Gil's personal website and digital garden
I don't usually self promo but I was interested in the concept of a social archipelago facilitated by closed federation/allowlisting, in response to a lot of the bigotry and spam that's on the Fediverse and how difficult it can be to moderate. I was also curious about how Beehaw/Lemmy users feel about allowlisting and closed federation especially since Beehaw's on the cusp of switching to an allowlist. What are y'all's thoughts on the concept of a social archipelago?
While writing, I consulted these two essays which introduce this idea, so I'll leave them here as "further reading":
Just a side note - I would caution about directing non-Black folks to spaces like # BlackMastodon and @ blackfedi, just because those spaces might not be intentioned for non-Black people to look at, directing us there might be encouraging our participation in spaces where it's not necessarily invited or wanted, etc. Great spaces to direct Black folks to if they're looking to build a community for themselves on fedi, but I would just say it's best for non-Black people to not look/participate unless the space is specifically inviting that.
The other thing about the "just listen more to more Black people" discourse is that while it may fix representational issues of whom you're choosing to listen to, it won't help if there's no intention to work on racial biases or challenge one's own racist behaviors - so I would even implore that type of introspective work. Connected to that would be, even if a white person starts doing these things and working on this practice, that work of interrogating your own biases/behaviors never stops. I feel that white people (especially on fedi) often need reminding that just because you're doing X, Y, Z, etc. doesn't mean that you're done working on your own racism or that your reasons for doing X, Y, Z, etc. are all genuine.
You might also want to mention how having some marginalized identity even as a white person doesn't excuse you from doing this work - there's a lot of harm done on fedi by people who use their own oppressed identities as a way to avert accountability for being racist. In your piece, you already mentioned that supporting Black people and fighting anti-Blackness means supporting all Black people - you could make that understanding of how anti-Blackness is interconnected/intertwined with other oppressions more apparent by appealing to white people who might consider themselves staunch advocates for other communities but refuse to confront racism.
This is kind of a mess of different comments but those are just my raw thoughts after reading what you wrote.
Look, I understand where you're coming from and what you're saying, but please bring down the temperature in your comments, even if others seem pedantic or nitpicking to you.
You're welcome to express your opinion and agree or disagree with others as you see fit, but when you do so please remember the human on the other end of the discussion. There's no need for picking unnecessary fights with others or being overly antagonistic, and we're seeing a pattern of these threads you're involved in getting really heated.
A country born by old white men which will die by old white men. Begins with a revolution to sever ties with a monarchy, ends with a coup to bring it back. We are truly coming full circle. 🤡
Asked if anything could convince him that he was on track to lose to Trump and should step down, Biden responded with a smile: "It depends on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that."
Sir, the Lord Almighty better come down and take you back with him. Take Trump too, while he's at it.
After that debate and all the things he's said since, Biden's image is at an all-time low. As ableist and ageist as it is, people think he's a senile old man in the late stages of cognitive decline, with no business running a government. I doubt he or his campaign are going to do what they need to do to overcome that perception, and I doubt the Democratic Party will make the right calls either. "Decades of civil service" and "somewhat better than Trump" etc. are not going to be enough.
damn, who could've possibly seen that coming? 🫥
Asian diaspora reactionaries and liberals sip from the same bog of American Exceptionalism
Well, to be more frank, I am wary of cryptocurrency and especially the marketing of it as relief for the ills of capitalism. It doesn't help that mining for cryptocurrency is highly energy-intensive (much of that power being sourced from fossil fuels) and e-waste-producing, or that it's simply become a vehicle for high-risk financial speculation as well as run-of-the-mill fraud and scams. In short, to me, cryptocurrency is bad, or at least the negatives outweigh any potential positives.
If you have trouble with that implication, that's fine, that's your opinion, but I don't like having my view reduced down to "bad bcz crypto lol" just because I didn't sufficiently explain it initially. I don't post or comment in this community just to be nitpicked or belittled.
