Nope, Land Banking

Why build housing and bring housing prices down when you can buy a plot of land, get permissions to build and just sit on it until it’s impossible to get a higher price and then build just enough houses to maximize profits without ever lowering housing prices.

I mean yeah that makes sense - but I’ve personally not seen examples of prefigurative building that have rejected funding and resources from the old system on ideological “purity” grounds - quite often the reason is that established systems just refuse to funnel resources into alternative systems that don’t generate a profit.

As an example - I was involved in a waste reduction/swap shop (food, clothing, furniture, etc) cooperative that due to it’s well established social value was getting council and some governmental finding for over 10 years - everyone involved in it would see it as a prefigurative example of the future of society of fulfilled low carbon living. However, due to austerity cuts and a profit seeking landlord, who was asking for 10 grand a month in rent (which was over a third of how much the coop was making) once the council could no longer funnel money into the landowners pocket - the project was no longer viable and folded.

Now do you think the people that were involved didn’t do everything in their power to keep the project running? Not in the slightest - it’s just that the system is so hostile to such endeavors that they’re constantly fighting an uphill battle where one slip is enough to send you all the way down.

So while I do agree that ideally we’d funnel resources from the old to the new - time and time again it’s been proven that relying on the existing precarious system only results in building on weak foundations that will take you down with them when they inevitable collapse.

And I’m not saying this to dissuade you from pursuing a dual system theory - I’m genuinely trying to figure out a way where we can build the sorely needed infrastructure of the future in any way possible - in a climate that takes 15 years to approve a 50 square feet low traffic street to pedestrian area conversion in a time where we’re 25 years away from unprecedented climate catastrophy.

Is your proposal then to reform the existing system into a new one? To use the existing levers of power to attempt to rip that power away from those that are currently pulling them?

Which I wouldn’t mind if it worked - but the original reason for prefigurative action was because this approach didn’t seem to achieve anything. But I guess you’re arguing that maybe the environment is different now and therefore more susceptible to change?

How do you see everyday people participating in this political movement - voting? canvassing? running for office?

I guess you see Mamdani as such an example? Tho I doubt anarchists would reject him just on the grounds of him being a reformist and therefore not valuable to the cause, in my experience any push towards a more socialist society is generally embraced and not rejected no matter where it comes from.

So what is your proposed alternative?

💯

If you want to expand your political environment, teach activists or organizers how to cook. Teach them how to talk about relationship problems. Organize tea parties, raves, and mending clubs. Create spaces to unwind after work. Infiltrate churches, sports clubs, gyms, games clubs, online forums. Turn street protests into a space for networking: nobody is listening to your chants anyway.

This is like prefigurative social building 101 - and sure there’s always going to be the “if you want to report abuse you should call the cops” type “anarchists” - but this whole post reads like terminally-online schizo-posting and not useful advice for people that are already out in the world as they say “touching grass”

This is not a wishy-washy hippie approach to politics. It’s not the vapid appeal to community building of a New York artivist. It’s not about feeling good and projecting a vague sense of emotional intelligence onto the politics we do. It’s a sad, but necessary act. Sad because it adds to relationships an element of political motivation, and politics is always dirty. It is necessary because without a global-spanning web of social affordances, History won’t get back into motion.

Also in terms of practical advice this article sounds exactly like the “vapid” community building they’re mocking. And while the hyper-violent “rivers of blood” framing may be useful for some - I thoroughly refuse the “sad” positioning as I’d much rather build toward happiness in the ideal of “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution”

Idk it’s an overall emotive text with imo like little substance that reads like “you believe in prefigurative action? that pales in comparison to my strategy - firebombing a Walmart” and then not firebombing a Walmart.

(the image is a hyperlink)

And don’t pretend like master doesn’t mean what it means.

Claiming that master on github stems from master recordings is not only disingenuous but also incorrect.

As a FOSS alternative to BitKeeper, Git naturally reimplemented it’s naming conventions as well - and because of the power of version control - we can actually check what the original meaning was derived from:

We are then going to modify the file on both the master and slave repository and then merge the work.

And yes I agree that GitHub just changing the name of the default branch while keeping their ICE contracts is performative as fuck - which imo means we should both boycott GitHub and use naming conventions that don’t have a history related to one of the worst atrocities the global north has brought upon the world…

Wait this is actually real? I thought it was a hilarious sbubby but instead it’s just a depressing slap in the face…

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This was a gift for my dad who is an avid collector. His generation is so judgemental of us so this was perfect. So perfect in fact that my step sister gave it to him for Christmas too, which meant we got to open and play one of them. It was very satisfying to watch that old man come in last place at being a millennial! I asked him if a participation trophy would make him feel better. 🤣

ha ha ha - you sure showed him 🥲

Like many kids, mine love to ask a million questions at bedtime. I’ll answer the first three or four “but why?” questions, then I hand it over to AI. The computer system has relentless energy to answer questions from even the most persistent kid, and my children usually get tired out after a few minutes.

Nothing says paternal love more than handing a phone to your kids at bedtime so you don’t have to interact with them

I’m sure the only thing his kids care about is amassing knawledge and not actually wanting to spend time with their non-AI (cringe) dad…

Genetically modified cat girls exist right now??? Where???

