"Let the bomb find you doing well," C.s. Lewis advised in his essay 'On Living in An Atomic Age.' Let the bomb find you doing well. I have been turning over these words in my mind for the last few weeks, and more rapidly still, the way that a washing machine doubles its pace at the end of its cycle, since Sunday, when the American president declared that he was seeking the destruction of an entire country and the genocide of millions.

Lewis wrote these words in 1948, three years after the bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people; our most immoral invention. He thought that perhaps the bomb, so alive in recent memory, could serve as a critical wake-up call for us all, a reminder that death was always the outcome for us and everyone we love, whether it came by blast or blight or the breaking down of the body, and rather than hiding from this truth, we would choose to live alongside of it, using it to shepherd us into a more moral way of living.

Writing a hundred years before the bomb's creation, however, the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel advanced a much bleaker outlook, stating that "what experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." It seems, in this moment, that points must be given to Hegel, as we stand once again on the precipice of mutually assured destruction, with an incredibly ill human being holding the wheel of the world in his small hands.

His small hands: I almost removed this insult, but I decided it was better to keep it in, for it gives me the chance to share a hard- won lesson. These words of mine don't help -not the situation, nor anyone who is in the path of destruction, and not even me. In my fear, in my anger, in my sense that I am utterly powerlessness to prevent atrocity around the world, I want to lash out at him. Have a taste of your own medicine and see how you like it.

I wrote about how to be human in an inhumane world

(read more here: stephanieharrison.substack.com/p/bombs-bomb...)

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

On Nov. 16, a mental health counselor recorded in Kamilla’s medical records that her mother reported the girl had lost her appetite after being “served food that contained worms.” A week later, the couple said, children were told to gather in the gym for what they believed would be a Thanksgiving celebration. Excitement spread as families saw tables set with turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, they said. The children waited expectantly. But when a parent asked when the celebration would begin, Oksana said, staff told them the holiday meal was for employees, not detainees. The children, she said, watched despondently as the feast was packed away.

On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.

What we get wrong about good vs. evil:

On Pluralistic Ignorance You're not alone.

One of the questions I'm most frequently asked goes along the lines of, "I'm just one person, what can I possibly do?"

If that struggle is also familiar to you, here are some thoughts that might help you: substack.com/home/post/p-...

How to cope in this hellscape:

Just experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...

I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Publishing for Minnesota I DONATED: 1) Help with your nonfiction book proposal: a detailed review of your work and a Zoom to discuss 2) Help with your book launch plans: share ways to get the word out about your book (social media, speaking, etc.) and help you strategize on a Zoom to Publishing for Minnesota's fundraiser auction. Link to website

We’ve already raised 80k! Join in at www.32auctions.com/publishingfo...

Here's what ICE is up to in Northeast Minneapolis today. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Warning: video is hard to watch

I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

Some publishing folks are running an auction to raise money for MN!

I donated: 1) a review of your nonfiction proposal and 2) help with your book launch strategy & platform. But there are so many other amazing items available, I encourage you to check it out!

www.32auctions.com/publishingfo...

How to guard against fatalism:

To that end, USCIS declared flatly that the children of immigrants who are "unlawfully present" will "no longer be U.S. citizens at birth." They will, instead, inherit the status of their parents, rendering them detainable and deportable as infants and throughout their lives. There is no indication that the government will provide some grace period before snatching up and imprisoning this new underclass of noncitizen babies; they are apparently subject to arrest from the moment of birth.

Reminder: If the Supreme Court upholds Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship, some of the ICE officers currently brutalizing Minnesotans may be reassigned to apprehend newborns from the hospital for immediate deportation. Just read the Trump administration’s own memo. slate.com/news-and-pol...

I don’t want to hear anything from an elected official unless it’s a plan to defund the DHS and impeach Noem, Bovino, etc. No texts. No emails. No talk about the economy. Step up or step off.

Would you?
vs
Did you?

How to help: standwithminnesota.com

Let the pain in—so the pain can move you to action—and so that action can change you—so that you can change others—so you and me and others can come together to build a world where this never, ever happens.

Your voice and your example matter more than you will ever know. The belief you voice or the action you take might be the very catalyst that someone else needs to take their next step. Be the evidence of goodness!

Instead of a 2016 flashback, I'd recommend a 2036 flashforward. Project yourself ahead ten years and think about what the world will look like should we remain on our current trajectory. And once you have that picture in your head, think about what you might do to stop it. The actions that you can take every day, in your life and in your community, to protect and honor your values. Because the future is not yet written, and we have more power than we know, and we can come together and work towards a greater good.

The fascist regime's survival requires that you forget these truths; it wants you to succumb to the ease of denial rather than rise—in fear, yes; in discomfort, inevitably—to act with courage. That denial ends when we confront the truth about what will happen—absolutely, without doubt—if we continue acting in this way: that in ten years, we will be looking back on 2026 as a paradise compared to what we have wrought since. For there is still time, there are more of us, and goodness is on our side. All that remains is our choice to act.

It’s okay to be scared. And we can feel our fear and turn it into action.

I'm so sorry Rachel. I feel so sad this is our world. I'm really looking forward to reading @emendenhall.bsky.social's book.

Today once again proved that everyday citizens protesting their government are braver than the titans who own the largest media corporations, run the biggest law firms and lead the most powerful technology companies.

The surprisingly simple secret to motivation:

Hey Jon Stewart, jokes about wearing masks aren't funny Critics of the Daily Show host say he's a hypocrite.

Wrote about how disappointing it is that Jon Stewart punched down on people masking at @motherjones.com, when people should mind their own business and leave mask wearers be. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

4. Which undermines democracy!

By failing to recognize this, so many writers who I used to admire have facilitated our slide into fascism.

Because (I can't believe I have to write these words) it is absolutely unacceptable to treat any group of people's right to exist & flourish as UP FOR DEBATE.

It’s not complicated:

1. Espousing hateful ideologies leads to a climate of increased violence

2. Standing up to those hateful ideologies is an attempt to push back and protect the vulnerable

3. Equating the two as “opposing viewpoints” legitimizes the hateful ideology as normal and acceptable...

Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2 “Immunity debt,” a theory to explain the global surge in non-covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is increasingly being challenged by emerging evidence. Nick Tsergas reports Myco...

As I and others have been saying for some time now. Please read this. It might make you be more cautious.

www.bmj.com/content/390/...

BBC Radio 4 - Rare Earth, Powering Our Robot Overlords The energy used by a simple internet search is increasing. Can we cut the cost?

You, yes YOU, need to listen to this episode or Rare Earth from @helenczerski.bsky.social, about skyrocketing power demand from data centres. Particularly now that the UK govt is asking residents to use less water so it can cool the Slop Generator.

Not only is everything horrific right now, but we're also having to unlearn our ways of being (what I call Old Happy, or the ways that individualism/capitalism/domination have shaped us) and evolve into humans who are capable of making the new world we want. It's hard. Let's be kind to each other.

this, and some of y'all used this as your blank justification to abandon masking and the common good, and refuse to see how that behavior led to where we are today