Imagine if, in the midst of the massive BLM riots this summer, the entire tech infrastructure had deplatformed Facebook because some had used that app to plan events devolving into violence. People would rightly have called that an insane act of ideological fascism.

Yet today, media will celebrate Amazon doing exactly that to Parler. The tech bros are making a horrible and dangerous moment significantly more horrible and dangerous. There are no consistent standards being applied. There is reactionary deplatforming in the name of one side.

Private companies are by law free to do what they like. That’s why I have always said that the solution to the censorship of Twitter is alternatives -- which is what Parler was attempting to be, whatever its flaws.

But when the technological instruments necessary for speech are located in essentially three companies, all of which are moving toward like-minded censorship (Amazon controls about half of all public-cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 16%, and Google 4%), that avenue closes.

I am by nature anti-regulation. But even the consumer-based theory of anti-monopoly championed by free market advocates cuts in favor of anti-monopolistic regulation if these companies are acting in de facto collusion to shut all avenues of dissent.

Hey, We need to talk, we really need to talk

We need to talk about moving on so quickly, you carry on residues of unresolved hurt in your heart, we really need to talk

We need to talk about sitting with your emotions in full and dissecting them in little chunks, we need to talk

We need to talk about our intense focus on speed over direction, we need to talk about chasing shiny things at the expense of valuable things in our lives, we need to talk.

We need to talk about silence and counting days and having no plans, and how those are okay things too.

We need to talk about comparison and how it is such a thief of progress, and how you steal from yourself every moment you put yourself down.

We need to talk about our willful blindness to how far we have come, cheating our hearts, one "do they have two heads" after another.

We need to talk about slowing down, about solo conversations in the parking lot, we need to have more of that, where we are truly thankful for where we are and where we are going.

Life is more than just ticking the boxes. There's full love and wholesome friendships to be made.

I hoped that we'd sit with our emotions, and for most of us, not having a schedule can almost come off like a disease, but hey, you are here again. It will be fast soon, so you need to treasure the silence and the solitude of your own voice in your head

You deserve some time off

Defining The Massacres In North West Nigeria

[THREAD]

Since 2014, several communities in some of the states in the Northwest of Nigeria have witnessed aggravated plunder and killings. Nigerians and non-Nigerians have been massacred in unrestrained orgy within these locations.

From Kaduna to Sokoto, Katsina to Zamfara and Kebbi, it has been a cauldron of beastly killings.

In the run-up to the 2015 general elections, Zamfara state became the epicentre of the daily horror. The killings soon spread to Katsina state with some intensity.

Also across the state boundaries, Niger State in the North Central zone witnessed similar attacks.

By 2019, the savagery reached a crescendo with the erstwhile Governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari confessing that he had lost control of the state. What started as rural banditry in which poor farmers lost their flock to rustlers soon attained a frightening scale.

Staying well out of this beef, but I've spent the last 48 hours in hysterics since I learned that an influencer has been getting fans to give her money by calling it "individual reparations."

That's the joke line I use when I want one of my white mates to get a round in!

I get how this dynamic emerges. Social media blurs the distinction between influencer and activist. Individuals are seen as totemic of a wider political struggle, so you want to see them succeed. And of course, supporting people's work is meaningful.

But it's not reparations.

Reparations isn't an individual white person giving money to an individual black or brown person (apart from when I'm broke and want a cocktail, in which case it's very much that).

It's about recognising that

a) colonialism and slavery have had a lasting economic impact

b) this impact is not just a legacy, or a long tail.

It has been reinforced by the underdevelopment and debt servitude of the Global South, and the exploitation of labour and resources from the Global South.

And unless you're a billionaire or a central bank, it's unlikely that your PayPal activity is going to make much of an impact on the root causes behind the Global Movement for Reparations..

1/ It’s time to defund the GOP. In yesterday‘s rant, I laid out all the reasons why Democrats should put at the top of their priority list “defunding the Republican Party.“ Here’s a little background, and how to do it. (THREAD)

2/ Back in 1981, the Republican Party decided to defund the Democratic Party. While the Republican party had principally been funded by rich people and big business since the 1920s, the Democrats were largely reliant on the labor unions.

3/ So Ronald Reagan, as part of his “Reagan Revolution,“ figured the best way to destroy the Democratic Party was to destroy America’s unions. His first shot was to destroy Patco, the air traffic controller‘s union, and he did it in less than a week in August, 1981.

4/ He, with Republicans in Congress and conservatives on the Supreme Court than embarked on an eight-year campaign to eliminate unions from the American landscape, thus wiping out the Democratic Party’s ability to win elections.

5/ It worked, and by 1992 American union membership, and their ability to fund elections, had collapsed so severely that Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party had to take money from giant corporations and billionaires to prevail in that election year.

Alright, it's time for my @threadapalooza - 100 tweets (if I can limit myself) on:

Judaism Is Not Christianity

2. When I was in Yeshiva, a certain Rabbi once explained the process of studying Chassidus as follows:

"The beginner thinks everything is different. Then he learns more, and thinks everything is the same. Then, he learns more, and finally realizes everything is different."

3. In my opinion, this process is broadly applicable. When we first enter any field, because we understand nothing, there seems to be an infinite variety of ideas. Then we learn, and each level of understanding reduces things to fewer and fewer central principles.

4. The Sophomoric student thinks not that everything is different, but that everything is the same. Only when we move on to actual understanding do we realize there is infinite or near-infinite variety and differences are real, despite or because of shared underlying principle.

