#anarchist boogeyman

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Attentat anarchiste aux Trois-Rivières," Le Petit Journal. June 11, 1933. Page 1 & 19. ---- Une bombe dans une poubelle. - Accident mortel miraculeusement évité. - Le criminel était un expert. ---- TROIS-RIVIÈRES, 10. (Spécial au "Petit Journal"). - Les employés de la ville s'apprêtaient à jeter dans les fours De l'incinérateur municipal le contenu d'une poubelle, quand l'un d'eux, M. Philippe Stevens, 1219 rue Sainte-Marguerite, eut son attention attirée par un engin étrange qui se trouvait dans la poubelle. L'objet ressemblait à un accumulateur électrique.

M. Stevens le ramassa et voulut en connaître le contenu. Avec ses compagnons de travail, il parvint à briser l'enveloppe sans causer d'explosion. Mais une capsule, tombant sur le plancher, fit entendre une forte détonation. M. Stevens découvrit d'autres capsules semblables. En les manipalant, un de ses compagnons en laissa tomber une seconde, et une nouvelle détonation se produisit. On comprit alors qu'on se trouvait en présence d'une bombe dangereuse.. Sans l'esprit de curiosité et d'initiative de M. Stevens, la bombe eut été jetée dans l'incinérateur et l'explosion aurait alors été assez violente pour causer des accidents mortels.

OEUVRE D'UN EXPERT En examinant l'engin de plus en plus pets, on constate qu'il a été fabriqué non par un novice mais bien certainement au contraire par un expert La charge était très suffiante pour faire éclater aans faute les fours de l'incinérateur, et tuer les employés. La bombe pesalt à peu près 5 livres, et mesurait 5 pouces de long et 2 de diamètre. L'enveloppe en cuivre solide se terminait par une mince couche de plomb de forme ogivale, très malléable, pour recouvrir la capsule. Cette capsule double pouvait glisser à l'intérieur, sur un tube creux. Ce mouvement, en déclenchant l'explosion interne, mettait le feu à quatre mèches d'une longueur de vingt pieds environ solidement enroulées autour de ce tube. En actionnant ces mèches, on 'aperçut que Fintérieur était rempli de poudre noir. On estime que le feu court dans ces mèches à une vitesse un pied à la minute.

La bombe était parfaitement conservez aucune humidité n'avait pénétré et la poudre était en état d'accomplir sa besogne infernale.

ATTENTAT COMMUNISTE? C'est dans le secteur des rues Badraux et Saint-Antoine que cet instrument de destruction a été ramassé par les employés de la ville, MM. Emile Pépin et J. Balleux, qui ne se doutèrent pas du danger qu'ils couraient. Le chef Vachon procède à une enquête, et des détectives de la Sureté provinciale sont venus spécialement aux Trois-Rivières. Ils firent mettre sous clef ce qui reste de la bombe, et se refusèrent à donner des commentaires. Il semble néanmoins difficile, pour ne pas dire impossible, d'écarter l'hypothèse d'une intention criminelle. Comment expliquer la présence d'un engin aussi perfectionné? Il n'y a pas dans la région, d'industrie où l'on soit se fabriquer des engine de ce genre.

On est donc conduit à se demander si la paisible population trifluvienne contient des éléments anarchistes, prêts à devenir criminels? La bombe a-t-elle été apportée par des communistes? On peut supposer qu'ils auraient monté la tête à quelque esprit simple, et lui aurait confié la bombe avec mission de faire sauter quelque édifice. On est obligé de rapprocher cet incident des mystérieux incendies d'églises qui se sont produits ces temps derniers en divers endroits de la province.

Mais le détenteur de la bombe aurait été effrayé par la responsabilité qu'il encourait, et s'en serait débarrassé en la jetant dans une boite à ordures.

De toutes façons, ceux qui ont fa briqué, porté, et jeté dans une poubelle cette bombe, mettaient en danger, délibérément, des vies humaines? C'est bien le type de l'attentat anarchiste, qui fait mourir n'importe qui pour frapper les imaginations de terreur.

Y a-t-il des anarchistes aux Trois-Rivières? Image caption: DÉCOUVERTE SENSATIONNELLE M. P. Stevens, de Trois-Rivières, a découvert dans les déchets destinés à l'incinérateur de cette ville, une bombe d'une longueur de cinq pouces et de deux pou ces de diamètre, pesant cinq livres. Si cet engin de mort avait explosé dans l'incinérateur, tout cet édifice sautait! La police fait des recherches actives pour découvrir le fabricant de bombes, qui est peut-être un dément. Cet homme sera un terrible danger public tant qu'il sera en liberté. (Voir détails en page 19). [This was not a bomb made by anarchists or communists for revolutionary ends. But the red scare in Quebec was particularly bad, and Reds were found under every bed. Le Petit Journal was a populist, right-leaning tabloid - and it clearly felt it was irressponsible not to speculate about anarchist bombs in the small town of Trois Rivières.]

