My main account is here. I’m also using this one: solo@piefed.social, because I really like the feed feature.

Btw I’m a non-binary trans person [they/she/he].

  • 1.45K Posts
  • 542 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: May 18th, 2024
  • solo@slrpnk.nettoSolarpunk@slrpnk.net•Decomputing as Resistance
    11·
    5 days ago

    I see things differently than the way they are analysed in this text.

    AI by itself is nothing. What it is depends on the context, and the context here is capitalism. This is very obvious because most, if not all, the problems atributed to AI in this text, actually derive from how capitalism works. Maybe I should I say how AI works under capitalism.

    So the problem for me is not the tool itself, it’s who is holding it. Meaning, going after AI, doesn’t change how capitalism operates. It’s by unstiching capitalism that the broader social and economic relations get the chance to reconfigure.

  • solo@slrpnk.nettoAnarchism and Social Ecology@slrpnk.net•Anarchism versus communalism
    8·
    6 days ago

    I don’t agree with everything Bookchin said, but I believe that this is mostly due to the info that was available at the time (it’s the ecology of freedom that I have in mind). At the same time, I really like his openness to look for new ways for social change. To my understanding, this is how he got to anarchy.

    If I got this right, through his book social anarchism or lifestyle anarchim he actually denounced the path anarchy was taking: abandoning collective freedom practices, for personal freedom. I agree with this point, because imo, the important thing is to create societies that are organised in such a way (horizontaly, bottom-up etc) that nurture people so we can explore our full potential as humans. For me, the goal is not to do what I want at all times.

    So he came up with social ecology and communalism, as a solution to the problems he found that contemporary anarchism had/has. And Rojava came along.

    I dunno, at least this is my super-brief understanding so far.

  • solo@slrpnk.netOPtoClimate Crisis, Biosphere & Societal Collapse@sopuli.xyz•The caps of glass bottles contaminate beverages with microplasticsEnglish
    1·
    14 days ago

    Thanks for the input, I had heard that cork harvesting is considered a sustainable production, but hadn’t looked into it at all. If I got this right, it doesn’t hurt the oak cork trees at all.

    That said, if I imagine a corporation like coca-cola wanted to shift to corks, I suppose the demand for them would rise due to how many beverages they sale and more oak corks would need to be planted. Wouldn’t this mean disturbing some existing ecosystems, perhaps clear-cutting some areas of other trees to create new monocultures, just to meet demands?

    So in a way I can see how sustainable cork harvesting is in a small scale, but I don’t think it would be the same if big corporations are involved. Something like that.

  • solo@slrpnk.nettoInfrapolitics@slrpnk.net•What is Prefigurative Politics?English
    5·
    19 days ago

    We can emancipate ourselves only if we start building the new society within the shell of the old one.

    For me, this is it.

    In a way, I believe that capitalist system has power on us also because we use it. To use it less and less, we need to create other networks to just start using at first, and then be able to rely upon them. The more we use these alternatives the less we use or depend on the existing system, and consequently, the less power they have on us.

    Just to be clear, I’m not saying this is the only thing to do, just that imo this is something that needs to be done, among other things.

  • solo@slrpnk.nettofixing@slrpnk.net•repair cafes are oriented to “give you fish”, rather than “teach a man to fish”
    3·
    19 days ago

    I think this depends very much on the project itself. Repair cafes are not by definition one way, or another.

    For example, even tho I am not super tech-savvy, I have participated in 2 different makerspaces, in 2 different places in europe and both of these project had a very similar approach. We met weekly or bi-weekly do stuff in the workshop, and every month or so we had a repair cafe event. Some people wanted just their stuff to be fixed. Those who wanted to know more about fixing them themselfs, they were invited to attend the makerspace meetings.

  • solo@slrpnk.nettoSolarpunk technology@slrpnk.net•‘Climate Delusion’ Or Vital Solution? Carbon Capture’s Uphill Battle | NOEMA
    4·
    19 days ago

    Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration (CCS) is a topic I changed my mind about, not that long ago, including its subsets like Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), Direct Air Capture (DAC), etc. Up to last year or something, I was thinking that it’s important for these kind of tech to be researched.

