#again why are you acting like capitalists on the socialism website

[al-the-remix]

Random fandom thoughts/feelings

The reblog button is turned off on this post but I think it's another incredibly important one to be thinking about. I enjoy their framing of how the profit economy of other social media sites has been bleeding into fandom spaces on both tumblr, and like this post focuses on, Ao3. It's something that I've been noticing more and more and it really rubs me the wrong way and I feel like OP's post words it perfectly in a way I've been struggling to express.

This sort of connects the previous post I reblogged on the topic talking about how fandom is not a good in road for becoming internet famous.

A facet of this that's really bamboozled me recently is that I feel like i've been seeing more and more of is the idea that a singular person has a right to call "dibs" on a specific piece of media. Which is honestly totally fucking wild to me and if I'm being totally frank kind of dumb.

Every single one of us who interacts with fandom and by extent and IP is flirting with copy right law, the consequences of which everyone should be extremely familiar with by now with the fall of LJ and various lawsuits by authors, dmca notices, etc.

We have all heard the adage "there's no such thing as an original idea"; the idea that everything we create is the amalgamation of all the things that influence us, good and bad.

This is totally normal and good, actually.

For example, if I and another person both watch a TV show, see a production photograph that we really like and decide to draw it and post them one after the other it would be considered extremely bad behaviour to then turn around and make a big stink about how someone else had the gall to turn around and draw the same thing that I did. We can all look at a picture, video, lyrics to a song, become inspired and create something wildly different based on our tastes and influences--but we also are equally, if not more so, likely to create something nearly identical to our peers, especially in a fandom space where ideas are concentrated and we are all consuming each other's thoughts, opinions, and creations. More than once I've come up with an idea for a fic or a drawing that someone else had had a nearly identical execution of without us communicating or viewing each other's work. That's just the way the human brain works, we're hard wired to make connections in a fairly similar way.

You do not have a right to call dibs on any one photograph, clip of video, song lyrics or any other bit of media you might consume.

This stands for artists, writers, gif makers, AMV creators, and any other way you choose to express your love of fandom creatively.

If you are really hard pressed to focus on the numbers and work at being ~influential~ the burden is on you to distinguish yourself creatively.

There's a reason why not being able to see follower counts is so important to the way fandom and tumblr functions. The concept of ~small creators~ and ~big creators~ or BNF or whatever are all burdens you place on yourselves. No one is taking anything away from you by engaging with the same bit of media you are in a similar way. We all have a right to express ourselves creatively and emotionally through any snippet of media that sparks our interest. You do not get to "own it" just because you happened to pump something out first. There are no creative "dibs". This isn't even some sort of "fandom" etiquette thing that has gone thus unspoken. It's a strange possessive thing that I've seen crop up more and more as the idea of being a capital "C" Creator brain rots people's minds and atrophies their ability to be creative.

Sort of on a tangent, but I have a bunch of other personal random thoughts about how this push to be prolific stagnates fandom, but these are more complicated for me and I'm not as clear on how I want to express them. On one had I am completely on board with the "there is no such thing as cringe" mindset and that everyone has a right to create whatever super indulgent thing they want to without having to suffer people being snobby about it. But, on the other hand I feel very strongly that the cycle of people seeing one trope or characterization being repeated repeated over and over and gaining popularity, reading only that--writing only that--leading others to also only consume that, really stymies creativity and makes it harder to grow the fandom if people that are trying to enter aren't into That One Thing, while also ostracizing people who are already in the fandom that aren't into That One Thing. I strongly believe that people's tastes are at least 70% just what they're exposed to, and obviously not everyone is going to be into whatever weird niche concept they're exposed to through fandom, but the more they are the more opportunity they have to expand that horizon. I don't know how many times I've gotten a version of the "I wasn't sure I would like this but I gave it a shot and it turns out I really love it!" and how good that feels and how much I wish other people were emboldened to do the same instead of being so wrapped up in how their work may or may not be received.

This is mostly a subjective thing though, so it's less cut and dry. Like for example, I really struggle with engaging with transgender fic despite being transgender myself because of the way most AFAB fic is written to the point where I avoid it now almost entirely. Which, frankly, really fucking sucks but also I will be the first person to fight for other's ability to write transgender characters wether they appeal my personal feelings and taste or not.

Anyway, this is one of the reasons I'm so protective of fandom community events, especially ones that employ aspects of the fandom gift economy such as exchanges. There are one of the few wholly un self-centred places left where the focus is on gifting someone something they will love and giving back to the fandom at large by flooding it with art and opportunities appreciation and engagement with each other. It is not supposed to be an opportunity for you to think about yourself and "getting something good" in return or using it a convenient deadline. It also offers you an opportunity to engage with fic tropes and genres that you've never considered writing or reading before.

TL;DR if you've found yourself recently squabbling over how many notes your gifs, art, writing, etc. has been getting compared to other people instead of focusing on forging community ties and your own creative expression, I'm sorry to say you're doing it wrong.

#mostly word vomit but it's a topic i think a lot about since both my job and most of my hobbies are creative focused #and after coming off a nearly two year burnout (that was not caused by any of these things) but effected my ability to participate in fando #and some of my hobbies in favour of others like working out in order to focus on work and stuff that would help my brain heal #I just do not think brining a profit economy mindset is really what's going to make fandom engagement /better/ #again why are you acting like capitalists on the socialism website #anyways i'm really trying hard not to go full “parade of shame down the main street” but this behaviour is so appalling to me and while #i understand it i don't understand the appeal of participating in fandom in that fashion

[katapotato55]

IMPORTANT PSA TO THOSE NEW TO TUMBLR OR REALLY ANYONE ON THIS SITE IN GENERAL:

IT IS OK TO REBLOG SPAM AND LIKE SOMEONE'S CONTENT ON THEIR BLOG NO ONE HERE IS GOING TO BE WEIRDED OUT, IN FACT IT IS ENCOURAGED THIS IDEA THAT SOCIALIZATION = BAD IS A TOXIC CAPITALISTIC TOOL DESIGNED BY HELLSITES LIKE TWITTER TO LEACH MONEY AND GOODWILL FROM YOUR BODY. I honest to god have no idea why "ratioing" on twitter is bad, like the act of engagement is considered a bad thing as if twitter were trying to encourage your toxic rage. oh wait that is exactly what twitter is doing. Twitter's entire business model is to encourage you to get outraged and to profit off of your rage induced engagement.

TUMBLR. DOES. NOT. HAVE. RATIOS. REBLOGGING IS A GOOD THING HERE. NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR THAT, AND HONESTLY MY MEMORY IS SO CRAP I FORGET Y'ALL RESPOND TO MY STUFF ANYWAYS.

All you need to do is change your profile pic and post something, and congratulations you now have a valid Tumblr citizenship. also to you twitter users: you can't cancel people on tumblr. this is a website full of eccentric weirdos. We are so far away from the mainstream that tumblr struggles to find advertisers for this site. At one point tumblr was very toxic, and the toxic tumblr people would eventually move to twitter during the porn ban. Twitter + the pandemic simply gave the toxic weirdos mainstream power to ruin people's lives. politely fuck off with your toxic crap, no one here is afraid to call you out on your obvious bullshit like on twitter. We don't have anything to hide here and even if we did your impact means NOTHING here. If you try to make tumblr toxic again then you will not be welcomed here by the community. Behave.

#tumblr #tumblr meta #tumblr culture #tumblr stuff #hellsite #the tumblr experience #twitter drama #elon twitter #twitter buyout #twitter refugees #twitterpocalypse #twitter meltdown #twitter #social media #reddit #reddit blackout #reddit refugees #reddit exodus #tumblr migration

[transmutationisms]

I feel like this is likely a bat to a hornet's nest topic but I deeply respect your takes and thoughts overall a lot so here goes: I really appreciate that the show frankly goes out of its way to not pathologize its characters and lets the audience sit with them in the context of their own lives. So I'm kind of baffled that so much focus is given to "diagnosing" them in fan discussions, the vast brunt of which Kendall gets. I don't understand how you can watch this show and understand him as someone who's been heavily abused and had his reactions to being abused weaponized against him and come away being like "wow it's so cringe he acts like that, he must have a brain disease and is just too stupid to understand that. every action he takes is because he is manic/depressed/letting the disease manifest. if only he took the good moral Legal drugs that I do instead of the ontologically bad ones that are Illegal and for dirty addicts. hopefully one day he will Get Help and Receive Treatment so he will be more palatable (no whatever he's done up to this point doesn't count because it didn't work which must inherently be due to his own moral failings)." How did a show like this attract so many Reganites??

bat at a hornets' nest yes. yeah i've said before that i dislike diagnosing fictional characters as a general rule. it's tautological ("they do [x] because they have [y], and they have [y] because they do [x]") and abrogates further analysis of their motives or the meanings of their actions. and it's doubly irksome to me with succession, because unlike a lot of tv, i genuinely don't think that it's written within the weltanschauung of dsm neurobio determinism. ie, it's not a show where the answer to "why did he do that?" is ever supposed to be "his brain is just like that"—these actions are supposed to mean something about what the character wants and needs, and the effect of the capitalist milieu on those things. it's psychological, not psychiatric (& of course, psychoanalytic approaches are common in formal literary studies, whereas blunt psychiatric diagnosis is decidedly less so).

with kendall's drug use there are some particularly irritating ways this all plays out. i've been fiddling with my own reading emphasising the context of logan's demands on kendall and the construction of bourgeois masculinity, and have tried to place kendall's drug use as a response to neoliberal control mechanisms à la deleuze or foucault. i could certainly be challenged on elements of this reading, but what i see on this website is generally just an endless slog of very biomedicalised reads that seem to have no awareness of the particular historical and social baggage present in that model. i do agree there's an element of reactionary DARE-esque moralising going on here (stg if i have to read one more post written by someone who, like, has never so much as met a coke user and thinks all drugs instantaneously give you irreversible morally weighted heart damage, lmao), but it's honestly not just that.

i think most of the time when people do this they're not trying to be reactionary or regressive, and often they not only don't believe themselves to be moralising affective distress, but actually think the dsm diagnosis is the way to avoid that type of moralisation. this is essentially the "it's a discrete disease entity, so they have no control over it and can't help it, so it's not their fault" argument. in practice this fails on many levels. for one thing, it often implicitly assumes that 'ending the stigma' requires any kind of mental disability or affective distress to be treated analogously to physical disability or illness, as though those latter are not also consistently stigmatised and moralised—because ableism is actually more complex than that and has to do with the fact that capitalism values people on the basis of the 'use' it can make of them and their bodies, etc etc. it is also, again, a wildly decontextualised understanding of affective distress, the reasons why people use drugs—including in a manner that feels compulsive and out of control—and so forth.

i'll add also that wrt succession, i actually do see a LOT of pathologisation thrown at roman as well, and more than an incidental amount directed at connor, tom, shiv, and logan. which is to say, i don't think this is solely about people's discomfort with addicts. there's a broad tendency among fans, echoing the even broader social tendency, to see medical diagnosis as personally liberatory, and medicine and psychiatry as passing 'objective' judgments that are necessary in order for a person to 'get better.' this is essentially positivism and is very much a status that the medical profession has fought to obtain (in france you can trace certain 18th-century discourses on national decline, aristocratic luxury, and the corrupting influence of the city -> the birth of clinical medicine after the first revolution -> social hygiene and the pathologisation of the parisian urban poor -> the third republic's 'physician-legislators' and the general class status and professionalisation of medicine; i know less about the gory details of the american and british cases simply by dint of what i do professionally).

we tend to forget these histories when talking about science; it presents itself as a set of timeless, incontrovertible truths that are simply waiting to be uncovered, and we have entire industries of science communication and journalism that propagate this view. which is to say, circling back to succession, i don't believe that most people diagnosing and pathologising these characters are trying to be reactionary or are aware that there are reactionary and moralising elements inherently built into these discourses. i think they're largely people who have not been given the tools to see alternatives, like the perspectives dominant in the history and sociology of science, which are very much kept paywalled and inaccessible on purpose because this is profitable for the academe.

this type of popular literary analysis is simply not going to go anywhere as long as this is still the status and the moral resonance of medicine (and psychiatry by extension because it gained its professional independence without sacrificing the appeal to medico-scientific epistemological authority). i don't think succession viewers are any more or less prone to this type of thinking than the general population they exist amongst. i firmly disagree with this attitude, obviously, and like i said, i don't actually think succession is written 'psychiatrically,' which cannot be said for all tv lol. but i more or less expect to encounter this type of deference to medico-psychiatric judgments in 95% of social interactions and contexts, again because of a combination of institutional control of information, other forms of inaccessibility, and physicians' and psychiatrists' advocacy for their own class and professional interests, both historically and ongoing today.

