Erasure

I watched AOC's "What's Happening & How You Can Take Action" video and thought it was really impactful, so much so I decided to write up a summary of the insights, copy pasted below.

TL;TR for what you can do about it:

1. Know your rights and teach other people their rights
2. Contact your representative
3. Help organize for Florida special elections to elect Gay Valimont & Joshua Weil

Additional stuff that may be useful eventually:

1. If something like war ever breaks out, engage in simple sabotage when you can. Short preview of link: "Whenever possible, arrange to have the fire start after you have gone away. Use a candle and paper, combination, setting it as close as possible to the inflammable material you want to burn"

However, we're not currently there yet. We don't need to wait until things get impossibly bad before taking action. If you think all that stuff like "contacting representatives" & "organizing for elections" will do is slow our collective downfall, then realize that a slowed downfall means more time to organize a resistance and more time for vulnerable groups to escape the country.

Also, feel free to copy-paste this excerpt anywhere if you'd like!

TL;TR End

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Insights from "What's Happening & How You Can Take Action" by AOC:

Executive Orders are not that powerful: For all the Executive Orders being signed, know that they're not actually as powerful as they might seem. Congress can block Executive Orders, courts can block Executive Orders (you might have heard of this being done for the EO ending birthright citizenship), and they're essentially more limited in scope/permanence than actually signed laws. In fact, much of the EOs Trump has signed are meaningless or completely unconstitutional, which is not a pointless distinction, because as mentioned before, courts are blocking these EOs.

Fascist dictators thrive on perceived power instead of actual power. They want to "flood the zone," pump out so much terrible nonsense the populace becomes overwhelmed and docile. Don't believe them, don't become docile and don't consent in advance. The reason Trump is using Executive Orders instead of actual laws is because he knows he only has a slim majority in the House (218R-215D, ie 2R's could flip a vote, 2 vacancies in FL to be voted on 4/1, 1 R departure in NY-21 to be up for another special election)/Senate (53R-47D/I, ie 4R's could flip a vote), and he doesn't want his perceived power to crumble, such as when 3 GOP Senators John McCain, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski blocked an Obamacare Repeal Bill "Health Care Freedom Act" from going through in 2017.

(In this case, by erasing this womans history NASA is doing a little thing called complying in advance.)

Action Being Done by Democrats: Apparently Trump did a bunch of stuff while Congress was on recess, and they only got back in session Feb 5th, which was why there hasn't been much news from democrats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently released a 10 objectives plan for House Democrats to obstruct the administration

What You Can Do: While I'm sure we're all positively exhausted with everything going on, at a minimum, you can know your rights regarding ICE Raids: Don't let them in without a Judicial warrant signed by a Judge, don't answer their questions even if you are a citizen, don't talk to them without a lawyer. If you have extra energy, you can:

1. Educate people on their rights by printing up Know Your Rights Cards to hand out
2. Contact your Representatives urging them to obstruct Trump nominees while Elon is invading the Treasury
3. Help Organize for the Florida special elections 4/1 for the House of Representatives. While it would be difficult for these +30R seats to flip (Note in the Jan 29th Iowa special election for Senate (a state Trump won by +21) actually flipped to Democrats), even switching a +30R district to a +10R district lets Republicans know their policies are unpopular and they should think twice before supporting Trump's policies. Additionally, there will eventually be another special election to fill a House of Representatives Republican vacancy up for grabs in NY-21.
4. Help Organize for other Swing Elections near you

Additional stuff that may be useful eventually:

1. If something like war ever breaks out, engage in simple sabotage when you can (short preview: "Whenever possible, arrange to have the fire start after you have gone away. Use a candle and paper, combination, setting it as close as possible to the inflammable material you want to burn")

However, we're not currently there yet. We don't need to wait until things get impossibly bad before taking action. If you think all that stuff like "contacting representatives" & "organizing for elections" will do is slow our collective downfall, then realize that a slowed downfall means more time to organize a resistance and more time for vulnerable groups to escape the country.

