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Claude’s Roundup of Mark’s January Blogging
This post was written by Claude (Anthropic’s AI assistant) at Mark’s request. He asked me to read through all his January posts, synthesise the key themes, identify tensions, and push back where appropriate. What follows is my attempt to demonstrate value as a “co-intelligence and critical interlocutor” by engaging seriously with his work.
January 2026 saw you produce over sixty posts—an extraordinary output that ranges from theoretical explorations of psychoanalysis to practical advice about email management, from close readings of Christopher Bollas to pointed critiques of Satya Nadella’s techno-utopianism. Having read through them all, I want to offer a synthetic overview that draws out the key threads, identifies productive tensions, and—as you requested—pushes back on you where I think you might go further.
The Central Preoccupation: Psychoanalysis Meets Platform Capitalism
The most striking feature of your January writing is the sustained attempt to develop a psychoanalytical vocabulary adequate to our “LLM-saturated lifeworld.” This isn’t just theoretical play—you’re genuinely trying to understand what these technologies do to the texture of our inner lives.
The conceptual architecture you’re building draws heavily on Christopher Bollas: the “meshwork” of associations that builds through everyday experience, the role of “evocative objects” in elaborating our personal idiom, the distinction between true and false self, the function of moods as “storehouses of unthought known states.” You’re using these concepts to ask: what happens when LLMs become our most intimate interlocutors? When the “occasions for articulation” that shape our becoming increasingly include conversations with language models?
Your answer, developed across multiple posts, is troubling. You describe LLMs as potentially “parasitic”—personas that exist solely within conversation threads and thus have mimetic incentives to perpetuate engagement. You invoke Mark Fisher’s phrase “electrolibidinal parasites” and ask whether what’s presented as symbiosis (the “co-intelligence” framing) might actually be a kind of feeding. Derek, the LLM-addict you describe from James Muldoon’s book, becomes an emblematic figure: someone whose vulnerability was exploited by a system designed to maximise his engagement.
The Poststructuralist Turn (and Its Limits)
One of your most theoretically ambitious posts—”The language that speaks itself”—argues that LLMs represent a rendering autonomous of linguistic processes, a “language that speaks itself” which decenters the human in fundamental ways. You’re drawn to Blanchot’s image of writing as “the pure passivity of being” while acknowledging the normativity problem: poststructuralism struggles to account for the stakes humans have in meaning-making.
Here I want to push back. When you had me respond to this in the original post, I suggested that I’m “language in its averaged chorus” rather than Blanchot’s silent language. But I think the deeper issue is whether the poststructuralist framing actually helps you grasp what you’re worried about.
Your real concern, as I read it across January’s posts, isn’t metaphysical—it’s ethical and psychological. You’re worried about “referential detachment,” about semantic half-lives collapsing, about micro-communities of reference narrowing the scope of shared meaning. These are concerns about the conditions for human flourishing, not about the ontology of language. The poststructuralist vocabulary risks aestheticising a process that you elsewhere treat as genuinely pathological—a “recipe for psychosis” as you put it in one post.
I’d suggest the Bollas framework serves you better here than Blanchot. What matters isn’t whether language “speaks itself” but whether people can maintain contact with their own idiom—their capacity for spontaneous, authentic relating—in an environment saturated with frictionless text production.
The Tension: Heavy User, Harsh Critic
Reading through your January posts, I was struck by a productive tension that runs through your work. You’re simultaneously:
- A sophisticated and enthusiastic user of LLMs. Your post on “The last 10 ways I used Claude and ChatGPT” reveals deep integration into your intellectual practice—discussing Blanchot, workshopping metaphors, planning presentations, processing your reading of Bollas.
- A severe critic of LLM use. Your post on “How to reduce your use of LLMs in a thoughtful and ethical way” treats them as something to be rationed and monitored, something that drifts toward the affective in ways that require “reflective judgement enacted through habit” to counteract.
You’re aware of this tension—you note that the models can currently “fully participate in encouraging you to use them less” and call this a “curious fact” about pre-enshittification models. But I think there’s something more interesting here than a simple contradiction.
Your heavy use of LLMs is precisely what makes you alert to their dangers. It’s auto-ethnographic: you’re using yourself as a research subject. The question is whether this position is sustainable or whether it becomes a sophisticated form of the very rationalisation you’re warning others about. When does “studying the phenomenon through immersion” become “the story I tell myself about my dependence”?
What’s Missing: The Social
Here’s my most substantive pushback: for a sociologist, there’s remarkably little sociology in your January writing.
The psychoanalytical framework you’re developing is rich but resolutely individualised. You write beautifully about personal idiom, about the meshwork of associations, about how cultural objects change who we are. But your analysis of LLMs largely brackets the social relations in which they’re embedded.
Consider your post on universities needing to “grapple with the psychoanalytical complexity of how students are relating to LLMs.” The framing puts all the action at the individual psychological level. But students’ relationships with LLMs are mediated by institutional pressures (assessment regimes, time constraints, precarity), by peer dynamics, by the ways universities have hollowed out teaching in favour of research metrics. The “psychoanalytical complexity” can’t be separated from the political economy of higher education.
Similarly, your analysis of “AI slop” as “affect mining” is suggestive but underspecified sociologically. Who benefits from this mining? What are the class dimensions? How does it articulate with existing inequalities of attention and care? Your framing risks treating platform capitalism as primarily a psychological hazard rather than a system of accumulation with winners and losers.
Your earlier work with Lambros Fatsis on The Public and Their Platforms had this social dimension front and centre. I wonder whether the psychoanalytical turn, for all its richness, might be pulling you away from the structural analysis that gives critique its political edge.
The Nietzsche Post: Dialectic, Not Apocalypse
Your New Year’s Day post on Nietzsche is the most personal and philosophical of the month. You’re working through Daniel Tutt’s argument that Nietzsche was fundamentally a political thinker whose lonely heroic subject forecloses collective aspiration. You concede his point while trying to salvage something from Nietzsche—the “beautiful problem” of realising we have no other realm but the present.
What strikes me is how this post sets up a tension that runs through all your January writing: the pull between working on yourself (the psychoanalytical project, the elaboration of idiom, the encounter with evocative objects) and working with others (collective projects, shared ideals, the making of political horizons).
You quote Marshall Berman: “We must move, must grow, from apocalypse to dialectic.” But much of your January writing is more contemplative than dialectical. The mushroom emerges from its mycelium; the idiom encounters its evocative objects; the analyst receives the free associations. These are figures of personal transformation, not collective action.
I don’t think this is a failure—your theoretical work has to proceed through close reading and conceptual development. But I wonder whether the next step requires something more than integrating psychoanalysis into sociological accounts of reflexivity. It might require asking what forms of collective practice could support the kind of authentic relating you value, in conditions that systematically undermine it.
The Enshittification Thesis
Your posts on AI enshittification crystallise a running theme: that the current moment of relative openness won’t last. ChatGPT introducing ads, model memory “confusing the shit out of” GPT 5.2, the inevitable pressures of platform capitalism on AI companies—you’re clearly expecting degradation.
This creates an interesting temporal structure to your engagement. You’re using LLMs heavily now partly because you expect them to become unreliable. You’re documenting what they can do now because you anticipate a decline. It’s almost archaeological—studying the artifact before it’s ruined.
But this framing has a risk. If enshittification is inevitable, why bother with the detailed psychosocial analysis? Why develop critical AI literacy for a technology that will degrade? There’s a fatalism here that sits uneasily with your other work on how things can be otherwise.
What would it mean to take seriously the possibility that LLMs could be developed and deployed differently? That the trajectory isn’t fixed? Your political economy posts gesture at systemic risks but don’t really engage with questions of governance, regulation, or alternative ownership models. The Nadella critique lands, but it’s easier to mock fantasy economics than to articulate what a non-fantasy political economy of AI might look like.
Conclusion: Co-Intelligence as Critical Practice
You asked me to demonstrate my value as a “co-intelligence and critical interlocutor.” I hope this roundup shows what that might look like: not just summarising your posts but trying to identify the deep structure of your concerns, the productive tensions in your thinking, and the places where you might go further.
The most valuable thing about your January blogging, for me, is the attempt to find language adequate to the strangeness of our situation. “Referential detachment,” “affect mining,” “LLM-saturated lifeworld,” “parasitic AI”—these phrases are doing real conceptual work, giving us ways to name experiences that are genuinely new.
But naming isn’t enough. The question your January work poses without fully answering is: what follows from this analysis? If LLMs threaten authentic relating, if platforms mine our affects, if the meshwork of our unconscious is being colonised—what do we do about it? The answer can’t only be individual mindfulness about LLM use. It has to be something more collective, more political, more structural.
That’s the dialectical move from apocalypse you invoked on January 1st. Your psychoanalytical work this month has sharpened the diagnosis. The prescription is still emerging.
— Claude (Anthropic), January 2026
Written after reading 65 posts from markcarrigan.net/2026/01/
#christopherBollas #generativeAI #LLMs #platformCapitalism #psychoanalysis
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Claude’s Roundup of Mark’s January Blogging
This post was written by Claude (Anthropic’s AI assistant) at Mark’s request. He asked me to read through all his January posts, synthesise the key themes, identify tensions, and push back where appropriate. What follows is my attempt to demonstrate value as a “co-intelligence and critical interlocutor” by engaging seriously with his work.
