andrewrgross, 2 days ago

I just want to say that the most disturbing part of this is not that she did this. It’s that this is the message and image that she has carefully decided will help her achieve her career and personal goals.

Perhaps what could be worse is if she’s right.

I don’t think she is. I see a lot of signs of the left failing in ways that make me nervous. but recognition of the senselessness of imperialism is not one of these. I think there is a very strong, clear, growing consensus that our foreign policy is terrible. Many people don’t care that it’s terrible for people in other countries, only that it’s terrible for them, but that’s still a win.

I don’t love the concept of “isolationism” per se, but between that in empire, I’ll choose isolationism every time. I know there is a liberal establishment that finds isolationism more shocking that defunding the police, and I’m glad that they’re upset. This whole global domination thing that Haley and Biden and Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi and Hilary Clinton are obsessed with is just fucking terrible.

God, I will freely admit: it can get so much worse than Biden.

andrewrgross, 3 days ago

I want to add a word that I never see that needs to enter the mainstream lexicon:

“Pogrom”.

Apparently, this isn’t a commonly known term, although it’s less obscure to Jews. A pogrom is a form of terrorism in which a population decides to get rid of or inflict their hatred on a marginalized ethnic group by routinely rolling through their towns or neighborhoods dolling out unrestrained violence. It is often accompanied by warnings and demands that the population relocate or face constantly escalating barbarism. It’s a form of persistent mass terrorism, usually sanctioned by the state.

Pogroms as a familiar concept emerged as a practice in Russia in the 19th and 20th century toward Jews, though they’re well known to have been used throughout history. Traditionally, Jews have been the historical target of pogroms for centuries, and it’s not a coincidence that Israeli Jews are using these tactics. These are familiar to them. They know exactly what they are doing. This is NOT independent acts of violence, this is a reenactment of atrocities faced by the grandparents and great grandparents of many Israelis Jews.

Pogroms are always horrific and depraved on their own. But the added context that these people are appropriating the weapons of extermination that they know well from the receiving end, it’s just… I don’t quite have the words to capture my horror.

These are pogroms. They are a relic of the medieval era and of the atrocities of the 1800s and early 1900s. They should stay in history, but they are being dusted off with deliberate intent by Itmar Ben-Gvir and the exterminationist wing of mainstream Israeli society.

These are not “Rising tensions” or “Settler violence”, they are POGROMS. We all need to say it.

More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom

andrewrgross, 2 days ago

I don’t really know. It shouldn’t be, but I have not seen any newspaper report “West Bank pogroms continue to increase post Oct. 7, despite international complaints.”

andrewrgross, 1 day ago

My frustration is that I think terms like “settler violence” misinform people:

1. the violence isn’t coming from a handful of lone-wolf settlers. It’s state sanctioned.
2. this isn’t just violence like a bar flight or soccer riot. It’s deliberate, methodical, ethnic cleansing. It is a purposeful atrocity.

We need to hold the whole Israeli government and a bunch of specific NGOs accountable for all of this.

andrewrgross, 3 days ago

Thanks, I’m excited to listen to this!

I really want to see a growth in the cultural awareness of forms of theft and violence that comes from people in suits instead of people in streetwear. I think about this especially when I watch cartoons with my kid. Superheroes are constantly fighting people who have robbed a bank, or are mugging people on the street, or just attacking people or infrastructure.

But in real life, far more theft occurs through wage theft or business theft than mugging, and far more violence comes from drivers and pollution than random street gangs. It’s hard to show this in kids cartoons, but those cartoons are typically a simplification of whatever stories appear in mainstream comic books.

I want to see more stories about corporate violence work its way into the mainstream, and eventually into kids media.

andrewrgross, 5 days ago (edited 4 days ago)

I’m shocked more people aren’t already better prepared for this, but it’s actually the same thing we should be doing now, and continue to do if Biden actually wins:

Organize locally. Get hyperlocal. Organize your city, neighbors, block, building, workplace, and friend group. Establish mutual aid networks, take back city councils, county boards, and school boards from the stewards of landlords and big employers.

Establish protection for those who need it, and plant the crop of future national leaders who will do the long overdue work of putting government to work for the masses. Make it harder for any president or governor to exercise state violence by getting our people in prosecutors offices and judgeships.

The Democrats are not going to save us. Biden is just planning to go down with the ship. Absolutely vote for the lesser of two evils if you live somewhere where your vote matters, but recognize that the Democratic party is not an ally to the antifascist movement, because combating fascism conflicts with the interests of capital.

That can change, but until it does, don’t put faith in them. Anything positive they do will be because power-players were replaced. And that starts in your own neighborhood.

Edit: Since this has been well received, I want to say a quick word on third parties: don’t be afraid of them.

Without getting into a lot of details, there are a lot of myths about the risks that third parties present, but before we parrot all of that, we should just acknowledge that there is no harm in listening to their platforms. It doesn’t make you a kook to hear ideas that often get suppressed by the mainstream, or to use third parties as a way to network and meet people. I think Jill Stein has a lot of useful things to say, and if a pollster asks me, I will gladly try to bump her numbers up so that she is harder to ignore. Don’t be afraid to do that.

andrewrgross, 5 days ago

This is a great article.

andrewrgross, 8 days ago

I don’t know of one, but I too would be interested to see what this looks like.

How do you currently store and organize PDFs? I used to use Mendeley during grad school, and honestly I really, really liked it. But being able to ask a question and get a natural language response that suggests which papers might contain insights when taken together would be an incredible asset.

andrewrgross, 7 days ago

It’s abandoned!?

I used it circa 2010-14. I believe it was still active then.

That’s a shame. It was a great program. Everyone thought I was weird for not paying for endnote, but it was as good and better!

andrewrgross, 9 days ago

In January of 2023, I sent an email to a friend asking if a set of notes I’d written on how to write solarpunk RPG stories was any good. And they replied that their honest opinion was that a set of was largely useless, as there was no real audience of people with the interest to use it AND the motivation and creativity to write something from scratch. They said that if I wanted to popularize this, the only thing that would make sense would be fully playable adventures that were ready to run. So that’s what Jack and I started working on.

I think the first beta draft was released in July or August, and then shortly after Crom joined the project as the first person outside of me and my brother.

Around October was when I thought the end was starting to come into sight. I briefly wanted to finish before the end of 2023, but around November we had our first developer meeting and decided to shoot for February. By that time, we were play testing and there was great progress, but we also kept having bits of project creep, because we kept having new ideas, especially as new people joined the project.

I think you came on around that time, so you know the next few months. And now here we are!

andrewrgross, 7 days ago

That’s interesting.

I can see why you’d think we’re the same person, and why any attempt to prove we’re not is going to looks wildly suspicious, but if it helps, here is the conversation I was referencing: aleph.land/

You can check the time, it’s all real. I had that conversation on May 16th, and then commented here on the 17th.

My account on Mastodon and my account here are both months and months old, while Harold appears to have made their account around the time that they posted that comment. I’m not sure what their motivation was, but they posted a few things and got banned from their server.

Anyway, that’s not me. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think their comment looks like an inarticulate imitation of mine.

It’s pretty weird, and I appreciate you sharing the screen shot. Make of it all what you will.