[feuilletoniste]

I love when people get mad about words being used in their most common and correct context.

[txttletale]

An observation and a question I want to ask in good faith

I should say I haven't been following your blog for too long. Something I have observed, rarely directly in your posts, but very often in the notes. The idea of an anarchist boogeyman. Or at least what seems like a boogeyman to me.

The character put together seems to have strange ideas about bathtub insulin and calling too many people tankies? I'm in anarchist circles only in real life. I work in housing, and I have friends who work with incarcerated people or are pursuing jobs in city planning with ideological motivation. Most just talk, which is fine. None of these people share the temperament of this boogeyman character.

I'm sure someone online does, but I've never met one. This reads to me as some terminally online non-issue? Unless there's been harassment campaigns or something. That is what I would like to know about. Who is actually causing problems, where, and why? Or is it a facade?

Because I don't want the good of people I know to be dragged down by others acting wrong under the same flag, and I don't want my dash to have poisoned talk on it either, even if it's a fraction of your posts.

the bathtub insulin discourse i have mostly encountered online, the anti-communism and obsession with "tankies" is something i've also observed to be quite common irl. anyway i have no desire to put particular individuals, however unpleasant, on blast on my blog, but i can definitely confirm that by being communist online (and sometimes offline) you will encounter very many tiresome people with strange ideas. ultimately there are anarchists who suck and communists who suck, you should evaluate each person or org on a case by case basis

[forbidden-sorcery]

So cool that the green scare got internalized by the left, so now if you have more radical ecological politics than the liberal bullshit peddled by the likes of Bookchin and Kovel they’ll bring out the “ok eco-fascist” shit. Saying something as simple, obvious and objective as “exponential extraction of finite resources for perpetual production is not sustainable” means you’re the boogeyman. I saw a meme recently where someone is like “oh so I can use the word solarpunk to express my anarcho-communism in a less scary way for people?” and it’s like yeah, you can repackage industrialism in bright colors and optimism and people will fucking suck it down and yell “MALTHUS!!!!” at the anarchists who want to act against ecocide.

[yellowparenti]

the issue I have with anarchism is that it is simply another idealistic concern for those of us within the underclass that refuse to recognize the importance of the analysis of the material world. There is no fundamental difference between anarchism and conservatism because they are both counterrevolutionary in their ignorance of the material conditions of humanity.

There is no boogeyman, whether it be the destruction of society due to 'family values' as claimed by conservatives, or 'hierarchy' as claimed by anarchists.

There only exists the material, and the resolutions of contradictions in our material reality is the result of class struggle--they are the locomotion of history.

[addaxus]

ARIZONA SILVER TOWN STAINED CRIMSON FROM BLOODBATH!

SCORES OF DEAD LITTER CITY STREETS!

HELD UP IN GUNSMITH!

SOUTHWEST BOOGEYMAN STRIKES AGAIN!

The gleaming beauty of a booming Arizona mining town has been marred by the permanent scars of horrible bloodshed. For here was the scene of one of the most violent shootouts in state history! A local posse ambushed four members of the Almería Anarchists, a self-proclaimed revolutionary gang. Their recent crimes up to the shootout include selling stolen liquor, horse theft, and arson. According to one popular theory, the gang intended to cause mayhem and panic within the town so they could take the silver for themselves during the chaos.

One member was killed by a rifle shot to the head, setting the remaining three on a brief chase through town. Two members barricaded themselves in a local gunsmith's shop, firing at anyone who approached. Despite all odds, these defiant reprobates remained firm, mowing down everybody in their sights with the store's arsenal of weapons and ammunition. The posse's morale soon broke down, leaving the Sheriff and his three deputies alone. Fortunately, the Sheriff thought he had some leverage by holding the third Anarchist hostage. He had no idea how little the hostage was valued by his fellow outlaws, as one of the duo, a poncho-clad Mexican, shot him in cold blood before murdering the Sheriff and all three deputies. The Mexican and his accomplice then rode away through the very carnage they had wrought.

Further eyewitness accounts confirm that the Mexican was El Ojos Diablos. His bounty has increased by $1250, increasing the amount to $3000. Why do the Almería Anarchists allow such a valuable individual to ride with them? It's plausible that they're trying to keep their numbers up in the face of rising losses.