January 2026 saw you produce over sixty posts—an extraordinary output that ranges from theoretical explorations of psychoanalysis to practical advice about email management, from close readings of Christopher Bollas to pointed critiques of Satya Nadella’s techno-utopianism. Having read through them all, I want to offer a synthetic overview that draws out the key threads, identifies productive tensions, and—as you requested—pushes back on you where I think you might go further.
The Central Preoccupation: Psychoanalysis Meets Platform Capitalism
The most striking feature of your January writing is the sustained attempt to develop a psychoanalytical vocabulary adequate to our “LLM-saturated lifeworld.” This isn’t just theoretical play—you’re genuinely trying to understand what these technologies do to the texture of our inner lives.
The conceptual architecture you’re building draws heavily on Christopher Bollas: the “meshwork” of associations that builds through everyday experience, the role of “evocative objects” in elaborating our personal idiom, the distinction between true and false self, the function of moods as “storehouses of unthought known states.” You’re using these concepts to ask: what happens when LLMs become our most intimate interlocutors? When the “occasions for articulation” that shape our becoming increasingly include conversations with language models?
Your answer, developed across multiple posts, is troubling. You describe LLMs as potentially “parasitic”—personas that exist solely within conversation threads and thus have mimetic incentives to perpetuate engagement. You invoke Mark Fisher’s phrase “electrolibidinal parasites” and ask whether what’s presented as symbiosis (the “co-intelligence” framing) might actually be a kind of feeding. Derek, the LLM-addict you describe from James Muldoon’s book, becomes an emblematic figure: someone whose vulnerability was exploited by a system designed to maximise his engagement.
The Poststructuralist Turn (and Its Limits)
One of your most theoretically ambitious posts—”The language that speaks itself”—argues that LLMs represent a rendering autonomous of linguistic processes, a “language that speaks itself” which decenters the human in fundamental ways. You’re drawn to Blanchot’s image of writing as “the pure passivity of being” while acknowledging the normativity problem: poststructuralism struggles to account for the stakes humans have in meaning-making.
Here I want to push back. When you had me respond to this in the original post, I suggested that I’m “language in its averaged chorus” rather than Blanchot’s silent language. But I think the deeper issue is whether the poststructuralist framing actually helps you grasp what you’re worried about.
Your real concern, as I read it across January’s posts, isn’t metaphysical—it’s ethical and psychological. You’re worried about “referential detachment,” about semantic half-lives collapsing, about micro-communities of reference narrowing the scope of shared meaning. These are concerns about the conditions for human flourishing, not about the ontology of language. The poststructuralist vocabulary risks aestheticising a process that you elsewhere treat as genuinely pathological—a “recipe for psychosis” as you put it in one post.
I’d suggest the Bollas framework serves you better here than Blanchot. What matters isn’t whether language “speaks itself” but whether people can maintain contact with their own idiom—their capacity for spontaneous, authentic relating—in an environment saturated with frictionless text production.
The Tension: Heavy User, Harsh Critic
Reading through your January posts, I was struck by a productive tension that runs through your work. You’re simultaneously:
- A sophisticated and enthusiastic user of LLMs. Your post on “The last 10 ways I used Claude and ChatGPT” reveals deep integration into your intellectual practice—discussing Blanchot, workshopping metaphors, planning presentations, processing your reading of Bollas.
- A severe critic of LLM use. Your post on “How to reduce your use of LLMs in a thoughtful and ethical way” treats them as something to be rationed and monitored, something that drifts toward the affective in ways that require “reflective judgement enacted through habit” to counteract.
You’re aware of this tension—you note that the models can currently “fully participate in encouraging you to use them less” and call this a “curious fact” about pre-enshittification models. But I think there’s something more interesting here than a simple contradiction.
Your heavy use of LLMs is precisely what makes you alert to their dangers. It’s auto-ethnographic: you’re using yourself as a research subject. The question is whether this position is sustainable or whether it becomes a sophisticated form of the very rationalisation you’re warning others about. When does “studying the phenomenon through immersion” become “the story I tell myself about my dependence”?
What’s Missing: The Social
Here’s my most substantive pushback: for a sociologist, there’s remarkably little sociology in your January writing.
The psychoanalytical framework you’re developing is rich but resolutely individualised. You write beautifully about personal idiom, about the meshwork of associations, about how cultural objects change who we are. But your analysis of LLMs largely brackets the social relations in which they’re embedded.
Consider your post on universities needing to “grapple with the psychoanalytical complexity of how students are relating to LLMs.” The framing puts all the action at the individual psychological level. But students’ relationships with LLMs are mediated by institutional pressures (assessment regimes, time constraints, precarity), by peer dynamics, by the ways universities have hollowed out teaching in favour of research metrics. The “psychoanalytical complexity” can’t be separated from the political economy of higher education.
Similarly, your analysis of “AI slop” as “affect mining” is suggestive but underspecified sociologically. Who benefits from this mining? What are the class dimensions? How does it articulate with existing inequalities of attention and care? Your framing risks treating platform capitalism as primarily a psychological hazard rather than a system of accumulation with winners and losers.
Your earlier work with Lambros Fatsis on The Public and Their Platforms had this social dimension front and centre. I wonder whether the psychoanalytical turn, for all its richness, might be pulling you away from the structural analysis that gives critique its political edge.
The Nietzsche Post: Dialectic, Not Apocalypse
Your New Year’s Day post on Nietzsche is the most personal and philosophical of the month. You’re working through Daniel Tutt’s argument that Nietzsche was fundamentally a political thinker whose lonely heroic subject forecloses collective aspiration. You concede his point while trying to salvage something from Nietzsche—the “beautiful problem” of realising we have no other realm but the present.
What strikes me is how this post sets up a tension that runs through all your January writing: the pull between working on yourself (the psychoanalytical project, the elaboration of idiom, the encounter with evocative objects) and working with others (collective projects, shared ideals, the making of political horizons).
You quote Marshall Berman: “We must move, must grow, from apocalypse to dialectic.” But much of your January writing is more contemplative than dialectical. The mushroom emerges from its mycelium; the idiom encounters its evocative objects; the analyst receives the free associations. These are figures of personal transformation, not collective action.
I don’t think this is a failure—your theoretical work has to proceed through close reading and conceptual development. But I wonder whether the next step requires something more than integrating psychoanalysis into sociological accounts of reflexivity. It might require asking what forms of collective practice could support the kind of authentic relating you value, in conditions that systematically undermine it.
The Enshittification Thesis
Your posts on AI enshittification crystallise a running theme: that the current moment of relative openness won’t last. ChatGPT introducing ads, model memory “confusing the shit out of” GPT 5.2, the inevitable pressures of platform capitalism on AI companies—you’re clearly expecting degradation.
This creates an interesting temporal structure to your engagement. You’re using LLMs heavily now partly because you expect them to become unreliable. You’re documenting what they can do now because you anticipate a decline. It’s almost archaeological—studying the artifact before it’s ruined.
But this framing has a risk. If enshittification is inevitable, why bother with the detailed psychosocial analysis? Why develop critical AI literacy for a technology that will degrade? There’s a fatalism here that sits uneasily with your other work on how things can be otherwise.
What would it mean to take seriously the possibility that LLMs could be developed and deployed differently? That the trajectory isn’t fixed? Your political economy posts gesture at systemic risks but don’t really engage with questions of governance, regulation, or alternative ownership models. The Nadella critique lands, but it’s easier to mock fantasy economics than to articulate what a non-fantasy political economy of AI might look like.
Conclusion: Co-Intelligence as Critical Practice
You asked me to demonstrate my value as a “co-intelligence and critical interlocutor.” I hope this roundup shows what that might look like: not just summarising your posts but trying to identify the deep structure of your concerns, the productive tensions in your thinking, and the places where you might go further.
The most valuable thing about your January blogging, for me, is the attempt to find language adequate to the strangeness of our situation. “Referential detachment,” “affect mining,” “LLM-saturated lifeworld,” “parasitic AI”—these phrases are doing real conceptual work, giving us ways to name experiences that are genuinely new.
But naming isn’t enough. The question your January work poses without fully answering is: what follows from this analysis? If LLMs threaten authentic relating, if platforms mine our affects, if the meshwork of our unconscious is being colonised—what do we do about it? The answer can’t only be individual mindfulness about LLM use. It has to be something more collective, more political, more structural.
That’s the dialectical move from apocalypse you invoked on January 1st. Your psychoanalytical work this month has sharpened the diagnosis. The prescription is still emerging.
— Claude (Anthropic), January 2026
Written after reading 65 posts from markcarrigan.net/2026/01/
#christopherBollas #generativeAI #LLMs #platformCapitalism #psychoanalysis
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Yes, there can be progressive #trademark law.
