The Charlotte Urbanists in North Carolina have a Benches 4 Bus Stops program that's doing similar work. I can also share info resources for those on the East Coast.
derek
joined 1 year ago
What's your point and why do you think it matters in this context?
Preface: I'm American. I grew up in a Christian Conservative home. I was homeschooled, went to Christian Conservative schools, and attended a "Bible College". I escaped after college and have been self-educating and trying to help others escape since then. The post below got a bit long in the tooth but the answer to your question is tough to explain succinctly. Bear with me if you can.
Most Americans have been coerced since birth into wage slavery that intentionally denies them any legal means of fulfilling their basic needs. This is true for "upper class" and "impoverished" Americans alike but by different methods. American corporate culture and common political propaganda brainwashes people into believing the fault for this lies with their neighbors and extended family. This has trapped many in generational self-oppression and conditioned them to believe that this is both normal and necessary either for their own survival or the survival of some principal(s) without which society crumbles.
They are discouraged from participating in deep introspection, engaging in political dialogue, keeping up with current events, etc. This is perpetuated not only by their peers and leaders (if their leaders speak to them at all) but by the same systems on which they are dependent.
Access to information leads to education and freedom. That's bad for business. It's also why almost all of the American Progressive movements (such as they are) are led by those born after Gen X (which is a topic I'll set aside for another thread).
So... What's going on?
A plan set in motion during the sixties as a response to the Civil Rights movement and integration; crystalized in the seventies by Paul Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation (yes, that one), and Jerry Falwell et al; normalized in the eighties using abortion as a wedge issue and fabricating the "right to life" movement; and has been co-opted by the survivors of the fall of aristocracy (now known as oligarchs) to seize power over the means of governance, justice, and national self-determination.
Politico has a great article from over a decade ago that covers the rise of the American Religious Right in more detail: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/
Many Americans are completely unaware of the origins and motivations for the beliefs they've adopted and now identify with. They vote along party lines without even knowing who the people they vote for actually are or what they intend to do with the power afforded them. This isn't an accident. It's a coordinated attack on the common people whose perpetrators wield the people's ignorance as an orbitoclast and treat misinformation like an opiate. Citizens can't be appalled by the behavior in that video if they never see it, can't be convinced it's real, or are deluded enough to think it's always been that way.
There's still hope but we're short on time and don't yet have effective strategies against the tacticians at the top of the pyramid. I don't know what the path out of this looks like yet but I know we're at a disadvantage, that we'll need help, and that free information and education are key parts of it. My ancestors were forced to flee from the Nazis. They wouldn't have survived without the compassion of strangers working for the common good across language barriers and disparate ideologies. I still have family in Europe who lived through that reality. I've met them and heard their stories. I know what's at stake and how bad it can get.
I've heard that small men only cast long shadows when the sun is low in the sky. I think that's true and that night is upon us. If the shadow of America hangs over the world after the sun has set then it is cast by powerful few using the husk of Liberty as a shadow puppet. Her torch a bonfire and its fuel the working class. All made fat and docile: ready to burn while blaming their friends for the inconvenience. The point is not the spectacle though. This Hydra is cold-blooded and it needs the warmth of the flame to survive. We've got to figure out how to deny it that foothold.
That's what the ever-loving fuck is going on.
All people are born ignorant to their material circumstances and the conditions necessary for them. Disadvantaged folk often have a more difficult path out of that ignorance. Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides some insight into why: one rarely has capacity for deep introspection when they've been deprived of basic needs.
The US Military (among others) purposefully recruit more heavily in economically depressed areas. This has been true for decades. These two facts are correlated. Couple this with American Exceptionalist propaganda which created the myth and social elevation of the American Soldier as the ultimate freedom fighter / patriot and maybe you can sympathize with those who enlist.
My point is not that individuals should be excused from being taken to task for their actions. Nor is it that all those who enlist are duped into it. It's this: people are rarely lost causes, are often unguided, and live unexamined lives. So when confronting anyone: their personal context matters. When I'm struggling to find empathy I look to Daryl Davis. When we encounter ignorance, hate, and bigotry, we are right to oppose it. Always. How we do so should be conditioned, and possibly tempered, by the fact that we ourselves are ignorant to the context of the neighbors assigned to oppress us.
Do not dismiss out of hand the power of speaking to reason and empathy in the face of violence and hate. Take them to task with the intention of educating a lost comrade. We must defend ourselves when the need arises but, prior to that Rubicon, we ought to acknowledge that were it not for circumstances outside our control so too could we have remained ignorant and been persuaded toward hate.
There is no more stalwart an ally than one who has been given the tools to free themselves from chains they were sold as armor.
They aren't daily updates. They are weekly. The program is called "AMA Update: Public Health Insights". I don't know why the OP is an imagine or why the info isn't accurate but the sentiment rings true.
