David Benfell, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

Ph.D. Human Science (Saybrook University, 2016), vegetarian ecofeminist (#vegan and #libertariansocialist) scholar, #anticapitalist. Disgusted by Republicans, furious at the Democrats.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-2641-962X
Academia: https://saybrook.academia.edu/DavidBenfell
Substack: https://substack.com/@benfell
Not Housebroken: https://nothousebroken.substack.com
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/disunitedstates.org

Public Key

npub1qnvuavqzak7z9htwth8zccavwdvsvvp9zj0lt2xxxkuhf9z2w2ks5emx0u

NIP-05 Address

benfell_at_infosec.exchange@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqfkwwkqpwm0pzm4h9mn3vvwk8xkgxxqj3f8l44rrrtwt5j3989tgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsj62gld

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1qnvuavqzak7z9htwth8zccavwdvsvvp9zj0lt2xxxkuhf9z2w2ks5emx0u

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Last Notes

2026-02-17 07:39:32 UTC

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Don’t get me wrong. I like Star Trek a lot.
But I don’t think its portrayal of humanity is particularly accurate. In Star Trek, they almost never knowingly leave people behind. And when they do, there are consequences. That description has been increasingly less applicable to humans to a point where we apply system justification gleefully.

2026-02-02 09:33:24 UTC

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@alissaazar/115999595674263492
I think it will not be enough to abolish the Department of Homeland Security after this. All employees and officials in this agency should be committed to involuntary psychiatric treatment as dangers to themselves or others.
#note1v44…nktz

2025-10-14 21:57:05 UTC

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I wish I could say I was surprised. I can’t.
https://open.substack.com/pub/nothousebroken/p/white-christian-nationalism-on-the

2025-10-14 00:11:36 UTC

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Be careful with Wikipedia: "The biotic pump hypothesis demonstrates how important our rainforests are to the surrounding ecosystem."
A hypothesis demonstrates nothing until experiments validate it, at which point it becomes a theory.
And if critics are right "that the biotic pump effect is relatively weak," it's hard to see how this benefits agriculture of any form.

2025-10-13 14:51:38 UTC

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yes, modern agriculture is a huge problem and animal agriculture is that, figuratively and literally, on steroids.
Since moving to Edinboro, Pennsylvania, I’ve been astonished by the variety of crops grown locally. I haven’t really seen that anywhere else except California—if you count the entire state.
The expectation with the climate crisis is that arable land area will decrease. Again, plant-based diets would help, but with the loss of arable land, a lot of places, likely including California, will be less able to grow a variety of crops.
This can only exacerbate the problem.

2025-10-13 14:22:57 UTC

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We'll lose a lot more than that sedentary subsistence pattern. The earth's ability to sustain a population of now over 8 billion souls depends on stable agriculture. Plant-based diets would help but the earth's carrying capacity for hunter-gatherers is about 200 million.
Famine on such a large scale will not be a pretty picture.

2025-10-13 10:20:31 UTC

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Some of these 'experiments' lasted hundreds of years. The one we've been involved with since the Neolithic has lasted thousands.
I don't think we disagree about vilifying authoritarian systems of social organization. But yes, we, collectively, have failed to preserve those three freedoms. We once knew better and still we failed. And now we have forgotten. And we have allowed technological development to favor the powerful even more.
And only some of this is in hindsight. Getting out of this, if it is even possible, will require bloodshed because the powerful will not relinquish power voluntarily.
But it is necessary. The climate crisis owes much to a reluctance to alter the status quo. For the wealthy and powerful, it is like asking them to cut off their own hands.
We will not survive unless we rebel. But we have been too well trained not to do so. And so we are doomed.

2025-10-13 01:10:12 UTC

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In the Dawn of Everything, David Wengrow and David Graeber point out a major difference between today's societies and those that preceded them in terms of the "three freedoms."
Yes, we made this horrible system of social organization that has increasingly predominated since the Neolithic. And no, we have not rebelled against it, contrary to a number of examples from earlier societies in that book. Our "revolutions" are much as Emma Goldman wrote of the Soviet Union, simply a game of musical chairs in who the elites are.
This is not simply a case of some evil authoritarian dude (yes, surely a man) marching up to a peaceful village with his gang of thugs and putting himself in charge. It has happened are much too wide a scale for that.
And now, I wonder not only *how* we could rebel, but how we instill the imagination of something better than an authoritarian system of social organization to rebel for. I think we have been too well trained in the last 5,000-plus years.

