Notices by Noah (monkeyninja@10base2.dev)

@inthehands @hacks4pancakes @bodil 4 hours later, under heavy fire

@inthehands No no, these were all amazing! I just happened to get hit with that one earlier so it was on my mind. In other news, I love the ability to block entire instances on Mastodon, that is just so so lovely.

@inthehands Oh wait, can I add my most/least favorite one?

ME: The building is on fire!

REPLY GUY: ...and yet you choose to participate in a system in which buildings exist. That's interesting...
[continues to sit there, burns to death]

I 100% support efforts to break away from buying from Amazon but if you fully understand their reach you'll find that it's actually surprisingly difficult to exclude #amazon entirely from an online purchase. The reason you might be putting some portion of the money you spend into Amazon's pocket and not even know it is because of #aws.

In 2024, AWS services were responsible for a monstrous 74% of the company's operating income. Because so many companies make use of AWS services in their technology stack, it becomes increasingly hard to shop online and not have at least some of what you spend go indirectly to Amazon anyway.

I remember a while back I ran a test where I tried just using the internet in general while blocking any services built to run on AWS. It was no longer functional anymore. Forget purchasing, I couldn't even get a functioning browsing experience. I was able to get online with a lot of finagling and setting up a local DNS server, but out of the box my Internet experience was unusable with AWS-backed services disabled entirely.

Even if you only buy locally, if that local business has a web presence, it's entirely possible that Amazon is getting some piece of the action from that purchase. When people say something like "there's no ethical consumption under #capitalism," this is exactly the example that comes to my mind. Technological monopolies make it very hard to keep 100% of your money out of those pockets.

All that being said, you also should never let "perfect" be the enemy of "good." So if you do have the wherewithal to be able to not support morally bankrupt companies monetarily, I'd still call that a worthwhile protest.

I'm not writing all of this to say it's all hopeless, I call all of this out so you fully understand why when you see protests that say things like "avoid *all* spending on this specific day" why you are indeed avoiding *all* online purchases and not just purchases directly from Amazon. By staying offline, you're likely not driving traffic through AWS services and based on their numbers, that's exactly how you hurt them the most effectively.

@hacks4pancakes While only semi-related to your post, I just read up on the "Sentry Mode" on this thing which sent me down a rabbit hole of security nightmares. The ways in which these vehicles violate privacy, not just of the owners, but of random people just walking by them is both astounding and horrifying.

Also sentry mode drains the battery quickly and only works if the battery is over 20%, which I'm definitely not sharing for reasons related to this post. Definitely not.

@freemo Sigh...I admit, I engaged with you because I checked out your profile and at least based on what I read there in terms of your world views, I thought I was clearly misunderstanding your point. That's because context is important as is information about the person and what they support.

That's why I am looking at what Musk did as a Nazi salute and what Harris did as not. Who the person is, what they say, who they support, all is important framing as I previously said.

I'm not really interested in waxing pedantic about whether his Hitlergruß was historically accurate or not. My beliefs about Musk weren't formed out of a singular event but out of an established track record for what he says, what he does, and what he supports. This event didn't deliver to me any new information it just further cemented an already communicated narrative about who he is.

Anyway, because of your profile I chose to assume you're not just a troll (as some folks have reached out and suggested to me). To be honest, I have no idea, we've never crossed paths before. Usually folks with left-leaning profiles and 31K followers on Mastodon aren't just trolls but hey, I'm flexible.

Maybe you are and if so, nice job getting me to waste my time. If I didn't have your profile to go off of I would have blocked you ages ago because minus that info this all just reads like your average run-of-the-mill trolling with a bit of nazi-apologism thrown in for seasoning. If it's not then...well color me confused as it seems like you're ignoring a plethora of information on Musk to arrive at this point with any positive beliefs about his character and pedantry on this particular topic isn't a particularly good look for anyone.

And if you are a troll, before you throw the flag on this reply as ad hominem since that's usually next in the play book when we get to this stage, I'm not attacking your character, I'm questioning it. Because this all reads as trying to defend someone like Musk and trying to draw false equivalence and as someone else already stated, that's pretty low.

If that's all there is here and you're just trolling then cool cool, I'll just go ahead and block you and go on with my life. Either way I think I'm likely done with replying to you. You have yourself a great day.

cc: @RegGuy @raymondlesley since you two were the last folks to reply on the thread

@freemo @RegGuy You seem to be approaching this as if each thing Musk does should be taken at face value, rather than looking historically at who he is and what he supports. Because yeah, if I just came into this conversation and this was the first thing I ever heard about him, I too might say we were jumping the gun. But that's not the case is it? Musk wrote on 20 December 2024 "Only the AfD can save Germany." That post is still up. So it's really hard to give him any wiggle room and any grace when he posted support for the current incarnation of the Nazi party in Germany. His history is what makes this a Nazi salute, not his awkwardness. Just like Harris's history makes hers not. These two things are not the same, these two people are not the same.

Thanks @RegGuy, I didn't have the link so I'm glad you could provide that. As for your comment @freemo in terms of whether we're going to always say such a thing is a Nazi salute? Who the person is and what they support is really crucial to that. Harris has not given me any reason to think that she would make such an arm gesture in support of Nazi ideology. Musk on the other hand has on numerous occasions shown both tacit and outright support for extreme ideologies that include support of the Nazi party. He removed all guard rails on Twitter to allow more open posts from Nazis and he provided heavy monetary support to a president who idolizes Nazis. So yeah, Musk doesn't get any benefit of the doubt here. As I said, he's told us who he is. Not just through this but time and again when given the opportunity to show us who he is, he has shown unequivocally who that is and what he supports.

"It's not a #nazi salute, he just got really excited and this was a socially awkward person's attempt at connecting with people."

Hey y'all, your friendly neighborhood socially awkward person here. Now this is not a new mantle mind you, I have been socially awkward my whole life to the point where I wrapped around the bend and found myself socially accepted within a band of other socially awkward folks (which is quite lovely mind you). So when I see people talking about #musk throwing his arm out in a Nazi #salute, I have many thoughts on this matter.

Things that are 100% in the realm of "OK yeah, I can see that as an example of how other socially awkward people might act"
- Making a weird noise that someone thought might be an ostrich gargling oatmeal and/or a Castrato singing "Ave Maria" in the key of rusty belt sander (I swear, the sound made sense in my head at the time)
- Slamming one's fist down excitedly and hitting a carton of orange juice which explodes in a 5 foot radius (that was me...I did that once...don't ask)
- Giggling anxiously while staring at one's feet (did this too many times to count)
- Speaking waaaay too fast or way too softly (still might do this...)
- Repeating what you want to say under your breath several times before actually speaking and then speaking way too fast or way too softly (OK...I've gotten better about this but still do it)

You know what's not socially awkward? Nazi salutes. Fuck your bargain basement excuses for bullshit Nazism.

#ElonMusk showed who he is and now it's our job to believe him.

@mekkaokereke The first thing I made with mine when my wife got me one was homemade marshmallows which is really difficult without a stand mixer but dangerously easy with one. Here’s the recipe I use: https://www.theflavorbender.com/how-to-make-marshmallows-tips-and-tricks-for-homemade-marshmallows/#recipe (though I replace the agave/corn syrup they list with an invert sugar syrup which I find provides much tastier results)