"intentions dont cancel out effects" is really meant as a rebuttal to people who are being an asshole about being told about the effects of their actions. It shouldn't actually be used to make ourselves feel like everyone who accidentally steps on our foot is our enemy. You have to use yr judgement

i dont know how to convey that this was like, a completely consensual conversation instigated by the driver in a way i could have politely let drop but chose to go with. he was picking me up from a medical clusterfuck, so discussion naturally went to healthcare politics

Literal Ham@literalham.bsky.social · 6h ago

the latter i brought up (in the context of talking about how broken healthcare is), but the former he brought up (in the context of elections generally). I would never have intended to talk politics and religion during a 90 min uber ride but it just kind of happened?

happened to have a long conversation with a very affable and chatty Baptist today who self-identified as politically independent/moderate, moreso than most at his right-leaning church. Notably he brought up that he would have voted for Bernie in 2016 and agreed that Medicare for All was common sense

ive seen this movie, it would indeed be bad to disturb them

Cliff Pervocracy@pervocracy.bsky.social · 12h ago

actually "is it bad to crash stuff on the Moon" is a weird ethical question because it doesn't affect us at all down here, and we're 99% certain there isn't anyone up there guess the answer is if there are deep underground extremophiles it's very bad to disturb them, and that's not impossible

im at the Hospital im at the Big Brother House Im at the combination Hospital-Big Brother House

⬇️🚨⬇️🚨⬇️🚨⬇️🚨⬇️

Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 2d ago

"The Gaza protests demonstrated how resistant people are to seeing very obvious genocides when those genocides are politically inconvenient, target people that are seen as lacking moral stature, or are perpetrated by people with whom we identify." www.everythingishorrible.net/p/genocides-...

@markey.senate.gov Please use your vote in the Commerce Committee to vote NO on this privacy invasion bill which will be weaponized against LGBTQ people in your state like me and my loved ones. This bill doesn't protect kids, it destroys the free internet for *everyone*, and that is its true purpose

Mike Stabile@mikestabile.bsky.social · 2d ago

What can you do? CALL. WRITE. SCREAM. The bill is up for a vote THIS WEDNESDAY. Call your Senator. Dem. Republican. Whomever. Right now, it's a solid R bill, but they're looking for Dems to take it across the finish line. Let them know how badly it stinks. www.defendonlineprivacy.com/screen/

film you've watched more than six times with a gif. hard mode: no star trek, star wars, lotr, marvel, disney, or ghibli

Idris Elba: Reset The Clock Pacific Rim

Alt: Idris Elba: Reset The Clock Pacific Rim

static.klipy.com

Kaiyalai@kaiyalai.bsky.social · 2d ago

film you've watched more than six times with a gif. hard mode: no star trek, star wars, lotr, marvel, disney, or ghibli

in the genre of Planning For Reconstructions, how about "what reparations lawsuits should we be getting ready to bring against the govt but should wait until after we get normal lawyers back in DOJ? Eg, securing class action and judgement for everyone in concentration camps (and their decedents)

BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: Five months ago, we learned that ICE seized drawings and letters from children in the Dilley ICE concentration camp. I sued under the Freedom of Information Act. Today, I got responsive documents. www.muellershewrote.com/p/breaking-e...

BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: ICE Seized Drawings from Children in Detention. I Sued, and Today I Got Them.

Five months ago, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for papers seized from children at the Dilley ICE Detention Center. Today, I got a heartbreaking response.

muellershewrote.com

Good post! I especially liked this point. we need cultural blueprints for people stepping back from the edge of destruction instead of doubling down. i have always appreciated both the Greens' capacity for introspection, apology, and change, and especially for how they model that behavior for other

berserk du soleil@aetataureate.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hank Green should not use LLMs in his work. Working scientists have specific use cases for LLMs, but science communicators like Hank and I do not. They add more vulnerability than value in our field. I laid out some history and background to walk you through the reasons why.

i wonder if this isn't part of the overall general perception of American litigiousness: there's an arms race between torts trying to impose sanctions high enough to deter wrongdoing, and corporations' refusal to stop doing wrong, instead investing in more legal resources and paying settlements 1/3

Literal Ham@literalham.bsky.social · 4d ago

in a "two is one, one is none" sense, a law that is already never going to be applied universally has to be strong enough to actually catch that fraction of offenders who are brought to court. otherwise "liability" simply becomes a line item in the budget, but the harm continues 8/

The fact that Bovino is testing the waters for a potential political campaign in the state that once hosted the largest and most politically influential klan is something that I wish more people were paying attention to amd taking seriously That's what's keeping me awake.

re: Minnesota's nudifying statute look at this another way: the purpose of a civil abuse statute is not just to provide redress to victims after the fact but to *deter abuse overall* by systematically deincentivizing it. current law DOES NOT DO THIS AT ALL. 1/

Literal Ham@literalham.bsky.social · 6d ago

some of the most targetted women for AI abuse images are sex workers who consensually post nudes, which are then altered by abusers to be more degrading or change their anatomy. without strict liability the courts would likely never vindicate SWer victims bc they already "consented" to be seen nude

i'm not saying Angel One didnt have it's problems, I'm just saying at this point we could probably do worse

If Prairieland had happened *after* Renee Good was murdered you wouldnt be allowing the government to completely shape your narrative of events. you are victim-blaming them for not being naive, for being prepared to have cops attempt to murder them, and for *being right to do so*.

