#truthiness

[unsolicited-opinions]

Truthiness in a Keffiyeh

A conversation in the replies about the Gen Z folks who relentlessly try to cram a complex world into the oppressor/victim framing, regardless of facts, reasoning, history, context, or nuance made me time travel 20 years back.

@bluecityrose writes:

There’s also a sense [which we perceive in the Gen Z anti-Israel leftists] that knowledge of the conflict, its history and nuance, doesn’t matter.  

I’ve had many conversations where people know nothing of the history of Jews and Arabs in the Levant, or how many of those countries were formed, or what Hamas really is, or what Israel is really like, or the role of other countries in the region.

They are surprised by everything I say.  

At some point I ask them - why do you feel comfortable having such strong opinions about a highly complex situation when you know so little about it? Would you make such confident statements about conflicts in other countries you are unfamiliar with?

Agreed! I think their anti-Israel drive has virtually nothing to do with facts, principals, or reasoning. It's serving their emotional needs.

Then @doomhamster put their finger on it:

I agree. I think it's about the...almost fetishization of "emotional truth" and experience. 

Saying you understand what someone else is going through when you don't have their exact mix of identities gets you ripped apart [by other leftists, but] saying you understand a chain of events when you don't know shit about it is just fine though, in most people's eyes, because that's "just" facts. They can be bent and twisted freely to serve what they FEEL is true.

I'm showing my age here, but isn't that Truthiness?

If you weren't alive or watching late night comedy in 2005, let me catch you up:

Truthiness was first introduced by Stephen Colbert on the premiere episode of The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005. Colbert did every episode of this show in character as as a right wing talking head pundit like like Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (who was later replaced by Tucker Carlson). His characer was a satire of right wing punditry. Here's the segment:

Truthiness is the belief in something that feels true in one's gut, regardless of evidence, logic, or facts. 

Facts take a back seat to feelings, vibes, and baseless moral certainty. It's truth because it feels true...regardless of its falsity.

if you look around the media and politics environment today...it seems clear that Truthiness now rules most of the political spectrum.

The right is still awful about this, but now the far left is, too.

The Gen Z leftists (particularly the tankies, but it's all of them) have taken their foreign policy and geopolitical ideologies based on feelings, vibes, and and whatever makes them feel righteous.

Feeling righteous is important because it permits them to vent that righteousness with impunity, with no criticism from their contemporaaries no matter how false, bigotted, or violent it is. Because when you're up against the ultimate evil (the Jews/Israel), all things are permitted. And it feels so good to have a license to hate!

It's not about the real people who are dying, it's about maintaining that sense of righteousness.

They don't need to read a book about the history of the middle east because they saw an infographic on Instagram which appealed to their emotional needs...and all the fandoms they're in agree, so they must be good people!

They don't have to deal with the pressure of needing to know anything because moral clarity is delivered to them, algorithmically optimized for outrage and completely free of any confusing complexity. Real people are dying, but all they care about is feeling righteous.

Truthiness doesn't demand research or reasoning, just retweets/reblogs/reshares.

For fuck's sake, children.

"Love with your heart, use your head for everything else."

-Captain Disillusion

[hanitje]

Christian Cage Obliterated Ric Flair Magnificently

[adventurechristianity]

How Authentic Are You?

So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. Ephesians 4:25 It’s a good choice for the word of the year. “Authentic”. According to Merrian Webster, this is the word that best sums up what mattered most to people in 2023. This is the quality people were searching for. I wonder, did they find it? Our world has a big…

[sliph]

The conversation about the definition of “woman” has gone completely off the rails. It’s now less about reality and more about appeasing feelings. It’s not progress, it’s societal self-delusion. Women are being gaslit into erasing their own identities to cater to an ideology that demands validation at all costs. It’s shocking that so many people, particularly those who call themselves feminists, have allowed this to happen without more pushback.

The refusal to define what a woman is despite centuries of hard-won understanding of women’s biological, social, and political realities is a cowardly cop-out. If you can’t answer the most basic question of who your movement is fighting for, what the hell are you even fighting for? Feminism at its core has always been about securing rights for women. Not for people who “feel like women” or want to be women… but for the actual, lived experience of those born female. That experience comes with a unique set of challenges rooted in biology, culture, and historical oppression.

