Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

In Civitas, students get the apparent legitimacy and status of a degree from one of the finest universities in the world, but cocooned in an ideological safe space where they will be safe from the uncomfortable findings of real scholarship.

Also, the school creates a center where billionaire families and other elites can shower favors (think: retreats, conferences, etc) and cultivate relationships with the rising generation of judges and politicians who will know who butters their bread.

And here, spelled out, the purpose of the Texas oil oligarch-created “Civitas Institute” at #UTAustin. An incubator for politicians and judges.

#Texas #CivitasInstitute

Despite all its promises of equality and due process under law, America has always had its scapegoats.

I didn’t know it at the time, but when I was a child my entire community became scapegoats. The attack by Imperial Japan upon Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941—a “day that will live in infamy”—made most Americans look upon anyone with a Japanese name or face as the enemy.

May is AANHPI Heritage Month, so I want to take a moment to zero in on the history that led Asian minorities in the U.S. to come together as a group and demand America fulfill its promise of justice and equality: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/scapegoats-aahpi-george-takei-essay

It was nice stumbling upon this #reddit thread about #QOTO some time back and seei g the overwhelming support for this instance from the wider community:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/z09ioa/qotoorg_an_inclusive_stemfocued_instance/

This description of the life of an AZ Republican official who resisted MAGA conspiracy theories reminds me of what happens to democracy activists in authoritarian states: Constant harassment, threats to family, an atmosphere of foreboding and violence

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/06/bill-gates-maricopa-county-arizona-ptsd/

“People who criticize new technologies are sometimes called Luddites, but it’s helpful to clarify what the Luddites actually wanted. The main thing they were protesting was the fact that their wages were falling at the same time that factory owners’ profits were increasing, along with food prices. They were also protesting unsafe working conditions, the use of child labor, and the sale of shoddy goods that discredited the entire textile industry. The Luddites did not indiscriminately destroy machines; if a machine’s owner paid his workers well, they left it alone. The Luddites were not anti-technology; what they wanted was economic justice. They destroyed machinery as a way to get factory owners’ attention. The fact that the word #Luddite is now used as an insult, a way of calling someone irrational and ignorant, is a result of a smear campaign by the forces of capital.”

Ted Chiang in the New Yorker.

Born in 1902, botanist & cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock became a pioneer in modern genetics by changing our understanding of inheritance.

She proposed that genomic replication does not always follow a consistent pattern, which wasn’t widely accepted at the time. She also contributed new cytogenetic research techniques & was the first scientist to correctly speculate about epigenetics.

In 1983, McClintock was awarded a Nobel Prize. https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/barbara-mcclintock #HistoryRemix #science #history

The constant-threats-to-defederate thing is going to kill this place, seriously.

Defederating an instance is an extreme measure and it should only be taken in extreme circumstances.

Finding out I might stop getting posts from people I explicitly follow because they happen to be on an instance being defederated by mine all because a bunch of admins I don't know got in a spat over a user I don't follow is just about the most annoying value proposition imaginable.

https://federate.social/@mattblaze/110317006852580015

90 years ago today, the spiritual forefathers of #RonDeSantis and the Moms4Liberty burned the contents of Magnus Hirschfeld's library to demonize #LGBTQ+ people. 50,000 gay men were soon arrested and many died in concentration camps. #history

IT CAN HAPPEN HERE.

https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/

Followup story in the New York Times.

Paywall-free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/books/scholastic-book-racism-maggie-tokuda-hall.html?unlocked_article_code=w4PV3LQym0qMUY2lHeBazodCNiTibt3ULaOD_htXKupcNITCNN_q9wIkXyxk_rJxHZUUcXO2JxG7QNy1oK5Fj0tTRwWQqkxX3vc_qg92z1xgpQXSoYjtI7m4g04ajrHFGmAeJAcJrqkMHn65OcjA1Mni3AOVKirphfk63YLAtA6Nk9QrTfej8I4xiZJm2aIFAuz34bjX8T_T04hczuKVNidRJqf4BdY8yzYJtGbvD819BuQWiOpvaJ995cgsZLS7NaGuTX_1V3ghCI17BeV7PMufPrBi9wOTmg-_f6rG7NArnTjI6TmuzI3MX9ThlOPKiGdKMEWkxpa6w15JMSFUVaZgnCiYmC6pshTbiiDGO9oC&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

If you don’t see the connections between the rapidly-increasing impacts of climate change & the rise in reactionary nationalism yet, trust me, you will.

Because both are going to get much worse. Worse than most people dare contemplate.

And he signed it: Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill into law today that sets up a new state board with the authority to remove DAs from office. The bill is the latest assault on reform DAs by Republicans nationwide, a push that has escalated since Dobbs. https://boltsmag.org/georgia-bill-would-force-prosecutors-hands-deborah-gonzalez-interview/

The rising Republican movement to defund public libraries https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/5/23711417/republicans-want-to-defund-public-libraries-book-bans

Thirteen years ago the Supreme Court decided corporations are people under the First Amendment.

Today, sold-out politicians block progress on all fronts to appease their corporate donors.

Citizens United is among the worst decisions in history. It corrupts our system every day.

'More than 75 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine demanded on Thursday that the organization explain why it has for years failed to return or repurpose millions of dollars donated by the Sackler family, including some who led Purdue Pharma.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/health/national-academies-sacklers.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Health

Texas! Patriot Mobile is a Christian extremist organization. Oppose these candidates unless you want to replace public schools w/ Christian indoctrination centers, empty bookshelves, & homeschooling. #Christofascism 1/