Hexbear's resident machinist, absentee mastodon landlord, jack of all trades
Talk to me about astronomy, photography, electronics, ham radio, programming, the means of production, and how we might expropriate them.>
Hexbear's resident machinist, absentee mastodon landlord, jack of all trades
Talk to me about astronomy, photography, electronics, ham radio, programming, the means of production, and how we might expropriate them.>
The Glizzy Gladiator 🔥🔥
Los Prisoneros - Latinoamérica es un pueblo al sur de EEUU
The World’s Memory of the World: Disco Elysium and its fictions
Fortress Friday - Beardrenched: Episode 4
Fortress Friday - Beardrenched: Episode 3
Fortress Friday - Beardrenched: Episode 2
Fortress Friday - Beardrenched: Episode 1
Introducing: Fortress Fridays
(F-Droid) An experiment in automated building from source, 15 years later
It happened again
WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S UNREACHABLE?
Dick in a Box
Truth.social to enable ActivityPub federation next week
Apropos of nothing (ACDC - TNT)
Why the Hell Does Android Even Exist Anymore?
I'm working on a process to convert a Mastodon instance into a Misskey instance
ORMs are stupid. Get rid of them.
I forgot how to make fire stop happening.
This is an emote on hexbear dot net
Open Letter to a Landlord - Living Colour
MMMMMM (Metal covers of VVVVVV soundtrack by Jules Conroy)
I've seen this one before, in 2018. The entire party, media, and generally any member of the public who could be described as vaguely progressive was in complete hysteria about the end of democracy. A massive national soul-searching was undertaken (within the boundaries of Liberalism). A massive pondering of "how did we get here?" Setting the absolute fixation on Russia aside, ideas of an epistemological crisis driven by disinformation campaigns on social media weren't unfounded. It also raised deep questions about the health and wellbeing of democracy in the US. There were so many problems to tackle, from felony disenfranchisement, to voter roll purges, to gerrymandering, media consolidation, the asphyxiating torrent of corporate campaign finance. All of these things contribute to creating the perfect storm which is our shambolic electoral system. For a moment, it seemed like people (like, powerful people) were beginning to realize we had let this shit slip too far, and that deep reforms were necessary to save the republic.
I was THERE. I was a true believer. A patriotic liberal who had come to realize what a smart thing Obama did. Taking a trust-fall into the arms of the institutions, rather than expediently circumventing them to side-step the oncoming disaster. I trusted the system. I felt a personal responsibility to contribute. I went to demonstrations, contributed to electoral campaigns, and spent nearly every waking hour trying to spread the gospel on social media. I had people on r/Politics asking me to run for Congress.
The Trump regime enjoyed total impunity for two terribly long years. At last the Democrats had retaken the house. Now was the time for investigations, transparency, accountability, reform, impeachment. They poured water on that REALLY quick. Delayed for demured for nearly a year before finally impeaching Trump over some extremely contrived bullshit, rather than the fucking across-the-board fraud and corruption.
With the incoming administration in 2020, it was time to fix all of these holes. To do something, ANYTHING about the onslaught of corporate money in elections, the ubiquitous corruption, gerrymandering (2020 was a Census year, after all), ALL the fucking bullshit they use to turn our elections into a fucking joke. It was also a time of acute revolutionary crisis, with the George Floyd Uprising fighting back in steadfast resistance to the impunity of the police state.
The time was ripe for long overdue reforms. What we got instead was a shriveled warm body who was run for the explicit purpose of preventing that from happening. The Biden administration spent another four long years doing everything in its power to sharpen every implement of state violence, reforming absolutely nothing of substance, only to hand the keys right back over to Trump.
This year a number of new Democrats will be elected as freshmen representatives. Some of them might even be GOOD, but the incumbents aren't going anywhere. They are the ones who control the party, control the committee assignments. They are the ones who will choose the leadership, and their decision will be driven by the same calculus that it always has been.
What gives you this impression? Congressional leadership is not a popular election. It is one of the first orders of business after swearing in a new Congress, when public pressure on the caucus is at its lowest. Schumer might leave just because he's ancient and bad for the brand, but we're not getting a radical. We're getting somebody who can maintain the status quo, but do the messaging better.
Again, do you live under a rock? What do you think the Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020 were? They were EXACTLY this. They fucking crushed it. It turns out the bourgeoisie finds social democracy to be utterly repulsive, while they couldn't care less about the personal power-play of a couple oil tycoons who want to "run America like a business."
We've already run though the cycle of expecting the Democrats to hold people accountable, and then trying to hold the Democrats themselves accountable. There is NO accountability.
Ok. How many hours have you spent standing in Lafayette Square shouting at the White House in the pouring rain? How many times have you skipped going to party with your friends because something must be done, even though you know that something will change absolutely nothing.
It is over buddy, but don't worry. It is not the end of the world. This sclerotic republic must die, so something new and beautiful can be born from the ashes.