Drepung monastery was one of the biggest landowners in the world, with its 185 manors, 25,000 serfs, 300 great pastures, and 16,000 herdsmen. The wealth of the monasteries rested in the hands of small numbers of high-ranking lamas. Most ordinary monks lived modestly and had no direct access to great wealth. The Dalai Lama himself “lived richly in the 1000-room, 14-story Potala Palace.”
[12]Secular leaders also did well. A notable example was the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, a member of the Dalai Lama’s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs. [13] Old Tibet has been misrepresented by some Western admirers as “a nation that required no police force because its people voluntarily observed the laws of karma.” [14] In fact it had a professional army, albeit a small one, that served mainly as a gendarmerie for the landlords to keep order, protect their property, and hunt down runaway serfs.
Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeatedremoved, beginning at age nine. [15] The monastic estates also conscripted children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.
In old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the “middle-class” families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. There also were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery. [16] The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care. They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord’s land — or the monastery’s land — without pay, to repair the lord’s houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand. [17] Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location.
[18]As in a free labor system and unlike slavery, the overlords had no responsibility for the serf’s maintenance and no direct interest in his or her survival as an expensive piece of property. The serfs had to support themselves. Yet as in a slave system, they were bound to their masters, guaranteeing a fixed and permanent workforce that could neither organize nor strike nor freely depart as might laborers in a market context. The overlords had the best of both worlds.
One 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf, reports: “Pretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished”; they “were just slaves without rights.” [19] Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture those who tried to flee. One 24-year old runaway welcomed the Chinese intervention as a “liberation.” He testified that under serfdom he was subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold. After his third failed escape, he was merciless beaten by the landlord’s men until blood poured from his nose and mouth. They then poured alcohol and caustic soda on his wounds to increase the pain, he claimed.
[20]The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery.
[21]The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.
Selection two, shorter: (CW sexual violence and mutilation)
The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation — including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation — were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs.
[22]Journeying through Tibet in the 1960s, Stuart and Roma Gelder interviewed a former serf, Tsereh Wang Tuei, who had stolen two sheep belonging to a monastery. For this he had both his eyes gouged out and his hand mutilated beyond use. He explains that he no longer is a Buddhist: “When a holy lama told them to blind me I thought there was no good in religion.” [23] Since it was against Buddhist teachings to take human life, some offenders were severely lashed and then “left to God” in the freezing night to die. “The parallels between Tibet and medieval Europe are striking,” concludes Tom Grunfeld in his book on Tibet.
[24]In 1959, Anna Louise Strong visited an exhibition of torture equipment that had been used by the Tibetan overlords. There were handcuffs of all sizes, including small ones for children, and instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs. There were hot brands, whips, and special implements for disemboweling. The exhibition presented photographs and testimonies of victims who had been blinded or crippled or suffered amputations for thievery. There was the shepherd whose master owed him a reimbursement in yuan and wheat but refused to pay. So he took one of the master’s cows; for this he had his hands severed. Another herdsman, who opposed having his wife taken from him by his lord, had his hands broken off. There were pictures of Communist activists with noses and upper lips cut off, and a woman who wasremovedd and then had her nose sliced away.
[25]Earlier visitors to Tibet commented on the theocratic despotism. In 1895, an Englishman, Dr. A. L. Waddell, wrote that the populace was under the “intolerable tyranny of monks” and the devil superstitions they had fashioned to terrorize the people. In 1904 Perceval Landon described the Dalai Lama’s rule as “an engine of oppression.” At about that time, another English traveler, Captain W. F. T. O’Connor, observed that “the great landowners and the priests… exercise each in their own dominion a despotic power from which there is no appeal,” while the people are “oppressed by the most monstrous growth of monasticism and priest-craft.” Tibetan rulers “invented degrading legends and stimulated a spirit of superstition” among the common people. In 1937, another visitor, Spencer Chapman, wrote, “The Lamaist monk does not spend his time in ministering to the people or educating them. […] The beggar beside the road is nothing to the monk. Knowledge is the jealously guarded prerogative of the monasteries and is used to increase their influence and wealth.” [26] As much as we might wish otherwise, feudal theocratic Tibet was a far cry from the romanticized Shangri-La so enthusiastically nurtured by Buddhism’s western proselytes.
Along with the blood drenched landscape of religious conflict there is the experience of inner peace and solace that every religion promises, none more so than Buddhism.
Following a meeting last month with Netanyahu, Trump apparently gave the all-clear to begin reconstruction in Rafah, regardless of the negotiations progress. The U.S. and Israel will now move to reconstruction without the Israel Defense Forces withdrawing or the International Stabilization Force being formed, building on the directives announced by Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, back in late October.
Reconstruction would only be allowed in parts of Gaza behind the Yellow Line, which is under IDF control, while barring reconstruction in parts of Gaza still under the control of Hamas. For months, virtually no reconstruction materials have entered the Gaza Strip, and Gazan territory behind the Yellow Line continues to be demolished under the guise of dismantling “Hamas infrastructure.” Witkoff, who was previously a New York real estate developer, and Kushner, a real estate investor, were not taking the helm of these matters because of their supposed political expertise.
Importantly, the slides obtained by the Journal contain the rather large caveat that the plan is “contingent on comprehensive compliance by Hamas to demilitarize and decommission all weapons and tunnels.” According to Defense Minister Israel Katz, demolishing “underground terrorist infrastructure” necessitates the destruction of “all the buildings above them” as well.
