Ivana will be the ghost Hellscape Future, and Fred, obviously, the ghost of Hellscape Past. So, yes, solid casting predictions. Some pages have to be taken from the Muppet version. Hear me out ... Singing NYC sewer rats š - so many casting possibilities. Sooo many.
Itās no Muppet Christmas Carol, but itās definitely a vibe. Iām just not sure how plausible the redemption arc will be. I feel like itād be more likely that he would argue with each of the ghosts about how popular he is, and at the end they would just throw their heavenly hands up in disgust
ā¦ New Clothes, but on a strange mix of psychedelic drugs and steroids. Itās wild.
They are so hyper focussed on the United States and Russia, that they disregard their inability to have the same kind of influence on the collective memory, or of the documented sources that detail what happened through the last several years. Iāve been saying for years this is like the Emperorās
ā¦ they are actually rewriting history. Not only do, they fail to accept the fact that there are tens of millions of Americans, who are regularly fact, checking them, but that the rest of the world also remembers many of these events, and we have our own documentation in news, sources, etc.
One of the strangest things for me, as a person outside of the US watching whatās happening now, is that the minions helping the current POTUS (and more specifically, the architects of project 2025) are assuming that by controlling the laws in the US, and blithely, disregarding the truth,
Theyāre not looking that far ahead for the violence that will be the tipping point they used to declare martial law, or simply to justify armed response to anyone they disagree with, including people with, apparently, annoying sandwiches.
Well, I think he considers his own living space a museum. Hence his having given a tour of his hat closet to President Zelensky. In which case, itās plausible that people around him have enabled (or at least not contradicted) his belief that a āmuseumā is a place that celebrates things he likes.
Thereās no doubt that he was not alone in this, nor that he implemented effective changes - even if those changes were not always quite as rooted in empathy as he wanted some voters to believe. The remains, however, a persistent danger in our human tendency to categorically idealize or vilify.
While he certainly moved progress along, from outside of the USA, maybe itās easier to see him as a complex individual with goals and statements that sometimes coexisted in a dialectic, a man who made choices that were not always heroic, ideal, or aligned with his stated values.
ā¦ and insured the financial security of the industrialized northern states, and does the political success of his vision, priorities, and party ā even when it meant that his lofty ideals were inconsistently applied, or even ignored.
He was certainly eloquent, and intelligent, but he was also fundamentally a politician at heart, one who was keenly aware of the necessity of balancing his public persona as a man of compassion and humanitarian instincts with safeguarding the power structures that favoured white voters,
Yet he had no difficulty with stealing the land of Indigenous people, killing them, or dehumanizing them in order to secure his vision of a unified and industrialized United States. He understood slavery was wrong, but he didnāt ensure equitable rights or safety for Black or Indigenous people.
Itās one of the most common steps in the repeated pattern that you see as empires start to crumble. Systems that have often always been biased become increasingly vulnerable to the ruthless and the greedy, and our eventually shifted to totalitarianism/authoritarianism by eroding rights and freedoms.
That is precisely the point. His media staff are satirizing the presidents very distinctive social media style in order to point out just how ridiculous it is that it has become normalized coming from 45/47.
Calling out immoral behaviour on the part of leaders, particularly world leaders, is not antisemitic. What is disturbingly antisemitic is the willingness of far too many people to ignore this governmentās eagerness to equate Jewish cultural and religious identity with their depravity.
Simply trying to survive is somehow framed as being such a threat to Bibiās state that it requires a response of deadly armed force. At the same time a member of Bibiās government is released by the US and returned to his homeland, despite having been arrested as a pedophile.
Itās not just the call coming from inside the house anymore. Reading this and thinking about the fact that yesterday I saw a post about a straight up white supremacist march, complete with huge Nazi flags. The headline on the news story said they were āprotestersā. They are enabled proponents.
Thatās all they were. Observations and suggestions. Whatever it is you, or Steven, or anyone else in the United States decides they can or will take on as active resistance, I hope that you/they find communities of solidarity, engage in ways that are meaningful, and have each otherās backs.
ā¦ are, the more they will have dismantled protections in a system that was already flawed and biased. I made observations in response to a specific series of posts that were in replies to comments I made, and asking me to repost. I offered suggestions since me reposting wouldnāt be effective.
