leinir @leinir@computerfairi.es

I studied capitalism in college because it was a particular interest of mine. I hated it. I also wanted to understand it, so that I could know why it rubbed me the wrong way and live intentionally to push against it.

There was this moment when I was in a grad course and the professor was talking about self-optimizing markets. That's when it hit me. I literally stood up in the class, interrupted everything and went like "wait, the math isn't optimizing for income inequality". It was kind of funny watching more than 100 little economists in training suddenly start tearing apart the equation at once. You could literally hear the sound of frantic spreadsheeting and charting.

In the end, the professor himself said that it was true, you could achieve a fully "optimized" economy with literally everything being owned by a handful of people. Made me think.

How is a system supposed to be beneficial for us all when the mathematics at its core don't actually consider societal benefit?

If an economy is fully "optimized" but everyone is sick, sad, and angry - is it actually optimal?

A mathematical model can make sense without being sensible. This is why I have an implicit distrust of algorithms and other systems of optimization. It's also why I'm an socialist.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Shout out to everyone else who was "just interested in being supportive of queer people", who "didn't really have a reason" but started researching neurodiversity to "understand others better", or who "just really wished people were kinder to trauma survivors" without being sure why...

For everyone who has had the moment when you realize that the unheard, marginalized voice you've been trying to amplify for so long is actually your own.

Love y'all. In case nobody else has said it yet, welcome home.

The petition to remove #LGBT content from the uk curriculum now has 190,671 signatures, sigh. It only needed 100k to force a debate in parliament, so that will be scheduled by #Uk Gov.

The counter petition is rapidly gaining ground, being newer. It now has 33,030 signatures, but we need more!

Pls sign if uk, boost otherwise! 👇

Link to official petition to UK Gov & Parliament: Do not remove LGBT content from the Relationships Education curriculum
https://t.co/IIHgvhpB2O

#LGBTQ #TransRights

New study finds "no substantial evidence of any biological advantages for trans women competing in elite women's sport."

"'What threatens women's elite sport, for cis and trans women, is not trans women, but is rather misogyny in the form of underfunding, non-parity in participation and leadership, inequitable sport space allocation/access, and a range of sporting opportunities not afforded to women...in equitable ways.'"

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/trans-women-athletes-have-no-unfair-advantage-under-current-rules-study-finds

#TransRights #cycling #queer

"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think."

--Ursula K. Le Guin, 'The Dispossessed'

I've just discovered that there's a petition on the #UK government petitions website to remove #LGBT content from the curriculum, effectively resurrecting the horrendous Section 28 from the 1980s.

There is also a counter-petition. As of this morning, the remove petition has over 178,000 signatures, the counter-petition has just over 2,500 signatures.

Please sign the counter-petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/631529

#LGBTQ #TransRights #Trans

Gondor called for aid, and Rohan have answered.

Furries Against Fascism have announced that they will be joining the protest against Posie and the losers who hang out with her.

I am so fucking excited.

11am at George Square babes

Pink Floyd is now asking for spec work with a music video contest, pretending they are helping upcoming animators by not paying them, then by monetizing their content, and keeping the copyright of all submissions (even if they don't "win").
🎵💰Money, it's a hit. Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.🤑🎶

occasional reminder that the leader of the opposition has a fetish for showing fisting porn to juries while going on about how horrible it is and how badly it must hurt.

For #Akademy2023, the Akademy team is looking for Keynote speakers.

Comment below if you have any suggestions.

time for you to read it again. gay love
#queer #LGBTQ
https://at.tumblr.com/lycaonswolves/684647674871414784/3uht5bvyqitz

emergency!

My favorite case of accidental irony is still something I witnessed in the early 2000s. I crossed paths with a roadside merchants selling inspirational posters.

One of the posters was the text “JESUS IS MY MOUNTAIN AND MY ROCK” written over the photo of a mountain.

A photo I’d already seen before.

In a geology book.

Captioned “Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980”.

I know this is me screaming at the void but here goes.

If you are building anything on the web that has user accounts, for all that is sacred, please take into account that names are not just “first last”.

And don’t be clever and assume spaces are proper delimiters.

Froilán Irizarry Rivera ≠ Froilán I. Rivera ≠ Froilán Rivera, these are three different people.

JK Rowling has explicitly said, multiple times, that people continuing to buy Harry Potter stuff is proof that they agree with her transphobia

Stop giving this bigot money

absolutely HAD to get art to commemorate this <33

🖌️ @tartiicat@twitter

Today, over 100 students and community members in #Montreal "stormed into a talk at #McGill University" shutting down an event organized by a member of the LGB Alliance, a anti-trans hate group which works to oppose trans rights in the UK, even going so far as to oppose a ban on conversation therapy and claiming opposing same-sex marriage is "not homophobic." Like the rest of the TERF movement, it also has direct links and associations with the far-Right and open fascists.

Protesters reportedly "threw baking flour at [the speaker and] unplugged a projector," before the event was shut down.

Today, you can choose not to drive a Tesla if you don’t want Elon Musk, Inc. knowing everywhere you go.

Tomorrow, you might have to limit where you live because you won’t live in a Google Home and reconsider having 20/20 vision again in exchange for the artificial lens company seeing everything you see.

Privacy is not something you can “vote with your wallet” on. We either protect it as a human right or we lose it altogether.

#privacy #humanRights #BigTech #peopleFarming #capitalism

I really like this idea.

It's wild how computer programming went from exclusively women's work to "we're not sexist we just don't think women are interested in it" in like 40 years