    Now I see things differently:

    • To my understanding, the only CCS tech that makes sense is the one that catches emissions at the source, the factory chimneys.

    • The others that claim to suck up GHG and store them “out of sight out of mind” are highly problematic for so many reasons. They are distractions from the real issue which is phasing out fossil fuel.

    A few relevant links:

    Fact or fantasy? Can carbon dioxide removal save the climate?

    For fossil fuel corporations, keeping CDR on the agenda as a credible climate change solution is a Get Out of Jail Free card. Instead of stopping emissions, they promise to capture and bury them. Not now, but someday. As the CEO of Occidental Petroleum told a conference of her peers in 2023, “We believe that our direct capture technology is going to be the technology that helps to preserve our industry over time. This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”[

    Climeworks’ capture fails to cover its own emissions

    The car­bon capt­ure comp­any Cli­meworks on­ly capt­ur­es a fracti­on of the CO2 it promises its machines can capt­ure. The comp­any is fail­ing to car­bon off­set the em­issi­ons resulting from its operati­ons – which have grown rapidly in recent ye­ars.

    More articles in the relevant community: cdr@slrpnk.net

  • solo@slrpnk.netOPtoSolarpunk BreadTube@slrpnk.net•Contrapoints on Zionism
    2·
    22 days ago

    I can try to clarify this post as well as I can, the way I see things now. I don’t see things on this topic as I did a few years back. Understanding can be a process.

    I agree with JVP because I oppose colonialism in every form and all the propaganda that goes with it. Here are some of the things JVP say, and I would recommend reading all the text:

    Jewish Voice for Peace is guided by a vision of justice, equality and freedom for all people. We unequivocally oppose Zionism because it is counter to those ideals.

    While it had many strains historically, the Zionism that took hold and stands today is a settler-colonial movement, establishing an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others. Our own history teaches us how dangerous this can be.

    To try to sustain an apartheid state, a lot of effort is needed, both internally and internationally. Propaganda (among other things) does that, but it also has its limits. Israeli anti-zionists are proof of this.

    We know that white people in South Africa created a system that worked in their favor, and that they vocalized, acted upon, and legislated the dehumanization of the locals, just like Israeli-Zionists do. Still, they got over it, and it was not a fairy tale experience. To my understanding, at least some power imbalance is still present, but the fact that it is not institutionalized is super important imo.

    If white people in S.A. did it, Zionists in Israel can do it too. Even if it doesn’t seem possible right now. Let’s remember it didn’t seem possible for S.A. either. For me, this is realistic. I am not saying that this is the only possibility, clearly not. I am saying it is a possibility worth pursuing, and it can be achieved with adequate international pressure. There is an example to follow, copy the good stuff, and avoid the mistakes.

    So I cannot accept that a person with progressive perpectives on many topics, and as well-read as Nataly, is not aiming towards any kind solution. On the contrary, in her reddit post, she is repeating typical Zionist propaganda. She also says other nonsensical stuff, as well as plain lies. You can decide for yourself, the text is just below. I hope that she will change her mind, and soon.

    Contrapoints' post on Reddit

    Thoughts on I/P

    (I’m posting this to Reddit instead of Twitter, hopefully to minimize fragments being clipped out of context. Sincerest apologies to the mods.)

