Latest Posts by jackassjamboree - Page 3
When Europeans discuss America:
openly admitting that the material reality has not really changed much but the absurdity and violence of American politics is exposed for everyone to see now and it's making you uncomfortable and you wish everyone could go back to pretending any of this was ever rational there I can put it into words
rise of the machines
it sounds like a joke but literally so many of you would've been supportive of the vietnam invasion by america and would've accused draft dodgers and draft card burners of being divisive
elon musk told jkr to calm down help fkfbkr
Andrea Gibson, Angels of the Get Through
verso books has made books on palestine, mass protests, and student rebellions free to download on their website
JK Rowling has used her billionaire legal team to silence a Jewish woman for telling the truth about her contempt for trans victims of the Holocaust.
Scotland’s network of “freedom of speech” organisations, as per usual, have nothing to say about the use of wealth to gag critics of the wealthy.
However fast they race to condemn the LGBT+ community for saying the names of those who harm us. Statements at the ready to insist that transphobes no one wants to work with anymore must be given every possible opportunity to gain from their bigotry.
But it's not the billionaires who are being silenced, as our media breathlessly echo their every hateful proclamation.
It's journalists and activists forced to publicly humiliate themselves under the weight and the threat of billionaire legal teams or be driven into destitution.
We deserve better. Freedom of speech needs to mean something
“it’s going to be WW3!!” no bitch it’s going to be vietnam, korea, afghanistan, it’s going to be another war wherein the US commits unspeakable and indefensible acts against a severely weakened people seeking self determination. it’s going to be another war where protesting is criminalized and “freedom of speech” is gutted in the interest of pushing propaganda. it’s going to be another nation of people added to the long list of victims of US imperialism and another demonstration of the strong undercurrent of fascism running through the foundation of america
join praxis now - discord - github
A cartoon from 1914 that could have been written today
if you give “stupid” characters rural/southern accents i don’t like you and if you give “smart” characters rural/southern accents but it’s a punchline i don’t like you even more
After raising the price of COVID-19 vaccines more than four-fold this year, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told investors Monday that the company will also likely hike the price of its lifesaving COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, raising further concern about access and healthcare costs.
attention all writers! tumblr is rolling out a new feature that allows our work to be used in ai training processes!
be sure to opt out of this in your visibility settings immediately! and remember, you have to opt out for each blog, not just your main!
go to your blogs’ settings (again, you have to do these steps for each blog, not just your main blog)
scroll until you see “visibility” and choose that
in your visibility settings, choose “prevent third-party sharing for (blog name)”
you may opted out already but we don’t take chances with ai around these parts *insert angry cowboy*
tagging some mutuals to get the word out — @multifandomsimagine @pegxcarter @moremaybank @gladerscake @goldenroutledge @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @drewstarkeyslut @drudyslut @tangledinlove @rafeandonlyrafe @mvybanks
attention all writers! tumblr is rolling out a new feature that allows our work to be used in ai training processes!
be sure to opt out of this in your visibility settings immediately! and remember, you have to opt out for each blog, not just your main!
go to your blogs’ settings (again, you have to do these steps for each blog, not just your main blog)
scroll until you see “visibility” and choose that
in your visibility settings, choose “prevent third-party sharing for (blog name)”
you may opted out already but we don’t take chances with ai around these parts *insert angry cowboy*
tagging some mutuals to get the word out — @multifandomsimagine @pegxcarter @moremaybank @gladerscake @goldenroutledge @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @drewstarkeyslut @drudyslut @tangledinlove @rafeandonlyrafe @mvybanks
Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you.
AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.
Here are the important details:
We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner.
We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.
To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.
For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc.
Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.
If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.
What is this about the tumblr staff wanting to sell art data to midjourney?
An ex-colleague of mine mentioned yesterday that there may be contacts between Automattic and midjourney in that direction, but nothing is public yet and I don't have any more info. They probably won't have anything specific to share either, since they left the company weeks ago too. That being said:
I have no reason to doubt my ex-coworker word, they are a trustworthy person.
Tumblr's CEO has been absurdly enthusiastic (comically, even) about AI, and is a big fan of LLMs and 'AI' companies.
A deal with midjourney could solve tumblr financial issues (not the same company, but openAi is paying up to 5 million/year to news companies to use their content as training data... tumblr generates several orders of magnitude more content than any newspaper or any media company and it only would need a 20 to 30 million per year deal to be profitable)
So I don't have any extra info yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.
In case you lost it - a link to the eSIM donation guide. Even if you feel sick and powerless, you can at least do this. And even if you really, really can't donate, you can always at least share this and remind others.
https://gazaesims.com/esim-purchase-tutorial/
the funny thing is that i don't think younger people - and i mean those under the age of 40 - really have a grasp on how many of today's issues can be tied back to a disastrous reagan policy:
war on drugs: reagan's aggressive escalation of the war on drugs was a catastrophic policy, primarily targeting minority communities and fueling mass incarceration. the crusade against drugs was more about controlling the Black, Latino and Native communities than addressing the actual problems of drug abuse, leading to a legacy of broken families and systemic racism within the criminal justice system.
deregulation and economic policies: reaganomics was an absolute disaster for the working class. reagan's policies of aggressive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and slashing social programs were nothing less than class warfare, deepening income inequality and entrenching corporate greed. these types of policies were a clear message that reagan's america was only for the wealthy elite and a loud "fuck you" to working americans.
environmental policies: despite his reputation being whitewashed thanks to the recovery of the ozone layer, reagan's environmental record was an unmitigated disaster. his administration gutted critical environmental protections and institutions like the EPA, turning a blind eye to pollution and corporate exploitation of natural resources. this blatant disregard for the planet was a clear sign of prioritizing short-term corporate profits over the future of the environment.
