capricious nerd / nerd teacher @whatanerd@kolektiva.social

Happy #caturday and good night.

The girls send all the cuddles, meeps, and maos they've got for the evening.

In Slovak, the kittens would say mňau.

Alright. I'm tired of the nonsense about GEDs because one shitty member of Congress dropped out of high school and got one.

The problem with Lauren Boebert isn't that she dropped out and got a GED; it's that she's a piece of shit with dangerous and bigoted beliefs.

https://nerdteacher.com/?p=337

Going to take a break from my recent bit of writing to... read, watch Star Trek: Enterprise, and sleep. I'll probably post something tomorrow, though.

Good night kittens are telling me it's a good idea. I think.

One day, I'd like to research learning disabilities and not see researchers relying on bullshit things like IQ.

But apparently today is not that day.

I also really like the idea of planned conversation. You want to call me?

Set a time and make sure I've responded; I like doing the same for other people. Only call me out of the blue when it's urgent.

I actually don't like texting at all because I hate typing on my phone; I'd generally prefer to just not.

While I don't mind immediate interaction, I do want fewer things that feel like they require immediate interaction in my life.

I actually hate almost everything to do with phones for this reason. I feel like I'm not allowed to respond in my own time.

For people unfamiliar with US schooling, a GED -- General Education Development certificate -- is supposed to be an equivalent to a high school diploma.

Why yes, I'm still being inundated with "progressive" dweebs elsewhere claiming having a GED makes you less of a human.

Maybe they should spend some time looking at demographics of high school dropouts and GED recipients.

Because a lot of this shit is related to: racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, and classism.

Guess it's too much to ask that people investigate their beliefs about *why* they think dropping out of school and/or getting a GED is "low value."

Honestly don't understand why people can't focus their anger at the right things.

Critique Lauren Boebert for being a piece of shit, for supporting QAnon, for being a huge bigot in almost every direction, for putting her restaurant staff in danger during COVID, etc.

Those are all legitimate things to criticise her for.

But I really need these "progressive" people to stop going BUT SHE ONLY HAS A GED, LOL. Fucking hell.

There are definitely more examples of these things, and I could be here all day adding them as I think of them.

But thinking on those and thinking of 'the point of antifascism is to defend against fascists' (along with listening to the podcast linked at the beginning)?

It's clear that a lot of work needs to be done that is a bit more preventative, countering actions trying to 'convert'/manipulate people by filling gaps that we need to fill.

[This isn't a revelation, btw. More self-reminder.]

He likes to hide under the guise of charity and good will in underserved regions and tried to do so recently by presenting checks of €1,488 at a charity event.

His party has also been responsible for a number of anti-mask rallies held here, but they still retain their 14 seats (which they first obtained in 2016).

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/27/slovak-court-sentences-neo-nazi-mp

Most people aren't likely to know this group outside the region, but they're the Nazis in parliament in Slovakia. That isn't hyperbole; they celebrate Jozef Tiso, who was the puppet of the Nazi regime during WWII.

Kotleba was a school teacher before he entered politics (and hijacked a party), btw.

The Salvation Army, particularly in its US branches, purports to "help people." I've seen people claim it had radical beginnings, but its founder (William Booth) wanted to basically get rid of the three A's: alcohol, atheism, and anarchy.

But he realised that it was easier to convert people if you made sure they weren't starving.

And he wasn't really wrong.

It's not to say that is a bad cause. We do need to defend against fascists.

But that defense needs to also counter them and their tactics before they get a start, which also means we need a 'platform' (or spaces) to ensure people have what they need and to also make sure that we can counter actions that could *look* helpful but are actually build into negative environments.

Two examples of 'Looks Good on the Surface, but Hurts More Than It Helps' are sitting in my head.

I think what I find interesting is that there is an inherent view of 'platform' as being 'party-related', and that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

They don't talk about that, btw.

But they do mention that they essentially left a lot of things up to the government and that the only thing they had was 'defend against the fascists'.

And... I'd like to hope we've realised that isn't enough?

Apparently, Behind the Bastards is doing a mini-series of Behind the Insurrections and have started with the March on Rome.

One of the bits of analysis (it's not analysis-heavy, as an episode) is that a problem with the 'coalition of the left' is that there wasn't really a platform other than 'we defend the people'.

This bit has kind of hooked into my brain.

You can find the #podcast episode here.

https://podbay.fm/p/behind-the-insurrections/e/1610627976

The Good Night Cats strike again, sending cuddles to all those who'll take them.