Nostr notes by Beardy Star Stuff 🌹🏴🇵🇸

Yep! It's been great to see! And there are other examples ...

2026-10-17T21:20:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…9xrz
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Yep! It's been great to see! And there are other examples throughout the years where some segment of the population become activated but more often than not it's still a very small percentage, a very tiny minority of people that get activated: the anti-globalization movement, BLM, Occupy Wall Street, various anti-war movements...

BUT....

...sadly, those issues come and go and most folks (in my observation) fade back to inactivity rather than take on a broad-based acknowledgement of responsibility and long-term action. They get motivated for a short while and then they quit.

What has been missing is an understanding that "democracy" if it's to be anything at all has to be a lived, active process of engaged citizenship. Unfortunately USians were lured into a culture of hyper-consumerism instead.

RE: https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117457849837998157 ...

2026-10-17T21:02:02Z

RE: https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117457849837998157

For some context: I'm 57 years old and began thinking of myself as an "activist" when I was around 19 years old. It began with Amnesty International then participation in anti-war group then I formed a Green Local (not Green party but a local group of radical green grassroots activists). And I continued on for most of the years after to this day.

My observation is that the vast majority of USians refuse to take any responsibility for the actions of "their" government. They don't bother to educate themselves about local, county, state or federal policies. They don't bother to participate in public meetings, write letters to the editor, protest, or otherwise participate. Most don't bother to vote.

Most USians don't want to be bothered with #democracy. They're only interest is in the "pursuit of happiness". Which is why we have "activists" who are often put down with phrases like "Get a job" and "Love it or leave it" depending on the setting of the insults.

#US #Politics #War

quoting
note1jlj…v6hk

Dear friends from the U.S. My friends over here in Europe wonder why you let all of this happen. Why your congress and senate seem to be a useless collection of puppets that at max care about infighting. Why you let your Supreme Court become a partisan rubberstamp club. Why you haven’t even tried to impeach your president. You don’t have to explain any of that. Fix it :)

So, not a surprise that Apple is renaming Lake Ontario to appease ...

2026-09-01T22:01:23Z

So, not a surprise that Apple is renaming Lake Ontario to appease the child rapist that occupies the White House.

If you're stuck using an iPhone or other Apple device you don't have to use Apple Maps or their services. For maps download a privacy respecting, open source map app like Organic Maps.

Pull your data out of iCloud and use a service like Proton which offers a package that includes email, cloud storage, documents, Password manager, VPN, etc.

Boycott #Apple #Google #Meta #Amazon #Microsoft and any other #US #Tech that supports fascism.

No one forces you to use or pay for their services. Move your data. Boycott them.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/organic-maps-offline-maps-gps/id1567437057

RE: https://ecoevo.social/@benlockwood/117111225982253256 ...

2026-08-18T01:20:29Z

RE: https://ecoevo.social/@benlockwood/117111225982253256

I'll say it again. And again. And again.

Delete your fucking #Amazon account. Delete that shit today. Don't give that bald fucker another dime.

Then delete or stop using all the other shit #fascist accounts you still have.

#Tech #AI #Capitalism

quoting
note1c06…tnj0

Destroy AI

Yeah, that's the DSA website and yeah, that's the real ...

2026-08-11T21:39:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…mvfl
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Yeah, that's the DSA website and yeah, that's the real program.

RE: https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/117075896327605265 Delete ...

2026-08-11T13:31:52Z

RE: https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/117075896327605265

Delete your Amazon account. People are quick to say, oh, that doesn't help or I can't do that. Those are bullshit excuses. We can survive without Amazon and it's increasingly clear we will not survive with the likes of Amazon. If millions of people would make a fucking effort to boycott the worst offenders it would actually have an affect. Don't make excuses. Just fucking delete your account and then pressure others in your life to do the same.

It's long past the time that we continue just going along pretending there's nothing we can do while we contribute to their profits and continuation. If you insist on continuing then know you are a part of the problem.

Also, just stop buying shit you don't need.
STOP. BUYING. SHIT. YOU. DONT. NEED.

#Climate #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #ClimateDiary #Amazon #Tech #AI #Google #Anthropic #Apple #Microsoft #

quoting
note15xm…68cq

"Amazon’s artificial intelligence ambitions will soon be partly fueled by a natural gas-burning power plant in Texas that “could become the largest single source of climate pollution in the United States,”"

(Original title: Amazon backs power plant that may become top source of US climate pollution)

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/amazon-funds-biggest-gas-power-plant-in-us-despite-climate-pledge/

RE: https://mstdn.social/@ThomHartmann/117048876745018171 ...

