory rule has made my bar just so, so low. Just so low.

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Erica Brooks

EAT SHIT TERF

BYE JOANNA CHERRY

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Erica Brooks

Reply to

Martin Nutbeem

And this is the main thrust of this post, ok the Tories may be gone (and I certainly hope they lose power), but now we need to collectively protect the rights of the minorities who’ve become punching bags. Asylum seekers, immigrants, the disabled, benefit claimants, our Trans brethren and more. -15

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Erica Brooks

So this is the North and Leith Labour candidate praising Beira's Space, the specifically transphobic refuge set up by JK Rowling and her cronies. I went looking after she mentioned "defending women's rights" in her campaign video... but didn't say what that meant, which sounded dog-whistley It was

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Erica Brooks

And remember, the Christian Right only took up abortion as a topic after they lost school segregation for good when the IRS went after Bob Jones’ U status, & needed a new issue to rally the troops. 1/x all our issues are intertwined. 🧵

The United States has always been a democracy for some and a brutal authoritarian regime for others, and the effort to expand it to democracy for all has led to a 70+ year backlash culminating in SCOTUS claiming that kings are totes cool and also judges are the ones to coronate them

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Erica Brooks

Again, Black people are an exception here, as basically anyone who stayed in the Jim Crow South has a living memory of living under what amounted to fascism, including the “always walking on eggshells/lack of social trust/long periods of boring endurance/randomized terrifying violence”

Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.

Literally just started watching The Boys this weekend. Literally just watched the scene where Homelander goes full you-can’t-control-me-I’m-the-real-hero. Literally watched that scene then clicked over here and saw the SCOTUS immunity decision.

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Erica Brooks

'You only have until June 26, 2024 to say no to Meta taking your personal photos and words and using them to train their generative AI. Here are step-by-step directions for opting out.' Link: deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/11-steps-t... #Privacy #Meta #Facebook

11 steps to keep Meta from stealing your data to train AIdeborahcopaken.substack.com You only have until June 26, 2024 to say no to Meta taking your personal photos and words and using them to train their generative AI. Here are step-by-step directions for opting out.

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Erica Brooks

a ruthless predator, alligators will sometimes use jazz hands to lure musical theatre people to their deaths

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Erica Brooks

If you haven't been following what's happening in the UK, the Good Law Project has announced that they've been in contact with multiple whistleblowers from the NHS GIDs and have learned of sixteen young people who have died since the initial Bell ruling in 2020, after which blockers were paused.

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Erica Brooks

Reply to

Amy Hoy

It's months old, I have been trying to clear my billion open tabs. But the timing worked out lol

Suicide Missionprospect.org What Boeing did to all the guys who remember how to build a plane

🧵

Make a movie milder: Star Short Stroll

Make a movie milder: The Shawshank Improvement

People really misunderstand Evie/fundy logic. It always starts with where it wants to end up and then backtracks from there to fill in the argument. This gets sold as reason, and as evidence-based belief, and if you’re deep in it you don’t even realise you’re doing it.

I think this piece wildly misunderstands the reason why white conservative Christians (Evangelicals in particular) need to pretend Trump is Christlike and why they’re so hateful toward women and minorities.

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Erica Brooks

Your reminder than any rules insisting trans people are separated out in hospitals or anywhere else is actually insisting that *everyone* must be subjected to intrusive and offensive enquiries to satisfy a tiny minority of noisy bigots obsessed with something that's none of their damn business.

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Erica Brooks

Letter to Joe Biden from Israeli teenagers who are in prison for refusing to join the IDF:

Israeli teens in prison for refusing to join the IDF have sent President Biden a letter urging him to use his power to stop the war. They say US support has let Israel "wage unprecedented carnage in Gaza, making the Israeli society complicit in unspeakable crimes."

Israeli Military Refusers Appeal to Biden: “Stop Arming Israel’s War”theintercept.com Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr, who are in prison for refusing to serve in Israel’s military, are pleading with Biden to help stop the war on Gaza.

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Erica Brooks

doctor: yup, looks like you're autistic me: oh damn, is it curable? doctor: for a lot of people the cure is just to suck it up, but otherwise no, it's terminal me: fuck, that's awful. what are the symptoms? doctor: you're pretty much just like, not good at hanging out. the vibes are iffy

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Erica Brooks

y'all. look what i found. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEfF...