I think that a lot of people are going to need the kind of passion and decisiveness that people like you and Steven seem to have to find their own ways to resist. The longer that people are frozen in a state of being confused, gob smacked, or panicked, the more entrenched the ruthless and greedy
I hope that the people of the United States find a way to buck the historical trends, the patterns of human behaviour we seem to keep repeating as nauseam. It never hurts, however, to be prepared. Hope for the best, work for the best, and be prepared for the worst, including sharing perspectives.
ā¦ just scroll past. Goodness knows, there is plenty to be angry about right now; the sheer quantity of heinous and dangerous policies and incidents in the US is overwhelming. Biting off the head of someone who agrees with you that what is happening in the USA is appalling?Seems odd.
In three different comments now, youāve directed a certain amount of derision towards me, without having taken the time to actually have a conversation of some sort. It seems to be a disproportionate level of anger or annoyance to try and devalue a stranger when you have the freedom to
Like anything else on social media, he, or you, or anyone else can take them or leave them. I didnāt say anything to him that was personally insulting, or demeaning, or make assumptions about his personality.
ā¦ in the United States, because itās the people there who have to take action. I admire the effort and consistency that Steven is putting into his posts. Since my re-sharing, his posts isnāt effective in terms of reaching the target audience, I offered some observations.
You donāt know what I do beyond social media. You can absolutely disagree with the comments that I make; disagreement is part of discourse. As for action being up to the people, that was exactly what I was trying to say - I was trying to redirect the one repeated comment back towards people
You claimed in another comment that I was projecting. Is it possible that you are doing some protecting here, if only by making assumptions about me and assigning a value to who I am as a human being without even taking the time to ask for clarification?
There is a deplorable assumption among the most greedy, ruthless, and reprehensible that leadership, whether it is community leadership, political leadership, financial leadership, corporate leadership, itās not about service, but rather about self gratification. Itās wrong and unsustainable.
ā¦ in resisting what is increasingly becoming a dangerous and violent regime, but in mapping path forward to build something better ā sustainable, equitable, dynamic, and robust. We will need the input and perspectives of a vast variety of people, including people of different ages.
ā¦ perspective thatās different than what is held by the other generations. Thereās a core belief that each generation is both teacher and learner, throughout life. We need the experience of older people, and we need the energy and passion of younger people. We need these things not only
Where I work, I have the privilege of working with multiple different Indigenous communities, and one of the things that constantly comes up for me is how important intergenerational learning is within these communities. Each generation is understood to have skills, knowledge and
Itās one of the things I think is gonna be really important: intergenerational support no matter what kind of action is being suggested or taken. As a teacher, Iāve heard so many people just randomly complaining about young folks these days. Itās an eternal lament.
I admire and appreciate the fact that you are putting the effort and the time in, and I hope that you are finding that your message is being heard where, and by whom you hope will hear it.
My thoughts and responses were suggestions about how it might better be heard, or more widely heard, or the very least more widely considered if it was more specific and/or more actionable or an invitation to become engaged, and to explain why my reposting would be functionally ineffective.
What I see in your having reposted the same comment many times is a dedication to what youāre trying to say. My point wasnāt to belittle or to be condescending, and I sincerely apologize thatās how it felt. You are making an important noise, it needs to be heard.
Iāve meant my comments to you very sincerely. I donāt feel like Iām useful to you in sharing your comment, because I donāt have any kind of influence or reach or in roads among the people who could help make meaningful action of the comment. Further, people are pretty inundated right now.
ā¦ suggest examples of what forced justice means? Thatās another thing Iāve found over the years: people may find a directive to be too vague to be actionable, but if they feel like theyāre answering a question or making suggestions, it becomes easier to think of possibilities, and to collaborate.
When you say āforced justiceā I think thereās a lot of people who might either not get what that implies, or might interpret it to one extreme or the other. Are there posts by people who could be seen as community leaders, where you could invite the people who read your comment to
The first thing that would occur to me, then, is to ask whether youāve been posting your comments on the profiles or Threads of younger people, or people who seem to be using these platforms as a way to organize specific resistance events. If not, could that be a way of amplifying your comment?
