I can imagine use cases where you actually want picture this big, but these are corner cases. Yet I'd totally expect both sides to handle it somehow (resizing, linking to original, whatever).
Thinking the #python community needs a python package manager manager.. Some system that would streamline the installation and versioning the 5 different package managers needed for a typical code base...
Use Snowflake to give censorship the slip in places where Internet is blocked.
Snowflake allows you to connect to the Tor network in places where Tor is blocked by routing your connection through volunteer proxies located in uncensored countries.
Similar to VPNs, which help users bypass Internet censorship, Snowflake disguises your Internet activity as though youβre making a video or voice call, making you less detectable to Internet censors.
We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. Theyβre also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit βtheir social media from the last 5 yearsβ
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include βhigh value data fieldsβ, βwhen feasibleβ βtelephone numbers used in the last five yearsβ -βemail addresses used in the last ten yearsβ -βfamily number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five yearsβ -biometrics β face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris -business telephone numbers used in the last five years -business email addresses used in the last ten years.
I feel for anyone in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries, which make up ~ 10M jobs and ~ 3 percent of the nation's GDP. From the U.S. International Trade Administration (trade.gov)
"Inbound international travel to the United States plays a vital role in the Nationβs economy and promotes cultural exchange and understanding. Travel and tourism is the largest single services export for the United States, accounting for 22 percent of the countryβs services exports and 7 percent of all exports in 2023. The travel and tourism industry contributed $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2022 (2.97 percent of the countryβs GDP), supporting 9.5 million jobs."
Prior to February 2016 I typically visited the USA 3 times a year for up to six weeks.
Since February 2016 I have visited the USA twice in a decade, for a total of 10 days.
Entering the USA as a foreigner, with a Republican POTUS in the White House, *never* felt safe, but under Trump it looks diabolically dangerous. (And to a glance I resemble "one of them": I'm not female or dark-skinned.)
@cstross Honestly even returning from international travel as a US citizen doesnβt feel safe if you donβt check the right boxes in your personal profile. If I absolutely had to enter the US right now Iβd pre-clear in somewhere like Dublin, but the whole thing feels like a crapshoot.
@cstross Living here is not a walk in the park at this point...
I'd never ask anybody to travel here now. I'm glad I'm no longer in the events-organizing part of tech -- I couldn't host anything anywhere in the U.S. if it required people to come from outside.
Not our largest problem right now, but it's a fairly nasty symptom.
The US have been fingerprinting for over twenty years. Each time I complained about it, Canadians and Americans looked at me like "what are you talking about". And no reciprocity either because Europe is a bunch of cowards.
and coupled with immigration law having provisions that classify any kind of omission on an immigration, visa, or entry form as potential immigration fraud and grounds to disqualify the individual from ANY future status = anybody that forgets one email address or social media account theyβve had years ago is suddenly easily turned into an βillegal immigrantβ and passed into the jurisdiction of ICE for deportation and potentially a permanent life ban from the US.
@mariyadelano being deported by ICE is the least worst option. Its the in country shootings, death camps or illegal rendition to el salvador that would not be ideal because you forgot to include your microsoft online account that was force made when you attempted to log into your laptop with a local account.
@AAKL If the German football federation decides to either boycott the WC entirely or boycott matches in the US the rest of Europe will do the same. Mexico and Canada can handle the extra matches and tourists. FIFA can adjust quickly to cut the US out. The US matches will have low ranked teams playing in near empty stadiums.
@BLTpizza That's right. The doofus who made this deal doesn't care about the implications: they are not his cross to bear. But what is the criteria that will be used? Who will be banned from entry? Who will be punished? Based on what? Gender? Immigration? Opinion? Are visitors seriously considering handing over their DNA and entire family, email, and social media history for a decade to the people who just murdered another civilian in cold blood?
@AAKL @BLTpizza If the US doesn't want us to visit anymore, we won't visit. TV is nice for watching football. If the US doesn't want to buy from us, we won't buy from them. Sorry, not sorry, Amazon. It's that simple.
So given you have to go through US immigration/customs even if just transiting through the US, this is also going to impact US Airlines, as who wants to turn over all that data even if just spending a few hours air side on the way to some where else?