Following a meeting last month with Netanyahu, Trump apparently gave the all-clear to begin reconstruction in Rafah, regardless of the negotiations progress. The U.S. and Israel will now move to reconstruction without the Israel Defense Forces withdrawing or the International Stabilization Force being formed, building on the directives announced by Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, back in late October.
Reconstruction would only be allowed in parts of Gaza behind the Yellow Line, which is under IDF control, while barring reconstruction in parts of Gaza still under the control of Hamas. For months, virtually no reconstruction materials have entered the Gaza Strip, and Gazan territory behind the Yellow Line continues to be demolished under the guise of dismantling “Hamas infrastructure.” Witkoff, who was previously a New York real estate developer, and Kushner, a real estate investor, were not taking the helm of these matters because of their supposed political expertise.
Importantly, the slides obtained by the Journal contain the rather large caveat that the plan is “contingent on comprehensive compliance by Hamas to demilitarize and decommission all weapons and tunnels.” According to Defense Minister Israel Katz, demolishing “underground terrorist infrastructure” necessitates the destruction of “all the buildings above them” as well.
Alexa Home Microphone. They mis-named it as a "home speaker" but actual home speakers have been around for 100+ years. They originally looked like this:
This was so obviously a bad idea from day one, I was shocked at how widely adopted these were right away. In retrospect I shouldnt have been surprised but somehow I just always expect people to be smarter.
I might need you to cite a source on people being generally smart at the individual level. Current politics feels like it disagrees with that assessment...
All you have to do is not tell any of the customers that it continually listens, by the time the ones who didn't know find out, it's already in their homes, they've already got the app installed, and they've said "I dreamt about something and then saw an ad for it the next day" more than once.
I actually use mine as a disability aid. My motor control isn’t the best so it’s good just to call out for light and heat adjustments.
But I’ve long since come to terms with the fact that if ICE or whoever wanted to come bust me down, there wasn’t anything stopping them before I got what is essentially a home aide, and there’s nothing stopping them now.
Shhhh, the pitchforks are out, who needs evidence. In all reality, if you were to be wiretapped, an Alexa wouldn't be the best option. Most people already have an internet connected microphone they carry around with them everywhere. And it has multiple cameras too, which are regularly brought into the bathroom with them.
It's more than that honestly, or less, depending on the perspective. Most people share their data with "only our 900 bestliest partners" or more everyday. Every tweet, login, whatever metadata can be more valuable and easier to compute than voice or video, depending on what you are looking for.
Which is basically what Snowden revealed btw (phone metadata collection, internet traffic interception, data access from tech platforms, fiber-optic cable tapping, smartphone location and metadata)
Ring doorbells now give their footage to Flock, which can give/sell it to anyone. No warrant necessary. Not exactly what you're asking about, but along the same lines.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
Pretty sure it's illegal for them to confirm that this has happened. Most of the spying is to manipulate your shopping patterns and learn how to make the most profit from you.
Think Las Vegas casino levels of manipulation and then some.
If the data is there a fascist government will absolutely use it. Of course in a democracy that won't happen ... unless you vote for fascists, ooopsie.
They got caught sending info to their data banks they said they would not, and listening all the time even when they said they would not.
All of these smart devices do. If it is connected to the internet, presume it is spying and will sneak the information back.
The feds in the us buy data broker info, all of it, the cia buys and steals foreigners' too, and distribute it to agencies all the way down to notes, not attributed to source, in the local police's lien, law enforcement information network. Their dossiers on everyone. No warrants or judges, blessed by the supreme court for some time this is not new.
An end run around privacy laws and the bill of rights. Just like 5 eyes end runs spy agencies not being allowed to spy on their countries. They let their ally do it, lead it on paper at least, then share it with them.
All a result of being ruled by lawyers working for plutocrats.
An autistic teenage hacker banned from having a computer used a fire stick in a hotel room to hack Rockstar games. I think any given 14 year old war driver can hack these devices and listen to your conversations. If the government will work their butts off to install a tap on a landline, how can they not use an Alexa.
At the very least, there's a teenager in your neighborhood listening to every damn thing you say. If you have cameras in your home, they're watching you.
While I completely support being vaccinated.....the government HAS weaponized science and medicine; they ran for example a fake vaccination program to try and find Bin Laden, and let's not forget they've made it so they can literally watch us through our TVs and phones, and even when we're not connected to the internet our PCs have some kind of radio thing in them (I believe this was among Snowden's leaks).
Also if you chose not to take vaccines because you don't trust the government.....knowing what we know NOW, we can say 'hey, it's not the 60's any more! They're not poisoning your disabled children to advance science without your knowledge or consent!'
Our history with the advancement of science isn't the Soviet's history of scientific advancement, it's more akin to a fan project of Nazi and Imperial Japanese scientific advancement.
EDIT: Deleting; I don't even know what I'm trying to say with this post; people today aren't avoiding the vaccine for logical reasons, they're avoiding it because far right have made them children intellectually
Hey wiretap, I was hitting on my wife's friend in the elevator, I have issues with my wife anyways about that 2k she spent from my account last week if you remember, am I the asshole?
The CIA openly admits to spying on people around the world and everyone's reaction is now 'Oh you'
Somehow (constant media propaganda most likely) they've convinced people that to do ANYTHING you have to get your hands dirty; that 'ANYTHING' however is rarely or only slightly in our benefit, it's of a bigger benefit to an elite few instead. Even if you ascribe to 'the ends justify the means', the ends aren't worth it and the means are just getting more and more horrific and we're assuming the imperial boomerang isn't on its way back.