2026-08-07T23:35:28Z

RE: https://mstdn.social/@ThomHartmann/117048876745018171

Actually, many Americans really are embracing socialism. Many of us have come to the conclusion that the problem is not just a subset of bad-apple billionaires but, actually, #capitalism itself. And let's remember, capitalism is not sacred. It's new to the human experience and capitalism, combined with the state, has led us into a variety of crises from never-ending conflict to now runaway #climateemergency to biodiversity collapse. This is not capitalism malfunctioning. This is capitalism performing as expected.

We want a radically different economy, a #democratic economy controlled by working people in communities in healthy social ecological balance. What we don't want is a return of a middle class in a wealthy nation that prioritizes it's comfort, power and consumption in a system built on genocide and white supremacy. We want to end imperialism and never ending war. We are organizing for #socialism and #democracy and we'll stop at nothing short of that.

#US #Politics

quoting
note1p5r…p73a

Americans aren't embracing socialism—they're rejecting 45 years of Reaganomics, billionaire rule, and an economy rigged against the middle class…

https://hartmannreport.com/p/theyre-not-voting-for-karl-marx-theyre-3ed

I regularly see posts by older liberals that still lament the ...

2026-07-27T13:17:30Z

I regularly see posts by older liberals that still lament the loss of what they think was working before Trump. They continue to write as though the economy and government were largely okay and that it was Trump that broke things. That's the problem with the #Democrat Party and liberals in the US, especially the older demographic that were fairly comfortable in their retirements. For them, it worked well enough that they could ignore the fundamental injustices. Their take seems to be "Yes, but it mostly worked. It was mostly stable. We improve things gradually over time. If it hasn't been working for you, just work harder, wait your turn, trust us, it'll get better for you." For these folks the #US as formulated isn't broken and #capitalism works.

That's the problem of the white middle class. Howard Zinn documented in A People's History that even before the signing of the Declaration of Independence the ruling class were planning to use the middle class.
1/

#Politics #WhiteSupremacy

Minneapolis Stopped ICE - Now the State is Coming After The ...

2026-07-07T21:48:32Z

Minneapolis Stopped ICE - Now the State is Coming After The Anarchists (Emmett Doyle Interview)

Interview with anarchist, musician, and political organizer Emmett Doyle about Operation Metro Surge, how Minneapolis crippled ICE, and how the state is trying to punish the organizers that helped win the fight against ICE.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HVcGaZMihkY

https://chuffed.org/project/186570-minnesota-15-legal-defense-fund

http://www.edoylemusic.com/

#Minneapolis #ICE #Fascism #Anarchism #Resist #Antifa

I'll keep saying it because it seems like it needs to be said ...

2026-07-04T12:22:19Z

I'll keep saying it because it seems like it needs to be said over and over. Until we reckon with our history, specifically with the genocide and slavery, the settler colonialism and violence, we'll be a haunted land. The violence of capitalism and the state will persist because we let it persist.

I've recently read two blog posts reflecting on 250 years of the US, both by white middle class men. Neither post acknowledges their position in the white supremacy that continues to sit at the center of #US #empire. Both seemingly wanting to believe in a fictional story of progress, of exceptionalism and #democracy. Both posts seemingly accept that the old normal may be lost but still cling to it.

It seems to me that middle-aged liberals of the US are now at the edge of the world they knew, still pretending that the "progress" they've seen in their lives was enough. It was never enough because it is just a mask put on empire.

#Politics #Capitalism #Genocide

https://ndncollective.org/250-years-of-lies-500-years-of-uprising/

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/116819207553113666 But ...

2026-06-27T11:58:30Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/116819207553113666

But it's true, the Democratic Party is a capitalist party. Look at the history and it is a party that sides with power. From capitalism to imperialism to genocide, that is where it resides. If you've not read Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" you might give it a try. The history is right there.

Electoral politics is a loosing game in the US not just because of the entrenchment of the two capitalist parties but because the State itself is a partner in capitalism. The ruling class hold power in capitalism and the state.

The working class would do better to organize an extended, mass general strike. But that also means organizing multiple mass movements: labor, tenant's unions, students, people's assemblies and mutual aid networks.

Middle class liberal folks will tend to reject this because it is a rejection of the comfortable status quo they enjoy in white supremacy. But it's the only way to freedom.

Abolish the the state and capitalism.

#Anarchism #Politics #US

quoting
note13s8…zgm5

The #BrokenTimes is so desperate to devalue the Mamdani victories they lead with the awful Suozzi as their poster-boy "moderate" and end with the awfuller Yang. Sad.
Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/us/politics/moderate-democrats-capitalist-socialism.html?smid=tw-share

RE: https://mastodon.social/@rasterweb/116748854104178602 I began ...

2026-06-14T17:00:34Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@rasterweb/116748854104178602

I began identifying as an anarchist around 1990. On an intellectual level it appealed to me because it suggested that we build the new world that we wanted immediately. That means and ends were intertwined and that daily organizing could begin leading to an immediately improved world, at least locally, in our communities.