2025-09-28 22:27:59 UTC

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Before working on that dissertation, I had never read so much hateful material in my life.
I'll have to consider whether Trump's regime has exceeded that.

2025-09-28 22:18:09 UTC

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Well, I mean it's really all one tendency now: white Christian nationalism.
I finished my dissertation in the year before Donald Trump's victory in 2016 (My Ph.D. diploma says January 8 of that year) having gone to great lengths to demonstrate that conservatism was not monolithic.
Trump came in and, much to my astonishment, pretty much unified the seven tendencies I had identified by giving each of them a little something.
At this point it's useless to attempt to find any sort of coherence to Trump's policies. Some of it is his apparent dementia. Some of it is a raging narcissistic desperation to look good and gain flattery. And none of it seems terribly related to reality.

2025-09-25 11:52:24 UTC

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https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/about-those-shell-casings

2025-09-25 02:45:10 UTC

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To think, I expressly chose not to look into the farther out reaches of paleoconservatism when researching my dissertation.
On the other hand, it was quite long enough as it was--over 400 pages (it should've been around 100) and a magnum opus (which it should absolutely not be).

2025-09-25 02:21:48 UTC

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I hadn't caught the bit about heterosexual sex being gay. Wow.
And I thought Donald Trump was demented.

2025-09-25 02:13:34 UTC

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the one I'd seen is here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/us/tyler-robinson-charlie-kirk-shooting-suspect-invs
And yes, they consider the possibility of a false flag. I was thinking about mentioning the Tyler Robinson analogy, but that's rather thoroughly muddled at this point as it seems his lover was transsexual--which doesn't necessarily make him a leftist, but in the conservative (overwhelmingly Mormon) parts of Utah, it's pretty hard to imagine hooking up with a transsexual unless you are.

2025-09-24 19:39:24 UTC

There are a couple things that strike me about the shooting at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility today (September 24) that killed at least two of three detainees. First, detainees were shot, not their white supremacist gangster guards.[1] Second, I am increasingly suspicious of these messages—in this case, “anti-ICE,”—found on shell casings,[2] and I’m thinking specifically of one of the favorite accusations right-wing terrorists make when they’re the ones being accused of violence, that this was a “false flag” operation, meant to cast suspicion on them, when in, their suspicions, it was really left-wing provocateurs behind the dastardly deed.
Again, detainees, people who may or may not have been in the U.S. legally, were shot, not their guards. And a message left behind by a suicidal shooter, apparently Joshua Jahn,[3] is the message they chose to leave behind, not necessarily a reflection of their true beliefs. Yeah, I’m thinking “false flag.”
Famously, in crime investigations, one looks for motive and opportunity. A violent leftist radical (these are pretty rare[4])would have motive to shoot guards not detainees. A violent right-wing radical (these are much more common[5]) would have motive to shoot detainees not guards.
Yet again, detainees were shot, not guards.
[1] Bethany Irvine, “Shooting at Dallas ICE facility kills 2, injures another,” Politico, September 24, 2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2025/09/24/shooting-at-dallas-ice-facility-kills-2-injures-another-00578736
[2] Kash Patel, “This morning just before 7am local time . . . ,” X, September 24, 2025, https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1970877754221498599
[3] Bethany Irvine, “Shooting at Dallas ICE facility kills 2, injures another,” Politico, September 24, 2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2025/09/24/shooting-at-dallas-ice-facility-kills-2-injures-another-00578736
[4] Alex Nowrasteh, “Politically Motivated Violence is Rare in the United States, Laissez-Faire, Laissez-Passer w/ Alex Nowrasteh & David Bier, September 11, 2025, https://www.alexnowrasteh.com/p/politically-motivated-violence-is
[5] Alex Nowrasteh, “Politically Motivated Violence is Rare in the United States, Laissez-Faire, Laissez-Passer w/ Alex Nowrasteh & David Bier, September 11, 2025, https://www.alexnowrasteh.com/p/politically-motivated-violence-is

2025-09-22 23:55:52 UTC

The real significance here is a concession that in describing our universe, mathematics has limits. There are applications for which it is ill-suited: One does not ordinarily turn to mathematics to untie a knot, now would one ordinarily even think to do so. And when someone tried, they found the answer is ‘complicated.’
https://mstdn.social/@hkrn/115248541319919387

