Bard spotting on Bluesky 15 February 2025

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

Neat linguistic Easter Egg in The Silmarillion:

In the prelude, the era before the creation of the Earth, Iluvatar addresses one of the Ainur, Melkor (the rebel),

Twice, saying each time, "… and THOU, Melkor,…", which is canon the pronoun one uses for a social inferior …

Dell Adams (@dell-adams.bsky.social):

I'd expect Iluvatar to use "thou" to any of the Ainur, both as their superior and someone close to them, but it does emphasize both of those

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

In the prelude, before the beginning of Time and the creation of the world, Iluvatar addresses them collectively as "You" and "Ye".

Once he shows them the vision of the world, he does speak directly to Ulmo and uses "thou" to address him there.

Dell Adams (@dell-adams.bsky.social):

"You" or "ye" are the plural, "thou" and "thee" the singular

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

Neat linguistic Easter Egg in The Silmarillion:

In the prelude, the era before the creation of the Earth, Iluvatar addresses one of the Ainur, Melkor (the rebel),

Twice, saying each time, "… and THOU, Melkor,…", which is canon the pronoun one uses for a social inferior …

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

But its most infamous use was in 1603 in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, where the prosecutor descends from formally "you"-ing Raleigh into "thou"-ing him, finally concluding with "I THOU thee, thou traitor!"

Thus the mighty ignominy heaped upon the Enemy by Iluvatar with but one word

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

We should start using "Thou" to refer to Trump, Musk, and Co

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

If true, Donald Trump & Elon Musk & Hegseth now responsible for a Broken Arrow incident

Alex de Campi (@alexdecampi.bsky.social):

Ahahaha holy shit

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

might just be a "bent spear" incident, but uh, we haven't had one of these since 2007, and in 2007, those responsible resigned / their careers ended

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

It had been 40 years before that since the previous incident.

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

At long last, have they no sense of thermonuclear weapons handling protocol, sir

Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) (@lizthegrey.com):

unconfirmed reddit comment, but yeah, oofer if true

Bardfinn is an extremist

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

Darn, he deleted his account. See you down the road, friend

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

So, today's Trump Tweet (effectively "He who saves his country breaks no law", but without poetry) is him asserting that he is (and his, are) the Saviour

… in a Karpman Drama Triangle of interpersonal dysfunction

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

In a Karpman Drama Triangle, there are three roles - the Persecutor, the Victims, and the Saviour.

Various people can play various roles at various times, depending on their own dysfunction and goals, but

MAGA have absolutely established this triangle as state dogma

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

And, of course, Fascism leverages Karpman Drama Triangles.

There are antidotes and counters to KDT dynamics. Recognising it, and refusing to engage with it, are key.

It would be great if some government were able to prevent it from being forced on everyone, too …

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

There's a kind of leftist who believes that if someone just reads Communist Tract, that person will become a Comrade.

I read Marx. I did not make me become a Communist. This is because it is the 2000's, not the 1860's. Important changes occurred in the interim.

Eve_Rising (@eve-rising.bsky.social):

What would those be in your view? Not picking a fight, just curious. Seems to me labor still generates the value and the means of production are still owned by a few people

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

Those few people can also leverage technology that allows fhem to - covertly & overtly - pressure any number of people to comply with their desired social order.

Society is different, too. We've a lot of people whose standard of living is superior to 1860's upper class standards. They won't revolt.

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

No one revolts against modern day Chinese CCP, which is technologically enforced authoritarianism.

Fhe American GOP are setting up Christian Theocracy flavoured technologically enforced authoritarianism, pretending that it's the solution to Communism.

DOGE is literally Decimation

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

also communism works well when paired with suitable checks and balances, auditing, etc that is held to an ethical code. Communist states of past and present were only concerned with ideological purity and preservation if the state, not preventing exploitation by bureaucrats

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

SHOW MORE

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

There's a kind of leftist who believes that if someone just reads Communist Tract, that person will become a Comrade.

I read Marx. I did not make me become a Communist. This is because it is the 2000's, not the 1860's. Important changes occurred in the interim.

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

Not entirely unrelated to that, I'm tired of being cast by MAGA / Trumpism as "EXTREMELY LEFT RADICAL"

It's time they eat crow

Just Lilo (@justlilo.bsky.social):

When my Evangelical brethren started bashing Islam, I bought a Koran ( translated ), to read & understand for myself what all the fray was about. Later, when said people saw that book on my shelf, there was pearl clutching- but made it easy to explain what they'd been taught was incorrect.

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

There's a kind of leftist who believes that if someone just reads Communist Tract, that person will become a Comrade.

I read Marx. I did not make me become a Communist. This is because it is the 2000's, not the 1860's. Important changes occurred in the interim.

Jupiter ♃ (@tempestarubida.bsky.social):

Plus, conservatives have so many memetic countermeasures like thought-terminating cliches in place that they aren't going to internalize the message even if they read it all the way through, even if they can't think of any logical counterarguments.

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

Worth pointing out that there's an uptick in the "I was a lifelong Democratic voter and I switched to voting GOP in 2024 because of …" psyops being rolled out. This is one of them.

Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.bsky.social):

@hoodierooter.bsky.social pls block this bot

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

Since 2015 social media has been targeted by "Walkaway" propaganda, bots claiming that backing Trump is a principled thing to do, citing {X, X', Y, Y', Z} specific talking points. That set evolves over time but the bots have no interests or "life" outside taking a position on those

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

They're now pretending to be progressives / leftists.

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

This particular account claimed to be a film student in NYC & also in a reply claimed to be legally blind, to "pwn" someone. AI PFP, AI banner, hostility, using egotistic "you're all losers" language, white knighting for Elon Musk.

This is not a real human being

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

It used to be that there were a few dozen people worldwide aware of this distinction. Now it's filtering through to the most insulated of worldviews.

Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social):

Even among right-wing trolls you can see the distinction. There's the meatheads posting "Rah rah America, boo DEMONcrats" and then there's the spectacular creeps saying "we are so back" under a picture of Hitler and prattling on about Evola. The latter are fully in control of the Trump admin.

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

"Musk was a darling of the progressive movement, when did he radicalise"

Y'all motherlovers badly need a crash course in how sociopaths succeed

Katie Cannon (@katiecannon.bsky.social):

Obama gave Musk a slice of NASA

I don't know, I guess Obama thought creating a state within a state was better than single payer healthcare

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

open this to hear some truly terrifying news

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

Ma'am (rhymes with "You are an absolute ham")

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

Yes hello I'm terrorising the neighbourhood what of it

/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".