Literal Ham@literalham.bsky.social · 6d ago

if Liberal Currents thinks its "not effective" to take the only logical defensive steps that prevent cops from murdering protesters, its implicitly saying that its better that Good and Pretti are dead than if someone had been prepared to defend them. And thats some soulless optics-brained evil

i normally like your publication, but this is emblematic of why leftists hate liberals. we describe the world as it is before it becomes popular to do so, and you scold us for it. Right up until the moment you realize we were right. Then somehow its also our fault for you not believing us

Literal Ham@literalham.bsky.social · 6d ago

Prairieland were not "too radical" bc they used violence. The didnt They were "too radical" because they understood "too early" that cops and ICE will gleefully kill peaceful protesters. they prepared to defend themselves and that preparation saved their lives. Theyre "too radical" bc they survived

El Sayed: "When it comes to trans rights, this is the right to get the health care that you need...It’s the right not to be discriminated against by your government because of who you are. Because what tends to happen is they come for theirs, then they come for yours"

It’s becoming an increasingly unavoidable conclusion that a portion of mostly establishment Democrat electeds/pundits/consultants don’t like Democratic voters much and would much prefer to have Republican voters instead, and view their voters’ insistence on being represented as an annoying betrayal.

The "Motion to Disclose Grand Jury Minutes" to "Motion to Dismiss" to "Hyde Amendment filing" pipeline stay winning 👏👏👏

Scott MacFarlane@macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 5d ago

FLASH: Justice Dept seeks to dismiss Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn Trump Admin acknowledges: "Damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor"

don’t read the story below, which is bad. instead read my story about the prairieland defendants—three of whom have been my friends for years: hotel-florida.ghost.io/the-seeds-of...

The Seeds of Prairieland: Sentencing in the Prairieland Case

The first time I met Savanna, Liz, and Ines, they gave me seeds for my garden. On the day Liz and Savanna were each sentenced to 50 years in prison, I held those makeshift seed packets in my hand and ...

hotel-florida.ghost.io

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 6d ago

"Their actions ensured that they struggled to achieve sympathetic media coverage outside of a few left-wing outlets, struggled to attract material or legal support (the ACLU, for instance, refused to touch the case), and failed to achieve positive virality in the larger culture."

The only perfect victims are dead victims. Martyrs make simpler stories than survivors; their deaths are incontrovertible evidence that whatever steps they took to fight back were justified. But if you survive, the very actions that kept you alive can be criminalized, denying the danger you were in

I understand the impulse to draw sharp lines between yourself and people who are criminalized based on the presumption that it will protect you because that’s what the criminal legal system is designed to coerce us into doing and accept as normal and natural

A lot of “taking the prosecutors’ word for it” here to make an argument that requires being inside the heads of a disparate group of people who we only think of as a group with concerted strategies because prosecutors said so

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 6d ago

"Their actions ensured that they struggled to achieve sympathetic media coverage outside of a few left-wing outlets, struggled to attract material or legal support (the ACLU, for instance, refused to touch the case), and failed to achieve positive virality in the larger culture."

"If the one who is to act wants to judge himself by the result, he will never begin." (de Silentio, Fear & Trembling, p.63 in the Hong's)

Evan Urquhart@evanurquhart.bsky.social · 6d ago

The problem as I see it is that the response of a fickle public impossible to entirely predict. The Prairieland defendents could have acted in much the same way and become folk heroes and a cause celebre based on some viral video moment where one of them winked at a camera while looking hot.

it seems far more likely and logical to me that, at the bare minimum, influential figures within the International Secretariat simply agree with JK Rowling and her cause

Do not use Minneapolis organizers as the peaceful good example so you can smear the Prairieland defendants for their “violent” tactics. Alex Pretti was also armed. The MN 15 are being indicted for related tactics and strategy. So much is wrong with this piece, but that especially sticks in my craw.

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 6d ago

"Their actions ensured that they struggled to achieve sympathetic media coverage outside of a few left-wing outlets, struggled to attract material or legal support (the ACLU, for instance, refused to touch the case), and failed to achieve positive virality in the larger culture."

Prairieland were not "too radical" bc they used violence. The didnt They were "too radical" because they understood "too early" that cops and ICE will gleefully kill peaceful protesters. they prepared to defend themselves and that preparation saved their lives. Theyre "too radical" bc they survived

Evan Urquhart@evanurquhart.bsky.social · 6d ago

I strongly disagree with using violence, for a number of reasons, but if I did believe in violence I wouldn't find this essay convincing. Hancox-Li argues that we should judge actions on their effectiveness, and agrees left-wing violence can be effective, naming Mangione and Robinson as examples.

It is in fact racist to call an Arab with views you disagree with an antisemite. I know this will be a surprise to many but unless that person is actually saying something antisemitic, the Arab is not genetically predisposed to antisemitism