Hurricane-Struck North Carolina Prisoners Were Locked in Cells With Their Own Feces for Nearly a Week
Hurricane-Struck North Carolina Prisoners Were Locked in Cells With Their Own Feces for Nearly a Week
Hurricane Helene saw North Carolina prisons lock incarcerated men in cells with their own feces and no contact with the outside world.Schuyler Mitchell (The Intercept)
The IRS has recovered $1.3 billion from rich American tax dodgers since the fall of 2023 — relieving a painful burden from ‘ordinary citizens’
But ... It's an increase, right?
Are we okay with incremental improvements, or will only big bang headline news story type improvements be okay?
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Transphobia in the fediverse
cross-posted from: discuss.online/post/12273255
I've only been on Lemmy a few days and I've already witnessed a lot of thinly veiled transphobia, anything from people dismissing the existence of trans people, to trying to claim we are predators. I've also seen people downvoted in the general communities for expressing trans support, or seemingly for no reason other than simply being openly trans or visibly queer. I know it's an ongoing effort to moderate transphobia on Lemmy, and the fediverse as a whole. We have to also address mentions of thinly veiled transphobia and transphobic users. Transphobia isn't just a differing opinion, it is a dangerous hateful sentiment which causes harm to vulnerable people and it needs to be addressed, at the instance and community level. We need to put in the effort to identify transphobic dogwhistles and language used by transphobes to eradicate this type of behavior from our communities and servers alike.
Some people will argue that the light stuff isn't something to worry about, but that's not true. This is a tactic they use to blend in with normies and make them think that nothing they are doing or saying is wrong. It's what transphobic right-wing YouTubers and Facebook users do to avoid being banned for hate speech. We are better than these corporations though, Fediverse is run by communities and for the users, we should not let these things slide as easily as Corporations do, they're in it to make money, we... We're in it to create a community for the users. Part of that means kicking out those who don't have all our best interests at heart.
I get what you're saying but you need to look at how you're reacting. The comment you're responding to isn't denying your existence, they are simply pointing out that the fediverse is diverse and you got your back up and told them to fuck off.
Now, if you want a more pleasant experience, and if you are an actual person (not a troll) then join a server that isn't full of extremists like lemmy.ml. Beehaw is cool. There are other cool ones as well.
Regardless of which one you're you're still going to encounter bad actors, just as you will in real life. Remember that people who comment ignorantly aren't always meaning harm...but it works both ways- you have the potential to turn an ally into someone who may start to think LGBTQ+ are full of emotional extremists (unless, again you're a troll account and this is your sad, sad goal)
There are more allies out there than you know.
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Lemmy.world is quite right wing. A reasonably large proportion of insufferable folk. Better off with Hexbear if you're a communist or BeeHaw is another option. Blahaj also an option.
Hope you find the right place for you.
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Hexbear is easily the most trans-positive instance, and it isn't close. Strictly anti-chaser, pro-trans, there's even a cis/trans questionaire that shows trans and trans-questioning members outnumber cis members when put together.
Lemmy.ml's trans community has fantastic mods, but unfortunately Lemmy.ml itself isn't as protective of its trans users. I try to report transphobia when I see it, but I see a lot more transphobia on Lemmy.ml than I do on Hexbear.net, which is a symptom more of the userbase than the mods IMO.
That's fair to bring up, but from speaking to trans comrades on Hexbear.net it seems Blahaj doesn't do a great job protecting trans users, despite the focus of the instance, due to issues with some troublesome moderators. That's ignoring the whole anti-Marxism thing Blahaj has going on, of course, I don't think that's entirely relevant but wanted to bring it up to put it to rest.
Beehaw is interesting, it's a micro-instance so I am not sure how to judge it. Hexbear is many times larger than both Blahaj and Beehaw and yet manages to have 0 transphobia, which is an achievement even if we assume neither Beehaw nor Blahaj have transphobia either.
The overall activity, diversity in content across communities, and mandatory pronoun listing in Hexbear is at the top of trans-inclusivity and protection in Lemmy instances, that's pretty much undeniable.
Technical in what way?
It used to be that there was no limit on how many you could have (just that the display name cannot be more than 80 chars). But then makotech added some code to only take the 2 first pronoun sets that is sent to the server. I asked if this could be reverted, and they (mako/admins) said no.
Beehaw at least is only a quarter of the monthly active users compared to hexbear, that hardly makes it a "micro" instance if they're on the same order of magnitude. But I digress.
No shade to what hexbear is achieving and I'm very glad to hear that they are championing trans acceptance and not tolerating transphobia. Great work!
Unrelated, I didn't get a notification for your reply, at all, how peculiar. I only saw it because I happened to revisit the post.
Yeah, it seems like he still has some political development on this front to do to chase out some liberal brainstorms.
I think the guy's heart is in the right place though, I think he just hasn't done the legwork yet on studying how modern socialist states are moving on lgbt issues and why they're doing so.
This is a weird take. Lgbt people shouldn't need to be a useful pawn for socialism in order to be treated with respect. We deserve rights and respect because we're as human as the rest of you theoretically. If someone ostensibly left-wing or socialist needs to read theory in order value my life and needs as a proletarian ally then they can necessarily be no ally of mine. More work needs to be done beyond tacit academic acceptance.
What other minority has to be vetted for their use before being welcomed into your so-called revolutionary project?
Honestly this is a really uncharitable reading of what I'm saying.
If someone ostensibly left-wing or socialist needs to read theory in order value my life and needs as a proletarian ally then they can necessarily be no ally of mine. More work needs to be done beyond tacit academic acceptance.
Except here it seems the guy does oppose transphobia generally but needs specific work done to advance his understanding of the issue.
And understanding social practice in other places to improve your own social practice isn't academic. It is not an ivory-tower-ass thing.
What other minority has to be vetted for their use before being welcomed into your so-called revolutionary project?
Socialist projects are doing better on lgbt issues because they are recognizing the old bigotry against lgbt people for what it is.
LGBT people aren't being used, except in the sense that discarding liberal bigotries in general helps make the system more robust.
I'm literally a trans person btw, I am approaching this from an angle of actually helping people remove their own bigotries. What is your solution here? What should dessalines do to get better on trans issues, concretely? If you're having a hard time articulating your criticism, I would suggest the constructive criticism handbook.
There can be no allyship with someone who understands our experience purely through the lens of political opportunism.
Do you think all pro-lgbt measures done in socialist states to be about political opportunism? Because in Cuba it took a multi-decade effort while struggling against the influence of the catholic church and colonial-legacy machismo culture to expand lgbt rights to the point that they're better than the US
I think this is a community organiser and not a faceless national government. Making lgbt policy and learning in your personal life to be better aren't the same thing. Not dissimilar to when right wingers call something "political."
One would think class struggle would be the first thing socialists would appeal to instead of a milquetoast attempts to reassure people "its okay, the Revolutionary Cause are slowly learning to view you as people!"
Man is a person. He answers to a community. He's not actually a party official of the revolutionary guard and you and I are allowed to demand better. The way I wrote the last post gave you ample opportunity clap back at me with proof from Dessines that he felt differently, which I honestly expect exists somewhere at least as damage control. But instead we are arguing the semantics over whether a man should take responsibilty for his own bigotry or whether the entire global leftist project should bear that burden for him. I'd rather be slurred to my face than have people bullshit me we're on the same side while talking about us like we're props; if only the right ideological mutant strain of intersectional communism that you personally advocate for as being inevitable were to triumph, then the callous way we're discussed will have been justified. You're sharing the table with a bigot, or at least you're leaving a chair open with this rhetoric of pragmatic "usefulness to the cause". I am happy to be proven wrong (for the sake of .ml's community) but even if I am this line of reasoning you employ just does not work.
But instead we are arguing the semantics over whether a man should take responsibilty for his own bigotry or whether the entire global leftist project should bear that burden for him.
I'm not having that argument? I am sort of confused as to why you think I'm making that argument?
I think you're continuing to read me as appealing to pragmatism when I am instead appealing to learning from people who he respects on why he is personally wrong on the issue.
I would once again ask you, what specifically do you want to happen? If you're having a hard time articulating it, I would suggest looking at the constructive criticism handbook. marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-…
Man is a person. He answers to a community. He’s not actually a party official of the revolutionary guard and you and I are allowed to demand better.
Demand better from him than providing free gender affirming care and legalizing gay marriage, affirming other alt family structures, proactively having a country do pro-lgbt education to root out cultural bigotry like in Cuba? I'm am somewhat confused by this statement? What does demanding better here look like?