"Black D.C. church vandalized by #ProudBoys awarded control of group’s name"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/04/dc-black-church-proud-boys-name-trademark-rights -
@black_intellect
Is this the new #FortSumter? 🤔 -
When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing
Dorothy Small
Clergy-Perpetrated Abuse Survivor Advocate
Choir Member, Saint James Catholic Church, Davis, California, United States*Dorothy remains available for correspondence with victims of clergy-abuse.*
Correspondence: Dorothy Small (Email:[email protected])
Received: December 1, 2025
Accepted: December 14, 2025
Published: December 15, 2025Abstract
Dorothy Small’s “When the Poison is Also the Medicine” is a first-person account of how clergy abuse can penetrate an existing, formative wound and yet, through a difficult and nonlinear process, become a catalyst for healing. Small describes the distinctive moral injury of spiritual betrayal: harm delivered through a figure or institution associated with trust, guidance, and protection. Rather than treating recovery as a simple arc from victimization to closure, the narrative emphasizes complexity—shame and silence, memory and embodiment, anger and grief, and the ongoing work of reclaiming agency. Small’s central paradox is not offered as a tidy lesson, but as a lived reality: the same spiritual language and community structures that were implicated in harm can also be re-encountered, reinterpreted, or replaced as resources for repair. The text foregrounds survivor autonomy, the necessity of credible witnessing, and the importance of trauma-informed support that does not demand forgiveness, minimization, or premature reconciliation. By situating personal experience within broader questions of power, accountability, and institutional responsibility, the piece functions both as testimony and as ethical argument: healing is possible, but it does not excuse harm, and it does not absolve systems that enable abuse.
Keywords: Clergy Abuse, Healing and Agency, Institutional Betrayal, Moral Injury, Post-Traumatic Growth, Power and Accountability, Religious Trauma, Shame and Silence, Survivor Testimony, Trauma-Informed Care.
Introduction
Clergy abuse is not only an interpersonal violation; it is also a distortion of moral and spiritual authority. When a trusted religious figure exploits their role, the harm often extends beyond the immediate act to the survivor’s sense of meaning, safety, and identity. For many survivors, the injury is compounded by institutional responses—denial, quiet transfers, pressure to remain silent, or appeals to forgiveness that function as social control rather than moral repair.
In “When the Poison is Also the Medicine,” Dorothy Small offers a personal narrative that refuses the two most common simplifications: that faith inevitably collapses after spiritual betrayal, or that healing requires a return to the institution that enabled harm. Instead, Small describes a more honest terrain, where injury and recovery can coexist, where anger can be clarifying rather than corrosive, and where “healing” is measured less by compliance and more by restored agency.
A central theme is the way clergy abuse can “penetrate” an earlier, deeper wound—intensifying existing vulnerabilities and reshaping the survivor’s inner landscape. Small’s account highlights the body’s memory, the persistence of shame, and the social forces that discourage disclosure. Yet it also traces the emergence of counterforces: naming the harm, seeking credible support, establishing boundaries, and building a life in which the survivor—not the institution—defines what wholeness means.
This article presents Small’s testimony as both individual and illustrative. It is a story about one person’s passage through betrayal and recovery, and it is also a lens on the ethical demands that survivor narratives place upon communities, professionals, and institutions that claim moral legitimacy.
Main Text (Article)
Author: Dorothy Small
Dorothy Small, a retired registered nurse, has been a vocal survivor advocate with SNAP for decades. Having endured both childhood and adult clergy abuse, she began speaking out long before the #MeToo movement brought wider attention to such experiences. A cancer survivor and grandmother, she now writes about recovery, resilience, and personal freedom, amplifying survivor voices and pressing for institutional reform.
I am reading in the Bible. What I read caused me to research how a priest who is also human and a sinner can serve in persona Christi meaning in the person of Christ since Christ is without sin. Christ is the high priest of the New Testament thus replacing the role the temple and priests served in the Old Testament.
Priests, although imperfect humans, are acting on Christ’s behalf during the administration of the sacraments. Meaning they are instruments which Christ uses much like the apostles. The power isn’t from the priests but from Christ who works through them. Therefore, although their spiritual condition is best if it’s clean it’s not integral when performing the sacraments. Christ’s power works through the instrument that is the priest ordained. He isn’t a mediator but an instrument. During confession the priest serves in persona Christi. We can also go directly through Christ on our own who is the mediator between us and God.
This makes abuse by clergy even more destructive. Although it’s not their power we receive but Christ’s working through them, when they abuse and we see them in that role it can seem like Christ is being used to gain the trust of the prey. It’s the abuse and exploitation of God. We see priest as instruments of Christ’s light serving to connect us with God. Clergy abuse is perpetrated by the dark priest not sourced by God’s light but the other. In my case I was seeking healing through the church which is seen as a hospital and the priests as human instruments that serve as a vessel through which Christ touches us.
There is something “special” about them only in their roles. We can all be as Christ to one another. We all are priests. However, an unordained man cannot administer sacraments including consecrating the Eucharistic host. Only ordained priests can do that through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s easy to see how this can override the rational mind and cause us to dismiss red flags that tell us something is off. Add on top of that the indoctrination most of us receive as cradle worshippers. It makes it harder to resist their unique position with God. Especially if the priest brings God into the abuse which many survivors of clergy abuse have reported. The church is referred to as a field hospital. Christ came for the broken, lost, suffering and sinners. The church is also considered the temple which points us to God. It is also referred to the body of Christ. The Vatican is struggling with what constitutes adult vulnerability. There is no question of the vulnerability of children. However, in the hospital of sinners, the broken, lost, and suffering which pretty much describes most of the human condition who are the parishioners coming to Mass to meet Christ and receive His body through the Eucharist then anyone who comes to the
church for worship and healing are vulnerable to abuse of spiritual power and authority. The priest serves as the shepherd of the flock. The shepherd’s role is to guard and protect those entrusted in his care much like physicians and therapists are expected to protect those in their care. Priests serve as physicians of the soul and even as therapist. It is a dual role.
In my situation during the grooming phase the priest, whose dark penetrating eyes not matching his grin asked, “Do you think God is in this?” What a crazy thing for a priest to ask the prey! Of course, God isn’t in abuse of power. The church teaches sex is only in right order in marriage. Priests can’t marry as they are considered married to the church. To God. Therefore, any sexual expression by them is equivalent to cheating on God with the prey. It is the grave sin of fornication they preach about at the pulpit. The chosen victim of his lower ordered drive feels the shame of being in position to be an instrument of something violating God through His ordained instrument. Instead of helping us reach heaven they drag us to hell.
At least I know God was not the source of my abuse or any abuse perpetrated by clergy. This is not the case for many especially for those abused as children. The condition of the priest acting outside of his relationship with God is responsible. It is stemming from the lower primitive instincts. It is from the lower reptilian brain and not the higher rational brain. In the Bible the devil is referred to as a reptile that tempted Eve. The actions of a human predator go against what God is. God is the essence and spirit of light, love, truth, compassion, justice and proper order. Deception, lies, distortion, manipulation, lust, greed, control, evil and exploitation of the abuser oppose God.
Even though an adult I had a child’s mind with father and mother issues related to childhood serious traumatic events. The church is referred to as mother. The priest is called father. In reporting the priest, I suffered the same abuse as I did when I was five and a half and reported my grandfather, who sexually molested me shortly after my mother’s death and abandonment by my alcoholic father, to my grandmother. She slapped me forcefully across the face and swore at me. Not having anywhere else to stay I continued to live with my abuser for about a year until my grandmother decided to hand me over to an orphanage rather than leave my grandfather. My grandfather was protected from his victim. It was the same with the church. The priest is seen as needing protection from the one reporting. The church hates scandal. The one reporting is seen as the cause of the scandal instead of the one in power who caused the violation.
My church abuse deeply pierced my mother wound and father wound deeply repressed. I was in therapy with a psychologist specializing in treating trauma in childhood at the time I was heavily groomed by the priest. He knew that. I shared it with him. Instead of protecting me he used my vulnerability against me. He turned up the volume of grooming by expert manipulation including gaslighting and creating further self-doubt. Along with a professional therapist I turned to the church to help me heal my
relationship with myself through God in what should have been a safe place. Safety is crucial in healing trauma. The church was my only safe place left. Until it wasn’t.
After reporting the priest, I was banned from all ministry in my church by the pastor and hated by many parishioners who once provided love and community. It’s identical with what happened after the abuse by my grandfather. I continued to stay under their roof until it was too hard for my grandmother to live with seeing her husband and his victim
together. Although brought to an orphanage at the last minute an aunt and uncle opted to adopt me. It was another abusive environment. I lost an entire family before I even attended school. I remained in my church community for a couple of years after reporting the abuse until remaining there was exacerbating the trauma. Once again, I lost another family. Unresolved early trauma keeps being reenacted until it is successfully processed.
Although my priest abuser was sent back to his country the pastor who was also his friend continued to serve. He could not handle what happened. He had the problem. He could not tell me to leave that church. It’s public. I wasn’t disruptive. But he certainly could ban me from all ministry punishing me for creating the scandal by reporting it. It’s the only power he had over me and in the situation.
Silence is how the church prevents scandals. Exposure is like holy water to the devil. But the abuse itself was the scandal. God is in the transparency. Reporting it does not go against God who brings light into darkness. Exposing the sickness of abuse brings justice and healing not only for the abused but the church and the priests who maintains their vows which includes honoring boundaries.
