Ok, listen, if we want to accomplish anything from a grassroots perspective, we need to start thinking like engineers. Good engineers don’t just look at a problem and say “It’s impossible,” and throw their hands up. You define the problem, research solutions, come up with potential actionable strategies that can be broken down into discrete logistics.

So we’re gonna have a general strike in America the week before the midterms, or else an asteroid will destroy all life on earth except for Kid Rock. We have to figure out how to make this happen no matter what. The future of humanity is at stake.

OK, so we know that general strikes have worked in the past in other countries. What were the conditions which allowed them to succeed? How did the people not go hungry and lose their houses? What were their demands and how long did it take their government to acquiesce? What percentage of the population striked? (Struck? Whatever.) Identify common factors in successful general strikes. Never mind about unsuccessful ones for now.

Start there. Don’t tell me why it can’t happen in America, tell me how it did happen elsewhere.

Once we understand that, we can start to reverse engineer from the outcome we want. People needed X, Y and Z to get by and their system allowed A, B and C that ours doesn’t; OK, so how do we enable A, B and C and get X, Y and Z for people so they are equipped to carry out a general strike. What precisely would satisfy us to end the strike? Not “Stop fucked up shit from happening”, or “end racism and bigotry” because these are not discrete, defined goals that are achievable by the people we mean to oppose with this. “Create a nonpartisan regulatory body to control the use of AI in the workplace” is a better example. “Do not allow Donald Trump to use ICE as his own Praetorian Guard to interfere with the midterms” is another. These are Boolean conditions that can be objectively met or not.

(Here’s the really important part: some of you are already itching to explain to me why this can’t work or my examples are bad or how I’ve missed a crucial step. If you are one of these people, sit this one out. I want to hear from people about how something could be accomplished and absolutely no one else. If you ignore this, I will be angry, because it’s not helpful or useful in any way. I know you think it is, and that’s why you need to not get into this conversation. You are not a problem solver, you are a problem definer, and we all know what the problems are and it’s not helpful to redefine them yet again.)

So who wants to start? Some quick research, maybe?

@birb https://bsky.app/profile/parkroseperma.bsky.social

I suppose on the bright side, of all the things AI is ruining, the advertising industry is probably my favorite to witness. Advertising has never really been about creativity, especially not for the people who pay for it, its really about getting the most eyeballs for your $, and I doubt many of the folks in power at advertising companies care to waste money employing humans when they can just tell the slop machine what they want and have it done at a fraction of the cost (not including the cost to the environment or society of course).

I could not care less about people whos job it is to create ads no longer being able to do that job. Probably a lot of them were just in it for the pay check and will find other, more respectable work. I think of people who work in marketing and advertising as being about morally equal to meth and opiate dealers (and technically because of phama ads, there is a bit of overlap in those groups).

https://www.si.com/nfl/super-bowl/nfl-fans-sick-of-ai-ads-super-bowl-lx

@pfrazee.com

no company is supposed to be in the center of it. bluesky, graze or anybody. it's not supposed to be a company thing. it's supposed to be based around a hashtag with users and traffic on thousands of servers. not funneled at all.

but while I have your attention, please be more transparent about your funding and plans for monetization. bluesky's approach puts everybody who has seen what always happens with VC (and doesn't just want to cash in) into a holding pattern.

Some anti anti-AI arguments are really bordering on ignorant stupidity and show a lack of historical and political awareness.

It is possible to recognize that LLMs work well enough for the average company for software these days AND still not use them for many ethical, political or personal reasons.

I can also see that a car would ease my life and bring me faster from A to B and still not own one for plenty of good reasons.

I can also choose where/when I take a stand and follow my conscience

Even Epstein said it: The plan is to crash the economy, create a huge stimulus package for the financial sector, use the position of power to pocket the money for loaylists, and foot the bill on the taxpayer.

This is the plan. The actual message I read from the #Epsteinfiles is another wealth transfer to the ultra-rich by manufacturing a crisis.

Funding far right think-tanks, experts in victim-blaming, is their get out of jail free -card.