I really feel like you're forgetting this
I think the guy's heart is in the right place though, I think he just hasn't done the legwork yet on studying how modern socialist states are moving on lgbt issues and why they're doing so.
is how you defend that above screenshot people are pointed out. I don't understand how you can't see the contradiction implicit. A person's heart can't be in the right place if they say things like what was said in the original comment. It occurs to me on reread maybe I don't understand it? It's a bit ambiguously worded. But it has popped up before in these conversations and its cited whenever l.ml users reach out to the other big gay instances.
We should accept each other not based on "how modern socialist states are moving". That phrase "doing the leg work" is doing a lot of leg work being nonspecific about what someone is actually learning and internalizing.
Its just uncomfortable to be in a supposedly welcoming space where allyship arises from first principles and not from real empathy. Its not a college class you can study for.
I think the guy's heart is in the right place though, I think he just hasn't done the legwork yet on studying how modern socialist states are moving on lgbt issues and why they're doing so.
If the guy needs to study political movements in foreign countries in order to acknowledge LGBTQ rights then his heart is not in the right place. His head may have been in the right place if he's sympathetic to socialism but his heart is clearly holding his head back.
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I can't understand the strain of "socially conservative Communism" (for lack of a better term). One of the Communist parties here in the UK, CPGB-ML, also declared "LGBT ideology" to be bourgeois and anti-Marxist. Greece's KKE also has a history of anti-LGBTQ stances.
Doesn't add up for these groups to be taking stances against marginalised people.
It's an utter failure in understanding Marxism, trans liberation is a firmly Marxist position. Communist Parties in the Imperial Core tend to have the worst takes imaginable because they are largely detached from the International Movement as they are made up of Labor Aristocracy.
The UK in general is TERF island, so it's not hard to see why their views suck.
Just as well, the Lemmy.world one was filled with transphobes and transphobia apologists. No progress to be made there unfortunately.
Lemmy.world might be a lost cause, maybe defederation of .world should be more widely considered...
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Hum, lemmy.zip could be a good choice, they are federated with lemmynsfw.com
Lemm.ee has the issue of very small picture upload limits
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You can always just have multiple accounts, if you're specifically trying to avoid Marxists but also liberals, dbzer0 is probably what you want, but you could also have a Lemmynsfw.com account as well.
Lemmy is lacking in Anarchist and NSFW instances from what I know of, so either you will want to go with a general purpose instance that doesn't block NSFW instances and deal with liberals and Marxists also federated with the general purpose instance, or maintain 2 accounts. Some apps let you swap at the press of a button without needing to relog in. I personally have a Hexbear.net account and a Lemmy.ml account, the former for relaxing and checking the news, the latter generally for trying to get liberals to read theory, so I use Jerboa for Lemmy.ml and Hexbear.net through my browser (so I get access to the unique Hexbear emotes). Works well for me!
instances that block Hexbear or Grad tend to be home to the most right-wing individuals on Lemmy.
Don't take this as a hard rule. My instance blocks hexbear and we're a bunch of anarchists, we just saw the inter-instance drama and don't want all that noise. Our memes community is often a target of derision for lemmy.world liberals. We tolerate liberals there but we absolutely don't tolerate right-wingers.
Not to be mean or anything but I've seen right-wing and "left" anti-leftism from slrpnk.net, hopefully y'all have cleaned that up more. I think an issue with Solarpunk is that ultimately it's an aesthetic, not an actual strain of Socialism or anything, so it's easy to coopt.
Again, typically blocking Hexbear and Grad is a negative when it comes to the ideas held by the userbase of an instance in my personal experience.
"left" anti-leftism
I mean, that sounds like your referring to anarchists criticizing authoritarian communism, which is certainly not something slrpnk admins and mods would have any interest in "cleaning up" given they are anarchists themselves. If you meant liberals then I did say that we tolerate them there, at least on the memes community. We believe in outreach.
I think an issue with Solarpunk is that ultimately it's an aesthetic, not an actual strain of Socialism or anything, so it's easy to coopt
That's fair. Solarpunk is primarily an artistic movement, so it is vulnerable to co-optation in the same way that any artistic movement is. IMO socialists are in desperate need of a strong modern artistic movement and if we don't want it to be co-opted we should be embracing it.
Again, typically blocking Hexbear and Grad is a negative when it comes to the ideas held by the userbase of an instance in my personal experience.
Perhaps it was an overreaction, I can't say for sure because I think most of that drama played out before I joined lemmy. I have also never personally experienced right-wing anti-leftism on slrpnk.net so I might assume that we have cleaned that up.
I mean, that sounds like your referring to anarchists criticizing authoritarian communism, which is certainly not something slrpnk admins and mods would have any interest in "cleaning up" given they are anarchists themselves. If you meant liberals then I did say that we tolerate them there, at least on the memes community. We believe in outreach.
Being anti-Marxist is definitely a big negative, especially since you tolerate liberalism. Believing in "outreach" by allowing liberals yet rejecting Marxism is where you get "left" antileftism. It would be better to be an enforced anarchist community intolerant of liberalism, which would help y'all avoid the problems I see with slrpnk.net. Grad has a strict Marxism-only platform, and it has no issues, Hexbear has strict left-unity and has no issues, but solarpunk isn't defined by anything other than the aesthetic, so it becomes a source of "left" antileftism rather than just an Anarchist community.
That's fair. Solarpunk is primarily an artistic movement, so it is vulnerable to co-optation in the same way that any artistic movement is. IMO socialists are in desperate need of a strong modern artistic movement and if we don't want it to be co-opted we should be embracing it.
As a Marxist, I want to point out that this is more Utopianism, ie trying to come up with a formula and enforce it, rather than trying to steer development. The Superstructure, ie art, culture, laws, etc, comes from the Base, ie the Mode of Production. Art naturally follows and supports the Base. Trying to force an aesthetic onto a utopia, ie a better form of society you wish to implement directly, is difficult and prone to coopting.
Perhaps it was an overreaction, I can't say for sure because I think most of that drama played out before I joined lemmy. I have also never personally experienced right-wing anti-leftism on slrpnk.net so I might assume that we have cleaned that up.
To be clear, calling Marxism "authoritarian Communism" is a form of left-punching. You may not believe anti-Marxism is anti-leftism, but the fact that you allow liberalism but not Marxism is where the issues come in. It would be better, again, to be a strictly Anarchist community, or to allow both liberals and Marxists, blocking out left-wingers in favor of right-wingers is where the cooption comes from.
Therefore, I would say you have 3 good solutions:
- Unblock leftist instances like Hexbear and Grad, while retaining liberals as well. This way, outreach balances itself out
- Block liberalism, this keeps Anarchism as the focus
- Add lots of resources for theory and discussions for theory that go beyond how this "utopia" may function, ie how do we actually get there? I see lots of "what we stand fors" on the sidebar but very little in the way of actual praxis, which adds further to the cooption process. Hexbear has anarchist and marxist theory linked everywhere, even in the sidebars and taglines, same with Grad (which even maintains a wiki and beginner reading list). Solarpunk kinda just has the manifesto. Even a simple theory reading list can do wonders for the theory levels of your userbase.
Of course, you're free to continue as you see fit, I'm just going to have the same issues with slrpnk.net. You don't have to appease this random Marxist-Leninist, you don't owe me anything, but I do think you're harming your server by being more tolerant of right-wingers than Left-wingers you disagree with on practice.
You've given me a lot to think about but I do want to clarify my personal views a bit. I'm not anti-Marxist, I don't believe authoritarianism is inherent to marxism, just that those tendencies are present. From my perspective authoritarian communism is to my right, so I don't see it as left-punching, but I think the left-right metaphor is reaching the limits of its' usefulness here.
Vladimir Lenin referring to "left-wing" communism as an infantile disorder is more in the ballpark of what I mean when I refer to authoritarian communism.
You've given me a lot to think about but I do want to clarify my personal views a bit. I'm not anti-Marxist, I don't believe authoritarianism is inherent to marxism, just that those tendencies are present.
For context, Marx and Engels were constantly referred to as authoritarian, to the point that Engels wrote On Authority to counter the notion entirely. Authoritarianism is typically ill-defined, or used to simply refer to any use of the state apparatus, it's a moving goalpost. I recommend reading Why do Marxists Fail to Bring the "Worker's Paradise?" because judgement of AES states is usually done in an idealist manner, rather than actually looking at the structures. It's a 21 minute article, I highly suggest reading it, if nothing else.
From my perspective authoritarian communism is to my right, so I don't see it as left-punching, but I think the left-right metaphor is reaching the limits of its' usefulness here.
It isn't about direction, you're correct that left/right reaches its limits here. Marxism is on the left, period. If you are punching left-wingers yet giving liberal right-wingers a pass, then you're running into issues, hence why I suggested just making it an explicit and exclusive Anarchist community. Grad punches Anarchists, but also punches liberals, it's strictly Marxist so it doesn't run into issues with cooption or confusion.