It's almost as if all that hero-worshipping of North Korea in Trump's first term of office led him to decide to close the US border and only allow the US citizens he's deporting out and Nigel Farage in.
Whose going to remember all of that anyways? Seems like an excellent way to pick out people they want to harass and claim its because they lied. Presumably they already have this data thanks to big tech
@Lazarou @troy Makes sense, facts don't matter to these people. It's not about finding out facts about anything but to show everyone who is the hammer and who the nail ..
1. Other countries may, and I think probably, will impose similar requirements on US people trying to enter those counties. In other words, the US would approach becoming a closed kingdom, like N. Korea.
2. Just wait until someone remembers Little Bobby Tables (image below).
The US have been fingerprinting for over twenty years. Each time I complained about it, Canadians and Americans looked at me like "what are you talking about". And no reciprocity either because Europe is a bunch of cowards.
If I was going to submit feedback it would be to enthusiastically recommend that they go ahead. The more people that are deterred from visiting the US, the better. Itβll be hard on a lot of industries and individuals, but itβll hasten the collapse of the regime.
IMO the only sensible way to enter the US is, and has been for some months, either via parachute or landing boat. Think "Operation Overlord." @craignicol
no-one has ever gathered my PII for the purposes of giving it to an enemy government, so I'm just going to assume that anyone complying with this will be contravening the GDPR π
π« Microsoft CEO warns that we must 'do something useful' with AI or they'll lose 'social permission' to burn electricity on it
ο½’ "People need to say, 'Oh, I pick up this AI skill, and now I'm a better provider of some product or service in the real economy," said Nadella. ο½£
I posted about this yesterday, but my GMail had a popup about integrating their AI stuff so that it could "organize my promotions folder" by relevance.
Of all the things in this world it could offer me, they went with the least useful configuration possible.
People who know that "AI" doesn't refer to a specific technology should get together with people who know that "vegetable" and "crab" and "tree" don't mean anything specific in biology and have a party.
Not about that, but I'm sure they could find a theme.
Welcome to semantics club. The first rule of semantics club is: βsemantics clubβ specifically refers to a gathering of members of semantics club for the purposes of talking about semantics.
The second rule of semantics club is you have to find an issue with the definition of βsemantics club.β
arguing over the definition of "AI" is a lot like arguing over the definition of "capitalism"... the AI broz love to point out the legitimate uses for AI in science, and medicine for example - while the anti-AI movement is basically always referring to generative AI and how terrible it is... sort of taking past each other and that's often by design
I find myself always indulging a crtain fantasy in which I burn the Fun Half bumper (ideally all 3) including sound onto 16mm film and time travel back to the 1970s and sneak the film reel into the AV room of my childhood elementary school, perhaps borrowing the label from one of the educational films. In some versions of the daydream I edit out that one F-bomb.
Kind of thing that sometimes makes me wonder how far have the various amount of patches I've sent have went.
And reminds me that I've even sent two reports to guix, without even having used it (was binary blobs I detected on gentoo and that guix didn't remove/workaround either).
The media more and more being pure spokespeople for government... it sure is the official stance, but it's so thinly veiled you'd expect the media to not go with it
well, with the 1951 Agreement, there are already American military bases there and they can already deploy military as they wish. If US gone rogue no deployment of EU troops can prevent that.
Our chancellor has no strategy beyond his next lunch. Believe me, it is that bad.
All that was on his mind was to wipe out the shame of being sidelined by Angela Merkel an become chancellor. He has never spent a single CPU cycle on what to do once he got there.
It is obvious that cooperation with Trump just moves the goalpost for the next demand.
it would not surprise me that pressure from exactly German automakers has caused the withdrawal of German soldiers from the Greenland mission. Not at all βplanned to last only two daysβ, but caving in to Tβs pressure propagandaβ¦
yes, it's weird how many adults do not understand this. who think, okay well all he wants is my lunch money, this one last time, okay.
as someone in the US, I BEG people: please stand up to him. cut off the US if need be. Edit, to add: And it need be! sever ties, cut off trade and tourism, consider us a pariah state because we are. It pains me to say this actually, but it's true.
yes, it is very predictable that some folks would cling to the idea they can negotiate with bullies.
