“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
-Stephen Jay Gould.
This quote is great because so was Einstein himself! He never saw himself as a genius, as a mind like no other. He saw himself as a guy who studied alot and he was very dedicated to give that opportunity to others. He also spoke very openly against racism and was one of the few professors that thought black people at the time. Here are some great pictures of him in 1946
Adding onto this: I really recommend Einstein’s short, entry-level essay “Why Socialism?”, found here. It’s ~10 min read and it does a great job of explaining the crux of socialism.
Here are some of his major points:
The individual and society form a symbiotic relationship. A healthy individual needs a healthy society and a healthy society needs healthy individuals.
Capitalism undermines democracy by concentrating wealth into the hands of an economic elite, which in turn funds a political elite to represent its interests in government. The ultra-rich also control the media and educational systems to manipulate public opinion and prevent free thought. (Here Einstein is pre-empting Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman’s propaganda model).
Capitalism’s profit motive entails human needs going unmet to satisfy human greed.
The “worst evil” of capitalism is the crippling of individuals, which begins in school where an exaggerated competitive attitude is
inculcated into the student.
A transition to socialism is necessary to overcome these problems, and is in fact imperative to avert constant warfare and ecological catastrophe. We need a fully democratic society where society’s productive capacity is not concentrated into the hands of a few, but owned by workers and society itself.
Please do not ignore one of the bedrock reasons why Einstein identified with black people in America: Einstein was a German Jew. Check those dates. He fled the Nazis.
[Image description: a Twitter thread by account Resist Line 3 @ResistLine3 saying:
#Line3 would be a disaster for life on our planet, all the way from the pipeline’s source to its destination. Here’s why.
At the source of Line 3 is the tar sands extraction industry in Alberta, Canada. Here, Canadian oil workers clear-cut ancient forests to get at the oil tar beneath. These forests are one of the best carbon sinks on the planet - but when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Once the trees are gone, all of the life-sustaining topsoil is then scraped off of the ground. Without it, nothing will grow here again. Beneath that soil is bitumen, what @Enbridge wants - the most impure form of oil on this Earth.
Bitumen is so impure that it needs to be mixed with many toxic chemicals to even get the tar out of it, thus creating massive pools of toxic liquids called tailing ponds. The ponds are so toxic that strobe lights and sound cannons need to be used to keep birds away.
Leaving the destroyed earth of northern Alberta behind, the diluted bitumen is sent through the Line 3 oil pipeline that goes south into North Dakota, crosses Minnesota, and eventually arrives in Superior, Wisconsin. But the journey is far from painless.
Since 2002, @Enbridge has reported 307 hazardous liquid incidents in its operations. On average, that’s one toxic spill every 20 days, totaling 66,059 barrels of hazardous liquids. How many more spills can the land take before it’s irreparably poisoned?
As a matter of fact, the old Line 3 was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in US history, back in 1991 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The existing #Line3 has already caused dozens of oil spills on treaty land. A bigger pipeline will just spill more.
And when construction is finished on the new Line 3, @Enbridge wants to abandon the old Line 3 to corrode away in the ground. Contaminants from the pipe will likely make their way into the soil, the water, and eventually all life in the surrounding area.
This tar, marked by ecocide at every point of its journey, eventually arrives in Superior, Wisconsin. From here, some of it will be shipped south towards Chicago, and some will go east towards Michigan. The Michigan-bound oil will eventually travel through the Great Lakes.
And if the pipeline in the Great Lakes ruptures (which pipelines always do eventually - especially old and corroded pipelines such as that one), it will contaminate the source of 84% of the fresh water on this continent. That’s water we depend on to drink. /end ID]
Grammatically speaking, Pronouns are a game we play with society.
A crew of sailors discuss their ship. “her mast is strong but the sails need changin. She’s a beaut though.”
I see a fancy rock on my hike. I pick it up, turn to my friend and say “Look at him, he’s so handsome”
A group of our sparkling Gay gentlemen meet up for a night out. “Girl, Daniel’s serving up looks tonight. Queen! She’s stunning love. She’s killin it.”
My neighbor needs a cup of sugar, I take some to them.
My lesbian friend wants to introduce me to her fellow female partner. “There’s Star, he’s wearing the blue jacket. Let’s catch up with him”
What’s real is how respect for one another makes us feel. He/him lesbians deserve your respect.
Pronouns are also more related to gender presentation than gender itself for some people!
Lesbians calling themselves “fathers”, “husbands”, “boyfriends”, “handsome”, and other words associated with men are a part of their gender presentation as masculine women as well as their reclamation of the idea that “lesbians just want to be men”. He/Him pronouns is just a part of that!