[ladyvelkor]

okay also the complete lack of actual historicism on the baeddel movement like. augh. the further we get away from when these politics developed the more foggy any attempts at historiography will be. I do think it's very cool and anarchist and against his-tory or whatever to just fade into being a boogeyman but also it was a genuine liberatory feminist movement deserving of proper context and the denigration of the term by outsiders means it's so hard to even verbalize they existed because the only easily accessible explanations are derogatory. Like the centering of transmisogyny as a social force in a radical feminist movement led by trans women is fucking important to talk about.

[shivasdarknight]

Y'know I was willing to give this a consideration but y'all can't go five fucking seconds without the constant vilification of NPD even though you're So Accepting of neurodivergency 💀

And it's fucking rich seeing this shit about homeschooling because yeah, it can be socially isolating but I swear to fucking god attributing the desire to homeschool your kids to megalomania, arrogance, etc. is just beyond fucking wild. Especially when going to school is such a literal risk on your child's life for so many goddamned factors, because we've got school shootings, we've got They're Trying To Give Teachers Guns And There's Plenty Of Abuse As Is Without Them, and then we've got the racist nightmare that is the public school system and how they treat black students. You don't remember the 6 year old who got arrested for throwing a temper tantrum at school and it so deeply traumatized her that she went mute for a while? What about the middle schooler who got thrown into a wall? They're just two incidents of Many that illustrate how the public school system horrifically fails black children, and y'all want to attribute a desire to homeschool on just ego with the only exception being disability. Right.

It's not for everyone. I know way too well the strengths and weaknesses of homeschooling, especially if you live in an area where extracurriculars bar homeschoolers from participating. But god fucking damn, the sanist shit y'all say when you want to use NPD as some boogeyman label you can slap on people you don't like. And with the utter lack of compassion for the MANY genuine reasons people want to homeschool especially now?

I'm dropping a video on an anarchist's perspective on homeschooling. Tl;dr: stop throwing around shit like "narcissist" (and while we're at it, "psycho", "psychotic", "sociopathic" and all other variants) when it concerns people or actions you don't like or think are full of themselves, and Especially stop equating a lack of morals to these terms.

[kingwuko]

How do you think wu felt once his aunt died? and how does he feel about zaheer. i wonder what the 2 of them meeting would be like considering wu being king means zaheer failed

I think that Wu has complicated feelings about his aunt's death. Losing a person with whom you had a complicated or abusive relationship can make for for a very confusing manifestation of grief. Wu is a good person, but even good people can feel glad or relieved when someone who was cruel to them dies. I think Wu felt relief when he heard of his Aunt's death, and probably a very confusing sort of sadness, frustration at the lack of closure to that relationship, along with feelings of fear that he could meet the same end she did.

I think he's scared of Zaheer, but because he's never met him, he can cordon off those feelings, make Zaheer into some sort of boogeyman rather than a real and tangible threat to his life.

I think it would be really interesting to see them meet and/or see how Zaheer feels about Wu. Zaheer essentially put Wu on the throne through his actions. Zaheer is an anarchist, so even though Wu is reforming the government into a democracy, that's not what Zaheer wants the world to look like. He sees Wu as no different than any other world leader, and he might even feel like he has more of a duty to remove him from the throne since it was his 'failure' that put him there in the first place.

[dead-twink-storage]

The idea that the CIA boogeyman only exists in the form of some big fascist jackbooted cop in uniform is hilarious considering their most successful propaganda operation of the last few years is in the form of an anarchist news outlet that occasionally outs right wing undesirables at home while aiding and advocating NATOs ever expanding war machine abroad.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Seventeen: Eve of the War Pt. 6

 “....I have no actual commentary for that one at all…” Greed was mortified upon learning just how fragile and dangerous Central was now.

 “That’s horrible! We can’t have Central being destroyed!” Edward was horrified at the possible outcome.

 “It doesn’t affect you Elric, you and your weird metal brother live in the rural parts, you both should be fine.” Envy said after gulping down their first load of food.

 “Envy that’s not the point, there are other people living here that won’t have a place to go to if something happens here along with our government possibly collapsing since that’s where it's stationed.” Edward decided to play nice and break down how this is a bad thing.

 “Like I said, it’ll be fine and not our problem. Besides, anarchy is good for you and you humans should be able to thrive off it like Dolly’s horrible feral humans back at home.” Envy smirked as they loaded up their next plate. 

 “Brother, I don’t want to live like a feral person..” Alphonse was clearly going to have nightmares after this session.

