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cyx37.bsky.social
JD
@cyx37.bsky.social
170 followers 210 following 680 posts
🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈Ⓐ✊🌹
Software engineer/architect, democratic socialist, skeptic, Ex-vangelical, Dungeon Master, Expat 🇦🇺
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cyx37.bsky.social
There's a very moving section in "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer, chapter 14, where an unnamed "colleague" expresses regret for joining the Nazis with the intent to soften or subvert them from within.
August 21, 2025 at 12:03 AM
cyx37.bsky.social
I went to #TateModern and this performance art was intensely evocative.
A truly gigantic empty warehouse with a single security guard sitting in a chair.
June 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
🎵 Trump eats the sun and drinks the skies,
🎵 And they both go with him when he dies.
A fake poster from the TV Show Community where Chang stands in front of his "security force" of teen boys. The words "Security! Harmony! Success!" are superimposed over the poster.
June 18, 2025 at 10:41 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
#MakeMoreWageSlaves #ElonMusk #Capitalism
A photo of Elon Musk in the White House holding a child on his shoulders. Super-imposed on the image are the words, "Make More Wage Slaves"
June 5, 2025 at 12:11 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
Based on the death scene from the video game Oregon Trail. The text reads, "You have died from doing your own research."
June 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
An image based on the death screen from the video game Oregon Trail. The text reads, "you have died from doing your own research"
June 1, 2025 at 6:04 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
The boardroom meme. The CEO barks out to his team, "We need to do something about our sovereign debt!" A team member responds, "Cut social programs!" Another says, "Deport immigrants!" A third asks, "Raise taxes on the top 1%?" Cut to two panels. In the first, the boss glares and the third person. In the second, he is thrown through a closed window at the top of a large office building.
May 26, 2025 at 8:04 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
Why is the austerity always the only solution? Because the ultra-wealthy own the politicians.

#TaxTheRich #99Percent #SecondGildedAge
The boardroom meme. The CEO barks out to his team, "We need to do something about our sovereign debt!" A team member responds, "Cut social programs!" Another says, "Deport immigrants!" A third asks, "Raise taxes on the top 1%?" Cut to two panels. In the first, the boss glares and the third person. In the second, he is thrown through a closed window at the top of a large office building.
May 26, 2025 at 7:44 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
The boardroom meme. The CEO barks at his team, "We need to do something about the sovereign debt crisis!" One team member says, "Cut social programs!" Another says, "Deport immigrants!" The last team member says, "Raise taxes on the top 1%?" Cut to two panels. In the first, the boss looks furiously at the third team member. In the second, the third team member is thrown out a closed window from the top of a tall office building.
May 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
You go right on feeling outrage, even if it's a continuation of a long pattern. Just because they are normally evil doesn't mean we have to accept evil as normal.
I Retain the Right to Continue to Feel OUTRAGE As a Conscious Act of PROTEST
May 16, 2025 at 3:59 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
November 21, 1922: literally, Hitler's whole anti-semitism thing is just "bait". Just be chill.

timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...
A scan of a New York Times article from November 21, 1922 which reads, in part: --- But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes. A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over-emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: “You can’t expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them.”
May 13, 2025 at 5:22 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
American Pope reverses or signals American political decline?
A screen shot of a news article saying, "'Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: `Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope.` And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don't want America running the world religiously. So, I think there's some truth to that, that we're such a superpower and so dominant, they don't wanna give us, also, control over the church.' But that trend was reversed on Thursday, and Prevost's name had popped up repeatedly amid the gossip over leading contenders for the role of pontiff." The phrases "Look, until America goes into political decline" and "But that trend was reversed on Thursday" are highlighted. Underneath the screenshot, there is an image of the Futurama character Fry. His eyes are squinted in an expression of skepticism and underneath is the text, "But was it, though?"
May 8, 2025 at 5:58 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
This is how it goes. It sucks.

From "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45" by Milton Mayer:
Screenshot from "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45" by Milton Mayer The text inludes the following (edited for brevity): “Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. ... In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’ “And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have. ...So you wait, and you wait. “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.
May 5, 2025 at 10:02 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
May 4, 2025 at 6:53 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
May 4, 2025 at 6:48 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
An AI generated image of Donald Trump dressed as a king with the text "Let them have two dolls!" superimposed across the bottom.
May 1, 2025 at 10:19 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
I literally created this like 2 minutes before seeing this post.
May 1, 2025 at 10:10 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
An AI generated image of Donald Trump dressed as a king with the text "Let them have two dolls" overlayed across the bottom.
May 1, 2025 at 10:08 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
Oops... here's the original image with alt text.
A screenshot of an NPR News result reading "President Trump has targeted 100+ perceived enemies with probes, funding cuts, and firings in a sweeping use of federal power." The word "use" has been crossed out and "abuse" has been offered as a replacement.
April 30, 2025 at 11:17 AM
cyx37.bsky.social
A screenshot of an NPR article reading, in part, "An NPR review has found that the administration is using a vast array of government powers to launch criminal investigations..." The word "using" has been crossed out and underneath the word "abusing" has been offered as a substitute.
April 30, 2025 at 11:12 AM
cyx37.bsky.social
Ah man, @npr.org ... so close!
April 30, 2025 at 11:03 AM
cyx37.bsky.social
Guess what happened on January 20, 2025?

#Measles #Health #USA #Trump #RFK
A chart of "weekly measles cases by rash onset date" from 2023-2025 (up to April 10, 2025). Reported cases were well under 20 per weak (with a single exception in March 2024, where there were 38 cases). After January 19, 2025, cases began surging from 60 to 90 per week.
April 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
A quote from an academic about 1930's Germany and how he was accused of being an alarmist, from "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer
“You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. “Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’ “And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have. “But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Informal groups become smaller; attendance drops off in little organizations, and the organizations themselves wither.
April 11, 2025 at 10:55 AM
cyx37.bsky.social
Trump is fixated on erasing Biden's legacy. So far, he's succeeding.

#TrumpRecession #Trumpflation
A chart of the S&P 500 index, showing a drop of over 12% since Trump was elected in January.
April 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
cyx37.bsky.social
They Thought They Were Free
The Germans, 1933-45
Milton Mayer
"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D."
April 2, 2025 at 5:45 PM