#psychiatry

[pissmoon]

i feel like there's a difference between a 'golddigger' (as in a woman who has made a decision to marry for money rather than love for whatever reason) who idk maybe comes by her golddiggery naturally or something (respectable, necessary in the environment) and then this weird sort of overperformative influencer type who cant stop trying to recruit other women to what theyve started framing as a lifestyle. like there's a social media grifter style angle to so many of these people i think and that might be what's really grating

I get what you mean i feel like less than 1% of women can be 'successful' at this type of a thing. And its not even about looks and youth as much as sneakiness and being detached emotionally. Then again, even Marylin Monroe and Anna Nicole Smith commited suicides, was it all that 'natural' to them? These 'men are the providers' influencers however, they act like its 'natural' to 100% of women because its feminine receiving energy or whatever buzzwords and they preach this crap like jehovahs witness. Im sorry, Jessica, who are you? You married some ugly boring upper middle class small business owner no one wanted to have a nice car, you are not a sultana in a harem that had to plot against thousands of his sex slaves. I am not impressed!!! Why would i want to live like you or listen to you? Id rather die a brokie than touch this thing u call a husband its not even worth the hussle of pretending not to fall asleep as he's talking.... honestly they take themselves so seriously when they are the ones that got played and not other way around. And even then, its not even realistic for all women to 'stop dating broke men' because there arent that many 'non-broke' (by their suburban american standards) ones to start with and refusing to date wont change a thing bc we live under capitalism most ppl have to be working class for capitalists to profit off them HELLO????? Its a cashgrab for these dating coaches to sell some absolute dumbasses the illusion being a 'golddigger' is 'easy' like 'hehe why work a job when u can go to a golf club or this dating website that is totally not all sugardaddies and be pretty and in ur feminine energy'. No one who actually married a millionaire would be giving 'advice' like that or bragging about it all over the internet, his divorce lawyers would fuck her up. In that way its not 'natural' to them. Their advice doesnt even sound like someone who can successfully do this type of thing, its giving desparation to marry an upper mid class guy. Its a very different vibe i agree actual 'golddiggers' i imagine to be arrogant and lowkey about it rather than desperately giving younger women advice on how easy peasy it is to steal their husbands lol you look stupid

[harmcityherald]

that live with the ceo thing just hanging there. I unsnoozed which is a word I have never used before, got nothing. but its.....just hanging there. ominously. like oh you didn't like my post, well then. and he says lets talk about it....on live......that everyone also hates. man.....Im getting elon vibes over here.

not gonna unsnooze ever again. so I will never have to use that unwieldy word again.

love tumblr tho. sucks its just another corporate specter but that's all we got isn't it. corporate specters. from the ground up. us little people. we are the product, dear readers. The fuel of the capitalist engines. you and me and our little clicks in our bored moments. We are the fuel. The data mined. sold and researched. So yeah I use yours because its the best in town. why is it the best in town? because I don't feel raped here. The reason no one liked your post is because you showed them it rapes like all the others. you were just better at hiding it. hide it again. We like the fairy tale. its comfortable this way. We see tumblr as a compassionate place. A place we can find truth with each other and play at our fandoms, produce and show art and not some vapid pisshole like twitter or fb where Im free to be myself whereas I can't be in those other theaters. Im comfortable here and I trusted you to at least not act like fb and twitter and to realize thats why young people like your site. *smack* wtf man. I know in my heart you run a conglomerate machine of mayhem and I wouldn't want to trade places with you. To tried to be competitive up there in this social media War that I guess you imagine that you fight everyday and you have to stay relevant and you have to compete but you're going to have to balance that with the humanity of your website because that's what the people are here for, that's what I'm here for. I know you mind me for data I can tell from the sponsored ads I get, and at least you have a sense of humor. But us poor fuel cells of those big corporate engines like yours we like you to keep that curtain closed pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. As a Humanity disappears so will the people. That's exactly what is happening at Twitter and at Facebook and at readdit. So if in some wild alternate universe I had been able to actually access your live stream and actually talk to you then this is exactly what I probably would have said.

now don't be elon and delete me. it would be a utopian world if you didn't mine us all for datadollars but Im a realist. I know you are. just don't stick it in my face. remember. humanitarian.

[goldheartedsky]

I told myself I wasn’t going to make a post like this—that I wasn’t going to stoop to the level of making call-out posts—but I really can’t stay silent after what has happened in the last day or so.

The TOG fandom has a serious issue with excusing antisemitism and allowing people who have painfully hurt marginalized groups to continue to ignore, dismiss, and refuse to acknowledge their limits of intersectionality in regards to social justice. I have seen it myself, been on the receiving end of it, and have talked to other Jews in this fandom about what’s been going on and it needs to start being addressed.

Now, I’m not going to name names or tag people (mainly because I have been blocked by almost all of them for this very issue) but if you message me I will gladly tell you the users involved in this. Also, if you have doubts of any of this’s validity and would like screenshots, feel free to reach out to me here or via Discord and I will share them.

A lot of this started when a member of the All&More server had brought up the scientific and medical “discoveries” during the torture and medical experimentation that took place during the Third Reich and how a lot of the origin of it isn’t taught. LR made a comment saying that “we are three-dimensional creatures who are stuck moving forward in time and can’t go back” and added that not using the research won’t make past horrors not happen. When the original user added that there has been a movement in medicine for removing Nazi scientists names off discoveries and that progress was slow moving, she deflected the conversation onto herself, saying “Not using research won’t make my family not harmed by the Japanese” and then immediately pivoted into admitting that, from what she understood, there weren’t any particularly valid scientific discoveries made by them. She then said, in regards to said Nazi atrocities, “Take it, learn about it, put it in context, and then own it and transform it.”

A Jewish member of A&M voiced their discomfort about possibly taking medicine that was a direct result of the murder of their grandparents and other relatives, to which LR said, “Still stuck in the 3rd dimension, still moving forward in time.” I brought up the fact that medicine was built on antisemitism and racism and that starting over would be better than a lot of the procedures we have now. There is a longstanding issue in medicine of disregarding black pain and so much of what we have now is created by eugenicists—including Nazi scientists. There is still a lot of Jewish trauma due to medical experimentation and that is oftentimes dismissed.

LR then made a flippant comment about “Does this count as Godwin’s Law?”—which is about how all internet discussions lead to someone being compared to Nazis/Hitler. When called out on the inappropriateness of the comment, she did not respond and was backed up by one of the mods of the server. There was no apology made nor an acknowledgment about the casual antisemitism of the comments she made and the dismissal of Jewish trauma/pain.

Now, fast forward a couple months when I was contacted by a third party who had not been in the server at the time but had joined and heard about what LR had said there. H said they were friends with LR and had concerns about antisemitism and would like my perspective. I explained what had happened and offered screenshots if they would like them, which they did. They thanked me and apologized that it got to a point that I felt unsafe in the server and had to leave, which I appreciated.

A couple weeks later they reached out to me again and offered to broker a conversation between LR and myself because the situation wasn’t sitting well with them. I was skeptical (because I had been blocked at that point) and didn’t have a lot of hope that this conversation would actually take place but I felt a responsibility to try and be the bigger person and deal with what had been said head on, so I agreed to sit down and have a discussion with her as long as there was a third party in the chat as well—given our history.

After a couple weeks of back and forth with H and hearing that LR had said that she would “think about it”, she finally agreed. I was asked for a time and date and I gave my availability and was told she would be asked for the same. A couple days later, I was suddenly told LR would only be comfortable with this conversation if H acted as a “literal go-between” with us copy-pasting our responses in their DMs so we can “sit with the message and everyone can get to them when they can” rather than it being a session with an actual back and forth and was asked if I was okay with that. I honestly said no, because this was supposed to be a situation where she and I sat down and discussed what she said in the server, not a back and forth message relay where the conversation got dragged out for days or weeks or however long it was going to take. I said if she was serious about meeting me halfway on this, she needed to be able to sit down and actually talk.

H copy-pasted my response to LR and came back that she had backed out of the conversation, which part of me had expected from the beginning—even though all I wanted from this sit down was for her to understand how hurtful the antisemitic comments were and an apology.

These comments that were made in the server are not a secret. It’s pretty well known what was said and again, these were all on record, not privately made in some DM. She has still not owned up to the comments she said, nor has she ever apologized for them. She has ignored message after message about them and blocked more people than I can count. Many of the people defending her when the discourse begins have also been messaged about the comments she’s said and also either block people or ignore the messages completely and refuse to acknowledge them.

Now, this being said, in the most recent conversation about fandom racism, someone brought up the post that was made reducing users on ao3 to faceless, nameless numbers without saying who they were, what they had done, and how they were specifically contributing to the problem of racism in this fandom. They made the comparison of other situations like HR looking at pay stats to see how to fire and included “Nazis, capitalists, and colonizers.”

This is not an invalid argument. There have been other Jews in the fandom who specifically voiced feeling uncomfortable for the exact same reason. However, another person, LT, decided to specifically make a post calling the OP out and drag them for having the audacity to liken it to the Shoah (which, mind you, this person is not Jewish nor did they decide to capitalize Shoah or the Holocaust as they should have). She received a reply saying, “you’re offended by antisemitism? Here’s LR’s (someone LT has agreed with multiple times over racism in fandom) track record of antisemitic comments” which outlined everything I delved into previously.

LT said that they were “unaware of this incident until a couple days ago” but agreed that it was an upsetting display of casual dismissal of Jewish pain and hoped that LR had apologized. She was then called out for being aware of it and still continuing to reblog LR’s posts even after knowing about the comments and was linked to my post clarifying that LR had not apologized and refused a discussion about it, to which LT said that she had gotten “quite a different version outlined in the post linked and corroborated by a third party” and “felt uncomfortable” making a value judgement, insinuating that I was not being truthful about my side of the story.

I messaged LT off-anon and said that I was not lying nor over-exaggerating about what had happened in the server or about the following discussion about trying to broker a conversation with LR, and was immediately blocked by her. I am also not the only Jew who has sent her messages about this topic, only to have their messages ignored.

Now, am I surprised that I was immediately blocked after voicing my issues with what LT had said in that post? No.

She has a history of making antisemitic comments, most of which happened during the brunt of the Israel/Palestine discussion happening, which included statements such as “You cannot be considered indigenous if you hold a position of power”, that, despite having been displaced for 2,000 years, the Jewish diaspora was “integrated” into their respective communities (a wholly untrue statement), as well as linked to and promoted a website with extremely antisemitic articles including one about “Spartan Jews” and how Israeli Jews are violent to “send messages to their deprived self-esteem” that they won’t be victims again. Half of the comments on the site’s front page included such hits as “Death to all Jews” and “Wow, I had no idea this was happening—I guess it is true that Jews control the world and the mass media.” This website was repeated in multiple posts as “unbiased” and “a good resource” for other people to truly know what was going on.

Jewish dissent on the content of some posts and that website went unacknowledged and dismissed.

Being that LT is a relatively big user in the TOG fandom, her posts got circulated frequently. Seeing things like that touted as unbiased was extremely triggering for me and multiple Jews in this fandom that I’ve spoken to.

Now, the reason I made this post in particular was because I have seen a lot of echoing of the sentiment: “no matter how much you disagree with their sentiment, aligning yourself with racists is...well aligning yourself with racists.”

This statement NEEDS to become intersectional. If we are criticizing the work of people because of who they hold company with, why does that end at racism? If we are going to have a discussion about racism in this fandom, why are we letting it come from people who have openly said antisemitic things, people who have stood by them and supported them in silence, and people who have silenced Jewish voices speaking up about this issue.

These are not separate issues. This is a really good post regarding the white washing of Jews in social justice discussion and it comes full circle into the medical experimentation discussion. Jews were not seen as white during the Holocaust. The Nazis were trying to cleanse the Aryan race because they did not view Jews as white. They experimented on them because they did not view them as white and, thus, disposable.

Every Jewish diasporic community is still vulnerable. Even though the US has half the world’s Jews, over 50% of the religiously based hate crimes are consistently anti-Jewish even though Jews make up 2% of the population. Chinese Jews are still holding their holiday celebrations in secret due to government crackdowns. The attempted genocide of Beta Israel was less than 50 years ago. Across the Middle East and North Africa, Jewish communities are barely hanging on after centuries of attempted destruction. These are not just Jewish issues but racial issues as well because when people make the sweeping generalization of “Jew” and they only mean white-passing Ashkenazi Jews, it erases so much of our community.

I absolutely agree that this fandom needs to have a discussion about race and portrayal in fic and what we can do better moving forward—and I want to see that done—but we also need to acknowledge what so many people starting this discussion have said and the marginalized groups they have hurt along the way. I see these posts come across my dashboard and know exactly who they're coming from and what they think of people like me. If we are going to say, “No matter how much you disagree with their sentiment, aligning yourself with racists is aligning yourself with racists,” then we NEED to be saying, “If you are aligning yourself with antisemites, you’re aligning yourself with antisemites.”