Not everyone is going to be an organizer. But youāre talking about the younger generation, which suggests to me that maybe you are Gen X? Maybe older? Whatever your age is, it suggests to me that you have experience that can be brought to intersect with the energy and the skills of younger people.
One of the things people as a collective are going to have to do in order to resist the increasingly violent and tyrannical actions of those who are consolidating their power, will have to be using digital communication with purpose, savvy, and sneaky creativity.
The current US administration, and many of the corporations, specifically those in digital media, have already clearly demonstrated that they are making deliberate use of these tools for their own purposes. We are starting to see some really great use of these tools as resistance.
One thing thatās different about this iteration in the historical cycle is the access that most people have to communicating with strangers, to sharing information and documenting events as they happen. We know, however, that these platforms can be used to sow, mistrust, division, and fear, too.
A couple of different messages, maybe, giving (say for example) three suggestions for ways people can organize, or organizations they can look to for leadership and ideas, or even for fellowship and safety when protesting. Those things might also be more effective than a random Canadian reposting.
Targeting people with more reach, reach within the United States, or influence in certain sociocultural groups and asking them to amplify a message would likely be more effective than having some random person in Canada share the exact same words.
Speaking as a teacher, when people are anxious or confused, they are more likely to engage if there are clear expectations or at least specific suggestions they can choose from. Iām not suggesting that the person I was responding to is responsible for creating all of that.
As I said, I agree that force justice is going to eventually have to be part of the solution. But calling for forced justice, at this point, can seem very vague. People may not know what that looks like, or how they can become involved, or how they can take action with others.
How long it takes to get to that tipping point often becomes an indicator of how long it is going to take to to try and clean up the mess once the ruthless and greedy turn on each other and resistance overwhelms them.
Because the people taking those actions are, at best, amoral, and most often gleefully immoral, they donāt pause to consider the impact of their actions beyond how it benefits them. Eventually, the tipping point will be reached. Authoritarianism is never sustainable.
ā¦ authoritarianism, tyranny, fascism, etc. is precisely the fact that it is decisive and lacking in nuance. Itās also disturbingly easy for power abusers to exploit the vulnerabilities in already biased and inequitable social structures with a comparatively small number of people.
ā¦ as is typically the case, when a society is being dragged towards authoritarianism, those who have already or have historically been marginalized are taking the brunt of the abuse. This is a calculated technique to continue to create division. One of the most dangerous things about
ā¦ freeze up while theyāre trying to figure out the parameters of whatās going on and what it means for them. Unfortunately, for significant portions of the society who are not under immediate threat right now, that can mean uncertainty about how to proceed. In the meantime,
My concern is that at this point, at least from what I am able to observe, while a lot of people are angry, they havenāt yet hit the tipping point where they feel either empowered or safe to initiate action. This isnāt a judgement on people for that - itās entirely understandable that people
As somebody who lives in another country, I donāt feel like Iām useful as someone to repost a piece of repeated text. The way I contribute to whatās happening in the states is the same way gentleman is doing ā I share my thoughts online. There is nothing wrong with someone doing that.
Iām honestly not trying to project, and Iām certainly not trying to be condescending. The sad reality is people will read stuff online and just keep scrolling. Part of what is happening is the same thing that happens over and over through history: people get overwhelmed and freeze.
I hope that youāre able to connect with people in the US who can help with organizing public resistance, at a local level, or at a state level, or at the national level. I suspect that people are more likely to respond to an invitation to share specific and actionable ideas than general warnings.
Presumably, anybody who follows me can see the comment youāve already posted as a reply to me several times today. Telling people they need to organize is not the same as getting them organized. Blasting the same txt over & over again isnāt as effective as crafting a plan.
Youāre free to post this wherever you want, but I have so few followers, and not all of them are in the United States. Having me repost something like this isnāt effective. At the very least, Iād be preaching to the choir, a very small choir, many of whom arenāt in a position to help there.
And, lo, POTUS pooped the political bed ā as anticipated. Not only did he sit next to Zelensky talking about why there was no point in trying for a cease-fire, in response to the urgency of returning Ukrainian children to their Ukrainian families in the Ukraine, he bragged about trade deals.