2025-09-22 21:57:37 UTC

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-returning

2025-09-22 15:34:07 UTC

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/freedom-andor-speech-douthat-kilroy-disney-kimmel-censor-abc-trump.php

2025-09-20 14:40:01 UTC

https://apple.news/AtnTxm-haRTKWg4pEaWg7vg

2025-09-20 01:25:04 UTC

Just keeping track: First Poland and Romania,[1] and now Estonia.[2] The consensus seems to be that Russia is seeking to divert North Atlantic Treaty Organization resources away from Ukraine toward self-defense,[3] but this seems like a bit of a stretch to me: NATO exists to repel a full-on Russian invasion. It should be able to handle this.
https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/breaking-russian-drones-infringe
[1] Anne Appelbaum, “Russia Expands the Air War,” Open Letters, September 15, 2025, https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/russia-expands-the-air-war; Ian Casey and Alex Boyd, “Romania becomes second Nato country to report Russian drone in its airspace,” British Broadcasting Corporation, September 14, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80g7g5rmlno; Guardian, “Poland shoots down drones over its territory amid Russian attack on Ukraine, prime minister says,” September 9, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/10/poland-shoots-down-drones-over-its-territory-amid-russian-attack-on-ukraine-says-military; Julia Ioffe, “No Man’s Poland,” Puck, September 11, 2025, https://puck.news/how-putins-drone-incursion-on-poland-tested-natos-resolve/;
Brad Lendon et al., “NATO shoots down Russian drones in Polish airspace, accusing Moscow of being ‘absolutely reckless,’” Cable News Network, September 11, 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/09/europe/poland-scramble-jets-russian-drone-reports-intl-hnk-ml; MAKS 25, Mastodon, September 9, 2025, https://mastodon.social/@MAKS23; Shaun Walker, “Russian drone incursion into Poland ‘was Kremlin test on Nato,’” Guardian, September 14, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/14/russian-drone-incursion-poland-nato-ukraine-europe
[2] Geir Moulson and Andrew Wilks, “Estonia says 3 Russian fighter jets entered its airspace in ‘brazen’ incursion,” Associated Press, September 19, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/british-intelligence-mi6-russia-war-443df0c37ff2254fcc33d5425e3beaa6
[3] Shaun Walker, “Russian drone incursion into Poland ‘was Kremlin test on Nato,’” Guardian, September 14, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/14/russian-drone-incursion-poland-nato-ukraine-europe

2025-09-19 01:20:23 UTC

https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/anti-car-crusaders-lose-one-in-san

2025-09-18 22:34:21 UTC

somebody actually made this into a plush toy
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/115/227/678/590/596/986/original/db7591e47c2108e7.jpeg

2025-09-18 12:00:34 UTC

Any time someone wants to explain to me how to reconcile #chatcontrol or similar proposals with an inherent right to privacy, I’ll be all ears.

2025-09-16 23:45:28 UTC

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/09/trumps-mass-probationary-firings-were-illegal-judge-concludes-he-wont-order-re-hirings/408121/

2025-09-11 21:42:06 UTC

I’ve now seen a number of headlines decrying the rise of political violence in this country—the one article I’ve read was by Tara Palmeri, who eloquently concludes with the same warning.[1]
But let’s not forget who’s who in this political violence. The leadership of the Black Panthers suffered numerous assassinations, as did Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Disaffected right-wingers blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City; they have harassed and attacked abortion clinics, patients, and practitioners. And that’s just from memory. Indeed, there has been a lot of right-wing domestic terrorism—the January 6 coup attempt being only one example.[2]
Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump have motivated a lot of it. If you don’t like political violence, it’s the right—not the left—you have a problem with.
[1] Tara Palmeri, “The Complicated Legacy of Charlie Kirk,” Red Letter, September 11, 2025, https://www.tarapalmeri.com/p/the-complicated-legacy-of-charlie
[2] Public Broadcasting System News, “Far-right violence a growing threat and law enforcement’s top domestic terrorism concern,” September 5, 2023, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/far-right-violence-a-growing-threat-and-law-enforcements-top-domestic-terrorism-concern

2025-09-11 15:26:38 UTC

‘Stagflation’ is the problem that neoliberalism was meant to solve.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/11/august-inflation-trump-tariffs/

2025-09-09 01:32:11 UTC

Vladimir Putin, who claims to be a historian (he isn't really), should be well aware of the military history between Russia and Finland. If Dmitry Medvedev means to threaten the latter country militarily, it will not go well for the former.
https://masto.ai/@meduza_en/115171716026052816

