#reticence — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

And how many loves have perished because, from pride, or spite, or diffidence, or that unmanly shame which withholds a man from daring to betray emotion, a lover, at the critical point of the relation, has but hung his head and held his tongue?

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #emotion #love #masculinity #relationship #reticence #shame #shuttingdown #silence

#love #quote #silence #quotes #shame #masculinity

GarryRogers Nature Conservation @[email protected] · 2026-01-18 · 13:55 UTC

The Danger of “Reticence on Steroids”

In a candid December 2025 appearance on the program Climate Chat, climatologist James Hansen spoke plainly regarding the state of global climate communication. He described the scientific community’s current posture not merely as cautious, but as “scientific reticence on steroids”. Hansen argued that the persistent political narrative, that global warming can still be limited to 1.5°C via net-zero emissions by 2050, is “hogwash,” explicitly stating that such a figure “exposes too much” about the widening gap between official goals and physical reality. He noted greenhouse gas forcing is still increasing, making the 1.5°C target physically implausible without massive, immediate interventions that go far beyond current commitments.

This urgent warning serves as the catalyst for the deep-dive essay, Epistemic Reticence and the Structural Underestimation of Catastrophic Climate Risk. While Hansen sounds the alarm on the immediate data, the essay investigates the deep-seated structural and sociological reasons such warnings are routinely muffled. It explores the “Erring on the Side of Least Drama” (ESLD) hypothesis, which suggests scientists are culturally predisposed to downplay extreme risks to avoid accusations of alarmism. It examines how the IPCC’s requirement for consensus acts as a structural filter, often excising the “fat tails” of probability distributions, the very worst-case scenarios that Hansen warns we are ignoring.

If Hansen is right, and reticence has indeed gone too far, understanding the machinery of this silence is no longer just an academic exercise, it is a survival imperative. The essay attempts to dismantle that machinery to show exactly how and why we underestimate the risk of ruin.

Read More (Download the PDF)

#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #JamesHansen #reticence

#climatechange #globalwarming #jameshansen #reticence

Chuck Darwin @[email protected] · 2026-01-17 · 22:06 UTC

Already, since Sept. 1, 2025,
ICE has spent nearly $8 million on new equipment
— including simulation rounds,
junk cars,
sniper training gear,
and a model building
— for various training courses,
including for its tactical training at #Fort #Benning,
per The Lever’s review of contracting records.

To train its sniper teams and special response groups,
ICE has also inked deals with military contractors and obscure security firms.

In July, ICE awarded a first-time, $23,000 contract to
#Reticence #Group #LLC,
a Texas-based armed security firm,
for “specialized law enforcement pistol and rifle” training.

The company, led by two SWAT officers in Texas,
advertises that it offers “covert and confidential armed security contractors”
for the private sector,
as well as
“firearms training that pushes limits.”

Another sole source contract in July for $35,000 was awarded to
#Path #Consulting #LLC,
a Virginia Beach-based firm that, according to a contract notice,
provides
“[close-quarter combat] live fire training”
and would help an ICE special response team
“develop new standard operating procedures.”

Although the contract notice indicated that
Path Consulting LLC had worked with ICE in the past,
no other online procurement records mention its name.

A call to a phone number linked to the company went unanswered.

In September,
ICE issued a no-bid contract to
Target Down Group,
a company owned by Dan LaLota,
the brother of Nick LaLota,
who has served as the Republican U.S. Representative for New York's 1st congressional district since 2023.

(Dan LaLota denied his brother had any role in the award when asked by Wired in September.)

Most of Target Down Group’s leadership are veterans of the U.S. special forces;

the company’s president,
#Dan #LaLota, is a former U.S. Marine.

The company’s website advertises
“elite firearms instruction,”
drawing from
“years of experience as veterans from U.S. Military Special Operations.”

In the Department of Homeland Security’s September justification for the no-bid contract,
officials wrote that ICE had an
“immediate requirement to procure precision fires and specialized observation capabilities for the national 'Special Response Team' (SRT) #sniper #program.”

“The law enforcement officers of ICE have a very challenging job to conduct,”
LaLota wrote in response to The Lever’s request for comment.

“Target Down Group is honored to have provided training to them in order to assist them [sic] perform their duties.”

The other ICE training contractors mentioned in this story did not respond to inquiries, nor did ICE.

https://www.levernews.com/shadow-contractors-are-training-ices-attack-teams/

#JonathanRoss #ReneeGood
#TargetDownGroup
#deportation #spendingblitz #LionheartAlliance #StrategicOperationsIInc #urbanwarfare

#reticence #group #llc #path #consulting #sniper

Dahlia Moore (NSFW) @[email protected] · 2025-09-09 · 17:01 UTC

Une visite à la famille se transforme en une leçon qui tourne mal. Lire.. ici :

https://litix.fr/la-visite

#NSFW

#enlèvement #halloween #nonconsentement #réticence #romance

#romance #enlevement #halloween #nonconsentement #reticence #nsfw

WIST Quotations Has Moved! @[email protected] · 2025-07-29 · 20:07 UTC

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

For behind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence the doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done. The moment moral issues are raised, even in passing, he who raises them will be confronted with this frightful lack of self-confidence and hence of pride, and also with a kind of mock-modesty that in saying, Who am I to judge? actually means We’re all alike, equally bad, and those who try, or pretend that they try, to remain halfway decent are either saints or hypocrites, and in either case should leave us alone.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1964-08), “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” The Listener Magazine

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/43944/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #accountability #agency #freewill #humannature #humility #hypocrisy #judgment #morality #pride #responsibility #reticence #selfdeprecation #selfdoubt #selfjudgment #virtue

#quotes #quote #morality #hypocrisy #pride #virtue

WIST Quotations Has Moved! @[email protected] · 2025-07-29 · 20:07 UTC

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

For behind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence the doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done. The moment moral issues are raised, even in passing, he who raises them will be confronted with this frightful lack of self-confidence and hence of pride, and also with a kind of mock-modesty that in saying, Who am I to judge? actually means We’re all alike, equally bad, and those who try, or pretend that they try, to remain halfway decent are either saints or hypocrites, and in either case should leave us alone.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1964-08), “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” The Listener Magazine

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/43944/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #accountability #agency #freewill #humannature #humility #hypocrisy #judgment #morality #pride #responsibility #reticence #selfdeprecation #selfdoubt #selfjudgment #virtue

#quotes #quote #morality #hypocrisy #pride #virtue

WIST Quotations Has Moved! @[email protected] · 2025-07-29 · 20:07 UTC

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

For behind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence the doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done. The moment moral issues are raised, even in passing, he who raises them will be confronted with this frightful lack of self-confidence and hence of pride, and also with a kind of mock-modesty that in saying, Who am I to judge? actually means We’re all alike, equally bad, and those who try, or pretend that they try, to remain halfway decent are either saints or hypocrites, and in either case should leave us alone.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1964-08), “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” The Listener Magazine

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/43944/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #accountability #agency #freewill #humannature #humility #hypocrisy #judgment #morality #pride #responsibility #reticence #selfdeprecation #selfdoubt #selfjudgment #virtue