leinir @leinir@computerfairi.es

“Resist Hopelessness”

I thought I’d given up on “hope.” The concept made less sense and felt less applicable to this period in human history, now so wholly structured by christofascism.

It hit me last winter that “nihilism” now descriptively captured what had become my abandonment of hope in these (end?) times, even if prescriptively, I still held tight to the sense of prefiguration and thus promise that anarchism embodies.

My “anarchism of despair” was, and is, generative, even if filled with growing pains. After all, our strategies, tactics, and tools—our very forms of resistance and forms of freedom—must shift if we want to “fight fascism” versus battling a neoliberal era that’s now bygone. States, capital, and cops seem way ahead of us anarchists in understanding the need for this dynamism. (Another reason I lost hope: we’re now on the defensive under fascism, fighting for survival, versus the hopeful “another world is possible” offensive of vibrant, thriving anarchistic experiments.)

But this past week, two people reminded me that I still do, in fact, have hope—just a different version, more suited to these dire, bleak days. I have hope on the microlevel, as opposed to the jubilant sense of macrolevel hope of the recent past.

“Other social relations are possible” isn’t as catchy a slogan, nor is the shorthand “collective care.” Yet that’s the more humble microlevel hope I realize I still cling fast to—the kind that doesn’t simply mouth “we take care of each other” but instead shows up and just does it. Like after a hurricane in North Carolina, or during fires in Los Angeles, genocide in Gaza, and COVID around the globe, or when one trans kid feels alone.

So the anonymous person who made the sticker seen here (spotted in PGH) reminded me that we have to resist—as ongoing act of antifascist bravery—letting this social order kill off hope among us.

And a second person, who DM’d me a heartfelt apology for making fun of me years ago after a talk I did that asserted hope—when they dissed the notion then—reminded me that we can transform and mend. As they shared, they’re now able to “find hope.” And with their caring DM, they gifted hope back to me.

Reminder if you’re unaware: most US travelers to the UK (including for flight connections) will need an “electronic travel authorization” starting January 8th, or you may be denied boarding for your flight or turned away at immigration.

It costs GBP 10 (about 13 bucks) and is valid for two years. The easiest way to apply is with the “UK ETA” iPhone or Android app, which scans your passport and face and takes your photo and money. Approval can take 3 days, but mine took less than 2 minutes.

For the 4th year in a row, my all-sky camera has been taking an image of the sky above the Netherlands every 15 seconds. Combining these images reveal the length of the night changing throughout the year, the passage of clouds and the motion of the Moon and the Sun through the sky. #astrophotography

📈 In 2024 Liberapay processed donations worth a total of 1 million US dollars for 1535 recipients in 56 countries.

Happy new year!

My mom, who is in her 70s, and not particularly tech savvy, just explained that she hates Google now, because the first results are always AI, which just pulls from other sources and is usually inaccurate.

So let’s stop assuming that non-techies, older people, and mothers and grandmothers are too naive to see through the hype. Mostly it’s the tech bros and finance douches who are too stupid to actually understand what they’re boosting.

Abigail Thorn, creator of the "I emailed the NHS 133 times" video a while ago, received a response to make content with 101's and this is the explanation shy she's not doing it. Long read but does cover some things that might be of community interest

https://transwrites.world/my-doctor-emailed-me-back/

Donor appreciation post: Thank you for all your generosity 💖!

We are close to reaching our first fundraiser stretch goal...

https://kde.org/fundraisers/yearend2024/

... And we want to thank everybody who made this possible. You have guaranteed KDE's survival for yet another year.

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

#fundraiser #donations #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

We are at 95% of our first stretch goal!

With less than €3,000 to go, our fundraiser is about to cross the €50,000 mark, and we will be entering the final stretch of our campaign.

Will your donation push us over the line?

https://kde.org/fundraisers/yearend2024/#adopt

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

#fundraiser #donations #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

UK people - the government is running a "Copyright and Artificial Intelligence" open consultation, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/copyright-and-artificial-intelligence until 2025-02-25

Option 3, their "preferred option" is to allow AI to slurp everything, but require an opt-out (we all know how well those work!)

Option 1 (require abiding copyright law) is "not preferred" because it is "likely to make the UK a less attractive location for AI development".

If stealing shit is the basis of your business model, *perhaps this is a problem*?

As yet there are no applications for our Senior Software Dev role (£64-£75k: https://bfijobsandopportunities.bfi.org.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=1222165UlM&WVID=384536015T)

#PHP devs, come and work with us at the #BFI! It's a really nice low pressure environment and you get to watch a lot of films for free

New email footer (in green, bold):

"Please consider the environment before using AI functionality to reply to this email."

#work #email #ai

This was boosted into my feed without alt text. I’ve added alt text.

It sounds like great advice if your health insurance denies a claim.

It took less than a minute to add the alt text. Please do this.

Someone has created a petition for the UK government to legally recognise non-binary as a gender

We're certain that the UK government will refuse to act on it, but it'd be nice if such a large number of people voted for it that they couldn't ignore it

Boosts welcome

#UKGovernment #UK #petition #NonBinary #queer #LGBTQIA+ #LGBTQIA2S+ #TransRightsAreHumanRights #NonBinaryPeopleExist