2025-09-08 18:40:15 UTC

https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/justice-in-the-shadows

2025-09-06 04:07:13 UTC

Which is to say that the military personnel who followed Donald Trump’s orders followed illegal orders and are therefore subject to charges themselves.
From: @npub1ucv…5a8g
https://m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/115155279799892955

2025-09-05 22:26:54 UTC

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/05/trump-health-media-margaret-sullivan

2025-09-05 18:41:02 UTC

Vladimir Putin says, "Trust me!"
https://www.politico.eu/article/western-nato-troops-ukraine-legitimate-target-says-russia-vladimir-putin/

2025-09-03 02:38:44 UTC

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but it says “nothing may be done which may prejudice civil and religious rights of” non-Jews. Civil rights include political rights.

2025-09-03 02:36:20 UTC

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But it says nothing shall be done to prejudice the civil or economic rights of non-Jews. “Civil rights” include political rights.

2025-09-03 01:58:26 UTC

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It reminds me of the Punisher.
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-punisher-tells-cops-hes-sick-of-them-idolizing-him
There's also an older article, which has, for reasons unknown to me, been taken off line, in which Gerry Conway, the creator of the Punisher, makes a similar point. I have a PDF of it in my archive.

2025-09-03 01:25:25 UTC

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Are any other countries issuing these notifications? If not, then why would Germany be the only one?

2025-09-01 21:40:36 UTC

I have long believed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but the academic and legal consensus is now nearly complete: Ask a genocide scholar if this is genocide and it is like asking a climate scientist if there’s climate change. The answer now will be an emphatic yes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/01/israel-genocide-gaza-scholars/

2025-08-31 13:34:33 UTC

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The very fact of a system of exchange system privileges whomever is most able to say no. Max Weber and others have pointed out that this inherently exacerbates economic inequality, ultimately leaving workers destitute while a few get rich.
Admittedly, Weber attributed this to capitalism, but the logic of his argument applies to *any* market system.
The only way to avoid it is to start with a perfectly level playing field and somehow--impossibly--to keep that field level.
Economics that works, then, applies the maxim from the Communist Manifesto: To each according to their need, from each according to their ability.

2025-08-30 03:24:10 UTC

https://jackohman.substack.com/p/your-daily-cartoon-8fa

2025-08-28 17:58:47 UTC

https://www.wakeuptopolitics.com/p/why-trump-wants-to-sue-the-senate

2025-08-25 01:56:45 UTC

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It's more than that. The olive trees are intertwined with Palestinian culture. Remove the trees and you erase some of the culture. This is an aspect of cultural genocide.

2025-08-24 01:19:25 UTC

This is a crucial point here: Ghislaine Maxwell essentially used the interview to deny allegations she has never admitted but been convicted of.
Of course she didn't see Donald Trump or Bill Clinton behaving badly; if she had, she would be giving her accusers ammunition.
https://newsie.social/@bespacific/115080759943843187

2025-08-23 00:53:35 UTC

Canada might not be up for being the U.S.’ 51st state, but it sure looks like Alberta premier Danielle Smith wants her province to be that state.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/08/22/What-Is-Danielle-Smith-Real-Plan-Alberta/

2025-08-18 23:35:14 UTC

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Pretty clear that @npub12zh…d2v3 doesn't know what they're talking about.

2025-08-18 23:30:56 UTC

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@npub147s…k9k3 @npub1xh2…u80r
@npub12zh…d2v3, whom I've now blocked, talks about how banks are not involved with bitcoin (some are already moving in that direction) but these "wallets" are accounts at a financial institution that is increasingly regulated like a financial institution.

2025-08-18 23:28:42 UTC

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The irony here is breathtaking.
Because the one place capitalist libertarians admit to authoritarianism is with contracts. They absolutely expect those contracts to be enforced in the courts.

2025-08-18 23:26:05 UTC

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You're an ideologue. Which is not a question and I no longer have any. Bye.

2025-08-18 21:22:46 UTC

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"Bitcoin isn't backed by gold?" Neither is the U.S. dollar or any modern currency--hence the capitalist libertarian complaint about "fiat currency."
Your arguments are vapor.

2025-08-18 21:21:23 UTC

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Um, "bitcoin is not a commodity, but a protocol?"
I can't recall ever seeing a protocol with a dollar value, let alone one in excess of $100,000.

