Mac

@mrsmacwasmygma.bsky.social

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Mac

Schooling for a democratic citizenship is substantially different in its ends and means than schooling-as-technical-education, and it's no accident that those pushing hardest for the latter overlap significantly with those diminishing the need for the former.

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Mac

i don’t think this drives sympathy for Trump exactly, but i do think fascists thrive amidst political violence. there’s a promise in fascism to harness the violence, keep it contained, and direct it at your enemies. the more chaotic things get, the more appealing that is.

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Mac

“political violence” is when violence is done to a politician. everything they cause is a different thing and you shouldn’t worry about it

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Mac

Welp here we go...

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Mac

Taylor does a great job of situating phones & social media w/in the framework of past moral panics abt kids & girls in particular, but I especially love her criticism of adults not doing much else to provide safe accessible places for kids to exist outside in the "real world".

NEW EPISODE! This week, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social fights our latest moral panic. Are phones really making kids anxious, or are kids just good at noticing what’s going on?

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Mac

In fact, if we had a society built on care and support of its people, charities and philanthropy would be rendered obsolete. They're nothing more than apparatchiks of capitalism.

honestly I think motives matter MORE when doing charity. philanthrocapitalism only reinforces inequality.

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Mac

Once again I bang on my drum labeled "there are many studies showing how humans learn best and traditional public school not only does not put that information to use, it often does the opposite, creating an environment that is actively hostile to real learning".

Doesn't the best case for cognitive load management also end up arguing for a radical restructuring of the typical 7-8 period HS school day, which seems is perfectly designed to overwhelm w/ task-switching & too much info in STM?

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Mac

I will bang this drum forever: in THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE: THE GERMANS, 1933-45 Milton Mayer interviewed 10 ordinary Germans after WW2 to learn how fascism took hold. There was never a moment when everyone woke up:

if you’re waiting for everyone around you to wake up, you’ll wait forever. this is how the people grinding our bones to make their bread WANT you to be. paralyzed, alienated & purposeless

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Mac

Reply to

Editing the Blue-Gray Lady

Change in Headline

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Mac

Reply to

Kaitlin Has Had Enough

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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Mac

March 23 1933, the Enabling Act becomes law in Germany, giving the chief executive power enforce his own laws without checks and balances. The passing of the Act marked the formal transition from democratic republic to totalitarian dictatorship. 6 months later, it was a 1 party state.

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Mac

Reply to

Nails Nathan

The case for abolition, UBI, universal housing and healthcare has the power of moral force. Couching these positions in the idea they’re actually secretly popular muddles the argument and elides the very real work that needs to be done in convincing people.

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Mac

Reply to

Melissa Gira Grant

more building community support networks right now, less hoping lawyers will sort it out someday

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Mac

Reply to

Olivia Stephens

the reason they kill oral storytellers, the reason they burn the written record, the reason they ban the teaching of history is because they need everyone to believe that this SUFFERING is all that has ever been possible and is all that we can hope for. don't you ever fucking swallow their bullshit.

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Mac

Reply to

Olivia Stephens

i saw a lot of "i can't believe this is the best political system we have" last night and: 1. it isn't 2. 'better' has existed, and will exist again if you stop taking the white colonial historical record as the fucking gospel!

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Mac

Reply to

Nails Nathan

I’ve seen people without housing dress like fashion icons everyday just to hit the block. The idea that human endeavor has to be wrung out of people by creating want is eugenic bullshit.

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Mac

The absolutely wild thing is: This goes for ALL social aid. Just *giving people some fucking money,* literally going "OK, how much did you need?", cutting checks, and waving them out the door? COSTS LESS and HAS BETTER OUTCOMES than the current system's bureaucracy and means testing, EVERY TIME.

With alt-text because THIS IS LITERALLY EVERYONE’S EXPERIENCE & I FUCKING HATE IT. Being disabled is a godsdamn full time job battling different agencies all damn day. #NEISvoid

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Mac

I'll come out and say it. AI feels very abuse/sexpesty. I don't want it, I didn't consent to it, it causes harm, wastes massive energy, has gigantic fuckboi red alerts, and produces only bullshit and pain while thieving our time.

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Mac

Reply to

Nails Nathan

If there’s a drug that makes older people more energetic and alert to the point they can perform the duties of the office of President it would be marketed as a miracle cure and these same people would tout it as proof that retirement is an outdated concept.

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Mac

"When politicians say [migrants are overwhelming local infrastructure], it is typically because they have refused to invest in that infrastructure for their own citizens long before the arrival of any migrants. [Isn't it easier to blame those] whom much of electorate are already primed to despise?"

I finally wrote an essay about the rise of the far-right in Germany, for DIE ZEIT. It’s called “The Hatred Is Accelerating” and you can read it in English here: www.zeit.de/kultur/2023-... and in German here: www.zeit.de/kultur/2023-... - if of interest, please share.

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Mac

These guys’ jobs are entirely based on grift. It doesn’t matter if they ever have a good idea for the rest of their lives. Their businesses never have to turn a buck. Their “genius” is measured by share price. Every Tesla in the world could catch fire & Elon could ostensibly earn another $44Bn.

It's pretty incredible to think they somehow spent fifty BILLION dollars on this as of a year or two ago and not only can I not fathom where that money went, but we barely even talk about it because it's overshadowed by even stupider wastes entirely by guys named Sam.

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Mac

How the hell do you “not look at COVID from a public health perspective”? If you can keep the mass death away from the forefront of your mind in that situation, you might be a Nazi www.reuters.com/investigates...

Remember when we banned TikTok because our autocratic adversaries might use propaganda to try and undermine faith in institutions and erode trust in the very idea of objective truth - using covert, subversive tactics on social media?

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccineswww.reuters.com The covert effort began under Trump and continued into Biden’s presidency, Reuters found. Health experts say it endangered lives for possible geopolitical gain.

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Mac

Reply to

Paul Crider

Closed borders are racist. It is MAGA-minded bullshit to pretend it doesn't matter that our immigration policy has since the Chinese Exclusion Act been used to exclude Black and brown immigrants in furtherance of white dominance. #OpenBordersDemocrats www.liberalcurrents.com/democracy-de...

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Mac

If you love "freedom," but don't care if it applies to everyone, what you actually love is "Privilege."

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Mac

Reply to

Seth Cotlar

The corollary to "don't trust the liberal media" has always been "but you can totally trust OUR media." There's a big difference between being a skeptical consumer of all media, & being a skeptical consumer of only the other side's media. The first is a democratic habit, the latter is authoritarian.

End of feed.