The current gender ideology movement tries to make womanhood something intangible; something anyone can access simply by declaring it. That’s nonsense. Womanhood is not a costume, a feeling, or a vibe. It’s a reality grounded in biology and societal experiences. Despite what they claim, biology matters. Women face specific forms of oppression because of their biological realities – like menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and vulnerability to male violence. Pretending otherwise erases the very reason feminism was necessary in the first place.

What’s happening now is the erasure of women in favor of appeasing a vocal minority who demand that their feelings be prioritized over facts. You see this in how language is being policed. “Women” are now called “people with uteruses” or “menstruators.” Mothers are now “birthing parents.” Breastfeeding is “chestfeeding.”

This is dehumanizing and insulting. Women fought to have their experiences recognized and validated, and now they’re being reduced to body parts and functions. The irony is that this comes from those who claim to be progressive. But it’s as regressive as it gets. It’s reducing women to their reproductive organs in the name of inclusivity. It’s stripping away everything feminism fought to achieve: recognition of women as whole, complex people. Not just wombs!

This isn’t some abstract debate separate from the real world. It’s starting to impact real life. Biological males are dominating women’s sports. Women who have trained their entire lives are losing to people with male bodies who have a significant biological advantage. That’s not equality. It’s unfair, and it erases women’s achievements. Male-bodied individuals are being placed in women’s prisons, where there have been many documented cases of sexual violence. This is a horrifying betrayal of women’s safety. Women’s unique medical needs are being sidelined in favor of gender-neutral language and policies. Women are already dismissed and ignored in medical settings and this just makes it worse.

The gender ideology movement demands that women prioritize the feelings of others at the expense of their own safety, dignity, and rights. Women are expected to do so quietly, without protest, or else they’re labeled as hateful, bigoted, or transphobic. I think most women are too afraid to speak out because the current climate is so hostile. But deep down, many of them are angry, confused, and hurt by what’s happening. They’re being asked to give up everything women fought for to accommodate people who don’t even acknowledge the reality of their experiences.

Many people who call themselves feminists today aren’t feminists at all. They’re performative allies to an ideology that erases the very people feminism was meant to protect. Conditioned to be “kind” and “compliant” at the expense of their rights. True feminism is about advocating for women’s rights based on their unique lived realities, not bending over backward to accommodate an ideology that can’t even define the term “woman.” The suffragettes and early feminists would be horrified by what’s happening today. They fought for the right to vote, to be heard, to be seen as equals. They didn’t fight for the right to have their identities erased or their spaces invaded by people who don’t share their experiences. We owe it to them and to future generations of women to stand up and say enough is enough.

The real question isn’t “What is a woman?” The real question is “Why are so many people afraid to answer that question?” The answer is simple: because acknowledging reality would mean challenging a powerful, aggressive ideology that demands compliance. But feminism has never been about compliance, it’s about resistance. It’s time for women to reclaim their movement.

[katzenjammerd]

[plantpirating]

"The road to hell is paved with poor fact checking." -- Tyler Hyde from That's Spooky podcast

[rainbowpopeworld]

[tnlnyc]

Gen AI Doom Loop

Since the rise of ChatGPT, the tech industry has been obsessed with the power of generative AI. While coverage has focused on the impact of generative AI on creative work, little has been written about its long-term impact on itself. How AI works At their core, tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Llama are advanced auto-complete systems. Looking at what is being typed, the AI systems guesses…

[taylortruther]

riffing off an r/askreddit post: people getting off planes in hawaii immediately get a lei - If this same tradition applied to tumblr, what would you give to your blog visitors? my visitors would get an iced oat milk latte

[ejudd08]

TKO ACTUALLY LISTENED AND WENT GROVELLING!!

[jurph]

It may or may not have been true when it was written, in May of 2024... but this is going to get 10k notes when it turns out to work great.

[teh-nos]

god of truthiness responds to the allegations

[artbyblastweave]

Marvel should do a 1970s period piece elseworlds where Frank Castle gets to assassinate Tony Stark. As a treat

[poetry-protest-pornography]

It's okay to feel stressed out, remember to take a moment to breathe when you need it.

Unclench your jaw and relax your shoulders while you're here.

Remember, you are not alone.