2025-08-18 21:20:04 UTC

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Sounds like environmental classism.

2025-08-18 21:13:25 UTC

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So let's see here. Just making sure I have this straight.
Billionaires control banks. Chinese billionaires control 80 percent of the bitcoin. I'm afraid the difference lies in ethnicity, not economics.

2025-08-18 21:11:49 UTC

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Um, no.
Austrian economics is the foundation of capitalist libertarianism, represented in the U.S. today by the Libertarian Party. It's still very much a current ideology.
And it, in turn, is the foundation for neoliberalism, which abandons the pretense of a level playing field, also very much a current ideology.

2025-08-18 18:55:04 UTC

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Actually, yes, they can.
You know those Federal Reserve requirements about debt to asset ratios? It means they need a certain amount of assets--savings--and can lend a certain multiple above that. That's money they don't have but create out of thin air.

2025-08-18 18:41:30 UTC

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What's this? Are you going post-modernist on us?
So much for science and the observable.

2025-08-18 18:34:55 UTC

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Which still fails to address how an inherently unstable currency can function as a medium of exchange.

2025-08-18 18:25:48 UTC

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I see a lotta dancing around here, none of it actually answering the points about why Bitcoin is every bit as classist as any other monetary system.

2025-08-18 17:54:27 UTC

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That specifically is nonsense.
The money-printing mechanism with Bitcoin demands computing power. S/he who can afford that computing power can print Bitcoin. S/he who cannot cannot.

2025-08-18 17:45:01 UTC

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The only use I've seen for bitcoin is in scams, usually beginning with an SMS message and moving to WhatsApp.

2025-08-18 17:39:11 UTC

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That "proof of work" (to what end and why do we value it?) also carries an environmental cost that is exceeded only by artificial idiocy.

2025-08-18 17:25:51 UTC

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I've been contemplating this article while I've been driving around and I think the question of the origin of money here is posed as a false dilemma, with a particularly narrow imagination of civil authority.
Indigenous societies, we should note, came in both authoritarian and anti-authoritarian flavors on both small and large scales. These people were experimenting with systems of social organization; they sometimes alternated between authoritarian and anti-authoritarian and I'm willing to bet there were some systems in between. In particular, kings often lacked the ability to impose their authority where they were not present. There's a lot of wiggle room here.
In systems theory, we argue that linear causation is the exception rather than the rule. Much more common is mutual causality, in which factors in a system influence, both enhancing and constraining, each other as the system develops and they adapt to it.
If we understand civil authority as resting on a scale from egalitarian to hyper-hierarchical, the question loses all meaning. Money can have come about as a social construction amid other such constructions of language and culture and agreed to or imposed by a range of societies from egalitarian to hyper-hierarchical.

2025-08-18 16:18:40 UTC

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I think my faint recollection derives from it being a "Federal Reserve Note," with a "note" itself signifying debt.

2025-08-18 15:01:34 UTC

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I don't carry cash nowadays, but I dimly recall it saying right on a dollar bill that it is a debt.

2025-08-18 14:13:30 UTC

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Social construction theory posits that things exist because we agree that they do. One example is intelligence: We agree that someone is intelligent, therefore they are. I have long seen money as a social construction, regardless of its origins.
The tell is that to your cat, money is just paper, something different to bat at or lay on top of. Your cat has no comprehension that money can be used to buy cat treats and frankly doesn't care.

2025-08-18 14:01:18 UTC

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This is the crucial point to remember: Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange, not an investment. For this, it needs a stable, not increasing value.
Money inherently facilitates social inequality because in any system of exchange, greater power accrues to whomever is most able to say no, and because money can be accumulated, and because debts can be accumulated, there is a feedback loop that exacerbates that inequality.
This is why, whatever you call it, Bitcoin, another cryptocurrency, or "fiat currency" fails to solve the problem and never can. Even if the playing field were perfectly smooth to begin with, even the slightest disturbance begins inexorably widening social inequality.

2025-08-18 13:20:52 UTC

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When you understand cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, as a capitalist libertarian project, of course, none of these problems are solved.
Capitalist libertarians think economic hierarchy is just fine (they pretend the labor market is a level playing field).
The keyword that gives it away is "fiat currency." It's a term I never hear except from conservatives--many of whom are capitalist libertarian to some degree--and refers not to money as debt but rather as an asset with arbitrarily set value. Capitalist libertarians think that money should be an investment, that it should gain value (against what I'm not sure), which is why Bitcoin is designed the way it is: Its value in dollars, apart from the pump and dump scam that it also is, has trended up to astronomical levels over the years.