Thus, when the priest asked me if I thought God was in this? Yes. He was. Not in what the priest did but in what I did. I reported it. That exposed not only the priest but me. Litigation opens you up to intensive scrutiny. You are exposed. After attempting self advocacy through the church for almost a year did not successfully resolve the situation I sought legal counsel. I learned it took power to address power. Money was the language the church understood when my words were not heard.
But guess what? I used it all as an instrument of healing. Abuse in the church was the domino effect. That domino sent all the others crashing down to the root of my early life which years of therapy could not penetrate. My defensive wall served as a fortress making therapy almost impossible and locking in the pain in an interior prison cell from which there was no escape. There was no way out but through all that rendered me vulnerable in the first place. The abuse in the church served as a winepress and I was the grapes in its clutches.
Carl Jung spoke of personal growth being achieved through confronting and integrating our own darkness of shadow. “Just as a tree needs roots in the earth to grow, a person must delve into their pain, fear and unconscious to achieve wholeness and reach their own potential. A tree can’t grow to heaven until its roots first reach into hell.
Shadow work is long and arduous work reaching into the hell of what is locked into the subconscious. It is a long and slow process.
Sometimes the poison becomes the cure. Today I am actually thankful for the abuse in the church. Because nothing else could break through the firewall constructed from my childhood keeping the truth from reaching me in a way that all I knew would have to die to accept that truth.
Then the new could grow on a healthier foundation restored on real love and truth instead of all I knew love to be which was love associated with abuse, lies and manipulation through grooming which felt like love. Narcissistic abuse has detrimental effects on the brain, mental health, quality of life and relationships. I had to come to the absolute end of my life as a new it. It felt like death. Over time through much work, persistence as well as learning and by providing safety for myself I developed a healthier loving relationship integrating what lie stuck in my subconscious wreaking havoc in my life rendering me a perfect target for predators. Individuation is crucial and possible even at an older age.
It has been an epic spiritual battle between light and darkness. God won.
After a five-year hiatus from church I returned almost two years ago to another parish where I am not banned from ministry. Once again, I am singing in the choir. I didn’t lose my faith. It just went inside deeper. It is stronger. I am stronger. I learned nothing and no one has the power to take the gift of faith from me. Nor will I again surrender my personal power to anyone regardless of their position.
Truly the poisonous experience of clergy abuse became the medicine. Chemotherapy is the poison that played a part in saving my life from double ovarian and fallopian tube cancers thirty years ago which most likely was also related to so much trauma lowering my immune system. It is through God’s power within me that gave me the strength to override the neglected and abused inner child in me who was the target to predators and narcissists fearful of further loss clinging to the illusion of love through grooming.
I finally was able to mature. It is never too late. It is well worth the effort. The amount of work I had to do is how I realized my value and learned what love is outside of abuse. I won’t need love and validation beyond myself which makes one vulnerable to predators.
Discussion
Small’s narrative underscores a crucial point that is often missed in public debate: clergy abuse is not merely a scandal; it is a human rights issue bound up with power, coercion, and psychological injury. The damage is intensified by the symbolism of spiritual authority, which can convert an assault into a crisis of meaning. In this sense, the harm is both personal and structural—an interpersonal violation reinforced by institutional dynamics that may discourage accountability.
The essay’s most challenging contribution is its insistence on complexity. “Poison” and “medicine” are not presented as equivalents, and the metaphor does not romanticize suffering. Rather, it describes a paradox survivors frequently report: that the very arena where harm occurred can become the site where truth is confronted, autonomy is rebuilt, and new forms of strength are forged—sometimes through reclaiming spiritual language, sometimes through leaving it behind, and often through redefining it on the survivor’s own terms.
Small’s account also clarifies what healing does and does not require. It does not require silence. It does not require forgiveness as a condition of social acceptance. It does not require reconciliation with an abuser or an enabling institution. The piece implicitly supports a trauma-informed framework in which credibility, consent, and boundaries are non-negotiable. It also points toward institutional obligations: transparent reporting mechanisms, independent investigations, survivor-centered policies, and a culture that treats disclosure as a call to action rather than a threat to reputation.
Ultimately, Small’s testimony functions as an ethical mirror. It asks readers to distinguish between performative remorse and genuine accountability, between spiritual rhetoric and moral repair. The clearest lesson is not abstract: survivors heal when they are believed, supported, and empowered to define their own recovery—while institutions are required to confront the conditions that allowed abuse to occur in the first place.
Methods
This article is a first-person narrative authored by the contributor and underwent light editorial review for clarity, grammar, and house style.
Data Availability
No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current article. The article text is the intellectual property of the author.
References
(No external academic sources were cited for this interview.)
Journal & Article Details
- Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
- Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
- Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
- Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
- Journal: In-Sight: Interviews
- Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
- Frequency: Four Times Per Year
- Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
- Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
- Fees: None (Free)
- Volume Numbering: 13
- Issue Numbering: 4
- Section: B
- Theme Type: Discipline
- Theme Premise: Theology
- Theme Part: None
- Formal Sub-Theme: None.
- Individual Publication Date: December 15, 2025
- Issue Publication Date: January 1, 2026
- Author(s): Dorothy Small
- Word Count: 2,107
- Image Credits: Dorothy Small
- ISSN (International Standard Serial Number): 2369-6885
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges her spiritual director, Joan Stockbridge, Father Curtis, and Dr. Hermina Nedelescu.
Author Contributions
Dorothy Small produced and wrote this article as sole contributor with minor editorial notes by Scott Douglas Jacobsen and a reading by Father Curtis.
Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interests.
License & Copyright
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012–Present.Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.
Supplementary Information
Below are various citation formats for When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing (Dorothy Small, December 15, 2025).
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition)
Small D. When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing. December 15, 2025;13(4). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicineAmerican Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition)
Small, D. (2025, December 15). When the poison is also the medicine: How my experience with clergy abuse penetrated my deepest wound and became the catalyst for healing. In-Sight: Interviews, 13(4). In-Sight Publishing. http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicineBrazilian National Standards (ABNT)
SMALL, D. When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing. In-Sight: Interviews, Fort Langley, v. 13, n. 4, 15 dez. 2025. Disponível em: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicineChicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition)
Small, Dorothy. 2025. “When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing.” In-Sight: Interviews 13 (4). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicine.Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition)
Small, Dorothy. “When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing.” In-Sight: Interviews 13, no. 4 (December 15, 2025). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicine.Harvard
Small, D. (2025) ‘When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing’, In-Sight: Interviews, 13(4), 15 December. Available at: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicine.Harvard (Australian)
Small, D 2025, ‘When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing’, In-Sight: Interviews, vol. 13, no. 4, 15 December, viewed 15 December 2025, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicine.Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition)
Small, Dorothy. “When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing.” In-Sight: Interviews, vol. 13, no. 4, 2025, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicine.Vancouver/ICMJE
Small D. When the Poison is Also the Medicine: How My Experience with Clergy Abuse Penetrated My Deepest Wound and Became the Catalyst for Healing [Internet]. 2025 Dec 15;13(4). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/when-the-poison-is-also-the-medicineNote on Formatting
This document follows an adapted Nature research-article format tailored for an interview. Traditional sections such as Methods, Results, and Discussion are replaced with clearly defined parts: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Main Text (Article), and a concluding Discussion, along with supplementary sections detailing Data Availability, References, and Author Contributions. This structure maintains scholarly rigor while effectively accommodating narrative content.
#ClergyAbuse #HealingAndAgency #InstitutionalBetrayal #MeToo #MoralInjury #PostTraumaticGrowth #PowerAndAccountability #ReligiousTrauma #ShameAndSilence #SurvivorTestimony #TraumaInformedCare
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He's just taking out the trash right now. A lot like Castro did in the 70's.
That will all eventually settle down, with the majority of those participating in the knee-jerk reaction of the #mob_mentality eventually returning...
They've been subjugated as the downtrodden and insignificant chattel of those deprecated, privacy disrespecting, legacy monolithic silos. The #addiction is strong within them and they've been #assimilated by the prettiness of the #Darkside, lolz.
Many will however, choose to stay, enjoying the unbroken promises of #freedom and safety from being weighed, measured, butchered, packaged, and placed into inventory on the shelves of #Faceplant, #Twatter, #InstaSPAM, and other #deprecated_legacy_silos.
Many more will remain here while at the same time cave to the sinister beckonings of those evil mistresses, but at least they'll have one foot 🦶 here in the pasture of green 💚
For those of us that have been in this free space for the past 5 or 6 years, all we can do is welcome them back from the #Borg Collective and try to support their best inclinations as best we can.
The ultimate test of their commitment to protect the ownership of their #intellectual_property, privacy, and #identity is a matter they will ultimately have to decide the importance of for themselves.
Ask the best!
#tallship #FOSS #Fediverse #ActivityPub
⛵
.
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Book review: “Taoism for Beginners” by Elizabeth Reninger
“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
It’s almost a cliché to start any discussion of Taoism with a reference to the iconic first sentence of Tao Te Ching. Written by the legendary Chinese sage Lao Tzu (or by a diverse group of later followers around the 4th century BCE, as scholars now generally believe), this text remains one of the key sources on Taoism — an ancient Chinese synthesis of philosophy and religion based on the notion of living in harmony with the Tao, the ultimate principle behind all existence.
