ABrockwell @aebrockwell@qoto.org

🔥 This is really important news from @indivisibleteam - it is the first progressive org of its size to do this in the US, and think they will set the model that many others will follow. They deserve our kudos and a warm welcome from the Fediverse for this choice.

If you are at all interested in progressive US politics, it is an immediate must-follow.

cc: @fediversenews @fediversereport @spreadmastodon #Indivisible #TwitterMigration

Microsoft, after laying off human news editors, has been spotlighting false and bizarre stories.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/tech/microsoft-ai-news/index.html

“We are Jewish writers, artists, and activists who wish to disavow the widespread narrative that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic.”

A Dangerous Conflation
An open letter
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/a-dangerous-conflation/

#Palestine #Israel #IsraelPalestine

Tuberville’s harm to our military warrants his immediate expulsion.

REMINDER: ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and other large trained neural models are NOT "artificial intelligence", they're just stochastic parrots, remixing and regurgitating what they've been fed. There's no theory-of-mind involved, so no understanding: there's no "there" there. (A real live parrot exhibits more intelligence than this.)

Don't call it AI; call it parrot-tech. That way you'll have a better perspective on what it can (and can't) do.

When a newspaper says "tilts right" or "less woke" they mean "racist as a klan rally."

Enough with glad-handing. We have to call things what they are.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/27/elon-musk-twitter-x-anniversary/

Hot take: When people say they're going to do a "deep dive", they're usually about to do a brief overview.

If you poison the information pipeline to voters, you can kill democracy — it relies on informed consent of the governed, built on a shared sense of reality. That shared sense is splintering in ways that are tearing apart our societies, often based on widely held delusions. Musk made it way worse.

"In fairness, we should be forcing Mike Pence to carry his campaign to term."

Mrs. Betty Bowers

I'm not big on middle eastern politics but I do think it's important to register my disapproval of the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli govt. That's not to excuse or support Hamas in any way, but their heinous terrorist acts don't justify the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians, many of then children. The refusal of many western politicians to condemn this is shameful.

Drew this one just before an insurrectionist was elected Speaker of the House

#uspol #cartoon #politics #fascism #democracy #authoritarianism

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

– George Orwell, 1984

A reminder as we wake up to the news of another mass shooting: One party’s members walk around Congress with AR-15 pins on their lapels. They aren’t there to help solve the gun violence crisis. They are there to help enable it.

The Associated Press -- like essentially every other major journalism outlet -- has totally normalized extremism.

Calling the new house speaker a "staunch conservative" -- a pathetically weak euphemism for far-right extremist -- is only the latest example of Big Journalism's collapse into willful helplessness.

It's journalistic cowardice in the face of a movement that aims to bring down democracy, and by extension journalism.

Vegemite is 100 years old today! What a little Aussie icon.
---
We've been loving and adoring Vegemite for 100 years - ABC News

#Vegemite #Australia https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/vegemite-celebrates-100-anniversary/103014788

"The FBI released new data last week showing that violent crime is down in America, but that hate crimes are up. This is completely at odds with right-wing narratives about the United States, which portrays surging violence in lawless 'Democrat-run' cities. Instead, the data show a different picture: violence is down, except against the very social groups that are targeted by right-wing tropes and the MAGA movement."

~ Brian Klaas

#violence #crime #HateCrimes

https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-politics-of-the-pariah

The fact that two former Trump attorneys have now confirmed — via guilty pleas — that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election included criminal acts should be a much bigger story.

Arresting the person who is trying to save our planet for protesting against the people who knowingly are destroying it seems ludicrous, but that's the idiotic world we live in. I'm a non apologetic supporter of #gretathunberg she is doing what more of us should be doing. #climatechange #climatecrisis https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67136772

We're told repeatedly that it's just the price of one coffee a month.

But the combined cost of every single tool, service, app and game demanding a cup of coffee a month becomes the equivalent of paying for enough caffeine to poison even the strongest constitution.

https://www.theindex.media/p/the-subscription-economy-sucks

#ClimateChange #ExtinctionRebellion