mastodon 4.6.8You are on your own.
Nothing Matters / Everthing Matters
Team Non Serviam
DemoRATs
https://aje.news/060cxq?update=4496084
Top US Democrat Schumer opposed resolution blocking sale of armed bulldozers to Israel
As we’ve been reporting, 40 of 47 Democratic Party senators voted to block US armoured bulldozer sales to the Israeli military.
The seven Democratic Senators who voted against the resolution put forward by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders included Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
The other Democratic senators who voted against the resolution were Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, Kirsten Gillibrand and Jacky Rosen.
The split in the Democrats’ vote may also reflect a split in the party’s base, with an August 2025 Quinnipiac University poll showing 75 percent of Democrats opposed sending more military aid to Israel for its genocidal war on Gaza.
For his part, Sanders said that the vote showed “progress”.
“Today, more than 80 percent of the Democratic caucus stood with the American people and voted to block US military aid to Netanyahu and his horrific, illegal wars,” Sanders said in a post on social media.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly was among the Democrats who voted in support of the two resolutions after opposing some of Sanders’ previous efforts.
In a speech just before the vote, Kelly said that “the reckless decisions being made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump” led him to his decision, which he said he did not take lightly.
There is not a shortage of dark comfortable places for Pepper to go, but she sleeps face up under the living room lights and blocks her eyes with her paw. Its always funny because it looks like she is doing the face-palm at us hoomans.
After a convo with my friends, it has occurred to me that I may need to write out how I view something that maybe I did not express well in speaking. We were talking about the manosphere and I feel like I failed to articulate why I am skeptical of the critique of the manosphere without falling into apologia. Here is the result.
@LucyStag@mastodon.social @chrishudsonjr@mastodon.social
The media’s concern trolling over figures like Clavicular or Hasan Piker reveals its patriarchal nature. The goal of the corporate media is to concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and predominantly male elite. That goal is sought by punishing those who challenge them.
The media operates like a stern father figure, dictating the rules of acceptable discourse and dismissing those who refuse to comply. Just as patriarchy ensures that authority remains with a select group, the media enforces these norms by deciding who is allowed a voice and who is derided. Those who diverge from the established order are treated like disobedient children, labeled as dangerous, malfeasant, or hangry. Whether it’s women speaking "out of turn", anyone demanding fair treatment, or even white male commentators incidentally exposing inconsistencies, the response is always the same: comply with Daddy’s rules, or face the consequences.
The media employs concern trolling as a primary tool to maintain control, much like a father issuing warnings to keep his children in line. Instead of engaging with the substance of an argument, it attacks the individual. Hasan Piker is branded as an antisemitic islamist, Candace Owens is just a kooky conspiracy theorist, and Nick Fuentes is dismissed as a child edgelord nazi. The objective is not to refute their points but to discredit them entirely, ensuring that no one takes their challenges seriously. The media dictates what is acceptable to discuss, just as a father dictates what is acceptable behavior at the dinner table. Criticism of Israel is framed as antisemitic, criticism of capitalism as unrealistic, and criticism of the media itself as conspiratorial. The aim is always to shift focus away from systemic issues and onto the individuals who dare to speak out, reinforcing the idea that Daddy knows best.
This is not about ethics, or aesthetics, or truth; it’s about the people who identify with power maintaining their sense of control. These pundits control the narrative, determining what is considered truth and what is dismissed as fringe. They defend the status quo as they see it, to maintain their position as "arbiter of truth" while everyone else is kept in suspense. The act of directing public attention to a "concern" encourages ingroup righteousness and reasserts the dominant position in the media environment. Just as a father might scold a child into submission by admonishing them to their siblings, when the mass media targets figures from the internet, it is less because they are of any real moral concern than because they threaten the existing power structure. Daddy cannot allow that.
This performance exposes some vulnerability. Every time a major outlet attacks a relatively less visible commentator or streamer, it signals that they have already lost some of their grip. The more they resort to outrage, the more transparent their manipulation becomes. The analogue is a father whose authority is slipping as his children begin to see through rhetorical admonishment of misbehavior at the dinner table for what it is: a vain attempt to maintain a patriarchal set of norms.
The media and patriarchy form a self-reinforcing system of suppression. They use concern trolling to keep the public divided, distracted, and compliant, just as a controlling father might employ admonishments to keep his household in line and maintain his position of superiority. The power harnessed by the elites of our society is reliant on our compliance and participation; the media serves to manufacture consent for this end. So when you begin to feel outrage over a so-called "controversial" figure, ask yourself this: Who truly benefits from this arrangement and who is your Daddy?
Chinese state propaganda.
Santa saxophone selfie. Sexy.
Wow, on fb theres a genAI hasidic man trying to sell me the secret real estate cheat codes previously only known to the jews and they named it "Solomun Blackstone" ffs. 
@dirtwizard666@cyberpunk.lol adam curtis docs are all mandatory viewing
I dont get how people can be so outraged over a single murder of a healthcare executive in american society that they want to launch a nationwide manhunt for the perpetrator, but then turn around and shrug off the bombing of a girls elementary school resulting in scores of deaths as if the lives of those children were not each as valuable as the businessman. Seriously sick in the head.
I think the major difference here is that everyone is saying that when AUTHORITY kills, it must be ACCEPTED. This is a really big moral error, because it places authority in a position of impunity, which enables the continued abuse.
You know how people say that actions speak louder than words? Well, thats why I dont believe it when americans say that no one is above the law, because they ACCEPT, through their inactions, that AUTHORITY places itself above the law.
I have failed to convince anyone I know that reading the declaration of independance leaves americans with no choice but to correct this injustice by a total reboot of governance. Everyone just shrugs and goes back to thier work of making the rich richer. What a bummer. Democracy does indeed die with a whimper.
@folukeifejola@c.im hi there, i edit the audio for the nonserviam podcast and would like to know if you would consider doing an interview for us... our interviewer is lucy steigerwald
we have a fairly good roster of interviewees and i think that your writing is certainly in our zone of people thinking seriously about how to improve the level of freedom in the world outside the contraints of traditional and existing power structures...
Potential topics that I personally think that would make for some interesting conversation would be non-state legal frameworks that would not reproduce exploitation, the history of anti-colonial struggles particular to african peoples, your personal history and work, and frankly whatever else you want to talk about.
So, what do you think? (Please say yes.)
We are back in Ho Chi Minh City tonight and this is our view. We are completely in the periphery of the city looking out away from the city to the southeast. The part where the 10 million plus people live is behind us from this perspective. Its like a never ending interconnected urban sprawl in all directions. Cafes and restaurants with fresh food are always within walking distance. Its not so much of a liminal space as it is a living organism pumping people all over the place 24/7/365.