Vladimir Lenin referring to "left-wing" communism as an infantile disorder is more in the ballpark of what I mean when I refer to authoritarian communism.
Have you read it? Lenin isn't just saying leftism is wrong, Lenin was one of the most radical Leftists in history. Lenin is specifically referring to Ultraleftism, which is idealist in nature, and not Materialist. It's a failure in understanding the Material Conditions of society and trying to achieve Communism through fiat, without developing the productive forces to be able to achieve it, which has historically run into massive issues. Lenin is correct here, you can't pray Communism into existence.
Lemmy.world was my first instance, it was a nice place while it was below 1k users, then it started to grow fast and degenerate until it's become a complete cesspool from all points of view, not just bigotry.
I fled (I'm cis).
Fuck off with your cohorts. You're not even fighting for equal rights anymore, you clearly all want the spotlight and thrive from the attention like whores.
On top of that you're all buddy-buddy with the mods, it's like crying to your parents every time you have an issue. Clearly shows what kind of weak-willed brigade you are.
Bet you'll go cry to your mod buddies and get this and any other disagreeing opinion removed.
How. Fucking. Typical.
Cowards.
Real LGBT community members wouldn't differentiate between themselves and other groups, since the goal is inclusiveness. You're all about division.
So fuck right off with your fake reality TV star movement.
"lotta transphobia round here"You're not even fighting for equal rights anymore, you clearly all want the spotlight and thrive from the attention like whores. Real LGBT community members wouldn't differentiate between themselves and other groups, since the goal is inclusiveness. You're all about division.
how do you manage to wake up in the morning and take yourself seriously
or lemmy.ca because they are not well run instances without any oversight to their users and it’s mostly spam.
Any specific issues with Lemmy.ca? The admins always seemed quite reactive and reasonable
Sorry to hear, I see where you come from.
On the other hand, being able to call out power tripping admins and mods is valuable. I guess maybe today !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com is better for that purpose
I've had mods power tripping, preventing me from contributing to a community I had contributed building. Just mods, not admins.
On top of that, if an admin thinks that they are all powerful on their instances, it's their right, but then make it clear so that most of the people can move their communities elsewhere.
And has your call outs and drama ever worked? No. It never works. You still had to do what did work. All that was produced was more toxic and counterproductive bullshit.
What would work is moving to a different instance with a different identity or better yet launching your own instance.
The problem with mods and admins is that the ownership isn’t widely distributed across the users enabling that dynamic in the first place. This is non commercial human scale social media which means that it is run by people. If you don’t like it or them you must run your own.
Put up or shut up
Oh, it did. A few of us were unhappy with that mod, we launched our own community, which is now far more active that theirs.
For admins, it's a different story, I agree with you, if you don't like the admin, just change instances. But for mods, it's a different story.
disables downvotes because they are all spam as well.
Not really, I come across posts from your instance sometimes and I downvote because I disagree. Though now I know that was futile.
I downvote because I disagree.
This is why downvotes are mostly spam lmao. They have more to do with how popular something this than the substance of the post. It is also impossible to distinguish good faith criticism and reactionary suppression.
Dude lemmy is the weirdest platform I've ever seen. Reading this thread makes me think everyone here are transgender communists.
Also why are you clowns praising hexbear as trans friendly? That instance is toxic af. Are you guys insane?
everyone here are transgender communists.
Hexbear has the largest weekly trans megathread in the entire fediverse, a supermajority of non-cishet users, has hard-coded mandatory pronoun tags, and aggressively bans racism, bigotry and transphobia on sight. It is, hands down, the most trans-inclusive space in the fediverse, as evidenced by a recent user poll in which 90% of respondents agreed, Hexbear is a place that protects its trans users.
I mean you are a cis person, saying that a space is unfriendly to transphobes because they are a bit on the aggressive side and ban people for bigotry that is real but you don't see or understand why it is bigotry. It really isn't your place to tell us trans people that a space meant for trans people is unfriendly to trans people.
What I saw and the reason I fled was their "freedom of speech" only applied to things mods agreed with, that's no real freedom of speech in my book.
While I didn't have any personal problem with them, I saw people and communities being banned for reasons that were not logical to me and I had the very strong impression their convoluted "explanations" were just a cover for their personal preferences, mind this is just my opinion.
I'm fine with freedom of speech as long as it's coherent and not just based on what mods personally like or don't.
I believe they do have the right to do what they want with "their" instance, I just don't want to be in a place like that.
Transphobia in the fediverse
cross-posted from: discuss.online/post/12273255
I've only been on Lemmy a few days and I've already witnessed a lot of thinly veiled transphobia, anything from people dismissing the existence of trans people, to trying to claim we are predators. I've also seen people downvoted in the general communities for expressing trans support, or seemingly for no reason other than simply being openly trans or visibly queer. I know it's an ongoing effort to moderate transphobia on Lemmy, and the fediverse as a whole. We have to also address mentions of thinly veiled transphobia and transphobic users. Transphobia isn't just a differing opinion, it is a dangerous hateful sentiment which causes harm to vulnerable people and it needs to be addressed, at the instance and community level. We need to put in the effort to identify transphobic dogwhistles and language used by transphobes to eradicate this type of behavior from our communities and servers alike.
Some people will argue that the light stuff isn't something to worry about, but that's not true. This is a tactic they use to blend in with normies and make them think that nothing they are doing or saying is wrong. It's what transphobic right-wing YouTubers and Facebook users do to avoid being banned for hate speech. We are better than these corporations though, Fediverse is run by communities and for the users, we should not let these things slide as easily as Corporations do, they're in it to make money, we... We're in it to create a community for the users. Part of that means kicking out those who don't have all our best interests at heart.
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This, and lay out the details like ELI5 and as an unemotional objective thing with detail.
I have received many flags to sort out that take more than a few minutes to figure out the tone and meaning. I strongly believe people have a right to be stupid, wrong, a bit rude, or to have a bad day. I need to know exactly why the comment is more than this in a well laid out fashion. If you think it is a pattern with the individual, prove it. If some subtle phrase carries more meaning than I may realize, say so. I want to make people feel welcome on all fronts with a Hippocratic framework of "first, do no harm." At the same time, a visible mod is a bad mod. I will read every detail. I will give the benefit of the doubt in every possible case. I won't be passive to bigotry, but I will allow an asshole that does no harm. I'm but one insignificant mod. I care a whole lot more as a person, but I act conservatively as a mod. When flagging something imagine the person on the other end is working on some big project, stopping their day, and taking a half hour to sort out the details, thinking them through, and taking action. It usually takes me longer to shift gears and do this in practice. I'll usually send a message explaining why I did or did not do anything as well.
Yep, I noticed that too, OP. And when I point it out, they claim I'm crying victim or that I have "main character syndrome" or that I am sealioning.
But you're not alone. Other people notice this just like you do.
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I know it's not specific to the Fediverse, but I recommend you watch this video from Fran Blanche: it's eye-opening and a bit heart-breaking:
Fran Blanche is a genuinely kind person, a good engineer, and her career has been hobbled by rampant transphobia.
Welcome here!
Please report such comments or posts.
If it's at the mod level, please document it on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
We all try to fight against transphobia, but we don't have eyes everywhere
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I don't support transphobia, but this sounds extremely aggressive and almost unworkable. Who gets to decide what qualifies as "thinly veiled transphobia"? or "transphobic dogwhistles" and what approach is used to disperse bans?
For example, in many countries some people who might be generally supportive of trans people (in the sense that they would want you to be the best version of yourself) might oppose inclusion of transwomen in natal-women's spaces. Does this qualify for an automatic ban?
Some might claim this is transphobic, but my answer to that would be: How do you know? Do you speak the local language? Have you lived there? Do you have any knowledge about the region's history? Do you know what the attitude of the local LGBT community is to the above-mentioned example?
We shouldn't limit ourselves by the assumptions (and polemics) of a given region even if English is the lingua franca of the internet. A lot of people in the world speak English as second language.
Hopefully more people from lemmy.blahaj.zone can go through the general communities on lemmy.world and the like and report as many of those users as possible so they can be banned from their instance.
I would definitely oppose this without addressing specifically what qualifies as "transphobia" and what the specific policies are with regards to moderator actions. Otherwise this is just some rampage witchhunt against perceived enemies.
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I don’t support transphobia, but this sounds extremely aggressive and almost unworkable. Who gets to decide what qualifies as “thinly veiled transphobia”? or “transphobic dogwhistles” and what approach is used to disperse bans?
It's easy, comments which dismiss or devalue trans people, attempt to undermine our rights, or justify or sympathize with transphobia count as thinly veiled transphobia. This is widely agreed upon by trans people and their allies alike.
For example, in many countries some people who might be generally supportive of trans people (in the sense that they would want you to be the best version of yourself) might oppose inclusion of trans women in natal-women’s spaces. Does this qualify for an automatic ban?
