michellemartin.bsky.social
English educator. Ph.D. in theory/Am lit. Small-time farmer, sometimes banjo-picker, and Appalachian native. Lover of sci-fi, film, high modernism, and goats. Political junkie.
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The first one, ha. I love the first and second, but I haven't seen the third in a really long time.
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I don't know that it's widely considered bad (cult classic, maybe?), but it's so cheesy and I love it.
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The natalist: "Here is Eliana. She has brown hair, blue eyes, likes basketball and the color blue. Here is Ayden. He has blue hair, brown eyes, likes reptiles, and wants to be a doctor. Etc."
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I’d argue that natalism also draws in the 21st-century hobbyist/collector’s mindset. A natalist's group of children is a collection for display rather than individuals who are partners in a parental-child relationship that requires time, care, and attention.
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150 years ago, people had large families because a large percentage of children were likely to die. Now pro-natalists have large families because it’s a status symbol in their group.
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Natalism is truly bizarre when you reflect on it. Animals reproduce just to reproduce; "superior" genes are proven after survival. Humans conceptualize their own supposed superiority before reproducing and use it to justify reproduction. And then fetishize that reproduction. So odd.
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Pro-natalists and Christian Quiverfull folks see themselves as The Elect. Elect for different reasons, but still Elect. It’s dangerous. Saviorism leads to self-righteousness and a belief in one’s own inviolability.
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The line about secret negotiations with himself killed me, ha.
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More....
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Oh no!
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Well, one option would be to stop harping on how defeated you are. Current Dems would rather spend their time talking about how they lost rather than do anything.
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Then how DOES one define it?
"You can think whatever you want, you just can't say or teach it."
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He wants to be the first ever national CEO. Maybe even change the country's name to the United States of Tesla....
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That got my dark humor laugh for the day.
AI's tendrils everywhere - DoD computers, too, I bet. "Do you want Skynet? Because this is how you get Skynet."
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I wish the reporting on the work of Musk's team would attempt to discover whether AI is being used for these analyses. I've seen articles saying "officials are evaluating the possibility of using AI," but I suspect it is already being used, and that's concerning.
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He speaks to their sense of disempowerment through the language of victimization and revenge. They can't see or accept the true causes of their disempowerment so he gives them convenient scapegoats.
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They're ignoring court orders currently, so what's left to stop them?
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
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Another alternative I'm haunted by: Trump dies in office. Before Vance officially assumes the role, Musk creates an imaginary position: "Acting Premier" or some such. Rules in supposed interim position and creates an excuse to delay actual elections ("too much chaos"). Congress does nothing much.
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Arrogating legislative branch powers, ignoring judicial branch powers - it's the executive branch run amok.
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I think it gets seen as virtue signaling without praxis to back it up, but what gets missed is that it IS a form of praxis, even if just a minor one. Maybe that becomes clearer when the opposite of that message is about to become an enforced ideological norm....
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I'm not convinced that Putin didn't help that happen.
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📌
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📌
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There are so many people doing good work in Appalachia......but then there are a lot of people like this, too, ugh. Can you imagine Blair Mountain miners being told about their descendants bending the knee to Trump/Musk and co.?
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I love how suddenly all they can talk about is grocery prices - now, when that was the Republican talking point 6 months ago, and there is some seriously more worrisome shit going down. They're hopeless.