probably would have snagged it and just like, hung around a bit and kept an eye out for the owner, were I broke.

genuinely want to buy some

what is wrong with me?

Good info to have out there! There's a 0.0% chance of me switching to Windows, but if you're going to run it this is the best way to do it.

Also might want to change the shitter links to xcancel.com or something so that people can see the whole thread without having an account at that torment-nexus-ass website

35
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

Seriously, he manages to spend this entire video pointing out his own obvious mistakes, or saying in the edit how he'll correct them later, but then has to put a correction in the comments about how he drastically underestimated prices that he didn't bother to check, so the final "maybe correct" results aren't even reflected in the video at all. And then he completely speculates on how they might price things and completely neglects the possibility that the pricing at two different restaurants might have anything to do with eachother.

Why even make this? I guess the point about "premium" fast food places selling you bigger portions

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 65 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah clearly its the person who doesn't like cops that's the problem not the cop rocking up to get drunk armed and uniformed (or if he was there for other reasons, still pretty much fuck that)

If you made people uncomfortable, its either because they're a bootlicker or just afraid the cop was gonna escalate the situation and for some reason blames you for that (common American response to cop shit tbh. People recognize that how the cops behave is completely unconscionable but still feel the need to victim blame because "you could have just not provoked them" basically)

103
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

your weekly dose of hankschannel libshit. the description is pure "the president couldn't possibly have lied or made a mistake" copium

HOW IS HIS TAKEAWAY FROM ALL THIS THAT TWITTER IS BAD BUT BIDEN IS GOOD

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 73 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What's really incredible is their ability to say how we are evil propagandists with a straight face when probably 90+% of hexbears never/rarely interact with a single federated post and mostly just shitpost among ourselves

16

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2061061

I was a little skeptical about Ibis, mainly for practical/technical reasons, not philosophical differences (link).

But something today really changed my mind as to the necessity of figuring out those practical/technical hurdles... I discovered that Wikipedia has widely cited associated site "WikiSource" as its only source for the contents of Salvador Allende's final speech before his death, and now that widely referenced page has been deleted from the site, for "Copyright violation", despite the fact that it almost certainly wasn't, and even if it were, no person in their right mind would ever claim it as such. On the wikipedia side, there's been no updates to the many references to that page, and on the WikiSource side, no serious discussion on the implications of just nuking that highly relevant to the public interest speech from their site, and no coordination between the two.

They cite some Chilean copyright law, copied from the spanish language WikiSource, but then somehow come to the opposite conclusion that the esWS people did! This was a user-submitted english translation too, so they threw out all of that user's work over a speculative claim by some friggin internet janitor and didn't think that might be relevant. And none of this would have ever come up if they didn't try to become their own source, rather than citing independent websites and other sources... So. Fucking. Stupid.

And this is after they had the EXACT same discussion 10-12 years ago. It was deleted, and then later restored, based on the EXACT same line of chilean law. But someone decided it was time for a revisit a few months back and now all the links to it are dead again. Just in case, idk, the family of salvador allende decides to sue wikipedia? fat fucking chance

Also to add insult to injury, the first line of their "Copyright Discussions" page is as follows:

This page hosts discussions on works that may violate Wikisource's copyright policy. All arguments should be based entirely on U.S. copyright law.

I get that due to treaties chilean law is probably relevant here but this is all just a wank-off between Um Actually nerd moderators so it still made me rage a little

Anyhow thankfully archive.org aren't such dweebs and I can share with you here the contents of the speech:

Speech:Surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación.

My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself Commander of the Navy, and Mr. Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has appointed himself Chief of the Carabineros [national police].

Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I'm not going to resign! Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for the loyalty of the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.

They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and the people make history.

Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the Constitution and the law and did just that. At this definitive moment, the last moment when I can address you, I wish you to take advantage of the lesson: foreign capital, imperialism, together with the reaction, created the climate in which the Armed Forces broke their tradition, the tradition taught by General Schneider and reaffirmed by Commander Araya, victims of the same social sector who today are hoping, with foreign assistance, to re-conquer the power to continue defending their profits and their privileges.

I address you, above all, the modest woman of our land, the countrywoman who believed in us, the mother who knew our concern for children. I address professionals of Chile, patriotic professionals who continued working against the sedition that was supported by professional associations, classist associations that also defended the advantages of capitalist society. I address the youth, those who sang and gave us their joy and their spirit of struggle. I address the man of Chile, the worker, the farmer, the intellectual, those who will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has been already present for many hours -- in terrorist attacks, blowing up the bridges, cutting the railroad tracks, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to act. They were committed. History will judge them.

Surely Radio Magallanes will be silenced, and the calm metal of my voice will no longer reach you. It does not matter. You will continue hearing it. I will always be next to you. At least my memory will be that of a man of dignity who was loyal to his country.

The people must defend themselves, but they must not sacrifice themselves. The people must not let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets, but they cannot be humiliated either.

Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society.

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain. I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973

I know this is far from the worst thing Wikipedia has ever done, but it really got to me, and I feel an organization with its priorities in order would never behave this way. And in a federated system, not only could I use an instance with its priorities in better order, but also other sites would have likely mirrored the content.

