Hi, my name is Marti Abernathey and I’m an American that’s settled in the UK. I’m happy here, but lately British politics and the thinking around it from the general public is gas-lighting me. From Davie Moo’s TikTok: @daviemoo Replying to @Glen Forde #fyp #foryou ♬ Cool modern chill out, 10 minutes(1001927) – 8.864 Did anyone else notice political shifts to the right around the world?

I’m quite amused at the moderation of my Mastodon instance. I’ve been reported by exactly two different factions: Zionists, and Democrats. That just about tracks. Silencing, for having opinions contrary to the narratives of both factions, is a tactic that’s been disastrous for both Democrats and Zionists. But I guess when it’s all you have, that’s what you go with.

My initial reservations about Bluesky were that it is algorithm-based, it is a closed platform (you can’t run your own Bluesky server), and it was first created by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey. Reading Cory Doctorow’s Bluesky and enshittification I had many questions. Simple questions centered around Bluesky seem hard to answer. They are hidden under layers of complexity. A question like, “can I run my own Bluesky instance?” is an example.

My initial reservations about Bluesky were that it is algorithm-based, it is a closed platform (you can't run your own Bluesky server), and it was first created by Twitter's founder Jack Dorsey. Reading Cory Doctorow's Bluesky and enshittification I had many questions. Simple questions centered around Bluesky seem hard to answer. They are hidden under layers of complexity. A question like, "can I run my own Bluesky instance?" is an example.

I haven't seen too many people talk about one angle of the Donald Trump win. They did awfully after getting advice from the Labour Party. You can never tell how much advice they actually listened to Labour advisors like Jonathan Ashworth, but the advice he gave publicly: He said Democratic operatives were “interested in how we made the arguments [on border security], because they intend to make the same arguments as well.

I'm an American living in the UK, and my wife is Brazilian. in both the UK and in Brazil, I'm seeing people say they can't believe that Trump won the election. This is an extremely myopic view. Fourteen million voters picked the Reform party in the UK just a few months ago. Many Brazilians would vote for Jair Bolsonaro if they could (he's been barred from running for political office until 2030).

Since the election of Donald Trump in the USA, there's been a resurgence of the 4B movement online. From Wikipedia: 4B (or "Four Nos") is a gender critical, radical feminist movement. It first emerged during the South Korean gender wars during the mid-to-late 2010s on the misandric website Womad and related subcultures on Twitter. The name refers to its defining four tenets which all start with the Korean bi 비, roughly meaning no.

I woke up yesterday morning in my bed in Southeast England. I realized the country of my birth has elected Donald Trump again. I wrote this post in 2016 talking about the many reasons the Democrats lost to Donald Trump. Over the four years after the election, many individuals were blamed. Yet, the blame did not fall on the Democratic National Committee. Today I'm already seeing the blame laid at the feet of black/Latino men, Arab-Americans, and third-party voters.

I've experienced two kinds of people in my life: introspective adjective Inspecting within; seeing inwardly; capable of, or exercising, inspection; self-conscious. Similar: self-conscious Involving the act or results of conscious knowledge of physical phenomena; -- contrasted with associational. Examining one's own perceptions and sensory experiences; contemplative or thoughtful about oneself. Introspectives are people like Socrates, who said "The unexamined life is not worth living". These people self-reflect constantly.

I see countless videos on TikTok and YouTube saying things like “is sex work, work” or “is sex work empowering?” without platforming sex workers themselves. If sex workers respond in comment sections, content creators often block them. If they make response videos, they often get deplatformed. I'm not a sex worker myself. But I am not trying to build a platform by speaking over sex workers for clicks and views. They are considered debate topics, rather than human beings with lived experience.

I just started listening to a podcast called The Deprogram. You can find them on Twitter too. This episode of the podcast is about American Exceptionalism. American Exceptionalism Many Americans have never travelled outside of the United States meaningfully. They don't see how people in other places live, work, and thrive. I contend that those that don't travel outside the USA rarely travel out of their state. So they depend on their view of the outside world, the media they consume, and what they've learned from their schooling.

Bayard Rustin was an American civil rights icon. He was the main organiser of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He also influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to use non-violence as a tactic in the fight for civil rights. He said: " Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us.

I've seen many Facebook/Twitter friends post this story from Newsweek: The implication is that if not for Sanders supporters, Hillary Clinton would be POTUS, not Trump. It wasn't Bernie Sanders supporters that sunk the Clinton campaign. It was a team effort. It also wasn't the fault of: the Democratic National Committee (DNC), who tipped the scales during the primary for Clinton. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's rigging of the primary for Clinton.

