lol just me

the existential crisis felt when having to describe oneself for an internet bio

[Brandon Tozzo 🇨🇦 @BrandonTozzo]

This is true

[lol just me @jayciejay]

A folk singer for our times! Check out Welles's video! #TikTok https://t.co/aQbifyAQyD

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

Let this sink in.

Ontario was building more homes in the 1950s than it is now. Doug Ford’s priorities? Spas, scandals, and insiders.

[Gritty is the Way @Gritty20202]

force them to work retail, customer service, and/or civil service jobs until they 'earn' their net worth at an hourly rate

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

For the last eight months people have been expressing frustration and confusion about the reluctance of celebrities to use their immense platforms to speak out against the US-backed slaughter in Gaza. But it’s not really a mystery why this happens: celebrities are reluctant to criticize the US-centralized empire because they benefit from it directly.

It’s actually a very important aspect of imperial narrative control how all of our society’s largest and most influential voices are intimately dependent on the political status quo upon which the empire is built. Fame and fortune come as a result of being elevated by the wealthy owners of media production platforms like film studios, record labels, TV and news media, and those extremely wealthy people have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo upon which their wealth is premised. Those who are threatening to the status quo are therefore not elevated to celebrity status, and the ones who get rich and famous either (A) understand this acutely or (B) are too shallow and vapid to have any interest in rocking the imperial boat.

Nobody becomes a superstar all on their own; it requires an extensively collaborative relationship with many individuals, and many of the most important of these are in positions of great wealth and power and have no desire to see socialism or anti-imperialism threaten their kingdoms by gaining a foothold in the political realities of their nation. This creates an impressively thorough gatekeeping system which filters out any clear-eyed rebels who might otherwise shine their way to the top.

Of course the filtration system isn’t perfect; sometimes someone sneaks through, or, more likely, is waved through and then has a political awakening after achieving stardom. But for every Susan Sarandon and Roger Waters there are a hundred enthusiastic celebrity supporters of the status quo, and a thousand others who just stay silent on all matters of real importance.

Just making someone a multimillionaire and giving them a cushy lifestyle is enough to make them loyal to the political status quo of the land. The mere fact that the empire is capitalist and allows the wealthy to live like gods ensures that most people who ascend to stardom will be heavily biased in favor of the system which allows for that lifestyle, and everything they say publicly will reflect this. This gives the empire a massive propaganda bullhorn which creates an information landscape where all the biggest voices speak as though the system is working perfectly, and the voices of all the ordinary people whose experience tells them otherwise are drowned out.

When Macklemore rapped about how “the music industry’s quiet, complicit in their platform of silence” about Gaza, he asked, “What happened to the artist? What d’you got to say?” And this is the answer. What happened to the most influential artists is that they stand too much to gain from supporting the status quo politics of the empire, and stand too much to lose by opposing it.

And that’s why the mainstream “artists” of today are so artless. How much depth and profundity can you express if you’re compartmentalizing away from reality like that? How authentic and meaningful can your art be while you are duty bound to help preserve the status quo of a mind-controlled dystopia where everything is fraudulent and meaningless?

Everything that draws human beings to art in the first place needs to be sacrificed to retain celebrity status — truthfulness, sincerity, rebelliousness, sensuality, inspiration, aliveness. That wild connection with something mysterious and strangely sexy which crackles just below the surface of everything.

All that needs to be flushed down the toilet to become a celebrity guardian of the information interests of the globe-spanning US-centralized empire. You’ll live like a king, but you’ll also have to sacrifice everything inside you that makes life worth living.

We are ruled by weird, phony freaks in Washington and Virginia who collaborate with weird, phony freaks at the top of the corporate world, and their rule is enforced by weird, phony freaks in New York and Los Angeles who use their celebrity status to help create an artificial mainstream culture that is mindless, heartless, soulless, and completely uninterested in the emergence of a healthy world.

That is why celebrities are silent on Gaza today.

[Abdullah H. Hammoud @AHammoudMI]

Genocides are not committed by “mistake.”

[Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 @LauraBabcock]

Beyond rage this makes me want to weep for all the people I get to meet each week who are experiencing hunger and homelessness and desperately need their ODSP topped up by Ford yet he will spend $225 MILLION of our taxes to try and buy another election. Shameful. #Onpoli #ONpol

[Kjell Anderson @Kjell_Anderson]

Marco Mendicino is arguing that "zionism" is a racial or ethnic identity rather than a political ideology. The intention here is to criminalize all speech critical of #Israel in Canada. We must push back hard against any attempt to prohibit #humanrights critique.

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Coming after the ICC arrest warrant request, the ICJ ruling makes it abundantly clear:

This is one of the great horrors and crimes of our age.

Everyone who backed it is getting damned by history.

You were warned from the start and you refused to listen.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

The FTC found evidence that a US oil exec colluded with OPEC in 2021 and 2022 to cut production and drive up prices.

The price-fixing scam is estimated to have cost Americans an extra $2,100 per year.

When I say corporate greed is driving inflation, this is what I mean.

[The Biking Lawyer (Dave Shellnutt) @TheBikingLawyer]

.@cityoftoronto can I ask AGAIN why #Adelaide is so hazardous? This construction project fails to adequately warn cyclists & demands they dismount in the middle of traffic. Does the City even know what is happening out there @311Toronto @CycleToronto #bikeTO #notsafe4bikesTO🧵1/4

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

Every word of this.

[Read Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) @JPHilllllll]

We have never been this back

[Phil BuildTheFutureNow 🇺🇸🦅🌲💙 @PhilSustainable]

The cost of housing is very high these days. But IKEA has a solution that could help make housing more affordable - BoKlok.

BoKlok uses prefabricated construction technology to build multifamily apartment buildings quickly at a lower cost compared to traditional construction

[YourFavoriteGuy @guychristensen_]

we need change.

[Bassem Youssef @Byoussef]

@Macklemore just dropped the song of the year . This is our anthem now

[Jacobin @jacobin]

Israeli officials just rejected a cease-fire deal that could have brought hostages back because Israel wants to continue waging war. This should be a scandal — but American mainstream media isn’t reporting on it. https://t.co/uEyLlpL42U

[TheRevolutionReport @TheRevolutionR1]

🎂🥳HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARL🎈🎉

Born on May 5th, 1818, in Trier, Germany, Karl Marx reshaped political and economic thought with his fervent advocacy for social change. His theories on capitalism, socialism, and communism remain influential today.

His famous quote "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains" symbolizes his commitment to the working class. As we mark his birthday, let's reflect on his legacy and work towards a more just and equitable society, in line with his vision.