unwort des jahres (12. 173)

For the thirty-fourth time, the jury has selected its Un-word of the Year (see also below) for this past twelve months, the panel of linguists (for the first two years, the selection was announced by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache along with the Wort des Jahres but an internal row led to the committee to become independent and refuse any state funding) calling out a recently popularised term that denigrates human rights and democratic principles through euphemism or deflection. For 2024, with dishonourable mentions going to Heizungsverbot, misleading as implying a heating ban and attempting to discredit environmental protection measures but only effects standards for the construction of new heating systems, the overall winner was the neologism that repackages old, everyday racism biodeutsch, that is—biologically German. Gaining parlance on social media, it is used to classify, evaluate and discriminate against an out-group on supposed biological criteria, originally used ironically from the organic seal for domestic produce but used for some time in this non-satirical and unreflective way. The construct implies a non-existent biological connection to nationality and is meant to exclude those with immigrant roots, real or presumed.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus more emoji remixers

seven years ago: Martin Luther King Day universally celebrated in the US plus the leader of the American Nazi party

eight years ago: bat-friendly tequila, promotion via voice-analysis, modern grotesques, MAGA international plus image compression

nine years ago: Germany’s Unwort of the Year 

ten years ago: Switzerland retires some of its civilian defence infrastructure, the origins of bio-feedback plus no crisis unexploited

counteroffer (12. 172)

After newly elected Mexican president Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s musing that the gulf be renamed and suggesting instead that the historically accurate appellation of Mexican America be applied to the northern portion of the continent, a law-maker in Canada also snapped back that the western Pacific states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California petition to become a new eleventh province—not only shielding from retributive tariffs but also with the guarantee of universal healthcare and sensible gun control-measures which the US has failed to provide.

his sole objective is to become a trillionaire (12. 171)

Delightfully—but never thinking we might kind of side with the likes of Steve Bannon (previously)—the former advisor and architect of the MAGA movement has taken to labelling apartheid shadow president Space Karen as a truly evil character and racist, albeit mostly due to Musk’s access to and influence over Trump and advocacy for immigration carve-outs that would benefit his own businesses and government contracts, and vowing to personally take down the richest man in the world’s ambitions to enrichment himself further by appealing to Trump’s vanity, a relatively cheap date—also calling for the impeachment of justice Amy Coney Barrett for not blocking Trump’s felony sentencing. Bannon questions the validity of commentary of unelected white South Africans in US policy and sees Musk and his hangers-on (appreciating the monetary support but hopes for silent partners) for their techno-feudal aspirations.

let’s play twister, let’s play risk (12. 170)

Though by far not the last annexation or intervention in the history of American imperium, the current state of affairs has echoes in the major territorial acquisition by the United States: faced with an increasingly polarised world vying for newly accessible sea routes and scarce natural resources, America sets its sites on a strategically located island under the control of the Kingdom of Denmark over reasons of national security and economic interests, with threats of taking it by force after Copenhagen refused the offer. Denmark eventually makes the trade, finalised in 1917, with the Danish West Indies becoming the US Virgin Islands, US president Woodrow Wilson (previously) keen to maintain a foothold in the Caribbean, for fear it be invaded by Germany and used as a base to stop shipping in the then recently opened Panama Canal. A century later, Trump is revisiting the idea with proclamations that, “for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” not ruling out economic pressure and the use of force to take it militarily. Not discounting the doctrine of settled borders or the incoming president is lobbing threats at fellow members of the NATO alliance, return to an age of empire negates America’s argument for aid to Ukraine—or Taiwan or how its enablers should put their foot down over Israeli incursions in Palestine—and privileges the same pretext of national security (for access to the Black Sea) that Russia used for its invasion over state sovereignty, and boosts the chances of it happening to America itself. This is what one gets for re-electing a not very smart or terribly successful real estate developer. None of the indigenous populations deserve to be made pawns in this redux of the Great Game and would likely not get a voice in the matter, but Russia could take back Alaska, using the same arguments and resort to the fallback of whataboutism, and claim the US is underusing the peninsula’s potential—or for the remnants of the British Empire, like las Islas Malvinas, Diego Garcia or Gibraltar. More from Vox contributor Joshua Keating at the link above.

twentytwentyfive (12. 169)

