@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

BenAveling

@BenAveling@mastodon.world

Interested in ideas, politics, technology, anything and everything.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

benroyce, to random
@benroyce@mastodon.social avatar

Everyone lucid in the West is freaking out about the rise of fascist thinking, well, everywhere.

Why? Didn't we defeat this obscenity 80 years ago after much suffering? Why is it resurging?

The problem is not that people don't learn from history (they don't but it's another issue), the problem is that fascism is always with us. Since the dawn of time, and forever more.

All fascism requires is:

  1. ignorance
  2. indecency
  3. a demagogue to yoke these walnut brains and ride them to power

1/x

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@benroyce Someone had a nice take. From memory: tolerance isn't a moral stance, it's a social contract. Tolerance is conditional. If you don't offer it to others, you don't get to demand it for yourself.

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Explain to me like I'm 10 years old: Is the Biden tariffs on electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels coming from China motivated 100% by politics (and maybe racism), or is there some other (more legit) reason to do it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEcRiZPdvY

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@davidho I don't think we know. If China is dumping cars below the cost of manufacturing them, then tariffs are completely justified, and appropriate.
But is that what's happening? China claim not, but they then make it hard for anyone to confirm or refute their claims.

eniko, to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

I stopped doing my multiple 5 minute walks for a couple days and my foot swelling came back. So you mean I gotta keep walking forever if i wanna stay healthier? This is bullshit

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@eniko exercise is the have you turned it off and on again of staying alive.

ratkins, to random
@ratkins@mastodon.social avatar

Another weak signal supporting my contention that I am just too old or not quite rich enough to never have to die. Any middle class person a decade younger than me or someone my age with fuck-you money will live forever as long as they don’t get hit by a bus.
https://mstdn.ca/@dabertime/112401908735572326

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@ratkins possibly not. The average age at death keeps going up. But the maximum age at death is barely moving.
Seems that preventing unnatural death is a lot easier than extending lifespan beyond what’s normal and natural.

danhon, to random
@danhon@dan.mastohon.com avatar

are there any mainstream institutional* news sources that have progressed even slightly from my default believing and reprinting without question everything police spokespeople say or put out?**

  • I fucking hate this term
    ** yeah this is like a 99% rhetorical question but I live in hope
BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@danhon try the foreign press. They have their own agendas, sure, but at least now you’re getting a mix of takes.

fraying, (edited ) to random
@fraying@xoxo.zone avatar

3,878. They’ve sold 3,878 of them. That’s it. I’ve run newspapers with larger circulations.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-recalls-all-3878-cybertrucks-over-faulty-accelerator-pedal-cover/

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@fraying "An unapproved change introduced ..."
Makes me wonder how many other "unapproved changes" were made.

Strandjunker, to random
@Strandjunker@mstdn.social avatar

Serious question: Why are white people so afraid of becoming a minority? Does America treat minorities badly or something?

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@irlusa_gera The two are connected. As long as "we" are the majority, democracy serves "us" just fine. If "we" stop being the majority, democracy becomes problematic.
@Strandjunker

shoq, to random
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

Admitting they did it isn’t the same as saying that did it on purpose. But that won’t matter much by tomorrow morning. Israel continues to be its own worst enemy. You would think avoiding such mistakes would be job1 for someone in the government or the IDF. Obviously it’s not.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq They did it on purpose. 3 times.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/02/strike-that-killed-world-central-kitchen-workers-bears-hallmarks-of-israeli-precision-strike/

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq Precision weapons. They knew where the vehicles were. Clearly marked vehicles. Not once. Not twice. Three times.

And reminder: "The UN agency for Palestinian refugees accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its staffers".

Israel wants Palestinians to leave Palestine, they don't care where they go. Ireland. Egypt. They've said as much.

This is what "peace" means to them. They don't want peace with the Palestinians, they want peace without the Palestinians.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq there is no question they were not eligible targets. Netanyahu himself has acknowledged that.
He is claiming that it was ‘unintended’, ‘tragic’, and that ‘it happens’.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq you’re arguing that maybe the Israelis didn’t know who they were, even though they’d been told, and that maybe they then just decided: don’t know who this is, I guess we better kill them.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq I choose to believe Israel when they say they want Palestinians to get out of Palestine.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq Israel the nation state, or at least, those running it.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@shoq the purpose of a system is what it does.

BenAveling, to random
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

We have three options.

