MountingSuspicion
@MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
- Comment on Quick, go test if you're a robot! 5 hours ago:
- Comment on 8 Million Users' AI Conversations Sold for Profit by "Privacy" Extensions 19 hours ago:
Other than being an obvious ad for their own AI, the article was pretty informative.
Per the article, the following were found to be affected. Probably anything by the publisher should not be trusted as they’re just a data mining company, so make sure not to download any rebrands or new releases from the same people. Chrome Web Store:
- Urban VPN Proxy - 6,000,000 users
- 1ClickVPN Proxy - 600,000 users
- Urban Browser Guard - 40,000 users
- Urban Ad Blocker - 10,000 users
Microsoft Edge Add-ons:
- Urban VPN Proxy - 1,323,622 users
- 1ClickVPN Proxy - 36,459 users
- Urban Browser Guard - 12,624 users
- Urban Ad Blocker - 6,476 users
- Comment on Verizon refused to unlock man’s iPhone, so he sued the carrier and won 19 hours ago:
Absolutely infuriating. I’m upset the judge did not award the full extent of monetary damages even though it’s evident that Verizon is in violation of multiple agreements.
I know it’s not how this works, but since the FCC put those rules in place as a condition of their acquisition of the other companies, and since they violated those rules, the government should be able to nationalize/seize the assets of the other companies. Verizon should not legally have them since they broke the agreement. I’d love to see not just a one time fine but a legitimate punishment. If this guy hadn’t done this they’d be knowingly violating their agreement still. The people doing this are disgusting and taking advantage of the people with the least amount of time and resources. I truly wish they all have the day they deserve.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
People often refer to the ACA as Obamacare. Obamacare did change requirements for employer provided health care, not just marketplace plans. So, prior to the ACA full time employees had certain benefits that part time employees did not. Post ACA there were changes to mandatory minimum benefits that employer healthcare packages provided. If you can articulate what the issue you are raising is, that would be helpful.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
Also from my comment:
Obamacare mandates employers offer healthcare to people working 30 hrs a week.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
Oh, definitely. And having 2 part time jobs, if you can manage it, often means you end up working more hours (25+25), and are still not given the benefits of a full time employee because you aren’t technically full time anywhere. It’s terrible and for what it’s worth I do feel bad for anon here. They are drinking the right wing kook aid, which sucks, but it’s an awful position to be in. There’s comments calling them a moron or that they just have to make minor changes etc, but the reality is, especially in these small towns, there’s not a lot of options and acting like it’s the fault of individuals is really missing the point.
For what it’s worth, Obamacare did technically add to the employer burden by making good healthcare a mandatory offering for full time employees, so I understand why some people have convinced themselves it’s the ACAs fault, but employers were doing the 25 hours thing to skirt other benefits way before Obamacare.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
From my comment:
It’s also worth mentioning that employers did this even before Obamacare because there are other things that full time employees are entitled to that part time employees aren’t.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
I commented above, but in the US some employers will refuse to give you more hours to keep you as a part time employee, since full time employees are guaranteed certain benefits. Those benefits include access to healthcare. They would rather hire 2 people part time than 1 person full time. This is not Obamacare’s fault, but for some reason people in the middle of nowhere who make very little money have convinced themselves that it’s Obama who’s to blame instead of the shitty companies and their shitty owners.
- Comment on Anon lives on a budget 2 days ago:
Obamacare mandates employers offer healthcare to people working 30 hrs a week. A lot of places will only allow you to be scheduled for less than 30 hours a week, even if you are able and willing to go full time. It’s stupid, but some people have convinced themselves that it’s Obamacare’s fault that their employer is shitty and the subsequent governments have been unwilling to close that loophole. It’s also worth mentioning that employers did this even before Obamacare because there are other things that full time employees are entitled to that part time employees aren’t.
- Comment on Disney says Google AI infringes copyright “on a massive scale” 4 days ago:
Not to support Disney or IP/copyright laws here, but that’s not really how that works. A musician can choose to not be on Spotify but be on Apple Music. A movie can be licensed to Netflix and not Hulu. A writer can publish in one paper and refuse to work with another. I think for how these things currently work, that is an important right that holders can claim. If I’m an artist and I want to make an AI generator from just my art, that should not give other companies license to use my are to train their AI.
