This country. 🙃

Clan del Golfo has had a strong presence in rural regions of my department for a while. Last year they went on "strike" by seizing small mining towns where locals were trying to protest. This week, the conflict is again at a high point...

But it's actually a conflict between the Clan and *other* groups - the paramilitaries ELN and EMC (an offshoot from FARC). And... the military of #Colombia is trying to keep the peace amid them.

Ongoing lessons in the nuance of war and peace!

So, funny #CoSo moment:

Bluesky is where the bulk of my writing industry is re-assembling post-X, and in the last few days I've had a *huge* uptick in followers there, because my name is in a "starter pack" of recommended SFF-industry accounts.

But are any of those new follows engaging with my actual writing or any posts that don't serve their own uplift?

Of course not.

Because it's still all about branding.

Here - for all our faults - we try to show up for each other as people. A gift. 👌

I have watched this silly little YouTube video too many times not to share.

May there be joy in the little things for all you rotters today - and may you always be surrounded by people who amplify that joy in turn.
https://youtube.com/shorts/78dY63emTtY?si=rriiPnV4FXHt6hwq

No nightmares. :)

Off for a Friday the 13th run!

Today's Thorough Thursday reflects on communities of inclusion and exclusion.

It's a broad topic, but with the help of a few trusty examples, including one from a recent report calling for greater international engagement in the climate crisis, hopefully you'll come away with a few more ways to think how we talk about who does and doesn't belong.

#Humanism #GlobalHumanism #Culture #Science #ClimateCrisis
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/two-ways-of-looking-at-community

Revision time for the newsletter, then bed and NO NIGHTMARES, so I can rock an early morning run before work tomorrow.

(I was so cranky today, after missing early morning exercise. 😬 Not around others, but just radiating bad vibes on my own. Some people need their beauty sleep, but I apparently need my "don't blow a gasket" sleep. Gaskets were blown!)

TFW the standards for common decency have been too damned low for too damned long. #News

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/granddaughter-of-mussolini-to-leave-brothers-of-italy-as-it-is-too-rightwing

This May 2024 Peacebuilding article is only tangentially related to today's newsletter, so it's not going to get the full treatment that it deserves, but it is a FASCINATING read: an exploration of feelings of intra-group betrayal, and the efficacy of two strategies (clarification and counter-critique) used to combat hostility from family members committed to war, when one is instead pursuing pathways to peace.

#Israel #Palestine #Peace #Science #Sociology #Humanism

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21647259.2024.2351716#d1e966

*With a shout-out to journalist Ronen Bergman for whistle-blowing here.

The one silver lining in cases of journalistic corruption is that it often also brings writers with greater integrity into the spotlight.

The very last thing we ever want is for the discovery of bad actors to disillusion us in our pursuit of better public discourse and information flow.

Trust, but verify.

Know the biases of an outlet going in.

Check your sources, and look at the sources others provide.

#MediaLiteracy

Quick #MediaLiteracy alert:

In Tuesday's piece, which touched on a campaign involving fake US accounts, I forgot to mention that Likud has a history of spreading disinfo internally.

This notice is related: false reports filed in the world's oldest Jewish paper to support Netanyahu's position.

But not new: Back in Oct, Likud was accused of planting a family member in victim talks, to give the impression of more pro-gov't war stances from within. Shameless stuff. #Israel
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/idf-investigates-claim-jewish-chronicle-published-stories-based-on-fabricated-intelligence

Another full, full day starts in 5.

Everyone got their screams out?

Catch you on the flippity-flip!

I used another coffee yesterday to get through the long work sprint, and was up most of the night with dreams of being chased by a Hannibal-Lecter/Alien hybrid through a crumbling cave system on a remote space outpost to reach a buried escape pod, so... 🤨 no coffee today.

🤨 The correct time to go to bed was a minute before reading this.

Also, in general, never read a New York Post article. Any news outlet with "Post" in it, really!

#NotSafeForLife #PeopleAreTheWorst
#EarlierBedtimesAreTheBest

For Rewind Wednesday, we keep this week's society-building theme going with a look at Otto Neurath, a member of the Vienna Circle and a key part of urban planning and semiotic history, whose way of thinking about human spaces (for better and for worse) helped to shape our approach to public policy and civic education today.

#PoliticalScience #History #Historiography #International #Socialism #BetterWorldsTheory #ScienceLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/otto-neuraths-language-of-civic-spaces

Okie dokie. Time now to revise the newsletter. Short one! But informed by a whole slew of formal reading, and a lot of willing myself not to devolve into a MUCH longer tangent about the whole Vienna Circle. 🙃

Should be up by... ten? Tennish?

Then early to bed and early to rise. I have a donkey to look for in the park tomorrow; a rural friend today reported that she'd been attacked by some drugged out person on the street, then spooked and ran. Now everyone's on the lookout for the poor girl.

Taking a beat to sigh.

Someone here put words to how this day always makes me feel: haunted by what came next.

Humanity has always been brutal, but there's an extra brutality that comes from realizing your so-called "civilization" is as susceptible to war derangement as any other, & from noticing how many people around you *will* dehumanize others in a Jingoist flash.

Once you realize what's under the skin of people who think themselves decent, life is never the same.

Be well today, all. 🕊️

Okay, 9(:05)-to-9 day on this end.

Hoping the midday 45 I've blocked for editing today's newsletter will be enough. 🤞 Otherwise it will be a late evening read for all folks on this side of the planet!

Have a beautiful one, and try not to be hard on yourself if moving through hard things. The world doesn't need you angry at yourself for inevitable missteps and imperfections.

The world just needs you *here*. 🕊️