We all need to move forward. But that means moving forward together. Jews included.

#i just really needed to get this off my chest #I really don’t want to start shit but some of this has been bothering me for months and I can’t stay quiet anymore #I’m just so tired #intersectionality includes Jews pass it on

[kny111]

I’m Living Under Government Watchlist for doing ProBlack + BLM work

I’m not sure many of you know this and with what I’ve seen I doubt this will get attention considering how deeply sabotaged tumblr has become. But I’ve been doing activism for about as long as we’ve been yelling things like “HandsOffAssattaShakur“ to protesting what I thought was religious corruption when we did so against scientology to #OccupyWallstreet. I’ve been protesting and doing activism online and offline depending on my mental and physical health which has limited me as time goes by. It’s finally got me burnt out, not from the protesting and activism, but from those whose job in the past and present been to sabotage and destabilize Black lead/ Poc led movements. I’m in a continuation of this. Don’t let my lack of energy in speaking out fool you into thinking I gave up. I have just gotten worn out by them.

The things they’ve done to my mind and body while in this area since moving. They’ve been surveilling me since before I could even remember. Every single day that goes by they’ll have some way of making their presence on my health in a debilitating way. They’ll mess with the internet, phone, my contacts, infiltrate them, infiltrate my family, they’ve messed with the job search process and made difficult for me to enter any job without said job making some offhanded comments showing their solidarity to the corrupted country I protest. They’ve had people I trusted right here on tumblr infiltrated my circles of friends and myself and make it very well known that they feel beyond reproach.

This has all been in coordination with the NYPD and other government agents of defense. They’ll make themselves present in just about any space I try to go. From the forest, parks, to just a simple walks outside. I basically was lead into an area of Manhattan that is mad pro-cop, pro-surveillence capitalism, pro-militarized. Any time I make blog posts or whatever that don’t put em in a good light I get some kind of mental or physical health debilitating action against me like they’ll have mad loud noises at timed intervals like what the agent upstairs does all the time which messes with my breathing due to social anxiety and depression. They’ve had cars roll dangerously close to me, whether im biking or not. They’ll have people walk mad close to me during social distancing measures. I know it be them because they tend to use sensitive information they got through surveillancing me all day and night. Like fam I could be trying to take a piss in peace at like 3am and they’ll still be bumping away and making all types of sound to give the impression that they’re always watching. And they are. And I think the fact that those UFO/UAP objects appeared on my 17th  (11/10/2004) birthday added to their obsession with me. The other fact that I ended painting a similar craft under the context of destroying colonialism I believe gave the government more understanding on what they’re really here about. I think that being the end of these oppressive regimes that have made so much out of us. I don’t want to sound superstitious but since then I’ve felt a connection with those UAPs that I only learned to name recently. I no longer think it’s coincidental that about a month or so AFTER I painted those native, queer sisters dancing to bring forth help from their future descendants, the navy posts those videos of the UAP that become well known. They’ve never done that, and yet just a few weeks after I painted this, not only does the gallery I exhibited this in Harlem catches fire unexpectedly, but these things become a topic of discussion in ways we’ve never seen before. I think them UAPs are here for our freedom. But that’s for another post. Too much to unpack into this. I’m just letting yall know what they know of me. So now imagine. This nigga aka me, tied to UFO, fortelling the future (I know what I sound like, but believe me, I can definitely tell the future) AAAND fighting for black lives? Of course they gone be on my ass like a probe. In fact, I think one night they even broke into our apartment (not the first time they do so) and did things against my will as I slept since I woke up feeling violated. Waking up with strange markings and having objects in the crib go missing. But I’ll leave that there. There’s so little ya’ll know about what they’re doing to BLM activists. So much I’ve omitted from here for my own sanity and to process things. This has caused my body a lot of debilitating stress down to my breathing having been shortened. I’m lucky if I have the will power to eat more than 2 meals. I don’t even bike anymore. I can barely run anymore. I can barely speak like I used to anymore. They stole so much more from me than they’ll ever imagine. Even saying all this to yall, whomever listening, feels pointless. Why? because they’re very good at making it seem, even if and when it aint true, that your people don’t fuck with you no more except for those they deem acceptable. As you figured, this would have anyone under 24/7 watch. The government be lookin at me and them UAP and the lands and non government natives as a force they don’t wanna reckon with, so they’ve put a lot out to shrink me as they do to so many of us who choose to fight for the rest who can’t. And this has all been while trying to raises my baby Quinn with my partner. So we’re all dealing with the state and federal terrorists in one way or another. If they not trying physically fuck with me, they’ll be running psych warfare on me, shit thatll have me doubting myself despite the facts. Luckily a nigga still bout that scientific literacy so it’s helped me a lot in spotting them and trying to keep some semblance of a distance. But again because of what I’m tied to: bday 111, UAP/UFO, native resistance and the spirits of the land and those this country murdered for white supremacist ventures, predicting/ESP type of abilities on the daily while telling them how useless their surveillence capitalist tools are knowing we can do this has likely mad them other me, dehumanize me and made me feel less human. Since then I’ve noticed they’ve been limiting my posts and activities on just about any site that has favored white supremacy, neocolonialism and capitalism in some way or another. They’ll mess with my facebook feed, who my posts get seen by, they’ll mess with my IG, they’ll mess with my tumblr especially. Basically any way they can limit who I may say this to and wear me out from even speaking about this and bringing yall hope like that. And remember, the information that they share amongst themselves as surveillance capitalist is the same information hub/database that infiltrated white supremacists and antiblack/antibrown folks in governments tend to us and share with their own hateful ass people. With this in mind, I really think they look at me as some would be leader to those movements since I’m queer and nonbinary so not as easy to trick into the outdated oppresive politics they try to have me on. Since I haven’t shown interest in being with them in any real way and have stuck to my activism and abolishing these systems they’ve continue to in a way torture me. Through sounds, denial of physical services, or when I go out to eat in places that have ties to law enforcement or government agencies, they’ll mess with my food, just about anything you need they’ll fuck with. What would that do to you if you experienced that? Hence why my bloggin changed a bit, not as attached due to energy fatigue and their constant harrassment and obsession with me. Many times, even with the fact that I may be linked to those UAP in some special way I still be feelin like dyin to not be around em anymore.

To add to what I said on how corporate own websites like tumblr have joined them; After having spent a good amount of time blocking my posts and blaming their algorithm. From blocking drawings of normalizing fatness to pro LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter posts like the Eric Garner videos I uploaded. For a few months now I’ve noticed my scinerds blog has been inaccessible, in a way sabotaging my communication with yall. And they would fix my blog posts by limiting who sees my posts, so now most if not all of my posts on this website and few others have been. When I try to use it I’m not allowed, but I’m still able to reblog, so I’ve been reblogging there less science and more activism as a way to protest the racist, white supremacist of tumblr. Be they black or not, they still acting the same. I’m mostly posting this for a future people who understand me and believe me. I get the sense that this post will also be sabotaged or muted in some way. Thanks for reading, in case we don’t link.

#blm #black lives matter

[himanshk]

Could AI render human labour in all fields useless?

What is Artificial Intelligence; What is it used for and what is the impact? 

AI or Artificial Intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems to be able to perform tasks and jobs that normally requires human intelligence. For example: visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, etc. -Oxford Dictionary

Artificial intelligence has a myriad of uses such as: 

Non player characters in video games 

Stock market trading bots 

Content filters on social media 

Autopilot on an aeroplane 

Self-Driving cars

Artificial Intelligence is also being used in extremely experimental ways. One of these cases is Watson by IBM. Watson had made an appearance on television beating people at the game show Jeopardy, but his directive is to learn how humans express medical issues in their own words and try to give an accurate diagnosis. He has already gotten a start by trying to diagnose lung cancer patients. 

This topic has been extremely relevant in recent years due to the ever increasing speed of innovation in the modern world. There have been countless tests proving time and time again that AI is better and could eventually become better than human physical and mental labour. This topic has been talked about by many authoritative figures (Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, etc). There have been politicians discussing it but only one is doing something about it. Andrew Yang is an American presidential candidate who is taking a unique political side on AI. He is taking in relevant information from trusted sources and he is proposing a solution called UBI (universal basic income). He proposes that due to AI taking away jobs from many in the US that he is giving a ‘freedom dividend’ of  $1000 per American citizen every month to allow our capitalist society to continue with a high unemployment through no fault of their own. 

How does artificial intelligence work?

Artificial intelligence is a broad term for a lot of different algorithms but the main branch that is associated with ‘taking over jobs’ is machine learning. The way machine learning works is that you give the algorithm data and an operation on what to do with that data. They begin analysing it and teach themselves the relationships between the data and how to complete the task at hand. This principal is most notably found in online retail. Amazon for example gets its algorithms to analyse the data you produce on their website and these algorithms produce a list of items you are more likely to purchase and they then recommend them to you. 

History of Artificial Intelligence

The concept of living machines that act like humans has been around ever since the ancient Greeks but artificial intelligence was not officially named as such until 1956 at a conference at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where the term artificial intelligence was coined by John McCarthy who is credited as one of the founding fathers of AI along with Alan Turing, Marvin Minsky and Herbert A. Simon. -Washington University

But proper funded research did not begin until the 1960’s when the Department of Defence funded various research efforts and there were various other laboratories that appeared across the world. Herbert Simon was extremely optimistic about the future of AI stating “machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do”. But during the 70’s research had slowed down a lot due to some unexpected issues with creating a well performing set of artificial neurons. These issues were spotted by Sir James Lighthill. But they were corrected.

By the 1980’s artificial intelligence has received a resurgence in popularity and investment because of the creation of expert systems which are a branch of ai which can simulate/replicate the knowledge and skill of humans. By 1985 the market of AI had reached 1 billion USD. Simultaneously in Japan they were developing the ‘fifth generation computer system’ which sparked some intrigue for the UK and the US so they began to fund further research into AI. 

In the 1990’s and early 2000’s AI was being used more frequently for things such as video game NPC’s and the stock market (as I have previously mentioned). The reason for the success and popularity is the increasing power of computers and the increasing availability of them. In 1997 an AI program called deep blue was the first chess playing AI to beat a reigning champion. 

Why AI will not take our jobs

Artificial intelligence and automation has proven to be very effective and efficient in low-skilled, repetitive jobs. But in recent years there has been an ever increasing concern that artificial intelligence will advance so quickly that it will be able to complete white collar jobs such as those in an office. While it’s easy to get scared and worry about the security of your job we first have to look at the research and facts. The World Bank’s Development report of 2019 pushes the idea forward that, while automation displaces workers it creates just as many jobs to balance the situation and allow them to continue to earn money and keep the economy growing. According to the report the total Labour Force has been increasing ever since 1993.         

                                 Figure 0.4 World Bank’s World Development Report

The traditional office has changed dramatically over the past fifty years. For instance people are not accounting by calculating with a calculator and a piece of paper they have software to do this for them. This does not mean that the software has replaced their job, it has just improved the way they work. Automation and computerisation has made things easier, ever increasingly scaleable quicker and more productive. Artificial intelligence is not taking away from people’s jobs, it’s either improving them or giving them the opportunity to modify their skill set to suit other industries that AI will create. 

Why AI will take our jobs

The development of artificial intelligence can be classified in three different waves, the first wave was the attempt to develop general intelligence comparable to a human, the second wave was the development of expert systems which aid in small scale decision making such as medical diagnoses and the third wave is the development of machine learning. -source 1

There are many fields where AI is being implemented but finance is one of the most prominent as businesses would like to turn a profit from their investments. These AI algorithms can also: reduce costs, minimise risks, prevent fraud, verify borrowers and evaluate their solvency, as well as make predictions and perform other tasks for the company they work for. 

The main focus of the AI finance developments are the stock market. Instead of somebody hiring a trained market evaluator they can just purchase an AI algorithm which in a lot of cases works more effectively at looking at the state of the market giving you the best companies to invest in. 

An example of this is a study by Eureka-hedge where they gave 23 hedge funds to human investors and 23 hedge funds to AI for investment. The funds given to the investors gave an annual increase (yield) of  a range of 1.62% to 2.62% meanwhile the AI gave an annual yield of 8.44%. The researchers contribute this fact to the AI constantly repeating testing of the market rather than accumulating data like humans do.. -Eureka Hedge (From source1)

Artificial intelligence is implemented in many other other ways as well such as creating other AI algorithms. Google’s AI system learned how to create other machine learning algorithms better and make them more efficient than human created ones. The test for the created algorithms was image identification. The AI trained algorithm was able to 43% of the objects it was tasked to identify in the image whereas the human created AI was only able to identify 39% of them. 

