#collective power

[thoughtportal]

tactics

#tiktok #protests #protesters #protest #collective power #be water #collective action #online privacy #online security #security

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Studio execs love plausible sentence generators because they have a workflow that looks exactly like a writer-exec dynamic, only without any eye-rolling at the stupid “notes” the exec gives the writer.

All an exec wants is to bark out “Hey, nerd, make me another E.T., except make the hero a dog, and set it on Mars.” After the writer faithfully produces this script, the exec can say, “OK, put put a love interest in the second act, and give me a big gunfight at the climax,” and the writer dutifully makes the changes.

This is exactly how prompting an LLM works.

A writer and a studio exec are lost in the desert, dying of thirst.

Just as they are about to perish, they come upon an oasis, with a cool sparkling pool of water.

The writer drops to their knees and thanks the fates for saving their lives.

But then, the studio exec unzips his pants, pulls out his cock and starts pissing in the water.

“What the fuck are you doing?” the writer demands.

“Don’t worry,” the exec says, “I’m making it better.”

- Everything Made By an AI Is In the Public Domain: The US Copyright Office offers creative workers a powerful labor protective

THIS IS THE LAST DAY FOR MY KICKSTARTER for the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

#labor #copyright #public domain #ai #creative workers #hype #criti-hype #enshittification #llcs with mfas #solidarity #collective power

[hybrid-machine]

Me and capitalism are having this stand off. Every ounce of creativity is being thwarted by capitalism. Yet creativity is the antidote to a capitalist system. My mind is a cage where I can't relax or gain pleasure from the things I enjoy.

The anxiety is the body's response to an unnatural chronic threat, so my body's not wrong. I wouldn't have anxiety if I were in a cottage, running my own time, access to sunshine and greenery and growing my own crops and sharing my space with friends and loved ones.

I can't believe we've been in this ridiculous economic tug of war with human lives like they mean nothing. Just at the mercy of a vacuous and hungry entity that moves like the plague, and consumes the minds of its victims by triggering the most psychologically susceptible traits for gain. Our self-doubt prodded, our narcissism stroked, our drive to achieve enticed, our efficiency, greed and perfectionism intertwined in a dark triad of endless pursuit. These false values are global extensions of physiological reflexes over time, over history.

Our most dopaminergic experiences have been artificially generated and exhausted. We are here because of greed. We are here because of impulsivity. We are here because we can control our environments and experiences to such self-centric degrees. The hidden costs are not as obvious but they become apparent over time. The industrial age is a result of the innovation boom. Our climate is hurting because of our excessive action. Our economic disparity is because we psychologically manipulated entire classes that some humans are better and some deserve less. Our despair and depression is because we have robbed ourselves of the human nuance of timeless joy, leisure and connection to nature and other beings. We've commodified every aspect of our lives so that our every waking moment is scheduled and controlled for maximum output.

I have memories of my great-grandparents (as well as grandparents) tending to their gardens, having enough land for crops, having enough time for homesteading all their essential needs: clothes, food preserves, furniture. This was only a few generations ago. I hold those images like a warm summery glow, the sweet nectar of life that needs desperate revival. The essence of what I feel it is to be human is not something that can be sold back to us, it's something we inherently have the capacity for to begin with. The cultivation of leisure, learning, and connection to land, being and cycles of time.

It's been my life's mission to keep this feeling, motivation, image alive in whatever I do. I have never looked at a city and gone wow amazing let's keep doing that. I love the peasant life. I love the natural cycles of life. I love the natural world before we inserted our narrow set of principles for maximising efficiency, productivity and greed - which destabilised and destroyed the world.

I'm still always at the threshold of this internal vs external tug of war. But I'm persisting with my rebellion with creativity, collaboration, celebration, empowerment (you can't sell consumer shit to self-aware people) acceptance of human imperfection, rejection of time control, rejection of hierarchy, rejection of classism/ sexism/ racism/ human-phobia of any kind.

