Tldr: an Afghan family fleeing the Taliban, diplomats who had worked with the United States in service of the occupation government, who were fully vetted and had US visas, were banned from the United States and (edit: probably) sent to a refugee camp, because their infant child was on the US terrorism watch list. The author tried to bend the rules to let them through. He failed. An automated computer system refused to "believe" an infant child had been placed on the terrorist watch list by mistake and barred the entire family from coming to the United States. They likely ended up in a refugee camp somewhere. The author doesn't know.

(Jesus fucking Christ, think about that. A family sent to a camp because a computer says their infant child is a terrorist and no human being is allowed to override it? That's Orwellian, Twilight Zone, science fiction dystopia shit. If I wrote that into a novel my editor would say it was too blatantly evil. But that was real life, done by the U.S. Department of State, under Joe fucking Biden.)

The stories we read about heroes like Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish bureaucrat who helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape from Germany with fake documents, are no longer possible today.

Every government in the world hates refugees. And thanks to 21st century technology, the loopholes and oversights and acts of individual moral courage that let Jewish and Roma and other refugees flee the Nazis no longer exist. Refugees fleeing collapsing nations and authoritarian states will be turned back at the border by mindless AI algorithms, and the bureaucrats and border guards serving the algorithms, to die at the hands of their enemies without disturbing the peace of wealthy nations or the pocketbooks of our billionaire masters.

Aren't you tired yet?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47161808

Breaking down the illusion of 2 parties

And I saw this on the same day I saw this article about conspiracy theories around the increasing number and range of ticks - because ticks are getting more common and more widespread because of climate change, but if you're a loyal conservative, and you believe climate change is a hoax because all the people you trust are telling you it's a hoax, there must be some evil conspiracy spreading those ticks, right?

And I'm thinking about how the fucking capitalists (because the TVA is a federally owned utility company) are telling people that coal and oil are safe and healthy and aren't hurting anybody or anything. And how, when we go back to '60s level of smog and yellow domes over our cities, and cancer rates skyrocket from the coal ash blanketing towns, people aren't going to believe the TVA lied to them - they're going to believe some evil left wing conspiracy is poisoning them. Probably fluoride and vaccines. Not clean coal and renewable natural gas, no sir, I'm a loyal American, and I love my coal burning power plant!

Create a crisis, blame your enemies for the crisis, convince the people to support your policies to fix the crisis, your policies cause more crises, repeat.

I cannot believe how long that strategy has been working.

The American people are not fit to govern themselves.

The reservation schools might be "officially" shut down, but the colonizers keep showing how they think of Natives as less than human.

resist like rhizomes. this meme brought to you by knotweed gang.

cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/49015592

Where I live, I have to have this conversation way too often with people.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.radio/post/13183659

American workers are tired of waiting.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46270608

We are always right too early