44
43
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

Yeah, okay, sure

Late dotcom bubble ass marketing. I don't even get what they do but I see that they've shoe-horned "AI" into it somehow

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 99 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This kind of success story does not exist outside of the west

This. This is the completely unquestioned propaganda nugget that holds the whole belief system together. Who told you that? Why would you believe that?

Enormous, and economically successful countries like China, just have no immigrants, no refugees, and no social mobility? (not that the US has a ton, there's a lot of unacknowledged luck involved in this story too)

This story can absolutely happen in other countries. China even has a higher income mobility than the US. And if you look at the statistics, immigrants are actually disproportionately likely to be pulled down into the cycle of poverty that exists in the US, there's an alternate universe not so different from our own where this dipshit's parents had the resources to leave Iran, eventually landed in the US, and actually experienced downward mobility not upward, and rather than becoming exploiters themselves, hit a speed bump along the way like a serious injury or foreclosure or god knows what else and instead became destitute low-wage workers, who can't afford to live in (most of anyhow) CA, send their kid to law school to do unpaid internships, etc.

This person really has not considered that they aren't the protagonist of real life and most people's stories don't look like theirs

42

The campaign isn't leaderless, it was organized in large part by the people at Listen to Michigan, who explicitly say "We hold Biden's margin for victory", and "Biden must earn our vote through a dramatic change in policy." (emphasis mine). You can post as hard as you want about how absolutely servile to the democratic party you are, but most of the people voting uncommitted actually give half a shit about genocide, so don't claim them for yourself.

Like seriously, get fucked you brain-broken liberals. Biden won't save you, stop trying to undermine the few electoralists that are actually trying to make a difference in a potentially effective way.

17
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

and now someone from this.mutual aid.group I help with wants me to be done with my shit in 4 days not 5, as is the usual max, and they texted a bunch and called, all while my phone was off ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

161
Rare Stalin L (hexbear.net)
8
21
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

dunk tank for Destiny not for TVLR ofc

This dude literally thinks sitting in a gamer chair talking arguing with pepes and nazis and shit makes him, and people like him (the good smart liberals), so much more qualified to govern than the dumb doo-doo-heads who take literally any other job. Dude has no fucking clue what an actual day in the life of any worker who does a real job looks like, but he smugly talks down to them with his elementary school understanding of their job anyhow

I hate liberals and I hate this country jfc

EDIT: wow thanks hexbear for not showing me the that u/Pluto already posted this everywhere until after my post went live. working as intended

72

image shamelessly stolen from r/dumbphones and mostly unrelated

I feel like we could almost use a comm for this specifically but c/technology will do

Anyone else here have luck with cutting back on smartphone/technology use in general, or feel like they need to try a change in that department? Or even just social media? Chime in below I'd love to chat about it.

I'm avoiding work rn and thinking about smartphone use. I had an android phone for many years and I think it was a really negative force in my life. Sure there's lots of times it's useful as a one-off but overall I don't think it was actually good to have on me all the time. I think the overarching issue with a lot of modern tech is that it reduces or tries to eliminate intentionality on the part of the user, and make the user experience completely frictionless. But some of that "friction" is important, intentionality is important, without it we are just mindless consumers at the beck and call of marketers and big tech companies. Music apps don't need to decide what you listen to and in what order, being able to get a mix based on a song or artist is one thing, but the tiktok-ified endless autoplay of songs with no user input is... not good. especially when you grow up with that you lose so much.

Or social media I think we all know is a toxic time suck and honestly just a mindless addiction for many, even this place can take on that role, I know it does sometimes for me, it's easier to scroll than face whatever stressful thought or situation is at hand... and fine, maybe that urge to distraction isn't going away, but on reflection I find scrolling to be the least-soothing way of scratching that itch... So it would be better if it wasn't quite so frictionless, to help break the feedback loop.

Push notifications (for things other than messaging) are another insidious way that such behavioral patterns are fostered. For the computer nerds, I think of it as like an interrupt for my attention, it breaks the flow of what I'm doing and demands I look at it, and frankly 80% of push notifications just don't deserve that level of priority. But because exerting any control or intentionality over those notifications is made to be extra effort in the name of UX streamlining, most people just have these annoying interrupts conditioning their brain at the whims of whoever controls the apps.

In such a tech dependent world, user control over software is way more critical than it's ever been, and for all their annoyingness and often mediocre or bad takes on other topics, free software people have been hammering on that for years and building alternatives. All that to say: I've been using a linux phone (pinephone pro) as my only phone for the better part of 6 months now and it's been a breath of fresh air. I'm reading again for the first time in years, I'm building a music collection that I actually own, I'm starting to cut the tether to big tech spyware platforms, but I'm not disconnected from the world.

The point is: it's not a dumbphone, it just has some extra friction in places, and that has enabled me to be a lot more intentional about my use. It's slower, and the battery life is worse, and lots of other tradeoffs, but in practical terms mostly what that has led to is me being more intentional about my consumption. I can always just go on a computer and browse to my heart's content, or put videos on the TV all night, but the device that's with me all the time is optimized for the things I care about, not for spying on me and robbing me of my attention and sanity.

