I could really use help this month! I just paid rent and now I'm completely broke. if you can share or donate I'd really appreciate it! 🖤
cash app: $desbandit161
ko-fi.com/uncivilizeddes
I think what you said about treating social media as hostile enemy territory is the most useful framing, given even in deeply hostile territories we can still find comrades/learn from one another.
I appreciate you sharing that, definitely have similar feelings (which is why I still exist in social media space if at a bit more of a distance than the constant crisis that is twitter). A lot of my critique/analysis has been strengthened by engaging with and reading the thoughts of others online.
Something something these sites are designed to inhibit generative conversation in lieu of farming conflict for viral content and data mining all parties involved to sell you a better psychological cage something something
Feel like discussion on social media sites would be more useful/less openly hostile if every post had a minimum word requirement (say that of a short essay) as opposed to a character limit, if only for the fact that by the time you write all those words you realize its better to not post at all.
By moralism I mean analysing the world through moral categories (good/bad, righteous/evil, etc) rather than relational analysis (how systems and people within those systems determine the ways we relate to the world around us).
One relinquishes agency of desire in exchange for clarity of identity.
In these cases analysis is worn as identity signifier rather than utilized as a tool of attack. The egoist example is rather niche, a far more ubiquitous manifestation is the influx of moralism that seems to have overwhelmed many radical spaces within the last few years.
A lot of anarchists make use of a fabricated authority, where a particular theorist or historical figure or still existent person/movement becomes a means by which you signify ones own beliefs/desires. The average online egoist feels a good example here.
It's terrifying to stick ones neck out and genuinely articulate for oneself, by oneself, without the backing of some higher entity justifying that articulation. And so rather than risking ones neck, we often seek representation through some external authority (even if that authority is fabricated).
There is this hole that one approaches as they struggle to really analyze the world around them for it is, and as they begin to question what it is they might actually desire and contend with contradictions between the two.
I've been struggling to articulate this thought in a worthwhile way but I feel much of this framework (that you see from Calla, workshops4gaza, etc) is effectively politics as proof of moral virtue/act of moral absolution. They are righteous and all that differs from righteousness is blasphemy.
Can find a readable and printable PDF here:
pugetsoundanarchists.org/dont-let-the...
Cover of Fairy Dust and Toxic Waste
"Fairy Dust and Toxic Waste" now on the library for easier access/reading:
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/igna...
You can just say you like LLMs and the are okay with their consequences without flailing in the dark that no political rejection of that technology can be coherent.
Wild that the engineer would think attacks on data centers are "incoherent" despite those data centers actively harming anyone living near them (see consequences of constant noise pollution, breathing diesel exhaust, having your energy bill shoot up, water getting rerouted etc).
Shout out to the angry husband who didn't like my tone today and then proceeded to try to take a bunch of photos of his wife posing in front of the table. May your shower floor be incredibly slick.
I've tabled long enough and often enough to know when I'm having an antagonistic conversation with someone who genuinely likes the way the world is. I typically tell those people they're boring and I'm not interested in talking, which rarely goes over smoothly, but is quite enjoyable.
This fawning over a militaristic pursuit (yes, "scientific" pursuits are often militaristic), carried out by military personnel is why "Don't Let them Leave" remains an ever necessary slogan.
an overlooked aspect of this is that Le Guin's parents were professional anthropologists who worked closely with Franz Boer, undoubtedly agents of the last stages of colonialism in the 20th century in North America
Obviously the much bigger issue is the pervasive lack of critical analysis of how existent social relations are (re)produced through such colonization, but having two critically acclaimed beacons of speculative fiction behind which to hide that lack of critical thought can't help.
As much as I appreciate Parable of the Sower and The Dispossessed, can't help but feel that they're, in part, responsible for the radical defensiveness of space colonisation as a noble (or even necessary) pursuit.
Even if Sam Altman were the sweetest, most thoughtful person to all who he interacts with, he would still be heading an ecocidal technology fueling immeasurable violence in a thousand directions. I'm sure the dead school children in Iran are pleased to know Anthropic's CEO is more introspective.
Every other sociopathic tech CEO stoked about the Sam Altman piece so people once again have a singular antagonist on whom to pin the horrors of LLMs, giving all others cover to continue doing whatever fuckshit they desire.
That was the furthest that a human who invaded and occupied Iraq has ever been from Earth.
Glad it felt worthwhile!
Just the zine file would be good!
Cover of the zine "Fairy Dust and Toxic Waste" Depicts a data massive data center photographed from the air
"Fairy Dust and Toxic Waste"
New zine that came about from the desire to have a critique of "AI" to table that goes beyond the surface level environmental impact. Take a look and let me know what you think. Please share anywhere/with anyone who might find it useful:
cryptpad.fr/file/#/2/fil...
The more the Earth is made unlivable the more people will engage in space fantasies to avoid dealing with it.
Shout out to Don't Let Them Leave and The Committee to Abolish Outer Space