ergopraxis

The goal *is* the wasteland-ification of much of MENA so that Israel and the Emirates can rule over rubble.

we were probably all up last night staring at the ceiling with our own version of the same thought running on endless loop, but mine looked something like this:

I hate these people to a degree that feels simultaneously corrosive to the soul, and also the only righteous response to this kind of evil

tbh I'd like Martin to take a break from not working on winds of winter to focus on various ASOIAF prequels, to instead not work on winds of winter to focus on a story set in the far future of the ASOIAF world

things every single republican president of your lifetime has done

- started a war in the middle east
- completely destroyed the economy

That's why we pay the CIA the big bucks, to deliver hard hitting news like this

Also doesn't hurt to target opposition figures like Mousavi and to hit political prisoner wings in Evin too! That way you ensure there's no legitimate opposition figures available, just clowns in Fairfax.

Some conservatives here think that secular young Iranians would be happy if America would come and liberate them. What would you say to them? Democracy, contrary to what they try to tell us, it’s not a paper that you hang on the wall and then you have a democracy. Democracy is a social evolution. It is something cultural. Iranians, they have become much more secular, and they are ready for democracy, but they have to fight themselves for democracy, and the only thing that other countries can do is to understand their fight and help them in their fight. They [America] talk about the human rights in Iran … how is it that the United States makes the biggest deals with China, and China is far from respecting human rights? What about Saudi Arabia? If you want to talk about an inquisition, the Iranian regime is far from being an inquisition. We have almost a free press, people leave, women have the right to study, they drive, they work. Saudi Arabia, they don’t have anything like that! Talk about human rights in Saudi Arabia! Why doesn’t anyone go and put a bomb in Saudi Arabia and kill the king?

Do you think it’s ironic that, in the face of American threats, you almost find yourself defending the Iranian regime? Absolutely, but if we want a democracy, the Iranian people have to do it themselves. The Americans say they want a democracy in Iran, and at the same time, when the Iranians wanted to become democratic in 1953 with [Mohammad] Mosaddeq and to nationalize our oil, the CIA came and made a coup d’état in my country. Why do you want me to believe that they want to come and make a democracy? We have to make our democracy! There are many things that I wish for in my country — I want my country to be free, I want my country to be democratic, I don’t want any journalists to go to jail because of an article they wrote in my country. But if the United States of America attacked my country, no matter what, I would be against the United States.

Do you see similarities between the Christian fundamentalists in our government and the mullahs in Iran? They’re the same! George Bush and the mullahs of Iran, they use the same words! The mullahs of Iran say we have God on our side; he has God on his side, too. Both of them are convinced that they are going to eradicate evil in the world. But when these words come out of the mouth of a mullah, it’s normal. It’s a shame that the president of the biggest secular democracy in the world talks with the same words as the mullahs. It’s extremely scary.

Do you have any advice for secular Americans who are faced with living in a country that’s increasingly governed by religious fundamentalists? If I have any advice, it’s that every day that you wake up, don’t say, “This is normal.” Every day, wake up with this idea that you have to defend your freedom. Nobody has the right to take from women the right to abortion, nobody has the right to take from homosexuals the right to be homosexual, nobody has the right to stop people laughing, to stop people thinking, to stop people talking. If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.

The full 2005 interview it's from is well worth a read btw. Sadly just as relevant today as it was 20+ years ago—moreso, in fact. www.salon.com/2005/04/24/s...

"There are many things I wish for my country . . . But if the USA attacked my country, no matter what, I would be against the US."

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

his time is eternal.

www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/s...

greens aren't against air travel. we just think frequent fliers should be levied.

this wouldn't impact the average person going on holiday once a year. just the ppl who use flights like taxis.

As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine.

Democrats should speak clearly and with one voice: no war.

“The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm.”

The LANCET cover, March 2026, says it all...

RFK Jr’s “radical transparency”: comments scrapped, advisers & whistleblower gone, data buried, junk science elevated, states rejecting CDC guidance.

Trust: 83% → 63%

Every congress member who enabled this bears generational blame for U.S. health.

I remember when someone told me two and a half weeks ago that the US and Israel would never indiscriminately bomb Iran

If only!

“The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. They are treasonous to this world and its human and non-human inhabitants.”

there's a madman in the white house, he's illegally started a war, he's offered no explanation to the public other than an insane conspiracy theory that Iran somehow tried to interfere in last year's election, and the opposition leaders are releasing statements full of mixed support and concern

Minister whose policies are significantly to the right of Theresa May still trying to portray himself as "progressive", I see.

"it is vital to create hope and the 'feel good' factor" says man lying constantly, deliberately destroying the hope of trans kids and dismissing the resulting suicides.

On social issues specifically, Labour have shifted so far to the right that they could "move to the left" by adopting Theresa May's positions on immigration and trans rights, which is an absolutely unreal thing to be able to say of the architect of the Hostile Environment, and yet

a party with any discipline would have completely sidelined and then primaried Schumer when he tried to undermine Obama’s Iran Deal

The phrase "we acknowledge that people have legitimate concerns" would be included

News bloke who thinks he’s hit on something incriminating b/c racism: “Why did you produce a leaflet in Urdu?”

Polanski: “To communicate with people who speak Urdu.”

10/10, no notes

Polanski’s unapologetic attitude is certainly refreshing.

this feels like a test a lot of people, especially in the media, failed with Venezuela too. it’s not like the only choices are “either you let America do something absolutely BONKERS ILLEGAL in a foreign country or you’re saying you endorse 100% of everything bad that happens there”

………. neither???

To recap:
Anthropic refused to do killbots or mass surveillance. DOD trying to destroy company.
Altman: we are now working with DOD, who totally respect safety and oppose mass surveillance!
Why would anyone trust a word Altman says after this?

Just out in the open and people still pretend we have a federal government. Lol

Wrote about how the incredibly thin-skinned leadership of Palantir sued a small Swiss publication for publishing a deeply researched article that was only mildly embarrassing for the company (about why the Swiss gov't keeps ghosting them).

This isn’t worth responding to tbh. It’s just Labour *saying anything* because they’re totally desperate. They know that they’ve lost the next election and that their party might have no future at all (hopefully it won’t).

Maybe they actually believe this shit and just don’t care about the self-inflicted wounds they’re taking? Although it is hard to conceive of this Labour Party as believing in *anything*, so idk.

Weeks after Trump attempted a coup Democrats had secured control of the Senate, the House, and the presidency. Their top priority? Economic stimulus. The same priority they would have had if the coup had never been attempted. Or if Donald Trump had never existed at all.

It's more like compulsively imitating noises, some of which only amount to words that have meaning to listeners by accident, which is why a lot of them are non-cognitive instead. It's not just that the choice to make these noises is not deliberate. They're picked out randomly.

I think a lot of people actually don't really grasp that tourette's is a neurological disorder, they think it's like being permanently drunk / disinhibited and the things you say are things you normally wouldn't say but do believe or at least consider seriously.