2025-08-18 01:58:40 UTC

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12510741-when-the-rich-rob-the-poor-it-s-called-business-when
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/115/047/288/876/783/464/original/1bdc439ade3bcea1.png

2025-08-18 01:55:02 UTC

From Salwa (https://substack.com/@salwanotes):
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/115/047/273/976/939/779/original/376ad461e946bff8.png

2025-08-12 20:30:13 UTC

https://keithknight.substack.com/p/think-ice

2025-08-11 03:11:38 UTC

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Andrew Cuomo's timeline on X is truly a marvel. The hypocrisy is richer than rich.

2025-08-11 03:02:26 UTC

Andrew Cuomo, who opposes New York City’s likely next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, weeps crocodile tears for “a single mother and her children [who] slept at a homeless shelter” while Mamdani lives in a $2300-per-month rent-controlled apartment.[1] Please do let that sink in for a minute.
Cuomo imagines that a homeless single mother can afford $2,300 per month in rent. He imagines that any working class person outside the skilled trades can afford $2,300 per month in rent.
But Cuomo paints Mamdani as a rich elitist.[2]
[1] Andrew Cuomo, “Somewhere last night in New York City . . .” X, August 8, 2025, https://x.com/andrewcuomo/status/1953897868822991058
[2] Andrew Cuomo, “Somewhere last night in New York City . . .” X, August 8, 2025, https://x.com/andrewcuomo/status/1953897868822991058

2025-08-09 13:12:47 UTC

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That is indeed crazy.
It’s increasingly clear that the experience of being human is inextricable from the experience of having a body, that even if you can separate mind from body, the result would not be the same. And technologically, we are so far away from being able to match the complexity of a human brain that to even speak of it is delusional.
Peter Thiel is not one I would turn to for theological or philosophical insight.
But there is something to the idea that evil arises from having a body that suffers from want and deprivation in addition to enjoying pleasure. Something like this idea can be found in multiple religions.
We could understand the Antichrist as leading people toward hedonism and away from spirituality. But this presumes a mind-body dichotomy which is unlikely to exist.

2025-08-09 12:18:17 UTC

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I recall that some drew 666 from the number of letters in each of Ronald Wilson Reagan's names.
My view of that era is skewed by the fact that I was in Reno, Nevada, at the time, where ranchers forever wanted to put more cattle and sheep on Bureau of Land Management land, hence the "Sagebrush Rebellion." It was a capitalist libertarian impulse that public land should be in private hands to use and abuse.
I didn't take the Antichrist stuff seriously because I felt then, as I still do, that if the god of Abraham exists as described in the Bible, he is unworthy of worship. My thinking on that has progressed, but the conclusion remains much the same: https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/on-good-and-evil
The description of the Antichrist that sticks with me--I do not recall the source--is of likely a secular humanist with a mass following, leading people away from Christianity. Reagan was misguided in his Christianity but nonetheless a Christian. Trump is no humanist. Neither fits the bill for me.

2025-08-08 03:53:18 UTC

If you want an argument that Donald Trump is the Antichrist, I would suggest that Granger Smith’s argument that he is not[1] nonetheless strongly implies that white Christian nationalism is the Antichrist, where the denial of Christ takes the form of denying Christ’s teachings, notably on the foreigner and the poor and in the preference for cruelty over love for one’s neighbor, with Trump as a figurehead.
[1] Brian Linder, “Country music star uses Bible to reveal whether Donald Trump is the Antichrist,” Harrisburg Patriot-News, August 7, 2025, https://www.pennlive.com/news/2025/08/country-music-star-uses-bible-to-reveal-whether-donald-trump-is-the-antichrist.html

2025-07-30 22:18:26 UTC

https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/enough-with-the-sydney-sweeney-panic

2025-07-29 01:13:50 UTC

https://stephenzunes962006.substack.com/p/july-27-28-2025

2025-07-28 02:23:40 UTC

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It's because Substack has refused to ban the ultra-right. But I infer from that they are also less likely to ban me.