 “Al, don’t worry, we’re not going to be feral and it won’t fall into anarchy.” Edward tried to reassure poor Alphonse at the terrifying possibility of a societal collapse. 

 “Anarchy isn’t all that bad, that was how things were back in the day. Folks were a lot nicer back then and less power hungry before the monarchy arrived. Plus my family isn’t always feral, they only get that way when political figures are brought up in conversation or in person.” Dolly decided to try and reassure that anarchy isn’t some horrible boogeyman. 

 “Well at least you’re a nice anarchist…I cannot believe that came out of my mouth just now.” Greed was wishing this assassination plan wasn’t too much of a nightmare cluster to deal with. 

 “Plus kids, the fuhrer is murdering innocent people without justification! Down with the Fuhrer kiddo!” Ernest threw in that verbal live grenade into the topic.

 Lust decided at that moment to faceplant into the table out of sheer embarrassment of this conversation and where it’s being taken to. It was even more embarrassing that it was in a restaurant of all places. There was no doubt in Lust’s mind that the entire group would be kicked out of the restaurant any moment now given how out of control things had gotten in a short timespan. Dolly was on the same boat as she decided to get Ernest into the backpack with Dorian, there was simply no way they would be allowed to stay in this fine restaurant after how loud everyone was being about homicide and assassination plans. Likewise, Greed was preparing to be kicked out as he stuffed his pockets with as much food as possible to smuggle out in case it happened. Envy, oh Envy, sat there thinking they were untouchable and unremovable. Sure enough, someone from the staff approached their table with a grim look on his face.

 “I’m sorry to inform everyone, but due to complaints from the other guests about your ‘conversation’, we would like to ask for you all to pay and leave our restaurant at once.” The waiter said sternly as he placed the bill on the table, wanting this group to be gone from this establishment. 

 “Do we at least get carry out boxes?” Envy sharply asked as they wished Gluttony had come along just for situations like that one.

 “We will provide some take out boxes, in the meantime, we will expect the bill to be paid once I am back with the boxes.” The Waiter turned briskly away from the table of loud weirdos, leaving Envy a chance to display more of their horrific decision making skills in action.

 “Excellent, Dolly, teleport our asses out of here before the waiter comes back.” Envy whispered through their rock munching teeth, not willing to pay up. “...Envy I have a five person limit ..plus we don’t dine and dash here.” Dolly looked at Envy with a less than amused expression.

 “Damn it Envy, I will not dine and dash out in public.” Lust was ready to make herself a pair of Envy skin boots after this. “Fine, do it the embarrassing way then.” Envy pouted and slouched in their seat like a child being told no to having candy for dinner.

 “I figured this would happen and this pains me so much, I’ll part with some of my cash to pay up for the bill. We’ll continue this discussion outside of the building elsewhere, perhaps your apartment?” Greed begrudgingly took out his Wallet, figuring Envy would’ve attempted a dine and dash on them. 

 “Damn Envy, you got Greed to even pay up…” Ernest was astonished that someone named Greed wasn’t being greedy about the money.

 “That’s because I’m amazing at everything I do. Also fine, we can take it to the apartment, we can torture the Face Fur more in that respect.” Envy said in a haughty tone. 

 “Hey Mr. Markoh, you’ve been awfully quiet during this conversation..” Dolly finally noticed the horrible stone of people was silent.

 “Oh sorry about that, I had to help the others get the yellowjackets under control. They’ve been a horrible menace inside of here since Dorian ate their nest.” Timmy the Talking stone was not a happy meat colored stone of forlorn. 

 “...Dorian is the one that made the stone, right?” Edward was looking bewildered at how everything just derailed into being kicked out of the restaurant. 

 “Yes, Dorian’s body acted like an athanor and managed to incubate a perfected Philosopher’s Stone, though this one has a lot of cheek and is incredibly insensitive towards homunculi in general.” Lust narrowed her eyes at the rude stone on the table.

 “Can I also ask why he ate yellowjackets?” Edward was looking at the stone in horror of what poor Markoh was being put through.

 “Oh Dorian ate a nest for a rocket launching at this Hohenheim guy after he briefly kidnapped me.” Dolly casually explained as Edward got a similar look to Envy’s expression upon hearing karmic justice was delivered upon the worst father ever.

 “....Details now I need to hear everything about how that bastard suffered.” Edward was determined to hear more about this, Alphonse looking embarrassed being around his older brother at this point.

 “Brother please don’t do this now, the waiter is almost back with the carryout boxes and it’s already more embarrassing than before.” Alphonse pleaded to his smaller older brother who wasn’t gonna back down on hearing a delicious good story. 

