The New Fascists Have Arrived. American Democracy is Dead.

MAGA cultists / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics21 Comments

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I get no satisfaction from saying ‘I told you so’ and ‘I warned you about them.’ But I did, over and over. So did many, many others, all of them far more informed and experienced in politics, reporting, and history than I. They warned about fascism. They warned about racism. They warned about criminal behaviour. They warned about the oligarchs. They warned about Project 2025. But millions of Americans ignored them and elected a convicted felon, a blatant grifter in cognitive decline who openly lied … click below for more ↓

The Body Snatchers

Books & Reviews / Bureaucratic malaise / CollingwoodLeave a comment

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I think it’s about time for another remake of the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this time instead of aliens taking over human bodies, we should have a far-right leader who creates a cult of personality that turns normal people into mindless, worshipping zombies he and his henchmen control. Oh, right: that’s not fiction. It’s actually happened: MAGA is the prominent contemporary example, but we can also turn to other rightwing parties emerging in democracies across the world, which themselves in thrall to … click below for more ↓

The Rise and Fall of Self-Checkout

Culture / Culture wars / Predatory capitalismOne Comment

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I refuse on moral, ethical, and simply human grounds, to use a self-checkout at any local store where they are installed. My initial reaction to them was outrage: this is how big retail chains get rid of employees and reduce their staff and thus human costs. This is how people at the lower end of the wage scales get unemployed but CEOS and executives get bonuses. It also means the customer is forced to play the role of cashier without any monetary benefit from doing … click below for more ↓

Home on the Open World Range

Culture / Games & Gaming / MusingsOne Comment

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A recent article in the Journal of Internet Research described a study that came to the conclusion that open-world games (OWGs) “may offer unique cognitive escapism opportunities, potentially leading to relaxation and enhanced well-being.” Well, duh! Pretty much everyone playing OWGs has known that for the past three decades since those games were published. After all, isn’t escapism the whole point of gaming? People have played games for millennia: to gamble, for intellectual challenges, for entertainment, learning, competition, and often for simple solo pleasure. But … click below for more ↓

Blue Skies, Nothing But Blueskies…

Musings / Social media issues / Social Order & Disorder3 Comments

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Enshittification is a delightful neologism coined by author Cory Doctrow in 2022 to describe how things decline in quality and service. While it initially meant to describe how vendors would gradually change their services to move the focus from users to business interests, it has expanded to include the way Elon Musk has turned Twitter-aka-X-aka-Xitter into a fetid swamp of rightwing toxins: racism, misogyny, Russian disinformation, lies, and, of course, his conspiracy-addled pronouncements from the throne, which no user is allowed to block. Ever click … click below for more ↓

When I’m 64…

Daily life / Music & Reviews / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? When I’m sixty four… it seemed cutely remote to consider being that old when the Beatles sang “When I’m Sixty-Four” back in 1967 on their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Sixty-four seemed so far away then. My father wasn’t even that old in ’67. Sixty-four was to my teenage self somewhere in the distant future, like science fiction or The Jetsons. Old age was somewhere in the time zone of my grandparents, an … click below for more ↓

Normalizing Fascism: The Paradox of Tolerance

Critical Thinking / Media / Politics / Rightwing claptrap6 Comments

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The Brexit campaign succeeded on a platform that cultivated anger, fear, conspiracies, and racism based on lies and disinformation. Donald Trump’s campaigns have succeeded twice on platforms that increasingly cultivated anger, fear, misogyny, conspiracies, and racism based on lies and disinformation. Pierre PoiLIEvre, head of Canada’s now far-right MAGA-mimicking CONservative Party campaigns on a platform that cultivates anger, fear, conspiracies, and racism based on lies and disinformation in the hope of succeeding as the next Prime Minister. If Canada’s electorate is ignorant enough, and has … click below for more ↓

Enemy of the State

MAGA cultists / Trump fascism / US Politics15 Comments

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It was very clear from his first presidential campaign that Donald Trump was adversarial to the very notion of the USA, to its Constitution, to its judiciary, laws, courts, police, military, schools, to its free speech, its allies and trading partners, and its media. It was very clear from the outset that he intended to be a dictator, not a president, and he cared nothing for established processes, laws, and institutions. He intended to rule by himself, for himself. And he did, for four years. … click below for more ↓

Why Are People Leaving Xitter En Masse?

Culture wars / Internet & Social Media / MAGA cultists / Trump fascism6 Comments

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The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over. That’s the headline for a piece in today’s Guardian newspaper. People and corporations are turning to other social media platforms because of what Xitter has become since Musk bought it and started using it as his own platform to spread racist hatred, lies, disinformation, and AI fakes, while enabling the far-right extremists to spread their own propaganda. Anyone surprised that users and advertisers are fed up with … click below for more ↓

Class Struggle, Slavery, TV, and Trump

MAGA cultists / Rightwing claptrap / Trump fascism / US Politics4 Comments

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Long before Blandings, long before Downtown Abbey, long before Upstairs, Downstairs (both the 1971 original and the short-lived 2010 remake), even long before The Duchess of Duke Street, there was a popular TV show about class, servitude, and servants. And, surprisingly, it wasn’t British (or more properly, English): it was American. That show was called Hazel and it ran for five seasons from 1961 to 1966. It was so popular that it spawned a short-lived competitor on a different network, Our Man Higgins, featuring the … click below for more ↓

The Return of the World’s Filthiest Habit

Conspiracy Theories / Health & Medicine / Pop Culture / Pseudoscience & Quackery2 Comments

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Why are celebs glamorising smoking again? That question was part of the headline in a recent story on BBC.com about how some unthinking and selfish celebrities are once again promoting the dirtiest, smelliest, unhealthiest, intelligence-lowering, and ugliest habit in history: smoking. The article notes that “even in low quantities, smoking increases the risk of serious diseases like lung cancer, which has a 90% five-year mortality rate.” Despite everyone — including smokers — knowing this, the article adds, …singers, actors and influencers seem to be bringing smoking … click below for more ↓

Atheists Beware: Trump Will Come For You, Too

Atheism & Spirituality / Trump fascism / US Politics5 Comments

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While women and immigrants will initially be the main target of the Talibangelists in the upcoming Trump theocracy, they will not be the only victims of Trumpist repression. Among the many targets of his vindictive agenda of vengeance and punishment will be both believers of other faiths and non-believers. Perhaps the main difference in treatment will be that women will be repressed, their rights and careers taken away, and expected to be baby factories, while others will be arrested, put into camps, jailed, and in … click below for more ↓

Democracy or Fascism?

MAGA cultists / Musings / Politics / US Politics10 Comments

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We are, today, watching the most momentous decision that Americans have had to make in the entirety of their — and my own — lifetimes. Compared to the choice between Harris and felon Trump, all other elections seem almost inconsequential. That’s because never before was the whole fabric of democracy at risk. Never before has an openly racist, misogynist, totalitarian, cognitively-addled felon come so close to winning the presidency. Never before has the entire American experiment been on the scales. The choices are stark: between … click below for more ↓

Imagine There’s No Heaven…

MAGA cultists / Politics / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / Theocracy / US Politics3 Comments

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The title above is how Imagine, the iconic 1971 song by John Lennon, begins. It is still being played and sung, more than 50 years later. Wikipedia tells us it is “one of the 100 most performed songs of the 20th century.” The song was re-released as a single in 1980 following Lennon’s murder, reaching number one on the UK charts. It was re-released in 1988 and again in 1999. For some listeners, myself included, that first verse was an opening to an atheist anthem … click below for more ↓

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