Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

How much money do you think the United States has spent since 1945 on the Cold War? Sometimes they ask this question then from the back of the audience comes in answer ‘billions and billions‘. A huge underestimate – billions and billions. The amount of money that the United States has spent on the Cold War since 1945 is approximately 10 trillion dollars. Trillion, that’s the big one with the ‘T’. What could you buy with 10 trillion dollars? The answer is: You could buy everything in the United States except the land. Everything. Every building, truck, bus, car, boat, plane, pencil, baby’s diaper. Everything in the United States except the land, that’s what we have spent on the Cold War.

So, now let me ask: How certain was it that the Russians were going to invade? Was it 100% certain? Guess not since they never invaded. What if it was only let say 10% certain? What would advocates of big military buildup have said? We must be prudent. It’s not enough to count on only the most likely circumstance. If the worst happens and it’s really extremely dangerous for us we have to prepare for that. Remote contingencies if there is serious enough have the prepared for. It’s classic military thinking – you prepare for the worst case.

And so now, I ask my friends who are comfortable with that argument, including the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, why doesn’t that same argument apply to Global Warming. You don’t think it’s 100% likely? Fine. You are entitled to think that. If it’s only a small probability of it happening since the consequences are so serious, don’t you have to make some serious investment to prevent it or mitigate it? I think there’s a double standard of argument working and I don’t think we should permit it.

— Carl Sagan, An excerpt of a speech given on the 2nd of September in 1990 at the 5th Emerging Issues Forum at NCSU

credulous liberals who entertain fascists aping semantics are fools and accomplices, plain and simple. fascists have nothing of substance to say, no reason to be heard. they should be disarmed and reeducated; persuasion is meaningless to people who do not internalize meaning.

fascists going after pronouns (eg grammar) is so demonstrative of their discursive vapidity. it doesn't matter that they already use pronouns, they don't care, they don't understand what language is anyway. it's just a vector for harm, for currying the means to harm. they are barking, frothing slimes

⚓ my ideal social encounter is a quiet intimate party where i can just lay under the floorboards and soak in the ambiance

"As long as there is Mass Surveillance, There can be no Free And Secure Internet for anyone anywhere."

#AmsterdamPublicComment #AmsterdamGraffiti #AmsterdamStickerArt #surveillance

Here's an excellent thread from @timberwraith on the toxic dynamics on Daily Kos. It's not just there of course, I see a lot of screenshots of centrists and so-called progressives echoing MAGA anti-trans talking points, or pointing to polls as "evidence" that supporting trans rights is an unpopular position.

Just about every trans and non-binary person I talk to was very aware of how willing so many centriset and "progressive" Democrats are to throw trans rights under the bus even before Newsom's bletcherous platforming of an anti-trans bigot and embrace of anti-trans talking points yesterday ... but I'm not sure how aware cis people are about this. So it's really worth highlighting!

https://mastodon.social/@timberwraith/114122448717557060

And many of these same "progressives" are also echoing anti-Black and anti-Palestinian talking points. Nothing new here, of course, but also worth highlighting!

#uspol

Piepklein beetje #bloomscrolling

Are you a furry who's been affected by long Covid - physical or mental health issues that have persisted long after an infection? We'd like to hear from you. We want to raise awareness on how prevalent long Covid is in the fandom as well as how it has impacted your health, life, or career.

Our DMs are open, as is our Telegram chat.

Work in very nice (if I may say so) progress…

Ik vind het mooi hoor, dat een man een column schrijft voor internationale vrouwendag, en daarbij verschillende “sterke vrouwen” noemt. Maar als de enige persoon die letterlijk geciteerd wordt een andere man is… maak je diezelfde vrouwen dan niet stemloos? Ik wil niet zeiken maar het geeft me een raar gevoel.

https://kerkinstad.nl/column/sterke-vrouwen/

Someone's taking pictures in San Francisco at an angle to make the streets look level. I feel simultaneously amused and triggered. (Seeing the cars level is what really fuels the illusion)

Ik kreeg van @nitrokey een envelop met bestelde producten en was positief verrast: de envelop was aan twee kanten gevoerd, maar niet met bubbeltjesplastic. Hierdoor kan het gehele ding bij oud #papier en kost het ook minder moeite om de boel uit elkaar te halen.

Als het aan mij zou liggen, zou dit de norm moeten zijn om gebruik van #plastic en kunststoffen te verkleinen.

#recycling

tiny blinky city

PSA for my friends …

And those of you who have been encountering “Nicole, but you can call me Fediverse Chick …”

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/what-are-pig-butchering-scams.html

“Pig Butchering” is an exponentially growing scam model, being carried out by trafficked people. It rolls a whole psych warfare + romance + free crypto money scam together with some sort of grandpa-scam entree, and they’re in for a long game.

Mastodon Admins are trying to get rid of “Nicole”, but its a hydra.

DO NOT ENGAGE.