I agree that thereās going to need to be some sort of forced justice. I question, based on historical precedent, and what we are seeing now, how long it is going to take, how much further into Project 2025 the US will be pushed, until enough ppl fear the tyranny more than they do inaction.
ā¦ moving inexorably towards implementing Project 2025 for decades. And the level of control that they have told us they plan to take in their published document for P2025 is far more authoritarian than what is happening thus far. This is just the opening gambit.
ā¦ in the USA is not as bad as itās going to get. The current POTUS is a convenient figurehead that has served the purpose of generating chaos and emotional reactivity, but heās not the real threat. The real problem are organizations like the Heritage Foundation, which has been
ā¦ history, as a collective, is the assumption that the bad things wonāt happen to us, or that weāre smarter than the people who went before us, or who live in other places. As a general rule, those assumptions tend to come back and bite entire societies in the ass. Whatās happening right now
Watching from another country, I see simultaneous denouncing of whatās happening in the United States, and an increasingly vocal support for politicians and organizations that are mimicking what weāve observed in the USA over the last several years. Part of the reason we repeat the mistakes of
ā¦ who are either quite happy with what is happening, or they donāt fully understand what is happening. Those people have been kept in a state of reactivity for years now. For some of them, even entertaining the idea that what is happening is wrong amount to an existential identity crisis.
But one of the historical patterns is that people find it difficult to accept that something they thought was no longer plausible is now not just possible, but is happening. While there are millions of people in the USA, who are disgusted by what theyāre seeing, there are still millions
I donāt live in the US, and Iām not American. Iām watching this from a neighbouring country, highly aware of the fact that the same rot that has set in in the US also exist here in Canada. This has been coming on for a long time. The historical patterns have been clear.
ā¦ either among the public, or among the public servants who have to implement these violations on human rights, protections, and law, it also serves to start a process of normalizing these type of actions. They never, however, remain solely applied to the initial marginalized targets.
Authoritarian/tyrannical/fascist governments must always first create a āsocially acceptable villainā. The first violations of rights and illegal actions are taken against already marginalized groups in society. Not only does this allow them to observe if, how, and when there will be resistance,
I sincerely fear that many of the things that we are seeing happen right now, from ICE detainments, to the militarization in Washington DC, and now to holding an elected official against her will, despite the fact that there was no crime committed, are all functionally litmus tests.
If you are familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment, an experiment that would not have been cleared to proceed in recent years, it is eerie how what we are seeing replicates not only historical patterns of this point in the collapse of empires, but also the outcomes of the SPE itself.
ā¦ some people comply out of fear, some people comply because it allows them to publicly embrace perspectives and beliefs they have held, but have not been able to express without public censure, and some people comply because they believe that they have limited capacity to act/influence.
Itās part of the reason why the, āI was just following ordersā defence that was used time and again during the Nuremberg trials was found to be without legal basis. However, in a time where the already biased systems and protections that were place are being dismantled,
Historically, that becomes the question every time a society is transitioning into tyranny/authoritarianism/fascism. The overly simplified answer lives somewhere between people being afraid of losing their jobs and their security, and people having bought into the propaganda of division.
I take your point. I was simply saying that those empower keep doing heinous, vile, often violent things, behaviours we had reason to believe we had protections against, even though those protections have always been biased and vulnerable to abuse. This US gov wants to normalize authoritarianism.
Iām genuinely not sure, so Iām asking for clarification. Was this meant sarcastically? Itās the cops that are keeping her there. At the behest of Texas law authorities. Itās cops who are guarding her, and who told her that she is not free to leave, unless she agrees to police escorts.
We know why. I live in another country and I know why. Itās not breaking news because the law enforcement there is confident that they can treat a Black woman this way with few to no consequences. Itās not just because itās Texas, or because of Abbott or Paxton. Her fellow Dems left her behind.
P.S. those of you who did not ask for this, who did not want this, who saw the potential consequences of this vile trajectory, have my genuine sympathy. I have a very bad feeling about whatās happening in the USA right now, and itās potential to spread. It wonāt be an easy fix.
It wasnāt *quite* the same thing, but I think Iām understanding correctly that the point you are making is that a Black man unlawfully detaining someone is treated as a crime (because it is), but a predominantly white law enforcement entity doing this to a Black woman is somehow acceptable in 2025.
