Neatnik :prami:
The person to your left voted for the other candidate.
The person to your right eats meat, and you’re a vegan.
The person behind you drives a car, and you take the bus.
The person in front of you uses generative AI, and you don’t.
You can spend your time focused on these differences, arguing about the ratio of harm to benefit. Or you can spend your time focused on the things we have in common, and enjoy being with others.
It’s a choice.
Rich Felker
@neatnik Yes, deciding to enjoy being with the people who voted for the extermination of folks you care about is... a choice. 😬
A very mainstream, very gross choice you seem to be presenting as if it's some sort of novel idea folks should consider.
Rich Felker
@neatnik This is something of a strawman because I don't think anybody is ostracizing folks for whatever games or workplace activity they do with slop bots that we don't have to see.
The thing is, the people who use these things are largely very pushy about it, constantly violating our boundaries, trying to get us to ingest their slop.
Being vegetarian, I don't have any problem with people who eat meat. But if I had a "friend" constantly trying to get me to try meat then escalating to trying to slip meat into my food, they would no longer be my friend.
Neatnik :prami:
Let me be clear: I don’t make things with generative AI, and I don’t endorse the technology. What I’m saying is that if someone else wants to use it, that’s not something that I’m going to hold against them. They have their reasons. Some of those reasons are actually good, even in the face of the broader problems. But it’s OK. We can still be friends.
Neatnik :prami:
I’m not going to die on the generative AI hill. I find the technology problematic, the companies that produce it reprehensible, and their leaders vile. I detest the way the models are made with stolen content, the wage suppression and job displacement, the environmental impact, and the cognitive decline. But I can still be friends with someone who uses generative AI, just like I can be friends with people who eat meat, and drive, and who have different politics than me.
Neatnik :prami:
This is not an endorsement of ambivalence; it’s me encouraging you to think about this and make an intentional choice. We’re all going to draw our lines in different places, and that’s OK. But you should always be honest with yourself, and be intentional about the (figurative) hills upon which you’re willing to die.
Rich Felker
@neatnik I'm sorry if I jumped to conclusions and you just meant the person who preferred the different candidate in the primary (or whatever local equivalent, equivalent in ranked-choice system, etc.).
But we've been told for way too long that we should "put politics aside" and be friendly with literal nazis, and that's how the first line of your post comes across without context or clarification.
Neatnik :prami:
@dalias Did I say anything about voting for a specific candidate, or extermination of anyone? You sure jumped to an interesting conclusion there, and I think it reveals a lot. Best of luck to you in your future reply-guy endeavors. 👋
Rich Felker
@neatnik One of the things I love most about fedi is how folks who misinterpreted or overreacted can just.. have a short clarifying exchange and have it work.
Neatnik :prami:
@dalias Yeah, I would never suggest that we put politics aside, and nazis should always be punched in the gooch. I'm just illustrating how in any given space, we're surrounded by people who hold different opinions and values, and not every difference is necessarily worth obsessing over.
Rich Felker
@neatnik I'm not going to shame them for using it at work or in the privacy of their own home, but I probably am going to shame them if they're doing things with harmful externalities on our commons, like the rsync fiasco and any other number of foss staples whose maintainers have been AI-pilled.
Neatnik :prami:
@dalias Some people who use this stuff are pushy, yes. Others are quiet. Some are using it for personal empowerment; others as an accessibility tool. I personally hate the stuff, but the way I feel about it doesn’t nullify someone else's genuine benefit. And perhaps the most important point is that there’s nothing good that comes from shaming someone for using something that genuinely helps them, no matter how much it might bother me on a personal level. Life is too short to make someone feel guilty just for trying to get by.
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