Michael Halila 🏳️‍⚧️

Abundant and low value. 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸⏳
Cis (he/his), posting from Finland.
Irksome replies will be blocked.

Blog: http://freodom.blogspot.com
Our Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2431980/Goblin_Camp/
Goblin Camp: https://www.goblincamp.com

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Last Notes

2026-10-13 08:52:41 UTC

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The biggest problem with these conspiracy theories where fascism is somehow not real is that they represent a refusal to face the very real facts of the current political situation and its roots in our history and society. Instead it lets people pretend that somehow fascism is fake and a psyop, and if we just make the Russian bots go away, everything will return to normal.
That's a lie.
This is what's normal now, and we have to deal with that instead of hiding behind conspiracy theories.

2026-10-13 08:47:08 UTC

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Both of these mirror conspiracy theories cater to the middle-class belief that actually there are no real political divides or differences of opinion, that politics is just technical administration.
Again, speaking as a historian, I assure you that the fascism we're seeing now has deep roots in so-called Western civilization and each of our societies. It draws directly on our heritage of white supremacy, patriarchy and colonial exploitation. We don't need anyone to teach us any of these things.

2026-10-13 08:30:30 UTC

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There's an entire school of conspiracy theorism on the left that posits that the entire rise of the far right in the 21st century is some kind of Russian intelligence operation, D.J. Trump and N.P. Farage are Russian assets, and so on. The idea is that the fascism we're seeing is somehow fake and created by outside influence.
Ironically, this is exactly the same as the right-wing fantasy that the entire left is the creation of a conspiracy funded by rich Jewish financiers like G. Soros.

2026-10-13 08:20:27 UTC

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I don't think there's any real question that Russia is supporting political actors whose goals align with theirs. That's what the US and plenty of other countries do as well.
But speaking as a historian who's studied fascism, some of the stuff people are saying with the Yandex strike is absolutely wild.
The rise of fascism in the West is not "fake". It is not run by some Russian bot swarm, and it's ludicrous to pretend that the far right would vanish if we blew up enough Russian data centers.

2026-10-13 08:11:54 UTC

The idea that hitting a Yandex server made most far-right activity go away seems to be at best massively exaggerated, and some of the evidence shared for it looks completely made up. https://www.theverge.com/tech/1009594/russian-bots-yandex-outage-drone-strikes-debunk

2026-10-04 11:10:52 UTC

Because this still doesn't seem to be clear to people - and when I say people, I mean leftist parlamentarians in my country - Substack hosts and actively promotes literal Nazis.
It's a bit silly to complain about the rise of fascism while directly helping fund it by producing content for Substack and X. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters

2026-10-02 08:20:41 UTC

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sen jälkeen kun homottomuustuen suojaosat poistettiin, en ole enää luennoinut homoväenopistolla. Homoväenopistot ovat osa vapaata sivistyshomoilua.

2026-10-02 08:13:36 UTC

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cruisingiin erityisen hyvin soveltuva ajoneuvo eli homosuhdeauto.

2026-09-01 06:40:57 UTC

I'm fascinated by this story of Freddie Mercury's partner, best friend, personal assistant and heir. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/sep/01/freddie-mercury-lover-mary-austin-interview

2026-08-05 06:17:17 UTC

The Guardian: Major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis
"Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves."
A fairly small number of massive corporations is literally destroying the planet and killing thousands upon thousands of people, and making obscene profits as they do it. https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/aug/04/revealed-major-oil-firms-make-93bn-profits-amid-war-and-climate-crisis

2026-07-24 13:31:01 UTC

Trump is bombing Iran again and threatening to escalate, which is exactly what he's been doing for what, five months now?
It seems pretty obvious that the US can't bomb Iran into submission without a significantly greater effort, but Iran can't force the US to back down either. This is pretty much how the Americans ended up in Vietnam: you can't force the enemy to surrender, and you can't admit that you can't, so the war just keeps on going. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/23/trump-says-he-is-close-to-decision-on-largest-yet-attack-on-iran

2026-07-23 08:06:30 UTC

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Mä en oikein näe mitään syytä olla kansallistamatta Carunaa. Suomen valtion pitäisi yksinkertaisesti pakko-ostaa se sijoittajilta.
Mistä otetaan rahat? Sieltä mistä ne aina tällaisiin asioihin otetaan, eli lainataan. Sähkön kulutus ei tule Suomessa päättymään, tai jos päättyy, niin meillä on isompia ongelmia. Tää on sijoitus joka maksaa itsensä takaisin.
Joku raja sillä täytyy olla, että ulkomainen suurpääoma päästetään rahastamaan meidän arjella.

