Raised where the border is a bridge. I still believe in bridges;between nations, between people. I believe in the quiet power of intelligence. In science, equity, and dignity,even when they’re under fire. Ignorance burns hot. But intelligence burns long.
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I know I bark into the ether on Bluesky either preaching to the choir or running afoul of the Bluesky algorithm where only the bots ever seem to notice. I don’t post to win the algorithm. My intention is to leave a breadcrumb in the hope that someone thinks, 🤔 that actually helped a bit.
Victimhood on social media has become a subscription trial: nothing down, unlimited blame, no lessons learned. Cancel anytime. I’m thinking maybe you might be justified keeping Apple Fitness+, but don’t live with Victim+ Prime Max. The real premium plan is reflection and it’s free.
1️⃣/5️⃣ Accountability isn’t about blaming victims. It’s about what happens after. When we share the lessons hidden in our scars, we give others tools to avoid danger. That’s not weakness at all. There’s growth in admitting your past and passing on the strength derived from your experiences.
2️⃣/3️⃣ YouTube biker films a driver making bad moves. Instead of hanging back, he rides up close, narrating how dumb the guy is. I’m already hitting my phantom brake watching. The driver slows with no blinker, biker tries to pass in-lane, and, predictably gets hit. His verdict? 100% the driver’s fault.
3️⃣/5️⃣ The real tragedy wasn’t the crash. It was the upload. He could’ve posted a cautionary tale teaching other riders about his mistake. Instead he doubled down on innocence, cited laws, and missed the chance to grow as a rider and a person.
4️⃣/5️⃣ I’ve seen survivors share trauma by painting entire groups as complicit. What happened to them was terrible, and justice matters, but locking into “all of them are guilty” is a life sentence of its own.
5️⃣/5️⃣ Blame keeps us stuck in the moment of harm, but accountability asks what part of this story can I own and share so others don’t repeat it? Reflection transforms trauma into strength and hope.
Last year at this time we had two more months of hope pinned on the most joyous candidate we’ve seen. Now we contend with the tightness in our stomachs that we instead got someone who is the complete opposite in every way. We will navigate reality but we must start to find the slivers of hope again.
His MO is to flood us with nonstop noise, lies, chaos, and nonsense. These quiet days feel like a clear sky after a storm. Whether temporary or not, it’s healing… and on Labor Day weekend, I’ll take a few more days of clear.
I fully get this. I’ve been trying to shift the tone of my posts, not so Bluesky actually starts showing them to people but because I believe there are enough of us to make a difference if we focus on what needs to be done.
Don’t you love it when you write a post finishing your thought and typing that last period and you look at the character remaining count and it’s 0.
Your part in this moment might seem small, your task almost meaningless but you are not alone. You are one of millions and your one thing that seems so insignificant to you needs to be done and so does the next thing. Eventually, all working towards the same goal we will defeat the fascist movement.
Our democracy wouldn’t be as much in peril if not for the consent of so many. But what our friends and family may not have thought through is giving up something as hard fought as democracy because they happened to like the first dictator leaves them and their children at the whim of the next one.
The people fighting for democracy in this moment are making and will continue to make a difference.
I’ve always believed that figuring things out beats making things up. And equal rights for others doesn’t mean fewer rights for us…we’re not slicing a pie. Put those two ideas together and you will come up with solutions that actually work for everyone.
Every day, it’s fear Smurfs fa la la-ing about horrors of the world, woke, DEI, LGBTQ, AI, etc. While victim Smurfs sob and flinch and gullible Smurfs say just tell me what to think and do. Smurfs are going to smurfing smurf and there’s not a smurfing thing we can do to smurf them out of it.
Since the militias are sitting on their guns while the government literally kidnaps their neighbors and mass shootings continue with no end in sight. I 100% promise you that we are coming for the 2nd amendment.
Progressive changes we look back upon today as reasonable and proper like no smoking indoors or letting women vote always came up against noisy flap babies upset over things being different now. People resist change and always will. Don’t let that stop you from working for what you know is right.
