John Scalzi Profile picture
Oct 1, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read Read on X
1. Yes, but also, here's a thing: I am not ignorant, nor am I uneducated, nor am I malign on these issues, AND STILL I got waaaay too far along in my adult life thinking systematic racism wasn't still as active, and endemic and as pervasive as it actually is...
2. ... and at this point, as much as I am aware of it especially thanks to the last four years, what I'm even more aware of is that I am still largely insulated from its realities and in most ways will not ever experience its depths. And ALL of that is for the same reason...
3. ...which is that a salient feature of systematic racism is its ability to mask from its beneficiaries (including mostly liberal, mostly educated, mostly not ignorant white people, like me) how bad and pervasive it STILL is at every level.
4. Systematic racism defends itself by magnifying small gains, minimizing all the places where it still runs rampant, and by telling its beneficiaries that enough progress has been made today, go ahead and feel proud of yourself, and, jeez, why are those other folks still irate?
5. Indeed, I'm ashamed to say one of the reasons I *am* as aware how prevalent systematic racism still is today is because Trump et al are just simply SO BAD at their racist villainy that the usual level of systematic obfuscation is off the table.
6. So, yes, lots of people choose not to see the systematic racism, and that's bad. Let's also acknowledge that systematic racism isn't always at full volume; there are all sorts of ways it works, to convince even it beneficiaries who know it's bad that it's not all THAT bad...
7. ...even as those who suffer the full brunt of it are telling them how bad it is, and still is, and will continue to be without massive and systematic change. I see this better now, which is good. I know I still don't see it all. That's on me to work on.

/end
PS: let's finish on a cat pic, as is customary for longer threads. I woke Spice up for this photo.

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More from @scalzi

May 13, 2023
1. To reiterate this once again for everyone: If you see me blurbing a book, it's because I have actually read the fucking thing and I liked it enough to say so in public. I (and I daresay Neil) don't have to blurb a goddamned thing for self-promotion. "My own view on this i...
2. A blurb won't make or break a book, but they certainly can have an effect on the margins - several is the time where someone has told me they found a new favorite book because they saw my blurb for it and that helped them to take a chance on it. That makes me happy. It worked.
3. I think it's easy to be cynical about blurbs and I think it's reasonable to take them with a grain of salt (the bit about good authors sometimes having bad taste is... not wrong). But the heart of blurbing is authors being actual READERS and being excited to share new books.
Read 11 tweets
Jan 19, 2023
Well, fuck, guess I'll never be allowed to talk to Texas kids either. Ain't that some shit.

lithub.com/emma-straub-go…
I remember 4th grade being the year the kids at Ben Lomond Elementary decided they were incorporating swear words into their vocabulary, and I have never heard more and more consistent swearing before or since. So, yes, Texas parents, your precious children have let "fuck" fly.
Note to self: Write into appearance contracts that if I'm "disinvited" to an event, that I'm still to be paid my appearance fee plus all non-refundable expenses (air fare, etc). If nothing else, it will cut down on bullshit invites from snowflaky sorts.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 3, 2023
1. So, a thread on where I am with Twitter right now, and how, at the moment, I'm going to be using it. Don't worry, there's a cat picture at the end of it.
2. First, I'm of two minds of Twitter's immediate survival. Anecdotally it feels like the follower bloodletting has subsided a bit, which is good, but the actual technological foundation is crumbling more rapidly, which is bad. Musk is closing data centers and not paying rent...
3. ... or paying key creditors, which means absolutely nothing good. It's entirely possible Twitter blows up simply from tech neglect and/or lack of capacity and/or employees getting sick of having to bring their own toilet paper because Musk fired the janitors...
Read 14 tweets
Dec 20, 2022
THREAD: I've had people ask, given the general ridiculousness, mercuriality and fascist-friendly demeanor of Twitter's current owner, if I intend to stick around. So, here's the current state of my thinking, and why, for now, the answer is yes.
First, bluntly, I don't expect the current owner will remain the current owner for very long. He's losing too much money and he's damaged the product too much for it to become profitable for him. If he still owns it in a year, I'll be mildly surprised; in two, very surprised.
(If he still owns it in two years, it's because he's tried to use Twitter to become a kingmaker in the 2024 election cycle. While I don't think that's going to be great for anyone, I also suspect the body politic will have a few more antibodies against that kind of fuckery.)
Read 17 tweets
Dec 2, 2022
1. Because I think it'll be fun, I'm going to do a daily advent-like calendar of AI images made from Christmas-themed text prompts, and make it into a thread. Also, to support actual artists and the impact their art can have, I have donated to @RxArtInc:

rxart.net
2. From the mission statement of @RxArtInc: "RxART commissions established contemporary artists to transform children’s hospital settings into engaging and uplifting healing environments." That seems like a worthy goal and worth donating to.

rxart.net/support/projec… Some of the art RxArt has commissioned from artists, to live
3. If you enjoy the thread of (sometimes weird but hopefully fun) images I'll be posting here, I hope you'll consider donating to @rxart and/or other visual arts-related charities near you, and also supporting actual artists and their buying their work. Support art and artists!
Read 5 tweets
Nov 27, 2022
The prompt was "A baby in a manger but the manger was designed by Jony Ive" and, Jesus (no pun intended), AI-generated art got smart fast

(It's @midjourney, in case you were wondering) The manger is a minimalist cube, because of course it is.
Another baby in a manger, this one designed by Frank Gehry It's all swoops and bizarre angles.
This manger is from Philip Johnson, and for the sake of propriety, I assume the rest of the puppy is on the other side of the swaddling blanket It's a glass dome, actually more like a snow globe (but with
Read 4 tweets

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