(and fwiw linux phones aren't really non-nerd ready yet unless your requirements are pretty basic, but I could see the next gen of them being much closer to linux-on-the-PC levels of easy. It's getting better every month)

But the lower tech alternative is what you are seeing more and more on places like r/dumbphones (and I have adopted pieces of this as well): purpose built devices. Instead of one device that does everything (including a bunch of stuff you don't even want it to and don't get any agency over as an end user), people are rediscovering the utility of having different tools for different tasks:

  • A small notebook replaces a huge power-hungry phone screen+stylus for taking notes
  • A digital camera replaces the AI-mangled modern smartphone camera for high fidelity photos.
  • A little game system replaces the microtransaction and predatory-mechanic laden cornucopia that is mobile games.
  • A book or ereader replaces the eyestrain-inducing, sleep-ruining experience of reading long-form text on a bright little phone screen.
  • A watch keeps the time, even when your phone would have long since run out of battery, and serves as a superior alarm clock for many circumstances, etc.
  • A wallet holds cash (okay and cards... and I guess most people haven't abandoned these yet) that can be used to pay for goods and services, without the limitations of battery, internet connection, spying, etc. of mobile payment schemes. venmo/paypal/whatever are good to have in your back pocket, but IMO are really only like, revolutionary, if you're comparing them to credit cards and bank transfers, especially in the US where there's no other good system for easily transferring money digitally.
  • wired headphones/earbuds can be much more durable alternatives to made-for-disposal hermetically sealed bluetooth pods, they are cheaper, they can sound better, they are available in a plethora of options and repairable when they break. Not that bluetooth is verboten, many bt devices are better, but the airpods and those modeled after it are pretty trash.
  • if you are picky about such things, a dedicated audio player can play music, audiobooks, podcasts, for longer, in better quality, with less interruptions, than a smartphone. I'm less certain about this one personally, as even dumphones can usually have headphones and play music for you (some even support FM which is cool and saves battery over streaming), but it all depends on your preferences!
  • And the titular dumbphones hold the potential to be much longer-lasting, more reliable makers of calls and texts, by virtue of being simpler. having a phone's primary purpose return to being communication makes it better at that role...

Now none of this is to say you should carry all this stuff and more all the time. But it's something you can be intentional about and tailor to your needs!

Maybe you're a theory-head without a rigid schedule: skip the games, camera, watch, headphones, etc and just carry an ereader, a notebook and a dumbphone

Or you're more of a direct action andy, you can leave the dumbphone (the only one that can be used to track you still) at home, or skip it entirely, or get a device with killswitches! Much harder to do if you limit yourself to the Apple/Android dichotomy

So yeah, point is you can pick what things you actually care about and bring those, when appropriate, and use them when you want to rather than doing, like, everything everywhere all at once with your smartphone. Yes you can tweak your smartphone to avoid many of these issues, and maybe that's good enough for you, (I encourage it, just give it serious thought, be intentional about what you really want to allow), but some are just unavoidable, and much like you are not immune to propaganda, none of us are immune to the baked in effects of marketers, big tech addiction-mongers. The simplest way to step away from the all-encompassing absorption machines in our pockets is to not have one, and to consider their replacements carefully, even if other paths are workable.

I'm pretty sure matt-jokerfied originally got me thinking about "friction" in this context, and this has all been marinating and steering my choices ever since, culminating with this linux phone that I can customize to my heart's content and does not have any of the built in addictive/harmful/spying apps that all my android phones always did. Oh and I can repair it rather than it becoming useless, physically and software-wise, in just a few short years.

I'm still a tech dweeb, I just want it to enhance people's lives and liberate them not make them worse and more dependent.

89

Obligatory plug for Inventing Reality, from which much of Manufacturing Consent was cribbed (or at least it predated MC by 2 years)

And yes, you do not have to hand it to Al-Qaeda. They are reactionaries. They point out things that liberals conveniently ignore sometimes, especially when they are engaged in anti-colonial struggle, but it's still in service of their right wing views.

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 74 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

he's further down in that thread saying how much better off now iraq and libya are than before they got attacked by the US. And talking down to an iraqi who chimed in to say he's wrong

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 90 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

College students =/= young people

even looking at just 18-24 it's like 1/3 of them and not a representative sample, and grad students are an even tinier group of mostly mid-late 20s

College provides (usually) a built in community and likely even a walkable neighborhood, and many opportunities to meet people that the general working public often lack. Didn't stop apps from becoming popular on campuses, but I feel like it was always destined to be a fad in that context, because the apps suck so much

kitty-cri fuck this is so sad. He's by far the most influential media person on my life and political thought, and things seemed to be going well for him. I really hope for a speedy recovery but this shit has me down

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 102 points 10 months ago

I've got some news for you

same-picture

[-] YearOfTheCommieDesktop@hexbear.net 76 points 10 months ago

all of life should permanently be inconvenient and dangerous because otherwise the bike-toting commies are going to outlaw going to the less convenient stores that are further away

view more: next ›

YearOfTheCommieDesktop

joined 11 months ago