Fallacies distort how we argue. Biases distort how we think. Confirmation Bias: We notice what agrees with us, ignore what doesn’t. Stacking “proof” for the verdict we already reached is a bias. It’s better to hunt for disconfirming evidence. It may sting at first but it’ll sharpen your thinking.
If we survive this then one day we will invalidate tRump’s constitutionally illegal “2nd term” and make it the official position of the US government that we had a criminal dictator during those years.
We will invalidate tRump’s constitutionally illegal “2nd term” and make it the official position of the US government that we had a criminal dictator during those years.
If you want my vote, here’s the deal: promise it then deliver it! Or get out of the way of those that will. A thread:
1️⃣ A non-partisan Supreme Court. Lifetime hacks are not democracy.
2️⃣ Codify Roe. Reproductive rights are human rights. Full stop.
3️⃣ End Citizens United. Money ≠ speech. Billionaires should buy yachts, not senators.
4️⃣ Universal healthcare. If every other developed nation can manage it, so can the world’s richest.
5️⃣ Term limits for Congress & SCOTUS. Public service is not meant to be a permanent post.
6️⃣ Federally funded campaigns. No more begging donors or dancing for billionaires. Run on ideas.
7️⃣ Independent journalism first. Give real reporters federal support & priority access. The infotainment clowns can dance on their own networks and time.
8️⃣ Fair districts, fair votes. End gerrymandering. Every voter should be able to count on their representatives acting on their behalf rather than for some political party.
9️⃣ Universal code of ethics for elected officials. No more wink-wink loopholes. Guardrails enforce themselves. No exceptions.
🔟 Automatic voter registration, national holiday for elections, mail-in + early voting guaranteed. Voting shouldn’t be harder than ordering DoorDash.
1️⃣1️⃣ Electoral College reform. Scrap or neuter it.
1️⃣2️⃣ Free speech ≠ free gaslighting. Lying politicians shouldn’t get 24/7 microphones to burn reality down.
1️⃣3️⃣ Ban lobbying careers. If you “retire” from Congress, you don’t get to cash out whispering in your buddies’ ears for Exxon.
1️⃣4️⃣ Climate = security. Every bill, budget, and policy tested against “does it torch the planet?” No more climate denial.
1️⃣5️⃣ Real immigration reform. A clear, humane path to citizenship. End the cruelty.
1️⃣6️⃣ Full LGBTQ+ protections. Equality isn’t negotiable. Civil rights don’t expire because someone feels nostalgic for the 1950s.
1️⃣7️⃣ Reform presidential pardons. No more loyalty rewards program. Every pardon must include a clear, public statement of benefit to the nation.
1️⃣8️⃣ Ballot verification for every voter. Know 100% that your vote was cast and counted exactly how you intended.
1️⃣9️⃣ Economic fairness clause. If CEOs can get a rocket ship bonus, workers should be able to afford food and rent.
2️⃣0️⃣ Invalidate tRump’s constitutionally illegal “2nd term” and make it the official position of the US government that we had a criminal dictator during those years.
Bonus: Separation of church & state. No “God” on currency. No “God” in the pledge. No religious tests for office. No performative piety in speeches. The First Amendment protects religion and freedom from religion.
Bonus bonus: Tax churches like nonprofits. Help the community = tax-free. Buy private jets, mansions, cults, or politics = taxed.
End thread … for now.
@naomiwildman.bsky.social , still doesn’t do Riker as bad as you. 😜
Picture a giant marble monolith labeled “Reality.” Around it: hundreds of grown adults in MAGA hats, flat-earth and anti-vax T-shirts, furiously whacking away with sledgehammers. The structure just pings with a deafening metallic echo that spreads for miles, rattling normal people’s windows.
Yeah, it’s brutal to feel that way about anyone. That’s how deep his poison runs. He’s warped our politics and our peace of mind. Wanting relief from him is human. I hope for all of our mental health that something, “the likes of which no one has seen before,” happens soon to free us all.
It’s critical to be speaking up and speaking out about how tRump & his sycophants are dragging this country down. If you’re not aligned against them, then whatever you claim to represent is already tarnished.
