Notices by Matt Gemmell (mattgemmell@mastodon.scot)

This is the most helpfully packaged box of screws I've ever seen, by a large margin. I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate whomever was responsible for such a triumph of utility and empathy.

More of the small web, please. More charming weirdos doing their own thing and proudly sharing it, regardless of the metrics.

Good. Burn them down. https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/17/us-government-sues-adobe-hidden-fees/

I know it’s culturally taboo and everything, but honestly, sometimes I read back over something I wrote a while ago and I just think: jesus _christ_ that is so good. That is amazingly good. I wish I’d written that, and I actually did, and I kind of want to both present AND attend a seminar on how damned good that is.

Then I think the usual things like I started too late, and I’ve peaked, and I’ll never do it again, and so on, so I do have the normal ego-deflation and self-doubt too, just FYI.

Neighbour’s daughter’s girlfriend has a new car, and I had to take a pic of the sticker on the fuel flap. 😁

Here's what's going to happen, as more from Twitter come to Mastodon. Most will be basically decent and good, because most are — but there will be others too. They'll say they're exercising freedom of speech, and when censured, they'll accuse their own accusers of prejudice, and intolerance, and fragility. They will say that their freedom of speech is being curtailed. They will use our own language, but in service of themselves.

I'm left-wing, democratic, pretty socialist, rationalist, atheist, and largely pacifist. I believe in tolerance and education, and above all in communication. I think that communication, especially between disparate groups, is the one big thing that can save us. I think that freedom of speech is the lynchpin of communication, and of constructive and civil discourse. Without it, I think we have little hope.

Now let me tell you this: freedom of speech doesn't apply to fascism. Freedom of speech doesn't apply to trolling, and to repression, and to intolerance itself. They must all be ripped down, crushed, and destroyed at first visibility, now and forever. The Paradox of Tolerance tells us that our own principles cannot survive if we tolerate those who are intolerant, because they won't play by the same rules, and they will eliminate our own freedom.

There’s no blue checkmark in the world worth giving your credit card info to a company that just fired the bulk of its devs responsible for digital security.