The same is true when you learn about Judaism and Christianity. Judaism is not Christianity, and all semblances of similarity are mere semblances.

In fact, the illusion cannot hold under any close scrutiny at all. What follows is intended merely as close scrutiny. /5

Here's our Sunday Wrapup
- Our 2021 Spring Previews are out (will be linked below
- Bike shortages will be a real thing this year. We're already feeling it with some brands.
- We're upset/scared/frustrated about Covid, and are limiting appointments to urgent repairs only.

City Bike Preview--> Breezer, @VSFManufaktur, @gazellebikesusa
Affordable transportation. Reliable & built to last (with 10 year warranties). Fun and easy to ride every day.

Gazelle E-bike Preview--> Ultimate Series (Completely Amaazing, and new!), Medeo Series (sporty and fun), Upright Series (Maximum Dutchiness).
--
Good availability on most models, limited availability on Arroyo Elite and EasyFlow

Family Cargo Bike Preview--> @ternbicycles @UrbanArrowcom @larryvsharry @babboe_bakfiets
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So many amazing choices to have fun with your family while getting stuff done. Our family is rolling with a Larry vs Harry Bullitt, and a Tern GSD in 2021.

Cargo Bikes for Business -->
This is a new opportunity for local businesses to take advantage of an incredible $2000 grant toward an electric cargo bike. We're here to consult with you on the best way to move your business forward, on a

@shiftingshifter @aghavalyan Oh) ok @shiftingshifter
The history of Christianity in Azerbaijan dates back to the II century. The first preacher of Christianity is considered the disciple of the holy Apostle Thaddeus - Saint Elisha.

@aghavalyan And already at the beginning of the IV century. Albanian kings adopt Christianity as their state religion. Since the IV century. the church in Albania becomes autocephalous, with its own monastic institution, worship, and dogma.

@aghavalyan The existence of Christian churches and monasteries in Caucasian Albania is contained in early medieval written sources, in particular in the works of the Albanian historians Moses Kalankatui and Kirakos Gandzak.

@aghavalyan Christian churches as such began to be built from the period of official approval of Christianity as a state religion, i.e. from the IV-V centuries. AD During the construction of the temple, certain concepts are followed.

@aghavalyan The composition of the development follows from west to east, from the entrance to the altar.The first room - the porch - means peace.This is followed by the main volume - the nave. The most important part of the temple is the altar with a throne.

Once again, I find that @Maarblek is ahead of me in analysis. As he said a while ago: The only goal the left has now or has ever had is the liquidation of the kulaks (small property owners). This makes sense of the class alignments we see, and the left’s historic failures.

It’s a funny thing that two classes of people tend to join the left: The managerial class, and the lumpenproletariat. In modern terms: tech/educated class + the perpetually precariously employed / job hopper. What do they have in common? They would seem to be class enemies.

What they share is a hatred of the small property owners. On the part of the lumpen, these are often the people he collects a paycheck from (sure, some of them shitty). The lumpen doesn’t work for the elites directly because they demand high education and contract out low skills.

On the part of the managerial class and the elites, however, the small property owner becomes a target when growth in other areas is stalled. That market share is a potential avenue for firm growth once other options for expansion are foreclosed.

The managers promise the lumpens that if they help them overthrow the small owners and consolidate power in mega-firms, the managers will give the lumpens goodies (a small UBI, whatever). The Soviets made the same promise. And perhaps it holds—briefly.

CHINA.🇨🇳

A 2019 document leaked from D&C Think, a think tank based in Beijing, reveals *A LOT* about the U.S. Governors that China considers to be *FRIENDLY* towards the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese source is below. It is *revealing.*

@BrianTh37895972 @Quodverum_ @AdamBaldwin @ScottAdamsSays
SO....
About that "inevitable" Democrat over-reach that always
BLOWS UP INTO THEIR GREEDY FACES....

Yeah, they're not going to (politically) survive this.

So #infosec #jobs thread.
In the last 12 months, I've been involved with 60+ interviews for various SOC, IR etc roles. This has come from about 120+ CV/Resume submissions.
To start, a caveat though - this is all IMHO. Hiring is an amazingly individual event.

First CV length. The common wisdom is that it has to be under 2 pages and very tailored to the role. I disagree. A CV should be concise but it also needs to provide enough information to make the hiring manager want to speak to you. If there is an HR screen, it needs to contain

a tonne of possibly random keywords. If a job advert asks for 10 different skills, and you can fit this in to 1-2 pages, chances are the person reading it will find it missing detail and think it is unconvincing. If it's your first job a 1 page CV is ok but the more you've done

the longer your CV gets. I don't have a perfect answer but I'd say don't fret about it. A large part of the hiring process is automated and even the people who read it will read it online scrolling through to get to the bits they are interested in. Long CVs rarely put people off.

Sidenote: if they do, they are likely to be difficult to work with so you might be OK with them rejecting you after all.

Seven Gates of Hell; a thread

1. Jahannum

They said, 'Do not go forth in the heat." Say, "The fire of Hell is more intensive in heat" - if they would but understand.

Qur’an | 9:81

The gate is called jahannum cause the fire will burn the faces of men and women who enters it. And faces will be sullen. And in the Noble Qur'an Allah says:

Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted in Might and Wise.

-Quran | 04:56

The ironic thing is this is the lightest punishment that one can receive.

2. Ladha (Fierce blaze)

The second level of hell is called Ladha because the fire will eat away their body parts one by one. Both internally and externally. It will invite those who abandoned Tawheed,