I've seen and helped build small neighborhood projects that were of immediate assistance in those neighborhoods.

When we try to build a better world we succeed in building a better world. Our problem is that only a tiny minority of us are making that effort. #Capitalism and the state have taught us that our solutions can only come from the state and capitalism. All evidence has shown that those two systems will only continue to make our world much worse because thy are not designed to further social ecological health, well being or #freedom.

We save us by organizing local, cooperative, directly democratic projects.

#anarchism #US #Politics #democracy
nostr:note1dpamf75nl2la89ame72etxx0tk9vlmu3mck4pwpq4js60lrwgu8sq8kw86

1991 Introduction for the Ecology of Freedom by Murray Bookchin: ...

2026-06-06T23:32:28Z

1991 Introduction for the Ecology of Freedom by Murray Bookchin:

"Perhaps the most compelling real fact that radicals in our era have not adequately faced is the fact that capitalism today has become a society, not only an economy. The rivalries, the grow-or-die mentality, and the chaos of the marketplace have percolated from the realms of commerce and industry, which were once largely confined to economic lite, into the daily life of familial, personal, sexual, religious, and community relationships. This invasion is reflected by the often unadorned egotism, consumerism, careerism, mutual suspicion, and highly transitory forms of human intercourse, so widespread today. In the decades that followed the end of the Second World War, we have seen a development that has not only produced the anomie of the "lonely crowd;" ...

#anarchism #SocialEcology #Capitalism

1/2

“Those persons who believe in the sharpest distinction between ...

2026-05-18T14:09:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…2v5p
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“Those persons who believe in the sharpest distinction between democracy and monarchy can scarcely appreciate how a political institution may go through so many transformations and yet remain the same. Yet a swift glance must show us that in all the evolution of the English monarchy, with all its broadenings and its revolutions, and even with its jump across the sea into a colony which became an independent nation and then a powerful State, the same State functions and attitudes have been preserved essentially unchanged.”
– Randolph Bourne, The State

"Laws, courts, prisons, intelligence agencies, tax ...

2026-05-18T14:07:15Z

"Laws, courts, prisons, intelligence agencies, tax collectors, armies, police—most of the instruments of coercive power that we consider oppressive in a monarchy or a dictatorship operate the same way in a democracy. Yet when we’re permitted to cast ballots about who supervises them, we’re supposed to regard them as ours, even when they’re used against us. This is the great achievement of two and a half centuries of democratic revolutions: instead of abolishing the means by which kings governed, they rendered those means popular.

The transfer of power from rulers to assemblies has served to prematurely halt revolutionary movements ever since the American Revolution. Rather than making the changes they sought via direct action, the rebels entrusted that task to their new representatives at the helm of the state—only to see their dreams betrayed."

#Democracy #Politics #Government #Elections #Anarchism #Freedom

https://crimethinc.com/2016/04/29/feature-from-democracy-to-freedom

Just finished this podcast series by Crimethinc: No wall they can ...

2026-05-11T16:03:43Z

Just finished this podcast series by Crimethinc: No wall they can build. So well done and also available as a book. An interweaving of stories from desert aid workers in their time with migrants struggling across the desert southwest with analysis of what is going on with the migration from Mexico and south of Mexico with specific looks at Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. And, of course, constant and direct US interventions have been critical for the duration. It will come as no surprise that decades of US foreign policy in these countries was on behalf of US-based capitalists, for example, United Fruit Company. It always is.

We live in and under a brutally violent system of state and capital though we don't usually see the direct brutality ourselves nor do we acknowledge it when we should.

If we're not actively organizing to abolish this system we should own our role in allowing it to exist.

#Capitalism #US #Politics #Violence #Colonialism #Imperialism

https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/no-wall-they-can-build

When I was a kid my grandma would make toast and instant coffee ...

2026-05-09T21:26:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…phgs
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When I was a kid my grandma would make toast and instant coffee for breakfast. To this day I love instant coffee and drink it fairly often as a treat. Lol. And it's my favorite way to make a mocha mixed with powdered creamer, sugar, cocoa and a dash of salt.

RE: https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/31131/ An excellent, ...

2026-04-09T10:57:20Z

RE: https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/31131/

An excellent, insightful interview for those interested in fighting fascism, empire and the never ending war on the Earth and its people.

"Empire's not going to change. Fascism's not going to change. We have to be truthful and honest about what it's going to take for us to figure out the solution domestically and internally inside of the United States instead of getting caught up on other things that are not necessarily the task at hand.

The task at hand for radicals in the United States is to figure out how to bring an end to Empire."

#Empire #Imperialism #Colonialism #US #Violence #War #WhiteSupremacy #Politics
nostr:note1mjgsqehvcqht3sde3sj5t78vrgeds0kx3hjxul8ey4r9ts62fmfsm5nu78

"Professor Munira Khayyat is speaking from Beirut, where ...