Truly amazing how many breaches of privacy people are willing to put up with if the propaganda says that questioning the tracking means you're hiding something and deserve to be tracked.
Or to protect the children! Child abuse is the trojan horse, also age restrictions a trojan sheep they have several on offer, to surrender to Tech. Social scores by half baked ai deciding everything secretly, in a way no one can know and challenge. The entire west is trying to surrender their citizens to Tech giants last year for a cut of the info and personal exemptions for politicians and security services.
Past generations would tar and feather these assholes something is wrong.
That is a great idea. I think we should re-establish the Tribunate. With the veto on government actions and the rest, ability to offer sanctuary, being sacrosanct. Peoples' tribunate. 500 bc and 350 bc the plebs did a general strike and got that and other concessions and expanded it, simply by decamping to a large hill and refusing to do anything until demands were met. I think they got written laws from that too, the 12 tables, before that the rich just made shit up as they went.
In the late roman empire the rulers fucked up so much, no one could pay their taxes, government wouldn't even accept it's own watered down currency for taxes but demanded gold or silver or services and goods in kind. It got so bad people were walking off of their jobs en masse after those jobs didn't provide for life anymore.
The empire responded by binding people to their jobs for life, and their kids. Many city people remained free but country folk were enslaved. The big latifundia factory farms turned their estates into castles and became lords. All while the barbarian invasions came sweeping through, and the people welcomed their government getting crushed.
My hypothesis is that it's a frog in a pot of water scenario. Western Union started the first charge account in 1914, so we've had a long time to get used to the water heating up. It probably did start with honest intentions to make things work a little smoother, but I remember the early days of digitizing records, and there was a LOT of loose data just there for the taking.
I remember that I used to work at RadioShack in the late '00s, and I had to escalate up to district because we discovered a treasure trove of old paper store credit applications that had been cached somewhere in the backrooms, and my manager wanted to just throw them in the normal garbage and not risk the cost of the extra shredding coming out of her bonus.
These things had SO MUCH INFO, handwritten out onto a paper form; name, birthday, SSN, mailing address, street address, then all that info of the spouse/cosigner that wanted to be on the account too. I could have made so much money on the black market, looking back.
Something us fundamently wrong with people, prior generations would never surrender their right without realizin or caring in prior generation. The entire west is going dull 1984.
1984 seems based on Orwell's experiences working for the British government at the time, so in a very real sense the west has been that way for a while
I didn't know that part. I think everyone involved in the spanish civil war came away jaded though. Which communists did he inform on then, in the UK? Do you recall the years he started?
He didn't seem to be much of a fan of british intelligence when he was writing his books anyway, he didn't pull any punches.
Could you elaborate on the "coming away jaded" after the Spanish civil war? I'm interested on an outsider's opinion (assuming you're not a Spaniard like me)
No I'm an American with limited knowledge of the spanish civil war, I should know more but I don't. I read half of for whom the bells toll, by Hemingway, didn't particularly like the book either not that much of a hemingway fan, I hate him because he hunted big game animals too.
Just everyone you heard about that fought in the Spanish Civil war for the socialists, and I think it was fairly common for idealists to come to spain to fight with them just like europeans did in the American revolution, they all seemed to have lost their idealism and became pessimistic, like Orwell.
Yeah, that's a common sentiment by idealists facing real, material revolutions. Kropotkin and Babushka Breshko-Breshkovskaya had similar fallouts with the Bolsheviks after 1917.
a big part of it was people seeing first hand the Soviet's sabotaging the CNT-FAI's efforts, which I imagine was part of what turned Orwell against communists later in his life.
I still contend that if the Soviet's supported the Syndicalists as much as the Nazis supported the Nationalists, CNT-FAI would have won the war.
How big of a part was it the Soviets sabotaging the CNT-FAI? Can you point to the extent of sabotage and the main avenues through which it happened? It's an accusation I hear thrown around a lot, but when I ask about the actual sabotage and what it consisted of and its extent, I rarely receive an answer
If you're interested, I'd recommend reading through the works of José Peirats, especially The CNT in the Spanish Revolution: Volume 3 which details the numerous different ways that the Soviets suppressed and terrorized the syndicalists, going as far as imprisoning and torturing anarchists and anti-fascists.
"The CNT-FAI was heavily repressed by the Soviets. Source: CNT". Well, that's not too convincing, I expected some historical research providing numerical data, not the opinions of a CNT member.
Modern estimates of NKVD murders of whom they considered counter-revolutionaries in Republican Spain during the Civil War show 20 proven murders by a total of 10 agents. The book you quoted has no sourcing, it's just the ramblings of a CNT member that we're supposed to take for true. It propagates made-up speculations such as the supposed torture of Andreu Nin at the hands of the Soviets (zero evidence), and makes no effort whatsoever to bring any number to the total of anarchists repressed. It talks of 3500 fascists repressed by the SIM (a Spanish organization, not Soviet), so Anarchists were likely numbered at most in the hundreds, but again, you provide no numerical evidence for your claims.
