#darktimes — Public Fediverse posts

#iphone forçando usuários a se identificar. Aqui no #brasil essa #leifelca tem que ser modificada.

"Verificação de idade tem se tornado uma desculpa universal para obrigar que todos os usuários se identifiquem, uma injustiça para usuários de qualquer idade."

https://stallman.org/archives/2026-jan-apr.html#1_April_2026_(iMonsters_in_UK_demanding_proof_of_age)

#ageverification #1984 #darktimes #evilcorp #eviltech

Миленький текст про не-проблемность и удобство для власти современного искусства, про музейный маркетинг, про риторику о «тёмных временах» и про снисходительное отношение к зритель:ницам: https://kunstkritikk.com/the-end-is-nigh-ish/ #NoraArrheniusHagdahl #artcriticism #museums #generalpessimism #darktimes #condescending #press #KarolRadziszewski

Миленький текст про не-проблемность и удобство для власти современного искусства, про музейный маркетинг, про риторику о «тёмных временах» и про снисходительное отношение к зритель:ницам: https://kunstkritikk.com/the-end-is-nigh-ish/ #NoraArrheniusHagdahl #artcriticism #museums #generalpessimism #darktimes #condescending #press #KarolRadziszewski

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Sunday, January 4, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/sunday-january-4-2026/

Sunday, January 4, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/sunday-january-4-2026/

Phillip Bump and Clumsy Nazi Comparisons

Phillip Bump, a thinker and writer I greatly admire has an intriguing, yet troubling piece titled There Are Limits To The Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I say troubling, not because I disagree with his points, but because I think it misses the larger one everyone is too afraid to acknowledge.

It is intriguing on an intellectual level, and nuanced on several levels. But I hasten to say that we’re living in a moment without much room for nuance, and as for the intellectual part? I’m afraid we’re suffering losses there as well.

Looking to explore further whether or not the Trump administration’s use of anti-immigrant rhetoric could be compared to the Nazi movement, Bump reached out to several historians who “generally agree that while the comparison was imperfect, it was not completely unfair.”  I urge you to read Bump’s column before continuing here.

I won’t argue with the callbacks to the history of America’s own xenophobia. Let’s remember where the Nazis claimed to get some of their ideas from. As a species we seem to be entirely incapable of finding news ways to diminish and dehumanize those we don’t like or want to scapegoat on the path to power. Nor will I argue that it depends on what part of the Nazi timeline you drop into when making comparisons.

I will say this.

While no one knows how any of this will turn out, the fact that we’re living through any resemblance, no matter how clumsy or incoherent it may be in comparison to past political movements here or abroad, should be more than enough to call us up short and put a stop to it.

Bump states:

So Trump’s allies have a point: Comparisons to Nazism, particularly the late-stage Nazism with which we are all familiar, are imperfect. The president’s administration mirrors that party’s ascent a century ago in other ways — its bullying, the collapse of opposition from the existing establishment — that sharpen the criticism. If it is on the same path forward, though, there is still a long way to go, and a lot of time to change direction.

The comparisons may indeed be imperfect. However, every time civilization has beaten back these ill winds it has had to do so imperfectly as well, having to stoop below many of the values we rallied to save in the name of those values.

There may indeed still be time for a change in direction. That said, I would argue that the longer the weak-kneed and cowardly capitulators let this go on, not only does that window of time close, but it makes it harder to pry back open even after all of the glass has been broken.

(Image from Claudio Divizia on Shutterstock)

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

#darkTimes #donaldTrump2 #donaldTrump #fascism #history #phillipBump #politics #trump

#darktimes
How much Berlin has changed since the #80ies
Another find in the amount of photos I took back then while looking through my photo stock. What you do when it's the season to do things indoors.

#WindowFriday into the past #Fensterfreitag

Despite the 'dark times'
Reimagine what is possible

Our Time is Now.
" We believe that in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, working people deserve a dignified life." Zohran Mamdani, NY
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDURJbMehc

" To Future Generations
We surely live in dark times.
I came to the cities at a time of disorder
When hunger reigned there.
I came among the people at a time of upheaval
And I rose up in revolt with them..." B.B. >>
https://terencerenaud.com/2016/11/09/a-poem-for-dark-times/

" We won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do. "

The full transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech after being elected NYC mayor >>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/zohran-mamdani-victory-speech-transcript
#DarkTimes #democracy #work #CostOfLiving #FoodInsecurity #housing #UltraRich #citizens #CivicEngagement #participation #NYC #politics

Despite the 'dark times'
Reimagine what is possible

Our Time is Now.
" We believe that in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, working people deserve a dignified life." Zohran Mamdani, NY
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDURJbMehc

" To Future Generations
We surely live in dark times.
I came to the cities at a time of disorder
When hunger reigned there.
I came among the people at a time of upheaval
And I rose up in revolt with them..." B.B. >>
https://terencerenaud.com/2016/11/09/a-poem-for-dark-times/

" We won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do. "

The full transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech after being elected NYC mayor >>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/zohran-mamdani-victory-speech-transcript
#DarkTimes #democracy #work #CostOfLiving #FoodInsecurity #housing #UltraRich #citizens #CivicEngagement #participation #NYC #politics

