violetmadder

oatmeal , 1 month ago to palestine group

#Rafah / Haaretz v Ynet

This is roughly how mainstream Israel media whitewashes IDF’s war crimes. If you start with Hamas militants targeted, every atrocity is acceptable to the Israeli ear

Haaretz: dozens dead in an Israeli strike at a camp; IDF: we attacked Hamas militants

Ynet: IDF eliminated senior Hamas commanders; Palestinians (claim): tents set a blaze (nothing to do with the attack on a densely populated refugee camp, presumably), 28 dead

@palestine
@israel

Nighttime scene of a massive fire in a refugee compound, with silhouettes of people in the foreground. Hebrew text overlay details the event.

violetmadder , 27 days ago

@oatmeal @palestine @israel

Ouch. Some angles I hadn't thought of, there.

futurebird , 28 days ago to random

Thom Hartmann is disturbed by a field of wildflowers... but not an insect in sight...

https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-loss-of-insects-a-desperate-7fe/comments

It's hard to quantify the loss of insects since we have never kept great track of them to begin with.

violetmadder , 28 days ago

@futurebird @stevenbodzin

https://www.audubon.org/news/north-america-has-lost-more-1-4-birds-last-50-years-new-study-says

violetmadder , 27 days ago

@stevenbodzin @futurebird

Define "plenty".

Let's say we haven't lost 90% yet, say it's 25%. You wouldn't pull 25% of the tubes and screws out of an engine and still expect it to keep running properly, now would you?

Okay, so natural systems attempt to heal, and organisms reproduce, but just how much damage do you really think it can take? How many keystone species are already gone, causing damage and ripple effects we're not going to fully see or understand for years?

Systems fail in cascades. Between the changes in weather, introduction of invasive species and diseases, habitat loss, toxins-- we are in very, very big trouble.

violetmadder , 27 days ago

@stevenbodzin @futurebird

The trouble is it's really difficult to fully grasp the scale and complexity of the issue, and the usual level of education people have on science and biology falls woefully short.

There's always something more we can do, something to save, reasons to fight. It's strange how many people go from "oh it's not a problem" directly to "oh well nothing we can do" without much problem-solving in between.

I'm volunteering at local nurseries and gardens, and propagating native plants. Hopefully more word will get out about what people can do in their own yards (or neighbors' yards or even road verges) to help.

faab64 , 1 month ago to random

Two Red Crescent paramedics were murdered by #IDF while they were working in #Rafah last night. Their ambulance was hit directly and intentionally.

Of course the usual excuse by IDF is that there were #Hamas fighters in the ambulances. Ignoring that injured fighters are not legitimate targets, specially if they are inside an ambulance receiving care.

But Geneva convention doesn't apply to Israel unless we hold them accountable.
#WarCrime #RedCrescent #Gaza #SaveGaza #StopIsrael #SaveTheChildren
#palestine #Israel #Politics #PeaceNow #StopTheWar #CeasefireNow

Bodies of 2 murdered Red Cresent ambulance staff being transferred to one of the last functioning care facilities in Rafah.
Bodies of 2 murdered Red Cresent ambulance staff being transferred to one of the last functioning care facilities in Rafah.
Bodies of 2 murdered Red Cresent ambulance staff being transferred to one of the last functioning care facilities in Rafah.

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@lymphomation @faab64

The primary blame for an atrocity rests squarely on the person who perpetrated it. Every time. Whatever their reasons or excuses, they chose to pull the trigger. The person with power is responsible for what they do with it.

Slaughtering 20 civilians per terrorist is a deliberate choice, for which there is NO excuse. Period. Bombing children is not an issue to quibble over.

OGjester , 1 month ago to random

If you don’t think there’s a literal civil war going on, set aside five minutes to watch a smidge of Fox ”News” tonight. I don’t think you realize how truly unhinged and detached from reality the Right has become.

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@KatM @OGjester @JonChevreau

I think I have a pretty good grasp on it.

Actually watching more of it gives me hives though.

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@_L1vY_ @KatM @OGjester @JonChevreau

One of my roommates likes to watch those nightly shows or other videos where people are making fun of Trump and all, and it's just not funny to me anymore.

5 minutes of that damn show The Apprentice was enough for me to decide I'd already seen enough, and didn't want to give that grotesquery one more minute in my head. I don't want to hear his voice, not even people doing impersonations to mock him. I don't want to see his face. I don't ever want to give him one more drop of attention or energy than what it takes to say he is a horrible person who needs to be stopped.

futurebird , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

These AI SEO spam operations have used lists of common searches to ensure that their pages come up first in searches in the “long fat tail” the kind of search where it used to be about 50/50 if you’d find a page addressing your needs. But, it used to be if you found something like “The top 15 smallest ants in the world” it wouldn’t be nonsense. It’d either exist and be the work of another person who cared OR you found nothing. Not so now! I can’t possibly over-stress how bad this is! 1/

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@NatureMC @futurebird

Definitely not overstressing.

It's actually very hard to overstate the scale of this nightmare. The world of information is drowning in botshit.