The real kicker is that we are all actually really powerful and we all have a voice and our gut instinct is evolutionarily there to serve us. It knows what's morally correct. Let's tango.

#thoughts #2023 #anti capitalism #capitalism #humanity #human collective #collective power #empower

[reddpenn]

I GOT A REALLY COOL MICROSCOPE FOR CHRISTMAS DO YOU WANT TO SEE SOME ROCKS UNDER MY REALLY COOL MICROSCOPE

#yes i already had a microscope #this one is WAY MORE POWERFUL #talkin' bout rocks #rock collecting #microscope mondays

[pathtohealingjustice]

Alchemy: Theory+Praxis

We Move in Relationship: Sites of Practice in the Midwest By: Susan Raffo- Interpreted by = Delilah Lopez

This reading discusses organizations and groups that have worked to practice and promote the Healing Justice framework, and how they have continued to work together as a collective to improve their practices. Over time, these individuals have created and maintained meaningful and impactful relationships with one another, meaning their work is more effective. Because of these trailblazers' new organizations and better practices were created. It is important to understand that building and maintaining relationships with one another to work towards a common goal has value. These individuals prove that when we work together as a collective to solve issues in our communities, we have a better chance at succeeding. Not only can we gain better understandings and new ideas as a collective, but we can support and be present for one another while we fight for the injustices inflicted on marginalized communities. One part of this reading that really stuck with me is when it states that Healing Justice aims to reconnect us with the part of us that was taken or broken into pieces by injustices inflicted upon us. It states to always go back to the “I am” so that we find strength in our identity and ancestors. This reading reminds me that we are all connected and that we must therefore work together to find solutions to the problems we face. The author of this reading also states that we must acknowledge the reality of generational trauma, and root ourselves to the land, body, and spirit. This understanding of generational trauma is something that I am starting to learn about and understand so that I can better understand my mother, grandmother and family who suffer from substance abuse, violence, and grief. I also believe I am experiencing this generational trauma and want to find a way to address it and stop it from being passed down to my children.  

#healing #trauma #collective power #realtionship

[lazycranberrydoodles]

everybody go home. this is my magnum opus

#HELP THIS IS KILLING ME #the original version of this had hua cheng in a ‘i have a CRAZY wife she hates STUPID PEOPLE and LOVES DOGS and im NOT AFRAID TO USE HER’ #but if hua cheng was at midwestern gas station number 472 in the novelty slogan tshirt aisle #she for sure would get some sort of ‘your wife (woman symbol) vs MY WIFE (wonder woman silhouette)’ #or ‘trophy 🏆🏆 WIFE’ #or possibly a ‘return to wife if lost’ #or ‘i have a SMOKIN HOT wife’ #or ‘im the BOSS til my WIFE gets home’ #or ‘5 things you should know about my WIFE: 1. she is my queen 2. she is a bit crazy 3. she can whoop your ass #4. she says whatever she is thinking 5. mess with her and theyll never find your body’ #or ‘i go to work so my wife can COLLECT SCRAPS’ #or even at worst. ‘ my wife is the PRINCESS the mouse LOST’ #xie lian would be initially embarassed. but you know her ass would be wearing a ‘proud PROPERTY of an AWESOME WIFE’ shirts @ heaven meetings #or ‘i’m not scared of ANYTHING - my WIFE is a CALAMITY’ #which was sold as a metaphor for your wife being mean and powerful. but she wears it straight. #or even ‘im not GAY but my WIFE is’ lmfao #anyway. #tgcf #tian guan ci fu #hualian #hua cheng #xie lian #hualesbians #modern au #tgcf meme #my art #art #tgcf shitpost #lmao #mxtx

[ryllen]

Try to pull him for the fifth time, ended up shoved to Jack SSR instead

#*cle n c he s fis t* ...... s e b e k ........ #twisted wonderland #twst #sebek zigvolt #jack howl #twst mc #twst yuu #fanart #there's no way i can collect enough diamonds anymore .......... #i was kinda hoping it was Leona SSR bcs I ONLY HAVE 2 R of HIM and HE IS LEADING THE TARTARUS GROUP #VERY PITIFULLY #JACK IS NOT EVEN ONE OF THE CHARACTER I ASSIGNED TO ANY OF THE GROUP #so i HAVE to restart IF I WANT TO ADD HIS WOLF POWER to the GROUPS

[strykerlancer]

— Margaret Atwood, from “Power Politics.”

