solarpunkbitch

[solarpunkbitch]

There should totally be a movement called “Sleep in Public” where people defend their right to sleep on public property. Sleep in your cars. Sleep on benches. Sleep at the park. Just make it a mundane and regular part of life to see someone napping in the library. It would make it much harder to single out the homeless for harassment if everyone else is doing the same thing and much harder to argue that it’s a “threat to public safety” when it’s so clearly harmless.

[solarpunkbitch]

"I am not interested in dry economic socialism. We are fighting against misery, but we are also fighting against alienation. One of the fundamental objectives of Marxism is to remove interest, the factor of individual interest, and gain, from people's psychological motivations. Marx was preoccupied both with economic factors and with their repercussions on the spirit. If communism isn't interested in this too, it may be a method of distributing goods, but it will never be a revolutionary way of life." - Che Guevara, As quoted in The Many Faces of Socialism Comparative Sociology and Politics (1983) by Paul Hollander, p. 224

[solarpunkbitch]

Paolo Fanciulli is a sustainable fisherman in the town of Talamone near Tuscany. For many years, this 60-year-old fisherman has been battling the unsustainable and illegal practice of bottom trawling in his coastal home.

Fanciulli’s first move was to drop 126 cement structures into the ocean, which would destroy any trawling nets dragged across the seabed (which are expensive and time-consuming to replace). His next plan was to raise awareness of the issue by commissioning giant marble sculptures to drop into coastal waters and accomplish the same purpose.

Fanciulli’s original goal was two marble sculptures, but instead he has received 100–all as the result of sculptors donating their time and skill.

“The importance of the project is that we need some sensible consumption of resources. However the illegal industry is devastating everything and with this project we can send a message to the whole world to give back; not only to take.”

[solarpunkbitch]

A message:

[solarpunkbitch]

The evident imminent demise of Netflix once again raises an issue I have had with streaming services, which is the lack of physical media support. If Netflix tanks, what's going to happen to all those Originals, all the shows they picked up for more seasons after getting canned elsewhere? Was there any DVD releases of She-Ra, Carmen Sandiego, Series Of Unfortunate Events, and so on? Or is it just gonna get lost to the void because it was only accessible on servers that are likely to be shut down in the near future?

[solarpunkbitch]

Incidentally, this is a great example of why it is absolutely vital to defend human rights in all cases; the instant people work out which categories are publicly viewed as indefensible, they start figuring out how to fold other types of undesirables into those category.

Eg. Pornography criminalized? Great, information about birth control, sexual education, and writing by feminists and LGBTQ people are all pornography now.

Terrorism? Literally all activists are terrorists if you put a good enough spin on it! Easy.

And, of course, “sex offenders” includes teenagers who take nude selfies, sex workers of basically all kinds, LGB people in jurisdictions that criminalize gay sex, often trans people in ones that criminalize crossdressing…

[solarpunkbitch]

The action this morning, targeting business tycoons flying out of Farnborough, aimed to highlight the environmental damage being done by privileged groups generating vast amounts of pollution for the sake of luxury travel.

More than a dozen people used a variety of methods, including arm tube locks and tripods, to lock down key entrances to the specialist airfield, best known for its annual air show and as the site of Britain’s first powered flight.

The protest comes as world leaders, influential business executives and selected billionaires prepare to fly out by private jet to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from May 22nd-26th, where climate action is supposedly at the top of the agenda.

Private jet use has hit record levels since the Covid pandemic, rising by 7% in the last two years with 3.3 million flights being recorded in 2021 even as mass commercial flights were grounded in an effort to contain the virus. An XR demand includes the elimination of such individual flights to help bring down CO2 emissions.

[solarpunkbitch]

Adding @hater-of-terfs tags because they're pretty spot on:

#this is hilarious but also#my sense of morality maturing as an anarchist has made this vastly more absurd#like people actually do think justice means 'bad things happening to bad people'#so yes - this would happen#and people would waste days and days insulting dead people who categorically have no more ability to do harm#rather than holding people who are actively doing harm accountable#and would believe that the act of being mean to them is a moral good in itself

had a dream that teenagers on TikTok started holding seances to make contact with Winston Churchill’s ghost and insult him

“Churchilling” was a funny trend for a little while, but then people figured out that any dead historical figure could be contacted and harassed from beyond the grave in this fashion, which was also a funny trend until it got coopted into bad social justice rhetoric and anytime a living person got criticized they would counter with “well why are you canceling ME when you could be cancelling any of THESE people, who were REALLY bad and never redeemed themselves” and would then post a list of links to Wikipedia articles about dead dictators and serial killers and colonists for people to direct their ire and energy at. and if you expressed your disapproval at this fixation on the dead, people would accuse you of “acquitting the dead” instead of holding them accountable through mean seances.

[solarpunkbitch]

Capitalism can sometimes create two seemingly opposite problems. For example:

Medical systems where doctors have incentives to over-prescribe drugs because medical companies will profit more and medical systems where doctors have incentives to under-prescribe drugs because health insurance companies will profit more can both exist under capitalism. Sometimes in the same area. Sometimes the same doctor is subjected to both incentives depending on what drug we’re talking about.