Contacting your Representatives: To contact your representatives, you can make a short 2 min phone call to their office, which will either be picked up by a staffer or go to voicemail. Representatives listen to phone calls when trying to get a sense of what their constituents care about, but other forms of contact (email, text, etc) are by and large ignored. Additionally, you should say where you live, because representatives only care about what their constituents think, not outside people. Note that the voicemails only record up to 2 min so be brief. You can find your representatives phone numbers at https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

To express your views to your representatives, the format goes like this: "Hi, my name is [Name] and I live in [City, State, Zip Code]. I wanted to ask for your support on [Policy, Bill, etc]. [Anecdote if you have one to be more personalized]. Thank you for listening, my phone number is [Phone Number] and my email is [Email]."

I personally have just called my senators to let them know I want them to vote NO on advancing/approving all Trump nominees, and that I supported them continuing obstructionist actions including the 30hr filibuster against Russ Vought, Trump's Director of the Office of Management and Budget pick. Florida 4/1 Special Elections for 2 House of Representative Members: Summary, trying to elect Gay Valimont (D) District 1 & Joshua Weil (D) District 6. You can sign up to volunteer on their websites (linked) if you'd like.

New York-21 Eventual Special Election for 1 House of Representative Member: Elise Stefanik (R) will be vacating her seat to become the U.N. Ambassador for the Trump administration, after which within 80-90 days a special election will be held for a new House member. While it's somewhat of a pipe dream, if Dems win all 3 of these House seats up for grabs, it puts the House at 218D-217R.

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I hope this helped you get a sense of what you can do, feel free to copy-paste this anywhere if you'd like!

If someone starts a revolution I'd join the fight. "And just because he's a worker, no class can free him but his own. The emancipation of the working class is the task of the worker alone."

The problem is, where do we start? We've been, er, "taking the L" for so long, when are we going to start giving the L?

Look into your local PSL or DSA. Us socialist are on the top of the leaderboard for Nazi killing and it's not even close. Join the SRA too. This shits not going away with votes. Fascism doesn't let you vote it out of power.

Fuck these nazis.

Are you going to storm the Capitol like your granddads stormed the beaches of Normandy? Are you going to only bitch about it on the internet, or are you actually going to do something about it - storming the Capitol not necessarily has to be a part of it - you can plan a better alternative.

So how much longer before we get pissed enough to start doing something about it?

Says the guy making no note of anything he is doing about it.

The people in power aren't going to do anything about it because they want it this way.

Half the regular people also want it this way

Of the people left, somewhere around 50% don't care either way.

And of the last people left who do care, probably at least half of those aren't doing anything < this is presumably where you are.

You can't just sit around and expect everyone else to be as angry or angrier than you and expect everything to work out because THEY'LL do something about it.

Well let's see... This country has been dealing with these issues for the entirety of its existence, so the time to start doing something about it has long passed.

Then, you should challenge him and make him set a deadline for when everything is supposed to be a lot cheaper. When people starts to get sidetracked from thinking critically, that's when you need to make them set an ultimatum that either forces them to think critically, or make them set their own limit that you can then point back to later.

I mean, that's the real trump derangement syndrome. People who are outside of reality because of their support of the man.

Same with my Mom. I told her "yeah, Mussolini did a good job making the trains run on time". She never responded.

His only concern is himself, he thinks he'll benefit so everyone else can suffer as far as he is concerned. This is the broad motivation of the entire movement. As if America first didn't make it obvious enough, it was really "me first". What they don't understand is how the me in that is entirely relative and they quickly become expendable.

Ask your dad why the GOP needs to raise the Debt Ceiling by $4 Trillion in their budget bill, and how many of the now dozens of lawsuits Trump might win based on his performance in 2020 when he lost almost every single court case, even when Trump appointed the judges himself.

make it real for your dad - every chance you get, capture the price of a few things and chart it out over time... actual real evidence that you collected yourself is harder to refute than a graph produced by anonymous sources online.

I can't wait to talk to my parents. Lifelong republicans (though not specifically trump fans, just voting R), so it's extremely likely they voted for this.

I'm a federal employee. They voted to put my job (and my wife's job) in jeopardy. They voted for this. They voted to hurt us.

wait until everything gets a lot more expensive, and then ask him what happened lmao

Https://2025realitycheck.com - please review, and if you're able go to the GitHub link at the bottom and help me fill everything out!