2026-07-23 08:01:14 UTC

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Luonnollisen monopolin yksityistäminen on tosiaan sellainen homma, että siinä vähän niin kun aina käy näin. Koska meilläkin on puhuttu vesilaitosten yksityistämisestä, niin on ihan hyödyllistä tietää, että Britanniassa se on tehty. Tulos on ollut kuluttajien, ympäristön ja valtiontalouden kannalta aikalailla täysi katastrofi, ja kannatus vesiyhtiöiden kansallistamiselle on valtava.
Se, ettei sitä saada aikaiseksi, onkin sitten eri tarina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatisation_in_England_and_Wales

2026-07-23 07:57:31 UTC

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Hesarissa muistetaan, että kun J.T. Kataisen (kok) hallitus päätti hyväksyä Fortumin sähköverkon myynnin yksityisille, niin pääministeri oikein lupasi, etteivät kuluttajahinnat nouse. Toisin kävi.
Asian muuten virallisesti esitteli kyseisen hallituksen kehitys- ja omistajaohjausministeri P.O. Haavisto (vihr), ja hommissa mukana ja lupauksia kuluttajille antamassa oli kukapa muukaan kuin silloinen elinkeinoministeri, sittemmin kuulemma ristiinnaulittu ja roviollapoltettu J.P. Vapaavuori (kok).

2026-07-23 07:47:43 UTC

Hesarissa oli kyllä oikeasti hyvä puheenvuoro sähköverkkoyhtiö Carunan myynnistä. Vaikuttaa harvinaisen selvältä, että meidän sähkölaskuja maksavien ihmisten näkökulmasta Fortumin verkon yksityistäminen on ollut karkea virhe.
Sähköverkko on kirjaimellisesti oppikirjaesimerkki luonnollisesta monopolista; on hyvin ymmärrettävää, että yksityinen pääoma haluaa päästä rahastamaan sillä, muttei kenenkään kansalaisten parhaasta välittävän poliitikon pitäisi koskaan sellaiseen suostua.

2026-07-17 07:45:34 UTC

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doesn't matter, you'd be judged to be self-employed and therefore not eligible for unemployment benefits. There was a story in Finland's state media just last week that unemployed people are hiding their volunteer work for this reason.

2026-07-17 07:14:34 UTC

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in Finland, if the authorities found out that an unemployed person did even one of these things, they'd have their benefits revoked and have to pay them back, because they would be judged to not be actively looking for work. 🙃

2026-07-01 15:53:55 UTC

Canada is joining the Eurovision Song Contest. Great; kick Israel out and we'll watch. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/01/canada-joins-eurovision-song-contest

2026-06-30 07:46:35 UTC

Jäin miettimään yhteiskuntarauhan käsitettä, kun [@varpu_talviuni](https://piipitin.fi/@varpu_talviuni ) kyseli sen perään eilen. Että kun puhutaan yhteiskuntarauhasta, niin kenen rauha se on? Kysymyksenhän voi sanoittaa myös niin päin, että kenen yhteiskunta tämä on.
Mutta jos nyt tähän aamupäivään pari ajatusta suomalaisesta yhteiskuntarauhasta.

2026-06-18 08:41:28 UTC

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The Vietnam War is often referred to as the first TV war: not because it was the first war to be televised (it wasn't), but because it was the first US war where the general public would hear what their rulers were saying about it, and then see a completely different reality on television.
In this sense, Gaza is the first Instagram war.

2026-06-18 08:38:17 UTC

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There's a sense in which I continue to be mystified by the violent repression of pro-Palestine protests across Europe. There's no "rational" explanation for it. No financial or military or any other kind of ties any European nation has with Israel are important enough to justify any of this.

2026-06-18 08:35:04 UTC

In the Guardian, George Monbiot runs through the appalling double standard in the UK where holding a sign supporting Palestine Action is a terrorism offense, but inciting or participating in a racist pogrom isn't. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/17/belfast-riots-palestine-action-protests-terrorism

2026-06-17 20:27:28 UTC

You liked the previous sunset I posted, so here's another one. Greetings to the Fediverse from southern Finland, where a thoroughly grey and rainy day somehow turned into this.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodontti/media_attachments/files/116/767/318/681/261/824/original/f4d72786d5c2c280.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodontti/media_attachments/files/116/767/325/256/391/445/original/380084ab2610cb07.jpg

2026-06-11 05:26:13 UTC

Yleisradion nettisivuilla on iso juttu Elon Muskin bisneksistä. Siinä saa aina paikoin äänestää mitä mieltä ukosta on.
Jätin artikkelin lopussa olevalla lomakkeella palautetta, että on kertakaikkiaan surkeaa tehdä tällainen hehkutusjuttu miljardööristä mainitsematta kertaakaan hänen poliittista toimintaansa. Musk on fasisti joka tällä hetkellä lietsoo rasistisia mellakoita Britanniassa. Minusta tämä on aika olennainen tieto hänestä.
Onneksi suuri enemmistö äänistä oli Muskia vastaan.