What about Gemini Space (aka Ambient Data) that’s tied to Android System Intelligence - which is a system app enabled by default that can be disabled (if you know how to disable system apps) but of course cannot be uninstalled.

Also google is planning to replace Assistant with Gemini in the near future so all phones that have assistant (which is again enabled by default on most if not all android phones) will get Gemini sooner or later.

The amount of cope happening in that thread to convince themselves that cloud seeding caused the flood is off the charts…

@Grok could cloud seeding have caused the floods?

No, cloud seeding contributes 10-15% extra rain maximum

But @Grok couldn’t that have been enough to push it over the threshold

No, this was 40 inches of rain brought by a massive tropical storm

But @Grok if it didn’t do anything why did they stop cloud seeding before the storm if it doesn’t contribute significantly

(At this point Grok gives up and a human replies) You don’t need more water when you already have lots of water

Mfs will believe localised weather meddling can cause a flood but can’t believe trillions of tons of CO2 can exacerbate natural disasters…

I can’t believe that Grok is fighting the good fight in this case but by the looks of it they will only agree with it if it matches their existing belief system…

Weirdly enough they used to be 15% us state funded before USAID got cut back in Feb - so technically they’re not even US funded anymore…

yeah that’s fair - it seems like he was an IDF “Team Lead” for 2 years, 11 months according to his LinkedIn and mandatory conscription is two years and eight months (with some roles requiring an additional four months of service) for all conscripted men - so it does seem like he did the minimum and then spent 10 years in Israel and then moved to the UK

Just FYI Curve founder, ceo and part private owner Shachar Bialick currently living in London, was born in Tel Aviv and brought up in the settlement city of Ariel, in the occupied West Bank.

He also served for three years in the IDF which he thanks for giving him “grit and perseverance, which are clear factors for success in business.”[1]

I believe nuanced discourse is very important - especially when it comes to children and their safety.

With that said I can’t help but think this author despite (seemingly) in support of trans people - has written a fair few articles that go against trans inclusion and none for. Again that’s fair and everyone is entitled to their opinion (even when written with the authority of a national paper)

What I find strange however, is the inherit contradictions of the authors overall position.

Let’s take the OP article for example - it argues that blockers and hormones should not be prescribed to children unless there’s a lengthy process to determine if that’s the best course of action - which may or may not be valid. However, in another article the same author also argues “Every spot taken by someone with a male athletic advantage is an opportunity closed to a female rival.” and again platforming “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete” - which on their own seem sensible but when you put both positions together the argument becomes “kids shouldn’t transition and adults that have gone through agab puberty shouldn’t play competitive sports therefore trans people just shouldn’t be in sports period” - which I feel is a much harder position to defend on it’s own (something something motte and bailey)

I guess I’m saying that yes we should have nuanced discourse but maybe your best messengers for this discourse shouldn’t also be saying “In this climate, who would challenge someone with a beard exposing their penis in a women’s changing room?”

Your words create images and those can be more powerful than the meaning you may or may not intend behind them - so a better analogy would have been something like moths to a flame, which both would fit better the concept of being drawn to something and would have avoided the likening of people with rats that are being led to drown in a river (and rats like trans people are pretty cool and don’t deserve to be killed en masse)

Why would people tell trans people “this is your flag” if not for commercial reasons?

I’d ask in return which people do you think are telling trans people that it’s their flag? The flag was created in the 90s by a trans person and then got picked up by other trans people since they liked it enough.

Still, are there massive issues with rainbow capitalism and the commercialization of everything? (like ikea and the blåhaj in this very post?) Absolutely. And yes in the current climate trans (and generally queer) visibility (as eg. Lily Alexander points out) can indeed be quite dangerous.

Does this mean we should reject any and all “solidarity” from them? I don’t think so, as in I’d much rather capitalists cater to queer folk (even if we know it’s all just bottom line thinking) than not consider us at all - while we collectively stay aware as to why they’re doing it (also as we’ve seen they make really good canaries for when fascists show up and all the pink washing gets bleached)

Also to me it does appear that it’s working - most trans folk I know are against this - sure you’ll still get some that will become brand enjoyers/defenders but you’ll also notice how Lemmy as a left-leaning vocally anti-capitalist space is teeming with LGBTQ people - those are not just coincidences.

So yeah we both agree that there is a pervasive undercurrent that is exploiting queer (and het) people - and had you come in good faith commenting how you think ikea is exploiting the meme and the community to make more money I doubt you’d have gotten the same reception - but the way you phrased it you made it seem like it’s trans people’s fault for being exploited - instead we should focus on capitalism as the root cause and how we come together for the liberation of everyone instead of infighting over whose flag is more commercialized.

I can maybe explain - blue is traditionally a color that is associated with boys, pink is a color that is traditionally associated with girls, white is a full spectrum color that represents the gender diversity outside those two.

Obviously the idea isn’t to limit people to boxes but making a simple yet commonly understandable sign that represents something as complex as gender identity can be quite tricky so compromises tend to be made.

Also, weren’t you the person that said:

If [marginalized communities] don’t feel comfortable, then more questions need to be asked as to why

So then can I ask why did you think comparing trans people to rats led by a piped piper was the way to engage the community if your goal was to promote understanding and inclusivity?