https://thechloegong.com/2019/12/28/techno-orientalism-in-science-fiction/

Boom.

«While 19th century Europe sipped tea and spoke of the “savages” out in the unconquered world, 21st century America consumes news article after news article about Chinese takeovers of American factories and jobs, Japanese technology light years ahead, North Korean missiles within range for firing. Techno-orientalist tropes bloom from anxieties and fears of a dying American dominance, and in a world where America struggles to understand its place in the world (especially with the US-China trade war going on), the futures being written into fiction equate bleak with Asian. Only then is the present day West assured: yes, it is correct that we hold dominance over world order. Yes, it is correct that we remain in power, so this Asianized future does not come to fruition.»

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/30/18035336/white-evangelicals-immigration-nationalism-christianity-refugee-honduras-migrant

«“a very slow theological turn within the evangelical community to redefine what seemed like very basic … verses about the care of the poor and caring for the outcast. On one hand, they might say, ‘Oh, you know, Jesus was born of a literal virgin’ … but when it comes to these verses about the poor and about refugees, in particular, all of a sudden, literalism disappears.”»

https://youtu.be/4cP26ndrmtg

https://www.google.com/search?q=trans-siberian+orchestra+christmas+canon+lyrics&oq=trans-siberian+orchestra+christmas+canon+lyrics&aqs=chrome..69i57.19312j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Well, this piece should not reduce me to tears, but it does. (Not the video, btw, which is really cheesy, but the music and lyrics.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/12/23/christianity-today-called-trumps-impeachment-why-it-could-cost-magazine/

«“The cost for some of these of speaking out would be losing millions of dollars of donors,” she said. “The organizations could crumble. Do you compromise the mission of an organization to stand up for a moral issue?”»

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNerney

James McNerney was CEO of Boeing while the 737 Max was developed. He set the tone. McKinsey consultant, protege (?) of Jack Welch.

There must be some Law of Large Organizations, like there’s a Law of Large Numbers.

https://medium.com/@james.hatch/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes-888285f0e662

I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying. (Good thing everybody’s at lunch, here in the cube farm.)

«”My grandfather came to Yale and when WWII started, he left for the Navy and flew planes in the Pacific theater. After he came home, he came back to Yale, but he couldn’t finish. He locked himself in his room and drank and eventually had to leave, so I feel like I am helping him finish here at Yale and I’m doing it with a veteran, you.”»

https://twitter.com/apihtawikosisan/status/1208920326156910593?s=20

https://twitter.com/apihtawikosisan/status/1208920338748194816?s=20

“Hurt people hurt people.” Good to remember.

âpihtawikosisân (@apihtawikosisan) Tweeted:
Sometimes the ppl you help out the most, put in the most time on, are the ones who turn around and do you the dirtiest. Because you are the one they can reach in their trauma. It’s harsh, but what are you going to do?

âpihtawikosisân (@apihtawikosisan) Tweeted:
Fuck I wish it wasn’t like this. How easy it must be to give no fucks about anyone and never risk the fallout…how empty. The truly selfish don’t ever risk this, but who the hell wants to be like that, honestly. Hurt people hurt people.

https://twitter.com/amandahess/status/1208118558208561152?s=20

https://twitter.com/Leahgreenb/status/1208468354605944833?s=20

2010, y’all. For those, like me, who need Google to catch up, Tom Perriello lost his re-election for US House (I guess Greenberg was on his staff?), Dems lost the House two years into Obama’s admin (and never got it back), Republicans swept state elections (and then redistricted), and the Rally to Restore Sanity was Stewart’s entertainment event the weekend before the election (prime canvassing weekend).

Amanda Hess (@amandahess) Tweeted:
«as we reflect on this decade, let’s remember that in 2010, just before the midterms, Jon Stewart held an enormous joke political rally on the National Mall, criticized the media for conflating “real racists and Tea Partiers,” and said he didn’t care if anyone even voted»

Leah Greenberg (@Leahgreenb) Tweeted:
«Oh my god, I was in VA-05, three days out from losing my job and desperately trying to get volunteers to come down from D.C. to canvass

Over and over again people told me they couldn’t canvass because they were going to the Rally to Restore Sanity and THEY WERE SO PROUD OF IT https://t.co/XQvjHC7sET »

https://twitter.com/bshelburne/status/1208567297553707008?s=20

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1208567287990640641.html

“tough on crime”

Beth Shelburne (@bshelburne) Tweeted:
When tough on crime people say everyone in prison deserves to be there, think of Mr. Simmons. We should be ashamed of laws that categorically throw people away in the name of safety. We should question anyone who supports Alabama’s habitual offender law. It needs to go. 12/12

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americans-are-at-each-others-throats-heres-one-way-out/2019/12/20/c8de01ca-2292-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html

Seems important.

«Five to 15 percent said they would support some level of violence against their political opponents. (And this range was the same on both sides.) That’s a minority, but high conflict is almost always stoked by a small number of people.

….

Do people actually become less hateful if someone tells them it’s not cool to be hateful? Yes, it turns out, many do.

….

You can even do it yourself, right now, at home. People were also pacified by tweets calling for peace from random strangers, Kalmoe and Mason found.

….

Millions of regular Americans still have enough distance from the conflict to step out of it. And that may not always be true.»