From December 17, 2024:
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America Will Be Obsessed With Luigi Mangione for a Long Time
↗︎ ↳As always, let us harness the passion and solidarity exhibited in the current cultural moment to advocate effectively for healthcare reform and counteract rising fascism. —added 6:43pm on 17/12/24 ❧
Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far
↗︎ ↳Given its reliance on a completely untrustworthy third party, and the fact that the AI hype bubble seems to be bursting, this is good news. Remember though that Apple is an active Trump supporter and one of the most despotic big tech companies with the glossiest image. —added 6:56am on 17/12/24 ❧
How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy
↗︎ ↳This article *really* misses how big tech is a completely unregulated capitalist, and its influence is destroying a semblance of democracy because it jams its pro-deregulation individualist capital propaganda down its users throats. —added 6:53am on 17/12/24 ❧
From December 16, 2024:
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Meloni’s government is on the verge of criminalizing political dissent in Italy
↗︎ ↳Yet more proof that fascism is squarely “here” and things are getting worse everywhere. p.s., to my fellow Australians, this is already illegal in most states here. Labor brought it in and are unapologetically as fascist as a self described fascist.—added 6:23am on 16/12/24 ❧
OpenAI’s Altman will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund
↗︎ ↳Anyone need any more proof that Altman is evil? That the US is a kakisrocracy? That you can buy your way to anything you like if you’re a big enough capitalist? Disgusting. Microsoft, Apple, OpenAI and Trump’s whole crew are all buds in a circlejerk of mass proportions. And they have data on every single one of us. —added 6:22am on 16/12/24 ❧
I have been thinking about the how the corporate class, the bootlickers, the “upper middle class” and others utterly slavish to the capitalist simultaneously dehumanise themselves and others. A phenomenal piece of mental trickery: contortion, gaslighting and betrayal. Those who fancy themselves stable and wealthy (an ever treacherous position to claim), and often profess it so by engaging in “high culture” activities (themselves equal parts immoral and despicable) which range incredibly broadly from horse racing, to stock market investing, or apparently lately cryptocurrency market gambling. This, to me, is a fundamentally interesting group of “people”. Let’s think on it. In the imperial core — conceptually a useful imaginary space for us to consider in theorisation about “wealth” and culture — there are opportunities for multi-generational “middle classes” to establish themselves. However, there are no “middle classes”...
From December 15, 2024:
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ML SummaryThe article discusses the aftermath of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4, 2024, highlighting how his death has unsettled CEOs across various industries. The public reaction to Thompson's shooting has been largely unsympathetic, with some social media users expressing glee, leading to fears of potential copycat attacks. Fake wanted posters targeting Thompson and other health insurance executives have appeared, signaling a troubling trend in public sentiment toward corporate leaders.
Former Medtronic CEO Bill George notes that many business leaders are shaken and are reconsidering their security measures, questioning the implications of a society that glorifies violence against executives. While some CEOs express annoyance at increased security, they recognize its necessity in a climate where threats are perceived to be rising. The article emphasizes the disconnect between the public's perception of CEOs and their humanity, as many leaders struggle to maintain employee morale amidst negative public sentiment.
There are calls for CEOs to reflect on societal anger toward corporate America and consider their roles in addressing these issues. Additionally, the media's portrayal of the incident, with a focus on the killer rather than the victim, raises concerns about the simplification of complex narratives in society. Overall, the piece underscores the evolving security reality for CEOs in a climate of increasing hostility.
Optimism as antidote to despair
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—posted 14/12/24, tagged as optimism, futurism, positivity, change, transformation, activism, chomsky, gramsci.
I have been thinking about optimism and despair. Actually, I’ve been reading on optimism over despair [1] and thinking about an analytical pattern that might help us mobilise this kind of thought in the way we discuss contemporaneous issues on ``mind reader``. So, yes, this post is a meta post about being meta, what else have you come to expect from me? I’m going to talk in abstract about both the reason for optimism, and for despair, and how we might mobilise these against the way they are mobilised by the capitalist class. Because what’s better than human emotion, passion, feeling and process against something so fundamentally inhuman, nonhuman, non-human as capitalism. Let’s get into it... Chomsky uses a pattern of explanatory critique that comprises his own unique theoretical positioning. I suspect, to label him as a “Marxist theorist” is to do him disservice given the expansive cannon of his texts over the decades....
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