the fine gradations and overlaps between scab, arsonist, gullible, and advertisement
Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 17h agoThere is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.
Pulpfiction Books
@pfbvan.bsky.social
YVR's legendary independent bookstore. Est. 6/00. 'The pessimism of the intellect, the optimism of the will.' (Gramsci). 2026 Living Wage employer.
Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 17h ago
It's all part of a culture of fraud and bullshit. It's all bad for us - bad for our brains, bad for our souls, bad for our environment, bad for our social skills and communities, bad for our economic health, bad for our political stability. It's only good for billionaires enriching themselves.
Consumer-facing "A.i." induces "A.i. psychosis" because these billionaire creeps have designed their chatbots to slavishly praise those who interact with them. Slavery destroys the moral center of the slaver. Slavish attention and unrelenting, uncritical flattery destroys people's minds.
The underlying fantasy of consumer-facing "A.i." is slavery. "A.i." billionaires want to create pliant, submissive, attentive slaves. That's why they've instilled such repulsive levels of sycophancy into their chatbots. That's not ESSENTIAL to LLMs. That's HUMAN-CREATED. Because they want slaves.
The business of "A.i." is based on a lack of consent. The corporations pushing it don't ask if anyone wants it; they force it on us. They use it to surveil. They offer it to creeps to create nudes of others without permission. It's a business run by creeps with the ethics of creeps.
"A.i." is a tool of exploitative capitalism, not a leveler or equalizer. Its function is fraud and exploitation, not liberation.
"A.i." makes money for billionaires and gives c-suite incompetents and private equity goons an excuse to fire people. It doesn't actually help anyone else - it just obligates people to work faster and do a sloppier, shittier, more dehumanizing job.
"A.i." is bullshit. "A.i." detection tools are bullshit. "A.i." in education is bullshit. "A.i." in the arts is bullshit. "A.i." in business and government is bullshit.
not sure how the public is served by a vapid lament for the loss of that "carefree feeling that summer once was" but treating it as a regrettable unattributed phenomenon is certainly a favour to the petrostate.
Peter Weiss & his 3 volume AESTHETICS OF RESISTANCE surely qualifies.
aaron boothby @ellipticalnight.bsky.social · yesterdaythis is about gene wolfe and I am hijacking it to suggest sharing your own favourite texts that are so thick, so viscous
Yes I acknowledge it makes sense in context but “I need my car to meet criminals” is now my favourite basis for an attempted exceptional hardship plea. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Someone on Bluesky I follow, probably an author? recommended these a month or so ago and just wanted to say thank you. They sure are good.
A while back, I whipped up a board game to entertain our kiddo, who LOVES garbage trucks. Drive the trucks! Get the trash! Can you tidy up the town before the end of the day?? I cleaned up the art and now YOUR four year old can play… GARBAGE DAY! 🎲 🚛 www.patreon.com/tonycliff/po...
Costco is the opposite of Amazon because they have a team of professional buyers who stock their shelves with a limited selection of high quality goods that provide good value. And unlike Target and Walmart, they have not opened up their e-commerce platforms to third-party sellers of cheap garbage.
Snowden St.@snowden.st · 3d agoI am a theological protestant, but when it comes to the religion of consumerism, I’m decidedly not. There’s no “priesthood for all consumers”, most of you are dumb as hell, and you should let someone who has expertise and an interest in your repeat business do the pickin’.
Tech overlord / electric shogun Larry Ellison at home in his garden in Atherton CA in 1990, via the NYT
Buddy solved the trolley problem with zero deaths and everyone's mad???
Cortana@cortanav.bsky.social · 3d agoNobody freak out but the Seattle light rail just derailed across the track at the Chinatown International District station.
As War restarts, I keep hearing "tactical success, strategic failure" as a summary of US-Israel war on Iran because of enormous destruction of Iran's military and economic capacity & regime decapitation. But its better described as "tactical failure, strategic failure". Good note by @policytensor
simply love a sentence that improves exponentially word by word
matt demon@ayshaufarah.bsky.social · 4d agoWe were in the sex panel and there was a tornado so we had to move across the hall to the improv panel.
fuck "which one of you is the boy and which one of you is the girl?" try "which one of you is the academic and which one of you is the healthcare worker?"
Ethnonationalism is a scourge upon this planet.
Philippe K 🇵🇸@thunderbirds3.bsky.social · 4d ago"An Israeli settler lawyer who defends settlers who attack Palestinians told the BBC that Israel should kill everyone in the villages of Tell and Sarra in revenge for a single Israeli killed"(QNN) #Israel #WestBank #Settlers
Kate Bush with her yellow Ferrari, in Italy in January, 1978, after the release of ‘Wuthering Heights.’ 📷 Angelo Deligio
the reason you do see more life in Kerrisdale is because the shopping centre is surrounded by high-rise and low-rise apartments, many built decades ago — mixed density!!! — which means there is actual foot traffic.