sojournTime @sojournTime@qoto.org

Upon Googling, I discovered that Ben #Garrett did not come up with the repulsive phrase "the #sin of #empathy": there has for several years existed a whole cottage industry of right-wing Christians dedicated to propagating the idea that empathy is a sin. I've been calling out #Christian #hypocrisy for as long as I can remember, but I think never in my life have I seen any doctrine quite so contrary to the #Gospels as this.

In light of US tech oligarchy setting its sights on Wikimedia Foundation, a historical detail I did not know before: #Wikipedia became the non-profit it is today partly as the result of a labour strike of Spanish Wikipedia editors who disagreed with the proposed inclusion of advertisements. Initially, it was not clear what revenue model Wikipedia would get, and Wales moved towards a for-profit model already a year after launch. However, rather than working for free, so Jimmy Wales could profit from their labour via advertising, Spanish contributors forked Spanish Wikipedia as the Encyclopedia Libre Universal. Under the threat of losing the editorial community of such a large language, Wales conceded and set up the non-profit.

That is to say, however imperfect they are, all the digital commons we have are the result of ongoing struggle and hard work to keep them as commons.

Via Las Redes Son Nuestras (https://www.consonni.org/es/publicaciones/las-redes-son-nuestras) by @teclista

Update with more info:
https://post.lurk.org/@rra/113873611500414068

Update: the National Archives have preserved the old whitehouse.gov site, including the PCAST report page at https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/pcast/documents-reports/

As of today, the reports of the #PCAST committee I served on are no longer available on the whitehouse.gov web page. As a temporary solution, my former PCAST colleague, Eric Horvitz, has made them available on his page: https://www.erichorvitz.com/PCAST_reports_2020-2025.htm

I feel like there were about 100 easier ways of doing this but I fully buy that OK Go actually went to these lengths because it's *no fun* otherwise and this is why I don't believe that anyone will ever give a shit about AI art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOEULOSVNK4

11 years ago Klint Finley laid out how neo-reactionary thought was taking hold in Silicon Valley

"many professionals, rather than admit to their role in gentrification, wealth disparity and job displacement, are casting themselves as victims. "

It remains an an amazing primer

Better than that horseshit NYT interview of "intellectual" Curtis Yarvin

https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/

Remember: When someone tells you democracy needs to be replaced, they're not making a political argument.

They're pitching a regime.

Because in the end, that's what gives them away. They don't want to end democracy to save society. They want to end it because, in their minds, they're already sitting on the throne.

Watch what happens when you suggest someone else might lead their proposed new system.

Watch how quickly their enthusiasm dims.

This isn't about ideology. It's not about left or right. It's about individuals so consumed by their own certainty, so convinced of their own superiority, that they see the fundamental equality of democracy as an obstacle to be overcome.

They don't hate democracy because it's inefficient. They hate it because it constrains them. Because it forces them to persuade rather than command. Because it treats their voice as equal to, not greater than, everyone else's.

It's base megalomania, encompassing the desire for power, and the absolute conviction that they alone deserve it.

In their minds, they're always the protagonist of the story they're selling. They're the ones who will sweep away the messiness, who will make the trains run on time, who will finally set things right.

Because they never finish that sentence with "...if we just gave power to someone else."

They'll speak with absolute certainty about democracy's failures. They'll point to its inefficiencies, its compromises, its endless debates. "Look how broken it all is," they'll say. "Look how much better things would be if we just..."

And right there - that's the tell.

There's a simple way to spot a wannabe tyrant.

Listen for anyone who says democracy is the problem. Not a problem to solve within democracy. Not a system to improve. A fundamental flaw that needs to be replaced.

New Calculator template brings interactivity to Wikipedia articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2025-01-15/Technology_report

The template basically allows the creation of small forms that allow readers to specify some numbers as input and use a formula to generate an output. It's even possible to simulate some simple algorithms step-by-step and expand the form after each step: see for instance an example of this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_algorithm#Procedure