eightpix

@eightpix@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do boycotts work?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Know what works better than boycotts? A general strike. Stop the economy in its tracks. Have a clear, articulated goal. No leadership. No one to arrest. No one to identify as a troublemaker.

  The trouble, when systemic, is the system. A boycott is meant to strike at an individual or group of allied organization(s). A general strike is the last level.

  Governments tend to be allergic to general strikes. Their reactions are heavy-handed, thoughtless, and reactionary. Howard Zinn recounts several in A People’s History of the United States. But, when primed and done well, it is a demonstration of political will unlike any other. It is a change agent.

  I was in Guatemala in 2015 for the one-day general strike that led to the arrest of then-President Otto Perez Molina. His party had been funnelling tax revenues into a slush fund. Look up #noletoca and #LaLinea. He was removed from the presidency, tried, convicted, and served time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So...how the fuck do I trust *anything*?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I might add, start good trouble. This follows from 5. above.

  Hold your state and federal representatives’ feet to the fire. Protest injustice. Demand transparency and equity. Understand how your local community works. If it doesn’t work, build on that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So...how the fuck do I trust *anything*?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Always excellent, The Evolution of Trust, and interactive exercise in Game Theory.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So...how the fuck do I trust *anything*?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Welcome to the Internet. Hopefully, I read as a good person. I am not a bot.

  I lived as a young adult through Bush II. 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Halliburton, Blackwater, and loads of corruption. It was tough to trust anything then. The goal was pure profit.

  Apparently, Dubya was the warm-up presidency for this shit.

  First, let me share a clip from Margin Call, 2011.

  As long as the prevailing mode has been capital, there has been speculation. As long as there has been speculation, there have been lying liars who exploit the system.

  The last few pump and dump bubbles he mentioned (1987, 1992, 1997, 2000, and 2008) are all market crashes I can remember. The market is a casino. Crashes since '08 include 2010 (Flash Crash), 2015 (sell-off), 2018 (cryptocrash), 2020 (Covid), 2022 (Ukraine War), and 2025 (tariffs).

  These were once “once in a lifetime” events.

  Second, everything in the world is designed to generate more:

  • self-serving, self-centered, selfish

  • short-term-focused

  • extroverted, charismatic, vain

  • action-oriented

  • thoughtless

  psychopaths and sociopaths. This ethos runs things because of profit motives, monopolies on the exercise of violence, and the development of contemporary morés rooted in exploitation, expropriation, and (deemed) externalities of colonialism. Identifying some humans as “the other” makes much more inhumanity possible.

  So, I’m here to tell you, it’s real alright. What you’re feeling is real. What you’re feeling against is real. We are immersed in it. Algorithms are doing their best to lock it in.

  Finally, what to do and who to trust.

  Establish your own moral center. Decide what matters to you. Find those who are telling the most truth, especially when tested. Demogogues fall apart under examination. Lies fall apart when questioned. The unchallenged authority is no authority at all. Get the receipts; find primary sources as often as possible. Seek those who share at great personal cost.

  For me, it started with Star Trek. Then, hip-hop. Then, journalists I could trust. Even films that challenge prevailing narratives. I read a lot of books from many perspectives.

  20 years later, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Henry A. Giroux, Amy Goodman, Arundhati Roy, and Noam Chomsky have never wavered. Films like The Insider, Erin Brockovich, and The Corporation light a fire in me. I’m rewatched David Simon and Barry Levinson’s Homicide: Life on the Street and, hilariously, Murphy Brown.

  Challenge the prevailing narratives. You’re not alone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there or has there ever been information illegal to possess or have?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Julian Assange has something to say about this.

  Edward Snowden has something to say about this.

  Reality Winner has something to say about this.

  Chelsea Manning has something to say about this.

  Woodward and Bernstein had something to say about this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jedi Mind Tricks - Muerte (4mins, 2004)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My track off this album was always “The Deer Hunter.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Black Star - Thieves In The Night⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Rivaled only by the track before it, “Respiration”. This is such a great album.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How does a guy become his most confident around women?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  47m here. This was my journey:

  Remember that scene in Heat, where Robert DeNiro introduces himself to Edie at the café? Do that. Stay interested. This goes for everyone. Get to know people. Take genuine interest in people, uncover what excites them, and get them talking about their excitement. If you find you’re excited by the same things, great. If not, there are many more people to practice on.