  1. stop Israel
  2. help Israel evict Palestinians from Palestine to IDK where
  3. accept that genocide is going to keep happening until Palestine is empty of Palestinians.
BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@ratkins Yup. They're not exactly hiding it any more.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

Just missed a "webinar" I was looking forward to all week because when you're entering an event into Google Calendar the system for setting the event's time zone is nightmarish and tricked me into selecting Central Standard Time rather than Central Daylight Time. I am feeling pretty dumb here but also pretty frustrated at Google

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@mcc Maybe move to Western Europe. It won’t fix all problems but at least your problems will occur at UTC+0.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@mcc can vouch. it’s not the reason i did it, but it is a bonus to having done it.

blogdiva, to Israel
@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar

TOM COTTON who is METHODIST just called CHUCK SCHUMER, a mensch from Brooklyn who had family murdered during the #Holocaust, an antisemite.

sit with that for a sec: an Arkansas Republican —who aligns himself with the antisemitic evangelical "Christian Zionist" movement— just called ANTISEMITE, USA's highest ranking Jewish official.

what is the end goal of Christian Zionists? colonize #Israel & convert Jews to Christianity... 🧵

sources:
https://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/01/01.04.21_faith_on_the_hill_detailed.table_.update.pdf

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/sen/articles/102298ny-sen.html

article from NYTimes from 1998: Schumer Fires Counterattack at D'Amato on the Holocaust highlighted quote: "I lost family in the Holocaust, and my wife lost family in the Holocaust," Schumer said in grim tones, fairly leaping at the question after it was raised at the end of a news conference about gun control. Aides said Schumer's great-grandmother and seven of her nine children were killed by Nazis.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@blogdiva I miss the old days, when an antisemite was was someone who supported genocide of Jews, rather the more modern definition of an antisemite as someone who opposes genocide when committed by Jews

kashhill, to random

My story about how telematics data from people's cars unexpectedly raised their insurance rates is on the front page today...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b00.DzhQ.GXkvg-kgWebx&smid=url-share

... and this is where it started: me lurking on car forums and seeing comments like this.

If this story doesn't convince lawmakers we need a strong federal privacy law, I'm not sure what will.

image/png

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@tob @kashhill @enobacon does it matter why drivers drive safely? It’d be nice to think it was because they’re good ppl, but honestly, if some one is driving safely purely because it’s in their own interests to not kill me, I’m still calling that a win.

GottaLaff, (edited ) to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

"Blood bath at " 1/...

"Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the RNC began the process of pushing out dozens of officials.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/bloodbath-at-rnc-trump-team-slashes-staff-at-committee-00146368

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@GottaLaff Are you familiar with 'the Teals'?
If not (or for anyone else reading this who is not) In Australia, the more rightwing of the two major parties has increasingly been captured by climate change denying fundamentalist Christians. For a long time, their old supporters were trapped, with nowhere else to go.
Until the Teals emerged. Independents, mostly female, economically conservative, but not anti-science. Basically filling the space vacated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal_independents

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@GottaLaff Easier to do in Australia - preferential voting.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@GottaLaff Doesn't mean it can't be done in the US, but it [probably] can't be done in quite the same way.
Maybe if the Republicans split, then even though the 'teal Republicans' would likely initially be the smaller fraction, they still ought to be large enough to survive and I think they'd quickly win back the 'center right' supporters.

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@GottaLaff I'm sure they already want to. They have to believe they would succeed.
Or maybe Trump will put them in a position where they have nothing to lose.
The Australian Greens came into existence largely because the Australian Labor Party (then center left) purged its left wing and they had to find somewhere else to go.
You'll still sometimes see references to their green-green members and their red-green members. Legacy of that.

GottaLaff, to Russia
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

As I read this, all I could think of was how relieved I am that Trump wasn’t president:

Exclusive: US prepared ‘rigorously’ for potential #Russia nuclear strike in #Ukraine in late 2022, officials say

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/09/politics/us-prepared-rigorously-potential-russian-nuclear-strike-ukraine?cid=ios_app

BenAveling,
@BenAveling@mastodon.world avatar

@GottaLaff reminder to self: Trump uses the word smart to mean corrupt and uses the word stupid to mean honest. In Trumps thinking, honest ppl are stupid and smart ppl are corrupt.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • mdbf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • modclub
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • JUstTest
  • GTA5RPClips
  • tacticalgear
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • osvaldo12
  • everett
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • cisconetworking
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •