We need to concern ourselves with what the corporations do.

Who gives a shit how they explain themselves?

Once the corps do something egregiously bad, we should not ask for an explanation. We should insist they change how they behave. Period.

Apple welding their phones to their own store, exclusively, is just like paying workers with scrip instead of dollars. This used to be a common practice for capitalists. The scrip is spendable only in the company store.

We have to stop all such anticompetitive practices.

Just a reminder, to stop the practice of getting paid in scrip the American workers had to take up arms and shoot some people. Look up Battle of Blair Mountain. It’s not like the capitalists stopped the practice just because it was unpopular, lol. Nor did the anticompetitive practice of paying wages in scrip stop because people called their senators and wrote angry letters.

Can’t the MIC just use any existing Linux distro?

I am trying to understand what the injury here is?

Is it mostly about reputational damage from association? Kinda like why are we eating the same food as MIC and at the same table? Is there an injury here beyond this that I am not seeing?

Couldn’t the MIC shut down every FOSS project by declaring they love them and use them? I hope no FOSS dev is so simpleminded as to knee jerk like that.

We have to accept living in a dirty world with dirty people, to some extent. People we don’t like will use our favorite projects sometimes. That’s par for the course.

Where I would draw the line is implemeting some change into the distro that is either only or primarily useful for nefarious purposes, and is largely useless to 99% of normal/ethical use cases. Now THAT would be a real problem, and a real red line, imo.

Bad corporate behaviour is a political problem.

Here we are talking about technological solutions for political problems. Why?

I mean quality, and giant, compendiums for their industries/themes.

If some store sends me their catalogue, they’re soliciting. That’s the practice I want to go away.

Instead, say I am in the market for suits, I pick up a giant men’s apparel catalogue which has ads from every source imaginable. This can be a website too, paper is optional. I come to them when I need something. Every apparel store, vendor, and dealer is in there. It is competitive and neutral. The owner of the catalogue may not sell their own things in the same catalogue (amazon breaks this important rule). The owner of the catalogue is regulated and may not reject ads for any reason in order to avoid bribes from the vendors to silence their competitors. The ads themselves are regulated and must be truthful and informative, without the psychological manipulations. Talk about the product and do not talk about how I will feel after the purchase.

That’s the vision I have. Computer Shopper was pretty close to this.

Bring back catalogs.

Who here remembers Computer Shopper?

When I want something, I’ll come to you. Don’t come to me.

That’s not necessarily an issue. The mob is often right.

I’ll take the mob over the despot any day, unless I am the despot.

Words are sufficient only in a system that prioritizes broad wellbeing (as opposed to prioritizing the billionaires), when such a system works well, is healthy, is valued by most, etc.

We don’t have it. We have a “every man for himself” and “got mine, fuck you” system.

I hate to say it, if anyone wants something in our system now, they have to take it by fiat and force. The fascists get it. They use the methods that work, it’s just that their desired end state is intolerable shit for most. If their end state had freedom and human rights for everyone, most would forgive the methods.

Truth and “Truth social” are different things.

Truth is good.

Truth social is an orwellian social network that is at war with the truth.

Elon sieg heilling twice and then signal boosting facists and illegally cutting democratically approved and institutionally valid spending, that hasn’t radicalized anyone.

Totally normal behavior.

It’s gotta be the video games and the dark web. What’s dark web? It is any web space I don’t know about. Duh.

I am not a fan of a few billionaires locking up every freedom we used to have so they can keep trucking toward the world’s first trillionaire.

I think the concept of moderation by an individual needs more scrutiny. Why not build a software algorithm to allow for subscribers to vote on moderation actions?

In other words, instead of vertical top heavy moderation, privide a more level, more horizontal process, where our peers play a significant role, or even act as co-moderators.

We are recreating in software all the top down vertical hierarchies we tend to be sceptical of in the real world. Why?

Imagine if there were no jury trial? How much worse would things be?

So why do we build an online world with a lower standard than we use to build the physical world. That’s just sloppy.

I think both peace and war are profitable. But those that profit from war may be more pushy than those that profit from peace, and so may get their way even as an unpopular minority .

Unless, the left (usually more pro peace) learns a few lessons from the right and places good outcomes above the holier than thou moral purity. “I’ve never made anyone uncomfortable” is not the merit badge that some think it is.

Of course the left can never be a mirror copy of the right because the left cannot afford to give as few fucks about anything as the right (who represent the already-haves economic incumbents; it’s not called the “fuck you money” for nothing). But the left can be way tougher and nuancedly uncompromising and even calculatingly and carefully millitant.

Might does not make right but might DOES make POLICY.

You need both right and might to live under a good policy.

Lotta good it does anyone to be right and insightful on all the issues and have zero impact anywhere.

Quote from the video, “You can smell it as well,” refering to the turbine opetation.

They emit smell. That comports with the leak being gas and not just heat.

Crypto is a solution looking for a problem.

The people behind crypto never studied the history of the gold standard.

Crypto is a ponzi scheme virtual asset, not a currency.