This is transphobic, it implies that trans women aren't real women. We are real women. We aren't men pretending to be women. This type of argument attempts to invalidate trans women and claim that we aren't real women. They claim to respect us as women but they don't think we should be in spaces with other women. If we're real women and they think we're real women how does that make any sense. Answer, it doesn't. This is an example of thinly veiled transphobia.
Some might claim this is transphobic, but my answer to that would be: How do you know? Do you speak the local language? Have you lived there? Do you have any knowledge about the region’s history? Do you know what the attitude of the local LGBT community is to the above-mentioned example?
More examples of trying to justify thinly veiled transphobia. You know how we know it IS transphobic, because it is exclusionary towards actual women on the basis that we're transgender. Just because transphobia is normalized in some places doesn't make it not transphobia, also doesn't make it not wrong and exclusionary. Please don't try to excuse transphobia on the basis of the people being foreigners or the transphobia being mild and the people still self-proclaiming themselves to be trans allies.
Hopefully more people from lemmy.blahaj.zone can go through the general communities on lemmy.world and the like and report as many of those users as possible so they can be banned from their instance.I would definitely oppose this without addressing specifically what qualifies as "transphobia" and what the specific policies are with regards to moderator actions. Otherwise this is just some rampage witchhunt against perceived enemies.
It's not complicated, anything trans exclusionary or invalidating to trans identities is transphobic. "I don't hate trans people but I don't think they should force their identities and pronouns onto other people" is a transphobic dogwhistle and a prime example of thinly veiled transphobia, and it's the kind of thing you'd likely excuse here. I mean you literally excused excluding trans women from "women's spaces" despite us being women. That in and of itself is a dogwhistle, "protect women's spaces".
I do think that Lemmy.blahaj.zone though should alert other admins including lemmy.world's admins o the problem though so they can ban these people everywhere, and not just from a single instance and its communities.
This is not a matter of justification or sympathy of transphobia. You can't condemn hundreds of millions of people (billions?) as evil just because they don't 100% align with your worldview. Especially if you know nothing about various countries' LGBT communities and their views and priorities.
How do you know your maximalist approach is shared by the global trans community? How many languages do you speak? Have you ever been part (IRL, not online) of another country's trans community? Living there and interacting with other people (trans and not trans).
Why are you saying that I believe that "[trans people] should [not] force their identities and pronouns onto other people?" Why are you putting words in my mouth? Is this because I provided a critique of your approach and offered a perspective from a non-english speaking country? I brought up the natal women's spaces example because it's a real world example that shows the limits of your approach. You don't know whether trans folk in non-english speaking countries are in 100% alignment with you on this issue.
I will admit I don't either. But unlike you I do have some exposure to our local LGBT community and to me this comes off as almost orientalist. You definitely have a lack of appreciation that people in other countries (trans or otherwise) may view things through a different lens and have their own strategies and priorities.
What do you mean by "the downvotes on this thread ... [is a] ... very good way to identify transphobic people"?
Which specific post is transphobic? Considering that you are asking for a major instance-wide ban campaign, you should expect people to question the criteria for the application of such bans.
You didn't even provide a basic definition of your understanding what needs to be banned or what qualifies as "just asking questions". Do you not see how this is completely unworkable?
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what qualifies as “just asking questions”
You just highlighted a transphobic dogwhistle, where people claim to be "just asking questions" and their questions are by nature invalidating or attempting to be invalidating towards trans people.
if you want to know what I meant by downvotes in the thread, many people who are transphobic aren't bold enough to express it directly, they do it indirectly claiming they are just asking questions or that they just don't support that one basic things that trans people expect to receive. Some are even more less direct, lurking and hiding but they still express their distain and transphobia through downvotes. On Reddit they were practically anonymous. The fediverse though allows votes to be seen by instance admins, so it's really easy for admins to find the ones doing this and give them the boot. Votes aren't anonymous.
I already did provide you with criteria for what counts as transphobia, though from what you've said here you sound like a typical apologist and discussion will likely not go anywhere.
I honestly still don't get what is meant by downvotes in this thread. To me this comes off as any opposition/critique is transphobic by default; not a viable perspective in my humble opinion.
Apologist of what? Transphobia? You are not justified in making such a statement.
By the same logic, would I be justified in labelling you an orientalist; a bearer of the "white [person's] burden" (in the metaphorical sense)?
They'll always exist and you need to accept that as a fact. Just silencing people you disagree with isnt a way to solve the problem.
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US assets in Syria (completely illegal by the way) continue taking a beating
Attack on US military base in Syria
It was reported that Iranian-backed groups attempted to attack a base where the US military is stationed with rockets in the Deir ez-Zor province of | The Eastern HeraldArab Desk (The Eastern Herald)
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Edit 20241008: You know, it's really telling that my or8ginal comment was simply erased with no notification or warning, a comment which contained only factual information with references and no offensive language.
The fact that this was done without discussion and with no path for recourse demonstrates exactly what this server is and who the moderators are.
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these US assets are present at the express request of the Kurdish militia, which is formed by the people who actually live there who got sick and tired of the oppression of the religious fundamentalist regime
So like the Russian military units that are present at the express request of the Donetsk and Lugansk militias, which is formed by the people who actually live there [and] who got sick and tired of the oppression of the Ukrainian state?
It's 2024 and you're cheering on US backed "moderate rebels" which are as much of a plague on the Syrian population as Turkey and ISIS. Grow up. The OPCW melted down over the inability to prove that Assad gassed his own civilians just because he hates them so much (a likely story). The symptoms in the footage don't even match sarin, the mouth foaming is more characteristic of chlorine. The smear mirrors numerous other US attempts to fabricate cassus belli against a peripheral country in West Asia or Africa.
Your sweet little based Kurdish militias' permission won't factor into the removal of US bases from that territory. That is currently being conducted by the Axis of Resistance.
To return to the remarkably simply question which preceded your gibbering recitation of the Washington-approved narrative, I define illegal as in flagrant violation of international law, not what is legal in the minds of Redditors who like to fantasize about going and LARPing as a war criminal before getting interviewed by Rolling Stone.
Standpoint epistemology is not an argument, babe.
Out of curiosity, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt? Saudi Arabia, even? Do go on.
Egypt, why do you ask?
Standpoint epistemology is not an argument, babe.
The existence of 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide (as opposed to 23 million living in the country) says everything that needs to be said about your point that Assad isn't actually that bad. If he wasn't people would go to his territory instead of going to fuckin Lebanon.
One of my best online friends is Egyptian, by the way. He talks about Israel's geopolitical role keeping Arab countries deindustrialized.
He talks about what worms many Egyptians are about Israel. He talks about those who aren't often change their tune after being tortured. I talk to him almost every day. So don't feel written off because you're Egyptian. Just because they've really done a number on Egypt. Samir Amin talks a lot about how its emergence was stymied by imperialists. You live in a comprador state half beaten to death, and you gloat over how many refugees there are from Syria, a country illegally occupied by US coalition. Pig. Pig!
you gloat over how many refugees there are from Syria,
Don't put words in my mouth. I never gloated about anything.
a country illegally occupied by US coalition
Huh? How does that even make sense? Syria is in a civil war that's being abused by foreign powers on all side. Nobody is occupying anything. I have literally never heard a Syrian say anything about an occupation; all of them are running from the war. I know US presence in Syria is also fucked up stares at ISIS, but that doesn't make Assad any less horrible.
Again, as an Egyptian I know as common sense that Assad is one of the worst tyrants of the 21st century (so far; we still have 75 years to go). I'd link sources, but if you believed them we'd never be having this conversation. Goodbye.
Have a nice day and feel free to continue our conversation if you return. As you can tell I enjoy arguing. It's a good brain teaser for us.
You know, it's really telling that my comment was erased with no notification or warning or justification - a comment which contained only factual information with references and no offensive language of any kind.
The fact that this was done summarily and without discussion demonstrates exactly what this community is, and who its moderators are.
Explicitly: this is a manufactured echo chamber that suppresses voices which disagree with the intended narrative, enforced by people with a political agenda. Trust nothing that you read here.
(Some) challenges facing Claudia Sheinbaum (People's Dispatch)
October 1, 2024 was a historic day for Mexico. Claudia Sheinbaum became the first female president in the history of Mexico, a country politically dominated by men who have historically tried to display an archetypal image of rugged masculinity. But Sheinbaum’s election invites us to think about a series of factors that are not solely circumscribed to her gender.