Looking down on #SuperiorWisconsin from #Duluth #Minnesota #roadtrip #usa #darktimes #CalmBeforeTheStorm

Looking down on #SuperiorWisconsin from #Duluth #Minnesota #roadtrip #usa #darktimes #CalmBeforeTheStorm

Looking down on #SuperiorWisconsin from #Duluth #Minnesota #roadtrip #usa #darktimes #CalmBeforeTheStorm

Looking down on #SuperiorWisconsin from #Duluth #Minnesota #roadtrip #usa #darktimes #CalmBeforeTheStorm

#imho #Putin, #Trump and #Zelenksyy should all be removed from office

as they are all unable or unwilling to work together

#Ukraine #kharkiv #hospital hit by drone

1. #Zelenskyy knew in advance (?) that a #karkiv #hospital will be hit? (with #drone not ballistic as the said in #pressconference)

2. #Putin #Russia struck #Ukraine with 130 drones from 28.2. to 1.3. not exactly what someone looking for #peace would do
#Putin does not want reform, but absolute #power

3. #Trump the almost shot president is of course #ruthless #egoist wanna be #king of #America (a #fascist without knowing it? trying to become #dictator, so #Putin is his #idol)

#darktimes when #evil gets in #power #shit get's worse

https://liveuamap.com/en/2025/28-february-21-russian-strike-drone-had-targeted-medical

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-drone-strike-hits-medical-facility-other-targets-kharkiv-mayor-says-2025-02-28/

#wtf #russia #europe #eu #usa #ahoh #wtf #ww3? #terror #catastrophe

#SolsticeGreetings #Solstice #Solstice2024 #Peace #DarkTimes #BringBackTheLight

#SolsticeGreetings #Solstice #Solstice2024 #Peace #DarkTimes #BringBackTheLight

Day 4 of my Advent of Music where I am listing my top 25 albums of the year. #music #top25 #albumsoftheyear #vincestaples #darktimes https://austinzani.dev/music?year=2024&album=22

Day 4 of my Advent of Music where I am listing my top 25 albums of the year. #music #top25 #albumsoftheyear #vincestaples #darktimes https://austinzani.dev/music?year=2024&album=22

"#Universities in #DarkTimes: Beyond the #Plague of #Neoliberal #Fascism. Facing #authoritarian #threats, #universities—once #progressive hubs of higher learning—are now under #siege.

Many prioritize #profit, #suppress #dissent, and adopt #predatory #capitalism, betraying their democratic mission."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #HigherEducation #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Religion #Censorship #RepublicanParty #ThePartyOfHate #EmptyThePews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/04/universities-in-dark-times-beyond-the-plague-of-neoliberal-fascism/

"#Universities in #DarkTimes: Beyond the #Plague of #Neoliberal #Fascism. Facing #authoritarian #threats, #universities—once #progressive hubs of higher learning—are now under #siege.

Many prioritize #profit, #suppress #dissent, and adopt #predatory #capitalism, betraying their democratic mission."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #HigherEducation #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Religion #Censorship #RepublicanParty #ThePartyOfHate #EmptyThePews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/04/universities-in-dark-times-beyond-the-plague-of-neoliberal-fascism/

"#Universities in #DarkTimes: Beyond the #Plague of #Neoliberal #Fascism. Facing #authoritarian #threats, #universities—once #progressive hubs of higher learning—are now under #siege.

Many prioritize #profit, #suppress #dissent, and adopt #predatory #capitalism, betraying their democratic mission."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #HigherEducation #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Religion #Censorship #RepublicanParty #ThePartyOfHate #EmptyThePews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/04/universities-in-dark-times-beyond-the-plague-of-neoliberal-fascism/

"#Universities in #DarkTimes: Beyond the #Plague of #Neoliberal #Fascism. Facing #authoritarian #threats, #universities—once #progressive hubs of higher learning—are now under #siege.

Many prioritize #profit, #suppress #dissent, and adopt #predatory #capitalism, betraying their democratic mission."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #HigherEducation #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Religion #Censorship #RepublicanParty #ThePartyOfHate #EmptyThePews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/04/universities-in-dark-times-beyond-the-plague-of-neoliberal-fascism/

"#Universities in #DarkTimes: Beyond the #Plague of #Neoliberal #Fascism. Facing #authoritarian #threats, #universities—once #progressive hubs of higher learning—are now under #siege.

Many prioritize #profit, #suppress #dissent, and adopt #predatory #capitalism, betraying their democratic mission."

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #HigherEducation #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Religion #Censorship #RepublicanParty #ThePartyOfHate #EmptyThePews

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/04/universities-in-dark-times-beyond-the-plague-of-neoliberal-fascism/

@rolarizpe this helped me not fall into a pit just now. Even if things could be bad. I’m still not on windows and that, that makes things feel okay right now. Thank you for reminding me of this. #linux #windows #DarkTimes #dodgedabullet

@rolarizpe this helped me not fall into a pit just now. Even if things could be bad. I’m still not on windows and that, that makes things feel okay right now. Thank you for reminding me of this. #linux #windows #DarkTimes #dodgedabullet

@rolarizpe this helped me not fall into a pit just now. Even if things could be bad. I’m still not on windows and that, that makes things feel okay right now. Thank you for reminding me of this. #linux #windows #DarkTimes #dodgedabullet