    So—many leftists feel betrayed because I haven’t made a video on Palestine. Do they actually want a ContraPoints video about Palestine? Will they be happy if I get in the bath and pour milk on a mannequin of Benjamin Netanyahu? No. I have posted about Gaza occasionally, and have quietly given money to Palestinian aid organizations. But I think what leftists really want is for me to join their chorus of anger. They sense some hesitation on my part, and are judging me very harshly on my presumed opinions. I’d rather be judged on my actual opinions. So, here they are:

    Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Yes. Do I oppose it? Yes. Do I feel angry about it? Yes. I also feel a lot of other things:

    I. Doom. The week after October 7 it was clear the mood among Israeli leaders and civilians was overwhelmingly kill-or-be-killed existential panic and unstoppable lust for revenge. It reminded me of the US after 9/11. There was no reasoning or protesting them out of it. Nor was it politically feasible for the US to withdraw aid to Israel on a timeframe that would make a difference. It would have required replacing most of Congress and overturning decades of bipartisan strategy and diplomacy. Even in the best case scenario, it would’ve taken years. So there was a sense of futility. But worse:

    II. Misery. The leftist pro-Palestine movement quickly decided that their primary goal was not merely opposition to the genocide, but opposition to Zionism in general; that is, opposition to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. And here they decided to draw the line separating decent people from genocidal fascists, which had the following consequences:

    It shrunk the coalition. “Zionist” is a very broad category. Most Jews are Zionists. Anyone who supports a two-state solution is a Zionist.

    It was politically infeasible. What is the pathway that takes us from the present situation to the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state? I don’t see how this could happen without either a total internal collapse of Israeli society or else, you know, nuclear war. As usual, leftists have championed a doomed cause.

    It introduced dangerous ambiguities. The vagueness of “Zionism” as a political Satan enables all kinds of rhetorical abuses. On the one hand, rightwing Israelis hold up all Anti-Zionist protests as existentially threatening and inherently antisemitic. On the other hand, there is a long history of antisemites using the term “Zionist” in deliberately equivocal ways (ZOG, etc). Antisemites are happy for the opportunity to misappropriate the now-popular “Anti-Zionist” label to legitimize their agenda, and many people are not informed enough about antisemitism to recognize when this is happening. These problems are mutually reinforcing.

    III. Dread. The online left has spent the last 20 months distributing hundreds of photos and videos of dead Palestinian children. The main effect of this has been to create a population of people in a constant state of bloodboiling rage with no consequential political outlet. I fear this may be worse than useless. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism are conceptually not the same, and conflating them is dangerous. But in practice, the way Israel is perceived does seep out into attitudes toward Jews in general. I don’t think Jews who feel isolated and wary in the current atmosphere are simply hysterical or hallucinating. Yes, there’s communal trauma and hypervigilance. Yes, there’s disingenuous rightwing ghouls dismissing and censoring all criticism of Israel on the pretext of “fighting antisemitism.” But there’s also a valid fear of historical antisemitic patterns recurring, and that fear gives power to the rightwing Zionist claim that only Israel can keep Jews safe. Does this mean Israel should not be criticized and sanctioned? Absolutely not. But it’s something I don’t want to risk contributing to if not outweighed by tangible benefits. So, I approach the issue cautiously.

    IV. Bitterness. Much of the online left spent all of 2024 single-mindedly focused on Palestine and the complicity of Democratic politicians in sending aid to Israel. This campaign had the following effects:

    Zero Palestinian lives were saved. Not one fewer bomb or bullet was fired by the IDF.

    It may have slightly contributed to the reelection of Trump, guaranteeing that the US will put no diplomatic pressure on Netanyahu for at least four years, and making protests against Israel both much riskier and less effective. Trump is also, incidentally, a menace to me and basically everyone I care about. A perfectly enlightened being would feel no bitterness about this, but I do.

    None of this is the fault of Palestinians, of course, who are overwhelmingly the victims here. I hope that someday American policy will shift in their favor, and I will continue to support that cause.

    TL;DR I see the situation as bleak, intractable, extremely divisive, and devoid of any element that could be appropriately transformed into political entertainment. That’s why I haven’t made a video about it.

    Hopefully it goes without saying that these are just my thoughts—I’m sure other “breadtubers” have different opinions.

    [source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ContraPoints/comments/1lvxfqo/thoughts_on_ip/]

    Of course, there are so many more things to say on this matter, but I will stop here because I don’t want this to get even longer.

    Some resources from JVP, and I would suggest spending time on their site:

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