Notices by Aaron Wolf (wolftune@social.coop)

@contrarian

You seem to be saying: FSF & SFC don't hold elections, so it's no worse for OSI to do whatever with elections regardless of respecting the process transparently.

Note that for *any* of these organizations to be deceptive in any public context would be a problem. FSF does not hold elections like OSI — but if FSF just had an *informal* survey (e.g. what members say are priorities) and then manipulated the data to present a different outcome, that would be dishonest.

@bkuhn @iank

@contrarian

So to be clear, the petition does not say that OSI should necessarily seat whatever Directors voters want, regardless of other concerns. It says that *if* you hold an election, you must report the results transparently in order to have integrity with the voters.

OSI could report the results and *still* seat Directors the current board prefers, though explaining why the change would be important to maintain community respect for the organization.

@bkuhn @iank

@pchestek

This sort of comment is inappropriate for a respectable democratic process. If a candidate gets all the way to being listed on the ballots, voting takes place, and then they are disqualified for some reason, the only way to go forward with integrity includes still releasing the vote totals.

This is not merely about candidates. The last minute removals *and* not releasing the vote totals is disrespectful disenfranchising of the VOTERS.

@richardfontana @ed @kevin @jwildeboer

@strypey yeah, my view has been that both Biden and Harris *avoiding* celebrating and highlighting Lina Khan was itself a key feature of the failure of Democratic reelection. They took the most substantial and important work of the administration and shied away from it out of some stupid deference to the oligarchs.

It fits how Harris focused on traditional rich-investor and pop-star endorsements over appealing to regular citizens

@photoncollector @strypey

I suggest reading https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system

And my own note:

This isn't worst to best focus. Leverage points that need less effort also need greater movement to have an effect. Small movement at the greater leverage points does a lot.

But where to focus depends. The answer isn't always just to focus on the hardest-to-move points simply because any movement really has a major effect.

@photoncollector @strypey

As an example of details: Lina Khan as FTC chair under Biden did more for true public good and holding the oligarchs to account than any other political figure in 50 years. If there were no other differences between two directions except having or not having Lina Khan, the difference is still massive. And there are tons of other differences.

Personally, most of my time is focused on the bigger-picture issues, but those are also the hardest to change.

@photoncollector @strypey

It's possible and healthy enough to BOTH care about all the political differences *within* a system that lead to meaningfully different outcomes and more or less suffering and harms AND to do so while *fully* aware of the big context.

So, when you see any individual discussing particular details within the system, don't make assumptions about whether they are or aren't aware of the overall context or are or aren't doing anything broader.

@photoncollector @strypey

I don't disagree with any of that, and awareness of big context is, in general, worth keeping in mind.

I just think it's ironically *similarly* narrow-minded *either* to be (A) lost in the little details of the system without questioning the whole thing *or* (B) ignoring all the little details and blurring everything together just because the whole system is corrupt.

Healthy understanding admits seeing *multiple* perspectives and scales.

@photoncollector @strypey

If slaves had some minimal freedom to vote for which slavemaster they work under, pointing out that they are still slaves doesn't erase the difference between one slavemaster who cares about keeping them relatively healthy and another slavemaster who is a sadistic abuser.

And the slaves could still have their preferences without any illusions about the injustice of the whole situation.

And better to be healthy if you're going to fight for real freedom later anyway

Just learned about this UN initiative: https://2025.coop/ 2025 is the "year of co-ops" for the whole United Nations emphasis

That's great, though I wonder what if any real ramifications this has

#coop #CoopYear #UN

update on healthy tools:

https://github.com/AllanChain/sane-break is the best computer break-timer. The core UI approach is better than the others I've tried, it's updated to newest tech (Qt6 etc) and isn't clunky Electron-based or anything. A few features missing from others, but maybe they'll get added later

#breaks #wellness #freesoftware

Besides the obvious stuff, this is what's really going on with #uspolitics and the #kamala4potus campaign:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Lina Khan is doing work far better and beyond anyone else in government in my lifetime. And the corrupt financiers and capitalists hate her for it. And so much rides on whether the next POTUS supports her and keeps her around or not.

My 7yo kid made a new pun today:

"clausible deniability"…

is when you don't believe in Santa

The #LLM, "AI" stuff is doing the same process as people do when we adapt and improve things in a free/libre/open (FLO) fashion.

Provocative take: the *key* feature in #AI progress today is its *ignoring* of copyright limitations (because copyright hampers creativity, and ignoring it allows new valuable syntheses of ideas).

(dangers are another matter, but point is human-driven #FLO creativity could also be freed from copyright, we just need *different* laws for the problems this brings up)