shirro

joined 2 years ago
[–] shirro@aussie.zone 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Non-murican - strongly feel preference should be given to genuine refugees fleeing war, famine etc where they have absolutely no ability to influence their fate other than escape. The US is a failed democracy but the people there have barely begun to challenge their government compared to what we have seen elsewhere in the world. And there is still refuge available in blue states. US citizens need to stand up and fight. Then if they fail, only then do they get to go in the queue with the genuine humanitarian refugees. I don't like queue jumpers. Sorry but impingement on your civil liberties doesn't compare with families in war torn parts of the world living in fear fear of having their limbs blown off every night.

Ofcourse business around the world would like to cherry pick talent for in demand jobs. They prefer not to invest in developing local people when they can import experienced talent for less. So people with in demand skills will get in that way, not as refugees.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 6 points 5 days ago

Ranked choice is bare minimum for a democracy these days. Whatever ancient shit the US has doesn't count anymore. Also get rid of the elected tyrant bullshit and upgrade to parliamentary democracy. Then go for mixed-member proportional for extra credit. Also get rid of voting machines and do it all on paper.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I would say the US has an executive with aspirations to implement aspects of a fascist state. As long as millions of people are protesting in the streets, the courts are ruling against the executive on points of law and people are standing their ground it is still a long road for the executive to get where they want to go. If the country really was full fascist you would be totally fucked and being shipped with your family to a concentration camp for disloyalty to great leader right now.

Unlike some other countries where law enforcement and prisons might be state run on principle, the US has a history of privatizing such functions. They had the union busting Pinkerton thugs, for profit prisons and bounty hunters. A society that didn't cry out when the Pinkertons were busting the heads of working people or kids were being railroaded into for profit prison slavery shouldn't be surprised when thugs are clearing the streets of immigrants. That is just America sadly. That nastiness has always been there.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

As we dont have the gaps in my country my guess is it a US interpretation of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon as applied to the shitter.

I expect in the USA people, particularly the out groups, are believed to be inherently criminal/immoral and need to be observed to make sure they aren't doing anything undesirable.

As the US public toilet is primarily a place for moral judgement and not elimation of waste you then get the crazies questioning if people's gender and equipment meets moral standards for use of the facilities based on casual assessment of their appearance.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

It's just another money/power grab. Tech bros want to spy on your kids to train their mythical AGI God, make shit loads of money and be in a position of influence.

Take away people's economic independence. Take their intellectual capital. Take their capacity to learn and think independently and ultimately their capacity to play and imagine.

The sheep are being led towards a very fucking grim world.

Lets be clear it isn't the tech that is bad. Self hosting a model for a task that suits it like speech recognition for a disabled person is righteous and liberating.

I hate to agree with the Marxists of Lemmy but the problem is very much capitalism as it is with global warming, pollution and a social inequality. Where I will split with them historically is I still believe in liberal democracies capacity to regulate capitalism for a common good. But when everyone has outsourced their thinking to a corporate AI from birth to death democracy is fucked isn't it.

We need to be aware of how we are being fucked over, sceptical of people pushing this shit and engaged politically to make sure it is regulated appropriately otherwise these cashed up AI fuckers are going to write legislation for our politicians to rubber stamp.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Paying to get access to data and eyeballs. Social media is about mass surveillance and influence. The customers pay the service for access to the stupid people. Always have.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Australia is in a very different position to Canada geographically and strategically. Our politics can be almost as different as our climate.

Australia's major party primary vote has been declining for ages. In the most recent Canadian election the opposite happened and the major parties gained votes at the expense of the smaller parties. In Canada both the Libs and Conservatives increased their vote share. Lets repeat that, the Conservatives in Canada, despite existential threats from Trump to annex and bankrupt their country increased their votes while the mainstream conservative party in Australia declined in vote share despite Trump policies having less direct impact here than practically anywhere else. Carney limped home with minority government while Albo thumped the conservatives with a huge majority. We are not the same. Not even close.

In Australia Labor had a relatively modest increase while the Liberals lost a few percent. The Green vote barely changed but independents and smaller populist parties did ok including One Nation which had a modest increase in votes. Nothing like Canada.

I think the consensus from most domestic commentators is that the Liberals in Australia ran a poor campaign, their policies failed to impress swing voters in marginals struggling with cost of living and looking for an alternative and Labor campaigned better than expected.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

I think US commentators make far too much of Trump and US political influence on the world. It exists but we all have our own cultures, political systems etc out here and we proudly do our own thing. The arrogance of people on all sides of US politics who think an election result on the other side of a world is a reflection of their own domestic politics is incredible.

It would be convenient if the rest of the world could fix a broken US democracy but it is a fantasy. US citizens need to address their problems through struggle and resistance. Their current problems runs very deep in their society and isn't simply an international fashion trend.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Not just the kids. The kids who were exposed to this stuff way back now have kids. It's generational now.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 17 points 2 months ago

I live in Australia and the local winery is owned by a Californian company that sends all their output exclusively to the US domestic market. It would be such a shame if those US companies fucked off and profits went back into the local economy.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It looks like it will be handled by third party verification services in Australia. You will likely provide some form of ID with age which is likely to be government id and the service will check it then inform the social media company you pass. The legislation doesn't allow direct government involvement in running the verification service and the verification companies have to conform to privacy laws.

It is certainly a flawed system. If kids want to access things they will and there is potential for abuse. However when considering harm mitigation you need to look at the whole population.

A lot of the more extreme libertarian views on the Internet originate in the US where their "freedoms" of speech and firearms have obviously just been a distraction while they were robbed blind. They couldn't even protect their school kids from mass shootings because they put ideology and theoretical bullshit ahead of morality, empathy and the survival of their families. I used to buy into the Internet libertarian stuff in a huge way in the days of IRC and Usenet before the mega rich tech bros moved in and turned the Internet into a shitshow of scams, mass-surveillance and brain washing. Still a big proponent of free software and agree with a lot of stuff from the EFF but the oligarchs ruined it. Now I want to burn it down. Anything to keep these nonses away from our kids is good with me.

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