#margaret atwood #Power Politics #words #poetry #literature #quotes #out of my collection #lit #abyss of words #quote

[david-talks-sw]

Dooku didn't leave because of the Jedi.

At least, if you're going by George Lucas' word.

In deleted scenes of Attack of the Clones, when we learn about Dooku's departure and his values, there's no mention of the Jedi or "the Jedi Order as an institution".

And every time Lucas refers to Dooku's disenchantment and reason for falling, he doesn't mention the Jedi.

"When you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduced a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin." - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

"[Dooku is] one of the few Jedi who became disenchanted with the Republic and left the order and he is leading a separatist movement." - Vanity Fair, 2002

"I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the Empire is actually valid. It’s all valid.  So, Chris plays it as, 'Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?'" - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

He probably meant the Republic/Senate in that last one, but you get the point. And you're seeing the pattern, right?

Dooku's problem isn't the Jedi, it's the Republic.

He's become disenchanted with a system that - according to Lucas' prologue in the 2004 book Shatterpoint - worked for 1,000 years...

"For a thousand years, the Old Republic prospered and grew under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the venerable Jedi Knights."

... but has been rendered ineffective because of 1) senators becoming corrupt and 2) corporations gaining political power.

"But as often happens when wealth and power grow beyond all reasonable proportion, an evil fueled by greed arose. The massive organs of commerce mushroomed in power, the Senate became corrupt, and an ambitious named Palpatine was voted Supreme Chancellor."

That's the message Dooku runs on, when he rallies the systems to form the Separatist Alliance.

"By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic."

The Jedi aren't really a factor in his decision to leave.

Why would they be? Their political status isn't very high, they're virtually powerless, as illustrated by the film's narrative and stated repeatedly by Lucas.

On the contrary, as we already established in this post, Lucas full-on confirmed that Dooku actually carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi. Again:

Most Jedi agree with Dooku, ideologically.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, the politicians are effing up the Republic, and it sucks because the Jedi see this but aren't allowed to interfere in the political process. They have to resort to looking for loopholes in their mandates to actually get stuff done.

That's what that whole "she's a politician" scene is meant to hint at. In the commentary of Attack of the Clones, Lucas uses a similar turn of phrase as he does with Dooku.

"[This scene gives us] a chance to talk a little bit about politics and the Jedi’s disenchantment with the political process, due to the corruption and the ineffectiveness of the Senate." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

Considering all this, it becomes clear that the intended narrative surrounding Dooku's decision to leave the Order is not:

"The Jedi are dogmatic and asleep at the wheel except for Dooku, who is ahead of the curb and sees the system is flawed, so he left."

It's actually:

"ALL Jedi see the system is flawed, Dooku's the only Jedi who decided to take it a step further and leave the Order so he can try to get into politics himself and change things."

That's why they hesitate to accuse him of murder.

That's why in an earlier draft of the Attack of the Clones script, by the end of the second act, Mace STILL has his doubts that Dooku would sign a treaty with the Trade Federation to attack the Republic.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, Dooku is out there fighting the good fight, making noise because whenever they try to protest it falls on deaf ears... until his betrayal on Geonosis.

After all, let's not get it twisted: the Dooku we're introduced to in the films and The Clone Wars, isn't really just Dooku anymore.

He's Darth Tyranus.

A point Lucas makes sure to highlight in his Shatterpoint prologue:

"Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies."

