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Reposted by C. E. Monaghan

Adanedhel🌹 @danielwaweru.bsky.social · 6h

Encouraging.

But all is not lost. The cement is still wet, and even as it hardens we can find hope in the common sense of the global public. In a survey by Focaldata, of 36,000 people in 34 countries we find a clear majority are more resistant to an exclusionary nationalism and more willing to embrace international cooperation than many of the leaders who rule over them.

Across the world there is, perhaps surprisingly, only a small group of hardened anti-internationalists representing 16.5% of the global population (even if 25% in today’s US) who either feel coexistence between ethnic and religious groups is impossible or have a zero-sum mindset that if they or their country do well, it has to be at the expense of others doing badly.

But there are another 21% at the opposite extreme, whom we might call committed internationalists, who either still see cooperation across borders through open trade as a positive sum win-win, or are what the US philosopher and writer Kwame Anthony Appiah calls “rooted cosmopolitans”.

From Gordon Brown at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/11/reform-nigel-farage-hard-right-politics-gordon-brown-labour

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 3h

Hmmmmm. Transvampirism: when changing your gender fluid isn't enough.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 4h

Like all this talk of "this is just like Star wars or handmaid's tale!" when it's also mostly Atlas Shrugged.

C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 4h

Honestly, I think we don't talk enough about how the technofascists in power are following the Ayn Rand playbook of systematically collapsing society with their own safe refuges to retreat to in order to prevent decentralization of the economy. They all think they are John Galt.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 8h

One of the major inspirations was the Armenian Genocide. Not enough people talk about how similar some of the methodology was, and that that genocide is what convinced Hitler he'd actually get away with it.

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Ayo @darrylayo.bsky.social · 14h

I hate it when people talk badly about 1984 because if you actually read it, that book explains what’s wrong with society and what’s wrong with anti intellectualism

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Ozma @rowyourbot.bsky.social · 11h

I hope people have given up this idea. In a few select cases it ends OK but it almost never does and it’s a terrible precedent.

Avishay BSG (Ben-Sasson-Gordis) @avishaybsg.bsky.social · 12h

That may be dissappointing for those who were hoping for an argument in favor of democratic military coups. Not here. I think CMR scholars got that right. To quote myself: "Democracy will not survive a military that turns against it, but it also cannot depend on the military to uphold it".
22/

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 11h

Oh, for sure! And if it strikes the curiosity enough, it's a great vehicle for learning new things you wouldn't generally otherwise.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Rest In Spaghetti, I will surely never Forgetti.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

NO I REMEMBER THAT SAGA LMAOOOOOO

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Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 12h

Cheesecake Factory on fire

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 20h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 20h

"The chancellor approved it"

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 14h

Not one of the assholes asked (because asshole) but an atheist proselytizer is someone who goes out of their way to try and convince people who haven't asked them that religion is bad or otherwise makes a scene about God when no one asked. They tend to be, ironically, Christiancentric.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

This is not conducive to functioning and living as a person, nor is it conducive to creating art. A flexible mind is a must.

C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

In all seriousness, the problem of the authoritarian mind is that it must be inflexible, and so it breaks when finally overwhelmed with the chaotic, flexible reality of the world we live in.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

By the way, this also ties into that phenomenon of "failed creative takes a hard turn to the right," because their failure of creativity is assuming that being a creative works the same.

Also, this is why anarchists make some of the best art out there. In this essay, I will—

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 13h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 13h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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AffirmationCoyote.bsky.social @affirmationcoyote.bsky.social · 12h

It is National Gumbo Day!

Affirmation Coyote once managed to lick up most of a pot of Gumbo that had been tossed out of a house during a domestic dispute. They highly recommend it.

a close up of a bowl of food with the number 52 on it

ALT: a close up of a bowl of food with the number 52 on it

media.tenor.com

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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 1d

You can’t hate fascists and use AI slop generators. They’re the same thing: total destruction of truth at scale.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Anyway, I know it'll be fine and people will read it anyway, but for now, I am an anxious bean about it.

C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Like, on the one hand, it's gonna be uncomfortable for the people who want wholesome romance, and on the other, I'm not really writing toxic yuri either. And then it kinda feels like "okay, so then who would this even be for, then?" and that's a death-spiral if I've ever seen one.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

It doesn't help that this is chapter one, and even though it explicitly blows up in her face, and I do try to portray the behavior moreso as desperation to exert control over circumstances rather than maliciousness, I'm a bit anxious that a lot of people would DNF in chapter one because of it.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Like, I know that ultimately Jezebel is going to be exactly the dragon Vera needs her to be, and they're going to have a rock-solid enough relationship to break the spine of an entire dragon-supremacist empire over it, but MAN it hurts writing a character I love being Problematic.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Ngl, it's really painful to write Jezebel fumbling in chapter one by edging into deeply problematic behavior. Like, red-flag, possessive, borderline Chaser-type behavior (at least on the surface.)

I know she's gonna grow from that and it'll work out in the end, just... ugh.

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Ayo @darrylayo.bsky.social · 12h

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah

you don’t need chat gpt to make your dating profile. You should just write down that you like rock climbing or whatever it is that you’re into. Say that you like cycling or knitting or whatever you like to do.

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C. E. Monaghan @cemonaghanofficial.bsky.social · 12h

Heartbreaking: local writer realizes that writing scenes/chapters out of order might actually be better for her workflow.

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