But it's sad to me. This isn't a moral judgement; it's just ineffective. Accommodating or pleading with bullies will leave you roughshod. It's just true. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
Well, last time I've heard the industry was pushing into a fast settlement... this morning I've heard in Deutschlandfunk that the companies are willing to take losses because they also don't believe in appeasement any more.
And also the previous settlement was not good for the German economy: Although then there were no tariffs, American companies hesitated to buy German machines because they were unsure if there would be tariffs when their order arrives.
100% agreed! Unfortunately they have the weakest chancellor since 1949, and he is a Felon 47 fan boy on top. This fan clan behavior is dangerous and influencing Europe in a very dangerous direction. I really trust in France and Poland to be the voices of reason and they have the intelligence and backbone to be - I hope, really hope they guide the other countries, pull them together, especially GER as they are the head of the economic power and thus very powerful.
He has the nickname TACO because he always chickens out. If he is confronted with serious consequences he will cave. That is how he must be treated every time. Anything less and you look weak to him and he will think he can get anything he wants from you.
Nothing but food, gas & underwear until Dec 31, 2026. Save the money you would have spent, a significant chunk in cash.
The only spending exception: if you *have* to buy something essential or celebrate an event, it must be at locally owned business.
If everyone participates: - those in power will understand the people's will - everyone can afford a prolonged general strike, if necessary, starting Jan 1, 2027
I just noticed how, despite the 94% negative rating, thereβs still this breathless βCurious what a YES AI internet looks like?β at the bottom. They obviously would prefer a different outcome.
Can I get a taste of the no AI internet? Thatβs what I am more curious about. #DuckDuckGo #FuckFuckNo
This one, itβs perfect. Engineer wanted. Zalman-Weiskopf drive just like your last two ships, a six week loop from here to Zeta Reticuli then on to Rho Persei and back home. Thatβs a fabulous opportunity; youβd have access to leave on all the planets in the Zeta Herculis group. The beaches of Phi Lupi are unforgettable!
Lemme see. Starship Roberta Flack, ten year old cargo lugger, complement of twenty, ship language is Spanish. Yeah this looksβwait, no. What else you got?
Whatβs wrong with that one?
Theyβre a dog crew. Once you ship out with a guinea pig gang youβre ruined for other pet preferences.
@becomingwisest cat people would have you believe thereβs no other kind of crew, but thatβs largely because cats have a bad habit of accidentally spacing dog lovers
Google announced personal intelligence for Gemini which connects to Gmail, Photos, YouTube and Search history to personalize answers to your questions.
The example query is βwhat size tires are on my car?β which it can figure out from pictures or documents about your car.
This is a new frontier in creating platform stickiness and vendor lock-in if it actually works as well as they claim.
sounds potentially useful - and horrifying! Because even if they do all the right things, all it takes is a stalker/agent of the state unlocking any of your devices and they can suddenly get any piece of information about you (or they hold a gun to your head and make you do it).
Positive Christianity said (among other things) that Aryans were the new chosen people of God, and that therefore, white people could do all the stuff Jews did in the Old Testament, including genocide.
It was a doctrine rather than a denomination. I assume this was so that both Protestants and Catholics could follow it.
When you find evidence of Nazis bad-mouthing Christianity, they are generally criticizing the majority of Christians who did not followβ¦
β¦Positive Christianity, which the Nazis considered to be the only true form of Christianity.
There is a whole industry of conservative Christians who twist various details like this and try to claim that atheism caused people to become Nazis, and if only the Germans were Christian instead of atheist, WW2 and the Holocaust would never have happened.
I hope people understand how vacuous these arguments are. You can read Hitler's speeches and books and see that he used Christianity toβ¦
I hope people will keep all of this in mind. I do not know how the current fascist regime in the USA will end, but if the past is anything to go on, it will be ugly, and we can expect conservative Christians to immediately pin blame on someone else.
Please do not let them.
Please keep reminding people of Christian Nationalism and the role it played in turning America into what it is now.
Conservative Christians wanted to lie about the roleβ¦
β¦Christianity played in Nazi Germany, just as they lie about the role of Christianity in American slavery or in the American Jim Crow era.