The genesis of this post is from a comment I left on The Thinking Atheist Podcast page. The host, Seth Andrews, invited various people on his podcast to talk about "Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces." One of the guests was Bill Ligertwood, a conference organizer with the Imagine No Religion conference So here's where I come from. I'm a white trans woman. I'm middle class. I went to college before transition and have a decent life making decent money.

I’ll say it up front, I’m a Bernie Sanders supporter that: thinks Sanders has a very narrow path to the nomination (almost impossible). will vote for Clinton if she's the nominee. thinks Democrats and the Clinton campaign are setting themselves up for a massive defeat in the fall. The Democratic Party seems to want to have a fight with Bernie Sanders. Today's post from the Hill: Bernie’s not a Democrat.

Listening to the podcast of the Thursday edition of LBC’s James O’Brien’s radio show, I was surprised that he’d admit that he might be wrong about The Labour Party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Previously, he’d said that Corbyn supporters were akin to people who “believed in faeries.” He’s repeatedly said that Corbynites were not pragmatic that Corbyn isn’t electable, and the end of the Labour Party was near if he wasn’t put down.

Recently I read the en(Gender) post,"Guest Author: Zoe Dolan, When Political Correctness Hits Below The Belt." Helen Boyd states in an introduction to the piece: "Here’s a controversial piece from Zoe Dolan, lawyer, author, and friend, in a smart piece about why, when it cones to dating – amongst other things – talking about genital surgery is important." If this piece was a post strictly concerning intimacy and talking to a potential partner in frank terms about sex with a trans person, then I'd agree it was a "

This morning I decided to watch a Ted Talk that featured Martine Rothblatt. Martine’s life story is incredible. The Washington Post said of her: Let’s be clear: Martine Rothblatt is just plain more of a lawyer than anybody else in this town. The 60-year-old grandmother and CEO of United Therapeutics, the Silver Spring-based biotech she founded to help save her younger daughter’s life, banked $38 million last year. It made her the nation’s highest-paid female executive.

If you listened lately to people who have well established media outlets to speak from, pitchforks and torches are out of style. They would have you believe that the @ and # of Twitter are the new implements of mob justice. Concerning the Twitter outrage over newly designated Daily Show Host, Trevor Noah, comedian Jim Norton said: “[Noah] also neglected to take into account that Western culture as a whole has become an increasingly reactionary mob of self-centered narcissists who all have their own personal lines drawn in the sand.

Recently I was involved in a discussion with Twitter user @schnookiekins concerning people who publicly name people they say raped them. He supports Michael Nugent’s statement that: “allegations of rape should be reported to the police, not to bloggers.” as if it's an either/or situation. I don't know of a requirement that compels victims of rape, by the state, to report their perpetrators to the police. Many people have written about why victims don't report rape, so I'll leave that there (*smirk* though I do wonder why men don't report domestic violence?

This morning I read an excellent post over at Crossdreamer's Tumblr blog about transition regret (also a great post by Brynn Tannehill). I'll say upfront that I don't regret transition, but I understand those who do. From the post: "Some of the male to female regretters have clearly been caught up in some very restrictive ideas of what it means to be a woman." and: "I should add that this does not mean that all regretters detransition because they believe in sexist stereotypes.

Recently I went to the health department to get a copy of my birth certificate. One of the women at the ISDOH pulled me into an office to tell me, "Usually, it doesn't take so long to process this, but since you're adopted, it takes longer." I must have looked punched... she covered her mouth and said, "You didn't know?" So, ya... thanks, Mom.

I can’t believe it, but I’ve kinda got the workout fever thing going on. I usually try and work out Tues-Sat. Lately that workout schedule has been pretty even, and rather intense. (Friday I biked 6.5 miles, ran 2 miles, then biked back 6.5 miles. I thought I’d feel exhuasted, but I actually had the urge to run today, but didn’t because I want to give my body time to heal.

"If we tackle these problems the wrong way, then while today there is one bin Laden, after a few years there will be ten bin Ladens. And it is possible that after a few more years, there will be 100 bin Ladens." - liberal commie terrorist Dalia Lama in a January 2006 interview with "The Progressive Magazine."

My blood boils when I read crap from illogical, immoral, blind followers of President Bush. This is the cost of the real cost of war… (hat tip to Free Iraq by way of A Citizen Of Mosul) Precise collateral damage my ass…. Try to stop seeing these people as “towel heads” or “A-Rabs.” Look at them as parents… look past your own ass, and you might understand why I don’t support this war.