𝕵𝖆𝖉𝖊 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖉𝖘 𝕯𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓𝖘

A few students holding a banner reading "Virginia students act against white supremacy," surrounded by torch-bearing fascists and Klansmen.

The few hundred anti-fascists who gathered in Charlottesville in 2017 were outnumbered, underprepared, and terrified.

That should sound familiar, today, as we face the second Trump administration.

In the end, however, their courage proved more powerful than fascist hatred.

May it once again.

David Graeber and David Wengrows The Dawn of Everything fits this description!

I have this on my shelf! Haven't finished it though. Maybe this is the push I needed. I gift a lot of "power of now", "radical acceptance", and "how to live when a loved one dies"... and "braiding sweetgrass" sometimes too

Games: Agency As Art Abstract. Games are a unique art form. Game designers don’t just create a world; they create who you will be in that world. They tell you what abilities to

Reminds me of this book! academic.oup.com/book/32137

-Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

As for this consciousness, the so-called creator of all, If the state of Knowledge is present, I calmly leave it as it is without correction. When this recognition isn’t there, I maintain presence and awareness anyway. You who must insist on forcing yourselves, do as you please.

As for this voice of so-called great power, If the opportunity arises, I’ll use it to sing the Song of the Vajra. When the situation isn’t appropriate, I’ll just chat away about anything that comes into my head. You who collect beautiful sayings, do as you please.

If this illusory body, which is said to be difficult to obtain, Lasts for a long time, I will benefit beings in every way possible. If it doesn’t continue, I will pass away into another dimension. You who believe in the eternity of all things, do as you please.

The precious jewel of mind itself is intrinsically pure, beyond conceptual designations which we use to take and grasp appearances. The heart-essence of our wisdom, sustaining our knowledge, knows nothing at all, yet is aware of its very own intrinsic clarity.

~ The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva

WATCH — @peterbeinart.bsky.social : “Why did it take this long? We are profoundly complicit. The blood is on our hands as Americans because it is our weapons responsible for those children starving to death in Gaza… if Israel disagrees, let CNN’s cameras in.”

Against Technofeudal Education Pillars For Protecting Our "Core Infrastructure" From OpenAI

“The logical conclusion of a technofeudal oligarchy combining forces with an authoritarian political movement is compulsory enrollment in the security state’s platform architecture of surveillance, indoctrination, and behavioral modification.”

Makes me so sad.

Gaza fieldworker: “We are torn apart watching our children suffer from hunger”  In this moving account, Amnesty International's fieldworker bravely shares how their hopes of a ceasefire have been torn apart. The reality of their lives is now truly unbearable. Their home has been destroyed, they are facing displacement once again and the little food that is available just isn’t enough. They’re hungry, worried and afraid of what’s next.

"We are not weak - but the war has broken our bones, and the siege has hollowed out our stomachs"

Read this moving account from an Amnesty fieldworker in Gaza:

[I type “I’m sorry” on a typewriter]
“Holy shit my typewriter apologized!”

Something about the way LLMs build in the idea that to find something out, you shouldn't read an already existing text that other people have also read (ew!); you should get fresh text generated just for you. Each time, new disposable text.

"EdTech is not only always a Trojan horse for elite capture of public resources; it is also always a project in delegitimizing the project of public education itself."

Gaza is starving Palestinians seeking food are being killed by the IDF. It's time for the entire world to say enough.

Read my latest:

YouTube video by Simply Always Awake Guided Meditation with Alma! (This One Will Take You Down the Rabbit Hole)

my favorite genre of poetry is guided meditation

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfRi...

YouTube video by The Gecko Project Militarised deforestation in Papua: how Indonesia is converting indigenous forest into farms

The Indonesian government’s food estate programme aims to convert 1.6 million hectares of land in Papua into rice fields and sugar cane plantations, annexing indigenous lands in the process. Thousands of troops have been sent from Java www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVj...

So beautiful.

Jack Kornfield tells of being a young monk and asked by his teacher Ajahn Chah how things were going. Jack told him the monastery was surprisingly noisy and the noises were bothering him.

His teacher replied, "Oh, I think it is you that is bothering the noises. Leave them alone. Don't bother them."

this is so cool

Similarly, the nature of samsara’s cycle of existence is that it has no ground, no identifiable basis, support, or origin. When we believe there is some basis or root of our existence, it is only our own confused thoughts that believe it, and nothing more than that.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

The very identity of what things are is that they never happen; they never come into existence. Then what is happening when we seem to perceive things arising? It is just our clinging, our mistaken perception of something that is not really there.

The true nature of appearances
is that they’ve never been born.
If birth seems to happen
it’s just clinging, nothing more.
The spinning wheel of existence
has neither a base nor a root.
If there is a base or root
that’s only a thought.

It is important to know what Milarepa taught about these things

Yeah, Tao's been pushing this stuff for years. Recently he's been doing interviews and making YT vids on proof-formalizing using Lean + various LLMs www.youtube.com/@TerenceTao27 (I know, it looks like the thing in academia where the ones who can't keep up anymore start doing public outreach shit).

this is getting next to no media attention and it’s horrifying. transphobes weren’t going to stop at bathrooms, no hormones for minors, they are going to keep pushing until it’s entirely illegal and no one is standing up for us other than trans people

Oh YES right this is slightly annoying depending on your use case.

Prefigurative Politics Paul Raekstad & Sofa Saio Gradin Prefigurative Politics Building Tomorrow Today 2020

The best book on prefigurative politics is now available for free on the anarchist library. Strongly recommend it.

theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sofa...