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Okay, you need to make sure you play this game at some point. Maybe not today or anything, because you’ll need about thirty minutes and a serious willingness to understand how it works, but - it’s so worth it. It’s basically an answer to our occasional frustration - why do assholes always come out on top? - and the beautiful thing about it is that not only does it explain how that happens, but also how we can change it.

“In the short run, the game defines the players. But in the long run, it’s us players who define the game.”

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Thirty days of April 15, 2024 means you want to send this BEFORE MAY 15 2024

I regret to inform you that Discord's new Terms of Service includes an arbitration clause. You can find it here https://discord.com/terms/#16. This clause includes an opt-out, which I have transcribed here:

You can decline this agreement to arbitrate by emailing an opt-out notice to [email protected] within 30 days of April 15, 2024 or when you first register your Discord account, whichever is later; otherwise, you shall be bound to arbitrate disputes in accordance with the terms of these paragraphs. If you opt out of these arbitration provisions, Discord also will not be bound by them.

These clauses are underhanded ways that corporations seek to deprive you of your right to participate in class-action lawsuits and your right to a jury trial. (This does only apply to us users ,other people still spread the word though )

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Hey, do y’all remember how Tencent said they were developing faceID AI to identify people in riots, and then they suddenly created an AI art generator to turn your selfies into anime?

Do y’all remember that time that someone discovered facial recognition cameras couldn't see through Juggalo makeup, then Facebook had a fun “see what you'd look like with Juggalo makeup” thing, and then facial recognition cameras could suddenly see through Juggalo makeup?

Do y’all remember how, on Twitter, Elon started a tirade against artists who ask for credit when their art is reposted, and he suddenly he created one of the first big art AI programs?

Do y’all remember how AI destroyed the field of translation, despite the inferiority of the machine translations, because people didn’t care about the quality of the translations? They just wanted it done for free?

Do you know how companies will see a lot of money going into a New Tech Thing (like, say, AI art apps) and will jump to try and implement that New Tech Thing into their tech? For example, how it felt like every big company and celebrity had an NFT to sell?

Just wondering.

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been reading cicero's rant about words being given obscene meanings and i don't think i've ever seen a latin sentence that made me burst into such immediate and violent laughter before

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hot take incoming: revolt and revolution doesn't create a fair and equitable society. it creates a power vaccum, which is terrifying because it is incredibly fertile ground for all sorts of warlords, aspiring tyrants, paramilitary extremists, and imperial powers to swoop in and start doing atrocities over it. You can put a new society in a power vaccum, but so can anyone else, and most of those potential outcomes are going to be horrifying, not to mention to the hellscape interim period.

To create a fair and equitable society you need to know civics, administration, diplomacy, and yes, statecraft. Yes they're boring and unglamorous and icky and gross. But i promise that you need them. They are mandatory. Not optional.

#this is part of why the “after the revolution” wishing always rubs me the wrong way #if you wait to act until after a revolution #you're not gonna get the actions you want #you gotta put in the work now and it's not gonna be flashy

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“alt text for more info” “turn on cations for more info” no actually this is not where more info goes. These have a very distinct purpose. There are plenty of other places for more info. If you’re going to make your post inaccessible, the least you could do is not use accessibility tools at your own leisure for whatever purpose you see fit.

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I'm just going to leave this here, because this woman said what I've been trying to articulate for ages much more effectively and succinctly than I've been able to

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this is so satisfying to watch

I am a solo indie dev trying to overcome my anxiety and actually let people know my game exists. It is a cute physics based game where you are the level.

I love making this game with passion and I am so excited to share it with the world, but somehow I need to let the world know. Unfortunately the way steam works is the more wishlists the more visibility, so if you are interested it is super appreciated :)

Wishlist on steam or visit the website to find out more mightymarbles.com

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Adding on with a few examples

Any emails/texts you get that are telling you that "the service/package/etc" is delayed and you have to verify your personal information are sus as fuck. Especially if it doesn't tell you exactly what service/item they're referring to

Legitimate institutions will usually have a custom email domain. Ex: [email protected], NOT [email protected]

If you get a flashing countdown warning like "your device has detected a virus that will be irreversible at the end of this timer" yeah don't click anything. close the damn tab. If there is a virus, you'll get a calmer notification warning in your settings app or browser, it won't be this big dramatic thing

If you get an email with job offers etc that sound too good to be true, they're probably not legit, see if you can independently find a website. If the email says you need to go to WhatsApp to give them your information in order to start an application, it's definitely not legit

oh my god do not click links in emails that tell you to verify your data or your bank account gets locked or click links in messages telling you your safety protocol is ending, like, tomorrow, you will get SCAMMED SO BAD AND YOU WILL LOSE A LOT OF FUCKING MONEY never ever let anyone pressure you into giving away login information especially to your online banking by creating a sense of urgency oh my GOD

some things to look out for

1. spelling mistakes. do you know how many rounds of marketing and sales experts these things go through? if theres a spelling mistake dont click it

2. not using your name. if an email adresses you with “dear customer” or, even worse, a generic “ladies and gentlemen”, it is most likely not actually targeted to you

3. verifying or login links. even IF your bank was stupid enough to send these to customers, dont EVER click those. look at me. they can legally argue that youve given your data away and thus they dont have to pay you anything back DONT CLICK THAT FUCKING LINK

4. creating a sense of urgency. do this or we lock your account next week. do this or your ebanking stops working tomorrow. give us all your money in cash or your beloved granddaughter will get HANGED FOR MURDERING BABIES. no serious organisation would ever do something like that over email or sms. ever. hands off.