  Also helpful:

  Read books written by women. Fiction, non-fiction, articles, TV shows, films… everything. Take on concerns as experienced by women (SA, undoing redpill /mensrights /manosphere, unequal pay, caring professions) as your own responsibility. You’ll do everyone around you a favour.

  Care for other people — less insofar as what they can do to/for you and more about the ends they are in themselves. Keep up good relationships.

  If she’s still around, and you have the emotional capacity to do so, call your mom or sister. Women like to know that their men can have a good relationship with a woman who is not a sexual object.

  Finally, give a shit about yourself. Get better at what you want to be good at. Keep a clean living space. Eat healthy, get outside, and find enjoyable activities. If you plan on dating anyone, you’re better off knowing what you like so that you can share it. Then, when she shares what she likes, you can approach it openly.

  I’m not a guru. I’m still working on this from within a long-term committed relationship. It’s hard. There will be closeness, rupture, repair, and growth in any relationship. The willingness to wash, rinse, and repeat is key.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the minimum number of words needed to communicate⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d add to this list:

  That’s too expensive! Cash price? Stop here! Speak slowly, please.

  And any words you might need to relate a dietary restriction: no meat, no dairy, no shellfish, no gluten.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has the USA turned into an oligarchy?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Read Chomsky’s Understanding Power (2002) and Manufacturing Consent (1988). It’s been an oligarchy since at least the 1980s. It’s Reagan’s fault. Jimmy Carter — rest in power —was the last, best hope for the kind of America that humanity wanted.

  Read the Fred J. Cook’s The Warfare State (1962).

  President Dwight D. Eisenhower was right about the Military-Industrial complex. It used to just be weapons, technology, energy, and heavy industries. The associated industries have metastasized to include entertainment, finance, housing, and education.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the next steps for Americans to help prevent the worsening of genocide in Palestine?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You should read a few good books as well. Might I suggest:

  On Palestine by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and Frank Barat

  The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon

  Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman

  Actual journalists like Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo and Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! are doing excellent work on this issue.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Did Biden ever release Trump's Resolute Letter?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Here is the full text of the letter that Obama left 45. I’d never thought to read it.

  Dear Mr. President -

  Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and allof us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.

  This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don’t know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. Still, let me offer a few reflections from the past 8 years.

  First, we’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune. Not everyone is so lucky. It’s up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard.

  Second, American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It’s up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.

  Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties – that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.

  And finally, take time, in the rush of events and responsibilities, for friends and family. They’ll get you through the inevitable rough patches.

  Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.

  Good luck and Godspeed,

  BO

  A few notes:

  Obama forecast 45s disregard for “rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties”. He KNEW 45 would fuck that up.

  The role all Presidents, since Reagan, have played in “sustain[ing] the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend” is a warning about fomenting or courting instability. It is also a tacit admission of the Military-Industrial complex and its attendant supports in entertainment, energy, and finance that projects American values and superiority worldwide. He KNEW 45 would fuck that up, too.

  Finally, and from the start of the letter, “we’ve both been blessed… Not everyone is so lucky” is a reminder that the office is meant to support the less fortunate. We all KNEW 45 would fuck that up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you skip Star Trek intros when streaming⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes. Almost every time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do other languages have similar acronyms to 'tbh', 'imo', 'smh', etc?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  In Korean, “Hahaha” sounds more like “kh- kh- kh-”, represented by, “ㅋㅋㅋ”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The justices of the supreme court ruled that Trump was immune and effectively above the law while being president. What is now stopping Biden from bringing a gun to the next debate?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Wait, maybe the justices just gave Biden the authority to do just that.

  …

  Naw. See, if he did, that’d delegitimize the presidency and cause a constitutional crisis.

  But, if a Republican President does it, it’s an exercise in upholding American freedom and the true authority of the office. See the difference?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who would win: every human in the world vs. every animal in the world?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  If it’s alive and not a plant, not a fungus, and not a single-celled organism, it is probably an animal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pretty cool fan made intro to a non-existent show⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I would watch this in an instant. Sisko is, by a wide margin, my favourite Star Trek Captain.

  A frontier, postwar Commander. A broken space station.

  A crew that actively hates, seeks to misunderstand, and undermine each other.

  Oh, and the first stable wormhole/celestial temple of the TimeLords.

  Then, a war against a vastly superior force of the ultimate spies.

  He takes on the whole impossible thing and makes everyone he meets better people.

  A student of history, betrayed by the only woman he loved after the the death of his wife, a single father, a mentor, a detective, and a builder.

  Sisko is absolutely amazing. Picard, what, came back from being Borg and lived a lifetime in a few minutes once?