Google’ CEO Sundar Pichai had this statement at a presentation in 2017 saying that AI does not fully replace humans currently but allows more people to be able to “develop” AI. -

“Today these are handcrafted by machine learning scientists and literally only a few thousand scientists around the world can do this. We want to enable hundreds of thousands of developers to be able to do it.” 

-Wired AI creating AI better than humans 

Another way AI is beating humans is in the legal field. A study conducted by LawGeex was to compare AI to 20 lawyers who worked for companies such as Goldman Sachs and Cisco and they had dozens of years of experience working for these companies. Their task was to evaluate the risks contained in five different Non Disclosure Agreements and identify 30 specific legal points. 

From the results we can see that the AI system showed an average accuracy of 94% while the lawyers average was 85%. The maximum accuracy for the AI 100% while the lawyers was 94%. The average time taken by the lawyers was 92 minutes, the AI’s was 26 seconds

-LawGeex Lawyers v. AI

Finally the last case study is where AI can be better than humans in the medical field. This study was to test the accuracy of Pap tests for cancerous signs. 

Mark schniffman. Senior editor : Our findings show that a deep learning algorithm can use images collected during routine cervical cancer screening to identify precancerous changes that, if left untreated, may develop into cancer. In fact, the computer analysis of the images was better at identifying precancer than a human expert reviewer of Pap tests under the microscope (cytology).

In general, the algorithm worked better than all standard screening tests in predicting all cases diagnosed in the Costa Rica-based study. Automatic visual assessment revealed precancerous disease with greater accuracy (AUC = 0.91) than human examination (AUC = 0.69) or conventional cytology (AUC = 0.71). An AUC value of 0.5 indicates a test that is no better than a random one, while an AUC value of 1.0 represents a test that has perfect accuracy in detecting disease. From these results we can deduce that humans do not 

This Graph shows how likely each profession is to be automated

Source: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/04/24/a-study-finds-nearly-half-of-jobs-are-vulnerable-to-automation

As you can see, low skill jobs such as construction, cleaning, driving and garment manufacturing are at high risk of automation. Jobs that require human emotion and connection such as hospitality, upper management and politics and teaching are extremely unlikely as robots cannot socialise and recognise emotions. 

This graph details the level of automation that the OECD predicts in each country in the near future. 

As you can see 43 percent of irish jobs are susceptible to becoming automated. This figure is largely dependent upon which sector of the economy your country has the majority employed in. For example countries with a lot of low skilled primary economic activities such as farming or forestry are going to have a higher percentage of automated employment. The highest percentage of automation is Slovakia and the Lowest is New Zealand

  My opinion:

Artificial intelligence will and is currently eliminating jobs, however at the moment it is extremely difficult to predict the future of technology and the countless opportunities it could provide. The future generations entering the workforce need to increase their skill belt in order to compete with AI or algorithms. But AI (currently) cannot replicate human skills such as critical thinking, managing and recognising emotions. These are skills which enhance jobs which require teamwork. AI has some other very big flaws such as high cost in installation, maintenance and the countless amounts of updates to prevent malfunction but in a lot of cases it can be beneficial to the company and its employees as it removes the need for people to waste time and productivity on tasks which an AI can easily complete. In the far future AI will become more competent than humans at jobs and work in general but in our lifetime AI will not render all human labour useless. For now it will take a large proportion of low skill work but a lot of white collar work will just be improved upon but not replaced by AI. The way our society works is based on consuming and to be able to consume you have to have money and to get money you have to earn through working in a job, so if nobody can make money how will the economy continue to prosper?

[fightmeyeats]

With over 125 million views in the month (roughly) since it was released, Lil Dicky’s music video Earth certainly is getting quite a bit of attention, especially (or so I’m told) in the tweenager/young-teenager crowd. The video draws on a wealth of big-name star power, profanity (although there is a “clean” version for children with 16 million views), and humor to convey its “globalized” pro-Earth/pro-Environmental message to a younger audience, before ending with a message about global warming and the twelve-year deadline, with a link to take action through WeLoveTheEarth.org. While there are certainly quite a few issues one might take with the song lyrics and visual representation, what I want to explore are not only the limitations implicit in this approach (namely a very Global North/Ameri-centric “globalized” imaginary, an obscuring of capitalist/corporate responsibility for climate change in favor of a neoliberal individual actions model, a maintaining of the Human/Nature binary, and a focus on a young audience when older demographics are perhaps more in need of convincing), but also the strengths of this approach and why, perhaps, it may be useful to step back and let these “meme-friendly” call-to-arms proliferate, rather than critiquing imperfect representations to death.

Ultimately, because I can see both how strong both the limitations and possibilities to these various approaches are, I am undecided on what the “correct” course of action may be. I recognize that the stakes are higher in this for some than for others--both in the sense that lack of action disproportionately is affecting certain communities, who therefore are more invested in results over perfect representation, as well as the way that because of the disproportionate effects of inaction, certain communities may find it less viable to overlook (and therefore further obscure) these inequalities; because of this, I am certainly not in any position to draw firm conclusions, and what follows is intended to be an exploration which I hope will invite a broader conversation.

Okay so let me start with a rundown of the limitations; while there are several points I’m making here, I am honestly going to try to keep each as succinct as possible because I think these may be more obvious than the benefits (that being said, I’m more than happy to delve into these points further if anyone has any questions or feels they do need to be made more visible). First, lets look at the “globalized” imaginary. The song’s chorus goes:

Earth, it is our planet (It's our planet) We love the Earth (We love the Earth), it is our home (Home) We love the Earth, it is our planet (It is our planet) We love the Earth, it is our home We love the Earth

Other lines include “We love you, India/Africa/the Chinese,” the humorous “We forgive you, Germany,” and “C'mon everybody, I know we're not all the same / But we're living on the same Earth.” These lines simultaneously call for a globalized action, while also imagining a) that something quasi-globalized already exists and b) that “differences” are the reason we have not fully come together. Frederick Cooper has an amazing article which I highly recommend called “What Is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African Historian's Perspective,” and one of his arguments which is especially relevant here is that "a 'globalizing' language stood alongside a structure of domination and exploitation that was lumpy in the extreme" (204). What does it mean, in this context, to say “we love the Earth,” let alone “we love you, India/Africa/China”? Listing Global South nations which often bare the brunt of capitalist/colonialist industrial exploitation might be intended to acknowledge the uneven effects global warming has on marginalized communities (what Rob Nixon has termed “slow violence”); but then why is Germany on the list (other than for the comedic effect), and more importantly who is the “we” who “loves” these nations, and what does that “love” amount to? I think constantly of Elizabeth Catte’s comment in What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, that she felt paranoid traveling for academic conferences that she would bring the smell of the coal industry with her, and give herself away as someone who wasn’t worth not being poisoned. Love is a beautiful idea to invoke, but do “we” “love” the Global South enough to stop poisoning “them”? And what about the poor in the Global North?

The lack of definition of “we” contributes to my second problem with the song/video: while I do not mean to undermine the absolute value individual actions have towards improving the environment, the opening of the song focuses on litter and the fumes exuded by personal vehicles. There is no direct reference to the kinds of waste and pollution created by corporations.

Thirdly, the lyrics contain a laundry list of humorous animal descriptions such as “Hi, I'm a baboon I'm like a man, just less advanced and my anus is huge.” While obviously intended to be funny, these descriptions reify the Human/Animal and Human/Nature divide and contribute to binary logics. One of the criticisms of the “Anthropocene” narrative is that it seperates “humanity” from “nature” in ways which obscure the entanglement actually involved in environmental networks. This is not in any way to imply that human actions and systems are not responsible for global warming (whether you put the blame on humanity in general as in the Anthropocene or specific individuals acting through capitalism as in the Capitalocene there is no denying that climate crisis is happening because of human action); rather, the problem here is that it this binary attempts to imagine a separateness between humans and nature which is not useful in addressing climate change, because it obscures the intricacy of interaction and allows us to vastly oversimplify what we see as viable solutions.

Finally, the video and lyrics are clearly intended to draw in a younger demographic, and yet polls have shown that there is an age gap in concern about climate change which trends towards younger populations.

That being said, let’s look at why this video may be a good and necessary thing, despite the potential drawbacks. First, even though younger people tend to already believe in and be more concerned about climate change than older folks, studies have shown that children change their parents’ minds about climate change, so convincing children/teens to care about climate change and to talk about it with their parents does have a measurable impact on the opinions of older adults. This leads to why the humorous lyrics and video may be particularly useful, despite the problematics outlined above. At this moment in time, social media and memes in particular are a particularly powerful political weapon. Mother Jones recently ran an article titled ““The Left Can’t Meme”: How Right-Wing Groups Are Training the Next Generation of Social Media Warriors” which outlines the role memes have played in perpetuating conservative and far-right thought and manifesting conservative/far-right desires. Memes are “cheap, subversive, and designed to provoke an emotional response, memes are a disruptive form of information guerrilla warfare.” Another article discussing “The Evolution of Political Internet Memes” argues that “memes are likely to gain more importance in a post-text future. Younger generations are shifting more and more to visual platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Images are therefore more likely shape their views on politics and politicians.” For these reasons, a song/music video such as Earth which is likely to draw in a large audience of kids/teens due to star power (everyone from Justin Bieber to Halsey to Kevin Hart makes an appearance), humor, and catchy tune is likely to make an impact on children and therefore their parents. Furthering this point, the website linked at the end of the music video presents itself in a far more professional manner--this is what parents are more likely to be looking at (and potentially donating to, and taking advice from) than the song itself. 

So again, I’m not sure whether this benefit outweighs the oversimplifications presented through the lyrics/video but I do think they’re worth considering, and I absolutely invite further conversation on this matter. Do we need to follow the conservative meme-model of making politics more easily legible/accessible? Or does this model further obscure the struggles of marginalized folks and render invisible issues that need to be brought to light and challenged? Is there a (better) way to balance this?

#climate change #global warming #earth #lil dicky #meme culture #political memes #globalization #climate crisis #music #politics #essay #review #somewhat #anyways for real id love engagement on this topic #i know theres a lot to unpack w this

[crimethinc]

Anarchist Perspectives on Net Neutrality: The Digital Enclosure of the Commons

Yesterday, the FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality. Without those protections, private corporations—and the class that controls them—can shape what information is available to people according to their own interests. Imagine a future in which the content widely available on the internet is comparable to what you could watch on network television in the 1980s! Today, the flows of information on the internet are almost identical with our collective thought processes: they determine what we can discuss, what we can imagine. But the fundamental problem is that the internet has always been controlled by the government and corporations.

It says a lot about the private sector that military development produced a comparatively horizontal framework that corporate control has rendered progressively less participatory and egalitarian. Unfortunately, there’s no anarchist alternative, no people’s internet to build up instead; this is the only one. State socialists have taken advantage of this opportunity to promote nationalizing the internet, arguing that this is an opportunity to formulate a vision of a better future. But if we don’t want the capitalist class to control our communication, state control of the internet doesn’t solve the problem: it is, after all, the state that is making the move to put corporations in control here, and the existing models for state control (think: China) are just as oppressive. We should take pragmatic steps to defend our rights in the current context, but a rights-based framework that takes the state for granted as the arbiter of social issues will never secure our freedom. If we want a truly liberating vision of a better future, we have to think bigger.

An anarchist approach must begin by rejecting the false dichotomy between corporate and state power. From there, we must dare to dream about decentralized forms of infrastructure that are resilient against top-down control. The internet, in its current form, is indeed indispensable for participating in society; but that doesn’t mean we should take the current form of the internet—or of society—for granted as the best or only possible model. It was our resources, extracted from us in form of taxes and labor and innovation, that helped create both in the first place. What could we create if our efforts were not shaped by the constraints of the state and the imperatives of the market?

Technology is never neutral. It’s always political: it always expresses and reinforces the power dynamics and aspirations that gave rise to it. If engineers and programmers don’t build from a political framework with the explicit intention of creating egalitarian relations, their work will always be used to concentrate power and oppress people.

For more on the limitations that capitalism coded into the digital from the outset, read Deserting the Digital Utopia. For details on the end of Net Neutrality and the radical alternatives to corporate control, read the following text by William Budington.

If you want an image of the future, imagine an internet service provider stamping on a human brain—forever.

Net Neutrality and the Feeding Frenzy

The last bulwark has fallen that stood between broadband providers and a profit-driven feeding frenzy the likes of which we’ve never seen before. On Thursday morning, the FCC, led by Republican Trump appointee Ajit Pai, voted in a 3-2 split to repeal 2015 regulations enforcing strong consumer protections on the provision of Internet services, popularly known as Net Neutrality. The repeal will allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to bundle Internet plans in much the same way as they do cable plans, allowing access to certain websites only when you pay up. In addition, it also allows ISPs to create tiered levels of Internet access, forcing websites and content providers that have enjoyed the benefit of an equal playing field over the past years to pay more money in order to compete with properties owned by the cable companies themselves.

