Cassie

I guess I should have said “people being murdered horribly by the state” or “people being killed violently”

The person dying is likely the least meaningful aspect, it’s the context around their death that is such a big deal.

I guess I don’t need to point out that I am not a media studies person

(Reminder that I was born in 1986, I’ve seen photos of people killed in foreign wars, usually at the hands of US interventions, for most of my life)

Yes, I said videos specifically for that reason 👍

No, the fatal Mount Maunganui landslide was not AI Last week taught us that even in our most distressing moments, there is now no certainty. How do you know if there's a tragic event unfolding, or if someone's been using AI?

Regulation of AI and platforms helps counter mistrust and misinformation. Without it, the reflex when seeing real footage is "it's AI". An important overview of what happened online over the last few days:

thespinoff.co.nz/society/26-0...

There was so much effort to protect people from that when I was growing up. Is this better? We know now that it’s happening, with our own eyes. Does that help somehow? Is it contributing to the refusal to see truth? Or is that unrelated?

Does anyone else think about how many people we have watched die on video in recent years compared to the whole of the 90s and 2000s?

Like this week alone, I know of 5+ videos on non video focused platforms of human beings dying.

I cackled aloud reading some of this thread. The world is on fire but at least I can still laugh at how bad at capitalism capitalists can be

Hell yeah!!!!!!

Hey if climate and elements are your only foe, makes sense!

Omggg he’s so flippant! Yikes

I was assuming this was a “people are desperate out there!” story, but now I’m just assuming it’s cookers

🤣🤣🤣

A Children’s revolt within the Dilley concentration camp.

LET THEM OUT

We are living in a world with concentration camps in multiple countries at the service of multiple states.

This is the era your grandchildren will look back on and ask what you did to help.

We shouldn't need to share children's individual stories for folks to recognise that trans children matter.

That trans children, like all children, shouldn't be persecuted & harmed by law, by policy, by the State.

For academic work on trans children's rights, see here:

bsky.app/profile/did:...

The Moral Right to Defend Yourself Against ICE - Public Seminar If you saw an armed stranger forcing his way into your neighbor's home at dawn, would you have the right to stop him?

"...we maintain this weird double standard: Soldiers in combat zones must refuse unlawful orders, but civilians facing unlawful force from domestic law enforcement must submit."

publicseminar.org/2026/01/the-...

Palestine Solidarity in the Age of Reaction - Steve Salaita Should people involved with the Palestine solidarity movement in North America, traditionally leftist in orientation, seek alliances with the political right?

This recent one from Steven Salaita is the first one that came to mind for me stevesalaita.com/palestine-so...

I’m so sorry. The fact that lived-in properties are able to be sold out from under the inhabitants is inhumane and happens entirely too often.

For example, I get coded exclusively as white here in NZ, after 30 years of weird questions about my heritage/ethnicity.

And apparently you look like a US lesbean!

I know this is a tongue-in-cheek laugh about this loser, but it’s very real that people are coded or racialised etc differently in different places! Even in another settler colonial state, with predominantly European people in power! It’s wild.

☹️ yeah you should be the one to make those decisions.

Agh I’m so sorry that was put in front of your eye balls. It’s everywhere bc the internet centres the US. Been encouraging people here to turn off autoplay for the same reason 😣

As a high school drop out turned health researcher/tertiary educator I cannot co-sign this hard enough!

You have choices and you can continue to choose yourself all life long.

I was assuming we had zero overlapping areas of teaching but now I’m wondering 🤔

Teaching things does feel a bit grounding for me also! Like I’m getting paid to know things, and share those things on. Obvs not all students agree with what I’m teaching but I’m legitimised by the institution so…!

Where have they been 🙄

Agh fucking prosperity gospel. Christ on a cracker what a mistake accepting that line was.

It’s “nice” to talk to people who know this shit exists, I feel like in Aotearoa New Zealand this stuff sounds like conspiracy nonsense

100%

Interesting that it seems tied to the same upstream issue of Christian hegemony as predestination and the just world mindset!

If there is A Plan we must accept that and trust and not question or complain.