AIDS crisis: reagan's gross neglect of the aids crisis was nothing short of criminal and this doesn't even begin to touch on his wife's involvement. his administration's indifference to the plight of the lgbtq+ community during this devastating epidemic revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a complete failure of moral leadership.
mental health: reagan's dismantling of mental health institutions under the guise of 'reform' led directly to a surge in homelessness and a lack of support for those with mental health issues. his policies were cruel and inhumane and showed a personality-defining callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society.
labor and unions: reagan's attack on labor unions, exemplified by his handling of the patco strike, was a blatant assault on workers' rights. his actions emboldened corporations to suppress union activities, leading to a significant erosion of workers' power and rights in the workplace. he was colloquially known as "Ronnie the Union Buster Reagan"
foreign policy and military interventions: reagan's foreign policy, particularly in latin america, was imperialist and ruthless. his administration's support for dictatorships and right-wing death squads under the guise of fighting "communism" showed a complete disregard for human rights and self-determination of other nations.
public health: yes, reagan's agricultural policies actually facilitated the rise of high fructose corn syrup, once again prioritizing corporate profits over public health. this shift in the food industry has had lasting negative impacts on health, contributing to the obesity epidemic and other health issues.
privatization: reagan's push for privatization was a systematic dismantling of public services, transferring wealth and power to private corporations and further eroding the public's access to essential services.
education policies: his approach to education was more of an attack on public education than anything else, gutting funding and promoting policies that undermined equal access to quality education. this was, again, part of a broader agenda to maintain a status quo where the privileged remain in power.
this is just what i could come up with in a relatively short time and i did not even live under this man's presidency. the level at which ronald reagan has broken the united states truly can't be overstated.
seems blatantly obvious that authoritarian fascists mostly hate transgender people simply for the deliberate infertility involved in some medical transitions & yet some women whom the fascists want gestating all those future soldiers are just plain stupid enough to believe the fox is there to guard the henhouse. yeah yeah sure "defending women". btw show us your genitals if you want to participate in 7th grade hockey because we have to protect girls. maybe if you had more than five brain cells to rub together you would be capable of reasoning this one out: they want to ban abortion for the exact same reason they want to litigate being transgender out of existence and you are the definition of a useful idiot
A Palestinian girl holds a candle in front of her home during a power cut at the Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza. Electricity is reported to be cut for 12 hours every day as part of a mains power crisis as a result of political and economic instability on the Gaza Strip. @Ali Noureldine
“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
—
Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (Mills College, 1983)
this passage planted itself in my consciousness when i was 24, and 10 years later, it informs so much of my approach to living, thinking, creating.
what do u dislike plato
deeply uninterested in any position promising access to a higher, hidden, divine realm of truth ontologically in tension with the material existence of things and their relations to one another. it's a position that appeals to supra-natural handwaving in order to resolve a perceived disjunction between perception and reality without making any effort to historicise or problematise such a disjunction, say perhaps in relation to estranged labour. kant also does this but at least he has the decency to pretend it's constitutive of human psychology and not a regulatory principle of reality in itself. i also think the ethical positions plato expresses through socrates's mouth are laughably optimistic about the existence of a pure and unconditioned truth, the human ability to perceive such a thing, and the immediate rational acceptance of it, which leads most obviously to the deeply annoying socratic solution to "why do people act against their own interests" being "they are deceived, and i don't need to prove that or engage with expressed desires that are contradictory or self-destructive, because i can simply assume these people are deceived, because if they were not then they would do the transcendentally correct thing and be happy and experience no inner conflict". politically reactionary in the way all philosophical idealism is, and more than incidentally psychiatry minded, in the sense of the etymology ψυχή ιατρεία, 'soul healing' (cf nietzche: socrates as the "mystagogue of science", who lived and died 'scientifically', namely, delivered from the fear of death by conviction in the mission to make existence appear comprehensible and therefore justifiable).
sucks hate him think the world needs more insane unruly people unashamed to exist bodily and uninterested in extolling the virtue of self-restraint. "socially contextualise that thang" --karl marx 1844
Reminder that communications in all of Gaza have been cut off for the past three days. This means no one can make calls to check on family members within Gaza or to report and call for help/ambulances following Israeli airstrikes. As a result, many end up dying due to injuries or being trapped under the rubble with no possible way of notifying anyone. Of course this also goes hand in hand with Israel intensifying their bombardment of every part of Gaza after having isolated it from the world.
You can help by purchasing e-sims. I will share a long post with all the details and instructions shortly and you can also Venmo smaller amounts if you're unable to buy a whole bundle so that bigger plans can be bought for families.
its the last month of 2023 so i’m just gonna say it: what the absolute fuck was that
December 8, 2023 - Hundreds of people gathered in Guernica, Basque Country, to form a human flag in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as air raid sirens filled the air. The town of Guernica became symbol and a rallying cry against war crimes and the slaughter of civillians after German and Italian planes bombed the town for Franco's fascists in 1937, during the Spanish civil war, killing hundreds of innocent civillians. [video]