5. ALWAYS CHECK WHO SENT YOU THE EMAIL. the display name and the email adress can vary a LOT. anyone can check the display name. look at the email adress. does it look weird? call the fucking place it says its from. you will likely hear a very weary sigh.

6. if its in a phonecall, scammers love preventing you from hanging up or talking to other people to have a little bit of a think about whats happening. there should always be a possibility to go hey i wanna think about this ill call back the official number thanks.

7. do not, i repeat, do NOT a) call a phone number flashing on your screen promising to rid your computer of viruses after clicking a dodgy link and b) let them install shit on your computer like. uh. idk. teamviewer.

7.i. TEAM VIEWER LETS PEOPLE USE YOUR COMPUTER HOWEVER THEY WANT AS LONG AS THEYRE CONNECTED. IF YOU DONT KNOW FOR FUCKING SURE YOURE TALKING TO ACTUAL TECH SUPPORT DONT GIVE ANYONE ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER.

fun little addendum: did you know a link can just automatically download shit? like. a virus? an app you can’t uninstall unless you reset your entire device? dont click links unless youre extremely sure you know where they lead. hover your mouse over it and check the url.

thanks.

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Israel has killed more children in Gaza since October than in four years of worldwide conflict

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how much fun are we having in this timeline folks?

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i may be offbase with this but ever since someone pointed out how The Revolution is pretty much the non-christian version of the Rapture - ie "there's some big change off in the ambiguous future that will reset everything so i'll just wait for it instead of doing something meaningful now," it's kinda been bouncing around in my head how a lot of pop-activism seems to follow some of the more harmful patterns of cultural-christian thinking

like the tweet op cited is very reminiscent to me of "do good for the purpose of not going to hell" and even the tags above are based on doing good purely to make sure when you get judged in the ambiguous future it will be favorable.

a lot of activism now focuses on untangling the effects of colonization and oppression and oppressive systems, and it's important to recognize that if you want to go out and work on decolonizing the world, it's gotta start internally first.

if you're a person who is christian, this includes you too. why did jesus and the others do what they did? because they were scared of going to hell or being judged? no. i mean, if that was a fear jesus had, he'd probably have stopped as it's not like his miracles were exactly popular with the keepers of the status quo.

but the "if you don't do what i want you're going to hell" piece of it is about using a person's faith to control them via fear, and as it's spread beyond its religious circles, it's using someone's social space to instill a sense of fear. it is about control and expanding power beyond oneself. especially if you're using your Goodness to place yourself on the top of a hierarchy over those you aren't doing exactly what you want them to do. decolonization is going to have to involve de-normalizing the use of fear to control the actions of others.

#activism #cultural christianity #religion #the revolution #leftism #capitalism #oppression #decolonization #colonization #changemaking #how we build a better world

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#might have reblogged this before #but its worth it #its hard to build a better world if you genuinely believe it's impossible

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expandable list of my favourite dialogue tags/descriptors

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wait what? I'm in virginia and I didnt know voting was up yet. omg i'm an idiot. I voted locally twice which is arguably more important, though.

Ay. don't beat yourself up - there's not anything that can be done about it now, okay? The primaries are past, yes, but there are more elections.

So instead, you're gonna recenter and be proactive about this. Think about what went wrong this time so you can strategize for next time: forgot to check dates well in advance, didn't have a reminder, whatever. Remember you're not judging yourself, you're doing problem analysis. Make sure that you set up whatever that system needs to be for the general election since that's the Big One, and if you can, for the primaries for the midterms in a couple years (just go ahead and save the date for 2026, make whatever calender app you have ping you a week or two in advance and then it's there)

Your other task. once you figure out setting up reminders and whatnot for yourself, figure out a way to help remind other people. Guaranteed there are other people in your life who just didn't realize how quickly voting happens.

And at the end of the day though, you're right. The more local the election, the more important it is to the day-to-day. Like obviously still try to vote in as many elections as you are eligible for, but as a rule of thumb, bigger offices make the policy, the local offices decide how to enact it. What you're gonna be affected by is the enactment.

You're not an idiot. You're a person trying to figure this out, doing what they can, and as long as you take this as a learning moment and choose to do something with it, you're fine.

#voting #civic engagement #primaries #elections #america #elections 2024 #politics