Want to buy bandwidth from your favorite Telecommunications company, like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast? How about Telco Lite, with access to Wikipedia? That’ll be $59.99/mo. Oh, you want Telco Super, with YouTube bundled in? $79.99. You dare to ask for Netflix, a competitor to Comcast’s own Hulu service? Sure, Telco Ultra can give you that—for the price of $99.99.

Let us be clear: this repeal only benefits the ISPs. It allows ISPs to use their privileged position as the proprietor of the physical infrastructure for home Internet access to to squeeze out profit from both sides of the pipe they control—to gouge both content creators and regular users alike. Everyone else, like [74% of Americans(https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-news/public-relations/pr-pulse-74-americans-support-net-neutrality-legislation/) who favor Net Neutrality, or the overwhelming majority of people who submitted unique comments to the FCC opposing the repeal in the public feedback phase, be damned.

In 2015, under the then-comissioner of the FCC Tom Wheeler, provision of Internet access was reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act. This meant that ISPs were regulated similarly to a utility, and that preferential treatment could not be provided to some websites over others. This is often referred to as an even on-ramp: when you open your browser, you’d see the same Internet everyone else sees. You’d have the same access to information as every other Internet user. Your ISP could still charge you for faster access in general, just not for faster access to particular parts of the net. Even with these regulations in place, ISPs have been found violating them over and over again. As recently as July, Verizon was caught throttling (read: slowing down) Netflix videos, in violation of FCC rules. But don’t worry, Chairman Pai says—we don’t need Net Neutrality because the ISPs will self-regulate. Yeah, right.

Dirty tricks abounded in the lead-up to Thursday’s vote. In the aforementioned public feedback phase, millions of fake anti-Net Neutrality comments were submitted to the FCC website. These used variations of phrases—slightly modified to have the same meaning but using different words—in order to give the appearance of a unique comment being submitted. Especially disturbing was the fact that the comments were given under assumed names, often those of the deceased, or of those who are alive but never themselves submitted anything. So concerning was the practice that it prompted the NY Attorney General to open an investigation into the identity theft of New Yorkers whose names were used in fake comments, leading him to eventually publish an open letter to the FCC after failing to receive any response to repeated inquiries.

What’s important for anarchists to take note of here is that a lot of the debate around Net Neutrality makes it seem like it pits one set of profit-hungry companies against another. Why should we care if ISPs or streaming services win? Let them fight each other, it doesn’t affect us. But the reality is much more dire. Since the major broadband providers effectively run what amounts to oligopoly control over our access to information, they have much more direct ability to filter, throttle, and ban outright content which they deem unacceptable or unprofitable. So, yeah, it’s about Netflix and Youtube. But it’s also about access to radical or anarchist content from CrimethInc. or IGD. In addition to shaping traffic, the repeal enables your provider to actually block content altogether. This puts our ability to create our own radical subjectivities under an even greater threat than before.

Radical Alternatives

Regulatory control by the centralized federal agencies backed by state force is certainly no ideal to strive for, but (as is so often the case) the state has set itself up to play the role of savior. In that role it was holding back the forces of unmitigated private extraction of the information landscape. But could things have been different? As anarchists, could we have helped to shape the landscape itself in a more decentralized, autonomous manner? Can we still? Instead of corporations held back by state force, what would a non-corporate alternative to Internet provision look like?

There are some radical alternatives that challenge corporate hegemonic control over Internet provision at a very basic level. Exciting examples of community-based approaches are taking shape in hacker spaces from Oakland to New York in the form of mesh networks. The idea is simple: instead of relying on the existing physical infrastructure built out by the large telecommunications companies, we can build our own infrastructure. We can take our home wifi routers, and program them to talk to each other, to provide access to one another. This horizontal communication stands in stark contrast to the usual usage of these devices, which is mainly to facilitate access vertically, directly to the ISP uplink. In this way, we can build an net that is created and controlled by us. Pirate packets, jumping through the air.

The benefit for us is clear, and this is a fundamental, structural challenge to the current state and corporate control flows. So our challenge is twofold, both short-term and long-term. First, we must stop the immediate, existential threat that we face with the repeal of the most basic Net Neutrality protections, which threaten to silence our voices. Second, we must build a structural alternative to the current Internet, an other network, one where our voices can not be silenced by a mere regulatory shift because no one else controls it but the communities that comprise it themselves. A small example of this is the mesh networks that exist today, which are fledgling but precious examples of the prefiguration of power we wish to see.

A six-gill, blunt nose shark (Hexanchus griseus) takes a bite out of an undersea internet cable.

[riichardwilson]

How Owners and Entrepreneurs Can Deal With Financial Stress

Despite fewer customers coming through their doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered.

August 14, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Millions of Americans have been left unemployed over the past half-year and are subsequently struggling to cover their bills and keep a roof over their heads. And for business owners, the situation is even more precarious. Unfortunately, despite fewer (if any) customers coming through the doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered. Even those able to move some operations online likely still have had to contend with rent, utility and insurance costs and other financial obligations.

Additionally, some businesses may be obliged to cover the costs of supplier contracts even though they may not be able to use the items. For example, according to Reuters, the international clothing store Primark has committed to pay its suppliers $461 million for orders, despite all of its stores closing their doors in March.

Even though there have been provisions for businesses to defer payments, once they start trading again, these payments will need to be made. All of this adds up to a massive amount of financial stress for any business.

Related: 6 Stress-Relieving Financial Tips for Entrepreneurs

The Signs of Financial Stress

There are a number of signs of financial stress, and many of these have been exacerbated by economic shutdowns. These include:

Poor Cashflow. Since many businesses have been forced to close, this essentially shuts off the flow of cash through their doors. All businesses experience periodic dips when cash is tight, but when there is no money being generated on-site, your business is bound to feel financial stress. 

High-Interest Debt. Many lending institutions are wary of the viability of businesses, particularly new enterprises. This means that your business may have high-interest debt. Although the CARES Act allows for deferring payments and holds on interest charges, you will need to make up these payments once the crisis has ended.

High Outstanding Receivables. There are lots of enterprises under a financial strain, so it’s possible that your outstanding receivable amounts have gone increasingly higher. While you may be accustomed to receiving payments from your customers within 30 days, you may now be expected to wait far longer. The chances are that your customers have also shut their doors, so they are not in a position to pay their outstanding debts.

Managing Other People Amid Financial Stress

In addition to dealing with the financial pressures, you will also need to ensure that you are managing your team. Whether you have had to furlough staff or have made arrangements for them to work from home, you will need to maintain a working relationship, so you can call them back once things start to return to normal.

There are a number of strategies to manage other people during this period of financial stress. These include:

Increasing Team Meetings. It is important to stay connected, so it’s a good idea to maintain the same number of meetings or increase the frequency of communication. Contact does not need to be overly formal, but a quick one-on-one communication will reassure your team members that you’re still here.

Try to Organize Face Time. Since face-to-face meetings are a challenge during the current crisis, it’s a good idea to try to organize face time through video conferencing. Even if your team members cannot be on video, try to be yourself so they can feel more easily connected.

Understand the Challenges for Work at Home Employees. While you may want everything to continue as normal, you need to appreciate that your team members have challenges working from home. Your team members may be trying to work without a dedicated workspace or be juggling their childcare responsibilities. Try to make accommodations that will help them to work around these challenges. For example, you may allow them to stagger shorter shifts.

Support a Positive Business Culture. Business culture is not defined by four walls, so encourage social conversation and interactions and make sure that your people feel like they still matter.

Pay Attention to Productivity Changes. Finally, don’t ignore any unexplainable changes in productivity. These changes may be a signal of a problem that could be solved with your team. It may also highlight that your employee needs additional support.

How to Identify The Necessary Adjustments

There is no doubt this is a challenging time. In fact, according to the Business West Chamber of Commerce in the UK, just 16 percent of the businesses questioned believe they can cope should these circumstances last for more than six months. That’s why it’s crucial that you can identify the necessary adjustments you should perform. This should include:

Tracking Your Expenses. Conduct a proper evaluation of your fixed and variable expenses. You can then compare this against your revenue status. This will provide a clear picture of where you stand financially and aid you in planning ahead.

Check the Feasibility of Your Business Model. Considering the changing market, you should reassess where your business stands and whether your business model is still feasible. You will need to evaluate the impact of your revenues and costs and whether there are new sales, credit cycles and bad debts.

Evaluate Your Future Policies. Since it will be difficult to estimate how long the current conditions will last, you need to evaluate and adjust your policies for the next month-, three-months and year-long periods.

Most SMEs appreciate that the market is never stagnant, so they are often prepared to make adjustments to plans. However, the current situation has highlighted the importance of identifying where you can make changes now.

Strategies to Deal With Financial Stress

Fortunately, there are some strategies to help you to deal with financial stress:

Get Your Budget Straight. While you may have had a very efficient budget in the past, it may not be applicable now. Look at your expenses and where you can make changes. Remember that if you can transition some or all of your team to working from home, you will have different expenses, such as video-conferencing software and other communication tools. Take an honest assessment of your budget and make the necessary adjustments.

Secure Access to Cash. Liquidity can make the difference between a small business weathering this current crisis and folding. According to the Small Business Administration, only half of small businesses will still be trading after five years. There are significant overheads that can leave very little liquid cash, particularly in the early years. So to ensure that your business or enterprise can continue to operate, you need continued access to cash. This may be accomplished by streamlining your costs or securing finance.

Explore Aid Options. The Senate passed a $2 trillion rescue package to help businesses and workers, and Congress is negotiating additional stimulus as we speak. Explore what aid options are still available to you. Not all businesses are eligible for help, and you will need to agree to the government terms. However, these aid options could provide the relief you need to tide you over. Even something as basic as deferring loan payments under the CARES Act could free up crucial capital that can keep your business afloat.

Related: Is It Time for a Financial Stress Test?

Bottom Line

It seems like no business is immune to present economic conditions, as even global companies have lost a significant percentage of their turnover. According to Visual Capitalist data, the Disney Corporation has lost 31 percent in its value, while Delta Airlines has dropped from a value of $37.5 billion to $17.8 billion.

So it is crucial for SMEs to take action to deal with this financial stress and weather the current economic storm. There is no point in sticking your head in the sand. Now is the time to take an honest look at your business to work out where you can make changes to streamline your operation.

loading…

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source http://www.scpie.org/how-owners-and-entrepreneurs-can-deal-with-financial-stress/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/626502606243741696

[scpie]

How Owners and Entrepreneurs Can Deal With Financial Stress

Despite fewer customers coming through their doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered.

August 14, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Millions of Americans have been left unemployed over the past half-year and are subsequently struggling to cover their bills and keep a roof over their heads. And for business owners, the situation is even more precarious. Unfortunately, despite fewer (if any) customers coming through the doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered. Even those able to move some operations online likely still have had to contend with rent, utility and insurance costs and other financial obligations.

Additionally, some businesses may be obliged to cover the costs of supplier contracts even though they may not be able to use the items. For example, according to Reuters, the international clothing store Primark has committed to pay its suppliers $461 million for orders, despite all of its stores closing their doors in March.

Even though there have been provisions for businesses to defer payments, once they start trading again, these payments will need to be made. All of this adds up to a massive amount of financial stress for any business.

Related: 6 Stress-Relieving Financial Tips for Entrepreneurs

The Signs of Financial Stress

There are a number of signs of financial stress, and many of these have been exacerbated by economic shutdowns. These include:

Poor Cashflow. Since many businesses have been forced to close, this essentially shuts off the flow of cash through their doors. All businesses experience periodic dips when cash is tight, but when there is no money being generated on-site, your business is bound to feel financial stress. 

High-Interest Debt. Many lending institutions are wary of the viability of businesses, particularly new enterprises. This means that your business may have high-interest debt. Although the CARES Act allows for deferring payments and holds on interest charges, you will need to make up these payments once the crisis has ended.

High Outstanding Receivables. There are lots of enterprises under a financial strain, so it’s possible that your outstanding receivable amounts have gone increasingly higher. While you may be accustomed to receiving payments from your customers within 30 days, you may now be expected to wait far longer. The chances are that your customers have also shut their doors, so they are not in a position to pay their outstanding debts.

Managing Other People Amid Financial Stress

In addition to dealing with the financial pressures, you will also need to ensure that you are managing your team. Whether you have had to furlough staff or have made arrangements for them to work from home, you will need to maintain a working relationship, so you can call them back once things start to return to normal.

