The problem with Jeff Bezos' ideology is that it's based on a false premise. The idea that "six thousand years ago someone invented the plow" is based on a faulty belief that ancient humans functioned as individuals. They did not.
Ancient humans were collectivist. The likelihood that one individual invented anything is slim to none.
This is the myth of the genius.
Archeological evidence demonstrates that for hundreds of thousands of years, early humans congregated around communal gathering places, like the fire, and engaged in problem solving and passing on of shared learning down through generations.
Additionally, the plow (and tools like it) were developed by humans in Mesopotamia, Europe, Egypt, East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa as well as other places - not in one place by one person. This is known as parallel development.
Believing that the plow was invented by one genius is like believing language was invented by one person. It is a silly myth and represents the projection of current moral standards onto past events.
This is called 'presentism' and it is both an uncritical and ignorant way to view history.
Social learning was the main driver of human evolution. Collectivism is how we both survived and progressed as a species.
The myth of the genius is an example of uncritical analysis and a flawed lens used to justify the grotesque hoarding of wealth and obscene inequality that is currently tearing at the social fabric our species.
It needs to be thrown on the trash heap of history.
I actually think this statement is a big deal.
Because it tells you all you need to know. They believe, in their bones, in an imperial presidency where the executive rules absolutely and uses his power to destroy enemies and enrich himself.
Trump has turned the White House into a 24/7 corruption operation. This is a national crisis.
Trump thinks the public will stop paying attention.
So I went to the Senate floor to call his bluff. I told the ENTIRE STORY of his 500 days of corruption.
1/ Here it is - in one🧵
Reporter: Some members of the Jewish community, including Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer, were alarmed by the language you used at the rally last week, calling AIPAC monsters who move dark money.
Mamdani: I want to be very clear. We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the so-called ceasefire.
Even an Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Wishah, was killed this past Saturday by an Israeli strike. And when I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people not just in Palestine but, frankly, throughout much of the region.
And it is a status quo of immorality. It is one that I will not accept. And when it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York 13.
Oftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money, by funneling money that would have previously come directly from AIPAC through other organizations whose contributors’ identities are only made clear after an election.
And I think it is important that when we ask ourselves how such death and destruction is happening overseas, we also name those who allow it to take place.
On June 19, 1865, African American communities in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from slavery — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
For 161 years, Juneteenth has been a day of remembrance for the freedom that was delayed. It is also a celebration of the joy and resilience that flourished despite that delay.
The contributions of African Americans, whose struggle for freedom shaped our nation, are immeasurable. Yet too many Black families continue to bear the brunt of an affordability crisis that has pushed them out of the neighborhoods and communities they've built.
True freedom has a tangible impact on daily life: the ability to afford housing, earn a living wage, put food on the table, support a family, and create a future for generations to come.
As we celebrate today, we must recommit ourselves to ensuring this freedom is fully realized.
Happy Juneteenth, New York City.
“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.
“You are not numbers or case files.
“You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV
I live just across the road from a school, and today I heard the announcement of a lockdown drill. When it was finished, I could hear the children playing in the Spring rain. I thought of my own son, safe by the grace of God, and of history, and of all the children for whom the day came when it was not a drill. And I thought about James Baldwin's words—"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe"—and I thought about this:
A Louisiana resident delivered a fiery, emotional speech to lawmakers during a state Senate hearing over redistricting.
"The MAGA party is the last breath of the Confederacy"
Tennessee lawmakers have passed a new congressional map, breaking up the state’s only majority-Black congressional district:
State Rep. Justin Pearson: 'These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist, Donald J. Trump'
The Onion has successfully acquired Alex Jones’ ‘Infowars’ after 17 months of legal battles and has debuted its new logo.
It will be turned into a parody of itself, with the support of the Sandy Hook families.
(https://t.co/U0k83hA62K)
When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.
This article is for men. Not women. Men.
Because women already know everything I'm about to say. They live it every day.
A wife murdered. A candidate killed. Another congressman assaulting women. A survivor died by suicide. The Epstein files. And now "Rape Academy" has 140 million visits in two months.
These are not isolated incidents. This is systemic male violence. And the solution starts with us. https://t.co/fbmOpyvXIX