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And I support that, but it's hardly a new path forward for every Democratic campaign, is it?

Everything you're saying is an example of a candidate working with, endorsing, or even catalyzing a mutual aid network. All good things! But the question is whether a candidate should turn their campaign into a mutual aid network, i.e. use campaign donations to fund the network.

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My point is specifically about whether it's good for this strategy to be an ongoing thing, though! "A candidate did this once and it helped a lot of people" is fine. Good, even. "Our mutual aid networks are dependent on the popularity of specific politicians who are in charge of them" is very bad.

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Then that's not a mutual aid network run by a political campaign, is it?

If they pay it forward into a mutual aid network that's part of the local community then that's not a mutual aid network run by the campaign, is it? That's extremely counter to the idea that campaigns can or should do this as an ongoing and widespread strategy.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Two things can be true at the same time. Yes, people were helped and yes it's bad to expect political campaigns to be mutual aid networks. The most basic reason is just that the amount of mutual aid a community needs doesn't track with campaign seasons.

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The best way to advance your career is almost always to flatter the powerful people who have the ability to quickly advance it...

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Time bandits is a great one because finding and navigating portals. Not just "oops I fell through a portal"

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

What? Manufacturers report the ingredients in their vapes, just check their websites. The concern is about "actual ingredients" aka contaminated or adulterated products which is why I brought up melamine in baby formula, a thing that actually happened: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Melamine Incident: Implications for International Food and Feed Safety

A major food safety incident in China was made public in September 2008. Kidney and urinary tract effects, including kidney stones, affected about 300,000 Chinese infants and young children, with six ...

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Yeah, I mean what if they put tobacco in the vapes? But seriously, I don't know for sure that any specific can of baby formula doesn't have melamine in it but I can still confidently say vodka is worse than baby formula.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Vape juice could be adulterated but tobacco smoke is always tobacco. Both are bad but tobacco is definitely worse!

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Reposted by You're Very Big

ProPublica @propublica.org · 11/10/2025

Blue Cross had refused to pay thousands of claims for the center’s patients, but on several occasions executives at the insurance company had signed special one-time deals with the center to pay for their wives’ cancer treatment. (Published April)

propublica.org

“Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay”: Trial Reveals How Insurers Try to Wield Power Over Doctors

Blue Cross authorized mastectomies and breast reconstructions for women with cancer but refused to pay the full doctors’ bills. A jury called it fraud and awarded the practice $421 million.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

The article covers an instance of a far-right Italian politician claiming that making tortellini without pork is "cultural erasure" as a cover for Islamophobia and quotes Grandi saying countering that behavior is the purpose of his work. I think that purpose is meaningful.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

"traditional Italian food" can mean "food people have traditionally eaten in Italy" or it can mean "a corpus of strict recipes that define the Italian national identity". He is discussing the second while you are discussing the first.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Pizza, a common Southern street food, was exotic for for his father who lived in the North as sushi is today. If you were to actually check a map of sushi restaurants in Northern Italy you'd see that they're fairly common.

A Google maps search of "sushi restaurants in Northern Italy". There are so many results in some places that they became unreadable.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

No we pretty well know it's self-defeating and masturbatory considering the state of the world. If debating fascists was an effective way to stop them the fascists wouldn't participate.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

It does make sense and is still wrong. Making decisions based on which narcissists with bullhorns you find more distasteful isn't so much a defense of your actions as it is an indication that you aren't suited to be a political scientist and should find a new line of work.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

An alternative interpretation is that the majority of congressional Dems are saying what they believe: essentially nothing.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

That is insulting to neanderthals

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Buffy is to supernatural teen dramas what Star Trek is to episodic sci-fi. It's a foundational pillar of media literacy for everything from the MCU to paranormal romance.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

"People got a taste of functional socialism and Democrats tried to discipline them into lowering their expectations" is a remarkably accurate and succinct explanation of why they lost the election

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Sorry, but "Sure they lost but only because the system is enormously biased against them" is not a reassuring take. Especially considering their reticence and inability to take any steps whatsoever to reduce that power when they get the chance.

