Dreamings of a Coal Mine Canary

I’m at a sociology conference and just attended a memorial for one of the giants of our field, and one of the panelists told this story…he was at a meeting with this guy, who he got his PhD under and had a long standing relationship with, and he was bemoaning the current state of the world, and he asked this old professor, “how can you be so optimistic? I can’t ever be anything but a pessimist.”

and the old professor said, “you little fucker, I’m going to make a statement and then I’m going to take you out to the parking lot and beat your ass. What good does your pessimism do?”

and that really struck me. not the least because I also knew this old professor and he very rarely swore, so I know this was something he was really worked up about. what good does your pessimism do? What GOOD does your pessimism DO. I’ll be thinking about that for awhile.

@ apyfz

Art by BlueSky user Adi Fitri

via @/_weloveyou__ on tiktok

Oh no. MAGA is mad that the NYT shared the names of DOGE staffers. Don’t share this! Would be a shame

guys shut the fuck up this is the only thing im gonna talk about for the rest of all time 

(publicly shared video of a sweetheart’s dance from Rodney Stanger on fb)

This is really the cleanest Sweethearts Dance I’ve ever seen in my life. I am in love! I am transfixed! Footwork smooth and strong like a mfin mountain river! Incredible! 🤩 😳 🥰

Oh my God this is incredible to watch!

Found the credit, from the Great Plains Dance Company. This is Jocy Bird and Trae Little Sky dancing in the Sweetheart Special at the Seminole Tribal Fair in Hollywood, Florida.

Jocy Bird and Trae Little Sky are married and apparently an adorable couple and I am loving their beaming grins as they dance so smoothly together. 💖

Ramadan in Gaza 2025

Didn't have "see your political action philosophy expressed by Jorts the cat" on my 2025 bingo card.

All cats are anarchists.

Probably like 80% of cat owners are also anarchists.

Fill ever drawer in the U.S. Treasury with glitter and a note that says Go to Hell.

be creative. get in the way.

Get in the way. Lie. Fuck Elon and his posse of evil losers. I would LOVE to look them in the face and lie about all kinds of shit.

I fully believe some people are doing these things, but if they're smart at all, they are keeping their mouth shut and not even telling their spouse and only those of us young enough to be here in 25 years will learn of it.

Part of the reason you're even hearing about these events is because of internal leaks. They wanted to strike instantly & silently, instead of getting blasted by headlines. Everyone who has posted a private DOGE memo in public is a goddamn hero.

Free the International Homies till it’s backwards.

In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

Spread the word!

Thank you @chaotic-alien190 for making this!! it's beautiful <3

amen 🙏

Feb 4, 2025 - Thousands of Los Angeles high school students walked out of class and marched on the city capitol in third straight day of Anti-ICE protests. (Source)

PROTESTS ARE HAPPENING. THEY ARE JUST NOT BEING COVERED OUTSIDE OF LOCAL MEDIA OUTLETS. DO NOT RELY ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA.

There was a huge Trans-rights demonstration last night in New York outside of NYU Langone hospital in protest of their decision to halt gender-affirming care under Trump's order. (Source)

love these tags kissing you on the mouth

Woman picking lotus flowers, Thailand, by Sarawut Intarob

Because someone is on the ball, Turner Classic is playing (among other WWII films) The Great Dictator today.

If you haven't seen it, please do. It was produced by Charlie Chaplin in the late 1930s, when it became clear that the war was going to happen, and came out in 1940 after it had started. Essentially, Chaplin realized that his famous mustache was about to be usurped forever by a fascist, and that fascist was going to kill a lot more people in the future than he had already.

It's a parody, made before the worst horrors of the Nazi regime were known to the general public, so there is discomfort here (if you've seen Disney's Der Fuhrer's Face, you'll get the idea), but the movie ends with Chaplin essentially saying "fuck it, no one else seems to be speaking out about this and I'm going to use my platform to do that."

For context, this character is a Jew who has been mistaken for the dictator (for obvious mustache-related reasons), and has been sent onstage at a rally to give a speech. Instead of trying to impersonate Hitler, he says what he really thinks. And keep in mind, Chaplin was coming out of semi-retirement for this. It was the first time most people had ever heard him speak, and this is what he said:

Transcription: A video of Charlie Chaplin giving a speech in The Great Dictator, as outlined above. This what he says:

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.

I should like to help everyone, if possible. Jew, gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world, there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.

More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life would be violent, and all would be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even know, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millionsof despairing men, women and little children. Victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me I say: Do not despair.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you!

You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

We are all people who can still hear these words. Do not despair. Keep fighting. There is an "after" and it is important to reach and to create it.

Mary Oliver, from “Starlings in Winter”, Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

Longleat - Wiltshire, England

Made up of 16,000 English Yew Trees, the Longleat maze is the longest in Britain. It can take 90 minutes to complete. The maze is lcoated on Longleat Estate, a stately home belonging to the Marquesses of Bath. It was one of the first great English homes to be open to the public, and is one of the greatest examples of Elizabethan architecture. 

Another popular activity at Longleat is the safari park, featuring elephants, tigers, monkeys and rhino. The safari park opened in 1966, and was the first drive through safari park established outside of Africa.