Rand Barthel

20 Followers
11 Following
108 Posts

Physicist by education, software engineer by profession, activist by passion

Location: Massachusetts, USA

Education: Harvard University, B.A. cum laude in Physics (1974)

Family: married, father of 2, grandfather of 1

Employment: Recently retired from IBM

Passions: climate justice, defense of democracy

Hobbies and interests: amateur astronomy, birdwatching, sailing, gardening, history, philosophy

Aspirations: to enjoy retirement and be a good ancestor

Pronouns: he/him

It's a cult.

You ask, don't they see who he is?

Yes, they do. THEY. DON'T. CARE. He speaks for them. They want what he wants, despite his "approach."

Via Rachel Scott:

#Trump supporters packing his event today despite the brutal cold.

I asked several supporters if the bitter weather will impact turnout.

โ€œI would walk over shattered glass for Donald Trump,โ€ one woman told me.

@DrOinFLA That was the past. He was never criminally indicted before now. And he never had his business dissolved out from under him.

Forget the past. Trump can't live in it either.

Making a distinction between "the exploited" and "the exploiters" is a really big oversimplification. If one wants to use Marxist analysis in their daily life, this is not gonna help.

Like, obviously there is a difference between billionaires and the rest of us. Obviously, a rich IT worker is not really "as evil" as Elon Musk. But that's like all the insight you will get from this framework.

Terms like middle class help, because they actually (somewhat) meaningfully describe reality. There are not only 2 classes in a society, there are more. And there are different societies with different class compositions.

And what class you're from actually really influences how you're thinking and behaving. I come from upper middle class (approximately). When I went to college I was like "of course I want to go to college what do you mean". I had friends in college before I went there already.

My friends "lower on the social ladder" rarely went to college and if they did, it was without the support of their surroundings (if I may speak for them). It was a bigger deal.

And that's just one example of a huge difference.
1/3

In reference to my pinned post about Americans not aware that there are other people out there.

A conversation I had with a very lovely lady on py Mastodon account.

Her: " something, something, PNW, something, something..."
Me: "PNW ???"
Her: "Yes KUAM." (I can't remember the exact acronym)

Not a second it crossed her mind that I was asking her what PNW meant (now I know, until I forget again) and worse she doubled down.

I guess that's also a good reminder that wherever you're from acronyms are usually not understood by everyone.

#UnitedStates #Isolationism #USA #Acronyms #PNW
If Elon Musk wants to know why his ad revenue is fiffling away, all he has to do is look in the nearest mirror.
Saw a dork on here the other day saying "Stop saying AI is stealing things you Luddites, they just aren't!" and okay you're right, it's not theft, it's just fraud, copyright infringement, plagiarism, false advertising... https://wandering.shop/@susankayequinn/110798651685190222
Susan Kaye Quinn (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Back in Feb, when Grammarly said they were going to think about incorporating AI, I immediately canceled my account and uninstalled. And now they've actually done it. I'm sharing because with everything going on, writers might not realize this is happening. #AI #writing

The Wandering Shop
Trump will benefit from incarceration in Florida because it will teach him useful skills.
Itโ€™s been so fun chatting with everyone on Mastodon; I plan on sticking around here for a long time. However, for my longer form, rich content, I like Post โ€“ where we can continue to build a community that actually cares about each other. Iโ€™m really looking forward to seeing you all over there as well. You can sign up for free here: https://post.news/@/georgehtakei?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=creator_organic&utm_campaign=georgehtakei&utm_content=followme
Post - George Takei @georgehtakei

I boldly went to this new site. Follow for more recipes and tips.

Post News
Nebraska Teen Who Used Pills to End Pregnancy Gets 90 Days in Jail

Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages.

The New York Times

He highlighted that even Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," demonstrated the necessity of lawlessness as a weapon for abolitionists. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had turned virtually all radical abolitionists into law-breakers.

29/

#BlackMastodon #Histodons #History #StillWeRise