In fact, I honestly believe it's a weapon.

futurebird , 1 month ago to random

"Howdy folks. 'Tis the season to watch yer aphid herd right close. Beware of them dastardly aphid rustlers lurking 'mongst the leaves. They go by the name of lacewings, but ain't nothin' delicate 'bout 'em. They'll try to fool ya by masqueradin' as harmless lichen. Wicked! spits"

-Ant leaning on a tiny barbwire fence tipping her 10mL hat at you

#LichenSubscribe

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@futurebird

That face looks like an ant lion!

futurebird , 1 month ago to random

I have a soft spot for Libertarians even though I shouldn't and they don't deserve it. When I was a kid I had a weird neighbor who was always giving me Libertarian books... I wish I still had some of them they were WILD. He was a thorn in the side of the local, school board as well insisting that if they had an event at the school that involved politics Libertarians had to be included.

And in defense of the guy, he was about as likable and earnest as a Libertarian could be.

1/

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@moira @darcher @futurebird @richpuchalsky @jonquass @ehproque

The thing is, it's no accident that we do NOT have ranked choice voting.

And it's no accident that the Democratic Party spends more time and energy scapegoating 3rd party voters, than it ever will advocating for RCV.

The spoiler effect is a weapon, and they're viciously exploiting it. This is voter suppression, and they've trained a disturbing number of people to help them with it.

And while they have everyone trapped in this two-party funnel, we're just prisoners arguing over whether or not to take the "good" cop's deal, as if the bad cop is actually their enemy and not a tag team partner they're enabling and using to soften us up. Everybody's gathered around arguing so loudly about the damn lever, we stopped looking for another way to stop the trolley-- and what are we going to do about the assholes tying people to the tracks, anyway?

faab64 , 1 month ago to random

The #Harvard Corporation officially votes to withhold degrees from 13 seniors for #protesting the #genocide in #Gaza.

This is truly outrageous.

#Politics #StudentProtests

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@faab64 @rad @milennialzero

Our "freedom" and "democracy" has always been shallow. Different classes ruled by different laws-- certain people get to feel free, while others get stomped.

I think what's happening now is, as climate change cranks up the pressure on us, the power structures are consolidating their hold and preparing for major unrest. They are focused on the resource scramble-- the competitive looting of our natural resources and what blood is left to drain from the lower classes, to be used to secure the nicer resorts they'll camp out in to watch the world burn.

They're getting less and less concerned with maintaining the plausible illusion of peace and security-- that's fading in favor of cultivating fear, insecurity, precarity. Normalizing large-scale violence and injustice, encouraging people to hope for nothing more than the dubious favors of the less horrible oppressors. The velvet glove is fraying as the iron fist prepares to tighten its grip.

neonsnake , 1 month ago to random

Starting to see lots of threads with "missing" posts, where my mates are responding to what appears to be bad faith questions - based only their response posts.

Guessing I'm either blocked or have blocked, and I'm counting this is a win, tbh.

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@CedarTea @neonsnake

I also very rarely block.

I use the feature for putting a note on a profile, to track who's said something particularly objectionable or just to remember where they stand.

I don't like blinding myself to the nasty stuff that's being said (especially to people who might be new or vulnerable) or the types of arguments being used in general discourse.

And I don't like helping people avoid the important issues I talk about that they don't want to think about.

puppygirlhornypost , 1 month ago to random

you know what i haven't seen on fedi that actually makes me a bit sad

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@puppygirlhornypost

It drives me bonkers how intersex folks get left out of so many discussions as if they're simply too rare to matter-- even though they're approximately as common as redheads.

While I lived in a place with a strong queer community of all imaginable sorts I knew several openly intersex people, for real, in person. Not theoretical, not imaginary, not a rounding error. Real. One still suffers from the medical consequences of what was done to forcibly assign them as an infant. They wonder what their life could have been like if they were allowed to choose how to express themselves and live whatever way could have come naturally to them.

Our world is incomplete without these people. They are an important part of the normal range of human variation.

(You have all met some, I promise you. Possibly dozens of them.)

gwynnion , 1 month ago to random

The Very Serious Person perspective on Israel-Palestine is predicated on several interlocking beliefs:

1. Palestinian lives don't matter and are automatically forfeit because of Hamas or whatever,

2. Arabic and Muslim lives and perspectives generally don't matter,

3. Israel is necessary for the US to project power against its Arabic and Muslim neighbors, and thus,

4. Israel must always be allowed to "win" the "peace" process on its terms for that alliance to continue.

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@gwynnion

And if none of this sounds like it makes a damn bit of rational sense, well, we're just silly uneducated people who don't understand the amazingly complex nuances of Middle East history, right?

All this wouldn't be happening without SOME kind of very good reason that us unwashed masses are too lowly to grasp.

MikeDunnAuthor , 1 month ago to random

violetmadder , 1 month ago

@MikeDunnAuthor

Emphasis: all PROFITS.

$78/hr is what's left AFTER the overhead (minus whatever wage they normally get I suppose).