2026-05-24 06:09:49 UTC

"Britain has created a new breed of political prisoners through the systematic incarceration of people acting to prevent climate breakdown and the annihilation of Gaza"
"The report found that 69 people were imprisoned, including some for holding placards, after Warwickshire borough council obtained a high court injunction in 2022 in response to Just Stop Oil’s direct action campaign at Kingsbury oil terminal." https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/may/23/anti-protest-sentences-rise-england-wales-political-prisoners

2026-05-18 10:30:38 UTC

The Gaza flotilla has been attacked by Israel. There are Finnish activists on board and they are in grave danger.
Emergency demonstration at the Parliament building in Helsinki, today at 18:00.

2026-05-09 07:19:53 UTC

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Starmer has delivered exactly what the neoliberal consensus says he should: austerity for the poor, racism, keeping the bond markets happy. Doing his damndest to stifle all dissent from the left, to the extent of having thousands of people arrested for peaceful protests, while shamelessly sucking up to the right-wing racists.
And it's destroying his party.
I speak here as a Finnish voter who's almost certainly going to see this exact thing happen in my country after the next elections.

2026-05-09 07:12:24 UTC

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So yeah, it turns out that if you promise people humane and competent left-wing policies, and deliver austerity, sneering racism and serial incompetence, people may in fact hate you. Even if you're not as cartoonishly dim-witted as your predecessors.
And the thing is, racism and austerity are baked so deep into the normal way of doing politics that so much of the British left-leaning commentariat either cannot fathom, or is violently opposed to, even trying to do anything else.

2026-05-09 07:09:42 UTC

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I don't know, maybe there's something very fundamental I'm misunderstanding, but to me, Starmer's catastrophic unpopularity seems pretty easy to understand.
Prior to his election victory, Britain was run by a series of right-wing ghouls that degenerated from tragedy to farce. Starmer ran on the explicit promise that he would be nothing like them, that by voting for him and Labour people would get real change.
Immediately upon being elected, Starmer ditched those promises.

2026-05-09 07:06:06 UTC

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"Starmer inspires a loathing on the doorstep that surprised many canvassers these past few weeks. Even his critics concede that his record-breaking unpopularity seems out of proportion to anything he has actually done. Sure, he’s an awful communicator who has made some dire decisions [...] but, as one Labour figure put it to me, it’s not like he has started an illegal war or crashed the economy. And yet he’s reviled as much as late-stage Tony Blair or Liz Truss." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/keir-starmer-2026-elections-britain-fragmented-results-labour-politics

2026-05-09 07:03:47 UTC

So the UK Labour party just took a massive beating in the local as well as the Welsh and Scottish elections. It's worth noting, because the way Keir Starmer is destroying the Labour party is a symptom of much bigger things. They are vividly present in the inability of so much of the UK political class's inability to understand what's happening. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2026/may/08/2026-elections-mapped-labour-reform-uk-greens-scotland-wales-england-local

2026-04-16 09:56:20 UTC

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Jotenkin tässä kohtaa niin täydellisesti luontosuhde ja kulutusyhteiskunta. Luonto on kulutushyödyke, ja kaikki mikä tekee kuluttamisesta vaikeampaa pitää raivata pois vaikka myrkyttämällä. Kaasutetaan hyönteiset, ammutaan linnut ja eläimet, tapetaan kaikki niin että metsästä tulee mahdollisimman helposti kulutettava huvipuisto juuri minulle.

2026-04-16 09:29:03 UTC

En keksi mitään esinettä tai asiaa, johon kiteytyisi suomalainen luontosuhde yhtä hyvin kuin Thermacelliin.
Tutkimuksen mukaan Thermacell myrkyttää kimalaiset niin etteivät ne enää löydä takaisin pesään. Tutkimuksessa puhutaan Thermacellin viemisestä metsään marjastaessa normaalina käyttötapana.
Suomalainen menee metsään ja ottaa mukaansa hermomyrkkylaitteen, joka tuhoaa sen metsän ekologiaa, jotta saisi olla rauhassa hyönteisiltä. https://suomenluonto.fi/uutiset/tutkimus-thermacellin-hyonteismyrkky-eksytti-kimalaiset-pesistaan/

