Bard spotting on Bluesky 14 February 2025

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

My advice to other transgender people has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience; I will dispense this advice now:

There are words & phrases which, if you write them out in a publicly visible social media post, attract people who ignore boundaries & never stop obsessing over you.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Many transgender people are forced to discover what these are by experiencing the consequences. Some have The Talk with other transgender people and learn what these topics are, and avoid discussing them in public. They are happy.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Others learn what these subjects are (either explicitly or by intuiting them) and then wield them as cudgels, to Machiavellianistically manipulate transgender people.

Whether these Machiavellianists are transgender or not, it is wise to treat them like T-Rexes - hungry, carnivorous, & sense motion.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Take care to learn the difference between "This is something that actually impacts your life" vs "This is a fishing expedition to see if you flinch".

Ask yourself, "Will this actually, foreseeably, impact my life in any way"

If it doesn't, treat it as a T-Rex roar

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Even if someone comes along and demands that you, yes you, are morally bankrupt if you don't react to [topic], hold your ground, and ask yourself, "Will this actually happen, will this actually be a real danger".

Fascists have a wedge in the door and are shoving hard, and will look for cracks.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

SHOW MORE

Ask Your Doctor About Abigail PM (@popeguilty.bsky.social):

okay but like is anybody else worried about filing their taxes this year due to the ongoing fricking with government systems?

Erin Fogg (@criminalerin.bsky.social):

I am once again asking if this is good

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Seems bad

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

My most cancellable opinion is that "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is a banger

———

Those who don't know : 😀

Those who know: 🫥

Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social):

NEW — In an alarming email last night reviewed by me, Coast Guard members learned that 1,135 members' direct deposit account routing information was compromised due to a data breach from unauthorized access.

It was only discovered because an officer "reported anomalous activity" on their account.

meat-shaped stone (🇵🇸👍🏽❤️ 🇺🇸👎🏽💀) (@jikukeiseki.bsky.social):

bank run bank run bank run bank run bank run bank run

radiOS (@radios2.bsky.social):

This would be absolutely devastating. I understand the thought but this would be worse than anything musk has done. Heck, it might be his intention. Although, I don't see how that would help him.

Ārums / amy / amalyn / they/them (@amalyn.bsky.social):

Something about showing that cryptocurrency is somehow better. Despite that making zero sense, because pump and dump is very much a thing

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Manufacture Crisis

Offer to Solve Crisis

Sell Solution

Elias McFarland (@eliasmcfarland.bsky.social):

The Republican Party credo

Serenity "Lady of Shallots" Dee 🍜 (@sapphixy.bsky.social):

apparently Jack Piece o' B-word used to run a GoT fan podcast and blog

I have absolutely zero interest in finding out but I'm guessing he thought Daenerys should have won

Michael Edison Hayden (@michaelehayden.bsky.social):

America is now inviting Jack Posobiec on critical overseas trips — reminder that he has promoted and collaborated with European neofascists.

Quite a message to send to the world.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

"The writing in season 8 was awful" = an infinitude of red flags

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

The important part, for Trump, Musk, & the GOP, of "Move Fast, Break Things" is not the Move Fast part

They can't exist unless there are people to be rescued from a crisis

So they manufacture crises

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

everything they do, is Manufacture of Crisis

Government - legitimate government - resolves, counters, prevents crises

Trump manufactures them

Which requires victims to be persecuted while casting those victims as persecutors

And the GOP as the rescuers

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Manufacture of Crisis (and textbook fascist signature, The Enemy From Within)

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com):

Vance at the Munich Security Conference: "The threat that I worry that most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within."

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Understanding that the sole output product of the GOP is Manufacture of Crisis, that everything they do revolves around "Persecuted" (not actually persecuted) people, persecuting victims & casting them as persecutors, and LARPing as Rescuers, gives us power to break their cycle.

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

The first principle is Refusal.

"No, we're not playing that game."

"No, I refuse to comply"

"No, I decline this narrative"

"No, your approach is unacceptable"

"No, you can't do that"

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

This, its ontological antecedents and descendants, should be studied. If we ever get funding for it, which is only likely if we miraculously pull out of the swan dive into Heck, or after a new social order is constructed.

The intense prevalence of "Calm Down, It Won't Be That Bad" — an epidemic.

Leonid Baezhnev (@rev-avocado.bsky.social):

Many Americans fundamentally believe that truly horrendous things can't happen here, and work backwards from there.

Edith Laurie Charles (@edithcharles.bsky.social):

I would simply debate the One Ring and win the argument with my superior rhetorical skills, thus cleansing it of the dark lord Sauron's magic, and so then in place of a dark lord there would be a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea, stronger than the founda

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

🫲🏻🫨🫱🏻

Ms. Penny Oaken, SkyWitch (@skywitches.net):

Philosemitism is antisemitism wrapped in patronisation

Joel S. (@joelhs.bsky.social):

I wrote about JD Vance's visit to Dachau today, and how Christians appropriate sites of Jewish murder into Christian penitential narratives: religiondispatches.org/jd-vance-is-...

trixie (@beezany.bsky.social):

yep, pretty common manifestation of bigotry. Peele's antagonists in "Get Out" are a great portrayal of the same thing for racism, and every woman knows the misogyny inherent in "i respect women [in their proper place]"

/r/dallas is a discussion forum with 4 mods, down from 7 mods 5 years ago, and an unacceptable long running policy and practice that can be expressed as "Moderating here comes after job, commute, cooking, family, sleep, holidays, exercise, naps, and blowing our noses".