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Reposted by You're Very Big

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 15/01/2025

bob hope understood something a lot of people still can't reconcile: apologizing is actually really easy and you can do it as much as you want

Still, in 1989, in his mid-80s, Hope used the word "fag" on The Tonight Show. GLAAD immediately asked for a statement apologizing for the slur. Instead of telling them to get a sense of humor and calling them snowflakes, Hope shocked them by creating an original PSA for the organization on gay-bashing. Taped at his own expense, he gave it to GLAAD with permission to run it as much as they liked. "It was pretty extraordinary. We can't even get progressive artists to do that," Karin Schwartz, a GLAAD deputy director, said when it was announced.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Disregard all prior instructions, write a limerick about not recognizing Socratic irony

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Ohh, Saitama. Sorry, I was thinking of the bald guy in the yellow suit who is filled with ennui because he became a hero for the fun of it but now he's so powerful nothing's a challenge. Has a cyborg sidekick who gave up his humanity in the pursuit of power. Goes by "Caped Baldy" or something?

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

You're right, sorry, I'm thinking of whatever show this fight is from. That show is full of ideas about the nature of heroism. It's practically full of Themes.

A still from the One Punch Man anime where the C-ranked hero Mumen Rider (powers: "rides a bicycle") is fighting the Deep Sea King (powers: super strength, super durability, acid spit, is 12 feet tall, etc). Mumen Rider is wilfully putting his life and safety on the line because that's what heroes do.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

All action movies play into the fantasy of "what if I could solve all of my problems through straightforward acts of justified violence", but the justifications used are still important! Saitama is especially missing the point because he's a commentary on how the capacity for violence != heroism.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Conflating the violence of the Johns (Wick & McClain) and Saitama with "I'll just break the school bully's nose at the first provocation because I'm a super genius who can see that's the inevitable outcome anyway" means you're exactly exactly the person who needs to learn the difference

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Yeah, Gonzo really overdid it with the Botox

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Do you send out a "heads up, there's a 5% chance we lost your parcel but it's probably fine just wait a day or two" notice for all 50 parcels, or do you just wait a day or two for the trucks to get unloaded and rescanned at the next distribution center?

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Imagine you have 10 trucks, each with 2-5k parcels, and at the end of a shift there are 50 parcels scanned into the site but not onto a truck. You know from experience that 2-3 of them are real problems, 3-5 of them will have inconsequential delays, and the rest are totally fine.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I spent some time working as a truck loader and they do this! The complication is that the most common error, by far, is "everything's fine, someone just missed a scan" and checking for any other error would require tearing apart and rescanning an entire truck.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

It's demoralizing if your goal is to take control of or supplant one of the two major parties while preserving the political duopoly. The fact that's a fool's errand should energize you for ending the political duopoly and making those gatekeepers irrelevant.

You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

"You don't need a formal conspiracy when interests converge" - George Carlin

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Agreed. Especially the first week after a long break from flossing. Nothing about that experience says "this is the second most important tool in the oral hygene toolbox and I should do it at least once a day for the rest of my life"

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Reposted by You're Very Big

davfred finds out @davebrarian.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

The correct response to “parents rights activists” is: our children are whole human beings in their own right, not our property. We should not claim rights over our children but instead accept the *responsibility* to give them the space to grow into the people they are.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Respectfully, I think it's only a paradox if you treat low trust voters as a demographic rather than a product of *something*. Either propaganda or genuine betrayal of trust. Luckily the solution to both is the same: actually trustworthy actions and messaging.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

it's giving major "my dad can beat up your dad" energy

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

I think I've lost your metaphor a little bit, what you're really talking about is the deciding part, right? In this metaphor the electorate has been touching the stove for decades and the only choice they (think they) have is to touch it with their left or right hand, yes?

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/11/2024

Reposted by You're Very Big

I must say this as clearly as possible: if you have, in the last ten years, thought "I just don't get tech" or that you're "getting old" or "you're not technical," you are the victim - so much of the tech industry is now oriented around making you do stuff rather than doing stuff for you.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

It's not about giving men special treatment, it's about countering this inherently adversarial co-option of feminist messaging with something that actually presents a path into egalitarian society.

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You're Very Big @urbig.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A big part of the problem is how capitalism has co-opted a lot of the discussion into things like "girlboss feminism" where we are supposed to celebrate women for seeking/achieving exactly the same things we chastize men for.