2026-04-07 08:29:48 UTC

"Analysis: Trump threats cause dilemma for US officers: disobey orders or commit war crimes"
This is not in any way a dilemma, and it never has been. In every war they've ever fought, US officers have been more than happy to massacre thousands of civilians. They'll choose war crimes every single time.
As a historian specializing in the 20th century, I can only say that our media are still completely unable to talk about the realities of how the US fights its wars. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr/06/trump-threats-dilemma-for-officers-disobey-orders-or-commit-war-crimes

2026-02-14 07:52:48 UTC

Kaikkea sitä: uusnatsien verkkojulkaisu partisaani.com on poistunut netistä.
Tää on mulle henkilökohtaisesti merkityksellistä: vuosien ajan jos mut googletti, kärkituloksissa oli Partisaanin juttu jossa ne haukku mua läskiksi tjsp koska olin sanonut Twitterissä, että demokratioiden pitää puolustaa itseään, no, heiltä. Pidin tätä meriittinä.
Enää ei sitä ole! https://varisverkosto.com/2026/02/partisaania-ei-enaa-ole-kansallissosialismi-menettaa-aanitorvensa-suomessa/

2025-12-10 09:35:20 UTC

So let's just take stock of where we, as members of the European Union, are.
The president of our most important ally, the US, is a senile fascist who wants to rescue Europe from immigrants, and has made promoting far-right extremism here the official national security strategy of his country. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/trump-hints-walking-away-ukraine-calls-europe-weak-decaying

2025-11-21 13:56:40 UTC

"Lisäksi halutaan mahdollistaa osallistuvien tietolähteiden käyttö. Työryhmä kertoo, että nykyisellä lainsäädännöllä tietolähteitä ei voida käyttää: osallistumalla operaatioon sen selvittämiseksi tietolähde syyllistyisi itse rikokseen."
Hallitus on tuomassa takaisin suurta 1800-luvun poliisitoiminnan innovaatiota: agent provocateuria eli provokaattoria, poliisin palkollista joka yllyttää ihmisiä tekemään rikoksia. https://yle.fi/a/74-20195484

2025-10-26 08:29:40 UTC

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aktivismissa yleensä käytetään häkellyttävän paljon Telegramia, se on aivan käsittämätöntä ku se on varmaan huonoin mahdollinen vaihtoehto mihinkään tollaseen.

2025-10-09 06:50:31 UTC

The AI bubble is getting so bad that the Guardian is openly talking about it. When it bursts, it's going to be worse than the dotcom bust, in an economy that's already much worse than it was then.
There are very good reasons to think that things are going to be very, very bad in the near future. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/oct/08/the-ai-valuation-bubble-is-now-getting-silly

2025-10-07 06:19:30 UTC

It's now been two years since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023. Israel has responded to those attacks with a two-year genocide of the Palestinians and a near-total destruction of Gaza, which is a crime against humanity.
None of this started on October 7th, 2023. It started in 1948. Or maybe 1917, with the Balfour Declaration. Or in the 19th century, with the invention of Zionism.
To separate October 7th from its historical context is to justify genocide.

2025-08-02 08:42:14 UTC

What an unexpectedly heartening and optimistic read in the Guardian on social collapse.
None of the above was sarcasm. I love that there seems to be a counterconsensus emerging to the neoliberal-fascist mentality. We need more democracy and more equality, or we face destruction. This gives me hope. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse

2025-06-22 08:08:18 UTC

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I think what strikes me the most right now is if you look back to the British Empire, or even the ways the Spanish justified their empire in the New World, the rhetoric they used is different, but the logic is basically the same. These people aren't equal to us, so we're going to subjugate them, take what we want from them, and kill them if they resist us. And it's all for their own good.

2025-06-22 07:48:19 UTC

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At times like these, it is incredibly important to remember that the peoples, cultures and faiths of what we now call the Middle East have lived together in peace for centuries.
We are being fed a story of eternal irreconcilable hatreds to stop us from seeing what's really happening. That the violence we see today is rooted in 20th-21st century imperial exploitation.
Don't fall for the racist, Orientalist lies.

2025-06-22 07:26:19 UTC

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I agree that the Middle East is locked in a spiral of violence, or however the talking heads are going to put it this time.
I don't agree with the racist lie that this is somehow an intrinsic, permanent feature of the area.
The cause of the violence is a century of European and American imperialism, settler colonialism, exploitation and war.
Stop the bombing, stop the ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism. It is the only way to a lasting peace.