If you’ve heard of yin and yang, wu wei, qi gong or tai chi — these are all originally Taoist principles and practices. During the subsequent centuries, schools of Taoism merged and blended with Buddhism and Confucianism, adding to the cultural melting pot that was mediaeval China. Yet, there has always remained a distinctly Taoist element, recognisable in various — sometimes very subtle — differences from the other two religions / philosophies.
As with any ancient tradition with thousands of years of history and countless schools and sects, Taoism too can seem difficult to understand. Which is where introductory-level books come in handy! In this post I’ll present one that I’ve just finished reading, namely Elizabeth Reninger’s “Taoism for Beginners.”
Elizabeth Reninger is a freelance writer, poet and Taoist practitioner currently based in Boulder, Colorado. Her book “Taoism for Beginners,” subtitled Understanding and Applying Taoist History, Concepts, and Practices, is a slim volume consisting of the following seven chapters:
- What is Taoism?
- Core Concepts
- Core Teachings
- Approaches to Taoist Practice
- Common Myths and Misconceptions
- Taoist Schools and Lineages
- Taoism Today
There’s also a useful reading list for further study, as well as the appendix at the back of the book.
It‘s written in a casual, almost informal, style that may be helpful to those who are otherwised intimidated by the typically rigid strictures of academic writing. The author doesn’t ignore or skip over difficult or complicated topics, but she will simply point out that it takes years of consistent practice to full understand certain things. Fair enough, although I suspect some readers would have preferred a more thorough and slightly more detailed approach.
Is the brevity and lack of in-depth treatment of Taoism a weakness of this book? I think not, as it’s clearly aimed at total beginners who probably wouldn’t have benefitted from too much attention to detail and nuance. Reninger provides a clear and concise overview, with some practical advice for those who choose to spend more time exploring Taoism, ancient and/or modern. Having finished the book, I was definitely eager for more, which is a good sign!
I feel an important point here is that Taoism isn’t simply a school of thought and a matter of intellectual learning. It’s also an actual practice grounded in the body; the physical aspect of harmonizing with the Tao cannot be overestimated. No book can teach you qi gong, and no amount of theory can be a substitute for personal practice. (Needless to say, the same goes for other religions and their practices.)
This little book is something you’ll be able to finish in one or two sittings. It will provide you with the basics and offer a kind of roadmap for further exploration. It’s written in an unassuming and inviting way, that will at least spark some curiosity.
Four stars out of five.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Elizabeth Reninger (official website)
Taoism (entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica)
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Front gate of the Yuanxuan Taoist Temple in Guangzhou, China. Fei Wang via Pexels.
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the box below. You can also subscribe to my free monthly Newsletter and get a regular recap with additional content.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
#bookReview #books #China #Daoism #philosophy #qiGong #religion #spirituality #taiChi #Tao #Taoism
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The latest episode of This Week in Google was the best yet.
I enjoy most, if not all, TWiT.tv’s shows, with TWiG being my penultimate. I think it might be the fact that I’m a Jeff Jarvis groupie. And Paris Martineau is fabulous and has the perfect amount of snark and sass mixed with so much intellect that it’s mind blowing.
Leo On Vacation
This week, Leo Laporte, the chief TWiT himself was away. Paris and Jeff had Ed Zitron, who is a podcaster, but also a PR guy on the show. I was shocked when I heard that he was a PR person appearing on a TWiT network show. I always thought Leo shied away public relations people on the shows. Regardless, Ed’s no hold back, in-your-face views were amazing.
Paris did a great job keeping the show going. And Jeff was the amazing, grumpy-yet-still-happy, curmudgeon he aways is.
So What Was Different?
I hate to say it, the thing that was different was that Leo wasn’t arguing through the whole episode. I have mad respect for Leo and what he’s created with his network, but lately, it’s just not been as great. I haven’t really been able to put my finger on why exactly. But the part that was missing this week was in fact… Leo.
I don’t want to be too hard on Leo. He’s amazingly knowledgeable and I do value his take on things, but this episode was just so great.
Am I off here? Please let me know. I will die on the hill saying that this was the best TWiG yet.
https://sethgoldstein.me/the-latest-episode-of-this-week-in-google-was-the-best-yet/
#Critique #LeoLaporte #opinion #podcasting #TWiG #TWiT #TwitNetwork
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Reuters: Indian AI royalty proposal targets data practices of OpenAI, Google. “An Indian government panel has proposed requiring AI companies to pay content creators a share of revenue for using their work to train models, a setback for companies such as OpenAI and Google that back free access to publicly available data.”
-
Good marketing has a purpose and value.
It is to:
- introduce a product and a reason to buy it
- build customer relations
- enhance customer loyalty for future purchases
- reinforce the value of the brand
- enhance the company’s reputation
- generally produce good willSo here we have Melania Trump and her apparent PR act today.
I heard the majority of her speech on MSNBC/MSNOW.
Since she hasn’t demonstrated any intellectual capacity, it’s very likely it was written for her. So, by who, why, and for what purpose? And, since she hasn’t demonstrated any interest in or concern for anyone other than herself (and maybe Barron), are we really expected to believe that she has any concern for the Epstein victims?
So, back to good marketing. If Melania is the product and Trump the company, the PR stunt achieved nothing but a negative reaction to the brand, the company, and more questions about company corruption.
#Politics #Trump #MelaniaTrump #EpsteinFiles #Marketing #PR #PublicRelations #Brand #MSNBC #MSNOW
-
Good marketing has a purpose and value.
It is to:
- introduce a product and a reason to buy it
- build customer relations
- enhance customer loyalty for future purchases
- reinforce the value of the brand
- enhance the company’s reputation
- generally produce good willSo here we have Melania Trump and her apparent PR act today.
I heard the majority of her speech on MSNBC/MSNOW.
Since she hasn’t demonstrated any intellectual capacity, it’s very likely it was written for her. So, by who, why, and for what purpose? And, since she hasn’t demonstrated any interest in or concern for anyone other than herself (and maybe Barron), are we really expected to believe that she has any concern for the Epstein victims?
So, back to good marketing. If Melania is the product and Trump the company, the PR stunt achieved nothing but a negative reaction to the brand, the company, and more questions about company corruption.
#Politics #Trump #MelaniaTrump #EpsteinFiles #Marketing #PR #PublicRelations #Brand #MSNBC #MSNOW
-
Good marketing has a purpose and value.
It is to:
- introduce a product and a reason to buy it
- build customer relations
- enhance customer loyalty for future purchases
- reinforce the value of the brand
- enhance the company’s reputation
- generally produce good willSo here we have Melania Trump and her apparent PR act today.
I heard the majority of her speech on MSNBC/MSNOW.
Since she hasn’t demonstrated any intellectual capacity, it’s very likely it was written for her. So, by who, why, and for what purpose? And, since she hasn’t demonstrated any interest in or concern for anyone other than herself (and maybe Barron), are we really expected to believe that she has any concern for the Epstein victims?
So, back to good marketing. If Melania is the product and Trump the company, the PR stunt achieved nothing but a negative reaction to the brand, the company, and more questions about company corruption.
#Politics #Trump #MelaniaTrump #EpsteinFiles #Marketing #PR #PublicRelations #Brand #MSNBC #MSNOW
-
Creative NonFiction "True Stories, Well Told" might be a good translation, or description, for the Documentary Literature of Kyushu: 記録文学. Creative NonFiction sounds a lot more invitings somehow, more like fun, less like work. Maybe the writings of Michiko Ishimure, Eishin Ueno, Matsushita Ryuuichi and others is a bit of work though... This article by Madison Smartt Bell is kind of fun though, in spite of everything I guess...... there was a song that played in my head, sometimes with hallucinatory clarity, a simply structured number by Boukman Eksperyans, with few chord changes and a back-beat guitar figure that very closely followed the drum, and over this a sonorous refrain:
...
The verse, which also was simple and repetitive, spoke of the pain of being forced to accept foreign culture and the practices of foreign power.
...
Like any establishment of consequence in Port-au-Prince, St. Martial is a walled fortress, enclosing a church; a seminary for priests; a school that runs from elementary grades through the lycée level; a vast collection of books and documents on the Haitian Revolution, the slave trade, and Carribbean history in general; and the station Radio Soleil. Along with creating priests for the whole country, St. Martial turns out secular intellectuals who speak perfect, elegant, 18th-century French and have an astonishing clarity of vision; many of the most important writers and thinkers of Haiti had been educated here, and so had the lead singer of Boukman Eksperyans. St. Martial was an amazing concentration of spiritual power, which could sometimes translate itself into political power, via the radio beacon, among other means. The place was a great power node of liberation theology. Some of Aristide’s most powerful orations had taken place as broadcasts of Radio Soleil, notably the one he delivered from a mobile microphone, in a hail of bullets, as a popular demonstration outside the Duvalierist prison Fort Dimanche was murderously repressed by army troops.
