Charles Beynon (he/him)

Many of the propagandists of Autocracy, Inc., have learned from the mistakes of the twentieth century. They don’t offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and they don’t inspire them to build a better world. Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, because there is no better world to build. Their goal is to persuade people to mind their own business, stay out of politics, and never hope for a democratic alternative: Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too. You may not like our leader, but the others are worse. You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying.

This is from Autocracy, Inc, about how modern autocratic propaganda works.

I consider this every time I decide what to share and how to frame it.

you will never be amenable enough to the demands of a fascist tantrum to make it stop without selling your soul and becoming a fascist yourself.

there is no amount of compliance that is acceptable short of absolute indoctrination.

the more you bend, the more they push you down.

stop helping them!

People once again need to internalize that "generative AI" is a small subset of machine learning, that machine learning is a critical tool that you cannot run a site without past a certain volume Bluesky has long since exceeded, and that it is FAR more reliable than user reporting.

Autism is a natural divergence from neurotypicality. It's normal & not the tragedy these clowns are making it out to be.

Transness is a natural divergence from cisnormativity. It's normal & not the tragedy these clowns are making it out to be.

Just deal with people being different than you.

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

Not sure if people have realized yet on just how many levels the #zcavengerhunt is working. Not only is it activating a bunch of people, not only is it getting people out and about in NYC, not only is it highlighting public transits, not only is it highlighting NYC history... it's also:

Given this relative autonomy of capital, we must understand technology (both existing and new) not merely on its own terms, but also in its social context, where it is used. The oil well as technology can extract oil, the oil well as capital must do so. In the same way, we must consider the properties of AI both from the vantage point of the toolmaking animal, and that of the political animal: both as a tool with properties of its own, and as an object that embodies the will of capital.

!!! yes!!!

reading "Why We Fear AI"

i will never not be amused by how the conservative world is governed by the kind of “affirmative action” they say happens in mainstream institutions. totally unqualified dipshits are handed the keys to institutions because they say the right thing and have the right look.

"When did Rage Against the Machine get so woke? Why can't they just stick to music?"

Everyone who thinks that voters are responding to their own lived experience needs to explain this graph.

This is bonkers to me as a software dev. All the software source code & hardware specs should be free — with verifiable builds — and available to everyone to vet. Anybody should be able to buy a machine (at modest cost) and verify it matches the published specs/code. *at bare minimum*

when RFK says he wants to “end chronic disease,” what people hear is “he wants to cure us” but what he means is “i want to cull the weak”

This is how Nazis did it. Normalize death camps.
There is no due process. No hearing. No sentence. No parole.
In a few weeks, the Nazis will not be able to cover up the cost and will make them slave labor camps - just like El Salvador.
Death camps.

you see this all the time with HRT. people know what hormones do! any semi-decent sex-ed program covers the topic! *doctors* sure as fuck know, but if a trans person looks at the effects and says “i want that,” suddenly the human body is an unknowable mystery, a frontier beyond our understanding

But, Benevolent Dictators For Life works so well for open-source software projects; what harm could there be giving a BDFL unlimited command of the world's largest military and militarized police force /s

Yesterday, Maurene Comey, who prosecuted the Epstein case, was summarily fired from SDNY. Her letter to colleagues pulls no punches. "Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought."

h/t @msnbc.com

WTF?!? Border Czar Tom Homan claimed that ICE and Border Patrol agents don’t need probable cause to detain people they suspect are undocumented, saying they can do so based on factors like physical appearance. This is straight-up racial profiling, not law enforcement.

If you think the white Union busting billionaire from apartheid South Africa is for working people but the working class assemblyman from Uganda is an elitist then its not economic justice you’re protecting its white supremacy.

The US prison system is already the largest prison system in the world. Now we want to double it to house "illegal" immigrants? How is this not concentration camps?

MEDIA: Are you a communist?

MAMDANI: I am not ... I call myself a democratic socialist in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. King from decades ago, who said: 'Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, there has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children'

A bar graph. On the left side is a bar showing that Republicans are cutting $930 billion from Medicaid. On the right side is a bar showing that Republicans are giving $910 billion in tax breaks to corporations under their budget bill, paid for by gutting Medicaid.

Republicans may lie about what's in their budget bill but the numbers sure don't.

Zohran Mamdani is saying things like “poverty is a policy choice and politicians have a duty to their constituents to make their lives affordable” and it is making a lot of politicians very very scared that they may actually have to start doing some actual service in their public service jobs.

george lakoff says adopt the evil GOP’s framing only if you want to support it

words matter

It’s weird to live in a time when basic principles like cruelty is wrong, cheating is empty & the idea that curiosity, generosity, originality, the satisfaction of earned accomplishments & loving intimacy are the center of a good life feel like countercultural concepts

"These are kids who will never pay taxes," Kennedy declared. "They'll never hold a job. Theyl never play baseball. They'Il never write a poem. They'll never go out " on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. We have to recognize doing this to our children. we are

RFK Jr. wants to eradicate autistic people and also has no idea what an autistic person is

This is literally how the Holocaust started, and honestly I'm tired of saying so

We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now