2025-06-22 07:17:19 UTC

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If we want to talk about the deeper roots of these conflicts, let's do it.
Let's talk about a century of colonialism. Of merciless exploitation by European countries, by oil companies and "strategic interests".
Let's talk about a settler colonial state founded by ethnic cleansing, whose basic security policy is endless war against its neighbors and territorial expansion.
Let's talk about a superpower that regularly invades and bombs the area, and leaves pure chaos in its wake.

2025-06-22 06:55:05 UTC

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It just feels so mindbendingly stupid to wake up to a lovely summer day in 2025, and see that Israel is invading its neighbors and the Americans are bombing a country in the Middle East because they've decided it has weapons of mass destruction.
C'mon bro, just one more war. Just one more surgical bombing campaign, one more brutal Israeli invasion. If we just kill some more Palestinians and bulldoze a couple more villages. It'll be peace, bro. I promise.

2025-06-22 06:48:54 UTC

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It's also very difficult to understand what the strategic rationale of any of this is even supposed to be.
Israel is starving Gaza, ethnically cleansing the West Bank, fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, occupying Syria, bombing Yemen and is now at war with Iran.
What does victory in any of these conflicts look like for Israel? Is the strategic vision behind all of this simply that if they murder enough people, somehow peace will break out?

2025-06-22 06:35:12 UTC

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These are the same leaders who've spent years telling us that an unprovoked attack on another country is an unspeakable atrocity, and that bombing civilians is a terrible war crime. When Russia does it.
When Israel murders civilians in cold blood and starts yet another war of pure aggression, all of a sudden they're here to tell us how Israel has a right to defend itself.
This would be easier for those of us following along at home if they'd specify which countries are allowed to bomb others.

2025-06-22 06:17:29 UTC

So there's a country in the Middle East that has a nuclear arsenal, is conducting a genocide in the territories it illegally occupies, and is invading or bombing at least three other countries.
When this country mounts an unprovoked surprise attack on a fourth country and murders hundreds of civilians, our leaders line up to tell us that actually, it's the victims of all these attacks that are the threats to peace.
The hypocrisy is so brutal. They're showing us exactly how the system works.

2025-04-26 06:54:09 UTC

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mä laittaisin sen npc:n suoraan kieltäytymään, tai vaatimaan isompaa osaa palkkiosta tms. Et hei tyypit, ei mun duuni tässä oo olla teidän koekaniini. 😀

2025-03-30 07:51:11 UTC

Tässä on juttu jonka voisi tallettaa johonkin aikakapseliin kiteytyksenä siitä, millainen yhteiskunta me ollaan.
Toimittaja Ida Erämaa kirjoitti kriittisesti persuista, sai tappo- ja raiskausuhkauksia; poliisin ja syyttäjän mielestä se on Erämaan oma vika.
"Syyttäjäkin katsoi, että kun poliitikoista kirjoittaa kriittisesti, ovat törkykirjoittelu ja raiskausuhkaukset odotettavissa oleva asia."
Mitä tähän voi edes sanoa? https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/c09cfb0b-6032-4b9a-bba4-80f4c1de0ea9

2025-03-14 07:21:53 UTC

It's true: Portugal won't buy the US-made F-35 fighter because of concerns over how unreliable the United States is as an ally.
Absolutely the right decision. https://www.politico.eu/article/portugal-rules-out-buying-f-35s-because-of-trump/

2025-02-28 20:38:32 UTC

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mä en toistaiseksi oo nähny Trumpin tekevän mitään mihin yksinkertaisin selitys ei olisi paras: se on vaan todella etuoikeutettu ja ihan saatanan tyhmä jätkä.

2025-01-26 18:00:59 UTC

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Ogilvy & Matherin hommia: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/23/big-oil-coined-carbon-footprints-to-blame-us-for-their-greed-keep-them-on-the-hook

2025-01-26 10:49:56 UTC

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Olisi myös hyvä, jos useampi ihminen tietäisi, että henkilökohtaisen hiilijalanjäljen käsitteen on aikoinaan tuonut julkiseen tietoisuuteen British Petroleum. Maailman suuret saastuttajat ovat todella kiitollisia jos ympäristötietoiset kansalaiset syyllistävät toisiaan ostoksistaan eivätkä katso heidän toimintaansa.
Suomessa voi sanoa, että tällaisen kolumnin ottaa ilolla vastaan esimerkiksi holtitonta luontotuhoa tekevä UPM-Kymmene.
Mietitään nyt kuka on vastuussa ja mikä on mittakaava.