Rather than debating about whether capitalism wants us all drugged into submission or capitalism wants us all deprived and in pain, we can simply conclude that the profit incentive combined with the authority of the doctor over the patient is always going to harm us in new ways. & that people who were over-prescribed medication and people who were under-prescribed medication both need autonomy over their body and a reliable medical system that isn’t profit driven.

[solarpunkbitch]

cool so you can hide ads for knowing too much now

[solarpunkbitch]

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[solarpunkbitch]

So, there's apparently research coming out now about microplastics being found in people's bloodstreams and the possible negative effects of that and I feel the need to get out ahead of the wave of corporate sponsored "be sure to recycle your bottles!" or "ban glitter!" campaigns and remind everyone: It's fishing nets. It's fishing nets. It is overwhelming fishing nets It always has been fishing nets. Unless regulations are changed, it will continue to be fishing nets. The plastic in the ocean in largely discarded nets from industrial fishing. The microplastics are the result of these nets breaking down. The "trash islands" are also, you guessed it. Mostly fishing nets and other discarded fishing industry equipment. Do not allow them to continue to twist the story. Do not come after disabled people who require single use plastics. Do not come after people using glitter in art projects and makeup. These things make up a negligible amount of the issue compared to corporate waste, specifically in the fishing industry. Do not let them shift the blame to the individual so they can continue to destroy the planet and our bodies without regulation.

[solarpunkbitch]

when i was 15, i felt like… really deeply DEEPLY uncomfortable with the fact that there were cameras everywhere at my highschool. the sensation of not being able to walk to class without being monitored somehow really fucked with me for some reason.

this only worsened after seeing this segment on the school news that featured various stupid stuff caught on the hallway cameras, like people falling down or readjusting their underwear when they thought the hallways were empty. 

but they werent. there was someone watching, and they forgot to police their behavior and ended up getting embarrassed for it. everyone laughed at this segment. i remember the classroom being filled with snickers as someone fell flat on their face. i wasn’t a “superwoke” kid or anything, but i didnt think this was funny. i thought it was scary. what if that was me? what if i got caught fixing a wedgie on camera without even knowing it? 

i remember these cameras being used for everything – spotting dress code violations, catching students skipping class, etc. you can argue that they shouldnt have broken the rules, sure, but that doesnt excuse the concept of Being Constantly Watched. 

and what about the times when they weren’t doing something wrong? like when they were walking back from the bathroom or tripping over their own feet? did that warrant embarrassment and shame from their watchful spectators? does existing in a school hallway warrant surveillance? 

this brings me to the concept of anti-shooter architecture. there is a rising interest in school layouts that prepare for the possibility of a shooter roaming the halls. these improvements include bulletproof glass, concrete cover, and…. something scary. 

many of these highschool floor plans include some type of circular or central “watch tower” feature, and the designers actively boast about it being a panopticon. a panopticon. the same thing they use in prisons to enforce the idea that the prisoners are always being watched, though they can never really know when. 

what kind of effect will “anti-shooter architecture” have on kid’s minds? the constant threat of violence is already taking its toll on teenagers who have undergone active shooter drills, and this concept of air-tight security (clear backpacks, metal detectors, camera surveillance, constantly locked doors, etc) is not really an environment you would want to raise a child in, so why are we sticking kids in schools like that for 7-8 hours a day?

which leads into the next thing. many people’s solution to this is more guns, which equates to police presence in schools. ive already seen videos coming out of school cops beating black kids and ordering muslim girls to take off their hijabs. but beyond the racism and xenophobia, it’s another (now living) reminder of the unsafe environment these kids find themselves in. another reminder that theyre being watched and their behavior is being judged according to the law, or whatever the cop or teachers find inappropriate. that standing up for themselves or arguing can be taken as hostile and warrant physical intervention. 

police presence on campus grounds is DIRECTLY used to suppress student activism. you know that.i know that. we know that. you remember that photo of the cop spraying a line of peaceful protesters? you remember that cop that tackled a student for holding a sign? you remember the fucking car fuls of kids that were arrested for protesting? 

police are our enemy, but they can be found in plenty of highschools and colleges now. even in elementary schools, where young children are being taught to obey and trust cops. the conditioning is being started young, and if you don’t conform to it, you become a watched enemy on your own campus. 

what kind of affect will this militarization and surveillance in schools and campuses have on future generations? it’s impossible to deny that environment has an effect on development, so what kind of behavior are we encouraging when we educate children & young adults in schools that not only prepare them for violence, but instill them with the idea that they are constantly being watched, monitored, and judged? that they could be victims of gun violence at any time, or that protests are an excuse for police brutality? 

[solarpunkbitch]

Without a doubt

[solarpunkbitch]

I'm new to tumblr, but a fan of your videos. I saw a long thread you made a while ago on twitter about your frustrations on twitter. I hope you don't mind, but I was wondering about your feelings about twitter these days, and how that contrasts with your experience with tumblr.

horrible website. no one should ever use it

[solarpunkbitch]

[solarpunkbitch]

So, once again, ‘Musk Personally Being A Fucking Dipshit and Investing In Fantasy Tech’ was a marketing cover for much more sinister, down-to-earth economic maneuvering:

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/elon-musk-climate-apocalypse-tesla-spacex

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