I get that peopleβs religion is tied to their sense of self-worth, and that they therefore would want to lie about the bad stuff their religion did in the past, but in this particular case, the lies will leave future generations vulnerable to similar manipulation by profoundly evil people.
@lerxst That sounds a lot like the sentiments of a significant portion of Americans, who say βIβm into religion, man, just not ORGANIZED religion.β
They have always been a part of the faith landscape, and they are about to become an outright majority.
Despite this, most people donβt think about them, talk about them, or even know what they think or feel.
I'm not even into my own religion. Most days, I don't think much about it. When I do, I can't imagine having the hubris that I would have any inkling what the creator of the Universe would want, or even the temerity to anthropomorphize the concept of "want" to it.
@lerxst Yeah, that is how most βnone of the aboveβ theists are. They do not follow any specific religion (because organized religion is bad), but they tend to have vague spiritual beliefs that they consider unique to themselves.
It is weird that we finally have a name for them (even if it is a bad name). I remember talking to such people as a child in the 70s, and reading people expressing similar sentiments in the 1800s.
Addendum: When Positive Christianity came to America, it became a denomination. Each time it got exposed by the media as having a history with the Nazis, they changed their name and splintered into multiple factions.
At this point, you cannot identify them by name, only by what they teach.
If you are an American Christian, PLEASE teach your teenagers about the ideology of Positive Christianity and why those beliefs are bad. Otherwise, you leave them vulnerable. PC is still around.
ICE terrorizing tribes that don't play along with the government's detention center plans has echoes of a lot of fucked up history, but one thing that pops into my mind is Sutter's reign of terror around Northern California, burning down villages of tribes that won't go working in his fort.
We love to see it--community-created harm reduction infrastructure in the face of the alarming integration of AI agents into the Windows operating system (which is currently the most reckless deployment environment) β€
Agentic AI is the catch-all term for AI-enabled systems that propose to complete more or less complex tasks on their own, without stopping to ask permission ...
With agentic AI embedded at the OS level, databases storing entire digital lives accessible to malware, tasks whose reliability quickly breaks down at each step, and being opted-in without consent, Signal leadership is sounding the alarm for the induβ¦
"UK Vows to Make βNudificationβ Images Created by Grok Illegal"
UK leaders let Musk incite racial violence+overthrow of their country at racist rallies, & push them around about 'grooming gangs'
Doubt UK will even cut funding to his companies through gov contracts they give him and xAI, bc ultimately labor leadership in the UK believes in nothing beyond enforcing/strengthening existing hierarchy
And just like with Democrats in America their vapid politics paves the way for the ultra right
The overall vibes Iβm getting from media on the X-slash-Twitter thing at the minute are:
βI really like Twitter despite everything because I have a huge audience, but Iβm feeling pressured to leave because of the CSAM thing. If only Elon would come out and say the CSAM thing is fixed* then I wouldnβt have to leave or feel bad about it.β
(* Which, of course, Musk will)
This also applies to the national regulators. The idea that itβs crossed a line now, but it was fine before.
Transatlantiska relationen Γ€r dΓΆd. Cecilia MalmstrΓΆm har rΓ€tt: Vi mΓ₯ste sluta sΓΆrja och bΓΆrja bygga. πͺπΊπ¨
βAtt klamra sig fast vid ett USA-beroende NATO Γ€r livsfarligt.
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. AuΓerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
Vance: ICE agents have βabsolute immunityβ from state laws β including murder
JD Vance said β in response to a reporter asking why the FBI and Federal agencies were blocking Minnesotaβs investigation into the ICE agent murder of Renee Nicole Good β that ICE agents have βabsolute immunityβ from state laws. This is not law. This is fascism.
Hereβs video with context, wherein JD Vance says ICE agents have complete immunity from state law and that investigations should end, saying that it is βpreposterousβ that people should care that a Federal ICE agent cold-bloodly executing a US woman in public on a city street, saying he was only βdoing his jobβ and they just want to βruin his life.β
(His job, apparently, being to execute innocent Americans on the street.)
To put it in cruder but more emotionally-MAGA-accurate terms, the idea that any killing some random bitch could hurt a good manβs career is fucking intolerable, enraging β and βpreposterous.β Particularly when he was βjust doing his jobβ and she was asking for it.