2026-04-03T10:55:55Z

"Professor Munira Khayyat is speaking from Beirut, where she's currently hosting over 30 displaced families as Israel expands its invasion of South #Lebanon...
she explains why the "peace" that followed World War II was only peace for the powerful — and permanent war for everyone else. From South Lebanon to #Gaza, from the Cold War to today, war has never been an aberration. It's a feature of the system.

• What is happening in Lebanon right now — 1.5 million displaced, bombardment of Beirut, occupation expanding
• Why Western theories of war treat it as an exception when it's a permanent condition for most of the world
• How #capitalism, #empire, and #settlercolonialism converge in the war on Lebanon
• The 22-year Israeli occupation and the roots of Lebanese #resistance
• Life as resistance — how people survive in conditions designed to make survival impossible
• Why borders drawn by Europeans still define who lives and who dies

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i_tCtNtZ1xo

Utah Phillips tells the story of the 1912 Lawrence textile ...

2026-03-20T02:32:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…lls8
_________________________

Utah Phillips tells the story of the 1912 Lawrence textile strike...
"Fellow workers with their hands in their pockets have more power than the combined power of the bosses."

They gave everything, they won the strike.

"We want bread, yes, but we want roses too." - A young woman striker

This song and album is a fantastic collaboration between Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco.

#IWW #Art #Music #Labor #Union #Socialism #Women #Strike #Capitalism

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VoEi_2N1TFk&list=RDVoEi_2N1TFk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUjVXRhaCBwaGlsbGlwcyBhbm8gZGlmcmFuY28gbGF3cmVuY2WgBwHSBwkJxQoBhyohjO8%3D

Utah Phillips singing Joe Hill #Organize #IWW #Resist ...

2026-03-20T01:56:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…vpa2
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Utah Phillips singing Joe Hill

#Organize #IWW #Resist
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fi8-F-V7E&list=RDo4fi8-F-V7E&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB

Tear the Fascists Down, Woody Guthrie #Union #Fascism #Capitalism ...

2026-03-20T01:49:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…mk4q
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Tear the Fascists Down, Woody Guthrie

#Union #Fascism #Capitalism #Resist #Socialism #Anarchism #Antifa #Antifascism

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3xUPpkxAco&list=RD-3xUPpkxAco&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB

Solidarity Forever, sung by Utah Phillips #Union #IWW #Art #Music ...

2026-03-20T01:45:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…nqtr
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Solidarity Forever, sung by Utah Phillips

#Union #IWW #Art #Music #Resist #Socialism #Labor #Anarchism

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mok_2xZ8iLU&list=RDmok_2xZ8iLU&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB

An excerpt of an interview with Utah Phillips in 2003. He talks ...

2026-03-20T01:41:30Z

An excerpt of an interview with Utah Phillips in 2003. He talks about the origins of the IWW, the labor movement, corporate fascism and the US with a comparison to the rise of the Nazis.

Worth a listen.

"The long memory is the most radical idea in America..."

#Fascism #Resist #History #IWW #Wobblies #Labor #Union #Socialism #Anarchism #Organize #Solidarity #US

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=07H6-YjdQhk

Filing this under Two cheeks of the same ASS... The Democratic ...

2026-03-02T18:09:15Z

Filing this under Two cheeks of the same ASS...

The Democratic Party is a ship of bought and sold corporate genociders. Leftists should take it over and/or burn it to the ground. It cannot be salvaged:

DCCC Rakes in Millions From Palantir Lobbyists as Protests Target the Company’s ICE Surveillance Tools

"As progressive activists blockade Palantir offices and protest the company’s AI tools used in ICE deportation and surveillance operations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has continued taking millions from the company’s lobbyists, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

In January alone, more than a dozen lobbyists with firms representing Palantir bundled a combined $2.9 million for the DCCC, according to a newly filed FEC disclosure. The January haul from Palantir’s lobbying firms represents 38% of the DCCC’s total contributions for the month."

#Democrats #Fascism #ICE #Palantir #Surveillance #Capitalism #Neoliberalism

https://readsludge.com/2026/02/25/dccc-rakes-in-millions-from-palantir-lobbyists-as-protests-target-the-companys-ice-surveillance-tools/

It appears my migration to a more private account name is ...

2026-02-17T22:24:24Z

It appears my migration to a more private account name is complete. I'm not sure it was necessary but as I mentioned in my last post on the other account, given the increasing surveillance of social media under a fascist regime, it seemed like a precaution worth taking. I'm so glad I'm not on the others.

Of course, now I'm a "new" user with zero posts and a Mastodon start date of today. A fresh start and I'm left to wonder if I just continue sharing as I usually do or take a moment to consider if I want to make changes to my posting here. 🤔