A live-streamed, recorded video of an execution—published by the executioners—creates a non-rebuttable record of what was done to whom by whom.

This Pope—more than any other—has changed the connotational semantics of "Is the Pope Catholic?" from rhetorical to ironical.

I don't say that because I diagree with the current Pope, but rather because I'm both amused—and disturbed—by the shifting winds of scriptural interpretation preferences among Christians. Those have been evolving over time, among every sect, for 2 millennia.

https://fixupx.com/TheMagaHulk/status/2108892624245449173

"A machine that truly searches for the truth is a machine you cannot dictate the answer to."

https://fixupx.com/kristof_poland/status/2108946075146936826

From Brivael Le Pogrom@X:

In my last post, I talked about the fixed pie mindset that's eating away at France. It has a direct cousin, even more toxic: the crab bucket.

You know the image. Put crabs in a bucket. No need for a lid. As soon as one of them tries to climb out, the others grab it and pull it back down. None of them will get out, but none will let another get out either.

I think a large part of the French operate exactly like that. And the worst part is that most of them don't even realize it.

It's no coincidence that this happens after the fixed pie. It's the same logic, taken to its extreme. If you believe success is a limited quantity, then every person who succeeds has taken a piece of it from you. Their success becomes your failure. And the natural reaction is no longer "congratulations, teach me," but "who does he think he is," "he must have cheated," "he got lucky," "just wait for him to crash."

This reflex exists elsewhere. The Scandinavians have a name for it, the Law of Jante, described by Aksel Sandemose in 1933: "Don't think you're anyone." The Australians talk about the tall poppy syndrome: the one that sticks out gets its head cut off. But in France, we've turned it into a national sport, and we dress it up as virtue. We call it critical thinking, lucidity, a rejection of bling-bling. In reality, it's often just jealousy that's found a moral justification.

What you don't see is the cost.

Bastiat said that a good economist is distinguished from a bad one because he looks not only at what is seen, but also at what is not seen. What is seen is the vicious comments under a post from someone announcing a fundraising round. What is not seen is the thousands of people who read those comments and decide, in silence, never to take the leap.

The business that was never created. The product that was never launched. The video that was never posted. The book that was never written. The jobs that never existed. All of that because someone was more afraid of being humiliated than of failing.

That's the real destruction of value. And it's profoundly stupid, because pulling someone down has never made you rise an inch. You stay at the bottom of the bucket, just with more company.

Personally, I don't care about being liked. Negative comments don't touch me. But I know that's an exception. For someone who's a little short on confidence, who already doubts, who's taking their first step, a wave of contempt can be enough to stop everything. And it's often those people who had the most to offer.

Look at Silicon Valley. Someone raises funds, everyone says "congrats." Someone fails, we ask what they learned and what they're doing next. The people who've succeeded spend their time helping those who are starting out. Not out of naive kindness, but because they've understood that an ecosystem where people succeed is an ecosystem where everyone wins. The more people who get out of the bucket, the easier it is for the others to get out too.

The next time you see someone succeed, ask yourself just one question: do I want to pull them back down, or do I want to understand how they climbed up?

"Congratulations, teach me."

Three words. That's all it would take for this country to change.

https://x.com//brivael/status/2108981254427156971/

Those ultimately behind mass immigration know this quite well. It's their principal motivation for what they've been doing.

https://fixupx.com/AuronMacintyre/status/2108971719276847400

_Black Professor Gets FIRED After Historian EXPOSES Her MADE-UP Slavery History!_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diBBIMh9tBk&t=2s

What does it say when a particular political affinity group has significantly (or even infinitely) more sympathy for someone who murders her own children, and/or of someone who committed mass murder with a firearm at a military base, than for Iryna Zarutska (Ірина Заруцька), a Ukrainian refugee who was murdered while peacefully riding public transportation (a "hate crime," by the way)?