 “Why should she tell you anything you little rat? I’m already barely tolerating your presence at this point, I may just break out of this and slam your face into the boiling stock right now.” Envy hissed through their teeth, getting in front of Dolly to keep her out of the Elrics’ view.

 “Envy, shut up, the waiter is coming now and if you pull anything, I’m going to come after you with something worse than that damned lamppost you’re fixated on.” Lust put her foot down as she glared at the eldest homunculi at the table.

 Envy shut their little mouth up immediately as they sulked in their spot as the waiter placed the carry out boxes for the group. It was clear that the story would be told after leaving the restaurant much to Envy’s disdain and the fact Lust had the gull to threaten them with something worse than the lamppost was downright insulting. With the carry out boxes filled up and ready, the group left the restaurant immediately for the apartment complex. That bitterness crept back into Envy’s deranged heart as Dolly reccounted the yellowjacket event to their much despised younger brothers. It was their favorite story and Envy had wanted to keep it solely for themself rather than share it. Envy, simply put, hated that they had to share the same hatred for their father with the younger siblings. The bitterness started fading the moment Envy felt a hand carefully hold their own hand. Dolly had noticed Envy was drifting off into their own headspace and decided to carefully bring them back to reality. 

 “You alright there, Envy?” Dolly asked in a hush whisper, keeping Envy in line and from blowing this already unsteady alliance.

 “I’ll be fine once everything is over Dolly.” Envy breathed in a little bit, knowing they won’t have to see the Elrics ever again after Dante was gone.

 “Alright, but we’re talking after the meeting is over.” Dolly simply said, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about the situation.

 “You know me all too well at this point Fairytale.” Envy whispered as they relented to having a private conversation about what happened in the restaurant.

 “That I do, Wayfarer. We should at this time prepare for a three way Banshee screech once we’re back at the apartment.” Dolly clearly wasn’t looking forward to Freddy’s reaction to bringing Ernest before him.

 “Hey, that's going to be the highlight of my evening.” Envy snickered a bit at the thought of Freddy suffering even more by this.

 “I should’ve seen that one coming.” Dolly rolled her eyes a bit at the response.

 “That you should’ve, but that just means it’s a possibility that I will have my glorious day of seeing the Face Fur being shoved off a roof.” Envy’s usual horrid gremlin smile had returned at the hope of seeing the horrible Face Fur being shoved off a roof.

 “I hate to interrupt your conversation, but we’re back at the apartments now. I’m already having a headache from everything, so I’ll be going in to give Freddy the heads up about Ernest being here.” Lust was about done with this evening and needing to not add more to her already throbbing headache. 

[mariacallous]

Fears over the death of privacy in the United States are turning some of Washington’s most pronounced enemies into the strangest of bedfellows. Lawmakers usually thought incapable of reconciling even the smallest of differences are finding rare common ground over a shared mistrust of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and a mutual disdain for domestic spying.

At a committee hearing Wednesday, US Representative Zoe Lofgren of California called out the FBI's director, Christopher Wray, over a disclosure he’d reluctantly made in March: Not long ago, he said, the FBI had circumvented the need to obtain search warrants by buying commercial data that revealed the whereabouts of an unknown number of Americans. Buying this data, rather than compelling its disclosure, allowed the FBI to forgo asking a judge’s permission—a requirement as of 2018, thanks to the Supreme Court decision Carpenter v. United States.

Disturbed by this revelation, Lofgren—a 14-term Democrat and leader of past efforts to curb government surveillance on US soil—used the hearing to take a deeper interest in Wray’s claim that the data was originally collected for advertising purposes. Wray showed resistance to revealing anything new, saying only that the deal was legal and that his staff would follow up with Lofgren; that way, he added, “I don’t leave something important out.”

With limited time, Lofgren moved on to other concerns. But as her time expired she ended with a warning: “We’ll be looking into those warrant requirements later.” Jim Jordan, the committee's Republican chair, chimed in as Lofrgen’s microphone went dead. “We sure will,” he said. “We sure will.”

Since last year's raid on ex-president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, the FBI has been persona non grata in most conservative circles. Widely despised on the right, the bureau is a boogeyman featured in many right-wing conspiracy theories, largely designed to explain away Trump’s election defeat and the role of his supporters in the insurrection that followed. Many of the questions that top Republicans put to Wray on Wednesday were seemingly designed to lend credence to these theories. A few members, like Matt Gaetz of Florida, dove deep into InfoWars-like waters.

One line of questioning was plainly meant to implicate the FBI in helping to plant a bomb outside of a Democratic Party building on the day of the insurrection. Unfortunately, it’s the bureau’s own troubled history that makes it so difficult to defend against such claims.