It's unbearable as a Spaniard hearing these hearsay "if the Soviets hadn't sabotaged the anarchists, they may have won the war", as if the Soviets didn't provide the very weapons the Anarchists were using. No effort in actual data recounting is done, just shameless anti-Soviet propaganda based on literal fabrications like the torturing of Andreu Nin, and the total disregard for the actually logical repression of some anarchists and Trotskyists who, knowingly or not, were collaborating with the Nazis as proven by Harro Shulze-Boysen, a German spy who spied for the soviets and was executed when the Nazis uncovered that he had warned the Soviets about a Nazi plot to have an anarchist revolution in Barcelona to weaken the Republic and make the defeat easier: Link
This was the same insurrection independently reported to the Centre by the Soviet embassy in Berlin after receiving an anonymous tip-off from their agent Harro Schulze- Boysen. From contacts on the Luftwaffe General Staff he revealed that German agents had also infiltrated Trotskyists circles in Barcelona with the intention of encouraging their putsch
Now, bring some numerical historical evidence supporting your claim of massive repressions against anarchists by the Soviets which led to them losing the war
With so many methods for global communications in the average persons hands it not a wonder at all. People are not even one iota security conscious until they get tagged and by then its too late
Authoritarians learned that 1984-style totalitarian control doesn't work anymore; so they tried Brave New World's control through psychological pleasure, and it is more successful than ever imagined.
As a millionaire living my best life, I'm giving $30k to the first 20 people who message me 'grace.' I understand that many people are struggling with bills, and I want to help reduce that burden.
The scariest part is when you just think about pancakes and then start seeing ads for flour and maple syrup 10 minutes later. They don't even need the wiretap anymore.
Yeah because they know you like pancakes and can serve you ads to start that train of thought so when you are served the pancake ad you feel like it 'got you' instead of the real fact that you were manipulated into thinking about pancakes so the pancake ad has more possibility of getting engagement from you. This is why you should have ad block on everything you interact with.
yeah people don't realize just how insidious advertisement really is.
your phone isn't "reading your mind," advertisers have such a comprehensive model of you that they're able to predict your thoughts with an incredibly high degree of accuracy before you even have them. There's also obviously a bit of confirmation bias in play, you only remember the times they got it right as opposed to the times they guessed wrong.
I think it can give a false sense of security, because all of the security and privacy feature can be individually bypassed by the user.
if you try to use it the same way as a regular android phone you end up giving all the apps the same level of control as they would in stock android eventually.
As a millionaire living my best life, I'm giving $30k to the first 20 people who message me 'grace.' I understand that many people are struggling with bills, and I want to help reduce that burden.
what the other guy said, plus, speaking entirely about a graphene phone vs a voice assistant, even the sandboxed telemetry is going to give more telemetry because you carry your phone around and use multiple apps, but a voice assistant is a static location and most people use it for music, recipes and weather, whereas more people are more likely to use their phone for banking, shopping, maps, messaging, photos and looking at adult content.
Obviously if you have a phone you've just turned on for the first time and you like to tell Alexa when you're shopping for expensive jewelry every day it'd be reversed - I'm just talking generally
Edit to say: people get tunneled into "Alexa is a microphone, a phone is a computer" when they are both both those things.
As a millionaire living my best life, I'm giving $30k to the first 20 people who message me 'grace.' I understand that many people are struggling with bills, and I want to help reduce that burden.
They've been conditioned to not care or even desire it. Smartphones had Siri and Google Assistant as a selling point, which led to ever more intrusive tech that was marketed as a convenience. Facebook took it a step further and had you label people in pictures uploaded to them and you sign away your privacy in their terms and conditions. Advanced marketing techniques were irresistible to social media companies and so consumer profiles of everyone they could get became a thing.
Jokes about seeing ads that smartphones can overhear made the intrusive spying all the more accepted as just a part of life. Android marks your calendar and reminds you of appointments made using your Gmail account when you never asked it to. Ring doorbell cameras quietly sell their video feeds to the highest bidder, often to law enforcement as a convenient means to circumvent the 4th amendment. And now the latest trend is to have your car do everything your phone already does but take it a step further by monitoring your driving habits so insurance companies can justify raising your premiums.
The average person isn't tech savvy enough to understand they're being sold as a product even after paying for their own surveillance gear. They just want modern conveniences without thinking the price they pay beyond the original sale.
Alt text: Top half of image has Lavar Burton refusing the text that says "Trump's Board of Peace." Bottom half of image is Lavar Burton agreeing with the text that says "Trump's Bored of Peace."
All those people who didn’t vote for him to get the nobel prize could have prevented this by simply voting rationally instead of voting their conscious!
Australia has high rates of adoption for rooftop solar. The interconnection is easy and permitting happens over night. And best of all, none of the fears associated with wide spread solar have materialized into real world problems.
Unable to predict electricity use and generation on a large scale, leading to unstable electricity network (e.g. peak generation at 12 o clock while everynone is working).
This seems like a problem that can be solved now that everything is connected to the Internet and has a computer inside. Turn on the water boiler only when the price is less than 10ct/kw. Run aircon or heater only when it's cheap, and insulation will keep the temperature constant for half a day.
In Sweden, people – wealthy home owners – have gotten a lot of public financial assistance for mounting solar panels that would either way have paid for themselves in a matter of years, lowering electrical bills and raising house prices for the owners.