First of all, we must consider that MORENA (“National Regeneration Movement”), just over a decade since it was founded, has managed to become a political party that demonstrates a great capacity to remain in power despite the great political wear and tear that a six-year term implies (in Mexico, presidential terms last six years). While this seems to be a common occurrence in the Mesoamerican country, if we take into account that the PRI governed for more than 70 consecutive years (albeit committing electoral fraud on several occasions) and PAN managed to win two consecutive elections with Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, MORENA’s reelection is significant if we consider the enormous campaign deployed by mainstream media against the progressive government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Fear campaigns predicted a national catastrophe that never happened, and somehow the majority of Mexicans opted instead to disregard the media machine and trust their reality on the ground. Sheinbaum’s cultivation of a strong public political communication strategy will be crucial to maintain this trend.
Indeed, it was already historic for a progressive or center-left candidate to have won the presidential elections in Mexico. But for this party to repeat the victory six years later is even more extraordinary. This shows the enormous popularity not only of AMLO but also of the political project he leads. Since his militancy in the PRD, AMLO has managed to unite a series of aspirations and desires of the most impoverished sectors of the country around his figure, but he has also managed to transcend his individual figure in favor of a political process that has been called “the Fourth Transformation” (4T). Even as president, Sheinbaum will have to continue demonstrating that she is the most capable heir in this path of collective institutional transformation.
Claudia Sheinbaum managed to establish herself as a political figure that was able to galvanize the support and trust of the majority of the Mexican people, as seen in the electoral results. There was indeed a large vote of confidence in favor of MORENA, and it is obvious that those who voted for Sheinbaum expect continuity in terms of the works and legal reforms undertaken by AMLO. But the current president has also demonstrated in her position as Head of Government of Mexico City, an enormous capacity for public management and administration of the institutions under her charge.
Great expectations
For now, beyond the speculations of some political commentators, it remains to be seen if Sheinbaum will remain as the protégé of AMLO or if she will manage to become a more relevant political figure than her predecessor. What we can say is that expectations about her administration can be considered even higher than those that appeared at the beginning of AMLO’s administration. She will have to demonstrate, contrary to the opinions of the ideologues of the Mexican and Latin American right wing, if it is possible to sustain a social democratic project in the medium term in a developing country, and even more if such a project is beneficial for the great majorities, as well as for public finances.
As she stated in her address, one of the biggest unresolved debts that the Mexican state has with the people is with the victims of state crimes and paramilitary crimes, especially Ayotzinapa. The security situation and countering the power of narco trafficking groups in the country remains a huge challenge and one that is difficult to tackle and dangerous to ignore.
In addition, Sheinbaum will have to face an opposition that has learned better how to confront progressive administrations and their political communication mechanisms, as well as external enemies that will actively seek to make her government fail. To a large extent, this will be important to know which countries she approaches and which she distances herself from, as well as the capacity or inability of her government to dissociate itself from the great international powers that hegemonize international politics today.
It will also be seen if she will seek to radicalize the public policies of her predecessor, if she maintains the same tone, or if her government acquires a more demure and conciliatory drift with the large Mexican economic groups.
In any case, it will also depend on this whether MORENA’s second administration tilts a tinge closer to a progressivism that seeks to become part of the political establishment or whether it opts for breaking (to the extent of its possibilities) certain historical social relations that have allowed for the greatest inequality between rich and poor in Mexico’s history, the systematic oppression of Indigenous peoples, among other unfavorable socioeconomic indicators.
As always happens in politics, there is no crystal ball, and the future remains to be seen. Although in this first week, from the presidential office in Mexico, Sheinbaum has surely been wondering what to do first, with whom to negotiate, what forces she will have to face, and what may be her first obstacles. Yet, probably most importantly, how to plan, geopolitically speaking, a government in a world that is rapidly moving towards war, and in which Mexico, because of its economic and geopolitical importance, has much to say, especially because of the historical, migratory, economic and cultural relationship it has with the giant that is stirring to the north: the United States.
(Some) challenges facing Claudia Sheinbaum : Peoples Dispatch
The first female president of Mexico has high levels of support but still faces key challenges to maintain stability and implement her political program.Pablo Meriguet (Peoples Dispatch)
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US believes it can use Hezbollah's disarray to elect new president
US officials believe they can exploit the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah's disarray to push for the election of a president in Lebanon, according to Axios.
The report echoes the belief among some Lebanese opposition leaders who spoke to Middle East Eye that there is an opportunity to push for the election of a president after the post has been vacant since October 2022.
Under Lebanon's de facto confessional system, the president of Lebanon must be a Christian.
Russia and China barely affect US elections. Israel controls all of America and you're complaining about Russia and China.
The comparison is also wrong. The US directly tries to appoint a puppet president to Lebanon which they control. Russia and China try to influence people's opinions to vote differently in the US.
This Lebanon intervention is more comparable to what Russia is doing in Africa or Belarus where they actually install puppets.
Reporter: [REDACTED]
Reason: Misinformation
Amazing that some people still think these BlueAnon attempts at censorship will get them anywhere.
- IT Pro: Cambridge Analytica models were exaggerated and ineffective, [UK Information Commissioner’s Office] claims
- Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
- Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
- Washington Post: FEC fines DNC, Clinton for violating rules in funding Steele dossier
- Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
- Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
- Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
- Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
- Jeff Gerth at Columbia Journalism Review on Russiagate: Editor's Note | Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four
- Matt Taibbi: WMD, Part II: CIA "Cooked The Intelligence" To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
- Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away
I think they are kind of bemused by US politics, whereas Turkey and Saudi Arabia and Israel have a much more direct involvement as they wish to get a better deal out of their masters.
Putin talks about how he prefers Harris now, the Chinese joke online that Trump's trade war would help them. It's counterintuitive, but none of it fits the election interference claims of Dems or GOP.
If anyone were serious about fixing the rigging of our elections they wouldn't be talking about malign influence on public opinion at all. It has zero effect on policy statistically.
to what Russia is doing in Africa or Belarus where they actually install puppets.
Belarus under Lukashenko was at first opposed to Yeltsin's Russia, then tried to become neutral until USA and their Polish and Baltic puppets organised coup there which finally forced Belarus to side with Russia, but all that time Russia didn't installed anything there, it's the same government there.
And did you just suggest that the antiimperialist coups in Sahel countries are just Russia's doing? I mean it would be great if Russia was such an antiimperialist activist, but no such luck there.
Ah yes because the last ten times they did this it totally didn't backfire and they had everyone else's future in mind while selflessly giving up a lot of their own.
Oh wait...
New Report: Israel Systematically Attacked Aid Workers
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/21040103
Schuyler Mitchell
Sep 30, 2024
New Report: Israel Systematically Attacked Aid Workers
And an update on detained Gaza surgeon Khaled AlserSchuyler Mitchell (Drop Site News)
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urbo.com/content/secret-way-to…
The Secret Way To Win Monopoly (And Infuriate Your Friends) Every Time
The Elfer Technique exploits a simple rule of Monopoly.
This method, by the way, is named after Reddit user, Elfer, who leaked the strategy for everyone to see. A full, intact Monopoly set has 32 houses and 12 hotels, no more, no less. If all 32 houses are built, no one can build houses, unless they’re sold or converted to hotels. It’s simple supply and demand.
Before you protest, no, it is not legal to use bits of paper or pennies or anything else to represent houses. There are 32 houses in the game, and that’s that.
So, Elfer suggests, if you can buy up all the houses, you can prevent your opponents from gaining any real power. Elfer explains how to use this rule to achieve guaranteed victory in eight easy steps:
Step 1: Start buying any property you can get your hands on.
Most Monopoly players wait until they’re on high-dollar properties to start buying. The Elfer Technique encourages just the opposite. The value of the properties doesn’t matter; you just want to be sure to get the first monopoly.
Remember another traditional rule of Monopoly that people tend not to incorporate, if they even know about it: When a player lands on a property and chooses not to buy it, the other players start a bidding war for that square.
This rule ensures the game doesn’t go on for 150 years, so be sure to follow it.
This little-known “bidding war” rule is just one example of how many of us have been playing the “Landlord’s Game” wrong our whole lives.
It turns out that a lot of Monopoly rules we think are rules are, in fact, not actually rules.
For instance, have you heard that landing directly on “Go” pays double? Or that you have to go all the way around the board once before you can start buying properties? These are not rules, folks, and they could interfere with the Elfer Technique—so the real first step might be to read the official rules to everyone at the table.
Step 2: Use trades to get the game’s first monopoly.
Players will probably line up to trade with you, because you can offer anything they want to get your monopoly started. Let the trade give you both a monopoly.
Pay an exorbitant price. It doesn’t matter; you’ll still win in the end. Just remember to go for the three-property groups—three places to build are better than two.
Paradoxically, cheaper properties are actually better for the Elfer Technique, because it costs less to build houses on them. This strategy is all about houses. It’s all houses, all the time. Remember that and you will always win.
Step 3: Start building houses.
The sooner you can build three houses per property, the better. Your rent income should fund all this construction. If you still come up short, don’t hesitate to mortgage other properties to build at least three houses per eligible square.
