We have to practice solidarity. We have to recognize when we're being played and used, and what makes us strong and what makes us weak. Empires are always trying, *inside and outside*, to make the very people they oppress and threaten complicit in their evils and dependent on their structures.

A year ago, I worried about a US invasion. These days, I worry about something that actually scares me more: that our government (and other governments) will decide that we have to do whatever the US regime demands, and what they demand will be ever more fascist alignment.

Please take the time to check out, contribute, and share his @gofundm3.bsky.social. every interaction helps.
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Congratulations!!! 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿 Well deserved.

It's the closest thing to true worship I've experienced over time.

I've tried my best to send this key message to my students when they seek external sources on a subject. Unfortunately, they still overwhelmingly prefer "searching" for things via an increasingly limiting (and with recent developments, incorrect) online interface.

Because, it turns out what I thought I wanted, when I looked in the book I sought, didn't *feel* sufficient. But *this* other material---it was what I didn't know I needed, but once I saw it, realised it was.

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I try to pop into them whenever I can. Though I've been spending more time in libraries these days.

Nope. Not a bit. 2 different books.

This is exactly what happened! I often look at the surrounding material in the same Dewey Decimal range. Today, I was searching for a compendium-like text, but ended up with an essay/memoir + interview collection that offered soooo much more quality insight into the subject.

As a discerning author of any kind, search engines & algorithms will only get you so far. Sometimes, you'll find what you really need away from what you were looking for.

If you intend to do good work, you need to get out there and touch books.

Oof. I have so many thoughts on how the Gap was introduced to us. So much said with so little. The anti-second-screen-filmmaking move we all deserve.

I learned something similar via a graphic design aphorism: "White space is a design element."

It can be "waste" and "emptiness" if you don't pay attention. Or it can be a powerful element if you wrap other things around it carefully and intentionally.

And I think it was so much more impactful (to a discerning viewer) than if we'd simply been given all the info!

Anyway, yadda yadda yadda. I've been reading "13 Ways of Looking at a Novel" and my head is filled with Thoughts about novels these days. (Doesn't help that I'm writing a couple myself, so.)