Bet's recent activity

  1. Comment on The cost of performing childhood for your parent’s art in ~arts

  3. Comment on Dirtbags made comedian Stavros Halkias famous. Now he’s helping them remake their lives. in ~life

  5. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 15 in ~society

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    Trump targets antifa movement as 'terrorist organization' .. ..

    Trump targets antifa movement as 'terrorist organization'

    Trump said on Truth Social that he was "designating" the movement as a terrorist organization. "I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices," Trump wrote.

    It was not clear what legal weight Trump's proclamation carried. Antifa is a loosely organized ideological movement without a clear leadership structure or hierarchy, experts said.

    ..

    Trump and senior officials have repeatedly blamed left-wing groups for creating an atmosphere of hostility towards conservatives before Kirk's assassination.

    The White House is preparing an executive order on political violence and hate speech, a Trump administration official said earlier on Wednesday.

    ..

    U.S. Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, repeatedly blamed what he called left-wing political radicalization for the assassination.

    He said the White House was working hard to ensure that "funding networks for left-wing violence" are going to be treated like a terrorist organization.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on California Governor Gavin Newsom praises Charlie Kirk’s outreach to young men, suggests Democrats do more of their own in ~society

  8. Comment on The abundance delusion (gifted link) in ~society

  10. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 8 in ~society

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    New bill would give Marco Rubio “thought police” power to revoke U.S. passports … Archive

    New bill would give Marco Rubio “thought police” power to revoke U.S. passports

    Now, a bill introduced by the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is ringing alarm bells for civil liberties advocates who say it would grant Rubio the power to revoke the passports of American citizens on similar grounds.

    The provision, sponsored by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., as part of a larger State Department reorganization, is set for a hearing Wednesday.

    Mast’s legislation says that it takes aim at “terrorists and traffickers,” but critics say it could be used to deny American citizens the right to travel based solely on their speech. (The State Department said it doesn’t comment on pending legislation.)

    Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said the bill would open the door to “thought policing at the hands of one individual.”

    “Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” Stern said, “even if what they say doesn’t include a word about a terrorist organization or terrorism.”

    …

    Lawmakers also tried to pass a “nonprofit killer” bill that would allow the Treasury secretary to strip groups of their charitable status if they are deemed a “terrorist-supporting organization.” The bill was beaten back by a coalition of nonprofit groups, most recently during the debate over the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill.

    Mast’s bill contains eerily similar language, Stern said.

    “This is an angle that lawmakers on the right seem intent on pursuing — whether through last year’s nonprofit killer bill, or a bill like this,” Stern said.

    Archive

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of August 18 in ~society

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    I appreciate that Newsom and his team are being extremely pragmatic in their approach to politics. They are interested in preserving democracy, and that means currently meeting the voters they...

    I appreciate that Newsom and his team are being extremely pragmatic in their approach to politics. They are interested in preserving democracy, and that means currently meeting the voters they need to pass democracy-saving measures where those voters are at, not where they wish those voters would be.

    This is about pushing through in California a counter-measure via the democratic process to balance what has been disrupted by authoritarian dictate in Texas. Force of personality is one of the weapons Newsom is wielding in order to keep the fickle and attention-limited eyes of the public trained on and invested in not sabotaging through disinterest this opportunity he is spearheading to the collective benefit of us all.

    Also, what Newsom’s team is doing has been good for morale. We’ve been stuck watching so many of these powerful players absolutely collapse into such sniveling, sycophantic capitulation for the last eight months, and it has been sickening, but what’s worse is that it has also been terribly frightening.

    Democracy only works when people are willing to physically fight for it, but we are not so far gone yet that we can’t stave off that reality with coordinated and creative political machinations — which Newsom seems to be aware of and publicly acknowledging.

    8 votes

  12. Comment on Do you share your location with your friends? in ~tech

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    I am solidly middle-aged, and I wouldn’t ever do this. Hell no. Nor would I accept anyone else’s location information, because I genuinely do not care where on God’s green Earth my acquaintances,...

    I am solidly middle-aged, and I wouldn’t ever do this. Hell no.

    Nor would I accept anyone else’s location information, because I genuinely do not care where on God’s green Earth my acquaintances, friends, and family are located. They can just text me the information if it means that much to them.

    Honestly, not trying to yuck anyone’s yum, but this behavior strikes me as neurotic. It’s as if too many people have become much too anxious (and mistrustful) about everything overnight; as if too many people have forgotten how to simply disengage, and it is collectively winding us up much too tightly as a whole.

    Mystery is one of the great spices of life, and some people seem to be doing everything within their power to scrub their daily experiences of it.

    17 votes

  13. Comment on Why aren’t armed US citizens overthrowing the current government? in ~society

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    There’s no point in creating a vacuum when there is nothing to fill it. Everything to the left of Republicans and MAGA is too busy tearing itself apart to form a cohesive plan for stabilizing our...

    There’s no point in creating a vacuum when there is nothing to fill it.

    Everything to the left of Republicans and MAGA is too busy tearing itself apart to form a cohesive plan for stabilizing our failing federal state. We are a shambles; we are unwilling to compromise within our own ranks enough to form a working coalition. We agree neither on goal nor enemy.