Overall that is a good thing, the pros of increased solar adoption outweigh the glaring inequity, but all the same it's hard to feel that it's a part of the general fuckery of governments competing on who can pamper the upper middle class the most. Sweden also subsidizes mortgage interest and has essentially abolished (hard-capped at a low.level) the property tax on private homes. And Sweden has in recent years given financial relief to households based on their electrical consumption, I.e. very little (or nothing if electric is added to the rent) to renters and most of the money going to people with big houses and year-round heated pools.
The discussion on equity needs to enter the debate on things like incentives for solar panels on private homes or grants for energy saving insulation. These are good things, but the money can't just stack up on top of other political favors to the wealthy. Less useful subsidies need to go. They need to replace other benefits.
I guess a big difference is in Australia we have a lot of land and a lot of sun. That money could be used to fund public solar farms and providing electricity for all, yet it and so many other social benefits go directly to the house owners.
I don't know how it works in Australia, but a plus to subsidizing solar installation on roofs is that the home owner still has to co-invest for a considerable part, so you kinda get a leveraged build out, as opposed to the government directly building installations. But the balance between private and public good should be weighed carefully all the same.
Here you can find reviewed, impressive and comprehensive European alternatives for digital products and apps if you wanna break from American (big) tech companies.
yea the only way I can see confidence being stored as a string would be if the key was meant for a GUI management interface that didn't hardcode possible values(think for private investors or untrained engineers for sugar/cosmetic reasons). In an actual system this would almost always be a number or boolean not a string.
Being said, its entierly possible that it's also using an LLM for processing the result, which would mean they could have something like "if its rated X or higher" do Y type deal, where the LLM would then process the string and then respond whether it is or not, but that would be so inefficient. I would hope that they wouldn't layer like that.
If it were hallucinations which it very well could be, it means the model has learned this bias somewhere. Indicating Grok has either been programmed to derank Palestine content, or Grok has learned it by himself (less likely).
It's difficult to conceive the AI manually making this up for no reason, and doing it so consistently for multiple accounts so consistently when asked the same question.
It's also possible that it retrieved the data from whatever sources it has access to (ie as tool calls) and then constructed the json based on its own schema. That is, the string value may not represent how the underlying data is stored, which wouldn't be unusual/unexpected with llms.
But it could definitely also just be a hallucinations. I'm not certain, but since it looks like the schema is consistent in these screenshots, it does seems like the schema may be pre-defined. (But even if this could be verified, it wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of hallucinations since grok could be hallucinating values into a pre-defined schema.)
Kolektiva is an anti-colonial anarchist collective that offers federated social media to anarchist collectives and individuals in the fediverse. For the social movements and liberation!
Kolektiva is an anti-colonial anarchist collective that offers federated social media to anarchist collectives and individuals in the fediverse. For the social movements and liberation!
In July 2024, B'Tselem published Welcome to Hell, a report on the treatment of Palestinian inmates in Israel's prison system and their confinement in torture camps under inhuman conditions. The report presented testimonies from 55 Palestinian men and women held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 7 October 2023.
The testimonies revealed the outcomes of a rushed process in which Israeli prison facilities, both military and civilian, were transformed into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as policy. A space of this kind, in which anyone who enters is condemned to deliberate, severe, and unrelenting pain and suffering, functions de facto as a torture camp.
The present update reviews the situation of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel up to the beginning of January 2026. The transformation of Israeli prisons into torture camps for Palestinian inmates must be understood in the context of Israel's coordinated onslaught on Palestinians as a collective since October 2023, most prominently through the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The foundations of the regime shaped since the State of Israel was established, which are enabling the genocide in Gaza, rampant violence and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and the persecution of Palestinians citizens of Israel, are also shaping the treatment of prisoners. First and foremost among them is the dehumanization of Palestinians as a group and the employment of extreme violence against them (for further reading, see B'Tselem July 2025 report Our Genocide).
This update revisits the categories of abuse listed in the original report, using them to assess the current situation and any new developments. It is based on 21 testimonies given to B'Tselem by Palestinians released under the agreement between Israel and Hamas in October 2025 or in the months preceding it. Many released prisoners are too afraid to give testimony, as – according to the witnesses we spoke to – Israeli authorities threatened to re-arrest anyone who shared information about their experiences in prison. The threats were issued both before and after the prisoners were released, illustrating how Israel uses deprivation of liberty as a key means of oppressing Palestinians.
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Eine gemeinsame Aktion von Moabiter Ratschlag e.V. (Stadtschloss Moabit), Digital-Zebra (VÖBB), Topio, dem Hackspace c-base und dem kleindatenverein.
I saw something about this a while back and was waiting for the campaign to launch. It has launched and I just backed the project! This looks like it will be a fun display to tinker with!
He later said, in response to a lawmaker’s question asking whether the Justice Department will “find some way” to indict him, that he believes “they will do everything in their power to do that, because they’ve been ordered to by the president.”
I mean, you definitely should read theory. Summaries are helpful, as are cool ways to explain complex concepts, such as dialectics4kids when it comes to teaching dialectical materialism. However, advanced theory is helpful for accurate analysis and advanced practice. It better informs us on our conditions and our necessary tasks in building a better world. I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list to help facilitate that process of learning, and to help expand my own knowledge to help my IRL organizing.
When we reject theory, and reject advanced analysis, it's akin to a factory abandoning best practices and doing whatever feels best at the moment. Such a factory would probably work fine at first, but would run into far more hiccups, accidents, slow production, and even fall apart. So too do revolutionary projects need accurate analysis, best practices, and a solid understanding of the forces at play that go beyond simple vibes.
