Notices by Sarah T. Roberts, Ph.D. (ubiquity75@dair-community.social)

@aral Well, that’s something that would be interesting to discuss!

@aral This is awesome.

The wonderful @parkermolloy shared this in her (also wonderful) newsletter today. And it’s absolutely spot-on. But I would be remiss were I not to point out that Substack is worrisome in many of the same ways.

https://jogblog.substack.com/p/why-are-journalists-still-on-twitter?publication_id=1053124&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email

My undergrads yesterday had no problem identifying the BS of the whole thing, noting that an increase in production without a concomitant increase in wages is a LOWERING OF WAGES. And that is what automation is good for. Then there’s the phenomenon of “it’s good enough.” The AI generates content, for example, that’s “good enough” for a copywriter to be fired and replaced. But good enough for whom? Once again, for the ownership class, and “good enough” to generate profit…

During the height of COVID, rental assistance, job assistance, food assistance and more were given to those in need. Student loan payments were paused. The US did not collapse due to these policies. In fact, consumer spending went up.

So, given that these things are possible and even economically favorable, one can only conclude that ending them benefits some small but powerful portion of the populace who wants to keep the rest of us under control and in relative, if not full-on, poverty.

The fact that the US government charges interest on student loans is already so offensive and immoral that I don’t even know where to begin.

And I keep being asked about job “losses” due to automation, e.g., generative AI, and all I can say is, these are not people being replaced by AI as such, but their work moving to a different place along the same production chain, then cheapened through a process of deskilling that provides the capitalist class with further excuse to underpay and undervalue. But there is no “generative AI” without human labor, so look to find where it is.

@dell @dansinker All…*checks notes* 400 of them.

(* signups since legacy checks went away)

@dell @dansinker I mean, what a fucking loser this guy is. Damn.

I’m 99% sure that this is just another George Santos drag persona. Seriously, can anyone prove they’ve been in the same place at the same time?

I’ll wait.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/nyregion/nancy-marks-santos-treasurer.html

“Served on the library board.”

I’m telling you the fascists are organized and they know what to take over. School boards. Library boards. City councils. I wish leftists would wake the fuck up.

I set up a USB drive with an .iso of the latest stable long term supported #Ubuntu to install on my 2018 12” #MacBook, and it just refuses to do anything once I boot off it and hit install. I’m super frustrated. Any quick ideas?

Apple’s made some uncharacteristically awful design choices over the last few years, but taking a plain-text HTML link and turning it into a “preview” mail.app, thereby breaking many a recipient’s ability to properly see said link, is up there right at the top of the list of “our fixing of a thing is actually what broke it” stupid.

@mattmight @Maryam Hey, guys, coming up, the very best way to put the roll of toilet paper on the holder. But first, go ahead and smash that like button, and don’t forget to subscribe!

Loooove NPR describing Bolsonaro’s daily appearances in Florida as “wholesome.” Please fuck all the way off.

Just dropping in to casually mention that Trump paid $750 in taxes, total, a couple years ago. Zero another. $5.5 million returned to him another. And his effective tax rate is 4%. This is how the rich get and stay rich: by stealing from everyone else.

Anyway, I’m saying that we need a political economic analysis here. And to turn an historical lens back on the nature of the early social internet. It’s like backtracking on a trail and taking the other path at the fork.

The interrogation and analysis have to be different from “what looks interesting” or “what features does it have.” The questions to ask are who controls the rules of engagement? Do I have any agency as a user? Are my data safe? Can what happened on Bird happen here?

You’ll find the answers are the same in almost all the cases save for this one (and other federated, user-build and admin options). There are problems. But they are of a different and solvable nature.

Let’s take a look at Sadsack. The company is privately held and backed by venture capital, which is the same financial structure. They have repeatedly claimed to not have a political agenda. This is always a good indication that their political agenda, which they assuredly have, is not particularly pro-social or people-focused.

Indeed, they had up until October an incredibly antagonistic VP of Comms, Lulu Cheng Meservey, who recently said, “If you’re a Twitter employee who’s considering resigning because you’re worried about Elon Musk pushing for less regulated speech… please do not come work here.”