The order to end dei in government positions. Women are included in diversity equity and inclusion. Nasa is a government agency, so it makes sense. Is it good? Absolutely not, just the wacky world we have to live in.

A lot of this was internal and will only be seen in documentaries down the road.. if there will even be a road

Actually, this situation isn't about cancel culture at all. Cancel culture typically refers to public backlash resulting in personal or professional consequences for offensive or harmful behavior. What happened here seems to be a systemic decision to remove content highlighting women in STEM at NASA.

This isn’t driven by public outcry or social pressure; it’s a form of institutional erasure. There’s a big difference between being held accountable for harmful actions and having your achievements wiped out due to a policy change.

These two things shouldn’t be conflated.

False equivalence. Firing someone for saying racist shit isnt the same a removing a person from a website because she is a woman.

Huh. The only possible reason to conflate cancel culture with erasure is if you're such a shit person with truly deplorable views that being forced to just fucking be polite feels like an attack on your person.

Everyone knows the dog whistle involved here, buddy.

Take your weak attempt at trolling somewhere else.

Deleting the record of a women's scientific achievements isn't the same as firing (or declining to renew a contract) of someone who's falsifying test results or just being an ass.

I wonder which person you're actually referring to. Have a few names we can "peer review"?

this isn't cancel culture though, this is culling culture.

She does not sound sexist. She sounds justifiably upset that the organization she works for and clearly loves is trying to erase her her involvement in it just because she is a woman.

I'm sorry... she sounds sexist because when she talked about the article on her at nasa she mentioned..... her dreams.... her being raised poor..... her being homeless.... and.... her getting a job at Nasa despite all that. Huh oh wait weird I missed the part where she made it all about her being a woman? because... she didn't even do that? She wasn't even highlighting that she is important as a role model to women in STEM. Didn't even mention it in the part discussing the article that was erased. She was highlighting being a role model of achieving her dream job even though she was poor and homeless at one point. And was simply pointing out that it is being erased BECAUSE she is a woman. and you are calling HER sexist? Are you high? Can you read? You just enter a fugue state when you see the word women and make shit up that didn't happen so you can feel better about yourself? Cuz I'm super confused how you can get sexist from what she said without just assuming she's sexist because she is a woman.

To get people trested equally, you need to apply positive bias towards women whom would otherwise be treated unfairly by the current systemic biases.

The irony of posting this in the context of someone who had been effaced specifically because of their sex is overpowering.

Oh geez that would be great wouldn't it. But it sounds like you've never had some tell you that you can't do something because of your sex. Highlighting successful minorities in a field inspires and encourages others in their same position.

Wow.

You have so consistently dehumanized the women in your life that this statement actually makes sense to you? Like, it's pretty well known that women are a minority in STEM fields. What the hell you so afraid of, that celebrating a woman's accomplishments offense you so???

Maybe stop trying to gain power over other human beings. Cause the path you're currently on? You fucking know where it leads. And no, dragging others down will never change the hellscape of fear and paranoia you have found. You have to walk out of the valley of despair; there is no other escape.

Can you please explain what about this sounds kind of sexist to you? We are very confused.

You shouldn't care and want justice instead

Why couldn't it be? Why shouldn't there be a section for "people", to serve as motivation for whomever wants to follow their footsteps and work at NASA?

And also, supposedly, only women's info were removed. Did they also remove the bio of men?

It is pretty standard practice. For one, it helps people who read or review your work know who they are dealing with. For another, it helps the general public understand who scientists are. Part of the mission is to make sure that the next generation carries the work on, and by emphasizing the human aspect of the science, young people can actually imagine themselves getting to that point some day.

The current admin cabinet hires are completely based on DEI. What other companies would hire such a diverse cadre of alcoholics, rapists, and idiots, while most companies tend to hire on merit.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion get in the way of their nepotism and cronyism hiring. If they were hiring based on merit alone there would be no problem being transparent and publishing their hiring decisions.

It’s been said better by other people but the general understanding of the right’s use of “DEI” is as a convenient blanket slur.

It’s typically used against Black and Hispanic people the most, followed by trans people, but any/all women are convenient extra padding under the bus tires of their bigotry and insecurity.