Revolution is like designing a smartphone, you need to analyze social development, its behavior and laws, history and trajectory, just like you need to analyze material science, physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, and more, not to mention logistics, shipping, mining, packing, and more to develop a smartphone.
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
Apparently I've somehow picked up on how to read the phrase "alhamdulillah" in Arabic despite never studying the language. Neat!
I basically recognize "Allah" ﷲ based on the shape of the whole word rather than the individual letters, and I learned to read that word through exposure. In the phrase الْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ alhamdulillah I see there's no alif at the start of Allah, though.
I think I learned to read ال al- just through repeat exposure since al- is literally the most common prefix in Arabic — it's even at the start of Allah! — but I also know the letters alif and lam on their own because ا alif is memorable to me as the "simplest letter for the simplest sound", and ل lam is memorable to me because it looks like (and literally is, in a sense) a backwards L.
After recognizing "al-??? lillah" I was already figuring from context that the text probably said "alhamdulillah", but I still tried to confirm this by looking at the remaining letters:
Medial ha ح looked a lot like the initial kha خ in the word khatam (as in خاتم النبيين khatam an-nabiyin, "Seal of the Prophets"), so I figured that the two letters ha/kha had to be variants of each other with similar h-like sounds. Previously, I'd known the letter ha really just from its isolated/final forms ح, just from going down an Arabizi rabbit hole once: ح ha is often written as 7 in Arabizi due to the similarity of the numeral 7 to the isolated shape of the letter ha.
Medial meem ﻤ looked a lot like the final form of the related Hebrew letter mem ם, which also, very coincidentally, looks like the Korean letter ㅁ mieum, which was derived from the shape of the mouth to represent the fact that you say M with your lips. The origin of the Korean letter is completely unrelated to the Arabic and Hebrew letters but still makes them more memorable to me.
Dal د is not a letter I had any real chance of recognizing. It's related to its Hebrew, Latin, Greek and Cyrillic equivalents but is not particularly similar to any of them. But if I got to the point where I could tell that the text said "al-ham?? lillah" then there was really zero chance the unrecognizable last letter could be anything other than dal.
Learning new writing systems is really fun because you get to return to the joy of first learning to read your native language as a little kid. I wonder if I'll manage to learn the entire Arabic script through passive exposure!
Dutch travel agencies report a significant drop—around 20%—in bookings to the United States since Donald Trump’s inauguration. The decline mainly affects longer round trips, while short city trips (e.g., New York, Chicago) remain relatively stable.
Travellers cite: - Discomfort with Trump’s policies - Fear of stricter immigration controls, including concerns about being asked to show social‑media accounts - A general negative sentiment toward the U.S. political climate
As a result: - Alternative destinations such as Canada, Asia, Egypt, Australia, and New Zealand are becoming more popular. - Some agencies say the “Trump effect” is pushing travellers toward other long‑haul destinations. - Cheap flights keep short U.S. city trips somewhat stable, but longer tours have dropped sharply.
We definitely noticed the cheap tickets right now. We're working on flying more of our kids out of the US to Europe to emigrate permanently as they finish school. It's a great time to fly out.
What project is this? I have never seen a reaction like that, if anything I've had the opposite, where I said it was a minor inconvenience and the maintainer said "what do you mean 'minor'? This is terrible!"
Questo è il testamento musicale di Warren, morto poco prima della pubblicazione del disco (24 gennaio 1947–7 settembre 2003). Colpito da un male incurabile, il musicista californiano ha voluto a tutti i costi questo album, e se pur stanco, affaticato dalla malattia, ha lavorato duramente con profonda dignità fino alla completa registrazione... Leggi e ascolta...
Questo è il testamento musicale di Warren, morto poco prima della pubblicazione del disco (24 gennaio 1947–7 settembre 2003). Colpito da un male incurabile, il musicista californiano ha voluto a tutti i costi questo album, e se pur stanco, affaticato dalla malattia, ha lavorato duramente con profonda dignità fino alla completa registrazione. Attorniato da un numero incredibile di amici e musicisti, ci ha consegnato uno dei dischi più belli ed ispirati della sua trentennale carriera... silvanobottaro.it/archives/399…
Listen now on your favorite streaming service. Powered by Songlink/Odesli, an on-demand, customizable smart link service to help you share songs, albums, podcasts and more.
I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.... — W.E.B. Du Bois
The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them. — Julius Nyerere
I’m sure you could find more stuff if you keep going back. This has been happening forever. Every new generation has to learn this lesson for themselves I guess. But nothing ever changes.
Any suggestion that there's something questionable or unreliable about the American democratic process is a trick by the Republican Party to suppress liberal voter enthusiasm. And if you mention it you are helping the Republicans win. Also Russia.
If you're still in line, stay in line. Our elections are secure. The midterms is winnable if you vote in it. Shut up and do what we tell you or you're an enemy.
The Democrats engage in this exact same behavior. In fact they often either back the Republican efforts to disenfranchise people or fail to provide any counter narrative to dispel the lies which to me is basically tantamount to support. And then when they offer push back it's in the stupidest way that ends up lending some kind of credence to the Republican outlook because there is some need to engage in bipartisanship action with insane people in search of a mythical centrist position that will unite us all.
Let's not pretend this is one side versus the other. Those bought and sold by institutional and corporate power are waging a war on the working class of this nation and much of the rest of the world. It is not left vs right it is owner vs worker.