Permanently Deleted
I don't think people there love love her, but something something owning the libs something.
Many USian voters are entranced with the idea of having a firebrand provocateur on their side, someone who is able to get a rise out of their political opponents (not even totally excluding myself as it can be entertaining sometimes). And others just don't care as long as the other side doesn't win -- to them, keeping the other side out of power is more important than putting a competent person in the seat.
When I saw this this morning, I laughed so hard I almost fell out of bed 😭
Yikes to the fact that Jasmine Crockett received PAC donations from crypto and voted with other Dems to provide military aid to Israel, but at least there's some entertainment in watching her eat up Republicans like MTG whenever they pull some bullshit like that.
finally getting more time off from work versus the 60-70 hour weeks i was pulling before, so i started participating in a game jam and trying to have a presence on fedi again.
There is no should or shouldn't, they've always had and been entitled to that choice. People who develop and host those platforms can make whatever choice they want.
ActivityPub/the Fediverse is only a protocol. If you philosophically disagree with how a platform makes use of that protocol, then you can (theoretically) just use another platform.
not so hot because things are tense around my house, but i'm moving out towards the end of the week so hopefully it'll be over soon.
Google and Apple specifically requested that detail be confidential.
Frieren fixes a big anime villain problem.
Genuine question: what happened last time?
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/politics@lemmy.ml/t/597807
> Johnson's election is the latest and perhaps most consequential event to date in the alliance of white evangelical Christians with the Republican Party.
Some Asian American fans say they recognize themselves in the lyrics of Mitski's latest album.
> Japanese American singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki says her identity is made up of “a million selves” that defy categorization — and fans are saying they find inspiration in that. > > “I don’t have a self,” Mitski said on the website for her record label. “I have a million selves, and they’re all me, and I inhabit them, and they all live inside me.” > > “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” Mitski’s newest album, released last week by music label Dead Oceans, explores her multitude of selves, she says. Featuring a choir and orchestral arrangements, the album draws from classic Americana imagery such as freight trains, buffalo stampedes and highway cars. > > With this album, Mitski is trying to “reconcile all my various identities with being American,” she said in an interview with NPR. “I’m Asian American. I’m half white, half Asian. And so I don’t really fit into either community very well. I am an other in America, even though I am American.”
Yup! If the software supports it, instance admins can usually add relays from their control panel.
It does work that way, but Mastodon and some other microblogging software like Firefish (fka Calckey), Pleroma, etc. can also use relays to populate their federated timelines.
What an audacious request. I hope it’ll be rejected --- this just has “bad idea” written all over it.
What; if anything; are you doing to prevent the instance from becoming an echo chamber?
Like the linked post discusses, Black queer people are the recipients of a lot of harm. They're perfectly entitled to a space where they won't be harassed, doesn't matter if that space is an echo chamber or not. The moderation and community of that instance can decide for themselves how they want to be structured --- it's not really anyone else's decision but theirs. If we, as remote users, don't like how they do things, no one's forcing us to use their site, federate with them, etc.
I’ve noticed a lot of black first instances tend to fall victim to the same traps of racism and hatred that instances that center on other races do.
What exactly do you mean by the phrase "same traps of racism and hatred"? I've seen few if any instances centering on other races, so I can't really establish that there's any pattern there.
Practitioners of “race change to another,” or RCTA, purport to be able to manifest physical changes in their appearance and even their genetics to truly become a different race.
Arc is the biggest new thing in browsers in a long time — and the waitlist is finally gone.
So, I like to write simple notes, journaling, to-do lists, or essays/fiction with a fountain pen whenever possible, and I'm trying to find a good journal or planner to use. My Pilot and Diamine inks feather a lot on the paper I'm currently using, and that's really the main problem I want to address.
What brands or products would you recommend? What kind of paper do you like best?
What do you enjoy about this website/platform? How've you been liking your experience so far?