Thank you, no. Iāve observed for many years (Iām a Gen X social studies/ELA/theatre teacher), and was being called alarmist back when 45 was making his original bid for office. Turns out we alarmists werenāt wrong. Plus, Canada has our own growing ultra right wing movement. š¤® No GOP required!
Funnily enough, I was getting that impression. Not only because thereās so many people there booing her with such passion, but because a grown woman tried to shhhhh a whole crowd of people to whom she owes the obligations of a public servant. Thatās a mind-boggling level of self-absorption.
Itās very important that we keep central to any discussion of this incident that the elected law maker who is being held against her will is a Black woman. Itās a Black woman whose rights are being openly violated. Itās a Black woman who is holding the line. Where is her colleaguesā solidarity?
A delusional optimist, but sure, letās be optimistic and call him an optimist. š„ø
Wait a second, did she actually try to āShhhhhā the crowd of her angry constituents? š¤£šš¤£šš¤£ Iām not American, so I donāt know this woman from a hole in the ground, but the people out there booing her sounded extremely committed to expressing their disgust. And the best she had was, š¤«? šš¤£šš¤£š
This.
There is no place that is immune from those who are greedy, ambitious, ruthless, and power hungry. It is hubris to assume that humanitarian crises and societal collapse weāve observed elsewhere can never happen where we live. The US is currently a live streamed example. We canāt be complacent.
ā¦ on her way to work. Although things had been getting worse, she and most citizens like her were still going about their daily lives, trusting that one way or another their daily lives would continue more or less as they always had done. The world has watched this happen in multiple countries.
ā¦ such concerns were alarmist. I remember watching a TED talk years ago. The speaker was a woman from Bosnia, if I recall correctly. She talked about the fact that on the day that the war began, she was walking down the street after having purchased her morning, coffee, on her cell phone,
Fellow Canadians: itās not enough to sit and watch with growing disgust, unease, horror, and incredulity and what is happening in the United States. Even during the last administration of the current POTUS, warnings of whatās happening now wouldāve been met with certainty that
Weāre now at a point where a sub sandwich is considered a dangerous weapon used in a felony assault, and fleeing from unidentified individuals who have already begun a physical attack (breaking the driver side window) is sufficiently threatening that it warrants the use of deadly force?
OK, so suddenly this guy is wanted for assaulting a federal officer. But in an interaction where the people in the vehicle offered no threat to the āofficersā, and were in fact making a reasonable request for identification, they were shot at multiple times.
The sheer hypocrisy - while predictable - is fatiguing. They have no problem listing concessions if/when listing those things to the media serves their purpose. In fact, in those instances, they glory in bragging about concessions theyāve won because of their self proclaimed negotiating skills. š
That tracks. Both on the level that the devil is in the fine print, and on the level that a whole bunch of them probably signed up without bothering to read that same fine print.
She spoke proudly about changing those āweak lawsā. As if black and brown kids havenāt always been cast as being older/more mature than their white peers. A 15-year-old Black boy ends up being described as a āscary Black manā. A 14-year-old Brown girl is described as a āsexy young womanā. š¤¬
It was also particularly chilling to listen to that TV personality judge that is now somehow in charge of something she has no business directing talking about wanting to go after kids who are 14, 15 or 16 years old.
Itās always been their intention to use brown and black bodies, womenās bodies, childrenās bodies, and non-binary/trans bodies to bear the brunt of the first frontal assaults on freedom, safety, and dignity. For those of us watching this from outside of the USA, never doubt it can happen anywhere.
The first two places that they chose to make their initial forays into increased militarization of municipal law enforcement were chosen in large part due to the ethnic and racial make ups of those cities, as well as the political leanings of those areas. It wonāt stop there.
ā¦ and everyone else is expendable. Just how expendable any group within society is considered to be can be clearly seen in how quickly and how ruthlessly the current powers that be have targeted specific communities. The plan has always been to move towards absolute control.
ā¦ they are deliberately leveraging racism, bigotry, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, misogyny, sexism, ageism, ableism, elitism, and nationalism in a way that is intentionally destructive. They need and want only just enough supporters to act as a buffer between them (their safety, profit, & convenience