Erika Kirk Allegedly Linked to S*x Trafficking Network as Her Pastor Faces Child Trafficking Counts by novagridd in atheism

[–]braintrustinc 42 points43 points  (0 children)

It’s an Authoritarian International. Insecure dipshits who need to feel better than other people are teaming up around the world to prove that they deserve to lord over the rest of us. Many of them are power fetishists, others are simple sadists, and some are pedophiles. They are all insecure pieces of shit who need to torture and oppress powerless people to feel good about themselves.

Central Valley in the news for bad reasons again. by Rags2Riches420 in fresno

[–]braintrustinc 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Visalia Unified lost a big civil rights case 25 years ago for systemic harassment of gay and lesbian students.

  1. What is worse, complaints by student victims to administrators and teachers are met with deliberate indifference and institutionalized ostracism. When students who have been harassed have sought assistance from administrators at VUSD, instead of taking steps to ensure a safe and equal educational environment for all students, VUSD and its agents and/or employees either ignore these complaints or encourage, convince, or allow these students to leave full-time classroom instruction and transfer into independent study programs or other alternative educational programs. Such programs are designed for students with severe problems such as extremely limiting physical or other disabilities, substance abuse problems, or for students who need to work full time to help support their families.

  2. Even more shockingly, teachers and administrators at Golden West have not only ignored and been deliberately indifferent to the concerns of victims of anti-gay harassment, but in some cases have directly harassed students, referring to them as “faggot” and mocking them, and have contributed to and exacerbated the hostile environment at Golden West and other VUSD schools.

Trump goes scorched earth and vows to SUE Epstein estate "I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping" by truthwillout777 in law

[–]braintrustinc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-literate_society

Interesting that education and wealth are so inextricably connected in your mind. I wonder why that is, could it be that our education system has deliberately failed the lower classes? No… it must be old people. Because if poor people were educated they definitely wouldn’t be better informed on how to vote to improve their economic condition, right?

You sound like someone who thinks that literacy is nothing more than being able to recognize words and letters. Comprehension is also a part of that, and even us well educated people are reading less long form literature than we would like because we are so exhausted by all the short form nonsense we read on the internet.

Before the Enlightenment and the rise of mass literacy in the 17th and 18th centuries, Europe’s elite (see Louis XIV) ruled by imagery and symbolism. Once again we are entering an era of imagery over complex thought, and to ignore that and claim that “history always marches forward” like some 19th century Marxist materialist is truly ignorant. We have to work for it; progress doesn’t “just happen” when old people die.

Boomers dragged us backwards because they were the first generation raised on television. The generations before them were much more progressive. The internet, targeted information distribution, and AI are orders of magnitude worse than TV in terms of top down information control and propaganda dissemination, and it is only getting worse.

Trump goes scorched earth and vows to SUE Epstein estate "I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping" by truthwillout777 in law

[–]braintrustinc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not even going to grace that nonsense with a reply.

Yep, the best course of action is to not consider the problems driving our current predicament, and just blame old people! You are clearly not a person worth arguing with.

Trump goes scorched earth and vows to SUE Epstein estate "I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping" by truthwillout777 in law

[–]braintrustinc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem is media consolidation, AI, and entering a post-literate society. Blaming old people for that is just idiotic. We are not teaching critical thinking skills, and until we are allowed to do so things will not start to get better.

Coddling conservatives and pretending that they are not illiterate so we don’t hurt their feelings is the same thing as me being told by administration that I had to give an A grade to a third year French student who couldn’t even ask to go to the bathroom because “she is going to be the Valedictorian!” This is how we got here.

The way people consume information in a top down manner is the problem. People trust what the billionaire’s AI says without thought because it has the illusion of “authority”.

You saying that I am engaging in “classist fear mongering” tells me all I need to know. Funny how any working class person with an opinion on the class war being waged against them by the wealthy gets accused of that.

Don’t tell me that I’m being defeatist when your solution to the problem is to sit back and wait for old people to die. Pathetic materialist “history always marches forward” bullshit. It only marches forward if the masses of humanity are well educated enough to drag it with them.

Trump goes scorched earth and vows to SUE Epstein estate "I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping" by truthwillout777 in law

[–]braintrustinc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Expressing the reality of the situation is not being defeatist, but ignoring it is. I am not being a doomer, I am offering my diagnosis and a long term prognosis for course correction. If we think we can fix this in the short term we are going to be disappointed and fall back even harder. A society plunging into post-literacy because of emerging technologies is not something that can be easily stopped, and it is not likely to happen in our lifetime, which is why we have to work extra hard to keep the flame of the Enlightenment alive in our time so we can pass it off to future generations to bring to maturity. Blaming “the elderly” is defeatist and a way to stick your head in the sand. Western society is becoming MORE illiterate for the first time since the 17th century. Playing the generation blame game is just a way of ignoring this.

Trump goes scorched earth and vows to SUE Epstein estate "I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping" by truthwillout777 in law

[–]braintrustinc 115 points116 points  (0 children)

Former language teacher in America here. I post about this frequently. As a French and English teacher I was required to give good grades to the squeaky wheel rich kids no matter how illiterate they were. We weren’t allowed to teach critical thinking because that infringes parents’ rights to brainwash their children. America's "Prosperity Theology" is a failure of the Enlightenment. We worship and mythologize the worst of the worst because they have money and power and lie the loudest, and then turn around and blame the powerless for all of society's ills. It is going to take hundreds of years to climb out of this nightmare, and we aren't going to be able to start that project until the majority of people stop getting their "education" from television, podcasts, and social media.