- #^https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/soul-in-a-bottle/
#BoukmanEksperyans #HaitianMusic #MadisonSmarttBell #CreativeNonFiction #DocumentaryLiterature #記録文学
#^Soul in a Bottle - Creative Nonfiction -
Creative NonFiction "True Stories, Well Told" might be a good translation, or description, for the Documentary Literature of Kyushu: 記録文学. Creative NonFiction sounds a lot more invitings somehow, more like fun, less like work. Maybe the writings of Michiko Ishimure, Eishin Ueno, Matsushita Ryuuichi and others is a bit of work though... This article by Madison Smartt Bell is kind of fun though, in spite of everything I guess...... there was a song that played in my head, sometimes with hallucinatory clarity, a simply structured number by Boukman Eksperyans, with few chord changes and a back-beat guitar figure that very closely followed the drum, and over this a sonorous refrain:
...
The verse, which also was simple and repetitive, spoke of the pain of being forced to accept foreign culture and the practices of foreign power.
...
Like any establishment of consequence in Port-au-Prince, St. Martial is a walled fortress, enclosing a church; a seminary for priests; a school that runs from elementary grades through the lycée level; a vast collection of books and documents on the Haitian Revolution, the slave trade, and Carribbean history in general; and the station Radio Soleil. Along with creating priests for the whole country, St. Martial turns out secular intellectuals who speak perfect, elegant, 18th-century French and have an astonishing clarity of vision; many of the most important writers and thinkers of Haiti had been educated here, and so had the lead singer of Boukman Eksperyans. St. Martial was an amazing concentration of spiritual power, which could sometimes translate itself into political power, via the radio beacon, among other means. The place was a great power node of liberation theology. Some of Aristide’s most powerful orations had taken place as broadcasts of Radio Soleil, notably the one he delivered from a mobile microphone, in a hail of bullets, as a popular demonstration outside the Duvalierist prison Fort Dimanche was murderously repressed by army troops.
- #^https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/soul-in-a-bottle/
#BoukmanEksperyans #HaitianMusic #MadisonSmarttBell #CreativeNonFiction #DocumentaryLiterature #記録文学
#^Soul in a Bottle - Creative Nonfiction -
Creative NonFiction "True Stories, Well Told" might be a good translation, or description, for the Documentary Literature of Kyushu: 記録文学. Creative NonFiction sounds a lot more invitings somehow, more like fun, less like work. Maybe the writings of Michiko Ishimure, Eishin Ueno, Matsushita Ryuuichi and others is a bit of work though... This article by Madison Smartt Bell is kind of fun though, in spite of everything I guess...... there was a song that played in my head, sometimes with hallucinatory clarity, a simply structured number by Boukman Eksperyans, with few chord changes and a back-beat guitar figure that very closely followed the drum, and over this a sonorous refrain:
...
The verse, which also was simple and repetitive, spoke of the pain of being forced to accept foreign culture and the practices of foreign power.
...
Like any establishment of consequence in Port-au-Prince, St. Martial is a walled fortress, enclosing a church; a seminary for priests; a school that runs from elementary grades through the lycée level; a vast collection of books and documents on the Haitian Revolution, the slave trade, and Carribbean history in general; and the station Radio Soleil. Along with creating priests for the whole country, St. Martial turns out secular intellectuals who speak perfect, elegant, 18th-century French and have an astonishing clarity of vision; many of the most important writers and thinkers of Haiti had been educated here, and so had the lead singer of Boukman Eksperyans. St. Martial was an amazing concentration of spiritual power, which could sometimes translate itself into political power, via the radio beacon, among other means. The place was a great power node of liberation theology. Some of Aristide’s most powerful orations had taken place as broadcasts of Radio Soleil, notably the one he delivered from a mobile microphone, in a hail of bullets, as a popular demonstration outside the Duvalierist prison Fort Dimanche was murderously repressed by army troops.
- #^https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/soul-in-a-bottle/
#BoukmanEksperyans #HaitianMusic #MadisonSmarttBell #CreativeNonFiction #DocumentaryLiterature #記録文学
#^Soul in a Bottle - Creative Nonfiction -
Creative NonFiction "True Stories, Well Told" might be a good translation, or description, for the Documentary Literature of Kyushu: 記録文学. Creative NonFiction sounds a lot more invitings somehow, more like fun, less like work. Maybe the writings of Michiko Ishimure, Eishin Ueno, Matsushita Ryuuichi and others is a bit of work though... This article by Madison Smartt Bell is kind of fun though, in spite of everything I guess...... there was a song that played in my head, sometimes with hallucinatory clarity, a simply structured number by Boukman Eksperyans, with few chord changes and a back-beat guitar figure that very closely followed the drum, and over this a sonorous refrain:
...
The verse, which also was simple and repetitive, spoke of the pain of being forced to accept foreign culture and the practices of foreign power.
...
Like any establishment of consequence in Port-au-Prince, St. Martial is a walled fortress, enclosing a church; a seminary for priests; a school that runs from elementary grades through the lycée level; a vast collection of books and documents on the Haitian Revolution, the slave trade, and Carribbean history in general; and the station Radio Soleil. Along with creating priests for the whole country, St. Martial turns out secular intellectuals who speak perfect, elegant, 18th-century French and have an astonishing clarity of vision; many of the most important writers and thinkers of Haiti had been educated here, and so had the lead singer of Boukman Eksperyans. St. Martial was an amazing concentration of spiritual power, which could sometimes translate itself into political power, via the radio beacon, among other means. The place was a great power node of liberation theology. Some of Aristide’s most powerful orations had taken place as broadcasts of Radio Soleil, notably the one he delivered from a mobile microphone, in a hail of bullets, as a popular demonstration outside the Duvalierist prison Fort Dimanche was murderously repressed by army troops.
- #^https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/soul-in-a-bottle/
#BoukmanEksperyans #HaitianMusic #MadisonSmarttBell #CreativeNonFiction #DocumentaryLiterature #記録文学
#^Soul in a Bottle - Creative Nonfiction -
I took great pains on Sunday to explain for the Nth time why the "argument from ignorance" is false, manipulative, and arrogant. It involves circular reasoning, proof-burden shifting, self-deception, and using the presence of uncertainty--*to assert other unjustified certainty.*
I then got a response that was a most *beautiful* boiler-plate, texbook restatement of the same argument that I had just debunked! And you've heard it all before. Here goes:
//Science's ability to document the 'how' does not necessarily explain it, and partially explaining it doesn't illuminate the 'why.'//
This is "we can't explain" all over again, the classic core of the argument from ignorance. It usually means "I can't explain, because I haven't studied the subject in depth, and I have no idea what I'm talking about."
What makes anyone think that there IS a "why" to the universe? Everything that happens has a cause, but not necessarily a purpose. Saying we don't know something's "purpose" is a straw man through and through. We *can't* know purpose because purpose implies a mind we can't read, and represents a not-so-subtle argument for a "creator."
Take the question "Why does the Sun exist?" This demonstrates this absurdity of intent. Unless "gawd" directly *willed* the Sun into existence with a wave of their hand, it's there for the same reason as any other star. Why does any star in the universe exist? Because gravity coalesced gas and ignited a fusion reaction. Why did that happen? For the same reason you might climb a mountain--because it was there.
//there are notable gaps in the historical record//
So, what? Another core reference to ignorance. If there's a gap, that means a GAP. You don't get to fill it with whatever you want, or assert that the absence of knowledge somehow supports other knowledge we don't have. This is the blind leading the blind.
//the record is being rewritten constantly as new evidence comes to light//
Which is it? Are there gaps, or is the entire record suspect? You see how this is used to undermine the totality of science? Not only are we missing data, in this view, but the data we do have is supposedly suspect. And it's not suspect because of some specific error in a given experiment or paper this person discovered. That would take work. According to these buffoons, all scientific data is suspect--IN GENERAL.
Constant revision is *science functioning as designed.* Revisions to science ONLY happen when someone shoulders an extremely heavy burden of proof. It's not enough merely to question existing evidence. When challenging an existing theory, you have to provide *better* evidence, along with a new theory to explain it--and that's the tough part. That's why gaps in our knowledge persist, because probing those gaps is difficult.
And it's also why evidence that has stood the test of time will usually continue to do so. The way science advances usually has to do with discovering data that requires refinements of earlier theories, such as how Einstein's Relativity modified Newtonian mechanics. Nothing Newton discovered was overturned. His laws remain an excellent approximation for how matter behaves, except at near-light (relativistic) speeds.
//any scientist that does not accept the possibility of missing evidence cannot claim they understand the limits of possible knowledge.//
It's far worse than that: Any "scientist" who does not accept the possibility of missing evidence IS NOT A SCIENTIST.
//Absent evidence of intent....we are likely not going to get closer to the truth, because it's ineffable.//
There it is again, the insistence on knowing intent, or the "why." What makes anyone think that there is a "why" to the universe at all? (This is getting repetitive). "Ineffable" is one of the worst words in the English language. (Someone used to run a blog called "Effing the Ineffable." HA) The problem with the word is that it's obscurantist. It means "can't be known, described, or expressed." Once again this is a reference to the core of the argument from ignorance. "We can't know THIS--therefore we know THAT (which I just made up)."
