decolonization is not a metaphor

(Source)

The affected voters — those whose paperwork was mishandled and whose voter files lacked their SSN and driver's license — have until FIRDAY, APRIL 18th to contact their local board of elections and attempt to cure their ballot. If you voted in North Carolina last November, you can check whether your vote has been challenged at "The Griffin List" website: link.

In terms of science communication and space exploration advocacy, Elon Musk has sent us back into the fucking Stone Age.

It’s hard enough to encourage the public to see the value in space exploration, especially when the problems facing society right now are so intense that space exploration seems frivolous and needlessly expensive by comparison (keyword “seems”) but now that this clown is the face of the future of space, it’s doubling, hell, tripling down on the idea that space exploration is a fantasy for bored billionaires that would rather fuck off to mars and escape the problems of earthly society (problems that they had a starring role in creating) rather than spend a penny of their wealth to help remedy them. Tale as old as time for a science communicator. Heard it a million times. But now it’s so much harder to get people to understand the other side of the coin because the nightmare scenario is already here and his name is elongated muskrat

To add a little bit of context as to what that value actually is… The thing I hear the most in this conversation is “we need to take care of this planet before we start thinking about other ones.” Yes, I agree. The well-being of our planet and it’s people should be out top priority. But we can’t properly take care of our planet if we don’t fully understand it.

The Earth does not exist in a bubble. It’s part of a dynamic and ever-evolving solar system, and galaxy and universe. He have to look at the earth in that context to be able to know and care for it. To care for a planet, we have to know how planets work. When doctors treat patients they look at the medical record, they look at family history, they look at symptoms and compare them to known diseases to find a diagnosis.

How did the earth form? What was it like in the past? Why did it change? That’s the medical record.

We’ve got the earths siblings in the neighborhood. Why is Mars a frozen desert? Why is Venus a molten hell scape? Could those things happen here? That’s the family history.

What kinds of things are floating around our neighborhood? Could they affect us? All this is necessary to diagnose the Earths problem, to anticipate the direction it’s going, and to help it heal.

And the minute we get an asteroid scare, that’s when folks start asking why we weren’t looking up 🙄

As a science communicator at a well known establishment, 10000x this. We have a student program that talk about Earth systems and how missions like Landsat were so useful to understand our own planet better FROM SPACE. I could go on and on but just, like, reread OP's thoughts, they're perfect.

Scrolled past this agakn and just can't get over how much I love it. We need to make things beautiful again and this is such a wonderful example. The beadwork on the wires of a utitarian object, contrasted with the grey concrete.

Trump's desire to get Greenland is a direct attack on indigenous lands and it needs to be framed this way a lot more. Greenlandic Inuit make up about 90% of Greenland's population; they're frequently under attack from Denmark's government and now they're facing the US president threatening war just to tear their lands apart.

Under attack from the danish government??????

Elaborate on that?

Greenlandic Inuit face many of the same issues that other indigenous groups face under colonialist powers (and Denmark IS a colonialist power), such as loss of language and cultural identity, forced displacement, extremely high poverty and suicide rates, attacks on their lands for its natural resources, and ongoing battles for sovereignty.

Current battles for Greenlandic Inuit involve trying to get full control over mining rights in Greenland, reviving cultural practices like traditional fishing, and keeping custody of their children. Greenlandic Inuit parents face Danish-centered parenting tests, often in Danish which many of those parents can't speak and based around Danish parenting styles, and Inuit children are disproportionately removed from their families and placed in Danish households. Which is a form of cultural genocide for anyone who isn't aware.

The same is true for Canadian Inuit, who have the largest land claims territories in all of North America. A subset of the Inuit business community and the Department of National Defence have been campaigning to pursue "dual-use infrastructure" like roads, airports and telecoms systems built by the military but for use by local populations, because most of the communities up north don't have the tax base to be able to secure vital infrastructure themselves. Even if Trump didn't annex Canada and directly threaten Indigenous populations, the DND is using it as a way to advocate for increasing regional militarization in a way we haven't seen since the early Cold War.

I actually think it's insane that thinking Ukraine should just?? Surrender to Russia?? An imperialist invader bombing Ukrainian cities?? Is a mainstream political stance in the US??? Like why am I hearing people on the radio talk about Ukraine "sacrificing young men" instead of just giving up and letting itself be absorbed into Russia??? I feel like I'm losing my mind.

