"Google (GOOG) has been a partner with the CIA since 2004 when the company bought Keyhole, a mapping technology business that eventually became Google Earth. In 2010, Google and In-Q-Tel made a joint investment on a company called Recorded Future, which has the Minority Report-style goal of creating a "temporal analytics engine" that scours the web and creates curves that predict where events may head.

Google is already helping the government write, and rewrite, history. Here, from its transparency report, are some stats on the amount of information it has either given to the government or wiped from the web based on requests by U.S. agencies:

-4,601 requests from U.S. government agencies for "user data"
- Google complied with government requests for user data 94% of the time
- 1,421 requests for "content removal"
- Google complied with content removal requests 87% of the time.
- 15 requests were from "executive, police etc."
- 1 was a national security request."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-is-a-tool-of-the-cia-seriously/

"Pfizer’s private funding narrative depends on an extraordinarily narrow interpretation of state investment in national and global public health. One prominent counter to their claims is the simple fact that Pfizer’s vaccine overwhelmingly relies on decades of publicly funded research. This extends beyond the individual developments that make the mRNA vaccine platform viable, to the very genesis of the design: the development speed Pfizer takes such pride in was made possible by the release of the full genetic sequence for COVID-19 by a team of researchers out of a public university in China."

https://thenewinquiry.com/pfizer-walk-with-me/

"Peterson manages to mangle intellectual history so badly that it’s almost surreal. The claim that it took “thousands of years” for humans to develop a concept of “individual sovereignty and worth” and that this is a concept that is primarily associated with “the west” is entirely false.

The idea that all human beings have inherent value is widespread throughout human cultures and is attested remarkably early in human history. For instance, even if we set aside the appearance of this idea in the Book of Jonah, the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (lived c. 470 – c. 391 BCE), who lived around the same time that Socrates was alive in Athens, espoused a philosophy that was founded on the idea of 兼愛 (jiān’ài). This word is usually translated as “universal love,” but is perhaps more accurately translated as “impartial caring for all people.”

Mozi believed that every person should not only respect and care for those whom they were obligated to respect and care for, but respect and care for every other person equally."

https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2021/04/05/jordan-peterson-does-not-understand-mythology/

"What is remarkable fifty years later is the extent to which the real world has disappeared from our discussions of conspiracy theories. We have replaced social and economic conditions with cognitive deficiencies, ancient mythologies with logical fallacies, history with atavistic biases. It is not just that we have projected the causes of conspiracism deep into the recesses of the human brain; we assume that these depths are easier to know than the world that surrounds us and more amenable to reform. The champions of debunking and the new information vigilantes are not interested in entertaining the possibility that the root cause of conspiracy theories may be located outside the mind and may require a reexamination of our economic and social arrangements. For them, the world is fine as it is; it is all a matter of bringing people in alignment with a reality which they fail to appreciate. Steven Pinker, one of the paladins of truth and rationality, suggests implementing nothing less than “debiasing” programs that would help individuals see that there is nothing wrong with the world and that everything will be okay if we let those in charge take care of it. The imperative is to adapt to a world given a free pass and avoid the temptation of meddling with it. Debunking ultimately turns out to be a defense of the status quo—not because conspiracy theories may be true, but because it uses them to further restrict the space for politics."

https://bostonreview.net/politics/nicolas-guilhot-bad-information

Pipeline company paid Minnesota police for arresting and surveilling protesters
Article, Comments

Bell #Hooks - feminism is for everybody

"Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where
females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine living in a world where we can all be who we are, a world of peace and possibility. Feminist revolution alone will not create such a world; we need to end racism, class elitism, imperialism. But it will make it possible for us to be fully self-actualized females and males able to create beloved community, to live together, realizing our dreams of freedom and justice, living the truth that we are all "created equal.""

It's an introduction to feminism, but here's the main takeaway I got from the book:"While visionary feminist thinkers have understood our need for a broad-based feminist movement, one that addresses the needs of girls and boys, women and men, across class, we have not produced a body of visionary feminist theory written in an accessible language or shared through oral communication. Today in academic circles much of the most celebrated feminist theory is written in a sophisticated jargon that only the well-educated can read. Most people in our society do not have a basic understanding of feminism; they cannot acquire that understanding from a wealth of diverse material,
grade school-level primers, and so on, because this material does not exist. We must create it if we are to rebuild feminist movement that is truly for everyone.
Feminist advocates have not organized resources to ensure that
we have television stations or consistent spots on any existing stations. There is no feminist news hour on any television or radio show."

Feminism is for everybody, by Bell Hooks

"So, Keir’s big offer? A Labour government that will teach you to better navigate the choppy waters of capitalism, while paying another company to soothe your worries when the stress becomes overwhelming"

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/keir-starmers-speech-the-best-thing-since-stale-bread/