WTF?

wtf

Ayahuasca tourism’ is a blight on Indigenous peoples and our environment

In the world of the Ecuadorian Amazon, humans, plants and animals are relatives, and ancient stories reflect real ecological relationships and Indigenous knowledge rooted in profound connections to the land. But one of those connections – ceremonial medicine known as hayakwaska – is now marketed as a mystical shortcut to healing and enlightenment. Behind the scenes of these “healing retreats” lies a deeper story of cultural erasure, linguistic distortion and ongoing colonisation masked as wellness.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Lucky Us: Interview With TDS Infected Prof Fearing Imminent, Absolutely, No Doubts About It, This Time Fer Sure US Fascism Who Fled to Canada

You are Hitler – Fess Up!

Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’

She finds the whole idea absurd. To Prof Marci Shore, the notion that the Guardian, or anyone else, should want to interview her about the future of the US is ridiculous. She’s an academic specialising in the history and culture of eastern Europe and describes herself as a “Slavicist”, yet here she is, suddenly besieged by international journalists keen to ask about the country in which she insists she has no expertise: her own. “It’s kind of baffling,” she says.

In fact, the explanation is simple enough. Last month, Shore, together with her husband and fellow scholar of European history, Timothy Snyder, and the academic Jason Stanley, made news around the world when they announced that they were moving from Yale University in the US to the University of Toronto in Canada. It was not the move itself so much as their motive that garnered attention. As the headline of a short video op-ed the trio made for the New York Times put it, “We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the US”.

As if U of T’s reputation hasn’t suffered enough being a prime training ground for latter day Storm Troopers.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA, WTF?

Young people are taking out loans to buy pizzas

The film of Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short is a magnificent piece of storytelling that made the 2008 financial crash comprehensible.

In the movie, a renegade hedge fund boss discovers that the financial system contains an unexploded bomb. Huge amounts of poorly secured credit are floating around that are far riskier than the holders realise, or want to admit.

It’s a collective hallucination of trust, and he bets that it must eventually collapse.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

‘Gents’ is an unacceptable term in modern workplace, judge says

A female employee who sued an insurance company for discrimination still lost her case — as her boss was guilty of incompetence rather than sexism

A judge has branded the word “gents” as “old-fashioned”, describing the term as unsuitable for the modern workplace.

Dawn Shotter said the shortening of “gentlemen” — often used to describe men’s lavatories — was inappropriate in a ruling involving a claim against one of the Britain’s biggest insurance companies.

A female employee at Royal & Sun Alliance sued for sex discrimination after she was included in group emails from her boss that was addressed to “gents”.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Paris Train Staff Fine Teen Pilgrim Singing Hymn—But Ignore Football Rioters

On returning from the pilgrimage to Chartres on Whit Monday last week, a young pilgrim was fined for ‘disturbing the peace’ because he was singing with his friends in the corridors of a Paris train station. A few days after the chaos caused by supporters of the Paris Saint-Germain football team, the sentence seems somewhat disproportionate. The reason is simple: when imposing fines, the transport authorities deliberately target passengers who are convenient for them—who are obviously not the real troublemakers.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Elizabeth May calls solar panels ‘Jesus work’

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May told the House of Commons that solar panels embody the teachings of Jesus Christ as she endorsed her parish church’s decision to bless newly installed renewable energy equipment.

In her first Member’s Statement to the 45th Parliament, May described attending a ceremony where her bishop blessed solar panels installed on St. Andrew Anglican Church in Sidney, BC, reports Blacklock’s Reporter.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

The march of the useful idiots

In April 2017, thousands of wealthy Westerners headed to the Bahamas for Fyre, a luxury music festival. They expected villas and meals from celebrity chefs. What they got was soaked tents and cheese sandwiches. Watching the Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, it is difficult not to cringe as you see it slowly dawn on the privileged tourists that the whole thing is a con.

We saw a similar case of privileged Western delusion meeting reality in Egypt this weekend. Some 4,000 activists had descended on Cairo for the ‘Global March to Gaza’. They expected to take buses to Arish, a city in northern Sinai, before marching 30 miles to the Egyptian side of the Gaza border at Rafah. There they would break Israel’s blockade.

This is awful. Awful funny.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023", WTF?

Oops – AI generated video shows Nazi soldier celebrating the liberation of Paris

President Macron’s government has been forced to withdraw an artificial intelligence-generated video celebrating the French Resistance after historians were outraged by errors including a German soldier celebrating the Allied liberation of Paris.

The government had published the video on its official Instagram and TikTok accounts in order to teach young people about the Resistance. However, the 27-second clip showed a soldier wearing a German helmet in a crowd of Parisians celebrating the end of Nazi occupation in 1944. Elsewhere in the crowd someone waved the flag of Japan, Germany’s wartime ally.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence", WTF?

Doug Ford says U.S. governors agree Trump’s comments on Canada were ‘insulting’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his U.S counterparts are concerned about a drop in tourism from Canadians, telling him that President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st state were insulting to Canada.

“Well, as we talk to the governors, a lot of governors are saying it’s insulting, it’s insulting to your closest friend and allies,” Ford told CNN in an interview Monday morning.

“We love the U.S. I love the U.S. Canadians love Americans. There’s one person that is causing this issue, and that’s President Trump. Hopefully he’ll take another avenue and start mending fences, because right now, as the governors told us here, they’ve seen a drastic decline in Canadian tourism.”

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA, WTF?