caffeinebrewingdruid

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Me, every year just as the snow is starting to melt

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

I’m starting to sound like a nutcase at work because upper management keeps trying to implement AI programs and AI assistants and Chat GPT and my middle-of-the-road, don’t-infodump, don’t-engage response has been “I don’t like AI”, “I prefer to remain in control of my own tasks”, “I’d rather make my own mistakes”, and “I don’t trust any machine smarter than a toaster”

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

You joke, but there's value in teaching children how to search for new information. I can see this as a wholesome experience if it's done with that amount of supervision and attention often when a child asks a question

Like a response of "I don't know, let's find out!"

Patreon

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Elon Musk attacked democracy defender and superstar court lawyer Marc Elias as “undermining civilization,” taunting him by asking if he suffered “generational trauma.”

Elias’s response was brilliant and worth amplifying:

Mr. Musk,

You recently criticized me and another prominent lawyer fighting for the rule of law and democracy in the United States. I am used to being attacked for my work, particularly on the platform you own and dominate.

I used to be a regular on Twitter, where I amassed over 900,000 followers — all organic except for the right-wing bots who seemed to grow in number. Like many others, I stopped regularly posting on the site because, under your stewardship, it became a hellscape of hate and misinformation.

I also used to buy your cars — first a Model X and then a Model S — back when you spoke optimistically about solving the climate crisis. My family no longer owns any of your cars and never will.

But this is not the reason I am writing. You don’t know me. You have no idea whether I have suffered trauma and if I have, how it has manifested. And it’s none of your business.

However, I will address your last point about generational trauma. I am Jewish, though many on your site simply call me “a jew.” Honestly, it’s often worse than that, but I’m sure you get the point. There was a time when Twitter would remove antisemitic posts, but under your leadership, tolerating the world’s oldest hatred now seems to be a permissible part of your “free speech” agenda.

Like many Jewish families, mine came to America because of trauma. They were fleeing persecution in the Pale of Settlement — the only area in the Russian Empire where Jews were legally allowed to reside. Even there, life was difficult — often traumatic. My family, like others, lived in a shtetl and was poor. Worse, pogroms were common — violent riots in which Jews were beaten, killed and expelled from their villages.

By the time my family fled, life in the Pale had become all but impossible for Jews. Tsar Nicholas II’s government spread anti-Jewish propaganda that encouraged Russians to attack and steal from Jews in their communities. My great-grandfather was fortunate to leave when he did. Those who stayed faced even worse circumstances when Hitler’s army later invaded.

That is the generational trauma I carry. The trauma of being treated as “other” by countrymen you once thought were your friends. The trauma of being scapegoated by authoritarian leaders. The trauma of fleeing while millions of others were systematically murdered. The trauma of watching powerful men treat it all as a joke — or worse.

As an immigrant yourself, you can no doubt sympathize with what it means to leave behind your country, extended family, friends and neighbors to come to the United States. Of course, you probably had more than 86 rubles in your pocket. You probably didn’t ride for nine days in the bottom of a ship or have your surname changed by immigration officials. Here is the ship manifest showing that my family did. Aron, age three, was my grandfather.

[see image in comments]

As new immigrants, life wasn’t easy. My family lived in cramped housing without hot water. They worked menial jobs — the kind immigrants still perform today.

Some may look down on those immigrants — the ones without fancy degrees — but my family was proud to work and grateful that the United States took them in. They found support within their Jewish community and a political home in the Democratic Party.

I became a lawyer to give back to the country that gave my family a chance. I specialize in representing Democratic campaigns because I believe in the party. I litigate voting rights cases because the right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy. I speak out about free and fair elections because they are under threat.

Now let me address the real crux of your post.

You are very rich and very powerful. You have thrown in with Donald Trump. Whether it is because you think you can control him or because you share his authoritarian vision, I do not know. I do not care.

Together, you and he are dismantling our government, undermining the rule of law and harming the most vulnerable in our society. I am just a lawyer. I do not have your wealth or your platform. I do not control the vast power of the federal government, nor do I have millions of adherents at my disposal to harass and intimidate my opponents. I may even carry generational trauma.

