Laura

“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America…. We all share the hope that we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody’s son…. People don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better…. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“For the last time, Actinia, you can't set humans on fire! It never helps! (101)”
― Django Wexler, The Palace of Glass

“This era, the Enshittocene, is the result of specific policy decisions, made by named individuals. Once we identify those decisions and those individuals, we can act. We can reverse the decisions. We can name the individuals. We can even estimate what size pitchfork they wear. Or at the very least, we can make sure that they are never again trusted with the power to make policy decisions for the rest of us.”
― Cory Doctorow, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

“Whatever mainstream Western Liberalism is- and I have no useful definition of it beyond something at its core transactional, centered on the magnanimous, enlightened image of the self and the dissonant belief that empathizing with the plight of the faraway oppressed is compatible with benefiting from the systems that oppress them”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This