Resist the temptation to upgrade your houses to hotels, even if you can afford it. The whole goal of the Elfer Technique is to cause a housing shortage. Hotels are counter-productive.
Step 4: Go for another monopoly.
More monopolies means more space for building houses. Trade or buy to get your second monopoly by the time mid-game starts.
Meanwhile, go ahead and build more houses on your existing monopoly. Four houses are better than three.
Step 5: Houses, houses, houses.
Once you have two monopolies, the goal will be to build three houses on each of property. After that, make sure every square gets four houses. Once again, do not build hotels. Never, ever build a hotel. Hotels are your enemies.
Think about it like this: If you have six spaces to build, with four houses each, you’ve got 24 of the 32 available houses in the game. That should starve the market enough that your opponents will be unable to develop their lands. Now, all you have to do is ride the game out and see if your friends are worth keeping or if your relationship was a charade this entire time.
Step 6: Protect your assets.
In the game of Monopoly, as in life itself, the secret to security is a giant stack of cash. Build your nest egg until you can pay any opponent’s rent. After all, you’ll still be traveling around the board, and you’ll probably land on someone else’s space at some point.
If you end up in jail, celebrate. You can sit there and avoid rents while everyone else lands on your properties, weeping, gnashing their teeth, and possibly throwing stuff.
Step 7: Only accept cash for rent.
Earlier in the game, it might have been helpful to take a property in lieu of cash when an opponent lands on your developed square. That time is over.
When you insist on cash payments, you’ll get to watch the other players sell their houses and mortgage their lands to pay you, the monopoly holder. This thing is very nearly in the bag.
Step 8: Build more monopolies until everyone else gives up.
To speed up the inevitable end of this game, go for another monopoly. Then another. Eventually, you’ll have the bulk of the entire world’s resources. (The world of the game, that is.)
Just like that, you’ve won. But just remember: Winning at Monopoly is a double-edged sword. A Monopoly win could mean the loss of a friendship, so play carefully. And if this is all too stressful for something that’s supposed to be fun, you could always opt for a game of Ticket to Ride, instead.
Remember the Hales Strategy if you sit down for a game of railroad-building, though.
“By the end of the game, if you haven’t completed all your train line cards, you take negative points for each of those lines,” Hales says, still outlining his method for 100 percent success at the newer board game. “By blocking choke points, you can fully control the map and cause your opponents to be stuck with multiple high-value negative-point train-line cards in their hand at the end of the game.”
So how effective is the Hales Technique at Ticket to Ride, anyway?
“This strategy has worked perfectly every time I’ve used it,” he says. “But be warned! Your friends and family might get a little upset!”
That seems to be the common theme running from an established classic like Monopoly to a newer upstart like Ticket to Ride. Crack the game and ensure victory. Ensure victory and get ready to be a target.
Maybe it’d be worth it to throw a game or two every now and then, just to keep your friends and family coming back. You can always win again when you get the urge. Now, shhh! Don’t tell anyone these board-game-winning secrets.
You are very likely to win actually. Me and another buddy in highschool learned this trick, and somehow we always had 2 other suckers for friends who would join us.
The only "Luck" involved was if it was gonna be me who won, or if my buddy won. The others stood no chance if they didn't know of this strategy.
Most games I've seen, nobody ever horse trades for color groups.
Complex deals and negotiations, land swaps, leveraged buyouts, and free rent passes, are all supposed to be part of the game. Getting a color group solely by landing on the spaces first and buying them for list price is indeed rare, by design.
This leads to my other pet peeve... You're not supposed to have enough money to go around the board the first time and buy every space you land on at the list price. You're supposed to be forced to make strategic decisions from the beginning of the game about what you go for, and what you bid in the auctions.
Most of the made up "house rules" are really about circulating more money into the game than is supposed to be there.
Yes that is what the point of Monopoly was.
Yes it is ironic that it was bought out by one of the largest toy companies in the world.
I still love the game. IDK why it feels like an abusive relationship.
realistic
Has anyone personally known to you become randomly wealthy?
Keeping in mind Monopoly dollars are big enough to buy streets, utilities, houses and hotels
Oh I see your playing the legacy monopoly where house prices sort of match the money paid out by the bank....you need to index property and utilities to inflation but you don't adjust any of the money paid out by the bank to the players.
Aka Millennial monopoly.
The game is over much faster, unless you introduce a gig economy payment system. Then it really drags on.
Wait what's this rule about someone going past you in jail? I thought you had to roll doubles to get out?
Also jail is the best place to be late game.
It sucks when playing by the rules too.
Last game of monopoly we played strictly by the rules with four players. So I'm coming around the board and can know the the most likely outcome is that I'm going to land on a property with a hotel and go bankrupt. According to the rules I'd have to hand over all of my properties to that person that person just won the game even though there would still be three players. There's nearly zero probability that someone with a big pile of cash that owns half the properties with hotels on a bunch of them already will ever lose.
So before rolling the dice, I sold all of my houses. Band made a couple of deals with the youngest family member in the game. First deal, I bought the electric company for all the money I had. Second deal, I sold all of my property (including the electric company) for $1 to that same player. Rolled the dice and as expected, landed on a property with a hotel. Handed over the $1 I had and I was out. This is all fine to do within the rules.
It actually made for an interesting game after that because the players left were evenly matched. But not everyone saw it that way so we never played again.
Really the properties should go back to the bank if someone goes bankrupt, otherwise a game with more than two people is effectively over as soon as the the first person goes bankrupt. Still nothing you can do about someone just setting up someone else to win by making a bad deal (whether intentionally or not).
It's just kinda a shit game no matter what you do.
Terrorism from Zionist air force continues with bombing on the outskirts of Beirut
Israel Launches Massive Air Raid on Beirut’s Suburb
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Dozens of loud explosions were heard in the Mrayjeh area in the southern suburb of Beirut, just past midnight on Friday, due to an Israeli air raid.Tasnim News Agency
Not that I in any way support Israel’s campaign of violence, but I’m not sure these kinds of posts from and questionable news sources are doing anyone any favors. For those of us who already oppose the Israeli campaign, there’s nothing new here. For those who do, these kinds of sensationalist posts just push them farther back into their views.
The best case scenario is to open peoples’ eyes to the harm Israel is doing and convince them to change their opinion, which a more neutral has a better chance of doing.
If you want the posts to fit an editorial framework you agree with, I would be more than happy to direct you to an RSS feed application so that you can subscribe to what you like without being burdened with my posts. Just let me know what your platform is. I know Reddit has severely damaged your mind and I'm glad to help.
You did know you can go find the news yourself instead of critiquing other people's posting like a Piss Sommelier?
You have nothing of value to contribute to the discussion other than saying "gee I wish that I was still on Reddit where I wouldn't see Iranian or Russian news". Even by the rules of "Reddit style" imageboards like this you should be ashamed of begging me to pretend I'm on reddit.
Guess what buddy I already knew you would grumble seeing my posts and I don't care what you think because there are millions of utterly worthless replacements for you.
You are on a link aggregator website begging for more of the same Associated Press/AFP news sources, opeds from Zionist newspapers like The Atlantic and The New York Times. Even on its face, you're a very bland and uninteresting person with no thoughts which aren't interchangeable with every other mopey tech worker on reddit. But demanding more government censored sources on a free platform is downright insidious and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Wow. You'll totally win hearts and minds talking like that.
Southern Boy. Hmm. Where in the South?
Using "hearts and minds" here is just too good. You do realize my OP post demonstrates the actual hearts and minds strategy of the US military? Terrorism combined with corrupt anthropology. Look up what happened to the "Human Terrain Project" researchers - I hope it happens to you!
Redditors just pathologically spout idioms even when it just deepens their appearance of idiocy.
I'm not here to cater to your editorial tastes or tut tut about online etiquette. You're wasting your time just like you always do online.
So, you're not catching irony. You also say, "You're wasting your time just like you always do online."
That last part, "... like you always do ..." Is not a normal US speech pattern. Yet your uname is Southern Boy.
Also, that whole Zionist thing. That's a big tell, I can't stand Israel and their actions, but when you start talking Zionism, it gets close to antisemitism. Where you from again?
"you're not catching irony" is not a normal US speech pattern. Are you perhaps an agent of the Saudi government? They are quite influential.
Zionism is terrorism, you are just too cowardly to openly state your belief in terrorism. You wish for a kindlier, gentler terrorism.
That last part, “… like you always do …” Is not a normal US speech pattern.
What the hell are you talking about? Of course it is. It's not just a valid construction, it's idiomatic!
Yet your uname is Southern Boy.
The Geography Understander has logged on. There are souths other than the Southern US.
