Should I simply stop looking at my feed and commit to the herculean feat of gradually going through ~3 years of bookmarks as a final hail mary before abandoning the site formerly known as twitter? (This is a non-binding referendum) @atheopagan Anyway, the more operative question here is whether I should go through the bookmarks, I won't transition to bsky before they introduce dms, at minimum

People have a right to freely choose what puberty they will go through. This simple fact about the necessary application of the innate, inalienable and unconditional right of self-determination is often obscured by self-interested enemies of Justice, but it is, in fact, decisive. I think this is a case where, like with reproductive rights vis a vis prohibition of abortion, more attention should be paid not just to the undesired and coerced end result, but the, harm, coercion and body horror inherent in being forced through an unwanted biological process

Any excuses to the effect that Neely might have needed to be restrained are besides the point. When somene is killed the killer should always be prosecuted so that evidence of what happened can be examined with a high degree of scrutiny. Then we can tell if this was so, or not. Murder is a significant enough wrong, possibly the most significant wrong that doesn't involve serious systemic injustice or overturning the condition of Right altogether, that it shouldn't be let slide on vibes. Maybe the killer was negligent. Let them defend themselves thus.

This is in response to Neely's murder, so here's a fun fact: "I don't care" was an italian fascist slogan used in response to public outrage about the murders they perpetrated against political adversaries and undesirables. It was so popular it became the motto of the blackshirts

https://twitter.com/BUGGYandBUCKY/status/1653916613975080960

So, for those of you paying attention, american """conservatives""" are literally at the "me ne frego" stage of their descent into unabashed fascism. The republicans, already being a party taken over by such people, are at least a second stage fascist movement.

What academics call stochastic terrorism is not actually all that novel or convoluted. It's just the time-honoured activity of inciting a pogrom against undesirables as it would appear in the era of global communication through the internet. Instead of shouting in front of someone's house to get a hateful crowd riled up enough to assault them and others like them, you're posting on your novelty "libsofticktock" account, but you're doing exactly (precisely) the same thing. Only the mode of communication is modernised.

Anti-war claims invariably revolve around the aggressor ceasing hostilities and removing its army from occupied territories. Suggesting the defender should capitulate and that territorial expansion should be secured for the aggressor is as blatantly pro-war as you can get. It's the fundamental demand of the warring party itself! Someone suggesting that Britain should capitulate to the 3rd Reich to save lives from terror bombing, or, if you prefer, that Iraq should capitulate to the US for the same reason, is not in any universe a pacifist voice.

People who believe this either a) have exactly zero experience navigating actually existing hierarchical institutions, b) have an interest in defending institutions in which they occupy or aspire to occupy a position of privilege or c) are profoundly dim. No further alternatives.

https://twitter.com/StefanFSchubert/status/1504078431230869504

I can assure you of two things that will inexorably serve you as you navigate the social world: 1. "elites" are the dumbest, most pedestrian, downright crude people you don't know and 2. Nepotism and servility are the supreme regulative principles of all hierarchical life.

I decided to take a look at Mason's book about humanism out of curiousity, and the literal first claim I fell upon was that the neoliberal subject chose autonomy over security, directly followed by the equally unhinged claim that borrowing is an attitude developed after the 90s. Currently racking my brain trying to imagine the kind of person that thinks this is like, deep analysis, but I'm afraid I'm at the limit of my ability to adopt foreign perspectives.

@HieronymusBonn @josh_philosophy @morallawwithin I think Plato is kind of a poster boy for the efficacy of pure practical reason against historicism, in that he managed to stake positions very notably in advance of his time. @HieronymusBonn @josh_philosophy @morallawwithin That being said, I don't think harm is the central prpblem with punishment, and while I think Kant frames it correctly in terms of the moral necessity and internal limits of rightful public coercion (the true foundation of his theory of punishment),

Capitalism? Cisnormativity? Systems of supervision and discipline? governmentality? The Matrix is actually about how it's a sin to create thinking machines, can't believe people missed this Have I mentioned how one of my conservative acquaintances thought Parasite was about how the poor need to take responsibility for their poverty and realize you can only free yourself by working hard to make money? I'm not joking.

The Rittenhouse trial crucially depended on his mens rea, so it was sadly predictable he'd be acquitted since the judge decided, wrongly, to disallow showing the jury video evidence that he wanted to kill protesters ("looters") at a demonstration like the one he ended up in. Since this detail was ommitted, the main clue to his intent became the fact that he was carrying a first aid kit, so his premeditated intent to kill specific targets of choice could no longer be established, and the trial became about establishing whether his defence was putative

I love this metaphor because it brings to light the hilarity of DDE intention-mongering. You see, if the mass murder of undesirables by the nazis was a merely foreseen but unintended consequence of their political program, if they did not target jewish people *as such*... what? One funny thing about """merely foreseen""" consequences of my actions is that they do happen to be subject to my choice in much the same way as those I "intend". I am aware of the impact of my choice on the world, and I willingly make it, and it is my will that brings it about.

Lmao, the Dockkk of Stockkk is out there excusing herself with "listen, I'm not saying all of the individual members of that group are degenerate sexual deviants, that would be transphobic, I'm only saying they're typically degenerate sexual deviants, which is different and fine" I laugh, cryingly

The idea that the police is necessary to maintain order is hilarious. The police is not actively supervising virtually any of the areas that remain as peaceful as the next one, and policing is actually linked with increased violence and conflict, but that's not all. If people were in fact inclined towards serious criminality and violence, the police would not, by any stretch of the imagination, be able to do anything about it. They are massively outnumbered. Order is maintained because people are conflict averse. Not because of any sheepdogs

Honestly, the prevalence of these inane, and frankly embarassing, rituals even on the left make me think there's some shared underlying cultural factor controlling for the success of over the top evangelical conservatives in the US.

https://twitter.com/GhostVirusX/status/1267921555704606720

The US is a society whose superego ran away with the proverbial ball and people of different backgrounds just look for different flavours of theatrical excess and moralising charlatans to deal with the debilitating trauma that this causes. This is my professional diagnosis.

Piracy is literally the main thing worth praise about the internet. It's unequivocally extremely good. It means freeer and more equal access to culture for people who would otherwise have no access to it, it means functional academic research,it means a vibrant creative community Try to imagine the internet without piracy. Even what we recognise as original creations from video essays to memes aren't reliably devoid of copyrighted content. It would be a pittiful sterilised emptiness interrupted only by carefully curated corporate content, ads and paywalls

@StartlinglyOkay I hope you won't mind that this will be a relatively extensive thread on the various issues with full-face (implicitly religious) veil bans. I tried to rein it in a bit, but I would not exaggerate the success of my effort (I failed completely). @StartlinglyOkay The first thing to consider is the particular piece of legislation, which might be connected with criminal or (more usually in the continent) administrative ("civil" in the anglo-saxon area) sanctions and hence raise different constitutional issues.