- Comment on Trying to find a messenger bag at Amazon 4 days ago:
To a certain extent, isn’t it still enshitification? They lowered their standards (making the product/marketplace worse) to capture marketshare/increase profits.
Also, blaming consumers for being “bad at shopping” is certainly a take. What about the gold plated HDMI cables sold at a huge markup? More expensive doesn’t mean better and we can’t expect everyone to have the knowledge or ability or time to know about every single thing they purchase. Shitty companies are charging more for less and consumers are being squeezed. Photos are all manipulated and there’s no real way to know the quality from a picture. People are trying their best to get good products for their money without being scammed.
- Comment on Your sides should be thrown away, your turkey should be frozen or almost gone. 2 weeks ago:
Seems like something someone who isn’t cooking turkey would say, but in case you are cooking it, or are able to share with the person cooking it, Gordon Ramsey has a turkey recipe that involves buttering the meat directly that has never failed. I like to pre brine for alternative flavor, but for most cases his method is more than sufficient: gordonramsay.com/…/roast-turkey-with-lemon-parsle…
There’s also a video if you prefer.
- Comment on This whole exchange 3 weeks ago:
Thank you for clarifying. I stay away from religious stuff for the most part now, but it’s interesting to see where the lines are drawn between sects. Totally understand why having a new name etc makes sense mostly after there’s an established religious text and doctrine, which at the time of Jesus there would not have been. Appreciate the response.
- Comment on This whole exchange 3 weeks ago:
I have never really discussed Jesus’ religion irl, mostly because I don’t care, but I see your UN and I have been curious, why would Mary/Joseph/jesus not also be considered Christian Jews? Were they not the first to accept Jesus as a new prophet? I understand he probably was raised Jewish, but seeing as his core religious belief was not accepted into general Jewish faith, is he not at least the founder of Christianity? I figure at the time it made sense to not have a direct divide because Jews didn’t have the time yet to decide if Jesus was the real thing or not, but if Jesus was able to be on the TV/radio at the time and the majority of Jews rejected him as the messiah immediately, would they still use that interim term? I understand that the term Jewish encompasses a large cultural element, but as far as religious identity, it feels strange to group people who believe Jesus was the son of god with people who think that’s a lie and heretical.
- Comment on Upgrade today 3 weeks ago:
*Comrade
I would never unknowingly accuse someone of being an oppressor /j (but not really).
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
Seems like there’s a disconnect in the replies. I think the issue is that some people use kindness to mean the bare minimum and some people use it to mean going above and beyond.
I think the measure is something like if you see someone who tripped and the contents of their bag has spilled onto the floor, is “it cost nothing to be kind” just “allow them some space and don’t step on their stuff even if it’s in your way” or is it “stop what you’re doing and try to help them”. Because in case 1 I agree with the sentiment. You’re technically doing something (being careful not to step on their stuff), but that really feels like the bare minimum and to a certain extent I’d have questions if someone complained about having to do things like that. In the second case, stopping does take time out of your day and now you’re interacting with a stranger who may be busy or distracted and not pleasant back to you. I’d say that’s a nice thing to do, but I can see why someone might not want to or not be able to assist with that if they came across it in certain circumstances. If I was in the position of the person whose stuff spilled I would not talk about “kind strangers” who didn’t step on my stuff, but would if someone stopped to help. I think the phrase refers to the bare minimum but calls it kindness so people can feel good about not following their basest instincts if they’re genuinely rude people.
- Comment on 1 month ago:
It is my belief that the real Clark would never complain about food he was served.
- Comment on An AI Social Coach Is Teaching Empathy to People with Autism 3 months ago:
I at no point said that anyone wasn’t worth the time for personal interaction. I said multiple times that my preferred solution would not involve having to resort to AI. That’s such a bad faith interpretation of my position that I can’t imagine this being productive at this point. Best of luck.
- Comment on An AI Social Coach Is Teaching Empathy to People with Autism 3 months ago:
By getting better, I mean it will be improving on itself. I never meant to indicate that it will be better than a trained professional.