It's pathetic how you immediately jump to trying to insinuate that the other user is a foreigner pretending to be American so they can do dezinformatsiya when it is neither clear where they come from nor where they claim to come from.
but when you start talking Zionism, it gets close to antisemitism
Conflating anti-zionism and antisemitism is antisemitism, straight up, and it's a form that zionists love using to silence opposition. Israel should not exist, and there is nothing antisemitic about that statement.
And the Nazis had a point or two as well didn't they? Let's break down the pros and cons of genocide, let's not be so hasty to judge.
Unlike you, I don't need to wait for historians to reach a consensus on the evils of my time.
Of course it's terrorism. But there is a difference between an all powerful state committing terrorism on people it doesn't have to, and a people committing terrorism on their occupiers and genocides after having literally every other option of fighting back being removed.
You'll nod your head to JFKs quote "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable" and then sit on the fence when the inevitable happens. Acting like both sides are in the wrong when one side, the one with power in the situation committed to actions that everyone always knew would lead to this. I blame Israel for the death of its civilians due to palastinian terrorism.
Same as I do with the polish Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Same as I do with the IRA.
Same as I do with native American uprisings.
History is filled with noble causes resulting to terrorism due to the complete lack of any other options. It's not great. It's not cool. It fuckin sucks. But at the end of the day, it is ALWAYS the fault of the oppressor. Every time. Always.
I blame Israel for the death of its civilians due to palastinian terrorism.
I return to my original statement, and we have now completed the circle and neither of us has changed. Much like the violence and depravity of religious wars in the Middle East.
One of us has a morally defensible position backed with historical examples of similar events and the other doesn't know how to even recognize a genocide is happening before his very eyes. That's really the crux of the whole thing. You simply don't see the wholesale slaughter of brown people as a genocide. My argument relies entirely on the moral backbone that opposing genocide is righteous. Your argument is to refuse your own eyes.
If that was your family, born behind a wall and then bombed to hell, I bet you would have a different tune. Sadly for people like you with no moral philosophy whatsoever, having no empathy for people experiencing things you don't is pretty normal. It's why Nazi Germany was able to do what it did. It's why south Africa got away with what it did. It's why the native Americans were genocided as they were. And it's why right at this moment you fence sit a slaughter.
Russia urges its citizens to leave Israel immediately
Russia has urged its citizens to leave Israel immediately, following the escalating military tensions with both Hezbollah and Iran.
Yesterday, Anatoly Viktorov, Moscow’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, recommended that Russian nationals depart Israel without delay.
“We advise our citizens currently in Israel to seriously consider leaving the area,” Viktorov added.
Russia urges its citizens to leave Israel immediately
Russia has urged its citizens to leave Israel immediately, following the escalating military tensions with both Hezbollah and Iran. Yesterday, Anatoly Viktorov, Moscow’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, recommended that Russian...Middle East Monitor
One of these days
Germany urges its citizens to leave israel immediately
...
"Israel" is now completely empty
.. cuz if you think about it in the end if he strategically wins in Ukraine it legitimize this is worldview and it is real get surprised by Iran... Perhaps with Russia's help we might get an uh-oh... The big kind
What the heck is this trash shipping with firefox? about:compat
Visit about:compat in your firefox. I find it insane that these exist.
Edit: I've learned that this is part of the webcompat system addon developed by Mozilla and other contributors. I see why this is beneficial default behavior, since FF has no chance of getting enough market share to matter more if things are broken.
However, this behavior is too intrusive for my taste. For example this injection: hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central… is basically just to silence annoying user reports.
Also, Every site FF pretends to be a different UA on is artificially reducing FF market share data.
they're trying to ensure an acceptable UX with their browser.
I suppose the root of the issue is developers specifically targeting and testing on chrome.
I don't understand how this would make Firefox look bad unless you're pointing at the dire browser share situation.
Lol, you do realise that chrome does many more. They were recently discovered to allow extra access to google meet over competitors. So not just creepy, but anticompetitive.
I think a more aggressive approach would be better for sites that dont offer compatibility with Firefox.
Do a pop up that asks the user to help make chsnge. First few users to encounter the site could be asked to see if they could find the contact details to let the site know about the problem. Once that is correct, following users could be asked to message them to let them know its a problem.
Keep upping the volume with bad publicity about their website not following standards and bekgn deficient and they will change.
I like the thought, but I can't imagine that most people will enjoy getting even more popups when they load up a site, especially when they come from the browser itself.
Just take a look at OP here. If they responds this way to settings that are there for their actual benefit - just imagine how much they'll like those popups.
Yes but thats the point. You could offer the option.
This site is trying to block open standards. We can apply a fix to correct it. Would you like to
Tell site to fix it/Apply fix/Leave unsafe site
Then you have all options.
Yep, but with consent. I'm already happy they don't his. OP is not. FOSS should aim for ideal behaviour to show non Foss software how its done right.
This shoudlnt come at the expense of user experience, so its always a balance.
Like, the vast majority of browser users don't even know what an extension is, let alone install one.
Looks like compatibility hacks for various websites.
Interventions - are deeper modifications to make sites compatible. Firefox may modify certain code used on these sites to enforce compatibility. Each compatibility modification links to the bug on Bugzilla@Mozilla; click on the link to look up information about the underlying issue.User Agent Override - change the user agent of Firefox when connections to certain sites are made.
Just imagine slipping in a new compatibility fix for a banking website... Or maybe a crypto custodian...
No sneaky backdoor required, just change some data.
Any project can insert any code they want, that's how software works. The thing about open source projects like Firefox, is if they were to do such a thing, anyone could see it. You're complaining about Firefox when they haven't really done anything, and yet browsers like Brave have actually been caught inserting redirects into their links, which is harder to spot because Brave is not open source.
If you really agree this distrusting of Firefox, just don't use it, or build it yourself.
Pretty sure it’s always been like this.
The web is a mess. If you do anything on it on any combination of software and hardware and expect security or functionality you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Those are special measures to not be blocked by those sites etc..
While I agree it sucks, because it doesn't fix the problem at the source (the site causing it) and therefore reduces motivation to even do so, it makes the web more accessible for FF users, quickly.
You're right, for a browser meant for the masses it is probably a net benefit. I posted because I was surprised by this hidden behavior that seems better suited for a browser extension. Sneaky behavior like this is what I'm paranoid about in closed software like windows.
To your point, Linux itself is probably the #1 example of hacky patches to work around other people's problems.
I don’t think that Sneaky or Secret are good descriptions for this. A better word might be “plumbing”.
When you realize that your house use full of hidden pipes and wires, it would be a strange take indeed to conclude that anybody is being “sneaky” about these “secret” features.
... Uh... This doesn't seem that objectionable. It's a bunch of targeted fixes to websites, I imagine every browser does it in some form. Firefox at least allows you to turn it off if for some reason you wanted to.
BTW, I think Proton (for playing games) does this as well.
Also, Every site FF pretends to be a different UA on is artificially reducing FF market share data.
Ehhh... I think a bigger effect on FF market share statistics is probably all those privacy addons and settings everyone is using.
- Why is this trash? It's making websites that are hostile work properly?
- The example you linked literally doesn't reduce FFs marketshare. It's a fix for a website that's hostile towards macOS and Linux users, by pretending to be FF on Windows...
- I believe including specific site fixes in the main browser release is a bad idea. It seems like many disagree with that belief, and that's fine.
- For that example I take issue with the justification in the comment above the code that the problem solved is a high volume of reported issues. That injection solves a problem for webcompat, not Firefox.
What I mean by market share is for each individual site that Firefox pretends to be another browser on, that site's statistics will show very few or no Firefox users. Sites that are already broken probably don't care, but they may see that as justification to disregard Firefox users i
During future changes.
If they are having to add compat, it is because it is a popular site that is already ignoring Firefox. I am sure they have communicated the problems. The website operators don’t care.
What hurts Firefox market share is when regular users have problems on the sites they frequent. The lower Firefox market share, the fewer sites care about it ( as you seem to understand ). Firefox has to make these kinds of fixes.
K, teachable moment maybe.
How complicated do you think a web browser is? Out of the box there is support for 30 years of web and file systems, support for socket types that will never be commissioned again and a pipeline to every native media format.
It's complicated, it's essentially an OS. with perfect backward compatability. (Mostly)
I have an increasing amount of bile for the Mozilla Corp, but if you're on Lemmy you probably noticed corporations don't make the best decisions for you... My question is how many of the options do you see in about:config do you think chrome and safari don't show you?
Mostly to their benefit I'd add, except if they set them maliciously you'll never know.
Agreed. To expand on your OS comment, SerenityOS is an operating system that was largely written by one guy. Then he started a web browser for it ( Ladybird ).
Despite having a lot more help on the browser, he expects it to take longer. It is very clear that a modern web browser is a much bigger undertaking than the OS.