See also the entire reaction to βme too.β
And I assure you, thatβs how a big chunk of MAGA men feel about all of it.
Councils are keen to approve planning for warehouses because it drives employment. But it's the shittiest min wage transient work. Nobody does it unless they've no choice. These places are more like prisons. They definitely aren't economic and social catalysts that councils want.
@todymotmot guys guys, why so dramatic. miller has said a thing. guess what putin or lukashekov or orban do that every other week or so. na we go nowhere without the american ppl who have not voted for him.
Also if you work for the government, military, or do work for the government or military follow all regulations, report everything to regulatory bodies, and do everything you can to strangle the system with its own red tape while covering your ass. They will have difficulty firing you for following the rules while doing actual sabotage will at minimum get you fired if not incarcerated.
you should also call your democrat politicians that they should do everything that the army will have the right to jail the president if they get illegal orders. Also they should get a constitution change passed which will abolish the electorate thingie and instate a coalition driven proportional election system. And finally, actually use the existing laws to get all the taxes out of the rich.
@assimilateborg oh im quite in the USA! tulsa OK. i voted for mayor nichols and kamala. your purity test bullshit is why trump is buttfucking us. people like you are why we are they way we are. thanks a lot, dickhead.
@organizedmeat @assimilateborg Dude didn't say that. He didnt say he wasnt going to vote. He said Dems are controlled opposition. He's right. Some of us held our noses and voted for Biden and then for Kamala, who let Trump and his allies escape justice. Voters didn't fail. The candidates we elected did. You are punching down and should reconsider your strategy.
turnout is usually low. anyone who says they are left and doesn't show up in the primaries is a fucking piece of shit. *they* are the reason the democrats suck
it's all about voting
it's not "punching down" to say that, asswipe
that's a left hook coming from right in front of you, 100% deserved, if you don't fucking vote
in the primaries
if you don't vote:
never speak of politics again and just admit you like trump
@organizedmeat Actually, you have that upside down. Ben spends a great deal of time and energy railing against purity politics. Seems like you two are actually pretty much on the same side.
Everyone is pretty stressed out these days, so misunderstandings are easy to come by.
@organizedmeat @assimilateborg The correct term is "Democratic leaders" and "Democratic politicians" and "Democratic party" -- you only use "Democrat" as a noun.
The use of "Democrat" in the other way is a slur used by Republicans to try and "pwn the libs".
@organizedmeat @assimilateborg I've voted in every election since 1984, when I turned 18. Only once, in 2000, did I vote third party. Then Bush II became president and I said, "Lesson learned."
God, please, no more purity tests. No more not voting because itβs principled. It isnβt, itβs cowardly at best. Weβre in the mess weβre in now because too many people decided that their feelings mattered more than their country. No more both sides are the same. No more #GenocideJoe stances that in the end almost certainly will make things worse in the long run for those folks the cosplayers supposedly care so much about. The only way I will interact with those individuals is by blocking.
Hmmm... didn't read him that way. He did complain about the current crop of Dems, but missed him saying he wasn't going to vote. In fact, he said he did vote Dem in 2024.
Edit: But to Kevin's point... π― Let's nip that shit in the bud this time.
@Thumper1964 When I vote, it's like making a chess move. I don't vote based on whether or not a candidate is 100% pure on my favorite issue. And I damned sure don't consider whether or not I'd like to fuck them.
We need to get over the idea that voting is a way for us to express our personal ideals. Voting is one move in a chess game that never endsβone each voter plays with a hundred million other voters. You can't win on the first move, and if you're in a bad board position it may take a long time to get out of it. (Narrator voice: we're in a bad board position, in many ways.)
If you don't play, though, or don't make alliances with other players, you're likely to lose. Losing now will be very bad.
