#intellectuals — Public Fediverse posts

Critique Is Over, Morality Is Dead, and Surreal Utopias Are Where It’s At

An article by #LuceDeLire in #eflux journal.

Intellectuals used to publicly critique the powerful on moral grounds. Today, both critique and morality have become dysfunctional—for perfectly political and material reasons. I argue that, for political gains, we should now craft surreal utopias—hospitable, euphoric, lesbian.

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/163/6776891/critique-is-over-morality-is-dead-and-surreal-utopias-are-where-it-s-at

#humanities #philosophy #intellectuals #socialmedia #queer #queerart #theory #queertheory

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.
-- Christopher Morley

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #ChristopherMorley #Intellectuals #Life #Humor

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #GreatSandDunes #Colorado

"The magazine’s politics were what passes for center-left in the United States. […] The operating orthodoxy was that police killings, CIA coups, black site torture, and institutional misogyny were aberrations, deviations from the American norm that would eventually be corrected when the arc of the moral universe, long as it is, finally got around to them."

by Ismail Ibrahim: https://bidoun.org/articles/house-arab

#beliefs #intellectuals #coloniality #elites #prestige #sociality #status #subcultures #socialStatus #liberals #sociology #NYC #NewYorker #TheNewYorker #Manhattan #racism #negrophobia #Bidoun #islamophobia #media #press #journalism #journalists

@Nonilex From #LawrenceBritt 's #CharacteristicsOfFascism :

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/110832318168556366

#eu #israel #palestine: #war / #gaza / #intellectuals / #postwarorder

„Condemning atrocities or expressing abstract support for a 'two-state solution' is no longer sufficient, argues an international group of 121 academics and intellectuals, including Kenneth Pomeranz and Gisèle Sapiro.“

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/29/we-call-on-the-european-union-to-endorse-a-confederation-of-the-states-of-israel-and-palestine-in-one-homeland_6740721_23.html

@dmacphee From #LawrenceBritt's #CharacteristicsOfFascism
"11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts."
https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/110832318168556366

The Intellectual Smoothie: Blending Minds of Descartes, Freud, and Jung

#Philosophy #Psychology #Descartes #Freud #Jung #MindBody #CognitivePsychology #Intellectuals #PhilosophicalJourney #Psychoanalysis #Archetypes #HumanExperience #MentalHealth #ExploreYourMind #ThoughtsAndFeelings #BingeWatching #IntellectualSmoothie

https://youtube.com/shorts/P6na13w0gY0?feature=share

From #LawrenceBritt's #CharacteristicsOfFascism

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
"Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts."
https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/110832318168556366

#LawrenceBritt #CharacteristicsOfFascism Numbers 1 and 11...

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

Trump targets 'anti-American ideology' at Smithsonian museums

by Max Matza, 3/27/2025

"US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.

"The order directs the vice-president to 'eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology' from the institute's museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.

"It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which 'have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history'.

"The move is part of Trump's effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics."

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjy1jmvvwzo
#ChristoFascism #ChristianRight #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Fascists #TurdReich

@odaraia Number 11 on #LawrenceBritt's #CharacteristicsOfFascism list.

"11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
#Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts."

https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/110832318168556366

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
-- Albert Einstein

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertEinstein #Geniuses #Intellectuals #ProblemSolving

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BWCA #RoseFalls #Minnesota

#Fascist much, #DonTheCon? Must be reading his copy of #MeinKampf again. Britt commentary refers to "14 Characteristics of Fascism" by #LawrenceBritt.

10 alarming things #Trump has promised to do in a second term

by Judd Legum
and Rebecca Crosby
Dec 12, 2023

1. Trump says he will "abuse power" and be a "dictator" on "day one."

2. Trump says #ElectionFraud in 2020 gives him the power to "terminate" the Constitution
[Britt: "Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."]

3. Trump says he will issue "full pardons" to #January6 #insurrectionists
[Britt: "Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption"]

4. Trump says he will cut funding to schools that cover subjects he believes are "inappropriate"
[Britt: "Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts"]

5. Trump says he will legally erase trans people and ban them from military service
[Britt: "The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation."]

6. Trump says he will end birthright citizenship by executive order
[Britt: Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause"]

7. Trump says he will impose a new 10% tax on all imported goods
[Britt: "Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism"]

8. Trump says he will investigate NBC and MSNBC for treason and potentially remove the company from public airwaves
[Britt: "Controlled #MassMedia"]

9. Trump says he will demand anyone convicted of selling drugs get the death penalty
[Britt: "Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment"]

10. Trump says he will order the arrest of all urban homeless and relocate them to federally-run tent cities
[Britt: "Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights"]

Full article:
https://popular.info/p/10-alarming-things-trump-has-promised

#CharacteristicsOfFascism #MAGA #Fascism #History #RabidRight #ChristoFascism #Project2025

Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of #Fascism

[Unattributed, but based on the writings of #UmbertoEco]

"#Historian #LawrenceBritt studied the fascist regimes of #Hitler (Germany), #Mussolini (Italy), #Franco (Spain), #Suharto (Indonesia), and #Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.

3. Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: #racial, #ethnic or #religious #minorities; #liberals; #communists; #socialists, #terrorists…

4. Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.

6. Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.

7. Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. #Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. #FraudulentElections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2017/08/23/lawrence-britt-14-characteristics-of-fascism/

#History #Histodon #RabidRight #Antifa #Antifascism #FarRight #Trump #Putin #Russia #MAGA #Project2025 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DetentionCenters #VoterDisenfranchisement #VoterIDLaws #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent

And they outnumber the thinkers… and they vote! 😵‍💫#philosophy #Descarte #thinking #critical #criticalthought #sociology #psychology #psychoanalysis #Freud #intellectuals #Monday #america #MAGA #qanon #trump #donaldtrump

... education is largely identical with what Ellul calls “pre-propaganda”—the conditioning of minds with vast amounts of incoherent information, already dispensed for ulterior purposes and posing as “facts” and as “education.” Ellul follows through by designating intellectuals as virtually the most vulnerable of all to modern propaganda, for three reasons:
1. they absorb the largest amount of secondhand, unverifiable information;
2. they feel a compelling need to have an opinion on every important question of our time, and thus easily succumb to opinions offered to them by propaganda on all such indigestible pieces of information;
3. they consider themselves capable of “judging for themselves.” They literally need propaganda.
In fact, the need for propaganda on the part of the “propagandee” is one of the most powerful elements of Ellul’s thesis.

Assuming an attitude in the reader is a good way of putting it there.