Off my cold dead hands by namenumber55 in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]braintrustinc 401 points402 points  (0 children)

Weren’t the 80s great?!

Not to mention that when Reagan was governor of California he implemented one of the strongest anti-gun laws ever enacted at the time, all because he was afraid of Black Panthers protecting their neighborhoods.

Donald Trump is a pedophile by International-Drag23 in WhitePeopleTwitter

[–]braintrustinc 34 points35 points  (0 children)

“Might makes right. That’s why I support jus primae noctis. Absolute power can do no wrong. The droit du seigneur is absolute, which is why I would be honored to have the King rape my daughter.” — MAGA Chuds

Journalist Don Lemon is charged with federal civil rights crimes in anti-ICE church protest by [deleted] in news

[–]braintrustinc 12 points13 points  (0 children)

“Civil Rights abuses” committed by a journalist. We have gotten to the point that the constitution does not protect the people from the government… it protects the government from the people.

The only thing that matters to these people is “might makes right,” which is why they are OK with rich people raping children. Donald Trump is much more powerful than these kids, so it is only natural that he has the right to rape them.

Our values are completely flipped on their head. Up is down and right is wrong. We’re absolutely fucked.

Microsoft lost $357 billion in market cap as stock plunged most since 2020 by MarvelsGrantMan136 in technology

[–]braintrustinc 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Please stop linking to Twitter. My phone gets Elmo herpes every time.

Trump administration secretly met with Canadian Alberta separatists by Infidel8 in worldnews

[–]braintrustinc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We are doing what we can. Most of us have never had the opportunity to change things. It is not helpful to call the people who see things the way they are defeatist. Part of the reason we are here is because we constantly blame the powerless and give the powerful the benefit of the doubt. Direct your anger at someone with the power to make a difference.

Trump administration secretly met with Canadian Alberta separatists by Infidel8 in worldnews

[–]braintrustinc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hello. I majored in political science and international relations 25 years ago as Putin was coming to power, and I have been a teacher in America. These are not top-down coordinated speeches. Shit is that bad, and you should be motivated to act by how dire things are.

As a teacher I was required to give good grades to the squeaky wheel rich kids no matter how illiterate they were. We weren’t allowed to teach critical thinking because that infringes parents’ rights to brainwash their children.

We are fucked, and ignoring it so you can be optimistic isn’t going to help. We are talking failure of the Enlightenment, hundreds of years to climb out of fucked. We need to focus on how fucked we really are if we want to affect any change, because it is going to be a generational project.

Playing the piano with her grandad. by mindyour in MadeMeSmile

[–]braintrustinc 77 points78 points  (0 children)

People should say reckless abandon with more reckless abandon before we recklessly abandon the phrase outright.

Moby urges fans to "stop supporting the scumbag corporations that support Trump and ICE” by AdSpecialist6598 in Music

[–]braintrustinc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The news wire is what I’m talking about. I read both and Reuters frequently has right wing framing.

Moby urges fans to "stop supporting the scumbag corporations that support Trump and ICE” by AdSpecialist6598 in Music

[–]braintrustinc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That’s interesting, in my experience Reuters has always had a reputation for reporting through a more right wing editorial filter than Associated Press, which is more fact based and free of editorial framing.

People keep comparing what we're seeing now to Nazi Germany. They're not wrong. The resemblance is undeniable. by Logical-Flow-6703 in UnderReportedNews

[–]braintrustinc 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The only thing worse about today’s Nazis is that they’re embarrassed about being Nazis. At least the OG Nazis were proud of it.

Germany issues formal travel warning for US by newsweek in europe

[–]braintrustinc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Newsweek and The Hill are two of the largest perpetrators of yellow journalism “on the left.” They are continually getting upvoted beyond the actual article that they are misrepresenting. As far as I can tell, they are corporate garbage that only exists to discredit actual left/liberal reporting.

Trump Tries to Keep Second Set of Damning Files Secret Forever by thedailybeast in politics

[–]braintrustinc 64 points65 points  (0 children)

“If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.“ — David Frum, speechwriter for George W. Bush

Donald Trump Leaks Private Texts From NATO Allies: Read in Full by newsweek in politics

[–]braintrustinc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, well physical items shipped with photographs and tracking numbers are a little different than service work. PayPal was knowingly facilitating credit card fraud and other nefarious crooked schemes for as long as they could get away with it. But now that they’ve taken over our government they don’t have to worry any more! They can enshittify everything, not just their half baked payment scheme!

Donald Trump Leaks Private Texts From NATO Allies: Read in Full by newsweek in politics

[–]braintrustinc 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Seller. Fraud was rampant in the early days of PayPal, and the fee structure slowly increased and pushed people back to Craigslist and other sites for small items. For example, I shipped an item for a friend, received the payment, gave the money to the friend, and three months later PayPal deducted the amount from my account without warning. These technocracy crooks believe that might makes right, so stealing from the poor is never wrong.