But you need to know this about me. I am the great-grandson of a man who led his family out of the shtetl to a strange land in search of a better life. I am the grandson of the three-year-old boy on that journey. As you know, my English name is Marc, but my Hebrew name is Elhanan (אֶלְחָנָן) — after the great warrior in David’s army who slew a powerful giant.

I will use every tool at my disposal to protect this country from Trump. I will litigate to defend voting rights until there are no cases left to bring. I will speak out against authoritarianism until my last breath.

I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey.

Defiantly,

Marc Elias

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Agree on "don't punish the behavior you want to see", but unless we want to go down this path a second (third? Fourth?) time, there has to be some acknowledgement of

"we were shouting from the rooftops that this was going to happen until we were blue in the face, and you told us to stop being so dramatic and voted for him anyway"

Actual growth requires taking responsibility for your actions.

The pettiness is just 👌😂

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

having parents that were really angry and petty and abusive when you were young is weird, because it makes part of you grow up to want to be kind, to generate good things, to be a source of peace and wellbeing for others; but it makes another part of you grow up to be quick, and sharp, and spiteful, and that’s always the part that shows itself first in a hard situation, so it’s a struggle between your hateful gut reactions and your wish to not add any more misery to the world. it’s a hard balance, and the people who really, really know me - i know they see that anger flash in my eyes before i quiet it, if i quiet it…i want to overcome years of conditioning, and with gentle, constant force, i know i’ll mellow it. it just takes time.

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

I want you to remember:

The fascists hate you too and they just will pretend otherwise until after they've killed the rest of us, before they turn on you.

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Last night I celebrated Chanukah and Havdalah by saying the blessing for the aromatic spices over my bong and lighting it with the shamash

I can't tell if this is super sacrilegious or if it is very much in the spirit of things, but it was at least meaningful to me.

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

I'm wondering what an alternate reality would look like where the closest Jewish holiday to Christmas was something else. Like what if american christians only knew about Shavuot or Tu Bishvat and thought they were the most important Jewish holidays? What if it was Sukkot and the lulav/etrog became the symbol of Judaism in their minds like the menorah is in this reality?

Or the major holidays? What would that look like?

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Mike Johnson saying "a man can't be a woman" has echoes of politicians shouting "I didn't come from no monkey" 20 years ago in 2004.

I at least take comfort in knowing that the way "I didn't come from no monkey" sounds now is probably going to be how this anti trans rhetoric will sound 20 years from now

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

Hopefully either his surviving colleagues realize they might be held to account and might be a bit less gung-ho about profiteering off of the death and suffering of other people, or this becomes a trend until that happens

The news today and the media responses to it really put into contrast how differently white collar murder and blue collar murder are treated. On principle, the only time I would be okay with vigilante justice is when justice is otherwise impossible. This was one such time

Brian Thompson was a white collar mass murderer and should be remembered as such. I wouldn't pull the trigger myself but I sure wouldn't get in the way of anyone who would.

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

The news today and the media responses to it really put into contrast how differently white collar murder and blue collar murder are treated. On principle, the only time I would be okay with vigilante justice is when justice is otherwise impossible. This was one such time

Brian Thompson was a white collar mass murderer and should be remembered as such. I wouldn't pull the trigger myself but I sure wouldn't get in the way of anyone who would.

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

"It takes two to fight"

No. Fuck that. It only takes one to fight. You know what really requires two people?

It takes two to cooperate

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

China has Daoism, which venerates the Dao

America has capitalism, which venerates the DOW

[caffeinebrewingdruid]

I never thought of picking up trash under the highway as hot-blooded, but if it's what the kids are into.....

but unironically

A 22 yr old in my org got drunk tuesday night and kinda shit on the fact that I'm running a community cleanup for our chapter. Said something along the lines of "i didn't join up to pick trash." Which really bothers me and it took me a while to figure out why. The whole point of the community cleanup is that we're returning to the neighborhoods where we knocked doors for A4 to help clean up their streets and provide material improvement for free in an effort to build inroads with those neighbors.

Like... if your socialism doesn't include picking uo trash, I'm guessing it also doesn't include doing the dishes, babysitting, or anything else that is important but not prestigious. Idk man, fuck off with that shit. You'll pick up trash and you'll like it until you understand why picking up trash isn't anyone's job but your own. I hate that attitude. If helping and doing activism was always fun and visible and impressive, everyone you know would already be doing it.