The reality is our "democratic" institutions are designed to limit the extent to which average people can effectuate change in our society. At every level there are layers of misdirection that are rife with opportunities to dilute the will of the voters and warp it into something that broadly serves the ruling class instead.
People want free healthcare but instead of getting that we end up with some mildly better system that perpetuates the insurance industry being in control of what services a person is allowed to get both through price gouging and denials of service - just as one example. No solutions just Band-Aids to extend the longevity of the powers that be.
America (like most "liberal democracies") doesn't have a democratic process to begin with, so your point is moot. Your reps control your entire country and can do basically whatever the fuck they want for 4 years (in the house/presidency), 6 years (in the senate) or life (for SCOTUS).
In theory, the power of recall or impeachment exists, but you've seen yourself how trying to impeach even someone as corrupt as Trump goes.
Even in cases where there is a semblance of direct democracy (such as state wide propositions), the capitalists own the entire media aparatus (on top of basically every other part of society and nature).
Work hand in hand with the current president for years
Supports regime change on their border causing a civil war for a decade then catching them in a brutal war of attrition in a place that is predominantly Russian speaking culturally Russian people
Sanctions Russia and restricts access to global capital causing significant economic harm and forcing them to go into wartime production
Decides to withhold all their money
Refuses to negotiate in good faith
Russia can't seem to end the conflict, get their money back or gain access to US and European markets and capital
Also Americans:
Russia controls the US president! Russia is doing everything bad to the US!
This isn't a SocDem problem but a Democratic Establishment problem.
The DNC are the absolute shitstains standing in the way of progress while pretending to be progressive. Just remember how they royally fucked Bernie over in 2016 because it was, "Her Turn"™.
That was when many people gave up on Democrats, and rightfully so if it wasn't for Trump running in 2024.
I actually went to caucus to try and sway and put in my two cents for Bernie, and deadass someone in my ‘group’ said we should vote for Hillary because it’s ‘time for a woman president’. And yeah, not wrong, but that’s his entire reasoning. Ridiculous, not well it would be great to have a woman and she’s really experienced or I believe in this part of what she is running. Nope, just the first part.
today I was tasked with breaking rocks with a pickaxe with my feet chained, but you can be damn sure I looked professional and really upstanding while doing it, that's gonna show em
I have a conspiracy theory that the DNC are just conservatives who made the most financial decision of socially supporting the smallest minority they could find for PR.
The dangers are limited unless you hit an edge case which you'll want to avoid. In other words, you'd have to be really unlucky. Surges can happen with audio equipment easily though.
The principle of grounding is actually simple enough: when something goes wrong with the current, for instance if it can't move through the wires it should move through, it'll try to escape. Grounding makes sure that it moves through a dedicated wire to somewhere it can no longer do harm. Cars, for instance, use their frame as a ground, which will conduct the current into the tires and into the ground (ie Earth) if necessary.
This is probably 25% accurate so I'll invite any electrician to correct me but I am fairly confident this will do as a basic answer.
You hook up the GND contacts to anything that is not connected to anything electrical, preferably something non-conductive at the end of it, you'll be fine.
Thank you for the first response. I look forward to possible second opinions as you suggest.
And this makes a bit of sense to me. If the medium doesn't matter I could probably just stick a bolt in the wood next to the units. That'll keep any wires fairly short.
Basically I was showing the system on the audio forum and asking some questions regarding the unusual number of AC plugs. One of them asked about the age and grounding, and suggested there might be a serious danger.
I have only a very basic knowledge of electricity and an even smaller knowledge of amps but I have heard about certain amps that would be susceptible to immense power surges which would short out some circuits and that power needs to go somewhere. If it's not grounded properly it might release its current into the air where it'll find you, or maybe catch fire.
The specifics of this and why or how this happens should be findable online.
Most likely it'll also have something to do with the higher voltage direct current being transformed into a lower voltage alternating current. But why and how you'd need to be properly grounded for that is beyond me.
It's not. If you mean an extension cord with built-in ground and surge protection, that is.
If your amp had a ground in its power plug, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If there is a surge in the actual power to the outlet, the surge protector might catch it. But since this is about surges inside the device itself, it means you should no longer actually touch the amp because you might get a shock. You can imagine that the higher the amperage flowing through the amplifier, the more dangerous this is.
If you are worried about grounding the system, and don't mind cutting the cord/ crimping stuff, you could get a 3 prong cord from the hardware store and screw the ground into the box via a case screw on the back.
I have the manuals and I can check those. I can also easily get the model numbers off the units. Are diagrams something that you can find for old hardware online?
And I appreciate the assistance. My background is in computer science, so my electrical engineering abilities are slim.
Fellow computer geek here .. also a radio amateur.
No idea what the availability of circuit diagrams is for your gear. In amateur radio equipment the user manual regularly has them, sometimes as big foldout sheets. I'd be surprised if they didn't exist.
That is what it looked like, but that surprised me. My turntable is more modern and doesn't require a ground. As for the antenna, yes, that makes sense!
But am I misreading something... neither of those seems like an actual dangerous situation? Oddly enough the components that I would normally guess were more dangerous (specifically the pre-amp and amp) don't seem to have a ground circuit exposed despite the two-prong set-up.
They don't have a power ground to prevent hums. There might be a marginal risk if something comes loose in the amp, but your modern electrical cabinet would have a differential switch to save you in that case. I remember my audio engineer degrounding one of my audio components when in had the issue.