I agree that showing ND people empathy is the best path forward, but realistically being able to socially signal empathy is a life skill and lacking that skill really only damages their own prospects. It’d be great if it didn’t make people less likely to be employable or less able to build a robust support network, but unfortunately that’s the case. Yes, ASD differences are often a reflection of how society treats people, but a demonstration of empathy is not a platitude. It’s an important way NT and lots of ND connect. If you think that the expression of empathy is difficult for people with ASD because they are more honest, then I think you might be equating lack of empathy with difficulty expressing it. There’s nothing dishonest about saying “I’m sorry that happened to you” unless you are not sorry it happened. It might not be something you would normally verbally express, but if hearing about a bad thing happening to someone doesn’t make you feel for them, then the difficulty isn’t expressing empathy, it’s lacking it. Society certainly does a lot of things for bad or nonsensical reasons, but expressing empathy generally isn’t one of them.
- Comment on An AI Social Coach Is Teaching Empathy to People with Autism 3 months ago:
I don’t personally find the framing offensive, but I’m not on the spectrum so I can’t speak to it from that perspective. My comment was less about the article and more about not offloading that work onto unsuspecting and unprepared people.
That being said, I’m not as anti-ai as maybe some other people might be when it comes to these kinds of tools. The study itself highlights the fact that not everyone has the resources to get the kind of high quality care they need and this might be an option. I agree that sacrificing quality for efficiency is bad, in my post history you can see I made that argument about ai myself, but realistically so many people can potentially benefit from this that would have no alternatives. Additionally, AI will only be getting better, and hopefully you’ve never had a bad experience with a professional, but I can speak from personal experience that quality varies drastically between individuals in the healthcare industry. If this is something that can be offered by public libraries or school systems, so that anyone with the need can take advantage, I think that would be a positive because we’re nowhere near universal physical healthcare, much less universal mental healthcare or actual social development training. I know people who cannot afford healthcare even though they have insurance, so if they were able to go to a specialized ai for an issue I would think it’s a net positive even if it’s not a real doctor. I know that ai is not there yet, and there’s a lot of political and social baggage there, but the reality is people need help and they need it now and they are not getting it. I don’t know how good this ai is, but if the alternative is telling people that are struggling and have no other options that they have to tough it out, I’m willing to at least entertain the idea. For what it’s worth, if I could snap my fingers and give everyone all the help and support they need and it excluded ai, I would choose that option, I just don’t have it. I also don’t know that LLMs really can do this successfully on a large scale, so I would need evidence of that before really supporting it, I just think it shouldn’t be written off completely if it’s showing promise.
- Comment on An AI Social Coach Is Teaching Empathy to People with Autism 3 months ago:
I really don’t think a random D&D table is the place to learn to express empathy. I really wish people would stop acting like local D&D groups are a good way to learn how to socialize in general. I’m not saying you can’t learn things at the table, but the games are not actual reflections of reality and there’s a lot of go along to get along, or just run of the mill toxic group dynamics. The hobby overall can be hard for other minorities to enter, and having a table with someone still learning social skills (especially how to express empathy) and someone from a marginalized group can lead to unfortunate outcomes that your standard DM/group do not have the ability to address. It can lead one or both parties to have negative experiences that reinforce the idea they are unwelcome and leave the rest of the table with negative experiences of playing with ND people or minorities.
Sometimes practicing first with people trained to do this is the best step, and second to that would be practicing empathy in a space where the main goal is bonding rather than another nebulous goal of having fun playing a game. I don’t know if AI is the answer, but trusting your local DM/table to be able to teach empathy is a big ask. It’s almost insulting to the people that teach this and to people with ASD. Teaching empathy can’t be as passive as it is for non-ASD people, and acting like it’s just something they are expected to pick up while also dealing with all these other elements makes it seems like you don’t think it’s something they actually have to work to achieve. I’m not on the spectrum but I have a lot of autistic friends and I would not put just any of them in a D&D situation and expect them and the rest of the table to figure it out.
Also, generally comparing to an unaffected control is the gold standard. They did what is generally needed to show their approach has some kind of effect.