The US (and other Russia-leaning nations) is trying to offer up Ukraine as a sacrifice to appease Russia. This is an unbelievably cruel and evil thing to do to the people of Ukraine, but it's also just fucking stupid to think that giving into an imperial power will do anything except make it greedier and stronger. Even if Ukraine was expendable (which it is NOT and Ukranians deserve support and allies), Russia would never stop there and that is something Ukrainians have been saying for decades.

If Russia swallowed up Ukraine, who would be the next sacrifice for the sake of "peace"? Belarus? The Baltic States? Finland? All countries that Russia has expressed interest in controlling, just like Ukraine, and all countries that have expressed increasing fears and unease as Russia continues to literally push boundaries. How many people have to die before Russia's imperialist goals are recognized and taken seriously?

I know most people don't care about anything unless it has to do with the U.S. but can we please start talking about the Canadian election.

Please don't vote for Poilievre. He's basically the Canadian Trump and plans to put in place laws that harm trans youth, and lots of other shit.

Please vote istg this is the only way anything will get better. Poilievre has been kissing millionaires and billionaires asses. He'll make life even harder, and he loves Trump.

Reblogs are appreciated, especially if you aren't Canadian.

quick reminder that everything russia’s doing to ukraine isn’t new. there were 170 governmental bans on ukrainian language in the last 150 years. most of ukrainian writers from the basic school literature curriculum were murdered or oppressed for speaking out for ukraine. an average person doesn’t have to know executed renaissance or slovo house or the ems ukaz or forced russification or literally hundreds of similar precedents, but please do note that this all was a thing long before putin

Russia has this weird confederate-esque sense of entitlement to determining the fates of Eastern European peoples, like it believes living under the Russian boot is their natural and normal condition. Poles, Balts, Ukrainians, Romanians, etc.

This is why seemingly every incarnation of the Russian state has found its own justification for its oppression of the same peoples, regardless of its self declared ideology. The Russian Empire oppressed them to bring them Russian civilization. The Soviet Union oppressed them to free the working class and fight the capitalists. The Russian Federation oppresses them because they’re actually just confused Russians.

It’s a deep, ingrained racism going back hundreds of years. And it’s disgusting to see how so many on this site defend it.

I want to be politically informed and educated but I also wanna have a good day and be in a good mood. Do you see my problem?

Trump's desire to get Greenland is a direct attack on indigenous lands and it needs to be framed this way a lot more. Greenlandic Inuit make up about 90% of Greenland's population; they're frequently under attack from Denmark's government and now they're facing the US president threatening war just to tear their lands apart.

Under attack from the danish government??????

Elaborate on that?

Greenlandic Inuit face many of the same issues that other indigenous groups face under colonialist powers (and Denmark IS a colonialist power), such as loss of language and cultural identity, forced displacement, extremely high poverty and suicide rates, attacks on their lands for its natural resources, and ongoing battles for sovereignty.

Current battles for Greenlandic Inuit involve trying to get full control over mining rights in Greenland, reviving cultural practices like traditional fishing, and keeping custody of their children. Greenlandic Inuit parents face Danish-centered parenting tests, often in Danish which many of those parents can't speak and based around Danish parenting styles, and Inuit children are disproportionately removed from their families and placed in Danish households. Which is a form of cultural genocide for anyone who isn't aware.

There is also something deeply satisfying about knowing that Musk poured millions into getting the conservative candidate into the Wisconsin Supreme Court and all that money was completely fucking wasted :)

Apparently him burning $25 million on a lost race has also tanked his reputation among Republicans lmao

Hey Americans, if you have a state Supreme Court vote coming up, vote in it. A Supreme Court can make or break a state, especially in this current political climate, and we actually have control over who gets into our state courts.

Wisconsites, we have a Supreme Court vote coming up in April and if you don't vote in it, I'm going to cut a hole into all your window screens, right on the very edge so it's in a place where you can't just patch it but it's too big to just ignore. Enjoy your box elder bugs and grass spiders 🔫

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is on April 1st. That means that it's happening this Tuesday. Wisconsites, for the love of god, if you haven't cast your vote already, go out and vote.

Both major seats in this election were won by Dems!! Susan Crawford won the Supreme Court seat by a 10% margin, which is huge!!

Please, pay attention to your local and state elections because under this federal government, your local politicians and judges are the ones who can decide what rights you get and the biggest ticket on the ballot for every upcoming election right now is abortion access!