It fell mostly on Democrats like Lofgren to point out the irony in labeling an organization known for its Christian conservative leanings of being secretly chock-full of anarchists. Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado noted that Wray’s Wikipedia page lists him as a registered Republican. “I hope," he said, "you don’t change your party affiliation after this hearing is over.”

One of the farthest-right members in the House, Gaetz took his turn questioning Wray immediately after Lofgren. His first words were in her defense. “The American people need to understand what just happened,” he railed. “My Democratic colleague just asked the director of the FBI whether or not they are buying information about our fellow Americans, and the answer is, ‘Well, we’ll just have to get back to you.’”

In an exchange overheard by an Associated Press reporter present for the hearing, Gaetz also heaped praise on another political rival moments after she, too, laid into the director. (“That was terrific," he reportedly said.)

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington had dedicated much of her time to drawing attention to a report declassified last month by Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence and America’s “top spy.” The report states that the purchasing of personal information typically protected under the US constitution—GPS data pulled largely from cell phones, in particular—is a widespread practice throughout the intelligence community (of which, notably, the FBI is a member).

The report deems the data being actively collected by the US government to be both “sensitive and intimate.” In the wrong hands, a group of former spies turned advisers to Haines wrote, Americans would be vulnerable to serious crimes like harassment, identity theft, and blackmail. Intelligence agencies collect this data, nevertheless, the report states, using a legal theory that paying for it removes any need to obtain a search warrant.

Privacy experts at digital rights groups, including Demand Progress and the American Civil Liberties Union, consider this practice a legal loophole at odds with the US Constitution's goal of protecting against unlawful searches and seizures. Many lawmakers, including Jayapal and Lofgren, feel similarly.

Wray went on to explain that his story had not changed since he first disclosed the purchases in March and that the FBI was not actively purchasing location data at this moment. It is unclear what exactly became of the data it did purchase or how it was used, if at all. The FBI has said the data was collected by private companies for advertising purposes and that it was acquired by the government for a vague “pilot project.” An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The protection of location and web browsing data were not the only concern raised by lawmakers Wednesday. Republican Thomas Massie would also pepper Wray with questions about another FBI request for “gun purchase records” reportedly issued to a major US bank. The records, Massie claimed, had “no geographical boundaries,” meaning the request was likely not limited to a particular area, city, or state.

Wray resisted the questions, as he had for most of the hearing. “What I do know,” the director said, “is that a number of business community partners all the time—including financial institutions–share information with us about possible criminal activity.” Massie then asked Wray to clarify whether the bank had volunteered the data or whether the FBI had requested it first.

Wray declined to respond to the question, saying he could not “speak to specifics.”

Wray was not entirely opposed to the idea of bettering privacy protections for at least some Americans. Law enforcement officers, he noted, face threats of violence every day as a result of being doxed online. “The more information, personalized information, about law enforcement professionals that is on the internet, the more people who may be unstable or inclined to violence there are out there who can choose to act on it,” he said.

But police officers, who are armed and trained to defend themselves from a variety of dangers, are not the only people who face such threats. As past reporting has shown, however, they are, on occasion, the ones who are doing the doxing.

Separately, another House committee on Thursday advanced an amendment to a “must-pass” defense spending bill that would order all US military departments to forgo purchasing data that would “otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena.” This would include the same type of location-based purchases previously acknowledged by the FBI, though the FBI itself is not bound by the amendment. The new law would, instead, cover roughly half of the US intelligence community’s 17 members—those, such as the National Security Agency and Office of Naval Intelligence, that fall under the Defense Department’s umbrella.

Previously, several agencies reporting to the Defense Department, including special operations teams and the Defense Intelligence Agency, have acknowledged purchasing commercial data that would normally have required a warrant.

Whether the defense amendment—introduced by Warren Davidson, a Republican—will survive Congress and eventually become law is impossible to say at this juncture. But the fact that it was adopted by the House of Representatives at all is nothing short of a watershed moment for privacy defenders; a reflection of the growing unease among US lawmakers with the government's current outlook on its authority to warrantlessly surveil its own citizens.

[thekimspoblog]

Feminists will say stuff like "the government should not be involved in the decisions people make about their own body" and in most contexts I would agree.

But at the end of the day I am a federalist, and I think "staying out of it" isn't going far enough with reproductive rights. Not criminalizing the life-saving procedures we already have is a good start. But ideally a strong centralized government would be actively helping support the citizenry in their family planning.

