I love that I'm seeing more and more posts to Lemmy from Mastodon.
This one feature finally ties Lemmy in with the rest of the fediverse by providing the lacking feature: making top level posts. Lemmy (along with friendica!) will lead the way in making "groups" and forums in the fediverse, accessible from any platform you choose. @fediverse
“Mass #propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in #cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
― Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism" #quotes#mediaStudies#commOdon#truth#agnotology#history
@nicholas_saunders Sure:
The essay #Totalitarianism was fisrt published in 1951 as the third volume of "The Origins of Totalitarianism".
In it, Hannah Arendt argues that totalitarianism was a "novel form of government," in that it applied terror to subjugate mass populations rather than just political adversaries. Further, Arendt states that, owing to the insertion of ideology into the apparatus of coercion, "totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within". She further contends that Jewry was not the operative factor in the genocide of European Jews, but merely a convenient proxy. That totalitarianism in Germany was, in the end, about terror and consistency, not eradicating Jews only.
Adapted from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism
@neilhimself this picture of sky is amazing! We are so little in this universe, but we can gaze at stars. This photo spreads a sense of peace and greatness, and love. I'm grateful for this picture. ⭐🪐
I read Iron Curtain by #VesnaGoldsworthy. A page-turner set in the 1980s. A young privileged 'red princess' from a poor unnamed central European country elopes to London in the name of love. The sense of displacement has echoes of the Patricia Engel book I read just before this. There's also enjoyable farce here even if the clichés about the UK are laid on a little thick at times. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads
Given I enjoyed Okwiri Oduor's short story in that collection so much I read her novel Things They Lost. A story of dysfunctional families and love between two girls (Mbiu Dash from the short story is one of them.) Set in a strange shifting world inhabited by wraiths. Feels like visiting a strange dream. #keefsreads#bookstodon@bookstodon
#Warhol after Warhol by Richard Dorment. The story of the charlatans and grifters who ended up deciding what is and is not a Warhol. But given the artist's rather hands-off approach to his work perhaps it is fitting it ended up like this. A real page-turner. Can't remember the last time I read a book in a day. #bookstodon#KeefsReads@bookstodon
Part of the SF Masterworks Collection. Despite being nearly 60 years old the narrative around the manipulation of the truth feels incredibly prescient. Wondering whether David Whitaker had read it before he came up with #DoctorWho story The Enemy of the World. #Books#Bookstodon#SciFi#PhilipKDick
The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-73 by Allan Kozinn & Adrian Sinclair
Absolutely loved this. I’m a huge McCartney fan and not only did I enjoy reading about his early post-Beatles career in minute detail, but it was also great to revisit those early solo and Wings records with the added context the book offers. Heartily recommend to any other fans and I look forward to future volumes.
A novel combining war, cricket and a battle for love. Enjoyed this. It’s jolly in places and then hits you with a bleaker reality. Helps to love cricket as much as I do I would imagine given its importance in the story.
#BooksOf2023 #1: #KeeperOfTheLosCities #3: Everblaze. My kids have enjoyed getting into a new series after we finished the #WingsOfFire books last year. These magical adventure books are perfect for our next series together. 📚 📕
@bookstadon#BooksOf2023#16: Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule. As someone born in the south and whose extended family still lives there, this book opened my eyes to some of the ways the “lost cause” is baked into southern culture. A must-read for anyone from the south or anyone who wants to learn more about the U.S.’s (particularly the South) continual struggle against racism.
@bookstadon#BooksOf2023#17: Fixit by Joe Ide. The 6th book in the IQ mystery series pulled together lots of threads from the previous books, but the story plodded along slower that I would have liked. I’ll keep reading the series, but the first two books remain the best.
Does anyone feel like sitting down in front of the computer and playing around with their notes a bit?
I just wrote down how I set up and try to maintain my (academic) reading list in #Obsidian using the #Projects plugin by @marcusolsson and #Zotero. Might post it again after the holidays, but for now, here's the description of my approach for those who asked. Thus, fulfilling my promise from this thread: https://hcommons.social/@natalie/109557676423033978