It's not about doing the selfless thing for Dooku, anymore. He's knowingly part of the problem.

He's all about ambition, now. His personal goals are things like overthrowing Sidious and becoming the most powerful Jedi.

"[Anakin's] ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...] It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful, and control things." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

"If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. [When revealing the truth to Obi-Wan], Dooku's ambition is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that and help in that, so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over." - Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002

Y'know? Selfish things.

Dooku - like all other Sith, and like the very corporations and Senators he had sworn to destroy - is consumed by his own greed.

#also functionally-speaking Dooku being a Jedi is done to highlight the ambiguity throughout the investigation on whether or not this is #a scorned ex-Jedi or a straight-up bad guy... you're never sure until the end of AOTC. That and Dooku being a former Jedi shows that #even someone who was once selfless and dutiful can crave power and be selfish #which sets up a precedent for Anakin - who's already struggling with being a selfless Jedi - when HE falls to the Dark Side #Dooku being a former Jedi isn't a plot point meant to narratively criticise of the Order... it's meant to hint at Anakin's downfall. #dooku #george lucas #star wars #attack of the clones #long post #collection of quotes

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

#i marie kondoed my thoughts and *i* feel great. but now my stream-of-consciousness has escaped containment #so many innocent bystanders at stake #every time i try to organize my thoughts i run out of plastic bins and have to make a trip to the container store where i get even more dis #racted so. you can't just hand me THIS brain and NO catalogue OR library classification system #and expect me to single-handedly sort through all this nonsense? bad form but fucking form not in my job description #aNYways. formal education sure did a FUCKING NUMBER on us huh #(a number i measure not in gpa or dollars of student debt. #but in the number of therapy sessions & medical debt it will take to recover.) #seriously folks. our education systems are...innately traumatizing for a huge number of students. and we NEED to address this. #the fact that it is culturally common for adults to have anxiety nightmares about school/exams...even decades later? #that is not cute. it is Alarming. #no one--much less entire generations--should be spending their developmental years in an environment of chronic stress & pressure & strain #and yet that is the reality for millions and millions of pre-teen and teenage and young adult students #this isn't healthy and it serves and empowers NO ONE #...except of course the many exploitative educational & financial & debt-collecting institutions thriving from the current balance of power #and of course it's a nefarious and powerful way to sabotage/erase the middle class #which billionaires and the wealth-inequality creators they finance couldn't possibly have any noteworthy interest in whatsoever #it's not like there's an elite group of people with huge financial incentives to drain/steal resources from the masses... #anyways sorry for going all Conspiracy Theory on you. #obviously the billionaires who control the vast majority of our resources and news and political campaign funding #are not tied to every single itty bitty social issue and i'm a silly billy to imply it #please tell elon musk to ignore this tweet i am so subservient and acquiescent #mr musky u r so good at inheriting slavery-built mining fortunes & buying other people's companies #& building rocket ships & fancy cars that do NOT explode/catch fire & also NOT running billion dollar companies into the ground #mr musky u r so talented genius billionaire playboy with 10 kids and ex-wives who find you creepy af babe u r basically iron man

[mostlysignssomeportents]

That means that for a work to be eligible for copyright in the USA, it must satisfy three criteria:

1. It must be creative. Copyright does not apply to non-creative works (say, a phone book listing everyone in a town in alphabetical order), even if the work required a lot of labor. Copyright does not protect effort, it protects creativity. You can spend your whole life making a phone book and get no copyright, but the haiku you toss off in ten seconds while drunk gets copyright’s full protection. 2. It must be tangible. Copyright only applies to creative works that are “fixed in a tangible medium.” A dance isn’t copyrightable, but a video of someone dancing is, as is a written description of the dance in choreographers’ notation. A singer can’t copyright the act of singing, but they can copyright the recording of the song. 3. It must be of human authorship. Only humans are eligible for copyright. A beehive’s combs may be beautiful, but they can’t be copyrighted. An elephant’s paintings may be creative, but they can’t be copyrighted. A monkey’s selfie may be iconic, but it can’t be copyrighted.

