leinir @leinir@computerfairi.es

INTERNET RATIONALIST: Consider the following thought experiment. Imagine a hyperintelligent artificial intelligence–

ME: No

INTERNET RATIONALIST: What

ME: I am declining to imagine the hyperintelligent artificial intelligence.

INTERNET RATIONALIST:

ME: I'm thinking about birds right now

INTERNET RATIONALIST:

ME: Dozens of crows, perched atop great standing stones

It's 1987. The Metropolitan Police are waging an intimidation campaign against London's LBTQ+ community.

Wearing rubber gloves to "protect from AIDS" they raid the Royal Vauxhall Tavern

"Well well," says Lily Savage (Paul O'Grady) from the stage as the police pile into the venue. "It looks like we’ve got help with the washing up" /1

An interesting challenge here from James O'Malley, on linking broad progressive demands with climate action:

"Look at what galvanised political efforts to legalise on-shore wind
and commit to more nuclear power. It wasn’t banging on about “climate justice”, or appeals to the impact climate change will have on the developing world. It was the war in Ukraine, which overnight made the issue one of energy security – an issue that Tories and right-wingers can get behind"

https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/activists-should-make-fighting-climate?fbclid=IwAR1rs3AGyqgOvdYflAlvA2mJath8ISqjkBMJXqqfjSUUe_jS8xngneBW-5U

The #Tories seem to have rethought #netzero ahead of a major presentation in #Aberdeen this week;

now emphasising #energysecurity, the new plans have the fingerprints of the #fossilfuel lobby all over them, with a down-grading of #greenenergy investment & support alongside likely clearance for a major new #NorthSea oil filed & a step back from incentives for solar panels & other micro-generation green solutions;

Its almost like the #Tories had been taken to lunch (a lot) by #BigOil executives

When someone says "The fact is..." or similar, I know what's about to come out of their mouth is unsubstantiated speculation or just plain old bigotry

Yes, all of these things are urgent and we should do them ASAP, but rather than viewing them as "OMG we must do this to stave off disaster" (true), let's see it as "Hooray, let's get enthusiastic about ways to make everything better as quickly as possiible and really make it happen".

"Eight things the world must do to avoid the worst of climate change"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/methane-to-food-waste-eight-ways-to-attempt-to-stay-within-15c?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I cannot believe this suit to try and shut down the Internet Archive (brought by publishers under the guise of trying to pay authors) is proceeding.

Yes, authors deserve to be paid for their work. But no, abolishing this library is not the way to go about it.

https://mastodon.world/@AthenaHelivoy/110051487619973118

Why are literal Nazi's at every anti-trans rally?

Every time someone makes a stink about identifying #trans people properly all I can think about is this episode of #ds9 and like, motherfucker, Klingons figured it out. I think you can manage.

Hundreds of NHS hospitals have been ordered to share people’s confidential medical records with the American spy-tech company, Palantir. Read the investigation from openDemocracy. #dataprotection #privacy #NHS https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palantir-peter-thiel-nhs-england-foundry-faster-data-flows/

Docker Inc would like to thank the open source community for making registry successful.

As a token of appreciation open source organizations are invited to subscribe to the paid version in the next month, or their data will be deleted.

Just watching my little mastodon friends doing stuff.

And it hasn't too post this for a while, but just a thought on content warning, which has become a lot less prevalent in the last six months:

CW on Masto isn't about censorship. Its about not retraumatising people who have suffered abuse.

That's it. The Twitter algorithm wants you continually raw with trauma, because it's good for engagement.

For a personal example: I have a couple of major triggers. If I see those triggers CW'd? On a bad day, I'll scroll past.

And that's what it's for.

So #SuellaBraverman's defence is that while an email to #Tory supporters appeared under her name, she neither wrote it or sanctioned it.... so let me get this right the Home Secretary is now prepared to argue that signed statements are not indicative of the opinions or claims of the signatory - I'm not sure the #RuleofLaw can survive such a position; I'm looking forward to see how the detachment of signatories from the documents they sign plays out, not least in #contractlaw!

Slightly different to the definition from my economics class - but seems infinitely more accurate and captures how it drives climate change

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #environment #democracy #uk #scotland #usa #canada #australia #politics #nature #vegan #Birds #animals #science #ukpolitics

I find it interesting that I get so much pushback from cis people about whether or not there is an impending #TransGenocide.

You're using your 2023 brain to assess this. That's the wrong point of view. It's not 2023 for trans people, it's 1933, and we all live in Berlin.

When we all looked at the horrors of the Holocaust, and said #NeverAgain, did we mean anything by that? Can we truly afford to be casual in our opposition to what is intended to reach the same conclusions: that the targeted group are subhuman, and don't deserve life?

You wishing it weren't happening isn't going to save anyone. What are you doing to help protect trans people? Have you even called your representatives at the appropriate government to tell them to lay off?

If not, what DID you mean by #NeverAgain? "NeverAgain, as long as it's not inconvenient for me or requires me to do anything?"

Cis people, we need you to stand the fuck up and fight back. I don't need you to tell me here how you do that; I need you to just DO IT. Don't virtue-signal. Just act. Call your reps. Get your ass out to a demonstration. Take a sign saying "I'm a cis ally!" Get on TV with it. Be noticed, standing up. When you hear transphobic talk at work or in the pub, SAY SOMETHING. Learn, so you can educate.

Bigots don't listen to the people they hate. We need your voices here, your bodies on the line beside ours.

If you're not building a secret room for us to hide in, you're really not paying attention.