It is also really instructive to read through the thread and see how the matter was framed back then. If we are to counter such information warfare we need to get much smarter about crushing these devious gambits.
very well said--all of it. 1) Boycott the World Cup; 2) Boycott the Olympics; 3) VOTE and encourage your US friends to vote. I had a Republican friend who knew she should not vote against Hillary and would have to hold her nose and do it. She did not and look where it got her. She died a couple of years ago.
having said that, americans are unbelievably lazy and entitled
just look at how hard it was for many of these assholes to show up for harris over trump. the democrats fucking suck, but it takes approximately half a neuron and an old piece of gum to summon the cognitive capacity needed to understand it was important to vote in 2024. and then look at what happened
so as hard as it is to get americans to vote, a general strike is also difficult
@portlandy Why? People can go to the matches that are held in Mexico and Canada and just watch the US ones on TV. If anything, more of the matches should be moved out of the US, to Canada or Mexico. But FIFA won't do the because they are sucking up to Trump.
As an American, you're right with everything - except the "stupid fucking country" part. America is beautiful, it just so happens that it's being destroyed by Trump and MAGA currently.
@KrajciTom @MikeImBack What's POSSIBLE is destruction of credit, refusal to individually participate in WMD production schemes, credit card fraud, theft, drug manufacturing and production, and other actually useful attacks on the capitalist system that don't require impossible buy-in from large groups of people. These are the actions I have actually taken so don't tell me they're impossible.
But keep waiting for everyone else to tell you what to do, that will definitely fix it.
As Voltaire wrote in the final line of his satirical novella Candide:
"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden."
What is Tom's 'garden' and how does he tend it?
I live in southern New Mexico - Otero county. Our county seat is the megalopolis of Alamogordo.
In 2023 I helped an Alamogordo city commissioner candidate...Democratic party...win...in a ruby red district...by 11 votes! (GOP was dumb. They had two candidates that split their vote. We saw an opportunity and capitalized on it.) See first graphic.
In 2025 I help a mayoral candidate for Alamogordo...Democratic party...win...in a ruby red district...by a narrow margin. (GOP, again!, split their vote.) Our campaign support team coalition had folks from all across the political spectrum, excepting MAGA. The results were historic: 2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.neβ¦
I spoke with our new mayor for over an hour. One topic was economic development. I'm The Data Guy and said we had never mapped economic data onto streets/lots. If we can visualize data in a new way, we're gonna learn new things that just might help the city. See 2nd graphic. I borrowed that from: urbanthree.com/
Is your city mapping economic data that way? If not, why not? Help your city hall get smarter.
@dnkboston and recognizing the place we're in, and the feelings we're having about it is important. Because it ought to make us strive for more, not give up hope. I'm a pessimist, yet I'm still a hopeless romantic.
And if we strive for more, the non-voters may actually be inspired to come out, and the extremists might find space to come in from the cold. We won't need to tell them to vote or strike, they will be asking what their part is.
@dnkboston @KrajciTom @MikeImBack Here's a stat for you: holiday shipments at Amazon went up 8% this year. Despite tariffs, despite protests, despite the death of democracy to which Amazon directly contributed. 8%. Tell me again how the US public is going to unite in a significant way to stop consuming and working for some period of time.
Sorry. I'm a pessimist. I will be there on the front lines. I just think we need more vision and leadership than this.
@dnkboston right. Which is what I don't think will happen. I mean, 35% of people are FOR him. Of the rest, a bunch think they're essential (and maybe are) a bunch more will say they care but will still go to work, and a bunch flat out don't care/think it won't work. Which will leave the same 2% of us who came out for No Kings on strike, holding signs, and accomplishing the exact same thing as the first No Kings protest: nothing. (And yes, I was there.)
@Wyatt_H_Knott I'm not missing that, I promise you. I don't want to reach out to people who voted for a fascist unless they admit they were wrong.
Yes, we have to give people something to pin a dream on, and I want to rebuild, but not being killed by this regime is a prerequisite for all of that.
I favor a strike for a couple of reasons, but among them is that we only get to vote so many times in one cycle. We need to be heard many times aside from that.
@dnkboston @KrajciTom @MikeImBack The point everyone is missing is that people voted for him. Great, get more turnout. GUARANTEED some of that turnout would be for THEM.
Just asking people to vote is NOT ENOUGH.
You have to give them something to vote FOR. To LIVE FOR. To BELIEVE IN. To strive and sacrifice for because they believe it is more important than their individual safety and well being.
Voting against is NOT ENOUGH. Strikes won't do it.