    E: What would violence without a plan do other than further entrench this current administration’s power?

    4 votes

  14. Comment on I spent months living with smart glasses. People talk to me differently now. in ~tech

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    People used to be made fun of for wearing glasses, and look at us now. Soon everyone will have a pair.

    People used to be made fun of for wearing glasses, and look at us now. Soon everyone will have a pair.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 21 in ~society

  16. Comment on Dating etiquette question in ~life

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    No, foldor’s right — it mostly was just a case of the nerves, sprinkled with a bit of run-of-the-mill indecision.

    No, foldor’s right — it mostly was just a case of the nerves, sprinkled with a bit of run-of-the-mill indecision.

    9 votes

  17. Dating etiquette question

    ~life Ask
    How long after someone giving you their number is considered too long to contact them? This person gave me their number weeks ago, and I was thinking of asking them out to coffee, but I’m not sure...

    How long after someone giving you their number is considered too long to contact them?

    This person gave me their number weeks ago, and I was thinking of asking them out to coffee, but I’m not sure if that might be considered rude due to the time lapse. I don’t think it would be, but what do I know — I haven’t had anything to do with the dating scene in many, many years…

    So, I’m not really looking for advice, but rather perspective. What do other people consider normal in these sorts of situations?

    32 votes

  18. Comment on The US Internal Revenue Service is building a system to share records including home addresses with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilitate deportations in ~society

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    … Interesting stuff.

    Last month, an ICE attorney proposed updating the MOU to authorize new data requests on people “associated with criminal activities which may include United States citizens or lawful permanent residents,” according to a document seen by ProPublica. The status of this proposal is unclear. De Mello, at the time, rejected it and called for senior Treasury Department leadership to personally sign off on such a significant change.

    The White House described DHS’ work with the IRS as a good-faith effort to identify and deport those who are living in the country illegally.

    …

    Tax and privacy experts say they worry about how such a powerful yet crude platform could make dangerous mistakes. Because the search starts with a name instead of a taxpayer identification number, it risks returning the address of an innocent person with the same name as or a similar address to that of one of ICE’s targets. The proposed system assumes the data provided by DHS is accurate and that each targeted individual is the subject of a valid criminal investigation. In effect, the IRS has no way to independently check the bases of these requests, experts told ProPublica.

    In addition, the blueprint does not limit the amount of data that can be transferred or how often DHS can request it. The system could easily be expanded to acquire all the information the IRS holds on taxpayers, said technical experts and IRS engineers who reviewed the documents. By shifting a single parameter, the program could return more information than just a target’s address, said an engineer familiar with the plan, including employer and familial relationships.

    Engineers based at IRS offices in Lanham, Maryland, and Dallas are developing the blueprint.

    Interesting stuff.

    6 votes

  19. Comment on Nobody has a personality anymore. We are products with labels. in ~health.mental

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    Yea, she’s transphobic. Every time she’s posted here I comment this, lol, but she somehow keeps popping up. Honestly, I don’t believe she truly supports anything without the bounds of traditional...

    Yea, she’s transphobic. Every time she’s posted here I comment this, lol, but she somehow keeps popping up. Honestly, I don’t believe she truly supports anything without the bounds of traditional cis heterosexuality.

    I occasionally delete all of my comments en masse, so they’re gone now (and I won’t be rereading or re-listening to any of this person’s work to provide proof here, though others are welcome to do so), but once upon a time I had links up of her explicitly arguing terf talking points — girls get so confused by certain ideas, girls needing girls only spaces, gender essentialism, trad ideas, etc. etc. etc.

    She skates the line extremely well, and that’s what makes her so effective and enticing in her messaging. She sounds reasonable, but there is very specific groundwork is she laying, none of which builds to anything inclusive.

    As I said, she’s not my cup of tea.

    10 votes

  20. Comment on Nobody has a personality anymore. We are products with labels. in ~health.mental

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    This woman’s entire schtick is being a soft-sell opening to the alt-right pipeline for women and girls. She’s very into the whole ‘protect girls’ movement, and it is… not my cup of tea, to say the...

    This woman’s entire schtick is being a soft-sell opening to the alt-right pipeline for women and girls. She’s very into the whole ‘protect girls’ movement, and it is… not my cup of tea, to say the least. However, that being said, as far as this article goes, I agree with her to a point. Not every aspect of being human is diagnosable, nor should it be, and not every quirk is evidence of pathological mental deviation from the norm. Some people are just weird.

    I also agree with this:

    We even classify people without their consent. Now our clumsy mothers have always had undiagnosed ADHD; our quiet dads don’t realise they are autistic; our stoic grandfathers are emotionally stunted. We even helpfully diagnose the dead.

    It’s pretty rude to unsolicitedly armchair diagnose others, but we’ve somehow normalized the behavior to such an extent as to even routinely do so to acquaintances and strangers whom we generally know very little about. It’s not a great habit.

    Culturally, we do seem to currently be in some sort of mental health brutalism phase, and there is a noticeable inelegance to it. Some people thrive in it, some people don’t.

    Personally, I think it’s popular, utilitarian, and unattractive, and I say this as a person who has always enjoyed learning about and from the field of psychology.

    10 votes