Notices by Shauna GM (shauna@social.coop)

there's a confidence that comes from thinking you're always right, and a confidence that comes from being okay with being wrong

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/116601694922879674

"The pattern is always the same: build trust, establish dependency, then quietly renegotiate the terms."

@ireneista

Conflict between leftists is both inevitable and good. The problem is that leftists like most people in our society have never been taught to have conflict well, in a way that strengthens bonds rather than destroys them. So much leftist conflict is coming from a place of trauma and is even re-traumatizing

just saw an advertisement for a complex professional role offering $25/hr (freelance - no benefits) AND requiring contractors to check in twice daily

i hope these people get 0 applicants but i fear, given the economy, that they can find someone for their exploitative terms. :(

my friend's unemployment payments got paused because she didn't respond to a letter because she was away getting major surgery. then because she missed the letter they were like "you have to come in for an in person appointment" which she couldn't schedule for weeks because again, major surgery. so she's not getting unemployment for weeks while she also can't get any other kind of gig work because, yup you guessed it, major surgery.

means testing is so stupid.

Do people see "enshittification" as primarily solved by rigorous anti-trust enforcement or nah?

i really cannot express how little real activism looks like people's stereotypes of activism. i need help with a ton of things and none of it involves being out on the street marching and/or risking arrest, knocking on people's doors, donating money, and arguing on social media

there was one (1) very specific banner-making request that went unfulfilled this week for lack of capacity (RIP the "free portland free dc" sign for the spirit-thorns home opener tonight) but that's it for standard activism tasks

key activist skills i need: project management skills, ability and willingness to show up to places on time and with things you promised to show up with, artistic abilities, event planning abilities, training and mentorship abilities

If you have a GitHub account and do not want your data to be automatically used to train Microsoft's AI models, go to this page and opt-out of "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training": https://github.com/settings/copilot/features

GitHub has turned this on by default so if you have an account you have to proactively go and opt out.

The Trump admin now resorting to ripping up DC bike lanes https://51st.news/trump-administration-removing-dc-bike-lane/

#FreeDC

None of my current projects would be considered digital infrastructure, but if your project qualifies and needs someone to help it grow, please reach out. Maybe we can apply together!

I've spent the last 10+ years freelancing as an open source developer, community manager and project manager, with a special interest in governance & leadership development.

I have plenty of availability right now and I'd love to spend it supporting open source digital infrastructure.

https://www.sovereign.tech/news/2026-fellowship-applications-open

What is your favorite art that explores or depicts a better version of the future?

I am especially interested in short written works (poetry, flash fiction, short stories) and visual art, but feel free to respond with any kind of art -- I am interested in it all!

@evan

Feels like this depends a lot on the project - how widely used is it, what life phase is it in (growth, maintainence mode, etc). If I personally am working on a one developer project it's probably just for me/for fun so I budget as many hours as is enjoyable. But other folks are able to solo maintain stuff other people actually want to use 😂

It's crazy how much these superbowl commercials are just beautifully rendered vingettes tied to core human emotions and needs like community or family or confidence or agency and they just stick a logo in there, hoping our little pattern-making brains will associate the brand with our core needs and the ads cost like a million dollars so I guess it fucking works.

"On Thursday, Jan 22 a group of about a dozen Vermont community elders entered the atrium of White Cap Office Park in Williston VT, home of ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center.

For the next 3.5 hours, they sat together in silence, pausing every 90 seconds to read the name of someone killed in ICE custody, followed by a loud whistle blast.

Around 3:15 the Williston Police announced they had determined that the protestors were not breaking the law."

https://www.facebook.com/molly.grover.9655/posts/pfbid0XibZVUutTykLLWGphYGk25z1MG7eRs3UVfm4U2vPowtdH388s3XyiQ8HTCBtJVtSl

RE: https://social.coop/@shauna/115953443613321768

It can be hard to find/join activist communities, so let me at least tell you how I did it.

(If anyone else feels like they've meaningfully connected to local activist communities, lmk and I'll repost it. It'll be different for everyone but the more stories we can share, the better. Media makes it seem like the only way to get involved is to go to a march but that's actually one of the hardest ways to get involved.)

Ok, here is the story of how I got involved in Free DC.

Early last April, I heard about a community potluck happening near me. It was hosted by Free DC, which I had vaguely positive impressions of but didn't know much about. (They'd only started a few months before!) When I got to the potluck, I really loved the community vibe. I decided to check on their website to see what else they were up to.

I saw they were doing a meetup in my neighborhood a week or two later, so I put it in my calendar. I loved the idea of getting to organize with neighbors.

The meeting was hosted in someones house. People brought drinks and snacks. We talked about the different things we were interested in and brainstormed things to do. One idea: post flyers for the upcoming free dc ward meeting. We agreed to meet the next Saturday at a local coffee shop.

We met up. I wore a Spirit shirt because there was a game later and was delighted to see several others had done the same. (This will be important later.) We wandered around putting up flyers for an hour.

One of the people I wandered around flyering with took care of my cat when I had an emergency, by the way.

I went to more meetings. A group was tabling at a porchfest, I stopped by for a while. (One of the people I met tabling that day is my new ushering buddy. Another got me back into UU church.)

After seeing how tabling was done, I figured I could do it myself so I led a table at a neighborhood festival. One of the ppl I met doing that, I just went to his 50th bday party last weekend.

The last guy I mentioned...we got to talking in July about soccer. I mentioned the surprising number of Spirit fans in Free DC. He told me about how in many places soccer stadiums are the only safe form of protest. We decided to start Free Spirits. We had no idea what it would become. But when you like the people you're organizing with, it's fun to just try and see.

3 of us went to a Spirit game in Free DC shirts. Thanks to Spirit Squadron we got on the jumbotron before the game even started.

One week later, Trump occupied DC. Two weeks later, again thanks to the Spirit Squadron, thousands of people started chanting Free DC in the 51st minute of games - including fans at away games.

There's a lot more I've done, and so much others are doing, but hopefully that gives you an example of one route in.

There are so many ways to be involved. It's not just resisting armed thugs on the street. And if you do have to resist armed thugs on the street, isn't it better to do so with friends?