Corduroy Academy

( Mostly) radical thoughts, ideas, and links from late stage colonial capitalism.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale

    Meta has engaged in a “systemic and global” censorship of pro-Palestinian content since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

    In a scathing 51-page report, the organization documented and reviewed more than a thousand reported instances of Meta removing content and suspending or permanently banning accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company exhibited “six key patterns of undue censorship” of content in support of Palestine and Palestinians, including the taking down of posts, stories and comments; disabling accounts; restricting users’ ability to interact with others’ posts; and “shadow banning”, where the visibility and reach of a person’s material is significantly reduced, according to HRW.

    No wonder I’m shadow-banned. (because my content is clearly so engaging and high quality)

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    ‘Dual income, no kids’ lifestyle

    Almost half, 43%, of unmarried American adults want to get married in the future, according to a 2022 Harris Poll survey. But only 28% said they want to have a child.

    This trend has contributed to the growth of a household configuration popularly referred to as DINKs: “dual income, no kids.”

    “This idea and household configuration of dual-income partners living alone without children is on the rise,” according to Misty L. Heggeness, an associate research scientist at the University of Kansas’ Institute for Policy and Social Research. “In 2022, it was around 43% of households, and that’s about a 7% increase from a decade previously.”

    It’s almost like people are realising capitalism is rigged and that the game is broken. The bourgeoise boomers hoarded everything and continue to extract the last dimes from the younger generations, and now we’re seeing more people wake up to this!

    That and having a kid is basically the single biggest climate emission one person can contribute…

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    US Trying to Water Down New Cease-Fire Resolution at UN Security Council

    The United Nations Security Council on Monday delayed an expected vote on a new Gaza cease-fire resolution as the U.S. worked to weaken the measure’s language, objecting to the proposed call for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

    Unnamed diplomats toldThe Associated Press that the wording will likely be changed to call for a “suspension” of hostilities or some other watered down phrasing amenable to the U.S., which used its veto power to tank a Security Council cease-fire resolution less than two weeks ago.

    The veto drew international condemnation, and calls for a cease-fire have grown in the days since. In an overwhelming 153-10 vote on December 12, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution demanding an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” with the U.S. and Israel among the small number of opponents. Unlike those passed by the Security Council, General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding.

    Imperialism supporting genocide is not new, but the media’s distortion and propagandist flair is really showing its ugly head time and again.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    ‘Poisoning the blood of our country’: Trump delivers caustic attack on immigrants

    “They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” the former president said. “They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world they’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia.”

    While in the White House, Trump sought to deter immigration by building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, building some 450 miles of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile border, much of which replaced existing barriers. In addition to strict border security measures, his administration also implemented a travel ban for people from several predominantly Muslim countries.

    If reelected, Trump has pledged to finish the border wall, reinstitute travel bans and launch mass deportation efforts. He has also pledged to end birthright citizenship for those born to immigrants living in the country illegally.

    Populism served him well so far. And apparently, xenophobia is still gelling with the people.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    Sudan Is Unraveling as the World Looks Away

    For the past nine months, the vicious war being fought in our country has been far from the attention of a distracted world. Well before the current Israel-Hamas war came to dominate headlines, the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was a mere footnote on the international agenda. And yet Sudan stands on the edge of an abyss.

    Rival bids for power between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the SAF leader, and RSF counterpart Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, underpins the war. Sudan had been run by a council of generals, including these two erstwhile allies, after a 2021 coup brought an end to civilian rule in the wake of the 2019 pro-democracy movement that deposed longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. Tensions came to a head on April 15 when fighting broke out in our home city of Khartoum, and it quickly spread to other regions of the country.

    I keep reading people saying “you’re just winging, the world has never been better” but they are literally just looking away.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    YouTube Video Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

    YouTube tends to recommend videos that are similar to what people have already watched. New research has found that those recommendations can lead users down a rabbit hole of extremist political content.

    A multidisciplinary research team in communication and computer science at the University of California, Davis, performed a systematic audit of YouTube’s video recommendations in 2021 and 2022. They tested how a person’s ideological leaning might affect what videos YouTube’s algorithms recommend to them. For right-leaning users, video recommendations are more likely to come from channels that share political extremism, conspiracy theories and otherwise problematic content. Recommendations for left-leaning users on YouTube were markedly fewer, researchers said.

    YouTube has to be the fastest path to accidental algorithmic fascism I am aware of – it’s nuts. I’m an extreme socialist (like, radical left) and I constantly have to say I’m not interested in Jordan Peterson recommendations.

    Your fascism is leaking, Google.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    Trump rally warns that God will punish those who don’t worship Dictator Trump

    The Donald Trump campaign is now conflating Trump and God, warning a MAGA crowd at a rally in Iowa last night that if you go against the Republican frontrunner, you are rebelling against God. And, as the headlining pastor put it, “there will be retribution against all” who “rebel against the authority.” 

    “Let’s not lose sight that this election is part of a spiritual battle. There are demonic forces at play. But I want to remind those who have fallen prey to the leadership of such demons…this is the warning: The authorities that exist have been established by God,” he said to the cheering MAGA flock.

    The normalising of “the dictator” by the hard right seems to be popping up in more places. Globally, not just in the case of this nutcase, a right-wing (sick) identification with “dictator daddy” seems to be the only thing getting these oversized amygdalas working.

  • ⤥

    —

    by

    Aidan
    in

    UN says Africa faces unprecedented food crisis, with 3 in 4 people unable to afford a healthy diet

    At least three-fourths of Africans can’t afford a healthy diet, and a fifth are undernourished due to an “unprecedented food crisis,” United Nations agencies said in a report released Thursday with the African Union Commission.

    The continent’s 1.4 billion people are confronting high levels of hunger and malnutrition as the hit on world grain supplies from Russia’s war in Ukraine compounds the ills of African conflicts, climate change and the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the report said.

    Imperialism’s globalising effects. See also: western extraction from the African continent, yet continuing to provide absolutely no aid back to those upon whom they are dependent.