“Someday, I hope, we’re going to have a reckoning over the horrors of this moment, but I don’t think we can do it without a clearer understanding of how this fits into U.S. history. There’s a tendency to say, “This isn’t who we are,” and I get the impulse, but history is never that simple.”
I’d love if the assassination conspiracy were true; it’d fit my world view adding to tRump’s crimes. But that emotional pull is exactly why I push back. I never want to think like the MAGAts who stormed the Capitol against all evidence. My posts aren’t to change minds, they’re to keep mine sharp.
And prescription drug commercials.
To all my people in other time zones, this is your official permission to wake me up in the middle of the night if he passes while I'm asleep. Making me wait until I wake to celebrate is cruel. Y'all woke me up at 3 am for 9/11, and I didn't complain, but if you deny me this ecstatic glee, no bueno.
tRump, in my opinion, does not have one single redeemable quality.
The 14th amendment still applies. As much as no one is doing anything about it now, things could change.
What really bakes my noodle is would I have seen a wolf without the suggestion one was there? 😜
I’ve been stuck working from home the last 5 years. It’s not great mentally or physically. Glad you’re committed to your wellbeing. And if you haven’t read it yet, Project Hail Mary was a fantastic book.
Jeffrey Epstein’s ghost is NEVER going to stop haunting Trump.
He’ll get up & put on lifted shoes. He’ll swirl his hair into ferret cotton candy & cake his face w/ a paste of Cheeto dust & Putin’s ball-sweat. Then an entire political party, who have been telling Dems for decades we’re unpatriotic, will get up & do nothing while the child rapist burns it down.
tRump: elect me and I’ll release the Epstein files. Ok, now release the files. tRump: there’s nothing to see there. Why are we still talking about Epstein? But ok I’ll ask for the grand jury testimony. Ok, are those material information? Court: No, the DOJ has that. RELEASE THE DAMNED FILES!
Lying Black licorice is yummy though. 😏
Turtle Gate is one conspiracy i can get behind. Let your imagination run wild. So speaketh the Shelluminati.
Having shell and tell.
I’m not mocking beliefs. I’m exposing the traps (emotion, identity, social media) that make arguments brittle. I’ll mock the goofy stuff, yeah. But mostly I want us to see the traps that wreck reasoning. Dodge those, and your opinions left standing will hit harder.
I just watched the “Strange New Worlds” episode where Kirk first got acting captain of the Farragut. There’s not many recent Star Trek episodes that have me giving it a second thought past the credits but with…spoiler stop reading.. the enemy vessel being of Earth origin with human crew, it was fun.
Believe what you want, flat Earth, lizard people, Bigfoot as your landlord. That’s between you & your pillow if it helps you sleep well. But call it “proof” & spread it? We push back. Society collapses when facts become optional and conclusions are just emotional identity.
Trump hasn’t done a fucking thing in his second term except raise prices on everything through his fucking tariffs. Thanks for nothing you orange fuck.
Looking up and waiting for a fuck to fall his hand so he has one to give.
My interlocutor referenced Occam’s Razor but she got it a bit wrong. It isn’t “simpler = truer.” It’s “fewer assumptions = stronger.” A longer explanation that rests on less wishful thinking still cuts closer to reality. Razor could prefer her more complex story. I argue against that, but still.
Intro Logic is hard. Fallacies are easy. Here’s a thread of common logical fallacies explained with dumb examples, so you can spot cult-think faster than you can say “flat earth.”
Ad Hominem “Don’t listen to her climate research, she still uses Comic Sans.”
Appeal to Emotion “If you don’t smash that like button, somewhere a puppy doesn’t get belly rubs.”
Appeal to Ignorance “No one’s proven aliens aren’t secretly running the DMV. Explains the lines tho.”
Appeal to Authority “My dentist says Bitcoin is going to the moon. Brush twice, HODL forever.”
Bandwagon Fallacy “Everyone on my Bluesky post agrees it’s true, so it’s true.” Right. The Internet never got anything wrong! Consensus ≠ evidence.
