mzyraj

[mzyraj]

Something about the idea that voting for president only matters if you live in a swing state, and that all the people in blue states or red states can indulge themselves in principled nonparticipation because the outcomes are preordained, strikes me as akin to playing with fire.

Is it really coherent to say "both sides are awful, write in Mickey Mouse or burn your ballot or just stay home and get drunk, unless you live in Pennsylvania, in which case maybe consider taking one for the team and compromising yourself by voting for the lesser evil?" Is that really the message that will lead to a preferable outcome?

What it sounds like to me is a sign that 1) you take your local electorate for granted, and 2) you see avoiding the worst case scenario as somebody else's problem.

I remember when Florida was a swing state. I also remember when Pennsylvania wasn't.

#please vote

[mzyraj]

#I fear there's a sampling bias and yet #SWEEP

[mzyraj]

#ah man the nostalgia #red dwarf #but yeah smart appliances are risky

[mzyraj]

Transfem to Transmasc solitary must exist as much as any trans solidarity must exist.

Protect my boys.

#solidarity #trans stuff

[mzyraj]

heavensward really has all types of elves good boy, feral, and bishonen

#it sure does #heavensward #ffxiv #haurchefant greystone #estinien wyrmblood #aymeric de borel

[mzyraj]

i think someone should introduce him to the sims

#shb spoilers #the mental image of him playing a house with him Hyth and Azem together... 🥺❤ #emet selch #ffxiv

[mzyraj]

a list of don'ts for goyim in regard to jews and jewishness

do not ever ever compare jews or a jewish person to vermin. i don’t care what the context is. it is an incredibly historically loaded thing

do not under any circumstances alter our magen david or call it something dirty or awful. it is a symbol of all jews, and if you call it something like “satanic”, you are hurting all jews

do not insert israel or palestine in conversations about jewishness or jews when it has nothing to do with either subject

do not blame the actions of israel on world jewry

do not think knowing a jew gives you authority on anything. having a jewish SO or friend gives you authority on nothing

do not think that your country does not have an antisemitism problem.

do not think that antisemitism is isolated to one region or one people

do not think that antisemitism today is harmless or dead or a “political tool”

do not ever source nazi/neonazi material for any of your social justice work. i don’t care how “spot on they are for this one issue”, if you do that, you are trash and your social activism is trash too.

do not celebrate our holidays because you think it would be a fun thing to do. would you think it’s fun or interesting to walk into a synagogue surrounded by cops on yom kippur, weak from fasting, knowing that your chances of experiencing violence on this holy day have increased a hundredfold because of your jewishness? 

do not respond to accusations of antisemitism with “i bet you’re a zionist”. 

do not ever speak over a jew on jewish identity. 

do not erase or ignore our suffering

do not call our genocide a white people’s genocide

do not use our genocide against us. genocide is never a lesson for the victim

do not forget the various genocides and suffering of jews outside of europe and the holocaust. 

do not forget that we are as subject to various -isms as gentiles. your social activism is not intersectional if you forget jews. 

do not forget the jewish history of various social movements

do not forget that we are a varied people—jews are never a monolith. 

#yee #judaism

[mzyraj]

A high-profile Italian author has accused Rai of censorship after his antifascist monologue was abruptly stopped from being aired, in what he called the “definitive demonstration” of alleged attempts by Giorgia Meloni’s government to wield its power over the state broadcaster.

Antonio Scurati was due to read the monologue marking the 25 April national holiday, which celebrates Italy’s liberation from fascism, on the Rai 3 talkshow Chesarà on Saturday night.

But as he prepared to travel to Rome, he received a note from Rai telling him his appearance had been cancelled “for editorial reasons”.

Scurati is well known in Italy for his books about the dictator Benito Mussolini and the fascist period. The cancellation of his monologue provoked fierce reaction from Rai journalists, fellow authors and opposition leaders.

His speech referenced Giacomo Matteotti, a political opponent of Mussolini who was murdered by fascist hitmen in 1924, and other massacres of the regime. It also contained a paragraph criticising Italy’s “post-fascist” leaders for not “repudiating their neofascist past”.

“Undoubtedly, this is what infuriated them,” Scurati told the Guardian. “And also because of what I represent and maintain in my books … [that] there is a continuity between the fascism of Mussolini and the populist nationalists in Europe.”

The Rai director Paolo Corsini denied that the monologue had been censored, telling the Italian media that an investigation “of an economic and contractual nature” was under way, while implying that the speech was cancelled because of the “higher than expected” fee sought by Scurati.

Scurati said his fee had been agreed and the contract signed before the monologue was due to be broadcast. “The fee was perfectly in line with those paid to authors … It was the same as in the past, when there were no issues.”

In solidarity, Serena Bortone, who presents Chesarà, read out the monologue on the show. It has also been published in full by several Italian newspapers and websites.

Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neofascist origins, came to power in October 2022 with a coalition including the far-right League and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

During the election campaign, Meloni said the rightwing parties had “handed fascism over to history for decades now”. However, Scurati claimed in his monologue that when forced to address fascism at historical anniversaries, Meloni has “obstinately stuck to the ideological line of her neofascist culture of origin”, for example by blaming the Mussolini regime’s persecution of the Jews and other massacres on Nazi Germany alone.

Meloni responded by publishing the speech on her Facebook page, while attacking Scurati and accusing the left of “shouting at the regime”.

“Rai responded by simply refusing to pay €1,800 (the monthly salary of many employees) for a minute of monologue,” she said. “I don’t know what the truth is, but I will happily publish the text of the monologue (which I hope I don’t have to pay for) for two reasons: 1) Those who have always been ostracised and censored by the public service will never ask for anyone to be censored. Not even those who think their propaganda against the government should be paid for with citizens’ money. 2) Because Italians can freely judge its content.”

Since coming to power, the Meloni government has been accused of increasingly exerting its power over Rai while edging out managers or TV hosts with leftwing views. The European Commission was last week urged to investigate the government’s alleged attempts to turn the broadcaster into a “megaphone” for the ruling parties before the European elections.

Meloni’s administration has also been accused of trying to influence other areas of the press and targeting journalists with legal action who criticise the government. A Brothers of Italy politician recently proposed toughening penalties for defamation, including jail terms of two to three years.

Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic party, said: “The Scurati case is serious; Rai is the megaphone for the government.” Carlo Calenda, the leader of the centrist Azione party, said: “Silencing a writer for saying unpleasant things about the government is simply unacceptable.”

Scurati said he has received solidarity from many authors and journalists who were otherwise afraid to speak out against the government.

“This episode is the definitive demonstration, as it has finally aroused the revolt of other writers, intellectuals and journalists who until now kept quiet,” he said. “This government launches violent personal attacks against you for speaking out, in my case [that] I asked for too much money.”

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

#italian bullshit #another instructive example of what far right leaders will do given half a chance #italy #neofascism

[mzyraj]

in case anyone else needs to hear this it’s ok to be more serious. i don’t just mean ‘it’s ok to be serious sometimes’ i mean in general. not everyone has to be funny. it doesn’t have to mean you’re sad or unlikeable. you can just be serious and genuine most of the time and that’s great. i personally think that we’re too focused on ‘funny’ as the primary carrier of likeability right now. i often feel starved for serious conversation, for serious spaces, for a feeling of gravity. you don’t have make good jokes to give people a good time. i say, goof only as the spirit moves you, & don’t worry about it. 

#i often can't carry through on a joke on the slim likelihood I might hurt someone's feelings #I have to be genuine and clarify even if it kinda ruins the joke happening #I can't be mean to someone as a joke (without then immediately clarifying that I love them and they're great) #might be the neurodivergency

[mzyraj]

probably shitty worldbuilding idea: fantasy world that keeps going

#minecraft

[mzyraj]

#i've played the game and i've forgotten tbh #i remember a few bits of the investigation but mostly I absorbed Kim <3 #disco elysium

[mzyraj]

Labour is going to win the general election and then say this doesn’t go far enough.

#british bullshit #fuck the tories #disability

[mzyraj]

the rich =/= someone who has something I can't afford :(

the rich = the fucking rich

#yeah #like sometimes the rich will have shitty conservative politics because they're doing well but then so do some of the poor 4 whatever reasons #billionaires are way more of an issue

[mzyraj]

#hythlodaeus #ffxiv #endwalker spoilers

[mzyraj]

No

#yeah #long post #respectability politics

[mzyraj]

Russian lies are meant not only to disinform, to make action more difficult, but also to demotivate, to make action seem senseless. Russian memes work not by presenting Russia as a positive alternative, but by demoralizing others. No one wants to be close to "Nazis," and the simple introduction of the lie is confusing and saddening. The same holds with the Russian meme to the effect that Ukraine is corrupt. A completely bogus Russian source introduced the entirely fake idea that the Ukrainian president had bought yachts. Although this was entirely untrue, Representative Greene then spread the fiction. Senator J.D. Vance also picked up the "yacht" example and used it as his justification for opposing aid to Ukraine. The larger sense of that lie is that everyone everywhere is corrupt, even the people who seem most admirable; and so we might as well give up on our heroes, on any struggle for democracy, or any struggle at all. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelens'kyi, chose to risk his life by remaining in Kyiv and defending his country against a fearsome attack from Russia which almost all outsiders believed would succeed within days. His daring gamble saved not only his own democracy, but opened a window of faith that democracies can defend themselves. It confirmed the basis lesson of liberty that individual choices have consequences. The lie directed at Zelens'kyi was meant not only to discredit him personally and undermine support for Ukraine, but also to persuade Americans that no one is righteous and nothing is worth defending.

Timothy Snyder

#ukraine #russia

[mzyraj]

#fascinating #biology #plants #wtf