2025-07-26 21:15:31 UTC

The first thing I have to say here is that David Price is right: Unless you’re a developer, you absolutely should not install Apple’s public beta operating systems on your devices.[1]
This is an old argument. I remember making arguments like Price made with Debian (a Linux distribution) fanboys who insisted on installing the bleeding edge versions of everything. I finally had to turn away because there was just no convincing them of their folly.
I’ve cut myself on the bleeding edge a few times in my life and, lately, it’s been my rule not to do that.
But, and with a lead-in like that, you had to know this was coming, I have installed Apple’s public betas on my iPhone, iPads, and Watches.
And nothing horrible has happened. I’m actually really happy. I’m getting the screen resolution with CarPlay that I was expecting when I upgraded the head unit. I’ve had to change my screen backgrounds so the button transparency doesn’t obscure the icons but I have labels below the buttons again (I was not liking having to guess what logo meant what on the older version). CarPlay via Bluetooth, which seems to involve a weird handshake to actually use Wi-Fi, seems a bit more reliable.
The OS’s seem solid. The apps I use daily all still work. I’ve had no crashes.
I’d say the biggest drawback is that when I start Music, at least on CarPlay, I have to go through a few button pushes: Library > Songs > Shuffle. This is a lot of distraction when I’m already driving down the road and I just want my music, the music in my library, to play. And I have to do it each and every time. It’s a lot of trouble for—typically—a twenty-minute drive.
Price is still right. I’ll probably cut myself on the bleeding edge at some point between now and the official release. But I’m not going to want to go back.
[1] David Price, “Apple’s public betas are here—and they’re nothing but trouble,” Macworld, July 25, 2025, https://www.macworld.com/article/2859028/apples-public-beta-ios-macos-ipados-26-trouble.html

2025-07-26 14:21:33 UTC

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It's going to be a while before I can get to this. I am working my way through some financial and legal misery right now.

2025-07-22 01:08:54 UTC

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Change instances.
There are, unfortunately, a number of Mastodon administrators who have decided that any criticism of Zionism is anti-Semitism.
My full response to the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is here: https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/for-the-record-my-analysis-of-the
#mastoadmin who have embraced that definition should read it and adjust their behavior accordingly.

2025-07-21 03:07:34 UTC

https://stephenzunes962006.substack.com/p/317-by-rejecting-evidence-of-genocide-315

2025-07-15 02:38:20 UTC

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Pretty strange to cast a bunch of white wealthy property-owners and slaveholders peeved at least in part because they weren't accorded the respect granted noblemen in England as "leftists."

2025-07-14 13:38:30 UTC

Can someone please explain to me how emails "contain[ing] 'intimate and embarrassing' information" between Texas Governor Greg Abbot and Elon Musk "is 'not of legitimate concern to the public?'"
https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/114851716340892177

2025-07-04 17:50:36 UTC

Actually, I think there might be intelligent life, even on this planet. We humans are just the ones wrecking the ecosystem, which hardly seems like a marker for intelligence.

2025-07-04 16:56:13 UTC

Confession: I didn't know 'Shylock' was considered anti-Semitic either. Apparently it's a Shakespeare reference.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/04/trump-rally-jewish-stereotype/
I tend to view such obscure--to me, anyway--categorizations as rendering so much anti-Semitic that anti-Semitism loses its meaning. But I'm on the fence with this one.

2025-07-03 02:51:23 UTC

Charlie Mahtesian’s analysis is spot on.
One of the truly remarkable things about Donald Trump’s first term was how he united what I had identified in my dissertation as seven disparate tendencies of conservatism into white Christian nationalism. He did it by doing something for each of those tendencies.
Mahtesian argues that “The Big Beautiful Bill” effectively undoes this union by giving so many Republicans something to complain about. Which means it isn’t only the bill’s passage that is threatened, but the alliance that Trump draws his power from.
If that alliance collapses, it could be spectacular.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2025/07/02/trumps-political-realignment-is-missing-in-the-megabill-00434342

2025-06-29 02:58:50 UTC

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They used to--when I was a kid--open the west sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge to bicyclists on weekends and, I think, holidays. Somehow that seemed to have gone by the wayside and I have no idea why.

2025-06-27 12:26:41 UTC

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I *was* in Pittsburgh. And yes, there are people insane enough to ride bicycles amid all the conditions you describe (if anything, you understate them) and amid the absolutely insane testosterone-raging drivers there. I was stunned.
Those conditions were one factor in my decision to *leave* Pittsburgh. In general, it's a hateful place and the only progressive elements to be found are pretty much inside the city limits (where rents are high). I didn't realize how much Pittsburgh was stressing me out until I left.
But my experience with bicyclists spans California, where I lived for over 50 years, Pittsburgh, and Erie. I left California in 2019 so I don't really know present conditions there and that's why I refrained from mentioning it in this discussion even though, in my experience, it is where the most arrogant cyclists are to be found--many won't stop for anything.