2025-01-26 10:44:46 UTC

Laura Hallamaa kolumnoi äskettäin Ylellä ylikulutuksesta ja kuluttajan vastuusta.
Mun mielestä tän kolumnin ongelma on se, ettei siitä välity minkäänlaista käsitystä ympäristökriisin vakavuudesta. Ei tää homma ratkea sillä, että me aletaan kyttäämään toistemme vaateostoksia.
Ympäristökriisin torjuminen vaatii nopeita ja perinpohjaisia muutoksia koko yhteiskunnan tasolla, ei tällaista piipertämistä. https://yle.fi/a/74-20135720

2025-01-22 15:43:35 UTC

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It is obvious that there are massive problems, even by the reckoning of the ruling authorities. These problems are either denied, blamed on partly or entirely imaginary malicious outsiders, or simply ignored.
Even huge, existential crises that threaten the very existence of the whole system are simply ignored.
People increasingly find the sphere of public politics distasteful and either look for alternatives to it or withdraw altogether.
Does this sound at all familiar?

2025-01-22 15:39:34 UTC

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Consider:
The current political-economic system appears eternal and immutable. It is the only way things could conceivably ever be. At the same time, its collapse seems more imminent every day.
The official discourse, the way politicians and other figures of authority speak in public, is rigidly ideological and admits no alternatives. All problems must be fixed by applying the same solutions as before, but more. Every day, it becomes more obvious that this discourse is untethered from reality.

2025-01-22 15:33:35 UTC

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I was interested in this for its own sake; I've taught a lecture course on the history of the Soviet Union, and if I have occasion to teach it again, the part on the late USSR will be much improved.
But what really made me urgently want to read this book was the heavy parallels to our life in what some people like to call late stage capitalism right now.

2025-01-22 15:31:26 UTC

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It's a marvelous book. Basically, it argues that after destalinization, the official discourse of the Soviet Union became hypernormalized: it no longer changed or reflected reality, but became circular and self-referential.
As the official discourse became detached from reality, it started to become irrelevant to people's lives. This led to the paradoxical situation where the Soviet Union appeared eternal, but its citizens found themselves prepared for its collapse.

2025-01-22 15:26:19 UTC

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A while ago, I saw a reel on Instagram that referred to what's going on in our society right now as hypernormalization, quoting Alexei Yurchak's book on the late Soviet Union. Delightfully, that book, with the splendid title Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, can be found at the Helsinki university library, so I read it.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodontti/media_attachments/files/113/872/699/843/199/507/original/1278f531fcf9c21c.jpg

2025-01-21 21:46:35 UTC

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The subway was out of operation tonight, so I had to take a much longer train-bus combo to get home. This got me so far along my next Horus Heresy ebook, Legion, that I finished it.
This is a Dan Abnett book about the Alpha Legion, and for all the silly macho posturing and sexist objectification, it was fun. I think this kind of combination of mil-sf and space opera is intensely Warhammer, and I love it.
If you're going to read any Horus Heresy books, do read this one.
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2025-01-18 20:52:30 UTC

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Sadly, the second half of the book is a real letdown. It really wants to set the stage for what ends up happening to the Dark Angels, but the plot is weak and the characters aren't really very interesting any more. I don't recall many other novels where the quality of the book drops so sharply as the end approaches.
The Dark Angels were always one of my favorite chapters, and hell, I'd have read a whole novel set on pre-Imperial Caliban. But the last half of this was very disappointing.

2025-01-18 20:46:40 UTC

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Next I read an electronic book. Descent of Angels, the sixth instalment of the Horus Heresy novel series can't be had anywhere as a physical book, so I bought the e-book off Black Library. It's a good epub, it was quite pleasant to read on my phone.
The contents were a mixed experience. The book starts on Caliban, home world of the Dark Angels, before they make contact with the Imperium, and the first half is basically a post-technological fantasy novel. I quite liked it!
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2025-01-09 00:33:04 UTC

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The last book I started in 2024 and the first one I finished was the Lord of the Rings. For a long time, I had a habit of reading it over the Yule holiday. This year, I've had some particularly miserable times both in my private and working lives, and I've been very depressed. Reading my favorite novel of them all was just what I needed, and it's given me the strength to make some very difficult decisions.
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2025-01-09 00:29:04 UTC

It's time to start my reading thread for 2025. The previous one, where I listed the 51 books I read in my spare time over 2024 and the end of 2023, is here: https://mastodontti.fi/@mhalila/111653734695659582

2024-12-23 15:09:39 UTC

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I have a degree in religious studies and some familiarity with our folklore, and the answer is I absolutely would not ever fuck with anything connected to the fairies, gnomes, goblins or anything like them.

