Neekerbreeker 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @Neekerbreeker@qoto.org

Welcome @WardQNormal to Mastodon! Happy to see you here! *waves*

The intro to my talk today at the Data for Policy 2022 meeting in Seattle.

We know what happens when organisms who evolved to forage in a world where sugar and fat are rare develop the capacity to fulfill their evolved desires and put a junk food aisle in every store.

What happens when information foragers who evolved in a world where information was sparse are able to construct a media ecosystem to feed their evolved desires?

Ummm....

The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words.

Genocides do not start with mass murder. That's where they end up.

Genocides & other mass atrocity crimes begin with words - specifically, with powerful people dehumanizing a minority.

Once they are seen as less than human, anything is possible, even mass murder.

👉 You can speak out loudly today for the rights of others, or you can stay silent & wait for tomorrow, when your rights will be taken away too.

When challenging someone's perspective stop and ask yourself these questions...

1) What do I understand about the others perspective?
2) What do I understand about my own perspective?
3) Could I be wrong?
4) What do I want the other to understand about my perspective?
5) What do I want the other to understand about their own perspective?

If you find yourself skipping the first three, you're not really trying to have a discussion and may want to check your ego.

Today's blog post is a little odd. If we wanted to change the common name of a species, could we? I looked at data from three real attempts! https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2022/11/22/can-you-change-a-species-common-name/

Looking over the parapets of #Carisbooke #Castle we can see the #boneyard beyond. This castle was once the living heart of the Island, but now it is but a broken one. Windswept and grey, a hulk that has stood in one shape or another for over a millennia. 
How many have died on these walls and how many #shades stand here looking at the #graves? The #shadows of the past clinging thick with the restless dead.
#Ghost #GhostStories #Folklore #Cemetery #Folklore #MythicMonday #TombTuesday

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bmzv_12C6q8&feature=share ⚡️🇬🇧 Eugen Rochko, Mastodon CEO/Founder Interview on (BBC Newsnight VIDEO) #Ukraine #News #War #Russia #Twitter #Mastodon #Musk #ElonMusk #TwitterRIP #StarLink #SecurityRisk

Mmm... #spaghetti
#hesketti #food

@feditips An excellent note about notes! (They're notes to self.) Thank you, @feditips

Calanais, Isle of Lewis
#StandingStoneSunday #ancient #scotland #hebrides

Tomnaverie recumbent stone circle, Aberdeenshire
#StandingStoneSunday
#Aberdeenshire
#NorthEastScotland

@richieholland I came here to create a "parachute" dependant on how things go on Twitter but despite a largish following there, I much prefer it here and hope I can make this my primary place and help to grow it within, what seems so far, to be a more mature community.

Boost this toot if you're planning on sticking around Mastodon whether or not it becomes more popular than the birdsite.