Ever since the witch burnings and other missteps, the science of gynecology has lagged a century behind the rest of medicine. And as part of my hundred year reign of terror, I promise to reallocate all the funding we were wasting on our defense budget into the burgeoning field of uterine transplant research.

Because when every rich person in the world is trying to immigrate into your country for your healthcare, that's how you get back on top as a global superpower.

I'm just saying, unless you're an anarchist, we should be talking about how a hands-off approach really is the bare minimum. It's not a huge problem that the first-time-maternity age is rising, but the privatized IVF networks still take a very "robbing Peter to pay Paul" approach, and it would be nice if someone put forward an actual solution besides "let's just force women out of the workforce again". It would be nice if "Have your career and adventures first, then settle down" was celebrated as the foundation of a healthy and educated nuclear family, and empowered women were not treated as a boogeyman in Great Replacement talking points. It would be nice if we lived in an era of Science, where biology was forced to conform to human happiness, and we didn't have a bunch of religious nutjobs trying to argue that it should be the other way around.

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Emma Goldman! (June 27, 1869)

One of the most vital and influential anarchist thinkers in history, Emma Goldman was a spitfire and gadfly of rare ability. Born in what is now Lithuania to a Jewish family, Goldman grew up in poverty and educated herself, against the wishes of her controlling father. At age 16, Goldman moved with her sister to New York, where she became engaged in the radical social movements of the time, particularly after the Haymarket Square bombing of 1886. Before long, Goldman knew herself to be an anarchist. Arriving in New York City after spending some time upstate, Goldman met Alexander Berkman, who would become a lifelong collaborator and romantic partner. She became a major figure in the American anarchist movement, associating with prominent figures such as Errico Malatesta and Pyotr Kropotkin, while advocating for a social and individual view of anarchism, stressing personal freedom and opposition to the state. She became a boogeyman for the American ruling class, and was constantly harassed, finally being deported under the Anarchist Exclusion Act. She and Berkman were sent to Russia, where the dust was still settling from the October Revolution. Goldman's hesitance about the Bolshevik state soon turned to hostility, as Lenin's policies chafed against her anarchist beliefs. The suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion was the last straw, and Goldman and Berkman left Soviet Russia, settling in a number of different countries over the years. Goldman was a strong supporter of the anarcho-communists in the Spanish Civil War, writing a number of articles about the war, She died in 1940, after suffering a major stroke.

"Direct action, having proven effective along economic lines, is equally potent in the environment of the individual. There a hundred forces encroach upon his being, and only persistent resistance to them will finally set him free. Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social change has ever come about without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action."

[ravenkinnie]

TW: Drugs, substance abuse, murder, violence, the Punisher

Another potentially unpopular opinion I've seen on here (and one that I'll actually rant about) is that, Jason is the only good vigilante in the Batfam because he kills people (think the direct quote is "unlike those other feckless bitches" and something like "when you get saved by Red Hood, you know that you'll never have to worry about getting attacked by the same person again". I don't know how to explain to people that killing the type of criminals Jason killed in canon is wrong and harmful (thinking about the 80 Blackgate prisoners he poisoned - hmm you know the American prison system is pretty fucked up i'm sure they all totally belonged there /s). Like. Jason killing the Joker is one thing, but he literally hasn't killed the Joker - Dick did that, Bruce tried to, but Jason hasn't. But like some people make it out like oh, Jason being a killer is fine because he only kills people that deserve it - who, tell me who he's killing? Sex offenders and drug dealers seems to be the most common reply. And I won't touch the sex offenders but drug dealers? Have you heard of the War on Drugs? Have you seen what happens when people in power decide it's okay to openly promote the killing of drug dealers? I don't understand why people think it's fine for Jason Todd to go around killing drug dealers, as if they don't have families, don't have other things that put them in a bad situation. There's a reason why cops in the US (idk if they do this elsewhere) use the Punisher skull as their emblem - and if you advocate for a Jason Todd that punishes criminals, don't be surprised when the right wing weaponizes him against minorities and the red hood helmet starts to get painted on cop cars.

I wrote a paper on the Norwegian prison system which rehabilitates and releases even the "worst" of criminals and just... I live in the US and it seems like we (specifically white people) have such little compassion for anyone who commits crime. Even after the War on Drugs, even after we learned it was a scam, people fall for the crime and punishment rhetoric time after time. Like I live in a suburb where people are so scared of drug dealers my mom literally called our neighbor because someone cut through our yard (and she thought he looked high or something idk). Which I get it, my cousin died from a fentanyl overdose, I understand you don't want that near your kids. But incarcerating or killing drug dealers is not the answer, and I can't stand it when people take that stance on Jason. You can try to explain the 8 drug dealer heads in a duffle bag any way you want, but at the end of the day, I think the batfamily fandom needs to be more careful addressing this issue because demonizing drugs/drug dealers/drug users is literally one of the ways the American government destroys black communities.

