I really appreciate the responses people have been giving on this.

I'm glad we have more constructive possible approaches to this than condemning people for simply being "lazy".

Social issues require social solutions. Lecturing & scolding individuals might feel good for a minute, but it doesn't solve anything.

Personally, I'm baffled by a lot of human behavior, but that's no reason to act like a dick about things. People are gonna people.

In one sense, ChatGPT & similar are exactly the right type of AI for the world we live in.

We live in a world where we're expected to generate bullshit & do busywork, whether that's in school or at our jobs.

A bullshit machine can do that so much quicker & more easily. Of course that's appealing.

We need to get out of the bullshit system if we want to rid ourselves of this scourge.

Fascism is an attempt to remake reality by sheer force of will, to deny reality, to simply make it what they *say* it is.

That's it. It's an ideology of force.

It's mind-boggling to me, but it's helpful to know, because I want to argue with their pathetic, flimsy arguments. But they aren't really arguments...they are ideological statements. You cannot persuade a fascist with evidence. You cannot persuade them with careful reasoning.

They start from what they want to believe and try to bend the world to their will.

The pathetic thing is that they think that they *can* make reality suit them by force. That's ridiculous, but... that's fascism for you.

I read or watched something recently about the way fascists think/argue that finally made a few things click for me.

They start from what they insist is Truth, statements like "there are only two genders." Other people might respond with information about intersex people & the complications of defining something like "biological sex". These are facts, related to observation of reality, but to a fascist, anything that doesn't align with the Truth in their heads can be rejected outright.

Not gonna lie, it weirds me out how much students want to use ChatGPT.

I don't understand the reason to do it other than not wanting to learn anything.

Some people don't want to learn anything, but that can't possibly be true of ALL of the students who use ChatGPT to complete their assignments can it?

I think one of the sort of existential issues that can happen to right-wing libertarians is that since they never think about cooperative group solutions to problems they just fucking give up when they start actually taking stock of the powers-that-be who wish to own the world.

Because there is absolutely goddamn nothing you can do all by yourself. There is no escape.

But they're fucking wrong: we can save ourselves. It just needs to be us together.

Trying to explain to a friend that they are not more "realistic" about the state of the world just because they have given up and I have not.

They believe we've been beaten. Forever. As if the image of a boot stomping on a human face forever from 1984 was intended to be a statement of fact & not propaganda.

What if you didn't give up hope just because they tell you to?

My husband has officially dubbed me a power gamer.

I don't know how to feel about that.

Like, I do try to learn and make use of all the mechanics to maximize my success, but I guess I just thought that was the "right" way to play videogames. 😅

I got the power gamer label because I was explaining how I maximize the amount of XP units get in battle in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. You know...have your healer heal someone every round—even if it's just 1 HP—so they get experience, crowd your students around Byleth for her XP bonus, draw out the time it takes to kill enemy units that aren't doing much damage to your units, so that you can have multiple people gain XP from attacking or getting attacked, etc.

Does that make me a power gamer? 😁

Me: "it's really hard to explain the ADHD experience of task avoidance to people who don't experience it."
Some person: "oh, everyone knows about procrastination."

No.

Just fucking no.

Me: "my disability causes me serious problems that people without the disability struggle to understand."
Them: "everyone experiences this and understands just fine."

"Legal" vs "illegal" and "right" vs "wrong" are not the same type of consideration.

I hate seeing people go "well, as long as you're not doing anything illegal, that's fine".

Since when is doing something illegal definitionally wrong?

So... I've been told there are people in the world who don't enjoy spending time in solitude (with or without cats)? That can't be right, can it?

In your ideal week, how many hours would you spend not around other humans?

I prefer at least 1-2 hours alone every day. Ideally with at least one day every week where I have a long stretch of 4 or more hours to myself.

The only way to really outrun fascism—to leave it in the past—then is to develop a culture that does not create and encourage these social hierarchies. If we can't get past that as a species, we'll be constantly fighting fascism until we go extinct.

So we *must* think outside the box. We *must* challenge authoritarianism not only in government, but everywhere in our lives. As long as people continue to create rankings & hierarchies it will be possible to exploit them for evil purposes.

There are different ways of living. We can find examples from the past & present, and we can be imaginative and innovative. We will not build a perfect society, but we could build a better one.

It's scary—it goes beyond anything many of us have ever known. The thought of no masters & no kings feels like an impossible dream, but who says so? Shouldn't we experiment and find out for ourselves? Isn't it possible that there are other ways to be that aren't structured around status & control?

That's my pitch: the cycle has to end, and for the cycle to end, hierarchy has to end.

Human beings cooperate all the time without having a leader or a person "in charge". Communities in crisis can sometimes almost effortlessly come together to distribute aid and keep people safe. So the possibilities exist. Couldn't we find a way to do that even when not in crisis?

The answers must be found together. We have to learn another way of living. I believe we *can* do it. The seed is there already.

If you're curious about anarchism and how it can really work among real people, let me recommend "Emergent Strategy" by adrienne maree brown. It will help you get the picture.

Fedi itself is not an anarchist project, but it is a possible step in the right direction. Decentralization pushes us towards having to do community problem-solving. There's no single person or organization who can lay claim to or control it.

*As we know* this involves its own issues, but I believe humans are good at cooperation, when they learn *how* to do it, so I believe growth is possible—things that are problems now do not have to be forever problems.

We can learn how to structure our social interactions in ways that favor collaboration and mutual aid. We can move away from centralized authorities. We can do better than "authority", hierarchy, and concentrated power.

It isn't easy. You can't turn on a dime to shift paradigms. You can't unlearn things overnight. You won't immediately know how to problem solve and work together.

But that doesn't mean it isn't worth it.

"I don't know how to do this" is not the same thing as "this thing can't be done".

"How would decisions get made? How would we deal with unsafe people? How do we avoid 'mob justice'?" All valid questions. But think about how we tend to do things now...are you really convinced that it is functional, equitable, and sustainable?

We all know it is not. Look at where we are and tell me this way of organizing society makes sense and is the best possible thing. Say it with a straight face.