There are a number of strategies to manage other people during this period of financial stress. These include:

Increasing Team Meetings. It is important to stay connected, so it’s a good idea to maintain the same number of meetings or increase the frequency of communication. Contact does not need to be overly formal, but a quick one-on-one communication will reassure your team members that you’re still here.

Try to Organize Face Time. Since face-to-face meetings are a challenge during the current crisis, it’s a good idea to try to organize face time through video conferencing. Even if your team members cannot be on video, try to be yourself so they can feel more easily connected.

Understand the Challenges for Work at Home Employees. While you may want everything to continue as normal, you need to appreciate that your team members have challenges working from home. Your team members may be trying to work without a dedicated workspace or be juggling their childcare responsibilities. Try to make accommodations that will help them to work around these challenges. For example, you may allow them to stagger shorter shifts.

Support a Positive Business Culture. Business culture is not defined by four walls, so encourage social conversation and interactions and make sure that your people feel like they still matter.

Pay Attention to Productivity Changes. Finally, don’t ignore any unexplainable changes in productivity. These changes may be a signal of a problem that could be solved with your team. It may also highlight that your employee needs additional support.

How to Identify The Necessary Adjustments

There is no doubt this is a challenging time. In fact, according to the Business West Chamber of Commerce in the UK, just 16 percent of the businesses questioned believe they can cope should these circumstances last for more than six months. That’s why it’s crucial that you can identify the necessary adjustments you should perform. This should include:

Tracking Your Expenses. Conduct a proper evaluation of your fixed and variable expenses. You can then compare this against your revenue status. This will provide a clear picture of where you stand financially and aid you in planning ahead.

Check the Feasibility of Your Business Model. Considering the changing market, you should reassess where your business stands and whether your business model is still feasible. You will need to evaluate the impact of your revenues and costs and whether there are new sales, credit cycles and bad debts.

Evaluate Your Future Policies. Since it will be difficult to estimate how long the current conditions will last, you need to evaluate and adjust your policies for the next month-, three-months and year-long periods.

Most SMEs appreciate that the market is never stagnant, so they are often prepared to make adjustments to plans. However, the current situation has highlighted the importance of identifying where you can make changes now.

Strategies to Deal With Financial Stress

Fortunately, there are some strategies to help you to deal with financial stress:

Get Your Budget Straight. While you may have had a very efficient budget in the past, it may not be applicable now. Look at your expenses and where you can make changes. Remember that if you can transition some or all of your team to working from home, you will have different expenses, such as video-conferencing software and other communication tools. Take an honest assessment of your budget and make the necessary adjustments.

Secure Access to Cash. Liquidity can make the difference between a small business weathering this current crisis and folding. According to the Small Business Administration, only half of small businesses will still be trading after five years. There are significant overheads that can leave very little liquid cash, particularly in the early years. So to ensure that your business or enterprise can continue to operate, you need continued access to cash. This may be accomplished by streamlining your costs or securing finance.

Explore Aid Options. The Senate passed a $2 trillion rescue package to help businesses and workers, and Congress is negotiating additional stimulus as we speak. Explore what aid options are still available to you. Not all businesses are eligible for help, and you will need to agree to the government terms. However, these aid options could provide the relief you need to tide you over. Even something as basic as deferring loan payments under the CARES Act could free up crucial capital that can keep your business afloat.

Related: Is It Time for a Financial Stress Test?

Bottom Line

It seems like no business is immune to present economic conditions, as even global companies have lost a significant percentage of their turnover. According to Visual Capitalist data, the Disney Corporation has lost 31 percent in its value, while Delta Airlines has dropped from a value of $37.5 billion to $17.8 billion.

So it is crucial for SMEs to take action to deal with this financial stress and weather the current economic storm. There is no point in sticking your head in the sand. Now is the time to take an honest look at your business to work out where you can make changes to streamline your operation.

loading…

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Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-owners-and-entrepreneurs-can-deal-with-financial-stress/

[laurelkrugerr]

How Owners and Entrepreneurs Can Deal With Financial Stress

Despite fewer customers coming through their doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered.

August 14, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Millions of Americans have been left unemployed over the past half-year and are subsequently struggling to cover their bills and keep a roof over their heads. And for business owners, the situation is even more precarious. Unfortunately, despite fewer (if any) customers coming through the doors, businesses still have overhead that needs to be covered. Even those able to move some operations online likely still have had to contend with rent, utility and insurance costs and other financial obligations.

Additionally, some businesses may be obliged to cover the costs of supplier contracts even though they may not be able to use the items. For example, according to Reuters, the international clothing store Primark has committed to pay its suppliers $461 million for orders, despite all of its stores closing their doors in March.

Even though there have been provisions for businesses to defer payments, once they start trading again, these payments will need to be made. All of this adds up to a massive amount of financial stress for any business.

Related: 6 Stress-Relieving Financial Tips for Entrepreneurs

The Signs of Financial Stress

There are a number of signs of financial stress, and many of these have been exacerbated by economic shutdowns. These include:

Poor Cashflow. Since many businesses have been forced to close, this essentially shuts off the flow of cash through their doors. All businesses experience periodic dips when cash is tight, but when there is no money being generated on-site, your business is bound to feel financial stress. 

High-Interest Debt. Many lending institutions are wary of the viability of businesses, particularly new enterprises. This means that your business may have high-interest debt. Although the CARES Act allows for deferring payments and holds on interest charges, you will need to make up these payments once the crisis has ended.

High Outstanding Receivables. There are lots of enterprises under a financial strain, so it’s possible that your outstanding receivable amounts have gone increasingly higher. While you may be accustomed to receiving payments from your customers within 30 days, you may now be expected to wait far longer. The chances are that your customers have also shut their doors, so they are not in a position to pay their outstanding debts.

Managing Other People Amid Financial Stress

In addition to dealing with the financial pressures, you will also need to ensure that you are managing your team. Whether you have had to furlough staff or have made arrangements for them to work from home, you will need to maintain a working relationship, so you can call them back once things start to return to normal.

There are a number of strategies to manage other people during this period of financial stress. These include:

Increasing Team Meetings. It is important to stay connected, so it’s a good idea to maintain the same number of meetings or increase the frequency of communication. Contact does not need to be overly formal, but a quick one-on-one communication will reassure your team members that you’re still here.

Try to Organize Face Time. Since face-to-face meetings are a challenge during the current crisis, it’s a good idea to try to organize face time through video conferencing. Even if your team members cannot be on video, try to be yourself so they can feel more easily connected.

Understand the Challenges for Work at Home Employees. While you may want everything to continue as normal, you need to appreciate that your team members have challenges working from home. Your team members may be trying to work without a dedicated workspace or be juggling their childcare responsibilities. Try to make accommodations that will help them to work around these challenges. For example, you may allow them to stagger shorter shifts.

Support a Positive Business Culture. Business culture is not defined by four walls, so encourage social conversation and interactions and make sure that your people feel like they still matter.

Pay Attention to Productivity Changes. Finally, don’t ignore any unexplainable changes in productivity. These changes may be a signal of a problem that could be solved with your team. It may also highlight that your employee needs additional support.

How to Identify The Necessary Adjustments

There is no doubt this is a challenging time. In fact, according to the Business West Chamber of Commerce in the UK, just 16 percent of the businesses questioned believe they can cope should these circumstances last for more than six months. That’s why it’s crucial that you can identify the necessary adjustments you should perform. This should include:

Tracking Your Expenses. Conduct a proper evaluation of your fixed and variable expenses. You can then compare this against your revenue status. This will provide a clear picture of where you stand financially and aid you in planning ahead.

Check the Feasibility of Your Business Model. Considering the changing market, you should reassess where your business stands and whether your business model is still feasible. You will need to evaluate the impact of your revenues and costs and whether there are new sales, credit cycles and bad debts.

Evaluate Your Future Policies. Since it will be difficult to estimate how long the current conditions will last, you need to evaluate and adjust your policies for the next month-, three-months and year-long periods.

Most SMEs appreciate that the market is never stagnant, so they are often prepared to make adjustments to plans. However, the current situation has highlighted the importance of identifying where you can make changes now.

Strategies to Deal With Financial Stress

Fortunately, there are some strategies to help you to deal with financial stress:

Get Your Budget Straight. While you may have had a very efficient budget in the past, it may not be applicable now. Look at your expenses and where you can make changes. Remember that if you can transition some or all of your team to working from home, you will have different expenses, such as video-conferencing software and other communication tools. Take an honest assessment of your budget and make the necessary adjustments.

Secure Access to Cash. Liquidity can make the difference between a small business weathering this current crisis and folding. According to the Small Business Administration, only half of small businesses will still be trading after five years. There are significant overheads that can leave very little liquid cash, particularly in the early years. So to ensure that your business or enterprise can continue to operate, you need continued access to cash. This may be accomplished by streamlining your costs or securing finance.

Explore Aid Options. The Senate passed a $2 trillion rescue package to help businesses and workers, and Congress is negotiating additional stimulus as we speak. Explore what aid options are still available to you. Not all businesses are eligible for help, and you will need to agree to the government terms. However, these aid options could provide the relief you need to tide you over. Even something as basic as deferring loan payments under the CARES Act could free up crucial capital that can keep your business afloat.

Related: Is It Time for a Financial Stress Test?

Bottom Line

It seems like no business is immune to present economic conditions, as even global companies have lost a significant percentage of their turnover. According to Visual Capitalist data, the Disney Corporation has lost 31 percent in its value, while Delta Airlines has dropped from a value of $37.5 billion to $17.8 billion.

So it is crucial for SMEs to take action to deal with this financial stress and weather the current economic storm. There is no point in sticking your head in the sand. Now is the time to take an honest look at your business to work out where you can make changes to streamline your operation.

loading…

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source http://www.scpie.org/how-owners-and-entrepreneurs-can-deal-with-financial-stress/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/how-owners-and-entrepreneurs-can-deal.html

[scripturehomosexuality]

Editorial: On Net Neutrality

As this blog has said many times, developments in politics and society often influence developments in sex. One more example of this will happen on December 14th, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes on Net Neutrality. At this moment, they plan to completely repeal it.

Net Neutrality refers to laws that preserve the historical structure of the Internet. Since its beginning, the internet has given equal bandwidth (and thus equal access) to any website that comes into existence. This created an “open” internet, in which internet service providers couldn’t interfere with online traffic. While these were not mandated by law, this structure has assured the rapid growth of the internet throughout the world.

As the internet became more established, telecom companies tried to dismantle that structure. They wanted to divide the internet into fast and slow lanes, where websites they liked would be given more bandwidth. Meanwhile, websites they opposed (for whatever reason) would be given shoddy service. To stop this from happening, Net Neutrality codified the present structure of the internet into law.

If Net Neutrality is struck down on December 14th, telecom companies can bend the internet to their will.

There’s no way to overstate the seriousness of this situation. The internet as we know it is about to be destroyed. The openness of the internet is in grave danger. The internet will be subject to social, political, and especially economical forces that will morph it into a hollow shell. Many websites you like will probably impossible to visit, especially they upset powerful authorities.

This website exists because of Net Neutrality. The open internet assures that this blog can be accessed by anyone. It guarantees that it can compete with religious and LGBT websites that spread disinformation. It allows this blog to have equal say in sexual developments.

As huge as this story is, an even bigger one is the silence from some key players.

For instance, as many users have noticed, Tumblr has been totally silent on this story. Remember that when this same issue emerged in 2011, Tumblr was shouting from the rooftops to block its repeal. Its outspoken activism played a major role in preserving Net Neutrality.

Its present silence has to do with recent developments. Tumblr is currently owned by Yahoo, which was bought by Verizon in early 2017. Verizon is a major player forcing the end of Net Neutrality, and apparently it won’t tolerate dissent from its subsidiaries. As such, Verizon has been actively suppressing and strangling the opinions of Tumblr, which might be partially why David Karp (Tumblr’s Founder and CEO) is leaving in January 2018.

In other words, Tumblr’s silence isn’t out of malice. It’s because their hands are tied.

In that case, a more egregious development is the virtually total silence of LGBT media.

While other media have been discussing this for weeks, “gay” news outlets have said almost nothing. Except for a guest column in the Advocate, and one November article from NewNowNext, I haven’t seen any other output from them. It’s like such a earthshaking development isn’t happening.

If this is puzzling, this merely exemplifies the alliance between neoliberalism and the “gay” establishment. Neoliberalism has steadily gained power in the United States, as it turns the country into a “free market society”, where capitalist principles guide social and political interactions. This has also affected modern sexual philosophy, as it eradicates unchecked homoeroticism, or transforms it into something that serves its purposes. The LGBT leadership has supported this transformation, and is closely aligned with them. This became clear during 2016, as community leaders defended the increasing corporatization of Pride parades.

