@cjpaloma@mas.to
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

cjpaloma

@cjpaloma@mas.to

New instance, same opinionated human

Pro democracy, pro compassion, pro peace, anti social hierarchies based in false assumptions

putting pressure on people to do the right things more than half a year before an election is not traitorous

Profile pic: photo of a bunch of different animal tracks in mud

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

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

I'm going to ramble a bit, but it will hopefully come around to something. When I was growing up, I read a lot of older historical book series, a big one would be the Little House On The Prairie series. While I really enjoyed it, there are some very obviously negative portrayals of Native Americans and African Americans. I remember being angry about it as a kid, and my Dad telling me, that part of learning about history is that we have to acknowledge the people we were, and still are. But because Little House on the Prairie is only semi-autobiographical, I still have mixed feelings about this. I do think they are well written books by a female author, an interesting perspective on early American life, and as an adult I can see and acknowledge the issues with the text. If we try to get rid of every author with racist ideas there wouldn't be much left to read from the 20th Century, and it also feels like being dishonest about who we are. So, I'm very mixed, how do you all feel about it? Do you think children can handle books with racial issues like this if it's explained to them? What is our responsibility here?

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@RickiTarr Kids (like the young of many species) are designed to be -mostly- sponges, they learn from what they are exposed to. If animals learn the wrong stuff, they don't survive.

The saying "garbage in, garbage out" while overly simplified, applies.

Far too many of us are already not spending enough time unlearning the garbage we were fed about racism, sexism, assumptions about how to live with others, peace, economics, how to treat the environment, etc. around us.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

take a planetary paradise and

  1. Socialize a group to believe that to be "superior" in the world they need to amass as many little pieces of paper as possible.

  2. get them to believe that emotional sensitivity is "not important", that logic (and violence applied as necessary) will work fine, instead.

Watch them invade and oppress and create social hierarchies based on physical size and ability to overpower others

In a few generations, a few true believers WILL crash the entire planet.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

I seriously have hardly ever seen -any- posts/replies telling people to "not bother" with voting.

But I often see larger liberal accounts blasting supposed lefties/progressives with "So many lefties telling people not to vote!!!" (and then in THOSE threads I'll maybe see a troll or two replying with saying "yeah, why bother??")

So my question is: have the trolls figured out how to just target the liberals? Or are the liberals more taking pot shots at the lefties? I really can't tell. Or both?

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

just as science based study of gun violence was OUTLAWED in the US by Congress for 20 years, it certainly seems likely that authoritarianism was -also- highly discouraged as a thing to study, due to how damaging the findings would be to those who get and stay on executive tracks.

Folks who scramble for power (in any field) OFTEN tend towards authoritarianism. These are the exact -wrong- folks you want in charge. Authoritarians will kill off democracy due to it threatening their own success.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

might be worth it to reevaluate who you follow for "good analysis" if your list of people has included folks who have repeatedly told you the justice system is working just fine

Same goes for those defending the FBI, (and for that matter, the the entire "intelligence" community)... who were apparently unable to see any criminality or any security threat in Trump in 2015- when millions of normal people did see it.

Seriously- look behind the curtain at some of these larger accounts.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@Eka_FOOF_A I was referring to decades of pretty blatantly criminal conduct in several areas (including financial crimes as well as physical and sexual assaults) -before- he announced his presidential run in 2015.

rbreich, to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Judge Cannon has postponed Trump's classified documents trial and didn't set a new start date.

The Supreme Court is slow walking Trump's classified documents case, which has delayed his Jan 6 trial.

The federal judiciary is effectively acting like a MAGA campaign arm.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@rbreich

Hate to point this out, but when you post things like this you make so much extra work for the punditutes STILL swearing justice is right around the corner...

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

cannon has been corrupt from the word go, and yet so many people have let this farce continue to play out.

Much like the rottenenhouse judge (sic) who put ridiculous evidentiary rules in place so a 17 year old white regressive boy could get away with murder.

Stop being outraged by corruption and insist these assholes who. really. are. corrupt. end up really disempowered, instead.

It's broke, people, no matter what your favorite lawyer punditutes keep telling you.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

Seems to me most of the things that need to be pointed out and said have already been said. Plenty of times. By POC, women, and tree hugging pinkos.

Unfortunately, far too many folks have been socialized to not listen to those demographics, and instead listen to "men of wealth and taste", as the song goes.

These pigs lie with well paid gigs, and genteel words, sounding oh so reasonable as they rob and bomb Others.

They are the real evils in the world. The well spoken apologists.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

The sign is a little messy, but more people NEED to keep tapping it:

THE aim of authoritarian power is to get, expand -and keep- power consolidated among "the in group".

Authoritarian assumptions are rooted in force, not reason.

And -using coercive means- (aka: force, unjust laws (ahem), by sick cultural norms, etc) are the accepted means.

Unfortunately, it's been hugely successful for ALL colonizing cultures…so it's still pervasive

but often only really shows its teeth when threatened

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

Groups who already have consolidated power...like their reach and power. So large corporately owned groups like the NYT WaPo, MSNBC or any number of other groups are simply NOT going to mention this often enough. Universities "leaders" like their statuses as well, so they aren't gonna be eager to deconstruct their own authoritarian assumptions.

