Olives @olives@qoto.org

More 500s appearing again.

Also:
https://reason.com/2023/06/08/maines-legislature-passes-bill-to-partially-decriminalize-prostitution/
"But keeping sex work customers criminalized keeps in place many of the harms of total criminalization. The sex industry must still operate underground, which makes it more difficult for sex workers to work safely and independently."

"A recent study of prostitution laws in European countries found full decriminalization or legalization of prostitution linked to lower rape rates, while countries that instituted the Nordic model during the study period saw their rates of sexual violence go up."
#japan

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/06/japan/society/japan-sex-tourism/
I would not take advice from someone who runs an org called "People Against Pornography" and basically sounds like a prohibitionist.

Something which has been seen in some countries is that when they had prohibitions, people couldn't report it to the police, and the police might even be part of the problem, they might abuse someone in exchange for "overlooking" it.

See https://reason.com/2024/05/24/what-does-decriminalized-sex-work-actually-look-like/
#japan

Remember that it has nothing to do with whether the themes of something are "offensive" or "taboo". It's whether the person depicted (if anyone is depicted, think fictional characters) consented to that*.

* When talking about someone consenting, I obviously mean adults here.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-04/prison-journalism-jail-newspapers-giving-voice-to-prisoners/104399728
"Prison newspapers have overcome bans to give incarcerated Australians a voice and connection to outside"
#auspol #FreeSpeech

People in Australia really should be disturbed that the leader of one of the major parties basically wants to curtail the ability to protest because someone might say something supportive of Hamas.

It's basically a way of saying "subhumans" without actually saying subhumans. That is what makes it awful. It also has a vibe of being archaic and old.

Also, if someone isn't making the bare minimum effort to not use blatant and cartoonish dehumanizing language which looks like something which popped out from fifty years ago, then that kind of says something about them as a person.

If someone uses the word "deviant", that is basically an immediate red flag.

The reason is that it shows that they habitually dehumanize people and that usually means that they are unlikely to have anything useful to say.

My profile appears to load if I click on my name on a post but not if I click on it in the sidebar.

Social media drama is something I don't particularly miss.

I shouldn't have to say this but when I say someone who is LGBT, I don't mean like an activist, I mean, someone with particular sexualities or other things. They don't have to be an activist. Maybe, they are. But, they don't have to be.

I'm saying this because I've gotten this take before (not on this site though) and it is missing the point.

Something that has characters who are LGBT doesn't have to be boring though. Maybe, there are developers from a large company who create dull entertainment.

If someone is just churning out sludge, then that is probably not going to save it, but it doesn't have to be boring. For instance, I think someone might miss how many titles might have something like that present.

In essence, it's a variation on a social media issue where someone says something, that something gets probably taken out of context, someone assumes the worst, and it becomes a recipe for (further?) drama.

And then, there is a whole lot of yelling and people missing the point about what it is actually about.

And yes, it does get pretty silly. Social media is like that (particularly that site).

It's a bit tricky because it's probably not that easy to tell what is going to take off (in a bad way) and what isn't. We have the benefit of hindsight but maybe they didn't.

In regards to Godot, the account manager should not have picked a fight with a random person on social media (even if they find them annoying). By calling themselves "woke", it taps into a pre-existing idea that woke means someone who is politically correct, a stiff, and pedantic (this is how the term is seen among a number of people).

What they should have done was ignored someone's random take and said something like "hey, who has built a game with characters who are LGBT?". I don't think anyone would have batted an eye, if they did that. The way they handled the debacle was also quite unprofessional and only poured fuel on the flames.

Was that response to them warranted? Maybe not, social media isn't a nice place. That said, the account manager should have avoided getting involved in social media drama to begin with.

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/facebooks-not-so-intelligent-ai-bans-female-photo-charity-hundred-heroines
"Female photography charity Hundred Heroines has been banned by Facebook for ten years for 'breaking community guidelines' in a seeming mixup due to the word heroine being mistaken for illegal opioid heroin."
#FreeSpeech

Looks like an electoral deepfake law in California has already been struck down as unconstitutional shortly after it was passed.

To reiterate, for the next update, I'm going to briefly cover human rights and will supplement the VR paragraph.

I don't know if there is anything else I might add.