As such, the repeal of Net Neutrality is a very neoliberalist endeavor. It completely opens the internet to the forces of the free market. The fact that the “gay” leadership is silent shows it doesn’t bother them, and raises the following questions.

Do they have assurances that, because of their alliances with capitalist enterprises, their news outlets will emerge unscathed?

Do they have guarantees that their myriad porn videos of anal sex - the act that best captures the spirit of neoliberalism - will be left untouched?

Do they have promises that websites advocating for “gay” anal sex, which are visibly contributing to a national health crisis, will be left unharmed?

Make no mistake: if the “gay” leadership feels something poses a grave threat, they will scream and holler about it without any prodding. The fact that they’re letting this slide shows where they stand on the issue, and whose side they are on. By their silence, they are saying that they support the repeal of Net Neutrality, and consequently stand against their fellow community members in doing so.

In other words, if LGBT-identified readers think their leadership has their back, they should think again. The leadership and media have shown that they work for their own interests. If they have to choose between their neoliberalist allies, and the diverging opinions of their community, they’ll choose the former without hesitation.

However, while this does acutely affect the LGBT-identified community, this repeal is part of a larger trend.

To me, it seems a movement is afoot to suppress dissent within the United States. The repeal of Net Neutrality will hit alternative media hard, since they run against the grain of neoliberalist forces. Meanwhile, social and political authorities are using “fake news” hysteria to block that media from participating in the national dialogue. If these two phenomena continue unhindered, alternative media (and the news and opinions they spread) might become nonexistent.

That would include any websites regarding sexuality. The g0y movement’s website and the Man2Man Alliance (both links NSFW) would likely become hard to reach. This blog, which further exposes both websites to the world, will likely be inaccessible.

Thus, in so many ways, the future of the internet depends on you. The LGBT leadership certainly won’t help you. Tumblr won’t be able to help you. It’s all on you.

Thus, I beg you to please do the following:

Blitz the FCC with complaints about the impending repeal.

Sign petitions like this and this.

Contact your local Congressman and speak your peace.

Attend a protest, like those happening on December 7th across the United States.

Spread the word that this is happening.

There will be no new posts on this blog until after December 14th. I want all visitors to see this post first, so that they are aware of what’s happening.

For the record, it’s exhausting to keep track of such imminent dangers to freedom of speech. These days, they happen with such speed, it’s hard to keep up with. However, that’s the reality of our modern world. The freedom of the masses is in grave danger. What we do in this crucial period will determine our future for years to come.

#net neutrality #ajat pai #homosexuality #editorial #homosexual #lgbt #gay christian #lgbt christian

[redcurrents]

A Critique of Victorian Socialists - “The Rich Will Never Let You Vote Away Their Wealth.”

This article was originally published on the ASF-IWA’s website by the Geelong branch in February 2019. It was specifically written to reach a particular audience, to be more broad in its acceptance of ‘anarchist politics’ than I actually agree with (and didn’t take up the broader question of what specific political organisation is required), and to come across less sectarian in its critique of the electoral participation of ‘revolutionary socialists.’ I believe many of the arguments would stand from a number of revolutionary communist positions, not just anarchist.

On the 16th of February 2019 the Victorian Socialists held their first official ‘founding’ conference. Commitment to the new electoral project was formalised by Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance, and individual activists. After their first electoral efforts (during the last state elections), the conference decided to continue the electoral project and contest the upcoming Australian federal elections. The regroupment of the larger Trotskyist organisations in Victoria into the Victorian Socialists project has created the most significant electoral socialist presence in the country since the original Communist Party. Large numbers of volunteers have been mobilised, some progressive unions gave relatively significant financial support, and the initial campaign garnered a reasonable amount of media attention. In some electorates, the Victorian Socialist project brought in a larger portion of the vote than socialists have received in a long time, and only missed out on one seat because of preferencing. While performing stronger than socialist electoral efforts in recent decades, this is not an earth shattering result. As anarchists, we can draw lessons from the achievements of the Victorian Socialist campaign in mobilising people around working class issues, but we are not here to sing praises for the project. It is more important we remind ourselves why we believe electoral politics is a dead end for the working class.

Anarchists do not hold anti-electoral politics for no reason. We have always been well aware that electoral politics cannot become a path to liberation – attempts to use the state as such by the socialist left results in the individuals in parliament becoming, at best, an irrelevance with their campaigns a waste of time and resources, and at worst, becoming the most virulent defenders of the state and privilege. Despite the undoubted integrity of some genuine revolutionaries entering parliament, a principled position in parliament can only last so long.

“The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rouge.” – Emma Goldman

Given that a government of socialists, either in the minority or majority, do not control the entire apparatus of the state under bourgeois democracy, they must attempt to implement a minimum plan. As standard practice, socialists argue to increase taxes on the rich, or to use funds from other state sectors and invest them in poorer communities. This is all well and good, but by involving themselves in this task, they suddenly find themselves burdened with running the very system they claim to want to overthrow. Consider what would happen if a Victorian Socialist candidate is elected and achieves some of the aims of their manifesto, for example, the proposed recycling plant in the northern suburbs. Though the plant will provide some positives – it will create jobs, and meet environmental needs – in a capitalist system, workers will inevitably struggle with their pay and working conditions. Subsequently, the socialist councillors will have to mediate the struggle and potentially discipline striking workers. This highlights an inherent contradiction when ‘revolutionaries’ in government have no choice but to administer the capitalist state. The greatest idealism is shipwrecked on the shores of the reality of capitalist economics. It may sound like quite an abstraction, but historical precedence would indicate this is a very real concern. Throughout history workers have had to face ‘socialist’ strikebreaking many times.

Some of the groups and members within the Victorian Socialist tent will point out that as revolutionaries they should be using parliament to denounce bourgeois democracy (the best line in this situation), but others will see the small reforms as achievements. They will push the party to continue this line of ‘progress’, drawing more and more resources and activists towards parliamentary activity. Given that the Victorian Socialists are a broad project and not an explicitly Leninist organisation, there will be more space for reformists to manoeuvre and rise within the ranks of a growing party apparatus, pushing increasingly conservative demands on the basis of ‘practicality’, that is, what will get them elected. This presents yet another tension between electoral needs and the maintenance of revolutionary principle.  

When a party measures progress by the vote tally they can become obsessed with chasing numbers. Imagine a campaign that may have initially started with a radical program. As the party gains seats and power, it is likely to drop its more radical ideals in order to maintain its positions in parliament. Though supposedly progressive, in its last terms of government Labors inability to legislate for gay marriage was a clear example of acting from fear of being ‘too radical.’ In the end, it was the conservatives that legalised gay marriage – after decades of pressure from social movements. We see the same process taking place today with the rightward shift of the Greens, from an activist party to one of ‘professional politicians’. Slowly but surely, Victorian Socialists, like every socialist party before them, will become more invested in the running of, and for positions within, the state, until such a situation that they become the very defenders of electoral democracy. At this stage, the Socialist Equality Party have a better position in regards to participation in bourgeois democracy!

We know that it is social movements and struggle that force politicians left, not parliament. If that were not true, we wouldn’t have seen significant reforms benefiting the working class come from conservative politicians during periods of mass movement and rebellion. On February 19th this was proven once again with the striking teachers in West Virginia, USA, defeating market-oriented reforms by Republican politicians. By contrast, we wouldn’t have seen leftist parties around the world implement tragic and authoritarian laws and punishments upon the working class again and again, betraying them at pivotal moments.

Where Victorian Socialists are leading people is a dead end. If we really want socialism, the working class must learn to organise and lead struggles themselves. Placing hope in politicians is misleading when workers would be developing militant class consciousness based on their direct actions. Victorian Socialists members will certainly argue that this is not what they are attempting to achieve. Rather, they believe they are playing the ‘inside, outside’ game; where they leverage parliamentary office to help build social movements. This was famously Adam Bandt’s justification for becoming a Greens MP. Participation in electoral politics is the socialist’s shortcut, just as insurrectionism is the shortcut of ‘anarchists’. Both seek to skip the slow, often painstaking work of building the consciousness of a class that can fight for itself, and organise its own structures to run the world. Elections are not just another ‘tool in the toolbox’, rather they are a tool that actively harms the other work a revolutionary organisation is engaged in.

Elections build the idea that you sign someone up, everyone votes, and when the preferred representative gets into parliament, the party’s demands can be implemented. It’s fun and it’s easy to hand out ‘how to vote’ cards – to spruik the virtues of your preferred candidate against the others – but it doesn’t develop the critical relationship with electoral and capitalist politics we have to work towards. Millions of people today are disaffected with politicians. Adding socialists to the list of vultures that ‘get voted in and do nothing’ will not help us build revolutionary ideology. Parliamentary activity does very little to build the capacity of the working class itself to struggle, let alone the idea that the working class can run the world.  As MAC-G have written “A Victorian Socialist in the Legislative Council of Victoria might make stirring speeches in support of grassroots struggles and might fight hard to get reforms out of this neo-liberal Labor Government, but if they don’t explain to the working class that this isn’t how we’ll win Socialism, they’ll be leading workers in the wrong direction.”

In practical terms, consider the example of Kasama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative (unrelated to the Australian grouping of the same name) councillor in Seattle. Kasama was elected in 2013, hailed as a major breakthrough as the first ‘socialist’ elected anywhere in the USA for generations. She was elected around a demand for “$15 Now”, that is $15 an hour minimum wage within the Seattle region. She faced significant hostility from business interests, and was funded by the unions to fight for this platform. Though elected, she failed to get this reform through and ‘$15 now’ became ‘$15 later..’ Whilst in Seatac, a city basically next door, the labour movement maintaining autonomy managed to get a republican to pass the legislation without sacrificing themselves to parliamentary limits. The limits of relying on politicians is clear; we see Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez voting to fund ICE in the USA, while simultaneously claiming to want its abolition. The DSA project is yet another example of a growing anti-capitalist consciousness kneecapped by electoral politics.  While it is as much a reflection of the current limits of politics within our unions, and paltry compared to the donations to the Labor party, the funds given to the Victorian Socialist project could have gone into ‘on the ground’ organising efforts, fighting campaigns and strike funds.

We can only wonder at the wisdom of the Victorian Socialist campaign at this time. No one from any group within the Victorian Socialist tent has put out a significant theoretical piece explaining their decisions to engage as ‘Victorian Socialists’ in parliamentary politics yet. Socialist Alternative refused to participate in elections until only last year and haven’t yet justified their change of tactics publicly with a material analysis. The closest thing one can find to Socialist Alternatives position on electoral participation being articulated is Mick Armstrong’s 2016 piece from Marxist Left Review ‘The Broad Left Party After SYRIZA.’ While promoting a healthy understanding of the limits of SYRIZA, Armstrong defends the actions of DEA, Socialist Alternatives sister organisation in Greece that participated in the SYRIZA coalition, with the ‘inside, outside’ (or ‘fighting with both fists’) strategy (struggle inside parliament, struggle outside in the movements),

When SYRIZA enacted its historic betrayal of the Greek people, DEA led a revolt that split away from the party… only to repeat the tactic and participate in the formation in a new coalition, Popular Unity. The difference is that now they take a miniscule amount of the vote, losing any position in parliament and having virtually no influence on the struggle. First as folly, then as farce.

We believe they made a fundamental mistake by participation in the first place. The left can be more effective in power at implementing capitals agenda than the right, as social movements that become invested in a party take their foot off the gas in order to allow the new government to ‘perform.’ As such, all the resources that went into the struggles within SYRIZA who would inevitably betray the Greek people by virtue of participation in the state could have gone into developing an even more militant element to the class struggle in Greece. To the union movement and building strikes, to the anti-fascist struggle, to the countless occupations and direct action struggles, to defending the worker controlled factories like VioME – where we see embryonic forms of workers democracy and expropriation of capitalist interests. As Fred Hampton points out, you have to build power where the people are. As anarchists we know that these new forms of social power are infinitely more important than the struggle within parliament.

Armstrong would disagree, arguing in the MLR piece ‘To directly counterpose building strikes and radical movements in the streets as the alternative to a political intervention in a radical left party like Syriza is to lapse into a syndicalist or movementist error that fails to see the dialectical connections between the two. The forces needed for a revolutionary party are not going to be accumulated simply by building mass movements and strikes; and conversely mass movements and strikes are ultimately not going to be successful in challenging capitalist rule without a mass revolutionary party being built.’

Armstrong would appear to see the dialectic incorrectly. Rather than a project like Victorian Socialists acting as a foothold for radical ideas in a broader workers movement, participation in parliament establishes a foothold for reformist ideas in revolutionary organisations. While we agree with Armstrong on the limitations of movementism, and we believe in building mass social organisations that can overthrow capitalism – they are not the ‘vanguard’ party.

