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Reposted by Charlie Stross

John Gordon 🇨🇦🇩🇰 @johngordon.bsky.social · 8h

Dropsy was a poorly defined 19th century diagnosis based on swollen legs.

One diagnosis for what was really venous insufficiency, renal failure, heart failure and more. All extremely different causes with different prognosis and management.

Autism 2025 is our dropsy.

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

Sergio @sdelfranco.bsky.social · 10h

We're not in a Bond movie, but in an Austin Powers one

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 11h

Didn't the Western Roman Empire get into trouble in the wake of several plagues ...? 🤔

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 17h

They're also small enough I've never heard of them. If I do it I'd rather let my agent pitch it around the Big Five and try to get an auction going in hope of it going bestseller (to get the message across). The latter is unlikely, I know, but there's a market for escapism ...

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Also, "he's so far out of his tree that the squirrels are sending search parties"

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

2020 was a typo: I was thinking in terms of the Brooks Brothers Riot and then Vladimir Putin's ascent to the President of the Russian Federation being the line in the sand after which we were in Bond Villain territory.

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Was that the (execrable) movie, or the original book? I would SO love there to be a period-setting movie faithful to the original book (even if I can't watch it) ...

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

He may believe it, but I have no problem believing he's soaking in a soup of antisemitic memes *as well* and if they reinforce his batshit prejudices he'll deploy them.

Fuck his anti-autistic prejudices, anyway (says the undiagnosed but probably-autistic guy).

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Basically RFK Jr is blowing a dog whistle in the key of anti-semitism. (Autism = bad, in his eschatology: also circumcision = Jewish cultural practice = bad. It's much more obvious outside the US eg. here in Europe, where circumcision is mainly practiced by muslims and jews, or for phimosis.)

John Shirley @johnshirley2024.bsky.social · 1d

We knew RFKjr was as crazy as a soup sandwich, but this?!

RFK Jr.’s comments on circumcision and autism draw sharp criticism

Kennedy's comments were met with incredulity, skepticism and snark.

www.oregonlive.com

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

It's worth noting that under fascist rule your body belongs to the state: it's almost the main defining characteristic. Autonomy cannot exist under fascism.

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 1d

Ultimately what it comes down to is a worldview that denies the very notion of any right to bodily autonomy, which can only lead to sexual predation. There’s really nowhere else it can go

That’s why fighting it *has* to be about bodily autonomy, which is why it’s inextricable from trans liberation

Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

On pedocon theory: why movement conservativism is inextricably entwined with paedophilia (and why the POTUS is probably a paedophile too):
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-talk-about-pedocon-theory/

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Never heard of it. (Film/TV, perhaps? I don't watch films or TV.)

Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Alas, no: he was joking during the 00s about how he's a Bond villain—has an electric car and a tropical island he launches rockets from. It was cute back then, a lot less cute after 2015.

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

The what now?

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

On pedocon theory: why movement conservativism is inextricably entwined with paedophilia (and why the POTUS is probably a paedophile too):
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-talk-about-pedocon-theory/

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

jfoy.bsky.social @jfoy.bsky.social · 1d

"You expect me to go on Fox News and just put the truth in front of those human rabies cases?"

"No, Mr. Bond... I expect you to lie."

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

rst.bsky.social @rst.bsky.social · 1d

Well, here's Elon (from his own Twitter feed, in 2012). Andreessen's "Techno-optimist manifesto" quotes favorably from Filippo Marinetti's proto-fascist Futurist manifesto, and Thiel told the Cato institute in 2009 that democracy had failed because it didn't enact his personal policy preferences...

Elon Musk making a "Doctor Evil" finger gesture, in formal dress while holding a plushie of a white cat. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/192701084932907009

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Ta! I'd been looking everywhere for that pic of Elon, forgot where I first saw it!

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

Olivia Waite @oliviawaite.com · 1d

The problem with “virtue signaling” as a rhetorical framework was always that it pressed you not toward deeper and more sincere acts of virtue, but away from goodness as a goal at all.

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Reposted by Charlie Stross

François Berjon @fberjon.bsky.social · 1d

James Bond is fictional. Bond villains are real.
That’s the tagline. For the book, and for today’s reality.

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Look, visualize a conference table surrounded by plush executive chairs. Here's Hugo Drax, next to him is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, then Peter Thiel: Elon is sitting in the corner playing with his toy rockets, meanwhile Dr Evil is gurning horribly at his reflection in the window … then in walks Cheney!

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Tough, you're getting AT LEAST two space operas first

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Pre-civil war? I don't remember the position of the window in 1632, or even 1688: perhaps you need to be more specific about WHOSE civil war? (Clue: many countries have had them!)

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

Incidentally, "in 2020, Earth was taken over by a consortium of Bond villains" works PERFECTLY as an explanation for our current situation. Doesn't it?

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 1d

An elevator pitch for a new book came to me right after my SweCon kaffeeklatch:

"In the year 2000, Earth was taken over by a consortium of Bond villains.

"Then, in 2025, a lone mild-mannered librarian decided to take it back …"

Think it could sell?

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