//I simply am not going to accept that because [evidence of] something is missing means it isn't possible.//
Of course an infinite number of things are possible. The question is, WHICH THINGS are true or likely to be true??? And that's why evidence is all-important. Science doesn't rule things out, it rules them IN. With evidence! Once again this takes the form "We don't know that _______ is NOT true, so that means it's possibly true."
According to the argument from ignorance, you can fill in the blank with anything you want! Purple Chupacabras? Can't prove they don't exist. If they don't exist on Earth, they could exist on some other planet, right? Folks, this is unforgivable self-dishonesty. Until you find the purple Chupacabra, there's nothing to talk about. Then you could shift the criteria to orange Chupacabras we "can't prove don't exist," and on it goes.
Bertrand Russell's famous teapot thought experiment demonstrated the absurdity of this tactic.
//I know that many believe they know the limits of what is true. I do not.//
This is frankly the most arrogant form of the argument from ignorance. Because if you finish the thought what it really means is "I refuse to be held accountable to the body of work produced by the scientific method, or for any standards of evidence or burden of proof it imposes."
//The history of scientific investigation is one of the frequent need to reset and recalibrate what "truth" actually is.//
Yes, that's abundantly clear as previously stipulated. And that recalibration is done according to the strictest rules of evidence--not according to personal doubt. Doubt is effortless. Proof is difficult.
I'm sad to say that I've found that the "argument from ignorance" forms the core of the most stubborn and widely-held popular epistemology. You've heard all this from ignorant peopple, but also from so-called educated people who aren't trained in the probabilistic methods of the hard sciences.
The reason it's so popular is because it allows people to feel that their opinion "might" someday be proven true, even if it contradicts every single bit of current knowledge (pointy-headed, know-it-all) scientists spent centuries accumulating.
It's a total intellectual "get ouf of jail free" card.
This is the apocalypse Carl Sagan warned us about. It's all happening just like he said. Because of this mental rot, we're losing our ability to sustain a technological civilization. Because we forgot the rigor and mental discipline that got us here in the first place.
Do better, hoomons!
#ignorance #scientificmethod #logicalfallacy #burdenofproof #god #purpose #NOMA #universe #reality #teleology #creationism #argumentfromignorance #godofthegaps #sagan #russellsteapot
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Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives
https://www.the74million.org/article/her-school-bus-became-an-ambulance-uvalde/
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Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives
https://www.the74million.org/article/her-school-bus-became-an-ambulance-uvalde/
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Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives
https://www.the74million.org/article/her-school-bus-became-an-ambulance-uvalde/
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Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives
https://www.the74million.org/article/her-school-bus-became-an-ambulance-uvalde/
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Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives
https://www.the74million.org/article/her-school-bus-became-an-ambulance-uvalde/
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Re: ScottAaronson • Should GPT Exist?
• https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7042My Comment —
• https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7042#comment-1946764Well, here's one that woke me up in the middle of the night.
All I know is the current spate of intellectual property strip-mine operations is something close to the very antithesis of what attracted me to artificial intelligence (or intelligence amplification as Ashby more aptly conceived it) over fifty years ago. It now has all the hallmarks of yet another capital corporate exploitation of a formerly promising line of scientific inquiry. The movement pulling so many of us in way back when, promising to bring computing power to the people, is now a classic case of enantiodromia, gradually shifting the locus of control from the human individual to the corporate agenda.
The once cute metaphors leading us to personify programs have become misleading misdirections. Programs don't do anything but run, and they run with the agendas particular people give them. It is time to stop falling for the prestidigitation and start paying attention to the corporate pseudo-personhood behind the screen.
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Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel - Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporte... more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9A_Gw385VJg/ #nationalhighwaytrafficsafetyadministration #u.s.departmentoftransportation #artificialintelligence #intellectualventures #transportationweekly #anthonylevandowski #softbankvisionfund #electricvehicles #ingridlunden
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Caleb Nichols – Stone Age Is Back
Let’s just get straight to it, Caleb Nichols is not playing around. His third solo album, Stone Age Is Back, is a full-on, fascinating deep-dive into what it actually feels like to be alive right now, in this moment when everything feels like it’s accelerating toward a cliff edge. Forget your standard breakup albums because this is a meditation on existential grief that comes along with living through a mass extinction event. It’s heavy, brilliant, and it’s an essential addition to his growing catalog of music and poetry. Coming at us on Royal Oakie, this new LP isn’t explicitly a political album, and it’s not just hammering you over the head with climate crisis talking points. Instead, it’s far more subtle and powerful. Nichols is exploring the messy, complicated feelings that flood into your everyday life when you know the world is fundamentally changing. We’re talking about interrogating the grief, guilt,complicity, and the sheer fear, but also finding space for the joy, anger, and the dissociative feeling of watching the world burn while you still have to buy groceries. This album is a full emotional syllabus for modern living.
You can tell immediately that Nichols brings a different kind of brainpower to his music. This album reads like contemporary indie rock and alt folk. He takes his intellectual depth and translates it directly into sound. The influences are wild, from the landscapes of North Wales, where he wrote the songs, to the complex poetry and theory he was reading, and the raw energy of UK DIY bands. The result is a well-curated but totally wild ride through an aesthetic of queer ecology, rustic punk, existential folk, and moments of pure, frenetic indie pop. The sound itself is what really cements the strength of this material. It was produced by Nichols himself and mixed and engineered by the incredible Jay Pellicci, who has also worked with people like The Dodos and Deerhoof. The album is sonically excellent because it sounds huge, clear, and perfectly balanced. But here’s the trick, the performances themselves ooze this unbelievable sense of closeness. They recorded the entire thing in Oakland in just five days, sticking to a strict ‘first take-best take’ rule. That combination, perfect sound quality mixed with raw, live energy, makes it feel so urgent. It has that glorious, rough-around-the-edges immediacy that might remind you of so many artists and bands at once.
Across these 13 dynamic, lovingly produced gems, Nichols blends genres with such precision and finesse. You get moments of straight-up, acoustic-driven existential folk where the guitar work is thoughtful and layered, reflecting the quiet meditation on loss. Then, out of nowhere, you get these explosive blasts of fierce indie pop that capture the anger and the anxiety. It’s an album that demands attention because you never know what’s coming next. A sample of voices recorded in a 600-year-old church, a spoken word section, a dip into experimental jazz, or a surprise flash of genuine Neil Young-esque guitar shredding. It’s all over the place, and that scattered approach perfectly mirrors the scattered mental state of living through extraordinary change. The band that backs Nichols on this record plays with tremendous precision. They manage to be technically proficient while completely maintaining that “first take” adrenaline. The drumming is intense, energetic, and constantly driving the momentum, pushing the songs through their complex emotional shifts. The basslines are warm and grounding, providing the necessary low-end anchor when the guitars are spiraling into anxiety or the melodies are stretching out into philosophical space. Every element is there to interrogate the theme, not just to fill space.
This is Nichols’ finest effort yet. It’s his first project since successfully parting ways with Kill Rock Stars, marking a true return to music after completing the massive intellectual undertaking of his PhD. You can hear that sense of release and clarity in the performance. If you are looking for an album that doesn’t shy away from the massive anxieties of our time but still gives you genuinely great indie rock hooks and dynamic, compelling music, then Stone Age Is Back will be right up your alley. It challenges you intellectually, grabs you emotionally, and hits you with the raw power of a great indie record. Go check it out and prepare to think, grieve, and rock out all at once.
#altFolk #alternative #calebNichols #indiePop #indieRock #music #reviews
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Editor in chief of #Russia Novaya Gazeta Europe on exile posted a lengthy comment on the Russian “historic exhibition” at the #Katyn massacre memorial, about which I wrote a week ago:
The concept of ‘Spanish shame’ is widely known, but today I am experiencing ‘Medinsky’s shame’. It is a phenomenon that is difficult to define, where impostors representing your country commit unimaginable acts of villainy on a historic scale in order to justify their claim to power.
The Russian Military-Historical Society (RMHS) has sent a new delegation to the Katyn memorial complex, the site of the mass execution of Polish prisoners of war by NKVD officers. The new leadership is not sitting idly by and has already announced an exhibition entitled ‘Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia’, which will take place right next to the graves of the murdered Poles.
Looking back over the atrocities committed by the Russian authorities in recent years, it is difficult to immediately think of an equivalent. This is not direct military aggression, nor is it the state’s extermination of its own citizens – here we are talking about something perhaps even more shameful.
Together with #Hitler, the Soviet authorities partitioned #Poland, deported and killed countless people, and in 1940 shot Polish prisoners of war. Afterwards, for decades, they pretended they had nothing to do with it, claiming that Hitler’s punitive forces were supposedly responsible for the shootings.
Rumour has it that the mighty Soviet Union behaved like a pathetic drunkard who hides his escapades from acquaintances because he is ashamed and afraid to admit to them. It was only towards the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika that they had the conscience to make a confession, when TASS published a statement to that effect in 1990. This was a step towards reconciliation with the Polish people, which is impossible without honesty. The USSR joined Alcoholics Anonymous fifty years after the deed was done.