“…according to the Syndicalist view, the trade union, the syndicate, is the unified organisation of labour and has for its purpose the defence of the interests of the producers in the existing society and the preparing for and the practical carrying out of the reconstruction of social life after the pattern of [libertarian] Socialism. It has, therefore, a double purpose…” – Rudolph Rocker

As such, the accusation of syndicalist and movementist errors only holds true to a socialist who believes that only the vanguard party can lead the working class to make the revolutionary rupture with capitalism. However as anarchists and libertarian socialists, we know that historically this is untrue. Syndicalism also provides a mass organisation where workers take up the battle of ideas in all facets of society, making the critique of both capitalist and state socialist visions, and promoting the vision of a free and equal world. It is only the narrow view of socialists who believe revolutionary unions cannot play this role. Despite eventual failure of the classic workers revolutions, the working class has nonetheless shown its capacity to overthrow the state and capitalism without the ‘vanguard party.’ Revolutionary experiments in the Ukraine ‘19-21 and Spain in ‘36 attempted to establish a society where ‘the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things’. It would be facetious to argue that the Bolsheviks were the only ‘successful’ example of working class revolution when what they achieved was a bloody and repressive failure certainly no worse than the failure of the libertarian revolutions. If your only criteria of revolutionary success is the crushing of counter-revolutionary military forces, then the Bolsheviks were indeed successful. However if your criteria is the building of a workers democracy from the bottom up, then they failed almost from the very start. World revolution has not been achieved, but we can remain certain that socialists in parliament is a strategy that cannot lead to socialism.

“We assert that social problems can only be resolved by a revolutionary movement that transforms the economy while at the same time destroying bourgeois political institutions.” – Garcia Oliver

While within the libertarian movement we can debate various forms of anarchist organisation from syndicalism to especifismo, anarchists all seek to propagate the idea of self-management and direct action, and assist the working classes to build new forms of self-governance beyond capitalism. This differs vastly from the Leninist party. After all, the state and party have proven in the last instance to be the defenders of bourgeois interests and the gravediggers of the social revolution. Even if we agreed with Lenin, we doubt very much that the defence of electoral participation by the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 in any way translates to a strategy for today – especially for a ‘mass socialist party’ that isn’t yet much more than a coalition of propaganda groups based out of the universities.

Only coherent and combative anarchist organisations with distinct class politics can become an alternate pole of attraction to fill the space on the revolutionary left – anarchism is becoming a stronger revolutionary current around the world once again, given the abysmal failure of Marxist politics in the 20th Century, and with ‘21st Century Socialism’ proving to achieve either nothing, futile reform, or some meaningful reform but no capability to move beyond capitalism (Socialist Alliance in the UK, SYRIZA, and Venezuela come to mind respectively.)

Internally to Victorian Socialists, fractures within the revolutionary cadres of Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance will begin to become more pronounced as resources are pulled from practical needs and in the situation of a Victorian based party – other state branches. Revolutionary socialists who understand the dead ends of electoral politics will break away from electoral projects like Victorian Socialists in time, and we must be there to meet these militants who have always had the right idea in understanding the many problems of capitalism. What they will need is a better perspective of the state.

Far more important than winning over militants from the socialist groups however is winning new workers over to the anarchist movement. For too long the anarchist movement in Australia has been internal looking. Our struggle as libertarians should be where the working class itself is fighting, and our ideas should inform our action. It will be our motion that draws people in, not just our ideas – this for example is part of the initial explosion of ‘success’ of the Victorian Socialist project.

Anti-capitalist ideas are growing traction around the world, and we want anarchism to become the dominant form of revolutionary politics once again. It is easy to forget that anarchism was once the predominant ideology of the revolutionary left, a far cry from the liberal mess we find passing for much of anarchist politics today. To return to relevance, we require insertion into the important movements and struggles of our time to help build their mass character, and playing a leading role in the redevelopment of a labour movement. To counter the growth of electoral projects anarchists also need easy ‘on ramps’ to politics too, but not ones that will channel workers into handing their fate over to political parties. To build our own organisations and militant movements requires developed and specifically anarchist politics to guide our strategies and tactics. It is our task to reveal the fatal flaw of following strategies like the Victorian Socialists electoral attempts, and reaffirming that the revolution can only be made by the struggle of the workers themselves.

“The working class has no Parliament but the street, the factory, and the workplace, and no other path than social revolution.” – Buenaventura Durruti

For a more comprehensive understanding of the limits of electoral politics I recommend the pamphlet “Socialist Faces in High Places”, by the Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation.

#anarchism elections politics platformism syndicalism electoralism trotskyism

[5questions]

Ken Baumann

Ken Baumann lives in Santa Fe with his wife, two cats, and a 125 lb. St. Bernard. He acted in film and television for twelve years, then studied at St. John's College. He wrote the novels Solip and Say, Cut, Map, then the nonfiction book EarthBound. He is looking for a publisher for his third novel, titled A Task (you can read its first five parts here). He’s also written these things. He edits, designs, and publishes books through Sator Press and its imprint Satyr Press, and designed the covers for Boss Fight Books. He organizes the Santa Fe chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

1. Your 2013 book SOLIP was sort of Jocyean or Beckettian in its style and scope. How does your upcoming book A TASK compare to that? I remember publishing an excerpt of it as part of the defunct magazine Keep This Bag Away From Children; it was politically-charged and seemed to revolve around a cult or commune of some sort. How has it developed since then? You’re also trying to get it published right? Or already have a deal?

Most sentences in A Task are simple, and the book's structure is complicated. A Task is a story about dissolution told as clearly and concisely as possible, whereas Solip and Say, Cut, Map use polyphony to create something more alien to everyday experience. I want people who don't often read novels to pick up A Task and feel welcomed by its language.

The excerpt you published was from the book's first draft. I finished that draft five years ago, then threw it away and started over. I wrote the new draft by hand, with pen and on paper; I wanted to work against quickness, and get more of my body into the book. It took me five years to realize I should cut one of the book's core sections; it took me four years to hear the book's last sentence. A Task is the record of an attempt to distill my severest fear, love, and patience into a novel.

A Task is a 55,500 word novel told in five parts, each consisting of four sections, plus one section near the middle (which works like night).

A summary: A young woman named Rose runs out of a forest and onto the road. Having escaped a cult whose leader preached the justice of mass suicide, she is sheltered by Paul, a black police officer scarred by war. Warren, entranced by the cult leader Daniel, struggles to live through mental illness; back home, the fragments of his life are regathered. And in a text transcription of a 24 hour-long performance, a famed painter recounts the beauties and losses which constitute him, and the role of art in a collapsing society. As they voluntarily dissolve their lives, fleeing new fascisms, Rose, Paul, Warren, and the artist map the terrain of life amid nihilism. A Task is a novel about wounded people escaping our world’s suicidal logic.

I'm looking for a publisher and an agent. The only editor whose work I admire is Cal Morgan, so he has A Task in his inbox. To let someone publish the book, I want three conditions satisfied:

1. I work with an editor whose first editorial principle isn't salability;

2. I work with a publishing company that prints and distributes at least 10,000 copies;

3. I work with a marketing department that grants me final approval of the cover.

I want the book to be beautiful and discoverable in many bookstores and libraries. I don't care about an advance. (Though if you're an agent, I've got a scheme to get you paid.)

If the book hasn't been published within a couple years by a corporation willing to satisfy those three conditions, I'll publish A Task via Sator Press.

2. What other writing projects you are working on? You’re always publishing new stuff with SATOR PRESS. What’s next with that?

I've been writing essays then publishing them on Medium and Tumblr. Since I don't try to make a living from my writing, I see no point in trying to get these essays published online or in print by other people. The only editors I've enjoyed working with are Claire Evans and Carolyn Kellogg, but Claire is a supremely busy polymath and Carolyn publishes reviews about new books, with which I rarely keep up.

Most publications are like political parties: they exist primarily to homogenize and react. If you want to avoid enriching capitalists via addiction and reaction, you should try as rigorously as possible to not support big media platforms. More often than not, goodness and scale are inversely proportional. (When I have some time, I'll move my writing from Tumblr and Medium to my personal website.)

3. Here’s a big question (or four): Why do you write? What motivates you? How about with publishing? Why publish?

When I was young, I wrote to make places more vivid than life's. Now, I know life is immanent; the fictive places are in the real places, and the real places are in the fictive places—and neither have anything to do with purity. I no longer read or write to transcend; if the universe is an ocean of infinite eddying complexity, I read and write to go further in. More practically, I write to lessen my anxiety. I write to make a document untouchable by cruelty while making myself unconcerned with history. (Oedipus and Hamlet, two great pretenders, were out of time's joint for a reason.)

I publish books because they are the only mass-produced objects which bring me peace. For better and worse, I've been concerned for decades with those who spoke before me, and with those who further that conversation. I love compendiums of quiet questions. I publish books because to refuse to publish a great text when you have the health, money, skills, and time to do so is an act of cowardice. And because I want to pay comrades for doing the work that makes them want to stay alive.

4. I’ve noticed you’ve become active in the DSA in your area. Would you say Bernie or Trump was more of a cause behind your involvement? What’d you think of the recent DSA national convention? What issues is your chapter of DSA most involved in? Does your chapter have an electoral working group?

Sanders' policies and rhetoric were life-affirming, contrary to that of other massive political campaigns I've seen. I volunteered for his campaign, but its scale upset me; I'm learning that I'm not meant for most of today's magnitudes. The DSA advocates for decentralization as much as possible, while also affirming democracy (i.e. making the decisions which most affect you) and socialism (i.e. owning the means by which you live and thrive). And I love the DSA's emphasis on the interrelatedness of cruelty: capitalism, racism, sexism, fascism—they must be fought at once. Good.

I didn't know about the DSA until November 2016. With a handful of friends, I started New Mexico's first chapter in January.

Donald J. Trump is a demagogue and a fascist (i.e. a person who violently maintains a belief in one group's supremacy over all others). I wasn't surprised he was elected, because I grew up with people who yearned to be granted permission by history to lynch minorities. These people were my friends, until I became friends with some of those minorities. Though it didn't surprise me, Trump's election radicalized me—it made me embrace fully my political desires. Capitalism is a system by which we assure life's suicide. It must go, and with it, all systemic exploitation.

I didn't attend DSA's recent convention, but our chapter's two elected delegates did. They came back roiling with hope. So far, we've done a lot of organizing, and a bit of mobilizing. We've picketed with and fed striking CWA workers. We've made content and raised money for Chainbreaker, a local group that's been fighting for tenants' rights for years. We've lobbied at our state legislature and City Council. We've taught over 100 people about the New Mexico Health Security Act. We've run reading groups. We've fed day laborers and homeless folks near downtown Santa Fe. We've raised a mutual aid fund, then paid a comrade to replace his car's shattered back window. Soon, we'll help defeat a racist and nativist group's City Council candidates. We've got so much work to do, yet I trust those with whom I'm doing the work.

5. You started teaching at a charter school recently. How do you like it? How are your class sizes? How is your view on charter schools informed or intersected by your ideas about democratic socialism? I seem to think of charter school as being a move towards governmental politics of privatization and anti-unionization, but it’s possibly that’s very informed by me being from Ohio and working in NYC, both states with big histories of unions, specifically teachers unions.

I've been teaching for three weeks. Nearly all of my students are Hispanic, Chicanx, or Latinx. Many are from working class families; some already work to support others. It's a dual language, project based school—which means we take our students into the world outside the classroom. Between 10 and 28 students attend each class.

It's my shaky understanding that charter schools in New Mexico are more strictly regulated than those in other states. I receive health benefits via the New Mexico Public School Insurance Authority, and my salary is near that offered to first-year public school teachers in Santa Fe. My school doesn't charge tuition.

I attended and graduated from a charter high school in Los Angeles, and was glad to do so. As a professional actor, a charter school was the only school to meet my needs. This was also true for many young people who recently got out of juvie; for many young people who were working two to three jobs to support their families; for many young people whose illnesses prevented them from attending schools which expected them to show up 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. In principle, I support and affirm the right of every human to a decent and free education, but I do not automatically decry schools which teach different constituencies in different ways. (Again, scale is important.) It's sad to me that many capitalists use poorly-regulated charter schools to steal taxes while providing subpar educations for young people; I am against any system whose zero-sum logic harms the vulnerable.

So far, I believe my school isn't exploitative; many of my students and all of my coworkers argue that it's been great for them. But I've got a lot to learn. (And there's another charter school in Santa Fe whose teachers are unionized, so there's some homework for me, too.)

#dsa #democratic socialism #democratic socialists #charter schools #los angeles #new mexico #chicanx #latinx #trump #bernie #oedipus #hamlet #tumblr #medium #sante fe #sator press #novel #fiction #essay #ken baumann #fascism #joyce #beckett