I'm not trying to equivocate, but literally, why can't it be both? Not enough people showed up--37% stayed home? In 2024? Some of it was an inability to vote and be counted, a la so much of GA, but some of it was also BS purity posturing.
People were always going to vote for this monster--they always do--which made it so disastrous that so many stayed home.
I despise Trump voters, but they could have been overwhelmed if others had shown up.
It's up to a bunch of us down here to move the football down the field and score some goals...over the course of years. (Every meeting I attend, I learn of new organizations, sources of funding, meet new people. I get more ideas on whom to talk to about various projects. I continue to recruit more folks to these projects. Yeah, I'm retired and I want to serve the community.)
Will this topple the Trump regime and banish all MAGA to the inner circle of Hell? End the evils of capitalism? Create a moneyless society? End the poverty and homelessness problems?
No to all the above.
I will add my voice to the Fediverse about a national general strike, etc....but I always have to keep tending my local garden.
I'd love to hear about how all y'all are tending your local gardens. (Note: the plural form of "y'all" is "all y'all".)
The romantics are always the pessimists They see how much the potential diverges from the reality.
As it has been explained to me, Ukraine has been living next to a monster for centuries, and they know that the only way they can survive is by fighting. We've fooled ourselves into believing that we can have "peace" with our oppressors. We're delusional.
All the sensible analyses I've seen show that several million folks who voted for Biden in 2020, didn't vote for Harris in 2024. They mostly didn't vote at all.
Please don't shout at me; I'm usually amenable to persuasion! But it looks to me as though Ben has a point: too many democrats simply weren't alive enough to the dangers of a second Trump term, and their complacency handed it to the Republicans. π€·π»ββοΈ
@Wyatt_H_Knott @KrajciTom @MikeImBack Well, barely a week of 2025 went by without me attending some protest, demo, march, organising meet or other event. I've been active in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, London and many other towns and cities. I'm a regional delegate for a nationwide anti-racist org, and participant in multiple other civil society groups and causes. We saw what's happening in the USA and said "nope".
TOGETHER, an alliance of campaigners, unions and civil society groups, is being launched to counter the rise of Reform and street protests led by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson
@ApostateEnglishman @KrajciTom @MikeImBack I hear you. I'm just feeling like most people's stuff is performative at best, and counterproductive at worst.
I like arguments among the choir even less than preaching to the choir.
My anarchy made me rearrange my life. I don't just say "consume less" or whatever, I actually make less money so I CAN'T consume whether I want to or not. I've done real jail time for my philosophical convictions.
@Wyatt_H_Knott @KrajciTom @MikeImBack I've argued consistently that voting *isn't* enough to defeat this menace, and we'll also need every kind of resistance, sabotage, subversion, community outreach and organising, civil disobedience and direct action imaginable to become ungovernable enough to destabilise the regime. We'll need networks of mutual aid and support, protests, strikes, walk-outs and boycotts. I'm very much not a "vote harder" guy and my real-world activism reflects that.
@ApostateEnglishman @KrajciTom @MikeImBack and this is why I get mad every time I see people arguing that if we had just got out and voted harder, we could have won, or we will win, or what the fuck ever. It's delusional. We have absolutely zero plans to reducate the youth, zero plans to lead a movement, zero realistic policy goals on the environment (no, "build more solar" isn't a plan)
there is absolutely no understanding that power politics is built on a base and we dont have one
@ApostateEnglishman @KrajciTom @MikeImBack Utter nonsense. Democrats knew full well what was possible oin the 2nd term. Everyone was telling them, they'd seen the 1st term, they knew abput project 2025, they saw the Supreme Court.
Nope. The Chump got elected fair and square by a Republic that WANTED HIM.
@obscurestar @Wyatt_H_Knott @KrajciTom @MikeImBack In my experience, those who argue that there's no point in voting because the system is rigged against us, also aren't doing anything else to change the system. Because someone too lazy and entitled to walk down the street and put a mark in a box, is *also* going to be too lazy and entitled to put themselves in harm's way for a cause. Their cynicism is always a pose. π€·π»ββοΈ
They see how much the potential diverges from the reality.
Emma needs βοΈ and paying work
in reply to Emma needs βοΈ and paying work • • •