astroboy's posterior

the gist from Ed Baptist’s book: The Half Has Never Been Told

Europeans refused to accept any other commodity for the goods they traded with African people except slaves. So while the slave trade existed prior to this time, Europeans intensified the demand. Enslaved people were stored in factories on the coast after they were kidnapped while they waited to be transported across the Atlantic. Different trading companies “branded” people with their logo.

Insurance arose out of a need to secure the cargo of slave ships.

Then once people arrived in the New World it became about extracting as much work out of people (maximizing productivity) before they dropped dead. In order to make sure the return on investment was high enough.

We still use the same system and language in modern capitalist context. Enslaved people weren’t simply the labor, they also became the capital that the entire system was built on too. ‘I work at a historic site that was a former plantation. It was originally purchased using two men, Levon & Sam as the collateral for the loan. In 1865, the 23 people enslaved there were worth more than the land.’

The entire system depends on having an exploitable source of labor.

Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. – Orwell

A significant milestone discussed at the Mayor’s luncheon was the City of Barrie’s reacquisition of the former Central High School lands, now referred to as the Central Site.

The property was purchased by the city for $22 million, and the first project planned for the site will be a purpose-built parkade. The parking structure is expected to:

Provide approximately 450 parking spaces

Carry an estimated construction cost of $60 million

Support downtown businesses, events, post-secondary expansion, and future developments

City officials described the project as a key piece of downtown infrastructure needed to support ongoing revitalization efforts.

Words are eliminated so people literally lack the language to think rebellious thoughts. If a word doesn’t exist, the idea becomes harde, or impossible to conceive.

Redefinition of words: Existing words are given new, often opposite meanings.

Freedom disappears as a concept. Good becomes good, plusgood, or doubleplusgood, no nuance, no critique.

Elimination of nuance and complexity:

Words that allow shades of meaning, skepticism, or analysis are removed, flattening thought.

Contradictory slogans (Doublethink):

Language is used to normalize contradiction: War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength

People are trained to accept these as true simultaneously.

Euphemism and sanitization: Brutal realities are softened with neutral or positive language, distancing people from violence and oppression.

The core idea By controlling language, the Party controls thought itself. The goal isn’t just to lie, it’s to make certain thoughts unthinkable.

Tim Cook became Tim Cook because he knew how to glad-handle authoritarians and their lickspittles in China to secure a rock solid supply chain. Is it so surprising that such a person would rely on the same well of skills when the winds of change have occurred here? They called him a savvy business genius for his efforts abroad, but a lapdog to evil when it’s here. Perhaps we’re the ones with the perception problem.

Observing the pit crew, the GOSH doctors noted the value of process mapping, process description, and trying to work out what people’s tasks should be.

The lollipop man is the one who waves the car in and coordinates the pit stop. He maintains overall situation awareness during the pit stop. In the old hospital handover there was no one like the lollipop man so it was unclear who was in charge.

https://kottke.org/25/12/how-ferraris-f1-team-improved-medical-care-for-children

It’s so brave to feel your feelings; some people live their whole lives without being able to do that.
I’m proud of you.

25 Things to Say to Your Children

If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Karl Popper

https://kottke.org/17/08/the-paradox-of-tolerance

Watching your words and how they might affect people around you is a pro-social exercise that should be encouraged in every facet of modern life. 

Probably there is more self censoring than ever today. People happily consuming oceans of fascist propaganda have left us no choice.

https://badfaithtimes.com/self-censorship-is-actually-good

‘We know that in a society where everyone’s needs are met, we would no longer need to fear being unable to pay for our health care, or losing our jobs and going hungry, or being hurt by desperate, disillusioned people.’

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/copaganda-book-excerpt-1235351675

‘Yet many of us accept the violence, limitations, and boundaries imposed by the system as though they are natural laws–inalterable, inevitable, and final–and view everyday people as an existential threat to control, contain, and manage.

We take so much media literacy for granted these days, but it was revelatory when I first saw a tweet, say, directly comparing the headlines the news media uses when a person of color is the perpetrator or victim of a violent crime, versus the ones they use for white people in similar situations. 

As Thin Blue Line flags claiming to represent solidarity with law enforcement became a familiar sight at far-right actions, it grew particularly difficult to separate xenophobia and general paranoia from the police officer brand.

It’s more than disheartening to watch the city become increasingly militarized as education budgets are slashed and social programs lose funding and city libraries can’t afford to be open seven days a week.’