onoira

this was fever-inducing to read. in a frighteningly familiar way, but i couldn't remember what for.

then i realised: another n+1 article from a year ago about a techbro conference: An Age of Hyperabundance.

postcovid would also align with that timeline. i know several people chronically impaired by it.

i was very lucky that my introduction to software engineering came from a mentor who cared intensely about their work. but i dropped out of the IT industry after i never met someone like that again.

i never even went to secondary, but across several jobs i was having to teach my colleagues (compsci degrees) basic computer literacy skills. the moment they had to leave their IDE, they were lost. they had not even a basic understanding of version control systems. zero curiosity. they frequently broke their git repos and couldn't fix it. they didn't give a single fuck about the theory of what they were doing for 72 hours a week; what they were voluntarily choosing to do for 72 hours a week on 30 hour contracts. they hardly even cared about the practise.

LLMs completely ruined these people. they started using it for everything: responding to Slack messages, writing emails, writing code, doing code review… and when it was found out at my last company that i was the only one stubbornly refusing to use LLMs for anything, i was put on a fucking PIP and told it was company policy to use 'labour saving technology.' despite the fact that my code had the fewest defects, ignoring how frequently i was misled into doing something i wasn't even supposed to do because the fucking task requirements were ALSO WRITTEN WITH AN LLM [THAT MADE SHIT UP]. but it was my fault for 'not checking first' (??????).

i will never touch a computer for money ever fucking again.

aside: reading this while listening to clipping. was an experience

i'm not a fan of the privacy report…

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.bashsoftware.boycott/latest/

i mean there's basic input validation yeah, but the number of unique valid signatures isn't known for all countries till after the collection period.

i didn't have a strong opinion on the matter. just sharing my thoughts re: promoter463's suggestion.

do we take the ideological route of dismissing him for reformist that he is

no, probably not. i think he's already doing good work; he's becoming walking agitprop. he ruptured the liberal obsession with (manufactured) polling data. he's now even an official enemy of the state, so he's got that going for him.

i don't know what it means exactly to 'endorse' him (letalone in the context of this comm). share memes and articles about him? raise awareness? sure, why not? let's watch what he does.

signatures aren't immediately validated; the identification you provide is just ticking boxes. verification happens after the signing period, when the signatures are sent to their respective states to confirm and tally.

i have two minimums: the socialist minimum (the broad front; groups i'd act together with), and the libertarian socialist minimum (groups i'd organise with).

the socialist minimum is:

1. social ownership
2. internationalism
3. critical theory

if you aren't for the negation of capitalism, private property, nationalism, imperialism and false consciousness: you're not a socialist; you're not a comrade.

the libertarian socialist minimum is:

1. horizontalism
2. self-determination
3. prefiguration

if you aren't for direct action and free association, or your means don't match your ends: you're not an anarchist; you're not a friend.

i identify with social anarchism because it describes my approach to life, but i'll broadly advocate for anything matching my libertarian minimum, and more broadly lend (critical) support for anything matching my socialist minimum.

within this frame, i feel that Zohran is a socialist (public utilities, social housing, city-owned grocers, BDS; a focus on improving the material conditions), but the focus on state-mediation (ex. rent control) over dual-power (tenant unions) makes me feel — aside from tugging the Overton window — that he's more focused on relieving people than empowering them.

Also the sight of a so-called "socialist" or "radical" government managing capitalism, imposing cuts, breaking strikes and generally attacking its supporters will damage the credibility of any form of socialism and discredit all socialist and radical ideas in the eyes of the population. If the experience of the Labour Government in Britain during the 1970s and New Labour after 1997 are anything to go by, it may result in the rise of the far-right who will capitalise on this disillusionment.

• see also: the Italian general election of 1921, and the weak liberalism it brought, which led to the Fascist March in 1922, which led to Mussolini.
• see also: most governments in Europe right now.

from my experience dealing with nosy wouldbe-employers and being on an immigrant watchlist:

they don't believe for a second you don't use social media; and if you don't, then you did at some point, and they'll find it; and if they don't find it, then that's suspicious, because obviously everyone uses social media, so you must be a criminal, using some dark web social media. and then you get credit checked forty times, only for them to find you have no debt and thus no credit score, and then they just assume you're not a real person and call the cops.

The research team does not believe the satellite suddenly came back to life for a moment. They suggest it is far more likely that an electrostatic charge built up on the craft and reached a certain point and then discharged. Such discharges have been seen before, the team notes. Another possibility is that the craft was struck by a micrometeoroid, releasing a very small cloud of plasma.

my mother giving me an allowance and then calling take-backsies every month because she needed it to cover the bills.