James Madison: Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
Thomas Jefferson: Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience (has) shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce (the people) under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. wordsmith.social/protestation/…
I'm going to be a very mild troll here...
Hey y'all! Say Hi to my delightful sister! @emilie_stims
She's new to the whole fediverse thing and a little overwhelmed. If you want to catch her interest, I recommend talking about birds, ren faire, singing, and folklore as some easy topics!
But do me a favor and let her know how friendly the fediverse is ❤
reshared this
So the root thing behind this that we only relatively recently figured out is that much of it comes from us having value based identities (as opposed to organization/association based identities).
Allistics tend to have much more fluid relationships to their values, because while important, their values aren't fundamentally who they are. Instead their identities are based off of their social structures (think things like "team spirit", "hometown pride", etc). Their values shift based on whether people are watching and how their actions relate to the groups they associate themselves with.
We on the other hand typically root our value purely in our values: the choices and actions we make. We're consistent regardless of whether someone is watching, as well as whether or not the thing impacts groups we're a part of. (things like "If it can be destroyed by the truth then it should be")
So of course we're angered by injustice... it's people and groups around us betraying their own values constantly. And so often one of our key values is "stand up against oppression", so we'd be betraying ourselves if we didn't get infuriated.
NilaJones reshared this.
I might actually end up using Signal.
My issue has always been how it takes over your phone number...
theintercept.com/2024/03/04/si…
Signal’s New Usernames Help Keep the Cops Out of Your Data
Ephemeral usernames instead of phone numbers safeguard privacy — and makes the Signal messenger app even harder to subpoena.Micah Lee (The Intercept)