Erin Paget Dees @undees@witches.live

“Nevertheless, I remain stunned until this day, at the sobering reality of just how seemingly sane, sensible, normal people you've known all your life, could just completely transform.”

This, *this*, is the lesson of every modern Holocaust: not *them*, but you and I, yes us, can transform into monsters while having a fixed conception of our essential goodness. https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/111354815395188085

small websites are countercultural. self hosting is countercultural. web 1.0 is countercultural. user experiences that aren’t pillaged by advertisers are countercultural. a completed project is countercultural. a small, reliable tool is countercultural. independent maintenance is counter cultural. useless programs are countercultural. caring is counter cultural.

stop trying to bring about the end times you weirdos

To avoid needing to change the clocks on my oven and microwave for Daylight Savings I set them to UTC and am working with the kids on converting time zones in their heads.

The thing about being a nuclear power with the world’s biggest army is you never have to see past your own face.

As Canadians with a tiny army, and no nuclear weapons, and the most diverse population on the planet— we have to.

We rely on our diplomacy and the ability to see everyone’s side to get along. People are forgetting that.

When I think about doing things I know a lot about: Imposter Syndrome.

When I think about doing things I know nothing about: Analysis Paralysis.

In both cases: No progress is made.

silicon valley VCs' best ideas of the 2020s:
-put a drone on something
-wrongness generator 3000 (uses more energy than a small nation)
-fraud
-space pollution
-self-crashing cars
-an app that is actually criminally underpaid workers in another country
-an app that is actually criminally underpaid workers in this country
-fascism
-vrchat but it cost 20x to make and it fucking sucks
-layoffs

Some reminders about antisemitism and Jewish history from your Jewish comrades, as we all organize and assemble in solidarity with Palestine:

1. Replacing the word "Jew" with "Zionist" does not make an antisemitic statement OK.

Example: "this won't get public attention because the Zionists control the press" -- still 100% antisemitic, because that's an antisemitic conspiracy theory far older than Zionism.

2. Don't compare Zionism to Nazism. It's inaccurate, so the only reason to do it is to hurt Jews. Apartheid? Fascism? Sure. Not Nazism.

3. Don't minimize the number of Jewish deaths in this. We've seen some claims that the initial Hamas attack on border kibbutzim was a "Zionist ploy"/"fabricated by Zionists to justify the invasion." That's the same "Jews control the [media] [state]" antisemitism as #1, again with the word "Jew" replaced with "Zionist." We've also seen "the Zionists deserve it" in reference to Israeli civilian massacres. This follows the antisemitic idea that violence toward Jews is a Jewish lie to garner public sympathy for our manipulation of world events, including the violence the Israeli state is perpetuating currently.

4. Unfortunately, many Jews on the left have experienced some virulent antisemitism by people we thought were comrades. We're often told to take a seat; that our pain and fear is not a Real Issue; that our oppression is fair retribution for the harm we cause to the world (or Palestine). This is just a rebrand of #3: Jewish oppression is exaggerated/completely made up in order to downplay Jewish control of the world. We have real reasons to be scared. You wouldn't question any other ethno/religious minority's fears, so don't question ours either. If you think, "but Jews are different from other minorities," ask yourself why. If you're stuck, ask a Jewish comrade why you think that. We know.

5. Please don't claim that Jews/ "Zionists" are really just white European colonizers who don't belong in the Middle East. Two long pieces to this one:

a) The colonizer piece: relocating Jews to Palestine was/is an important strategic move for the United States, which can now fight proxy wars in the MENA with the vast majority of casualties on the US/NATO side being Jews instead of Christians. The US got us to relocate willingly by offering us the safety of play-acting whiteness in exchange for being the tool of colonialism that bears the brunt of justified anticolonial resistance. We were offered the opportunity to be settlers, but with no "home base" to return to as in other cases of settler-colonialism. This was also the role given to us in pre-WWI Europe, but that time we were forcibly relocated to the Pale of Settlement, so if the empire was attacked, we'd die first. So, the US supports Israel strongly not because Jews are secretly pulling the strings of world politics, but because Israel is a strategic European colonial project where Jews do the dying instead of Europeans. Which leads us to...

b) Some Jews pass as white. Many don't, including BIPOC Jews, Middle Eastern/Mizrahi/Temani Jews, most Sephardi Jews, and some Ashkenazi Jews. These Jews have to deal with general racism in addition to antisemitism. Jews have never been considered European when being European might have kept us safe. However, claiming that we're European implies that Europe is where we belong, instead of Palestine. But Europe doesn't think we're European. Europe committed a successful genocide against us less than 100 years ago. Europe got rid of us, still hates us, and does NOT want us back. There's a trend here: nobody wants to be identified with us. To people for whom Europe is the "other," the bad guy, Jews are European, and if we say we aren't, we're appropriating oppression. To Europeans and white supremacists, we sure as hell are not white/European, and they'll do what they've always done if we start to forget that.

So get out there, demand a ceasefire, stand with the people of Gaza! But don't say/do the stuff listed above.

#DnD #rpg #dungeonsAndDragons

A discussion at work about HTTP status codes reminded me of this gem.

https://twitter.com/thecrunsher/status/1111258419087007745

Creating a sense of urgency is not a strategy.

I don't think I should have to say this, but apparently I do:

#AntiSemitism is 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗸.

I stand with #Palestine, but I am 100% against #AntiSemitism, it is not one or the other. It needs to be both.

The nuance to this is that criticism of Israel's government, and military actions is not antisemitism. Tough conversations about hard topics are not antisemitism.

But people can be critical, and people can discuss, without being trash.

Do not be trash. #BeBetter.

Son of a…

Ovo-lacto vegetarians are called such because vegetarianism has given them the power to both lactate and lay eggs

When I feel like I'm wasting my time.

#Artist #Writer #Writing #art #capitalism

And if you suggest that maybe our healthcare system should *not* be designed to wipe people out, they ask you how you intend to *pay* for a system that is designed to heal people instead, which is how you know that deep down they think people have a measurable value, and sick people's value is low.

😭 credit https://twitter.com/PervisTime

It shouldn’t need saying that any path that runs through murdered kids (anyone’s kids) and grandmas (anyone’s grandmas) isn’t leading to a better world.

Or that the hatred of Jewish people for their Jewishness is so real and terrifying and dangerous.

Or that Palestinians deserve the same freedom to make a good life as everyone else.

Or that every atrocity is wrong and worth trying to prevent.

I feel so choked with grief but when these ideas are controversial it feels necessary to speak.

Don’t toss batteries when they are almost dead. Put them in kids toys at someone else’s house.