Red Herring “Sure, I wrecked the budget, but have you considered how majestic eagles look in slow motion?”
Equivocation Occurs when a word or phrase with multiple meanings is used in an argument, and the meaning of that word or phrase shifts or is ambiguous, leading to a misleading or unsound conclusion. “The sign said ‘fine for parking.’ Great, I’m fine with it too.”
False Equivalence: Pretending two sides carry equal weight when they don’t. Example: “Tonight on the podcast: Neil deGrasse Tyson vs. a guy who once watched 3 YouTube videos.”
Straw Man Someone says “we should recycle more,” you scream “oh so you want us living in caves eating dirt.” Nice argument against the flimsy scarecrow you built yourself.
Slippery Slope “If we allow gay marriage, next people will marry goats.” Calm down, Dan. The only goat you’re marrying is the one you keep in your argument barn.
False Dilemma “Either you love pineapple pizza, or you hate freedom. Choose wisely.” Uh, life comes with more than two buttons!
Begging the Question (Circular Reasoning): Assuming the conclusion is true in the premise. Example: "God exists because the Bible says so, and the Bible is the word of God."
Hasty Generalization Drawing a sweeping conclusion from insufficient data. “Every bizarre headline I’ve read about Florida proves one thing: the entire state is just a live-action Darwin Awards audition.”
Post Hoc (Spurious Correlation) “I sneezed and the Wi-Fi died. Therefore my nasal passages control Comcast.” Correlation ≠ causation
Burden of Proof “No one’s disproven Bigfoot, so he’s real. Unless you comb the entire Pacific Northwest with a GoPro, you can’t say otherwise.”
Tu Quoque Dismissing someone's argument because they have engaged in the same behavior they are criticizing. “You say don’t smoke, but you smoked for years.”
Middle Ground “Flat Earth vs Round Earth? Clearly the truth is an Earth shaped like a Pringle.”
Outro: Logical fallacies are basically cheats for bad arguments. They feel clever, but collapse under scrutiny. Stay curious. Stay skeptical. And always check if your Earth is a Pringle.
Couch CSI isn’t solving crimes, it’s freebasing certainty. Every blurry frame, every shadow = dopamine hit for the brain. But “I don’t know yet” is a detox. It’s hard, slow, and boring. Or just keep snorting pixels saying oh yeah and rolling your eyes. How’d that work out for MAGA and other cults?
People get hooked on certainty. It’s sugar for the brain, instant and satisfying, but empty. “I don’t know (yet)” feels like broccoli: awkward, unsatisfying, but nourishing. Cults and conspiracies thrive by selling sugar. Truth takes patience, not dopamine.
Being right by accident isn’t proof of sound reasoning. Even if the conspiracy camp ends up correct, their leaps aren’t less flawed than those who rushed to believe the official story. Judgment waits for facts; it isn’t passed in hope the facts eventually align.
God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whichever deity has better marinara, please let us witness the jaundiced Putin-flanker implode in a finale so wild there’s nothing left of him but a bronze smudge mark.
Argument from incredulity: “I can’t imagine how X could be true, so it must be false.” Argument from credulity: “I can easily imagine how X could be true, so it must be true.” Both are logical fallacies because how believable something feels isn’t evidence.
I did. You put alot of work into it and make some compelling arguments. It raises questions I’d like answered. But I hope you didn’t put that kind of work into it just to pop in up on Bluesky. Who did you get for independent verification of your findings?
In the criminal justice system of 2025, real investigators are sidelined. Internet sleuths armed with screenshots and vibes, solve crimes from their couch. In this system, evidence always bends to their will. These are their stories. DUN DUN
The only one buying bridges is you. I would love for this to have been staged and to add another heinous crime to mango moron’s rap sheet, but we can’t jump to conclusions based off assumptions. That’s how MAGA thinks.
Nope. You’re thinking like MAGA again. Everything about it was sus. But I’m not jumping to conclusions based on the evidence we have. I have questions, as we all should. Not storm the Capitol answers based off tons of faulty assumptions.