The relationship between body-mass index and weight-related ailments varies by race
> Potent new anti-obesity drugs can reduce body weight by 15-20%. However, regulation and costs limit who can take them. In America, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved just one of the new drugs, Wegovy, for weight loss—and only for patients with a body-mass index (BMI) above certain thresholds. The cut-off is 27 for people with weight-related illnesses, and 30 otherwise. For someone 1.7 metres (5’7”) tall, these correspond to 78kg (172lb) and 87kg. People with lower BMIs can try to get a prescription anyway. However, insurers rarely cover such “off-label” use of the $1,000-per-month drugs. > > BMIs vary between racial groups. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, run by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Asian-Americans aged 18-75 have an average BMI of 25, compared with 29 for whites, 30 for Hispanics and 31 for black people. As a result, few Asians meet the FDA’s criteria.
Spill, which launched on Apple’s App Store in mid-June, is the latest platform some have said they are turning to following Elon Musk’s continued changes to Twitter.
> The social platform, created by ex-Twitter employees Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown, has garnered online buzz in the last week, with Black celebrities including musician Questlove and actor Keke Palmer counted among its recent members. By Monday, after Musk limited the number of tweets users can see, Spill began to climb the rankings of Apple’s App Store. > > The recent boost in popularity comes amid constant discourse among Black Twitter, an informal digital enclave noted for its meme culture and political activism. Many within the community have voiced concerns about inadequate moderation of hate speech on Twitter, arguing that the app has become an increasingly “toxic” space under Musk’s leadership.
Tribes in the Midwest and Great Plains are embracing and sharing traditional agricultural knowledge with both Native and nonnative farmers to improve the soil and water for everyone.
> * Nearly seven in ten (67%) say it is a serious problem that individuals treat Black, Latino, Asian, and Native Americans worse than white Americans. Two-fifths (39%) say it is a very serious problem. > * Three-fifths (63%) say racism makes it more difficult for people of color to succeed in America. > * Nearly half (49%) of Americans believe that racism is both a problem of how society works and how individuals treat each other. A quarter (26%) say it is mostly a problem of how individuals treat each other. These findings are similar to when asked in June 2020 (48% and 28%, respectively).
Alt text: > A three panel meme of someone riding a bike. > > * First panel: Someone riding on a bike. "Reddit is imploding, quick let's get on Lemmy" > * Second panel: The bike starts to tip over on its own. "Oh shit there's too many of us, we're being defederated?" > * Third panel: They've fallen on the ground by the bike, holding their knee in pain. "Fucking Beehaw"
Children will continue to be protected under law preventing removal from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/572828
> The US supreme court has ruled that Native American children can continue to be protected under federal law against being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption, rejecting a petition from a white couple who argued that the provision was a form of racial discrimination.
A look at the content moderators that control what we see turns into a manifesto against the internet itself
> Ostensibly The Cleaners is about the outsourced workers that these companies use to determine whether photos and videos that have been shared online should be allowed to stay there. The film tracks a handful of people based in Manila that spend their days looking at terrorist videos, political propaganda, self-harm videos, and child pornography, breaking them into binary categories: “ignore,” where they let the post stand, and “delete,” where the imagery is removed for violating community standards.
This is an old article about an older documentary, but I thought it would be interesting to kick up a discussion about how people in Manila (and other places in the Global South) are often the ones left to deal with the worst impacts of social media - including on the moderation side of things.
Héctor Tobar writes in “Our Migrant Souls” that the focus on Latinos in crisis or as undocumented immigrants misses their history and centrality to the American story.
> “We are not seen as people who are central to the American story. We are seen as the supporting cast, like this inconsequential supporting actor," Tobar said. He points out that it is Latino labor that keeps the country functioning and that is essential to industries such as construction and agriculture — and that it was largely Latino workers who built the infrastructure of the American southwest. > > As he strives to illuminate the Latino experience, he acknowledges that the construct of “Latino“ is artificial and complicated.
