Schizophrenic hallucinations are, in many ways, informative. You don’t have to believe them to be real to understand that they forms they take, the interpretations the mentally ill make of what’s going on around them, are a reflection of … well, what’s going on around them. People who claim to be ‘targeted individuals’ may not be persecuted in the way they imagine, but they’re not wrong to think there’s someone, many someones, watching them, trying to manipulate them, and not generally with their best interests at heart.
So, yeah, we’re targeted. We’re all targeted. Of course, we kind of did sign up for it. It’s not the CIA watching us, it’s Facebook. (Although, yeah, probably also government officials. The NSA for sure.) And in China, internet users definitely know the Party is watching their Weibo posts and updating their Social Credit Score to make sure they stay in line. There isn’t much difference from the way Instagram and Shopify and Experian are doing the same thing to try and extract more clicks from our browser and dollars from our wallet.
See also: The worst part of being managed by algorithm is probably the constant surveillance.
The Divide
Wisconsin Republicans are still trying to diminish the power of the Dems who are coming into office next month. Their justification is, well, frankly ethno-nationalist: People in cities don’t count. Literally, this is what Robin Vos, the Republican house speaker, said: “If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority.” Yeah. As Ed Burmila notes, that boils down to “rural Wisconsin voters are the ones who actually matter so they should get what they want. They don’t think people in cities count. And you know who those people are.
This is, of course, an ongoing problem nationwide. And it’s especially a problem in the senate, where we are rapidly approaching “rotten-borough” status. By 2040, according to the Washington Post, two-thirds of Americans will be represented by 30 percent of the Senate.
Washington DC has several times more residents than Vermont or Wyoming. It should be a state. Puerto Rico has several times more residents than Vermont or Wyoming. It should be a state. Ed Burmila explains on Twitter, with historical antecedents:
In less than 9 months, in 1889 into 1890, Congress admitted six new states to the Union.
The politics of that outburst of statehood aren’t just interesting history. It suggests a way forward for Democrats grappling with the current obstacles to retaking the Senate. THREAD 1/n
— Ed Burmila (@gin_and_tacos) December 10, 2018
Lost Cause
The UNC Silent Sam debacle has grown worse. This statue of an unnamed Confederate soldier, put up at the University of North Carolina in the early 20th century to reinforce white supremacy on campus, was toppled by protesters earlier this year. The university has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to spend millions of dollars to build a new shrine to slavery and white supremacy, and also spend additional money to build a more militarized campus police force to respond to any protests that might occur on campus.
You know, to ensure that protests are … dealt with.
Faculty are, of course, not pleased, and have responded with an open letter. It’s not clear what else they can do. The university can run pretty well without them, so it’s not like they have any real power.
This ties in neatly to a Smithsonian article covering how US taxpayers spend over $4 million every year supporting, maintaining, and enhancing the legend of the slave power.
Cultivating Joy
This hawk is epic
Watch all fifteen seconds of this GIF. You will not be disappointed.
Secretly Ironic 