The works an algorithm generates —be they still images, audio recordings, text, or videos — cannot be copyrighted.

For creative workers, this is huge. Our bosses, like all bosses, relish the thought of firing us all and making us homeless. You will never love anything as much as your boss hates paying you. That’s why the most rampant form of theft in America is wage theft. Just the thought of firing workers and replacing them with chatbots is enough to invoke dangerous, persistent priapism in the boardrooms of corporate America.

- Everything Made By an AI Is In the Public Domain: The US Copyright Office offers creative workers a powerful labor protective

THIS IS THE LAST DAY FOR MY KICKSTARTER for the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

#labor #copyright #public domain #ai #creative workers #hype #criti-hype #enshittification #llcs with mfas #solidarity #collective power

[leafsfromthevine]

the boys are fighting (together. homoerotically, even).

#your power duo could never #talented brilliant incredible amazing showstopping #my content has been sparce. i was starved and in dire need of new zukka gif #just the inspiration i needed tbh #ive been very busy just like. planning stuff for my graduation. tis been so exciting but its getting so real and consuming my mind. #i need to take a step back and think abt ✨️them✨️ to ease my brain. it just be going 90 miles a minute man but when i see zukka we full sto #we take a moment to rejoice #i stare at zukka and it shockingly makes me feel more normal and collected than i would be otherwise #anyways. blahblahblah #zukka #zukka gif #atla gif

[d-i-x-i-t]

Art is channeling personal pain into collective power. It can be a form of alchemy in that way, if it's really harnessed correctly.

Lowkey

#Lowkey #lowkey quote #power #love #art #art quote #life #life quote #collective power #rap #music

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS Disco Elysium AU part 2 - Psyche Skills

Part 1 - Part 3

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #disco elysium #MDZS disco elysium au #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #yu ziyuan #While it's more in vogue to draw a character's skill roster tailored to them - #One of the more subtle details I love in DE is how some of the skill portraits parallel character portraits of people hbd associates with. #Theres somethine rather poetic to be said about how other people shape out thoughts and sometimes act as a 'voice' in our head. #How we are in part a collection of impressions other people left behind on us. #I am a huge Skillhead (Those are my friends! My party members! They love me! They have their own agendas and alliances!) #so of course a healthy portion of this AU is dedicated to them <3 #the Int skills go basically unchanged from DE. Psy as well (with changes to a few quirks in voice). #Fys skills though...well...wwx is in a different body! Those voices belong to Someone Else. #Esp electrochem (MXY in this AU also partied to near death. WWX is withdrawing and craving substances he's never even heard of before) #While I personally don't fully subscribe to Volition Jean I *do* see Volition Jiang Cheng. The voice of your Not Brother keeping you afloat #All three of these parallels make me unbelievably sad. They are also both purple. Art is like that sometimes. #Empathy Jiang Yanli...oh man do I have a lot of thoughts about her. Disco fans Who Know....you can probably see what I'm cooking. #Authority is a really interesting skill in DE because *yes* its about power and intimidation - but it's also about finesse and respect #Titus Hardie and YZY both abuse *and* finesse how they establish their authority - in a way that leaves quite an impression. #2 more mdzs disco posts that I *need* to create and then I'm off to working on raffles <3

[mcmuppet]

oh. OH.

#that's my MAN #holy lord #i have so much to say and not enough brain power to collect my thoughts #goddamn i love him #wowee #he is SO FINE #need that tongue to [redacted][gun shots] #lando norris #mclaren #f1

[dailyfigures]

Power ; Chainsaw Man ☆ Claynel

#power #power figure #csm power #chainsaw man power #chainsaw man #chainsaw man figure #csm #csm figure #claynel #anime #anime figure #figure #figure collecting #anime figurine #figurine #scale figure #anime collecting #myfigurecollection #manga