Same with demographics with certain privileges due to social hierarchies created by colonizing cultures.

Compassion based people will though.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

Post: they're all elites and all in cahoots-
Me: not arguing

Post goes on: so voting might matter to them, but doesn't necessarily matter for you

Me: uhhh... the fact that voicing my displeasure about the policies of despicable oligarchs will still be technically legal if I vote one way, vs being rounded up and sent to some concentration camp because I'm LGBT… doesn't matter?

Maybe in the minds of folks with multiple privileges, but dude, it matters for hundreds of millions of reasons.

cjpaloma, to random
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

How do most people learn about power?

What do they learn?

Who do people think of when they think about people who study power? (interested in names, not whether you agree with them)

I learned informally about power via those "top of the food chain" posters from late grade school or middle school, you know the ones with a man at the top of a pyramid?

In college, Foucault was the only person I recall being specifically -called- a "power theorist"

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@Eka_FOOF_A morning! thanks, that's where I think most people learn, from general social interactions...but probably not from directly being around reigning monarchs!!!

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@Eka_FOOF_A

It's been so increasingly interesting to me how power dynamics do permeate culture, as you say, they are everywhere and yet we really don't have formal science that studies them on their own…

In contrast, language is everywhere, air is everywhere, economic systems are everywhere, and so on, they all have robust sciences that study them.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@Eka_FOOF_A yeah I suppose I overstated the issue in that comment. I was more trying to say that for the amount of influence it has on the quality of life, the amount of study isn't terribly robust.

And the -general- popular understanding of power isn't very sophisticated either. Some people -even some activists- will still say straight faced: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, that's all you really need to know about power"

No, it's not.

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

"The state House majority leader, Maureen Terry, said in a statement on Friday that the Democratic-controlled Legislature would “be compelled to act in order to restore fairness,” should Nebraska’s Republican governor sign legislation that made the state a winner-take-all election in 2024.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/26/maine-nebraska-electoral-votes-trump-00154645

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@StillIRise1963 I am very confused by this article...due to Maine very recently (like a week ago) passing a popular vote compact which guarantees their 4 votes will now go to the winner of the popular vote of the US, not -their- state totals.

They no longer will proportionally divide their electoral votes…so, I'm quite confused by the premise of the whole article. Do you have more insight into this?

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-allows-national-popular-vote-legislation-become-law-without-her-signature-2024

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@StillIRise1963 yeah, you're right, and I was just editing my reply to reflect that😆 So they -will- currently be dividing their votes proportionally unless the interstate compact takes effect. Thanks

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@Aviva_Gary @StillIRise1963 yeah, can't believe I forgot that little detail! oops.

Double oops for me since I actually had been boosting the effort, and urging people to bug their state legislators if their state hasn't signed on to the effort.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@StillIRise1963 @Aviva_Gary

I'm glad Maine is ready to change up their counts if necessary, and I'm sure Nebraska won't pass the Interstate Compact right now, but people in Nebraska (and other states) can still read about the efforts in their states and bug their legislators!

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

It is so fascinating to me, that of all the things that have changed in the world, the 60 min/sec has remained basically the same throughout recorded history. I'm talking Ancient Sumeria, so let's be real, probably before that too. Other than some real fun guys during the French Revolution, we really stuck with this.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@RickiTarr never thought of that before really…

it's amazing how -many- things people learn from being socialized into cultures that we hardly even think to question.

why would you decide that 60 of a thing would add up to a unit. And the 24 hours in a day thing? In that case, why a base of 12?

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

If there's one thing I hope that people have picked up on, it's that they're not just fighting Biden for change, they're fighting decades old institutions which are well connected and funded for change, which is a lot harder than trying to convince 1 person to change their policy.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@BlackAzizAnansi so true esp in the US. For quite some time, we've grown, but they haven't.

Gatekeeping tactics at the highest levels of power have NOT really changed at all.

In far too many cases, it's still only the people willing to go along with bullshit who are allowed to ascend to -the most- powerful positions.

Institutions hire "fair and justice oriented" people at lower levels for functionality and good PR, but at the top it's all domination and force. Still.

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

Police are arresting youth, attempting to fuck up their futures because they are TELLING THE TRUTH about GENOCIDE.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@MisuseCase @obeto @StillIRise1963 @hannu_ikonen

oh he understands his job allright, it's just not what the rest of us saps think it is

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

The government, media and people at large lied about the motives of protesters in the Civil Rights Movement too.

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@CandaceRobbAuthor @StillIRise1963 it certainly is the same dynamic over and over

It seems like in any culture touched by any version of colonialism: old school is: might makes right (power over/dominator society) vs far more people -eventually- wanting and supporting collaborative nurturing societies (power with)

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

Name a search engine NG or “not google."

cjpaloma,
@cjpaloma@mas.to avatar

@StillIRise1963 lycos.com is still in business and I get better results from it than DDG, but it was bought by a digital marketing company not too many months ago, so we'll see. Ecosia gives me diddly squat answers for anything you'd need a good encyclopedia for. Same with Mojeek- good for some stuff, but <gasp> not US centric. I used DDG for a couple of years, but got a bit disillusioned by them TechDirt showed how they were being removed from results...

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