it sounds weird but I'm kind of optimistic. Google has a very good reputation IMO in these AI research circles as a good place to work. Hopefully that illusion is gone now and tech workers are closer (maybe by a very small amount?) to building organized power.
another way of thinking about it: if Google wasn't scared they wouldn't have fired her. They're doing it out of weakness.
Agreed! But IMO we're having conversations about ethics, it's just those conversations aren't translating into what these companies are doing (bc that's not profitable). Or maybe that's just 'we' as certain AI researchers, idk.
TIL about Ana Montes, who joined the US Defense Intelligence Agency and soon became its most senior Cuban analyst, all the while sharing information with Cuba.
Susan Collins, welcome to the #resistance!
My silver lining is that we can say that we were right all along: Biden was a deeply unpopular candidate, who ran on no substance whatsover. Left-wing policy proposals like $15 minimum wage in FL outperformed him significantly.
probably this won't mean anything materially, but it's a thought anyways....
same! even though like it shouldn't matter 😱 (both parties are the parties of capital, base and superstructure, etc)
I 1) don't believe the result matters much in the long run and 2) believe biden's probably going to win anyways. Still I feel super nervous, possibly because most people I know are nervous liberals (and I identified as liberal for most of my life so still have subconscious lib tendencies if that makes sense)
anyone else feel the same?
This would’ve been a very interesting story if he could have connected a quid pro quo to an action Biden made that benefited Barisma as it related to his sons involvement there, but the entire story requires the reader to be connecting a lot of dots themselves rather than within the classic intercept (or even Greenwald style) that has incredibly meaningful citations that force the reader to be like well shit.
I agree, I also feel conflicted because it's a complicated story that... well, as Greenwald admitted, needs some editing. That said, I feel like the editors' response was also blown out of proportion and was incredibly hostile. I wonder if they were feuding before and this was the last straw...
I agree, I also wonder if people like Hitchens and Greenwald are outliers (in the sense that for Greenwald at least, he more or less seems to march to the beat of his own drum). Though I suppose that Greenwald has consistently held weird politics while Hitchens showed that left-to-fash progression over time.
I kinda agree with WoW as a right-wing game. It's kind of a metaphor for capitalism maybe. You're pushed to grind (quests, dungeons, etc.) to keep up with the joneses, and they keep moving the goalposts / increasing the level cap / etc. to push you to keep grinding more.
Do you know anyone else in your apartment/building? It might be a good idea to talk to others in your community (perhaps they also might know the mother / daughter / landlord)
Hmm. I think both of these goals (having control over the capitalist to abolish it state AND abolishing the police) need to happen jointly.
That said, unless I'm missing something I feel like we're somewhat in agreement -- my use of the term "abolitionist reform" seems to be pretty similar to what you were calling a "transitional demand." It's not the end goal, but it brings us closer and challenges power (rather than, say, reformist reforms like police body cameras that entrench existing power structures).
It’s a question of strategy and goals. Reforms for reforms sake, are not part of a strategy for the overthrow of capitalism.
agreed! but where I'm confused is that I don't see abolitionists (like angela davis or harsha walia) as advocating for reforms for reforms sake.
Being more concrete, I don't think it's fence sitting to fight for concrete proposals such as defunding the police by 50% (which at least where I live still seems a long way away)! Even though these proposals fall well short of full police/prison abolition, they open up space for further victories that get us closer.
Convincing the working class that the police do not make us safe is also well-grounded in revolutionary perspective/praxis IMO.
Would it be a good idea for us to create a bot that does the following?
Happy to help create something like that if so (or also help others create something like that). Using the reddit API isn't too hard as long as the account doesn't get banned (which hopefully isn't likely if we post to friendly subreddits?) Does chapo.chat / lemmy have an API?
I wish these dipshits didn’t jump head first into these traps and instead used this bullshit language against conservatives.
I'm not sure. I think that the phrase 'law and order' is permanently tainted from its racist history (back when it was brought back by Goldwater and Nixon iirc).
That's an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing!
I'll have to read the whole thing (granted I haven't now) but just from this passage I'm still not convinced they are necessarily at odds. Abolitionist reforms should * make the prospect of future revolution more likely* rather than placating the labor movement (now granted whether these empirically exist is a separate question).
I think living in Cuba would be really fun and awesome. However, Capitalism is a global system and there's really no way to escape its impact (whether first or n-th order) --- unless you're rich.
I think it's the same instinct that lead liberals to support 'reforms' like body cameras. Ultimately white libs don't have personal experience with being policed or targeted due to their race and so get placated by policies that don't do anything but entrench the existing power structures.
I think it's OK to use radical analyses while also advocating for SocDem reforms that might help some people on a shorter timescale.
Not only because people are suffering right now but also because they aren't necessarily at odds with one another. That's something that Angela Davis / Andre Gorz and other abolitionist / 'non-reformist-reform' thinkers advocate for: achieve incremental gains that question power structures and lead to bigger gains later.
Relatedly, if anyone is looking for something fitness related but IMO way less toxic, I recommend rock climbing (once things open up again :)) Not that it's perfect or anything, in a sense 'bro culture' manifests in a different form, but rock climbing gyms IMO have way better vibes than powerlifting spaces. The main difference I see is that climbing encourages creative movement rather than just brute force muscle (and all of the issues that result).