#Kleptocracy #epsteinclass #economy

"Hacker claims theft of data from 700,000 Substack users; Company confirms breach"

We really need laws to make companies more accountable for their security

The company should not be confirming hackers claims, they should be responsible for letting their users know they have been compromised

And there should be real consequences

At least then most of the profit in infosec would not be made writing quasi illegal tools for authoritarians to spy on journalists and activists

A friend asked "so what do we do when the line gets crossed?"

My answer: You're doing it right now.

I think the line for a lot of folks will never come, because for a lot of people its better to have a job and a roof over their head under fascism than to be willing to give that up for the sake of stopping fascism. That's really all it comes down to for 99% of people, do you have food and shelter if "yes" then the status quo is tolerable enough to keep going.

Maybe it will happen when they actually stop people from voting and refuse to count votes from blue cities. Lots of people still have faith in the current system's ability to fix itself, I'm not one of those people. I'll take fast and rough fascism I can fight Today over slow and tolerable fascism i cant do anything about over several decades. Democrats, at least as the party currently exists, are just "slow fascism" and its a lot harder to get people motivated enough when the agency of armed thugs they employ to kidnap people stay mostly confined to the inside of office buildings.

The people of Minnesota are fucking marvellous.

They're deliberately putting Mexican flags on their cars so that CBP/DHS waste time chasing them. They're calling it ICE fishing 🤣 ✊

#Minnesota #SolidarityIsBeautiful #USPolitics

https://www.cutecryptocharts.com

Fellow Doomscrollers, I have created a "fun" game for you to play! I call it: Reply Guy BINJO. Click on any popular post on the fediverse and start filling in the squares!

Love to see it!

“Fuck ICE” chant erupts at AEW pro wrestling show in Las Vegas, pausing main event match

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/wrestling/wrestling-fans-launch-anti-ice-chant-aew-match-las-vegas-pausing-event-rcna257579

Hunter Biden not being in the Epstein files is not surprising to the real hunter heads, several sex workers have said that he was extremely respectful and never made them uncomfortable. He likes two things; crack and women.

So the reality is, that conservatism as you understand it, has as its FUCKING ROOT IDEA, the restoration of absolute class power, specifically in the form of a King, Emperor, or Aboslutism of some kind.

It has NEVER been anything different. There is no "conservative tradition" that includes folks like Thomas Paine. That's all a work. They wanted Paine dead in his lifetime. It's all fake.

Conservatism is about power. That's why it doesn't "believe" things.

@amenonsen
This isnt the way either buddy. You dont need to further harass someone just because you think they where rude to your parasocial friend.

@Fratm

Did you know that c̷̨̈́i̵̮̅l̶̠̐͊͝ȁ̷̠̗̆̍̍n̷͖̘̯̍̈͒̅t̶͍͂͋ř̵̞͈̓ȯ̷̯̠-̸͚̖̟͋s̴͉̦̭̔̆̃͒û̵̥̪͆̒̕c̸̨̨̧̺̎k̵̼͗̀s̸̖̜͍̲̈́͋̂͠@gravitywell.xyz is a totally valid email address?

so is “:(){␣:|:&␣},:”@gravitywell.xyz

MUNICIPAL WASTE’s TONY FORESTA Doesn’t Regret Creating Controversial DONALD TRUMP T-Shirt: ‘F**k That Guy’

@Fratm Oh wow, thats pretty disappointing to see as I thought she was an overall net positive for fedi, perhaps it really isn’t the right place for her.

Reports should mostly be reserved for content that is either direct harassment or illegal. “Getting weird” is an extremely subjective thing which is fine to block someone over but trying to get people banned or posts removed just because you don’t like what they have to say is a bit too authoritarian for my liking, we certainly can do better then that here.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

― Friedrich W. Nietzsche

@Fratm You are absolutely right, the fact that this post is reported to my instance just goes to show that people on her side[*] are now using this as an excuse to harrass you by reporting all your posts. Nothing about this previous post was worthy of reporting but at least one user reported it on here for no other reason then to harass you, and to whomever is doing that I ask that they also please try to do better.

[*]I don’t think veronica would intentionally want her followers to do this, but I also don’t think they are unaware of the ripple effect putting your post on blast would have. We all have room for improvement here.