What a fresh new hell this is.

You messed up the format.

The caption should be “Why would Socialism do this?”

This looks like a clog caused by retraction.

Is it clogged when it finishes? Also, does the cooling change at this layer? Is there anything specific to this layer?

As someone who has thought about this a lot, here’s what I try to do myself.

First, let’s reconcile some things. On one hand, you have a sense of powerlessness, and it’s not an illusion. However on the other, I think there is a real and valid sense among many that Israel’s situation has changed in fundamental ways that cannot be undone. And it seems realistic that the current order will fall in our lifetimes. So then how do you and I act to hasten that?

First (and really second, third, and fourth), we must bear witness. We must continue to read these articles and learn about this situation well enough to try and explain it to others. Save articles by Palestinians to use to lift up their voices when opportunities arise.

At this point, it helps to reflect on a certain model of persuasion I like. Our goals are not to convince someone who opposes us to join our side. It’s to move people along a ladder. You want to find people who already agree with you but are passive, and activate them to do the things you’re already doing. You want to convince people who are neutral to agree with you, passively. You want to convince people who are passively opposed to become neutral. And you want to convince people who are actively opposed to lose their conviction and become passive in their opposition.

This has been happening for a long time, and it’s begun to accelerate in the last year. Learn and share knowledge. I don’t mean facts: I mean listen to people and slip them time-bomb ideas tailored to where they are that will move them on the ladder the next time they read a headline that you’ve primed them to look at with new eyes.

Second: I think it’s very likely that major turning points will be accompanied by mass actions. Protests don’t do anything … until suddenly they do. Be a member of a group – DSA, JVP, PYM, etc. – to make sure that when people march, you’ll get the call.

That’s pretty much what I have now. That and conversations like this one.

Third, I try to make sure I’m visible in my politics. I wear a kippah, and I have a Palestinian flag pin on it. I’ve found that this lets fellow Jews who’ve felt silenced know that I’m safe to talk to about this, and quietly lets Muslim neighbors know I’m with them. I have a drawstring bag with a pro-Palestine message I often carry. If useful to you, consider signaling politely where you stand to let others know.

And lastly: keep the faith. That ladder I mentioned? Zionists are trying to do all this to you too. There are people who want to exhaust you and demoralize you. Take breaks if needed. Don’t burn out. Do what you must to stay active for the long haul.

Thanks for sharing this. I wasn’t familiar with this channel, not I’m liking it.

I just read that this guy was part of Nebula and was forced out. It’s remarkable that he’s forced out for speaking openly and defending his beliefs when Isaac Arthur is tolerated despite having much more onerous politics but having them in secret. Smh.

Amen. It drives me fuckin’ nuts anytime – in business as well as in sci-fi and general discussion – when people envision a society made perfect because it’s run by a genius computer.

For pretty much every challenge society faces, the major obstacle is not that we’re unsure what to do or lack the intelligence to solve. We already have all the solutions, it’s just that our decision making systems are completely disinterested in employing any of the solutions that we already have.

It’s like, if you could get everyone to agree to listen to a computer, why not just skip the computer and get everyone to agree to listen to a combination of popular will and expert advice? Popular will and expert advice are like the supercomputer that runs society that we already have.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin

You are utterly powerless to stop this, even at your most self actualized, mobile, and focused you are fundamentally incapable of changing what needs to be changed.

This is flat out wrong.

You’re missing the point, because your scale is off. I’m not trying to change the planet. I’m trying to change my city and neighborhood. I’m not trying to hold back the tides. I’m trying to teach the next generation the resiliency to survive a long road to something better.

Those goals are totally in my reach. I can’t save billions, but I can definitely save dozens. Perhaps hundreds over the next century. And if enough of us do that, collectively we CAN save billions.

And somewhat ironically, the “our species can still turn it around! live in hope!” types are the same ones deadset against revolution to force those living large off destroying the planet to stop in a physical way.

I feel like it’s the other way around. I feel like it’s my people who are out there getting arrested and making fossil fuel execs upgrade their security detail, and it’s the doomers who seem to complain endlessly about how much they hate the taste of shoe leather while somehow spending the most time down there.

Okay well then where’s the problem? If there’s no point in trying to fight climate change while capitalism exists, then end capitalism. I don’t understand where we disagree.

The only thing I don’t understand about this article is what precipitated them to write it now, in September.

As they mentioned, this all came out months ago. Haaretz – which is basically the Israeli New York Times – reported on this. Soldiers, survivors, and investigators have all testified that the IDF instructed soldiers to let no one return to Gaza, full stop, by any means necessary, and liquidated hostages in a widespread manner.

It’s terrible. I’m glad it’s being talked about. But geez, why does it take months for something like this to suddenly get reported on?

This article doesn’t really answer most of my questions.