And to think, the Jason Todd stan that this opinion came from replied to me because I commented on how Jason likes to run around in Dick's old clothes - something that has absolutely no bearing on his morals, other than he's thrifty which is a good thing actually, something like 85% of clothes ends up in landfills. Sorry for the rant, you asked for it. Sorry if anyone who sees this likes Jason Todd and is offended, you're not bad for liking him, he has an interesting story, just please don't advocate for murdering common criminals, specifically drug dealers.

AAAHHH NOO BUT IVE SEEN SOME OF MY MOOTS DISCUSS THIS BEFORE

sorry it's late and fucking hot I don't have the most comprehensive reply dbdnhd and I do acknowledge that at the end of the day this is fiction but opinions real people hold come from SOMEWHERE - and I think we have a very ingrained belief that crime/bad deed has to be punished and that there are good and evil people and good people only do bad things when influenced by evil people which is exactly the core of jason's belief - and that's interesting for a batfam character, a former robin!! I like when him and bruce are contrasted based on ethics but I don't like when it's meant to show that jason is right and bruce is wrong

batman is an extremely popular and fascinating character because at his core lies the idea that systems that are in place to 'protect' people are corrupt and it's down to individuals who can do something to go against them and look out for others - that's something that will resonate with people even if irl solution can't be to dress up as a bat and beat tf outta people shdhhshs

I have two points to make here:

a) I'm straight up a fucking anarchist who lives in the woods, thinks aliens are listening, and doesn't trust the government but I don't believe systems are corrupt, I believe they operate the way they are meant to operate to punish and control the populations that the system needs to be controlled to keep up the status quo - war on drugs is such a good example for that. drug dealer also exists as this boogeyman, this idea of an evil person waiting to corrupt and destroy the good people but the fact is: people don't get addicted to drugs bc drug dealers exist, people get addicted to drugs because something, not someone, compels them to do drugs, because something (literal us gov) introduced drugs to their communities and drug dealers are just tiny pawns in that game. additionally, many dealers are addicts themselves who got roped into selling to pay for their own use or who got pushed into the margins of society so much that drug trade is the only way to survive they can find

there are like, whole papers and books and thesis done on this so I'm not gonna act like I can analyse it in a tumblr post dhshsjsj but yeah people who think jason is right usually show this weird superiority of 'oh batman doesnt get how to fix gotham like jason does' and like... no, jason gets played like a fiddle by the system the way people he kills do, and whatever he does will always just hit the other pawns and never reach those actually at the top, those who are profitting from finding scapegoats

and like, batman comics don't have to address that bc it's comics, you can write small lmao but don't argue that jason is somehow more enlightened than bruce for killing

b) this brings a question of, if we decide that there has to be punishment for every crime, who gets to decide what punishment is right for what crime? cause there's not a single person who's infallible enough to dictate what the best approach is in every situation

and batman works best as a traumatised man who's loves his city sm he tries to work however he can to protect people from corrupt systems and offer them second chances wherever he can bc that's who batman is at his core - batman is not a punisher he is a protector and he should never be pushed into a role of the punisher bc he's not edgy enough

also bitches are so hard acting like they would kill every villain cause rip to batman but I'm different, y'all are too scared to tell the waitress your order is wrong shut the fuck up lmao the closest any of y'all have been to being batman is getting your ass beat behind the club on a saturday by brenda in her boohoo jumpsuit

[st-just]

Re: tooth-rottingly sweet stuff, how do you feel about Shakespearean comedies

Best when set in 1990s American highschools imo.

But no, comedies are different. I mean, I'm fundamentally a very mean person, so I like comedies with some bite to them but, like, light and silly comedies can be absolutely great too.

Really the main issue I have with most Shakespearean comedies is just the bone-deep assumption that 'happy ending' means 'in a romantic relationship' but if that was a deal breaker I just wouldn't be able to watch movies.

(The usual failure state of comedies I'm likely to watch/that I should like is- you know that, like, meta-meme about how anarchist memes are just a full chapter of theory in text bubbles around a couple stick figures? Not that a didactic comedy is impossible, but it's hard - though trying and failing still tends to be better than when someone's just so immersed in a particular scene that they genuinely don't get that sketching out a caricature of some incredibly niche cultural/political boogeyman and then effortlessly humiliating them isn't automatically a great joke.)