My guess for the audio ground is that older turntables had poorer electrical isolation and power lines were more noisy. For more technical explanations we need an old school audio engineer.
I'm hoping this means that the system is probably safe to use? XD
I'm not really finding grounding needs on any of the other equipment. Even though the power amp, for instance, is something that I would associate with more danger and it only has two prongs, there doesn't seem to be exposed ground circuitry.
The ground lugs are for a turntable, not a power ground. The audio signal from a record player is incredibly tiny, which means it needs more amplification stages (usually if you have a phono input, it has another pre amp stage). Because of this it is important that the turntable and pre-amp have a common ground reference to eliminate things like a DC offset or ground loop which would otherwise be amplified more than other audio artifacts from other sources.
The strap looks like an antenna ground for an AM input
Sounds like you're confirming what I've been hearing from other people, that neither of these grounds contains any real danger?
And as for grounding the turntable, that makes a bit of sense, however I have a fairly modern one and I'll have to check it. I don't know that it actually has an external ground beyond the three prong plug.
Is grounding of the turntable still relevant in that case?
I think most modern turntables have a built in pre-amp so it's less of an issue. If it doesn't have a ground lug itself then it's probably not an issue.
Yes, I believe I have a selector switch that allows me to select either the internal pre and for an external. I was thinking of going with the old external for a bit of additional configurability.
I had a quick question and thought it might spark some discussion.
I know that Lemmy currently uses the NSFW tag/filter, which is great, but I’ve noticed that it tends to get applied to a wide variety of content—everything from mildly suggestive posts to very graphic material.
This got me wondering: has Lemmy ever considered adding more granular content filters or tags?
For example:
NSFL (Not Safe For Life) for particularly graphic or disturbing content (ie graphic war footage)
Political for sensitive Political Posts
Other potential tags for things like triggering content, or etc.
The goal would be to give users a bit more control over what they see, and help communities categorize content more accurately without overloading the single NSFW tag.
Curious if this has ever been discussed, or if there are plans to expand filtering options in the future.
Tags would be useful for so many things - much more than content filters. For example, posts in a world news community could be tagged with the name of the country.
adjust changes from previous PR: Community post tags (part 3/3: federation) #5636
remove lemmy: prefix from ap fields
code cleanup and query optimizations
rename display_name to name, cant be ch...
I'm not sure - I haven't looked into the implementation yet. I haven't actually seen this tagging feature in the UI so I'm not sure how to even use it.
It looks like Lemmy 1.0 (currently in alpha testing) will support filtering by keywords, too: join-lemmy.org/news/2025-12-24…
Description
Adds the ability for community mods / admins to create community tags. Fixes Support creating community tags #3566
Adds the ability to add community tags for a post. Fixes Support addi...
Musk’s pro-Nazi social media feed ranking broke the US government:
Senior executive 2: Whenever there’s a critical incident, one of the first things that happens is a conference call with everybody — all the executives, most of the field offices dial in. The director rarely speaks, because someone with situational awareness is leading the call. They’ll say: Here’s what happened. Here’s what we know. Here’s what we need. But we get on, and it’s just Kash berating the special agent in charge in Salt Lake. He’s super emotional.
And then it turns surreal. He and Bongino start talking about their Twitter strategy. And Kash is like: I’m gonna tweet this. Salt Lake, you tweet that. Dan, you come in with this. Then I’ll come back with this. They’re literally scripting out their social media, not talking about how we’re going to respond or resources or the situation. He’s screaming that he wants to put stuff out, but it’s not even vetted yet. It’s not even accurate.
National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, issued by the Trump administration in September 2025, relies on logic from the lady and the fly. It frames “domestic terrorism” and “organized political violence” as national security crises. It tells federal agencies to work together to investigate and stop suspected threats, a framework that enlarges the set of things the state can plausibly treat as suspect, including the freedoms of association and belief.
The language in the memorandum affirms legitimate counterterrorism work while leaving room to treat political dissent as out of bounds. But the First Amendment protects protest speech.
Still, if the language of the Trump memo is somewhat abstract, Minneapolis has provided a brutally concrete example.
...
The state has two choices when a death occurs that’s politically dangerous to the government.
It can investigate the killing with transparency and center the victim’s rights alongside public accountability as organizing principles. Or it can treat the killing as an opportunity to put the victim on trial in the court of public legitimacy.
The second choice avoids holding government accountable, shifts conversation toward the target’s supposed behavior and character, and expands the blame to include the people who loved and stood with the dead.
When this happens, the government does not have to win in court. It only has to keep the stigma circulating by asserting that a particular speaker undermines respect for elected officials. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons Trump offered for Good’s shooting by the ICE officer: “At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” he told reporters.
The United States has been here before. Around EG: During? World War I, the U.S. Supreme Court issued several free speech decisions in cases mostly remembered as disputes over protest and draft resistance. But their underlying engine was the swallow-a-fly theory. Opposing the war might ruin the nation, so political dissidents had to be stopped, and the court affirmed the government’s right to silence strident speakers.
Renee Good’s death was the consequence, writes a First Amendment scholar, of a kind of politics in which the state survives by making dissenters illegitimate as citizens.
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in reply to jankforlife • • •Tibet was a feudal slave society backed by the CIA. The PLA liberated Tibet.
Two excerpts from Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth:
Selection two, shorter: (CW sexual violence and mutilation)
-Dr. Michael Parenti
Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth
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