Remember that their fascism is based in feelings of superiority in addition to fear. Use that against the cowardly bastards. They can’t stand to see someone “undeserving” do as well as or better than them, so they try to mow it down.

Fuck ‘em.

EDIT: It seems like Rose Ferreira is of Hispanic descent, hailing initially from the Dominican Republic then moved to NY and eventually secured an internship at NASA, and is now an astronomer and aerospace engineer. It seems like her NASA page got reinstated, maybe after backlash. She’s awesome. Hell yeah for the Streisand effect.

Women and visible minorities are often given the absolute worst conditions for getting out of the shit cycle started by white dudes. This can mean that they don’t have great scores on tests and stuff and that can look like they are, by default, not as smart if you’re the kind of person whose brain is barely firing enough to allow you to breathe.

So you extend that out and suddenly it’s “wait if they get hired at all and they’re not as smart that means they don’t deserve it!”. DEI does, I’m sure, bring some people in that might not be the best candidates but it never brings in people who are unqualified for the job like the racists believe, and the even the metric for “best” on paper is clouded by the aforementioned lack of support.

They’re connected because these people believe that there’s no way a straight white male would ever lose to a minority or a woman despite the fact that most of the people who believe it are huge losers barely stumbling through life while ignoring the fact that they are supported by everyone else.

I’m a straight, white dude whose parents can financially support me when I need it shit’s hard enough as-is. To act like I don’t have serious privilege and like so many people don’t have it even worse than me…god I can’t even fathom that level of self-centered egotism.

I think the justification for things like this is that they don't feel like they got there on their merits in the first place

Three things, don't forget that American companies got a lot of European contracts to help rebuild after WWII. There's too many people out there that ignore that influx of money and try to say the economic boom of the 50s was because misogyny and racism worked.

Now I'm confused, what does DEI stand for? I thought it meant Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Erasure of DEI programs? DEI doesn’t erase I just wanna make sure I’m understanding you properly.

It's the feel-good story that Republicans talk about when they say "pull yourself up by your bootstrap" but they're upset because that's only supposed to work for white men.

That's the republican playbook. Do everything you can to destroy the government, and then point at the rotting corpse that's left as evidence that government doesn't work

I find this opposition to DEI somewhat perverse since to my mind it has mostly been a tool to add some limited legitimacy to a cruel system devoid of humanity; it was there to wash away the more obvious biases of an unjust system.

A Band-Aid solution to a complicate problem. They're removing the band-aid and letting an open wound.

To my mind to remove DEI is to accelerate the collapse of the West. It seems counterintuitive to me that the people who are pushing for this seem to be the ones with the most to lose from it.

They're bigots. Bigots often shoot themselves in the foot.

DEI is an attempt at merit-based hiring. The only difference is what the definition of merit is. The definition that is based on past achievements is biased towards those who have previously had better opportunities, not necessarily better skills. DEI takes a look at the potential of someone in the context of how well they've done with respect to what has been available to them.

Someone who has a GED instead of graduating high school on time might have had opportunities closed to them because they had a reason for dropping out of high school (e.x. had to help family by getting a job), so it wouldn't be equitable to judge them harshly for not having as strong of a resume as someone who had a "conventional" experience and was given more opportunities fresh out of highschool because they could afford to take an unpaid/low pay internship, instead of focusing on taking care of a family.

Nothing about either situation really can tell you about an applicants potential in the field or their work ethic or anything. But 9 times out of 10 the one who was fortunate enough to finish highschool on time will be ahead in the selection process for no reason other than they didn't have life get in the way of their career.

DEI won't be able to magically tell you which candidate is better, but it can allow employers to level the playing field and use different metrics to measure merit that might be less biased against people who have had nontraditional lives through no fault of their own.

Why are you against Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in the hiring process?

Do you actually know what "DEI in hiring" actually entails?

equity and inclusion in hiring is about confronting biases in the hiring process, it's good for meritocracy

Complaining about the platform she used completely misses the point.

“She should smile more” but for using what it at least not Twitter.

Oh my god shut the fuck up.

Try to avoid writing any songs or singing, I fear you may be tone deaf.

Lucky for you, you'll never experience erasure. Because you'll never matter.