Looking at the bizarre societal hellscape that's been unearthed from beneath our ordinary lives, I feel a deep regret that Satoshi Kon was taken from us before he could hold a dark mirror up to all this madness. I have no idea what he'd have created, but I expect it would have been devastating.

It's always a little disconcerting how quickly someone can show they're not worth paying attention to any more.

Ken Jennings@kenjennings.bsky.social · 6d ago

They were like “Trans people are not a monolith” and “Like-minded allies may disagree on specific media boycotts” and stuff like that. It was a huge load off my mind!

This is me with the acacia with inch-long thorns that our neighbor allowed to grow up beneath our shared electric service drop. Eventually they cut it down, so now it's a daily fight to kill the runners the stump throws. I would use poison, or a flamethrower, but that would invoke Tree Law.

madeline odent@oldenoughtosay.com · 6d ago

dying laughing as i also try to murder a yucca in my front garden that simply WILL NOT DIE AND IS GROWING THRU THE PAVEMENT

When Justice is blind, bad guys take the fifth. When justice is corrupt, good guys take the fifth. Feel free to share.

I got salty about AI bullshit because it's all such bullshit, so here is me being very mad and probably not very clear about how mad it makes me. Do with this as you will. *kicks rocks*

You Cannot Use One Bullshit Machine To Catch Another Bullshit Machine

I really fucking hate AI right now. I really fucking hated AI yesterday and the day before, too, though I think the hate is growing faster and hotter, like a sun about to explode and consume the ga…

terribleminds.com

The problem is that people believe lots of things that aren't important enough to change their votes for. Republicans in general are a coalition of single-issue voters. It doesn't matter if they're pro-gay marriage if they won't support it by voting against the thing they really care about.

Jessica Tarlov@jessicatarlov.bsky.social · last wk.

Your average Republican is pro-IVF, skeptical of six week heartbeat bills, against deporting productive, law-abiding immigrants, and for gay marriage.

Predatory capitalism has been running pretty much unchecked my entire adult life. Decades. We're going to need to try a bunch of things to start to slow this massive flywheel down and start spinning it in the direction of more equity. Another era of bold and persistent experimentation. Even further:

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · last wk.

Politics aside, do people believe city-run grocery stores with deeply discounted prices are a good POLICY idea? What are they intended to accomplish, in your view? What problem do they solve? Would you implement them if not running for election? I'm sincerely curious in people's answers here.

The idea that anyone, even one single person, is looking at the National Guard deployment in D.C. and thinking, "We finally did it, 150 years after Lee failed we finally took Washington!" makes me want to leap to my feet and reenact Sherman's March out of sheer spite

doctor eep (alt decorative gourd season)@absolutely-not.bsky.social · 12mo ago

individual states should not be allowed to deploy standing armies to occupy dc all wilhelm-nilhelm. that's not federalism. that's not even a laboratory of authoritarianism. that's just the confederacy.

Rewrite a book title to ruin it. The Lion, the Witch, and the Commode

em dash dual wielder@juicyb3rry.bsky.social · last wk.

Rewrite a book title to ruin it. Dungeon Cleaner Carl

Admirable clarity @science.org

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 2w ago

Whew, the editors of @science.org are getting real.

A team composed mostly of counterpicks: - Kool-Aid Man, against whom my walls would not stand; - Burger King, who would otherwise sneakily deliver me a meal of DEATH; - The Jolly Green Giant, because how the hell else would I stop him; and - Jack, as mastermind and coordinator

Discontinued Foods!@discontinuedfoods.bsky.social · 2w ago

Things aren't great, let's have some fun

my feeling on this is that any system is going to have a certain number of grifters and you just have to accept that it is far more important to help deserving people than to not help undeserving ones. you can do your best but gatekeeping is generally much crueler than needed.

