Did I just argue with a joke? Part of a Bluesky educational series

Screenshot from Mastodon, white text on black background: Erik Uden @ErikUden@mastodon.de Once libraries are nonexistent any modern fascist movement wouldn't even have to burn books, but flick one switch and they'd be remotely deleted from your Amazon Kindle or similar digital "library". Capitalists are already building the infrastructure to do this through DRM, so stop believing tech is apolitical - the defunding of libraries and paywalling of information are all part of this.

A reminder during #NationalLibraryWeek, libraries are our best and last defense against the fascist monopoly on knowledge and information

The cyberattack on The British Library in October 2023 knocked out ebooks and almost ever other computer thing there for years.

Ebooks just came back. They were knocked out everywhere using the BL’s license (legal deposit libraries I think? More libraries?)

Distributed physical copies matter.

Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet.
This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.

bad news for my new weed delivery startup, Bombadil

Amazon, which saved $4B in taxes under Trump's Big Ugly Bill, has cut 30,000 jobs since last October.

Verizon, which saved $2B, plans to cut 15,000 jobs this year.

Meta, which saved $3B, plans to lay off 20% or more of its workforce.

Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

When they say "mog" they are using cringe-inducing "Looksmaxxing" terminology to indicate that one person is more attractive than another.

When I use "Mog" I am talking about Meg’s loyal feline companion.

We are not the same. 🤷‍♂️

It’s inaccurate to say Mario is brave and Luigi is cowardly

Luigi is afraid of death, so he runs away from danger. Mario is afraid of living, so he runs towards death. Both brothers are cowards in their own way

How Big Tech Lobbied the EU to Hide Data Centers' Environmental Toll The European Commission has adopted industry-drafted language shielding data center emissions data from public view, report Nico Schmidt and Ella Joyner.

Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their data centers, Investigate Europe reports in collaboration with Tech Policy Press and other media partners.

It’s fucking bizarre how people are acting like something from 2022 is something they can’t live without.

Like dudes, the emotional dependence on a sycophantic machine regurgitating nonsense to encourage you to stop engaging in critical thought and trust the slop is truly depressing to witness.

Anthropic Code Crisis Creates Copyright Contradiction For publishers, authors, and other creators, the schadenfreude might feel well-earned, writes James Ball. But is it justified?

Anthropic is using copyright claims to try to stop its leaked code being used to train rival AI models.

Critics are noticing something of an irony, given Anthropic use of pirated materials to train its models.

I've dug into the whole thing for @techpolicypress.bsky.social

Escalate the Target boycott.

I know this type. I've seen them often enough. They revel in being obnoxious: but not towards the rich and powerful, to whom they fawn. Always towards the weaker and the poorer: towards people who don't have their privileges, such as access to private medical care. They think it's funny and daring.

James Bembridge on X: Hate is too weak a word for what I feel towards the NHS. I'd tear it down and salt the earth upon which it stood.

Lovely people, these Reform UK candidates for the upcoming election, and great to know they're on our side.

This is so fucking grim. I've got a stack of their VizDev art books in my room. These movies are built on that art, which is built on the art of comics.

The people who make these decisions have rot in their soul and it comes from never having planted, tended, and reaped the seeds of creative labor.

we all got jumanjied into monopoly

Get his ass, Your Holiness

In general, (re)orienting education wholly or chiefly to specific perceived market needs is always going to produce disaster once the near term passes. It also eviscerates institutions that might otherwise help people weather change, intellectually and in other ways

The point of the university as a concept is that it's been here for a thousand years and meant to be here another thousand. Turning education over to producing what the market needed five years ago is never going to work well.

This man should never have to buy a pint for the rest of his life tbh

‘Everything is gone’: Israel destroys entire villages in Lebanon Rights groups fear tactic of ‘domicide’ trialled in Gaza, where entire areas are made uninhabitable, is being used again

‘Everything is gone’: Israel destroys entire villages in Lebanon

This is why there is no giving a single inch on “AI.” I do not give a fuck if “it actually is helpful for some things.”

I've suspected this for since the layoffs picked up...

passing my dog in the hallway with a curt nod of acknowledgement

You absolute c*nts @hignfy.bsky.social

It just doesn’t make sense to me how a decorated soldier could also be a psychopathic murderer

SESAME STREET EXEC 1: kids love bright colours, so how about a bunch of humanoid puppets in red, green, blue, orange, yellow

SESAME STREET EXEC 2: ooh what if the yellow one had a head like a banana?

SESAME STREET EXEC 1: I love it, yes. banana head

DIVERSITY HIRE GOTH: there should be a vampire

I think the opposition party widely expected to make historic gains in the next election(s) has an obligation to explain how they'll stop this and prevent it from happening again or it's reasonable to conclude they don't plan on doing those things, which raises more uncomfortable questions