A browser engine is such a significant investment that even Microsoft sees it as too much effort. They dropped their internal engine to switch to Blink ( Chromium ).
Claudia Sheinbaum inaugurated, dedicates first press conference to victims of 1968 massacre, a new turn for Mexico's left
Mexico: a New Turn for the Left (Resumen)
By Atilio Boron on October 2024
The powerful could not with AMLO, who took away many of their privileges and began to put an end to the plunder they had exercised for more than a century. Nor will they be able to with Claudia Sheinbaum.
Claudia Sheinbaum begins today [by Tuesday] a new six-year term within the framework of the Fourth Transformation initiated with the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on December 1, 2018. Sheinbaum arrives at Mexico’s highest office on the shoulders of a sweeping electoral victory: 59.76 percent against the meager 27.45 percent of her most immediate pursuer, right-wing candidate Xóchitl Gálvez.
And also being the beneficiary of the positive legacy bequeathed by her predecessor, who is retiring from the presidency -and from politics, as he has said- with an impressive 74 percent popular approval rating that reaches 77 percent in other polls. Among women, AMLO’s approval rises to 78 percent; but the sharpest jump occurs with those over 65 (87 percent) and the younger electorate, under 34, where his approval fluctuates around 80 percent.
There are objective reasons for this popular support. López Obrador’s government implemented a series of social programs that benefited the elderly, once left to their own devices, with pensions. He also launched a massive scholarship program for young high school and university students. In addition, during his administration, 145 universities or university institutes were created within the framework of the “Universities for Benito Juárez Welfare” program, conceived to extend free public higher education -attention Casa Rosada!- in rural areas and marginalized districts of the country, where popular access to university was very difficult.
This proposal is inspired by the experience of the American “community colleges”, offering programs that normally last two years in specialized fields with immediate employment opportunities such as agronomy, nursing, automotive mechanics, among others, and that either enable students to be trained to respond to the needs of their community or serve as a gateway to careers offered by traditional universities.
Among the peasant population, support for the Morena government and its allied parties, mainly the Labor Party and the Green Party, is also in the majority, as a result of numerous initiatives within the framework of the “Sembrando Vida” program (economic support to reforest and revitalize agricultural soils); guarantee prices for corn, beans, wheat, rice and milk; microcredits “a la palabra”, direct subsidies to producers as well as numerous infrastructure works that improved living conditions and the possibilities of developing economic activities and guaranteeing adequate transportation of what is produced. The new president has indicated her firm decision to maintain AMLO’s achievements.
She counts on a qualified majority in both houses of congress and the governorships of 23 of the 32 states that make up the republic. To maintain the social advances but also to broaden its social agenda and intensify the fight against poverty, which although it was reduced during the last six-year term, still hovers around thirty-five percent of the population as a consequence of the increase caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is nothing in the current and future governing cast that could be mistaken for naïve conformism. Satisfied with what has been achieved, however, there prevails a lucid conviction that there is still much to be done and that the nefarious legacy of long decades of neoliberal orthodoxy cannot be dismantled in a six-year term. Proof of this was the difficulty to advance in a fiscal reform, in cutting the independence of the Bank of Mexico or modifying the neoliberal components of the T-MEC, the new treaty between Mexico, the US and Canada, which replaced the one signed in 1994, which limits the margin of action of the Mexican government.
Domestically, Sheinbaum will have to deal with several burning issues, the main one being insecurity. Violence and drug trafficking, especially in the northern states of the country, with a focus on Sinaloa and its cartel war, results in an average of 80 homicides per day, and on some days, up to 100 homicides per day. In the year 2023 the homicide rate was 23.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, slightly higher than that of Brazil, 22.3, not to mention Argentina, where it was 4.4 per 100,000 inhabitants.
But the issue of insecurity in Mexico or Brazil does not even remotely reach the spectacular and yellowish nature of the Argentinean case, especially when progressive forces are in power, and where the media scoundrels bombard the collective imaginary with apocalyptic images of uncontrolled violence.
Related to the issue of violence, the implementation of the Judicial Reform, already with constitutional rank, will be one of the biggest challenges Sheinbaum’s administration will face. All of Latin America looks with hope at this advance that the government of the Fourth Transformation has achieved to break the resistance of one of the most backward and conservative centers of our countries.
The new president begins her administration with an economy that rests on solid foundations. The peso was significantly revalued against the dollar; the international reserves of the Bank of Mexico reached a historical level of 225,427 million dollars in the last months, while exports reached 600 billion dollars in 2023 (almost equal to Argentina’s GDP in that same year). Add to the above a growing commercial and technological link with China, which has now become the second largest trading partner after the US. In addition to these favorable conditions, the country has received 63 billion dollars in remittances from Mexicans living abroad and more than 12 billion dollars from tourism, all of which make up an economic picture that is not free of challenges but which allows us to look to the future with cautious optimism.
Contrary to Argentina’s official credo, the left in government, far from impoverishing and underdeveloping countries, does the opposite, as the Mexican case amply demonstrates. I wish Milei would take note of this lesson, although I see it unlikely, blinded as he is by his ideological fanaticism.
On the external flank, Sheinbaum will have to deal with a convulsed international scenario. The closest: the tensions within the T-MEC. It is well known that for Washington Mexico is the most important country in the world, although its bureaucrats and experts say otherwise with the intention of weakening the negotiating capacity of the Aztec country. Such importance goes hand in hand with an uncontainable tendency to interfere in Mexico’s internal affairs. Examples: the militant opposition to the energy reform and, just now, to the Judicial Reform.
There is also the complex issue of migration, given that Mexico is an obligatory passage for the huge caravans of victims of neoliberal policies from Central American and Caribbean countries seeking to enter the U.S., which provokes racist and very aggressive responses from the U.S. leadership, such as those of Trump and just a little less from Harris.
The growing commercial and political gravity of China will be another issue that will strain the always complicated relationship with Washington. It is not just a matter of trade but a geopolitical issue of vast scope. AMLO’s “Mayan Train” will not only favor the economic and social development of the Mexican Southeast, but it is also a key piece to turn the Isthmus of Tehuantepec into a new bioceanic passage between the Atlantic, via the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific. At just two hundred kilometers wide, it is the most attractive alternative to facilitate the traffic of goods between East and West, which would relegate the Panama Canal, in fact controlled by Washington, to an unbearable obsolescence. There is a huge Chinese interest in promoting this initiative and this inevitably leads to a collision course with the US government.
There would also be other issues on Mexico’s external agenda, such as its deep respect for national self-determination, its support for multilateralism and, of course, the multipolarism that is here to stay in the international system. For now, there is no talk of Mexico’s eventual entry into BRICS, which would be little less than a declaration of war for Washington, but the question floats in the air.
In sum, Sheinbaum will have to face challenges of all kinds both domestically and internationally. But she is a very intelligent person, with a solid political background, and a long career in the management of public affairs. And, above all, she is a woman of strong convictions who will not be intimidated by the powers that be: the Mexican plutocracy and its American masters. They could not stand AMLO, who took away many of their privileges and began to put an end to the plunder they had exercised for more than a century. They will not be able to defeat Claudia Sheinbaum either, and this is great news for Mexico and all of Latin America. There is a reason why the big media in the US, Latin America and Spain are attacking her.
Mexico: a New Turn for the Left
By Atilio Boron on October 2024 The powerful could not with AMLO, who took away many of their privileges and began to put an end to the plunder they had exercised for more than a century. Nor will …Resumen LatinoAmericano English
If war ends I’ll restore relations with Russia, Slovakia’s Fico says
If war ends I’ll restore relations with Russia, Slovakia’s Fico says
Pro-Moscow prime minister wants to continue buying Russian gas and oil and to maintain existing transit routes through Ukraine.Ketrin Jochecová (POLITICO)
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US leaves Hurricane Helene survivors behind while funding Israel’s genocidal war. As the death toll from the storm climbs to 204, Congress has made no efforts to secure more disaster relief funding.
US leaves Hurricane Helene survivors behind while funding Israel’s genocidal war : Peoples Dispatch
As the death toll from the storm climbs to 204, Congress has made no efforts to secure more disaster relief fundingPeoples Dispatch
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Just 20 years ago a similar hurricane by the name of Katrina rocked the nation and was part of the 24 he news cycle for months. Katrina was (and rightfully so) a huge deal in America, and recognized as a mega traumatizing event.
It’s amazing to me how jaded the American public and media have become in that time, to where this disaster hardly even makes the news and is forgotten before it’s even joever.
I’m honestly not quite sure what to think of it. Have we become so calloused to the idea of climate change that this isn’t newsworthy? Is this more reflective of the corporate capture of media, and insurers not wanting to pay out for destroyed homes and lives? Or is this just secondary to the overriding effort to further a new war in the Middle East?
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