Mastodawn

@Kethianna @Remittancegirl

Either the Fascists dominate forever.

Or the Democrats become an actual left wing party, a strong advocate for labor above all, free medicine, free post-secondary education, extremely high taxes on rich people, nationalizing or restricting key industries like Twitter which flout the law... etc.

Or conceivable a new left wing party will spring up and revitalize America. But the DNC has proven very talented at crushing anything to the left of "center right".

@Kethianna @Remittancegirl ...offering the services that a modern government in a developed country offers, which isn't just free medical care, but things like a *right* to vote - you don't have that in the US, you know - which means free and easy to get ID, active outreach by impartial election officials to make sure people who have a right to vote have everything they need, and mandatory time off for everyone to vote;

and I'm going to stop here, because you can imagine the rest.

@Kethianna @Remittancegirl But after just two decades, Reagan came in, and anti-authoritarian America never recovered.

While the majority of the blame is of course with the Republicans, all hope was lost when the Democrats starting with Clinton moved sharply to the right on everything except identity politics (which isn't actually left or right, anyway).

When I moved to the US around 1984, both parties were promising what was essentially socialized medicine.

@Kethianna @Remittancegirl

I left in 2016, when neither party was talking about it. In 2008, the Obama administration banned the mention of single payer from any of the discussions about the ACA, and also refused to allow any comparisons with any foreign healthcare systems, and I knew the game was up.

Why am I telling you this?

Because if we don't understanding our history, we're going to repeat our mistakes over and over again.

We've been fighting and losing for generations.

Charlie Stross Apr 23, 2025

The reason you should pay attention to transphobia (even if you and everyone you know are cis):

They're the canary in the cultural coal mine: when the social atmosphere turns poisonous, it hits them first—and shortly thereafter, it'll poison you too, one way or another.

Because socially accepted bigotry *always* gets worse, if we don't stop it in its tracks immediately.

Peter Gleick Apr 24, 2025

Now up to 363 university/academic signers -- more than 60 added in the last few hours.
Still silence from Dartmouth, Stanford, and the entire state of Texas.

"We must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses."

https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement

EDRi Apr 24, 2025

Yesterday, the European Commission slammed tech giants #Meta and #Apple for breaching the #DigitalMarketsAct #DMA – but then stopped short of sticking the landing with the low penalties. What does it mean for our #FundamentalRights and online experiences? 🤔

We unpack the mixed bag of takeaways in our full press release ⤵️ https://edri.org/our-work/press-release-commission-slams-apple-and-meta-for-breaching-the-digital-markets/

Commission slams Apple and Meta for breaching the Digital Markets Act, doesn’t stick the landing with fines - European Digital Rights (EDRi)

The European Commission has shown some teeth with the EU’s digital rulebook by slamming tech giants Apple and Meta with admittedly low fines for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

European Digital Rights (EDRi)

NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦Apr 24, 2025

Pressure should be on Moscow, not Kyiv — says Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha after Russia’s massive overnight attack.

He called out Russia’s brutal strikes combined with absurd demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its own regions, making it clear: Russia—not Ukraine—is the obstacle to peace.