Paul Sutton @zleap@qoto.org

BREAKING: Gunman shoots his way into Colorado Supreme Court building, where justices recently ordered Trump off the ballot.

On Substack’s Nazi Problem, and Ours
 
Happy New Year! We are off to a depressing start with a reflection on how to navigate the moral quandaries of social media extremism and tech bro idiocy – and a plea to my readers to stick with me through it all.
 
New piece:

🧵1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/on-substacks-nazi-problem-and-ours

Protest sign reads: My grandpa didn't survive Auschwitz to bomb Gaza. #gaza #Israel #freepalestine

Why won’t UK politicians address the biggest part of tax evasion in the UK, which is caused by the absue of limited liability companies due to poor state regulation? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/01/02/why-wont-uk-politicians-address-the-biggest-part-of-tax-evasion-in-the-uk-which-is-caused-by-the-absue-of-limited-liability-companies-due-to-poor-state-regulation/. HMRC has got new powers to find petty tax cheats on eBay as from today - whilst ignoring the massive problem that its failure to properly tax fraudulent limited companies has created. The effective regulation of companies in this country is long overdue. So why will no politician talk about this?

This is a plastic confetti found in the small condo courtyard. Several years ago, here lived a young family, and their kids used a bunch of these confetti by their front door, which got blown around. I’ve picked up all that I could find to properly discard. I can’t believe I still found one today.

Please, don’t ever buy/use plastic confetti. Please think of the consequences, however minute. Thank you.

#plastic #pollution #PSA

Studies on the illusory truth effect have shown that you can make people believe some outrageous things, like elephants are faster than cheetahs, simply by repeating it enough times. This work builds off the Asch conformity experiments, where participants agreed with wrong answers a majority of the time. Repetition and peer pressure can do horrible things.

Maybe you remember a couple of years ago, when millions of people were yelling about schools offering students litter boxes if they identified as cats. Nobody really believed it, but they had no trouble acting like they did. It wasn't about litter boxes. It was about attacking public education.

That's a good example.

There's a reason why corporations invest billions in advertising and messaging. They know they have to vary their repetition across a range of contexts to get everyone to believe... anything. That's also why billionaires and rich families have gobbled up newspapers, and why they also fund "independent journalists" to go around touting their message. It's about surrounding people with improvisations on the same lie from a hundred angles.

It's All About Repetition, Repetition, Repetition: How Lies Work https://www.okdoomer.io/how-lies-work/

I've been on Mastodon for just over a year and this is the post that has gotten the most reponse and reposting of any during that time. My hope is to see some mention of the photo/video of this being used in a courtroom.

The bombardment of Gaza and raids on the West Bank have intensified - here is the latest.#Explainer #Gaza #Hamas #Hezbollah #IsraelWaronGaza #Jerusalem #OccupiedEastJerusalem #Israel #MiddleEast #Palestine
Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 88

Can we just stop using Discord and go back to using forum sites?

I realize it's (comparatively) super easy to set up, but y'all realize it's just going to bite us all in the ass as soon as someone at Discord decides they need to turn up the profit ratio?

It's a ticking time bomb. The whole thing is going to follow the enshittification process, and anything of value on there is going to be lost/sold/destroyed. Y'all are just feeding the monster.

💔16 people were injured in rocket attacks in Kiev

❤️22 people were injured in Kharkov as a result of this morning's russian missile attack

Source: Livemapua (30 minutes ago)

Stand With Ukraine, support Ukraine

🎉 Happy New Year from Pixelfed! 🌟

This year, we promise to bring more features, enhance user experience, and continue to uphold the values of digital freedom and community collaboration.

Let's make 2024 a year of unforgettable memories, shared moments, and groundbreaking advancements in the world of decentralized social media.

Cheers to a fantastic year ahead! 🚀

#Pixelfed2024 #OpenSource #PrivacyMatters #Pixelfed #CommunityStrong