Jay Baker (they/he)
@mediaactivist.com
110 followers 72 following 180 posts
Muckraker. Filmmaker. SilenceBreaker. Guerrilla journalist/founder at The SilenceBreaker newsletter. Graduate of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, seeking the next challenge. Carer for partner with ME caused by Covid (mask up). In my local mask bloc.
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mediaactivist.com
In my latest piece for The SilenceBreaker, one of the biggest points I'm trying to make is that at the family picnic, it's a much better use of time to engage with your badass niece who wants to smash capitalism than it is arguing with your racist uncle: www.silencebreaker.media/fear-makes-t...
Fear Makes the Wolf Look Bigger
The enemy is smaller than we think – just amplified.
www.silencebreaker.media
mediaactivist.com
"It’s going to be a bloodbath, but as usual when the finance and tech bros scam entire sectors, it’s us normal folk who will be left to foot the bill. Let’s blame immigrants some more while we implement harsh austerity measures to bail out the billionaire class. Again" www.osnews.com/story/143491...
The case against generative AI: the numbers just don’t add up (i.e., it’s a scam) – OSnews
www.osnews.com
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
ashleylynch.bsky.social
I'm no economist, but I think it might be bad when that bubble we all know is going to burst finally does.
justinhendrix.bsky.social
"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."
America is now one big bet on AI
It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy
www.ft.com
mediaactivist.com
Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to build out a 24/7 social media surveillance team that will scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other sites to target people for deportation: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...
ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team
Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.
www.wired.com
mediaactivist.com
I do realise that, fundamentally, the argument is almost always racist. Bizarre "news" footage framing boats of desperate homeless people with little left to lose as "invaders" to a country that once "ruled the seas" tells you all you need to know about this British brand of white supremacism.
mediaactivist.com
Again, the immigration "issue" can be easily confronted by anticapitalists because if anyone with immigration "concerns" deny racism, then they can simply be informed that there are enough resources on the planet to provide everything for everyone, so they can forget about the immigration non-issue.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
mediaactivist.com
Starmer pulling a Brown by conceding that anti-immigration views shouldn't be portrayed as bigoted or racist. Incidentally, Brown's Gillian Duffy moment set the path to the present - as I wrote about here. www.silencebreaker.media/fear-makes-t...
Fear Makes the Wolf Look Bigger
The enemy is smaller than we think – just amplified.
www.silencebreaker.media
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
mediaactivist.com
Trump says not only being opposed to fascism but even being anti-capitalist is "terrorism" too? Oh, that's adorable. The kids are playing at being grown-ups in office.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
mediaactivist.com
Late Capitalism means scrambling to protect and preserve a system that's lost legitimacy, reinforcing all the unravelling yet connected forms of oppression from at least three hundred years. And to do that when people don't want it anymore? That means relying on authoritarianism.
mediaactivist.com
Trump says not only being opposed to fascism but even being anti-capitalist is "terrorism" too? Oh, that's adorable. The kids are playing at being grown-ups in office.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
mediaactivist.com
So many "news" sites linking to posts on walled-off, centralised, corporate social media as a substitute for journalism. And it's not just The Canary, folks like Variety are doing it too. "Here's what they had to say: [link to content not viewable without an account with fascist Muskerberg]"
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
oldsquida.bsky.social
yes. the USA has now become the epitome of American fascism without the need for dog whistles of any kind
mediaactivist.com
Today, that nation state prides itself on mass deportations -- ignoring its own indigenous people, and in the process revealing its white supremacist agenda (if that wasn't already apparent).
mediaactivist.com
It's quite something that the U.S. is a nation state that, despite being built on slavery, long justified its own existence - it's raison d'être, even - as the "land of freedom" and "liberty," with a statue for such supposedly welcoming the world's poor, persecuted, huddled masses.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
stopfundinghate.bsky.social
#Canva has built a reputation as an advocate for equality, and their work with UN Human Rights – but their ads also appear on GB News' YouTube, funding content like this 👇

Contact #Canva, urging them to #StopFundingHate by pulling online ads from GB News: www.facebook.com/canva
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
newslit.org
✔️ YES: A photo shows Thomas Jacob Sanford, the suspect in a Sept. 28 shooting that killed 5, wearing a “Trump 2020: Make Liberals Cry Again” shirt.

❌ NO: It was not altered to add the political graphic.

✔️ YES: Doctoring images on shirts is a common misinfo tactic.

🔗 go.newslit.org/ShirtGraphic
A social media post reads, “If only you hadn’t photoshopped it” and includes two images, one with a man in a plain camouflage-patterned shirt and another with the same man in a camouflage-patterned shirt that features a “Trump 2020: Make Liberals Cry Again” graphic. The News Literacy Project has added a label that says “GENUINE” over the image with the Trump logo and “ALTERED” on the image with the Trump logo removed.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
crimethinc.com
Pete Hegseth demands to “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country.”