2024-12-17 10:30:17 UTC

I'm having a Wile E. Coyote morning, and this is my latest invention: a piece of cardboard where I can place my completed stands of Legions Imperialis infantry for varnishing.
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2024-12-13 15:00:16 UTC

In random miniature painting things, I finished my #AdeptusTitanicus doohickeys.
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2024-12-09 12:53:26 UTC

Having a theology degree has its advantages. I've been feeling pretty miserable lately, so I declared it Christmas and bought myself a present: Legions Imperialis.
This is Games Workshop's 8mm miniature wargame, and it makes me happy because the first wargame I ever played was their 6mm Space Marine ages ago. Now I can play with tiny little toy soldiers again. ❤
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodontti/media_attachments/files/113/622/955/800/797/627/original/68523da905ba9969.jpg

2024-12-08 07:06:03 UTC

We like to pretend that science is a meritocracy, but it's not: Nobel laureates are overwhelmingly likely to come from very wealthy families.
I think everyone with experience of academia knows this. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/07/the-science-behind-winning-nobel-prize-being-man-from-wealthy-family-torsten-bell

2024-12-07 13:11:44 UTC

It's become a Finnish Independence Day tradition that a handful of neo-Nazis gather in Helsinki under heavy police protection, and over ten times more people show up for the Helsinki Without Nazis counterdemonstration. We were there too.
Like last year, the police were arbitrarily violent and tried to provoke us, and like last year, we didn't give in or give up. No Nazis in Helsinki, no Nazis anywhere.
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2024-12-04 16:02:50 UTC

Unfortunately, the warhammer.social instance is closing, so from now on you're all going to suffer from my (rare) miniature wargaming posts. 🎲

2024-11-30 11:30:16 UTC

Kansanedustaja Teemu Keskisarja on natsi.
Hän käyttää fasistista retoriikkaa, osallistuu avoimesti uusnatsien tapahtumiin ja kirjoittaa heidän julkaisuihinsa. Hän ilmoittaa julkisesti, ettei osallistu Linnan juhliin, koska puhuu mielummin uusnatsien kokoontumisessa.
Tämä ei herätä tolkun ihmisissä tai Suomen mediassa oikein minkäänlaisia reaktioita, eikä siitä suostuta puhumaan suoraan.
Se, että hallituspuolueen kansanedustaja on natsi, ei ole v. 2024 vain normaalia. Se halutaan normalisoida.

2024-11-28 10:00:58 UTC

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mun mielestä suomalaisilta toimittajilta vois ihan ammattikuntana kysyä, et miksi on uutisarvoista, että lopulta aika pieni porukka koliikkioikeistolaisia raivoaa somessa jostain. Tai miksi jonkun entisen jääkiekkoilijan typerät mielipiteet on valtakunnallisia uutisia. Niinku minkä takia tällaisia asioita pitää kokoajan nostaa esiin, millaista julkista keskustelua tää luo ja kenen intressejä tää palvelee.

2024-11-28 08:32:19 UTC

Me eletään keskellä maailmanlaajuista ympäristökriisiä, ja oikeistohallituksen leikkauspolitiikka työntää meitä taantumaan ja tuhoaa hyvinvointivaltiota.
Eli tietenkin meidän suuret puheenaiheet on:
- ihmiset raivostuu koska kirjailija ei mene itsenäisyyspäivän juhlaan
- ihmiset raivostuu koska nuorille annetaan seksuaalikasvatusta
- ihmiset raivostuu koska ravintosuositukset kehottaa syömään terveellisesti
- maamiinat pitää saada takaisin
Tässä maailmassa eläminen on niin uuvuttavaa.

2024-11-26 08:01:28 UTC

If a person from Greenland has a child in Denmark, the Danish state will use a totally unsuitable test to see if they're "civilised enough" to take care of their child. If not, the child is taken away from them.
Colonialism is alive and well in the Nordics in 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/danish-parenting-tests-baby-removed-from-greenlandic-mother

2024-11-07 09:03:31 UTC

Israel confirms Palestinians won't be allowed back to northern Gaza, and sources tell Haaretz that Israel will annex the area.
This is what we keep saying this is about: the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Palestinian land.
It's just war crime after war crime, while our leaders cover their eyes and pretend they can't see. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/06/palestinians-will-not-be-allowed-to-return-to-homes-in-northern-gaza-says-idf

2024-10-27 15:25:20 UTC

I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again: carbon offsets are a scam.
Earth's atmosphere does not care that you have a spreadsheet where you do some accounting trickery that lets you claim the greenhouse gas emissions you generated somehow don't count.
Anything that isn't an actual reduction in emissions is a scam.
We need real climate action now, not more lies and tricks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/28/corporations-using-ineffectual-carbon-offsets-are-slowing-path-to-real-zero-more-than-60-climate-scientists-say