What subjects does the AI cover? Do they do all their learning independently? Does AI compose the entire lesson plan? What is the software platform? Who developed it? Is this just an LLM or is there more to it? How are students assessed? How long has the school been around, and what is their reputation? What is the fundamental goal of their approach?

Overall, this sounds quite dumb. Just incredibly and transparently stupid. Like, if they insisted that all learning would be done on the blockchain. I’m very open minded, but I don’t understand what the student’s experience will be. Maybe they’ll learn in the same way one could learn by browsing Wikipedia for 7 hours a day. But will they enjoy it? Will it help them find career fulfillment, or build confidence or learn social skills? It just sounds so much like that Willie Wonka experience scam but applied to an expensive private school instead of a pop-up attraction.

Even still. Most are like, ‘Woman (allegedly American) no longer alive due to visiting West Bank, claim some’.

Most headlines don’t even say who killed her.

I agree with all of that. It’s tough to talk about because I really hate to give any impression of moral equivalence. I think the leaders on both sides are equivalent in their hearts, but in actions and outcomes there’s simply no contest. Israel’s killers are much, much, much more brutally effective. At least several hundred times so in numbers. Very possibly a thousand times so.

When I speak of Hamas, it’s largely for the purpose of trying to understand their behavior.

I’m not terribly surprised, since whatever either side says is largely detached from what is really going on on the ground.

For instance, Israel has stated that it allows the vaccinations to take place, but four days ago blew up one of the aid trucks organized by a group called Anera after it had already been authorized for transit.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/30/middleeast/israeli-strike-gaza-aid-convoy-intl-latam/index.html

Now, the IDF claims that the truck was hijacked by armed militants. Anera said that the truck was not hijacked, it was staffed with local Palestinian delivery drivers who asked to drive at the last minute, but also admitted that they were not among the people that the IDF had pre-aproved.

So we can see here that the IDF blows people up in a deconflicted setting. But I’ll say something critics of Israel often won’t: I can’t guarantee that none of those drivers were actually part of Hamas. Would it surprise me if Hamas and the IDF agreed to peacefully allow vaccinations without interference and BOTH broke that agreement? No. Israel doesn’t follow the rules of engagement, nor does Hamas. What either side says they agree to is not a reliable source of what is happening. Both say whatever they think sounds good and then their fighters do whatever the hell they like. Neither side is honest or in control of their fighters, so nothing anyone says really matters that much.

This makes me so sad. It’s clear that the only reason that they’re doing it is because unlike starvation, unconstrained polio virus can transmit to soldiers.

They’ll allow limited aid to prevent kids from dying of this one particular thing. Not of dying of all the other horrible stuff. But just of this one special cause.

Sick.

I feel like this is a pretty crass joke to make.

A good friend of mine found a body a few months ago. It’s a pretty shitty experience. And it’s actually a lot like what OP describes. A sense of foreboding and suspicion combined with a conviction that these thoughts are foolish. And an uncertainty whether to check or to alert someone or to just try to forget it.

Op, I’d report it and ask them to please follow up with you and let you know. It’s probably nothing, and you’ll feel better once you know it was nothing, and that you did the responsible thing in having it dealt with.

I would suggest calling the city or county and reporting suspicious dumping. It could be a body. It could be a rotting animal carcass. It could have toxic chemicals in it.

You don’t need to suspect that it’s a body to call the city and report what looks like dangerous dumping.

To clarify a bit: I DO think that what this woman did was child abuse. But not specifically because she locked the kid in a bathroom. Because she did it for a social media audience.

For some context, I use what is often called “gentle parenting” (although I think it’s just what I would call “parenting if you’re humane and responsive to the needs of a child”). So I would never do this. But I also am very aware of the feeling of helplessness that comes from having a child in distress and having exhausted every remedy I know. I am familiar with the logic that a child who is screaming is doing so for attention, and will stop when their behavior isn’t being tolerated. Putting a child into a time out until they stop doing something is not a radical approach. If I saw someone do this on a plane, I wouldn’t immediately consider it abusing a child.

HOWEVER: if I saw this lady chatting animatedly into her phone’s front facing camera while dragging a distressed kid (to whom she’s not addressing her attention) toward a lavatory, I’d immediately think, ‘Oh fuck: is that one of those people who turns every moment into a social media opportunity? That kid needs rescued.’

I think it’s an omission that the article didn’t recognize this. This woman didn’t just put a kid in a bathroom to try to get them to calm down (dumb idea, but not abuse by itself, imo). She did all that while talking to strangers and saying, ‘Hey everyone! Look at me! Look AT MEEE!’

THAT is what makes it abuse.

I was trying to explain what AI alignment is to my mom, and I ended up using the behavior of companies like OpenAI, and how they’re distorted by profit motive as an example of a misaligned decision making system. And I realized that late stage capitalism is basically the paperclip maximizer made real.

This is a very good article. I think AI models have more to teach us about epistemology than people want to believe right now.