Here's a link to the playlist containing all the videos published so far: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ZHBCvG4qsdahOWgVvBlJdK1qe-j3LZw
Fiat currency is just as silly. As is all money, really.
"I trade numbers for food. The numbers are accessible via a magnetic strip on some plastic in my pocket." or "I trade paper for clothing but the number of papers isn't as important as the number printed ON the papers." Both of these realities are absurd. :)
As a store of value representing labor rendered: neither of those are terrible systems and most people don't understand either of them anyway. Fiat seems "normal" because we grew up with it. That said: I'm no apologist. Popular crypto currencies offer little novelty for the layperson, no true improvement on the concept of currency generally, and cost orders of magnitude more to maintain their required infrastructure. I fail to see the appeal.
There are some projects which focus on the practical utility of decentralized currency (I remember thinking Nano (wikipedia.com) was cool back in the day) but they don't get the same kind of attention as meme coins because they can't be abused as easily. I've heard stories of these kinds of tools facilitating commerce in places where the local currency collapsed. Neat as that may be it isn't revolutionary... Still more convenient than bartering via cigarette though.
I'd like to tack on that this point can be used to highlight why this is so. It's a deep concept that can be explained simply and produces a lasting positive impact.
Everyone has fantasies. Sometimes we want them to be realized. Most often: we don't. Many people carry internal shame because of their fantasies and some of those people have difficulty with intimacy because of it.
Good sex with other people requires our investment in their comfort and pleasure. This can be emotionally complex and fulfilling to navigate. Masturbation is free of those complications but we often make up the difference via fantasy. This is normal and there's no need to confuse one space for the other. Masturbation and sex may fulfill similar basic needs on the surface but, in practice, they are very different exercises. It's normal for one's preferences to be different for each and for those preferences to shift over time.
Don't worry about "normal". Focus on having a healthy, honest, and emotionally aware sex life instead.
Signal.
Wired had an interview with Signal's President last year that I found enlightening and provided an entry point for me to self educate further. Here's an archive.org snapshot of it: https://web.archive.org/web/20240828100224/https://www.wired.com/story/meredith-whittaker-signal/
For the click-averse here's an excerpt I find compelling:
Going back to your sense of Signal’s new phase: What is going to be different at this point in its life? Are you focused on truly bringing it to a billion people, the way that most Silicon Valley firms are?
I mean, I … Yes. But not for the same reasons. For almost opposite reasons.
Yeah. I don’t think anyone else at Signal has ever tried, at least so vocally, to emphasize this definition of Signal as the opposite of everything else in the tech industry, the only major communications platform that is not a for-profit business.
Yeah, I mean, we don’t have a party line at Signal. But I think we should be proud of who we are and let people know that there are clear differences that matter to them. It’s not for nothing that WhatsApp is spending millions of dollars on billboards calling itself private, with the load-bearing privacy infrastructure having been created by the Signal protocol that WhatsApp uses.
Now, we’re happy that WhatsApp integrated that, but let’s be real. It’s not by accident that WhatsApp and Apple are spending billions of dollars defining themselves as private. Because privacy is incredibly valuable. And who’s the gold standard for privacy? It’s Signal.
I think people need to reframe their understanding of the tech industry, understanding how surveillance is so critical to its business model. And then understand how Signal stands apart, and recognize that we need to expand the space for that model to grow. Because having 70 percent of the global market for cloud in the hands of three companies globally is simply not safe. It’s Microsoft and CrowdStrike taking down half of the critical infrastructure in the world, because CrowdStrike cut corners on QA for a fucking kernel update. Are you kidding me? That’s totally insane, if you think about it, in terms of actually stewarding these infrastructures.
Lootboxes.
Players have a random chance of getting crate while playing the game. Each crate is a pool of item cosmetics with various levels of rarity. To acquire one of them the player must purchase a one-use key with real money. Expending the key on a crate initiates a die roll that determines which cosmetic is unlocked.
That's the gambling they're responsible for. What gambling players may of afterward is not the same conversation.
Ollama has a few uncensored models listed on their search page. dolphin-mixtral fits the bill.
Some useful links: https://ollama.com/search https://ollama.com/library/dolphin-mixtral https://huggingface.co/cognitivecomputations/dolphin-2.5-mixtral-8x7b https://erichartford.com/uncensored-models
I'm not associated with any of the orgs or people linked above. I'm just a nerd passing by who happened to know where to find the answer. ❤️
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Illegally! Amendment 13, Section 3:
No such vote was held. The disability was not removed. Allowing the tried and ~~convicted~~ impeached and indicted insurrectionist Donald Trump to appear on any ballot for any public position, State or Federal, after he was ~~convicted~~ impeached and indicted ~~of~~ for insurrection against the United States was the beginning of the Constitutional crisis we are now mired in and all of Congress is complicit.
Edited: a word. I don't give a flying fuck what the corrupted kangaroo circus in DC voted reality was. Anyone able to tie their own shoes who lived through that event knows what the truth is.