MrQuindazzi @mrquindazzi@qoto.org

Many of the conservatives who are pushing hardest for book bans in public schools homeschool their kids or send them to private schools.

They still push for this because destruction of public schools as an engine of egalitarianism, democracy and social mobility serves their larger ideological goals of having an unequal society with "good people" like them at the top, served and exploited by exploited and ignorant poor underneath.

The abandoned Bethlehem Steel mill in Bethlehem, PA
Gallery: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/bethlehem-steel

#abandoned #art #industrial #photpgraphy

With each new surge of Mastodon users, I feel the need to point out:

1. Welcome!

2. There is a learning curve here, but most people find it short and not very steep. Play around, explore. You'll get it.

3. Lots of people are willing to help.

4. Yes, it's different than Twitter. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes not. But you'll figure it out.

5. With surges especially, things sometimes get slow/glitchy, but they usually get fixed pretty quick.

Be patient.

A reminder that the New York Times routinely engages in circus-act contortions to normalize right-wing extremism. There is not a shadow of a doubt anymore about Musk -- he's actively promoting the extremists -- but the Times insists the record is fuzzy.

Over an hour later, still no FACTS about Hunter's laptop. Did THEY get to him? Has he been Epsteined?!?1?

Rebuilding my follower base is going to be a project. But fuck it. Let’s do this.

Elon Musk wants Tesla cultists to pay through the nose to be a beta tester of a "feature" that may be exceedingly risky -- and they're apparently flocking to do it.

P.T. Barnum was underestimating things...

All these conflicts are just skirmishes in the same war: liberals want to move to a society in which racism & homophobia are socially unacceptable; conservatives are determined to prevent that from happening. We should talk about it openly!

My thing is, slapping a religious or intellectual superstructure around your repugnant sentiments does not make them any less repugnant. "I'm a conservative Republican" is an explanation but not an *excuse*.

Researchers have estimated that if we still had a federal assault weapons ban, we would see 70% fewer mass shooting deaths.

S-E-V-E-N-T-Y PERCENT.

Reinstating it should be a no-brainer.

If the elite political press corps gave on whit about the truth, they'd be shouting about how one side is pretty much lying all the time about huge things, and the other isn't. https://presswatchers.org/2022/10/replace-fact-checking-with-credibility-meters/ Instead:
---
RT @froomkin
This, from Ashley Parker (who blocks me) is what's wrong with American political journalism. I would like to see WaPo management publicly renounce this:
htt…
https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/1595080062281211904

If I were a national Democratic leader, I would say something about the fact that hateful Republican rhetoric is causing a wave of hate crimes.

I would not blame the stochastic terrorism on "hate" or "division." I would use the words "Republican Party."