Nearly half of Americans surveyed don't know what America 250 commemorates | Georgia Public Broadcasting
https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/07/03/nearly-half-of-americans-surveyed-dont-know-what-america-250-commemorates
“As the Americans return to their origin, to their primal urge, they are losing themselves. In a kind of atavistic dissolution, the originalists are rendering the constitution increasingly meaningless. The icons are desecrated. They paint over the granite of the reflecting pool. They have torn down the White House all on their own; the British didn’t need to burn it.”
#Exceptionalism #History
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/04/us-history-destruction?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
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/
The United States already treats #ICE immigration detention centers as prisons, so it goes without saying, they too function as concentration camps:
95 Percent of Deaths in ICE Detention Could Likely Have Been Prevented With Adequate Medical Care: Report | American Civil Liberties Union - https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/95-percent-of-deaths-in-ice-detention-could-likely-have-been-prevented-with-adequate-medical-care-report
shouldn’t be a surprise for anybody who has heard of USA’s #ghostSkins problem:
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ghost Skins: The Fascist Path of Stealth https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/23893-federal-bureau-investigation-ghost-skins-fascist-path-stealth-october-17-2006
Lols, no. That would be inconvenient for them. Americans will tolerate anything ecxept being inconvenienced.
A fine essay. Speaking as a university teacher, and as a writer in a research and teaching context: I experience the same pain when people don't see the uniqueness of the human source of true writing and true teaching. And like you I believe that true creative human work (in writing, in teaching) will survive. If need be in new formats and new channels.
Martin Buber studied the true dialogue that happens between my "I" and your "Thou", and he contrasted it with the unlistening talking that happend when both sides treat the other as an "It". Today's genAI proponents are glad to abolish both I and Thou: a vision of a society where the "It" of one person's genAI talks to the "It" of another person's genAI.
#StopTheAICorruption #IAndThou #writing #teaching #creativity
Meta data center water discharges suspended after contaminating the city's water supply with bacterium — closed-loop cooling system purge spread rare metal-resistant bacterium in Cheyenne’s water system
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/cheyenne-suspends-data-center-fill-and-flush-and-closed-loop-discharges-after-meta-contractor-contaminated-its-reuse-water-system?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Tom's Hardware @tom-s-hardware-TomsHardware
Un « sanctuaire » néandertalien dans la vallée de la rivière Lozoya (Madrid, Espagne)
Conférence de César Laplana
Jeudi 23 juillet 2026 à 18h
au Musée d’Anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco
https://www.hominides.com/un-sanctuaire-neandertalien-dans-la-vallee-de-la-riviere-lozoya-madrid-espagne/
Waffles will not be judging you this week on account of it being July 4th. He will, however, be THINKING about judging you.
#cat #CatsOfMastodon #cats #mastocats #tripawed #ThreeLeggedCat #catstodon #fedicats #caturday #July4th
Every culture has its pedestals on which it places monarchs, generals, priests, artists, scientists, even workers. But I think the US has reserved its highest pedestal for the confidence trickster.
My mastodon instance is being abandoned. Anybody know of any other active SF-only mastodon instances that are more progressive/activism focused?
'USA' #FotoVorschlag
Restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany, 2006
"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech http://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/3/what_to_the_slave_is_the
@kauer
You might be surprised to learn that public swimming pools in the southern US closed down because the racists would rather have no community pool at all, than let the "wrong people" use them too
@KentNavalesi @Natasha_Jay
In honor of the 250 years of USA, I launched a new one-page website called "Who owns America's wealth" which contains several graphs to visualize the ridiculous wealth inequality in our country.
RE: https://akademienl.social/@Frederik_Borgesius/116855324003106571
So all the Epstein obsessives on Facebook and Instagram are going to close their accounts now, right?
. . . right?
I do not condone criminal activity, but it's more profitable for the thieves than targeting residential homes.
Thieves Are Now Targeting AI Data Center Construction Sites for Copper and Expensive Equipment
https://www.vice.com/en/article/thieves-are-now-targeting-ai-data-center-construction-sites-for-copper-and-expensive-equipment/
Election wins prove pro-Palestine US campus protests didn’t fail: Activists
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/3/election-wins-prove-pro-palestine-us-campus-protests-didnt-fail-activists?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into US & Canada News @us-canada-news-AlJazeera
The IDF is squeezing the Gaza pocket at the moment, killing a Palestinian family that was well inside of the "yellow line".
It is a genocide, still continuing, still in broad, plain, public view.
We can only ponder why our leaders pursue this course.
We can only wonder why the likes of NPR (National Public Radio) has so much else to talk about.
Sudan, too. Even worse. The murderous ones - here, there, everywhere - are well-funded.
To humanity, it must seem to be exactly what is going on.