Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

Great lunch read from @pluralistic on surveillance, state and corporate power, "post-ownership society" as designed by ghouls vs. a library socialism that we can all get behind, and why sometimes the conspiracy-minded in our midst are *not completely wrong* in their analysis, but often miss the bigger view: https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/

I particularly love the call at the end to remember how much common ground we have. There aren't THAT many ghouls. What could we build if we get coordinated?

You can make anything look efficient and profitable if there is a social compact to not count some of the costs.

Ah yes this fossil fuel stuff is so energy dense & so cheap. Except for the undrinkable water. Except for the acid rain. Except for the air pollution (and thus the asthma, premature birth and dementia). Except for the wars over it. Except for the climate change. Except for the roads needed to use it to move around. Except for the parking needed for the stuff needed to use the roads

If the STOP CSAM Act passes, just providing an encrypted app could lead to prosecutions and lawsuits.
https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-don-t-outlaw-encrypted-applications

I have not, thus far, experienced racist attacks on this platform, though I have had racist gibberish in my mentions that was quickly dispatched with a block. However, the lack of a vibrant array of Black voices, especially creative ones, here is notable and should bother anyone who used Twitter regularly in the last five years.

All of the things driven by Black Twitter that made it lively and exciting to be on Twitter no matter who you were are missing. There’s no color. It’s honestly dull.

Really line drawing exercises are a tremendously under-utilized are of #ethics reasoning and #moderation decisions, especially by people who don't think that they do this professionally.

A minor rant because I'm tired and it is topical.

What are line drawing exercises?

Let's start with how this comes up, work our way into a topical example, and then circle back and look at it from an ethics reasoning standpoint in software.

First, let's create a hypothetical server. Call it Alice…

In the late 1880s, when steam ships were replacing sailing cargo ships, one of the last roles for the sailing ships was to carry coal around the world to supply ports where steamships wanted to go. A clean technology was essential to enable the growth of a dirty technology. And even today, fossil fuels aren’t magically just everywhere. A gigantic *** 40% *** of global shipping is just moving fossil fuels. So eliminating fossil fuel also drastically cuts global shipping emissions. #climate #ships

This is fine.

@williampietri You reach a certain age, and you think “Dammit, why did I spend all that time promoting myself when I should have been promoting other people?”

My favorite quote for today:

"So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

#Quotes

Calling it a gotcha that I "critique Biden policies after voting for him" is what's wrong with US politics today.

Voting for him doesn't mean I can't critique him—it's literally the best reason to be critical. It's called holding electeds accountable. It's how democracy works. And it’s how political parties work when they aren’t cults.

A current worry: The only people with existing deep expertise in things like how the atmosphere/ocean/geosphere work are academics, who are ace at giving impartial evidence-based advice. But as lots of climate “solutions” companies spring up, these academics are consulting with them & in some cases leaving academia to work for them (often much better pay & working conditions) & are then limited in what they can tell the rest of us. So the public source of open unbiased expertise is at risk.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

https://gizmodo.com/clearlink-ceo-clarke-sell-your-dog-for-the-office-1850353910

I found this gem in my images folder

The best return on investment from any dollar leaving my bank account is from the money I pay in taxes. There is not a day I don't think about how lucky I am to be surrounded by parks, schools, and libraries that are open to everyone. We come to the aid of the Ukrainian people when they are attacked by Putin with weapons purchased with my tax dollars. We have the luxury of taking for granted that our roads will be maintained, our courts will resolve disputes and punish the guilty, and that the social safety net will provide support for those in need. Are any of these things perfect? Of course not, but that is on us, the voters who allow dark money from billionaires and corporations -- not taxpayer money -- to distort and undermine our democracy. I am proud to be an American and grateful to support our country by paying my taxes.

I see a lot of the stories about the Black teen who was shot for the crime of ringing a doorbell mention that he was an honor student and musician. That's great, but also irrelevant IMO. If he had been a high school dropout who watched TV all day, it still would not have been OK to shoot him. As a Black person myself, I've had enough of respectability politics.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/18/ralph-yarl-mother-interview-kansas-city-shooting

#BlackLivesMatter #BlackMastodon

Are they just playing?

Most likely.

But when you're 3 years old... Is there any meaningful difference between play and identity?

Are they transgender or nonbinary?
Who knows, probably too soon to tell.
But they're exploring who they are. And our job is to love them while they do.
While they play and grow and figure it out.

And I promise I will be there for them whatever it is their identity is in the end. However many times it changes.

@changelog I always love listening to @pluralistic, but on this episode of the Changelog podcast he was on a roll. ☝️ ☝️ ☝️

I did not expect to hear about the enshittification of podcasts, but the part about "chickenized reverse-centaurs" is sadly true, and frightening as it's "climbing the priviledge gradient from the most blue collar workers to the middle-class."

If you're on Mastodon/Fediverse, and how else are you reading this, this episode will grip you and won't let go until the end.

Anarchists, preservationists, protesters and parents - this is a fantastic history of how the Netherlands went from car culture to bike culture. It was no accident - it was an amazing, long, brilliant campaign.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/de-fiets-is-niets/

"Don't make me think" is only half of the story.

It's a #UX sin to assume that your app is the most important thing in your user's world, and add to their cognitive load unnecessarily. But sometimes the user *is* focused on your product. They don't want a low-touch, automagic experience. They want to be in control. Let them.

Don't *make* me think - but *let* me think.

This is part of why "reduce friction" is misleading. Friction is texture. Without it, there's nothing to grab on to

#UXDesign