2025-06-26 10:48:44 UTC

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The accusation here is of selective observation, which can at least as easily be laid against you. In this case, it would require that I never notice when a bicyclist conforms with the vehicle code. Usually--not always--they ride as far to the right as practicable. I almost never see them stop for a stop sign or a red light and I have to notice this to avoid hitting them.
It's not like I'm driving streets with five lanes in each direction where I might overlook a cyclist in the far lane. The roads around Erie and Pittsburgh are mostly two-lane roads (one in each direction), rarely more than four lanes (two in each direction).
I see bicyclists as motorists shift left (crossing lane boundaries) to maneuver around them. I see bicyclists as other drivers take similar precautions to the ones I take. Frankly, I see bicyclists a bit more reliably than I do motorcyclists (who seem to love hanging out in my blind spots).

2025-06-26 10:29:52 UTC

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Bicyclists run red lights at a far higher rate than automobile drivers. When I see a bicyclist at an intersection, I have to assume they'll disregard any traffic controls whatsoever--and with extraordinarily rare exceptions, they do.

2025-06-26 01:54:29 UTC

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Transportation is a human right, you say. I agree.
But you would deny that right to anyone for whom bicycles or buses don’t work for whatever reason. Old or crippled? Too bad. Bus schedules or routes don’t work with your schedule? Too bad.
Someone made a meme defining privilege as the freedom to ignore problems that don’t affect you.
But you accuse me of privilege when the only job I can get is driving for DoorDash. Better think this one over again.

2025-06-26 01:40:19 UTC

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Excuse me, but running a red light is in the interest of their own safety? Better think that one over again.

2025-06-25 03:20:06 UTC

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just saying, even some Texans think Texas is nuts.

2025-06-23 12:43:19 UTC

https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/bike-riders-need-to-follow-the-rules
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/114/732/734/276/248/047/original/dc321c4c601674aa.jpg

2025-06-22 12:10:35 UTC

@woody68@c.im @npub18pz…mfdf @npub1zxn…0kqm @npub1gez…c8ck @npub14hv…wjef @npub1whj…ml7g @npub1e4z…xz2t
There is nothing to understand about bigotry. It is irrational. It is despicable. That's all there is to it.

2025-06-05 01:50:26 UTC

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General Assembly resolutions are also, if I understand correctly, non-binding. It amounts to a severe indictment of the United Nations system.

2025-06-04 13:30:44 UTC

Not my favorite person saying not my favorite thing: https://apple.news/AOxCLqygVR5ebGks-WymCWg
That doesn’t make him wrong. One of my arguments for anarchism was that elites are too invested in a status quo that is the source of their power and wealth. Change, no matter how necessary, is, for them, like cutting off their own hands

2025-06-04 02:48:05 UTC

Sometimes it’s just too neat. Elon Musk absolutely detests Donald Trump’s House of Representatives-passed “Big Beautiful Bill.” Which brings a thought that if Musk hates it, it can’t be all bad, right?
Of course it can—and is. But here’s my contribution to the conspiracy theory genre for the day: What if that’s the point? What if Musk’s disdain is meant to build support for this horrible bill?
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1929954109689606359
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/114/622/809/380/585/530/original/12ae114a18a8ddab.jpeg

2025-05-26 12:01:01 UTC

https://www.gocomics.com/the-academia-waltz/2025/05/26

2025-05-09 00:50:41 UTC

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I have often thought this. Occasionally, someone must remind me that it isn't so much the 'soulless bastards' who will suffer most from the ills you list, but rather the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

2024-12-29 21:57:23 UTC

Looks like someone is either forgetting or eliding that Volkswagen Bugs had their engines in the back.
That vegetable matter is in the Bug’s trunk.
From: [@Free_Press](https://mstdn.social/@Free_Press )
https://mstdn.social/@Free_Press/113737778648807607

2024-11-12 15:39:13 UTC

Apparently the Russians fail to understand that Donald Trump is an irresponsible person and will not accept the obligations anyone expects him to fulfill.
From: @npub1p74…yrjh
https://newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/113469889523407978