In 2000, a memorial complex was opened at the site of the crime in the Smolensk region, and since then a wealth of archival documents has been published. And now, after numerous attempts to pretend that nothing had happened, the collective shame has spoken out loud and clear.
It turns out that ten centuries of Polish Russophobia are to blame for everything! It turns out that it wasn’t the #USSR that formed an alliance with Hitler to destroy Poland, and it wasn’t the #NKVD that committed war crimes, but simply that Poles are such innate Russophobes.
There is a huge mutual interest among intellectuals in Poland and Russia; take, for example, the figure of Adam Michnik, who published a joint book of conversations with Alexei Navalny. When people in Russia are jailed for calling for peace, Poland is the first to come to the rescue and save Russians from torture – hundreds of people have been able to leave the country since February 2022 thanks to the Polish government.
In a normal world, Poland is Russia’s key cultural and economic partner in Europe. But to achieve this, we must stop lying like the RMHS. It is deeply shameful.
Source: https://xcancel.com/kmartynov/status/2044408053299077541?s=20
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Editor in chief of #Russia Novaya Gazeta Europe on exile posted a lengthy comment on the Russian “historic exhibition” at the #Katyn massacre memorial, about which I wrote a week ago:
The concept of ‘Spanish shame’ is widely known, but today I am experiencing ‘Medinsky’s shame’. It is a phenomenon that is difficult to define, where impostors representing your country commit unimaginable acts of villainy on a historic scale in order to justify their claim to power.
The Russian Military-Historical Society (RMHS) has sent a new delegation to the Katyn memorial complex, the site of the mass execution of Polish prisoners of war by NKVD officers. The new leadership is not sitting idly by and has already announced an exhibition entitled ‘Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia’, which will take place right next to the graves of the murdered Poles.
Looking back over the atrocities committed by the Russian authorities in recent years, it is difficult to immediately think of an equivalent. This is not direct military aggression, nor is it the state’s extermination of its own citizens – here we are talking about something perhaps even more shameful.
Together with #Hitler, the Soviet authorities partitioned #Poland, deported and killed countless people, and in 1940 shot Polish prisoners of war. Afterwards, for decades, they pretended they had nothing to do with it, claiming that Hitler’s punitive forces were supposedly responsible for the shootings.
Rumour has it that the mighty Soviet Union behaved like a pathetic drunkard who hides his escapades from acquaintances because he is ashamed and afraid to admit to them. It was only towards the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika that they had the conscience to make a confession, when TASS published a statement to that effect in 1990. This was a step towards reconciliation with the Polish people, which is impossible without honesty. The USSR joined Alcoholics Anonymous fifty years after the deed was done.
In 2000, a memorial complex was opened at the site of the crime in the Smolensk region, and since then a wealth of archival documents has been published. And now, after numerous attempts to pretend that nothing had happened, the collective shame has spoken out loud and clear.
It turns out that ten centuries of Polish Russophobia are to blame for everything! It turns out that it wasn’t the #USSR that formed an alliance with Hitler to destroy Poland, and it wasn’t the #NKVD that committed war crimes, but simply that Poles are such innate Russophobes.
There is a huge mutual interest among intellectuals in Poland and Russia; take, for example, the figure of Adam Michnik, who published a joint book of conversations with Alexei Navalny. When people in Russia are jailed for calling for peace, Poland is the first to come to the rescue and save Russians from torture – hundreds of people have been able to leave the country since February 2022 thanks to the Polish government.
In a normal world, Poland is Russia’s key cultural and economic partner in Europe. But to achieve this, we must stop lying like the RMHS. It is deeply shameful.
Source: https://xcancel.com/kmartynov/status/2044408053299077541?s=20
-
Editor in chief of #Russia Novaya Gazeta Europe on exile posted a lengthy comment on the Russian “historic exhibition” at the #Katyn massacre memorial, about which I wrote a week ago:
The concept of ‘Spanish shame’ is widely known, but today I am experiencing ‘Medinsky’s shame’. It is a phenomenon that is difficult to define, where impostors representing your country commit unimaginable acts of villainy on a historic scale in order to justify their claim to power.
The Russian Military-Historical Society (RMHS) has sent a new delegation to the Katyn memorial complex, the site of the mass execution of Polish prisoners of war by NKVD officers. The new leadership is not sitting idly by and has already announced an exhibition entitled ‘Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia’, which will take place right next to the graves of the murdered Poles.
Looking back over the atrocities committed by the Russian authorities in recent years, it is difficult to immediately think of an equivalent. This is not direct military aggression, nor is it the state’s extermination of its own citizens – here we are talking about something perhaps even more shameful.
Together with #Hitler, the Soviet authorities partitioned #Poland, deported and killed countless people, and in 1940 shot Polish prisoners of war. Afterwards, for decades, they pretended they had nothing to do with it, claiming that Hitler’s punitive forces were supposedly responsible for the shootings.
Rumour has it that the mighty Soviet Union behaved like a pathetic drunkard who hides his escapades from acquaintances because he is ashamed and afraid to admit to them. It was only towards the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika that they had the conscience to make a confession, when TASS published a statement to that effect in 1990. This was a step towards reconciliation with the Polish people, which is impossible without honesty. The USSR joined Alcoholics Anonymous fifty years after the deed was done.
In 2000, a memorial complex was opened at the site of the crime in the Smolensk region, and since then a wealth of archival documents has been published. And now, after numerous attempts to pretend that nothing had happened, the collective shame has spoken out loud and clear.
It turns out that ten centuries of Polish Russophobia are to blame for everything! It turns out that it wasn’t the #USSR that formed an alliance with Hitler to destroy Poland, and it wasn’t the #NKVD that committed war crimes, but simply that Poles are such innate Russophobes.
There is a huge mutual interest among intellectuals in Poland and Russia; take, for example, the figure of Adam Michnik, who published a joint book of conversations with Alexei Navalny. When people in Russia are jailed for calling for peace, Poland is the first to come to the rescue and save Russians from torture – hundreds of people have been able to leave the country since February 2022 thanks to the Polish government.
In a normal world, Poland is Russia’s key cultural and economic partner in Europe. But to achieve this, we must stop lying like the RMHS. It is deeply shameful.
Source: https://xcancel.com/kmartynov/status/2044408053299077541?s=20
-
Editor in chief of #Russia Novaya Gazeta Europe on exile posted a lengthy comment on the Russian “historic exhibition” at the #Katyn massacre memorial, about which I wrote a week ago:
The concept of ‘Spanish shame’ is widely known, but today I am experiencing ‘Medinsky’s shame’. It is a phenomenon that is difficult to define, where impostors representing your country commit unimaginable acts of villainy on a historic scale in order to justify their claim to power.
The Russian Military-Historical Society (RMHS) has sent a new delegation to the Katyn memorial complex, the site of the mass execution of Polish prisoners of war by NKVD officers. The new leadership is not sitting idly by and has already announced an exhibition entitled ‘Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia’, which will take place right next to the graves of the murdered Poles.
Looking back over the atrocities committed by the Russian authorities in recent years, it is difficult to immediately think of an equivalent. This is not direct military aggression, nor is it the state’s extermination of its own citizens – here we are talking about something perhaps even more shameful.
Together with #Hitler, the Soviet authorities partitioned #Poland, deported and killed countless people, and in 1940 shot Polish prisoners of war. Afterwards, for decades, they pretended they had nothing to do with it, claiming that Hitler’s punitive forces were supposedly responsible for the shootings.
Rumour has it that the mighty Soviet Union behaved like a pathetic drunkard who hides his escapades from acquaintances because he is ashamed and afraid to admit to them. It was only towards the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika that they had the conscience to make a confession, when TASS published a statement to that effect in 1990. This was a step towards reconciliation with the Polish people, which is impossible without honesty. The USSR joined Alcoholics Anonymous fifty years after the deed was done.
In 2000, a memorial complex was opened at the site of the crime in the Smolensk region, and since then a wealth of archival documents has been published. And now, after numerous attempts to pretend that nothing had happened, the collective shame has spoken out loud and clear.
It turns out that ten centuries of Polish Russophobia are to blame for everything! It turns out that it wasn’t the #USSR that formed an alliance with Hitler to destroy Poland, and it wasn’t the #NKVD that committed war crimes, but simply that Poles are such innate Russophobes.
There is a huge mutual interest among intellectuals in Poland and Russia; take, for example, the figure of Adam Michnik, who published a joint book of conversations with Alexei Navalny. When people in Russia are jailed for calling for peace, Poland is the first to come to the rescue and save Russians from torture – hundreds of people have been able to leave the country since February 2022 thanks to the Polish government.
In a normal world, Poland is Russia’s key cultural and economic partner in Europe. But to achieve this, we must stop lying like the RMHS. It is deeply shameful.
Source: https://xcancel.com/kmartynov/status/2044408053299077541?s=20
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@black_intellect
Completely & unquestionably violates the #Constitutional #FirstAmendment right to Assembly. And #Conservatives are like:"Sure. I'm fine with that as long as the people protesting aren't me." #BLM
But try to impose the SLIGHTEST restriction on the #SecondAmendment, and it's The Apocalypse. You can't give even ONE INCH on your 2A right b/c of the #SlipperySlope argument. 😒