Rent Opening Night VHSwww.youtube.com Info provided by Jtmcf13 and robercik101:Introduction - 0:00 ACT 1 Tune Up #1 - 0:53 Voice Mail #1 - 1:42 Tune Up #2 - 2:21 Rent - 3:56You Okay Honey? - 8:1...

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Erica Brooks

This is maybe the greatest and happiest headline we’ve seen in years. Every two words ramps up your excitement www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Jeff Bridges, Dave Bautista to Star in Live-Action Monster Movie ‘Grendel’ from Jim Henson Companywww.hollywoodreporter.com Bridges stars as the titular monster, while Bautista will play Beowulf in the Robert D. Krzykowski-directed project.

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Erica Brooks

It's a good time to re/watch Rick Steves' incredibly informative show, "Fascism in Europe". In this one-hour special, Rick traces fascism's history in Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain). The goal: to learn from the hard lessons of the 20th century, and to recognize that ideology in the 21st century.

UN alarm over rightwing laws that could ‘whitewash’ Franco era in Spain

UN alarm over rightwing laws that could ‘whitewash’ Franco era in Spainwww.theguardian.com Three UN experts warn proposed ‘harmony laws’ may contravene global human rights standards

Rick Steves' Fascism in Europe (promo)youtu.be Watch the full one-hour special at https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/fascism In this one-hour special, Rick travels back a century to learn how fascism rose and then fell in Europe — taking millions of people with it. We'll trace fascism's history from its roots in the turbulent aftermath of World War I, when masses of angry people rose up, to the rise of charismatic leaders who manipulated that anger, the totalitarian societies they built, and the brutal measures they used to enforce their ideology. We'll see the horrific consequences: genocide and total war. And we'll be inspired by the stories of those who resisted. Along the way, we'll visit poignant sights throughout Europe relating to fascism, and talk with Europeans whose families lived through those times. Our goal: to learn from the hard lessons of 20th-century Europe, and to recognize that ideology in the 21st century. Rick Steves' The Story of Fascism premiered fall 2018 on public television. Visit http://www.ricksteves.com for more information about this destination and other destinations in Europe. Check out more Rick Steves’ Europe travel resources: “Rick Steves’ Europe” public television series: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show “Travel with Rick Steves” public radio program: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/radio European Tours: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours Guidebooks: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/guidebooks Travel Gear: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/ Trip Consulting: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/plan-your-trip-with-our-expert-consultants Travel Classes: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/travel-talks Rick Steves Audio Europe App: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-europe Rick Steves, America's most respected authority on European travel, writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio.

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Erica Brooks

"Our cameras bear the responsibility of recording the events – to allow the viewers to see, and, most importantly, place themselves in our point of view with a space for empathy that a photo like this provides." These student journalists have more integrity than the whole of the profession.

Photos. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

‘I was lying on the ground beside a wall of cops’: student photographers’ best images of the campus protestswww.theguardian.com Nine photojournalists from across the US tell the stories behind their most powerful shots, as pro-Palestinian protesters face police crackdowns

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Erica Brooks

Autistic Kids Tricked Into Going Trans, Claims Woman Who’s Never Tried To Make An Autistic Child Do Anything They Don’t Want To Do: thedailytism.com/autistic-kid...

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Erica Brooks

Worth pointing out that Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away and the tech it's using was launched into space a week before the Atari 2600 came out. A private corporation would have written this thing off years ago. FUND NASA.

HOLY SHIT THEY FIXED VOYAGER I …!!! blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024...

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Erica Brooks

Just incredible news on reviving Voyager I. Think of it: a computer chip 15 billion(!) miles away is broken. The solution is to repackage & move key software, w/ code sent via radio signal that takes 22+ hrs to reach that little 46yr old machine. AND IT IS WORKING. blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024...

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth – Voyagerblogs.nasa.gov

Uhhh The Bad Batch. I pity my kidnappers.

You've been kidnapped; the characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who's coming to save you?

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Erica Brooks

Reply to

Alyssa Harad

While we’re at it, “pandemic fatigue” was, in many cases, fatigue with an incoherent state response. It was decision fatigue in a populace expected to fend for themselves without the expertise or information to do so. It was the exhaustion of hyperindividualism.