Donald Trump demands to use US cities "as training grounds for our military,” claiming “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy.”

Fascism.
A black-and-white photograph showing white National Guardsmen terrorizing Black residents of Newark, New Jersey on July 14, 1967. Waving rifles around, they are menacing a child who has his hands raised as he walks away from them.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
crimethinc.com
All variants of fascism are concerned with the management of perception, but this administration's specific brand of fascism is especially performative.

They focus on intimidating and demoralizing because it is what they know best—and because it is not clear that they could win an actual fight.
It's Safer in the Front
Faced with intensifying repression and state violence, there is an understandable inclination to seek safety by avoiding confrontation. But this is not always the most effective strategy.
crimethinc.com
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
cathoderituals.bsky.social
Before I found out how turn off the AI garbage on Google, I punched in something recently about PDX, and the AI told me that 1500 buildings in Portland were burned down by protesters.

It also claimed PPB only arrested 43 people, OSP only 16.

All of this is 100% fiction.
igd.bsky.social
During the George Floyd protests in Seattle, Fox News literally ran "digitally altered and misleading photos" of people wearing masks and guns.

Manufacturing consent through Photoshop. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Albert Camus: "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
citizenharry.bsky.social
Having 3 COVID infections means 3-10X higher risk of Long COVID vs only 1 infection; the risk only increases!
Life-threatening rogue blood clots in patients under age 60 doubled between 2020-24, & the vax made no difference.
2/3 of COVID survivors who don't think they have LC, DO have an impaired...
thesicktimes.org
🩸Thrombotic events doubled since 2020, reinfections increase risk of Long COVID

👃 Olfactory dysfunction occurred in people after SARS-CoV-2 infection

🧘‍♂️ A behavioral trial is assessing a vague “mindfulness intervention” for Long COVID.

This week's #LongCOVID research: bit.ly/4mHhIpj
A scientific drawing shows a blood clot, with red blood cells trapped in a white fibrin mesh. The text reads, "The Sick Times. Long COVID research updates. A large study found thrombotic events doubled since 2020 and that reinfections increased the risk of Long COVID. A study found that olfactory dysfunction, or changes to sense of smell, occurred in people after SARS-CoV-2 infection. A behavioral trial is assessing a vague “mindfulness intervention” for Long COVID." Three slides follow with shortened versions of the text in this caption. Researchers in Spain assessed over 190,000 participants, using data from a public health research network, in a study published in the journal Vaccines. They found that Long COVID prevalence was three to 10 times higher in individuals with three or more reported infections (about 600 people in the dataset) than in those with only one infection. They also found that the number of thrombotic events, including strokes and pulmonary embolisms, in people under 60 doubled from 2020 to 2024, in both people who were and weren’t vaccinated. The authors concluded that policymakers should prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and that healthcare workers should continue wearing protective masks.
A new RECOVER study published in JAMA found that olfactory dysfunction, or changes to sense of smell, occurred in people after SARS-CoV-2 infection, even in those who didn’t report changes. The study included 3,525 participants and formally tested 40 different smells. Researchers found that 66% of previously-infected participants without self-reported change or loss also had olfactory dysfunction, and that dysfunction coincided with cognitive deficits. The authors wrote that their findings corroborated other studies that people underestimate their loss of smell following COVID-19.
A behavioral trial at Columbia University (LONG-CALM) is assessing a vague “mindfulness intervention” for Long COVID. The clinicaltrials.gov page states that participants will view a series of recorded “mindfulness sessions” which were “created by the study team” for eight weeks. The study aims to enroll 400 participants, who will also complete surveys about their symptoms. Mindfulness has been heavily criticized as a treatment for Long COVID by leading researchers and people with the disease. While it can help reduce stress, it has been weaponized against people with chronic illnesses and taken research funding away from trials assessing potential root causes, including immune dysregulation, viral persistence, reactivated viruses, and more.
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
netpol.org
As we all still process our horror of the antisemitic murders of two members of Manchester's Jewish community, efforts have already begun to smear critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza as all tangentially culpable, while police are trying to stop people protesting www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Police ask for Palestine Action protest to be postponed after Manchester attack
Exclusive: Organisers say protest will go ahead as planned and it is up to Met whether or not it prioritises arrests
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Jay Baker (they/he)
colettearrand.bsky.social
It’s incredible that WWE changed the name of a show from “Invasion” to “Showdown” because of made-up outrage over the date’s significance to Israel without a second thought but ran a show in Saudi Arabia a month after Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination despite protest from right wing US congressmen.