2024-10-22 14:26:19 UTC

Tää on jotenki aivan uskomatonta, että kun vihdoinkin on alettu saamaan jengille edes jotenkin läpi sitä, että rööki on oikeasti vaarallista ja todella huono idea, niin eikö samantien ryhdytä työntämään tilalle kaiken maailman sähkötupakkaa ja nikotiinipussia, jälkimmäistä jopa hallituksen tasolla. Ai niin ja viinaa saa tilata kotiinkuljetuksena, samalla kun leikataan reippaasti sosiaalityöstä.
Kansanterveys laskuun ja kuolleisuus nousuun, sano. Mikäpä siinä kunhan saunakaverit tienaa hyvin.

2024-10-12 07:32:03 UTC

I love this piece from the Guardian earlier this week, on the catastrophic stupidity of the UK's "net zero" plan. It involves insisting that burning biomass is "carbon neutral", lying that the IPCC says it is, and planning to import wood for fuel from North Korea.
The thing is, all net zero schemes are like this. They're fraud, climate policy by accounting trickery. We need to actually dramatically lower emissions, not come up with more scams like these. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/09/anger-uk-plan-net-zero-import-biomass-fuel-north-korea

2024-09-15 05:46:30 UTC

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Austerity is founded on the fantasy that a country is like a household. That it has a certain fixed income. If it spends too much, it runs out of money and has to go into debt, and eventually those debts need to be paid. So if the household is in debt, it needs to spend less.
But a national economy works nothing like that. All of our economies are based on growth, and the spending cuts made in the name of austerity reduce that growth. So the more they cut, the worse things get.

2024-09-15 05:30:21 UTC

I think it's remarkable that in Finland, we have a fascist treasury minister who's publicly fantasized about shooting children, and Keir Starmer talks about public finances the exact same way she does.
This sadistic austerity, constantly harping on "painful decisions" that hurt the poor, isn't even good economics by any standard whatsoever. It's a repulsive morality play for the middle classes. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/13/starmer-says-rebuilding-uk-means-painful-decisions-not-just-a-lick-of-paint

2024-09-02 06:27:18 UTC

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Mua pysyvästi ärsyttää suomalaisessa poliittisessa keskustelussa se, että oikeiston kurjistuspolitiikalle on todella vahvaa kritiikkiä nimenomaan taloustieteen ja taloushistorian näkökulmasta, ja se vaietaan mediassa kuoliaaksi. Sensijaan esiin marssitetaan aina samat helvetin pankkiekonomistit ja työnantajasedät selittämään, että Valtion Kassa On Tyhjä, Nyt On Pakko Säästää. Tää on ihan uskomattoman turhauttavaa.

2024-09-02 06:13:59 UTC

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Heikkisen kärjistys löytyy tekstistä vuodelta 2018. Tässä muuten lainaus:
"Siksi onkin yllättävää, että talouspoliittisessa keskustelussamme huono tuottavuuskehitys on saanut varsin vähän huomiota osakseen. Talouspolitiikan tekijöiden huomio on − Matti Pohjolan sanoin − ”keskittynyt miltei yksinomaan yritysten hintakilpailukykyä parantaviin ja julkisen talouden tasapainon palauttaviin toimiin” (KAK 3/2017, 267)."
Aika vähän tuohon on lisättävää 2024. https://blogs.helsinki.fi/talouttajahistoriaa/2018/03/08/taantuman-valitilinpaatos-2-nollakasvun-lahteilla/

2024-09-02 06:10:37 UTC

Tää on hyvä kirjoitus tuottavuudesta ja työelämästä. Tuottavuuden merkitys kansantaloudelle on niin suuri, että professori Sakari Heikkinen aikoinaan kärjisti, että kaikki paitsi tuottavuus on turhaa. Ainakin on mahdottoman vaikea nähdä miten voitaisiin edes pitää talous nykytasolla kestävästi ilman merkittävää tuottavuuden kasvua.
Työnantajilta ja poliitikoilta voisikin perustellusti kysyä: mitä olette tehneet tuottavuuden nostamiseksi? Mielestäni aika hiton vähän. https://yle.fi/a/74-20106368

2024-08-11 05:47:04 UTC

Israel struck a school sheltering refugees. The official count is 80 dead.
"Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying that its fighters use civilian infrastructure as a cover, which makes buildings such as schools and hospitals valid targets."
It does not. What the Guardian is refusing to say here is that under any interpretation of international law whatsoever, this is a war crime.
Israel's monstrous atrocities go on, day after day after day. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/10/israel-strikes-on-gaza-school-site-kills-almost-100-palestinian-officials-say