Better Living through Beowulf brings us a thoughtful reflection on George Orwell’s prescient 1946 essay called “The Prevention of Literature” that forecasts how authoritarian regimes will turn to AI (not exactly couched in modern parlance but rather as formulaic, mass-produced writing that could outpace any author or newsroom, though his dystopian novel does feature prole porn—we might even be denied that—and other entertainments produced by machine), which envisions journalism being first censored out of existence to be churned out with minimal human input or intervention with prose and poetry to follow—though book bans in the United States (including 1984) seem to rather subvert that sequence, notwithstanding the attacks against what’s labelled as the “legacy media” continuing—already witnessing the change in his own time with modular stories and plots, easily adapted and repackaged for an eager audience and easily made to conform with the worldview that the state seeks to project. Introducing his work with a recollection of attending a meeting of the PEN Club in London that coincided with the three-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Milton’s Areopagitica—in defence of press freedoms—two years prior, Orwell blames the loss of intellectual liberty on the undermining of the increasingly concentrated ownership of the press and monopolies on broadcast media by corporations that refused to support their authors and internecine squabbling amongst academics. Such an atmosphere and compromised readership enables conditions for a totalitarian takeover. Contemporary critics generally agreed with Orwell’s premise, though some though his arguments amounted to “intellectual swashbuckling” and concluded his prophecies doubtful.

happy ending (12. 168)

The US supreme court having rejected petitions from the president-elect to stop or delay the sentencing until after the inauguration (the justices not accepting the argument of broad immunity from prosecution when discharging duties as the executive), Trump was granted an unconditional discharge to respect the jury’s verdict of guilty on thirty four felony counts of misusing campaign funds for hush-money payments to a porn star and to not interfere with his ability to govern. While serving no jail time or liable to fine, this judgement delivered by a New York state judge is not subject to presidential, federal purview and could only be pardoned by the governor (not likely to happen) and the conviction, symbolic as it is, will remain on Trump’s record. And while he would probably prefer it not be on his Wikipedia page, if capable of the needed level of shame, critical thought or interiority, the sentence does have some potential impacts, by dint of his registration in Florida, he will be able to continue to vote in that state due to reciprocity with New York (see above), under federal law, Trump is not allowed to own a gun, must surrender a DNA sample to a New York database of convicts, possibly jeopardise the liquor licenses for his branded properties and similarly is barred from operating casinos under laws regarding moral turpitude, and while heads of state are allowed to travel without a passport, some countries, including Canada, Mexico, Israel, China, Ukraine, Turkey, India, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa and the UK reserve the right to prohibit visits by felons. The travel restrictions are unlikely of course to be enforced in Trump’s case and he could always ignore regulation or pressure states to change their laws. This does not affect his ability to hold federal office, however.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an epic tattoo homage to Abe Simpson (with sychronoptica), enjunkification and aging out of the internet plus the Phantom Time Theory and the fabricated Middle Ages

seven years ago: a look back at 1968, Trump’s new London embassy plus French terms against creeping Anglicisms

eight years ago: heatmaps of the world’s most popular photo spots plus kompromat on Trump

nine years ago: fans remember the life and times of David Bowie,  Borg ideal beauty plus assorted links worth revisiting

ten years ago: the democratic reforms of 1848, your hit-parade, a motion-detector in search of alien life plus separatist and secession movements in Europe

constitiuent political entity (12. 167)

We enjoyed this rather mind-blowing rundown of singular and obscure facts about each of America’s fifty states, trivia that stands out as improbable and due to the absence of citations (helpfully there are timestamps with smooth transitions that index each), though apparently one-hundred percent, unequivocally true, nonetheless compels one down rabbit holes, like for Nebraska’s standout detail (do you know anyone from there? A work colleague introduced herself with “I’ll bet you’ve never met anyone from Nebraska”) in the village of Monowi, supposedly named after an unidentified Native American term of wildflower for their profusion, which is the only incorporated area in the US with one resident, differential privacy enacted for the 2020 census reported that the population had doubled but this was confirmed to be a form of noise, a buffer to protect the privacy of an easily identifiable individual. The sole resident, mayor and chief librarian maintains the five-thousand volume collection of her late husband and it her capacity as the municipal government, has granted herself a liquor license to operate a tavern for passers-through on the premises. What’s your home state’s niche fact? Which one is your favourite? The array of geographical expanses were also interesting and counterintuitive. The video presentation is thirty-minutes and fifty seconds long, referencing the number of the original colonies and the number of states. Let’s hope they give this treatment to the EU next.

hohe schule (12. 166)

Taking advantage of a brief period of sunshine, H and I took the dog on a hike up to the summit of the Hohe Schule—previously, the tallest plateau in the eastern foothills of the Rhön mountain range, to inspect more of the recently restored Wanderweg. 

 Formerly known as the Aalhauck—“eel hill,” now called “high school” for unknown reasons—German toponymy can be deceiving, as with Schweinfurt, not where the pigs can ford the river. 

The flat top hosts the ruins of a fortification from the Hallstatt period, presumably built to monitor trade through the Ellenbach valley and reoccupied in the Middle Ages with a newer rampart and collapsed walls, hardly recognisable and reclaimed by the forest but fenced in as several Bronze Age artefacts were discovered there during an emergency survey conducted in the 1980s, including prehistoric millstones, primitive glass vials and a brooch, but further excavations are still pending and archeologists want to preserve the site, and affords some spectacular views on the valley and village below and mountain peaks beyond.