Lindsey’s Little Ladybugs (BB&BS)@beecherbibles56.bsky.social · 2w ago

So while I generally agree with this, this is where controversy is created because any definition of “unable to work” might exclude people who have social media access and can post curated sob stories about it. I feel like we can’t just take people at their word, hell if we did I wouldn’t work.

if amy acton came out and said some racist crap calling to segregate little girls by skin color people would be trying to get her out of the race and people should be just as mad when she comes for little girls who are trans

A quick word on Taco Bell: That's where we found the suspected lettuce, and it's not bc Taco Bell is gross. It's bc Taco Bell is REALLY GOOD at tracing product! Keeping track of exactly where they got their ingredients, & exactly what restaurants each shipment of ingredients went to!

I had a joke about Procrustes, but it always runs too short or too long.

Abolish ICE. Really.

The foundational lie of Trumpism (and I’m using that word precisely to refer to the ideology of intellectual types who defend him), from day one, has been the claim that good character is a “luxury belief” and nothing more than cover for the wealthy to punish the poor. This belief is evil.

Mark Andrew Price@pricelaborecon.bsky.social · 4w ago

I don’t think "Dem HR ladies" is labor coded or working class aligned. It comes from the same place everything that is terrible in the last two years has come from. The backlash to the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.

Congratulations, you're officially a rape apologist.

Hejphen@hejphen.bsky.social · 4w ago

The "corrobrating evidence" is of what she said at the time to others - doesnt mean it happened exactly as she told her therapist & an acquaintance Just bcuz she thought she was speaking strongly doesnt mean outside of her thoughts she actually was - especially to a "blackout drunk" horny bf

don’t whistleblow to this man. do not leak anything to this man. as far as you are concerned his signal number no longer exists. there are still a few safe people to leak or whistleblow to. he hasn’t been one for a long time

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 4w ago

what a fucking asshole

WIRED@wired.com · 4w ago

As part of Meta’s Muse Image model rollout, Instagram users with public accounts need to opt out to block AI generations of their content. www.wired.com/story/meta-n...

Man got Chotiner’d without even agreeing to an interview. Astounding

So, treat AI like you treat bad, unreliable, dishonest coworkers, except also you're responsible for their work and they are not, and also you're responsible for hiring and evaluating them but you can't rely on their CV

Ed@ed3d.net · last mo.

we constantly rely on unreliable tools (some of them in meat suits and with hair) by adding compensating controls around their actions so the outputs are bounded and, while not deterministic, predictable in the real world, this is normal. but now *you* have to look at it, and some people hate that

.

There is a direct line one can trace from the way the religious right in the 80s & 90s went after Goths, Pagans, vampires & other non-conformist identity groups - often by framing them as delusional & inherently dangerous to minors - and their successful attacks upon trans people now

This man and most of the supreme Court needs to be immediately jailed for betraying their oaths.

Doug Lindner@douglindner.bsky.social · last mo.

MSNBC: Clarence Thomas why are you in the Capitol Building? Clarence Thomas: lol @ the mere concept of answering for the way i wield massive government power for 35 years and counting

You've romanced your last chemical

Greg Pak@gregpak.net · last mo.

you've fined your last young cannibals

Right now the world is full of people who want to code and write and paint and film stuff and people who want to play and read and look at and watch stuff and nobody is allowed to do any of that because some unrelated third guy isn't making enough money off the deal

Rami Ismail (رامي)@ramiismail.com · last mo.

Our games industry is people. Our studios are people. Our teams people, our games by people for people. Our games are made by people, in groups of people, in teams of people, making people things for people. The magic is people, and the people deserve so much better than all this. I am so sorry.

I think some of it is a weird, voluntary Roko's Basilisk situation. They kinda want him to be Super Dictator In Perpetuity to own the libs forever, but by that logic they have to agree with him now because otherwise he'll have them and their families punished in the future.

Bill Prady@billprady.com · last mo.

Astonishing watching MAGA world fall in line with Trump’s absurd “vandals did it” explanation for his Reflecting Pool disaster. Why do they treat him like Billy Mumy in that “Twilight Zone” episode?

Taking lesser-evilism to its purest, most obviously destructive extreme says much more about you than about the merits of the plan and its obscene 'Board of Peace'. Fuck off.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2mo ago

Opinion: 'If even I, an implacable opponent of the president, can accept this as the best option, then surely others can too?' writes former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. ft.trib.al/sjofp0v