- Comment on Anon tries to meet girls at college 3 months ago:
The cringe is so real. I had a guy bring his gaming laptop to a third date at my place. I was super into him and we went to my bedroom and he just set up his laptop. I could not pull him away from showing me his cool single player gaming collection. It’s my fault because I kept going out with guys I met at cons. After the third time you think I’d learn my lesson but I didn’t stop until poly became more pervasive and I ended up on dates with people who just forgot to mention that. I don’t mind poly but you should be upfront about it. So glad I don’t have to date anymore. It’s an absolute disaster out there. Best of luck to everyone still doing it.
- Comment on Anon tries to meet girls at college 3 months ago:
It’s good parenting to be aware of that sort of thing, but as you seem to guess I wouldn’t worry too much. Kids are kind of just like that. I have a 13 yr old in my life right now and she is pretty similar, so I think it’s healthy. The last thing we want to do as adults is make them feel small or like their thoughts and interests don’t matter.
For what it’s worth I don’t mind talkers, it really is just about place/time/topic. I’m sure he’ll make it through. I hear encouraging questions about others helps, “thank you for asking”/“what a great question” etc. but I don’t know if it really helps so much as is something we do in the interim to feel like we’re helping while they just mature in the background. Seems like you’re on top of it though. Best of luck to you both!
- Comment on Anon tries to meet girls at college 3 months ago:
Not quite as bad, but I went on a date with someone that just explained video games I hadn’t played. He would ask about a video game and if I hadn’t played it he’d speak about it uninterrupted for 10-20 minutes explaining the levels. Not even interesting lore or anything. It would be like listening to someone explain a speedrun, but their speedrun is just playing the game normally. I like video games and play with my partners and friends, and I even watch videos about video games I haven’t played and I could only stand 3 of these rounds before ending the date. He was completely uninterested in talking about anything else and didn’t even want to talk about games I had actually played. Only games I knew nothing about. Totally bizarre. It felt like a prank. Would make a great greentext from his perspective though.
- Comment on AI agents wrong ~70% of time: Carnegie Mellon study 5 months ago:
If you think we should offload to AI even if it’s worse, I have serious questions about your day to day life. What industry do you think could stand to be worse? Doctor’s offices? Lawyers? Mechanics? Accounts?
The end user (aka the PEOPLE NEEDING A SERVICE) are the ones getting screwed over when companies offload to AI. You tell AI to schedule an appointment tomorrow, and 80% of the time it does and 20% it just never does or puts it on for next week. That hurts both the office trying to maximize the people seen/helped and the person that needs the help. Working less hours due to tech advancement is awesome, but in reality offloading to AI in the current work climate is not going to result in working less hours. Additionally, how costly is each task the AI is doing? Are the machines running off of renewables, or is using this going to contribute to worse air quality and worse climate outcomes for people you’re trying to save from working more. People shouldn’t have to work their lives away, but we have other problems that need to be solved before prematurely switching to AI.
- Comment on Anon's best friend is a repper 5 months ago:
I mostly interact with two kinds of people and it’s either 1) people who think any deviation is sinful or 2) people who don’t notice or comment on others gender expression/identity unless the person brings it up. I’m not suggesting that there is no middle ground, but the thought that young people as a whole aren’t more interested/able in exploring gender as a spectrum and gender expression as a whole is just patently false.
The reason I bothered to mention that I’m a gender abolitionist is because it read to me like they were anti the whole concept of gender and believe that young people are just reinforcing it by lumping things in as “trans coded”. Aka “boy liking girl things is trans” should be “just a thing a boy likes”. But people aren’t saying “liking girl things makes you trans”. I’m stating that young people are actually better at exploring gender than others. I’m not saying young people are all progressive, just responding to the perceived point and saying that young people (more than other generations) are more flexible in their perception of gender. To me it seems like they are lamenting how instead of breaking down gender norms, people are using it to reinforce the gender stereotype.
I do agree we’re all (including them) on the same side. I did reread it before my previous response just to double check, but I appreciate you suggesting that. I want to be clear that I don’t think their comment is right wing, just that the talking point “society uses trans people to enforce gender norms” is sometimes used by the right as well.
I understand that reasonable minds can interpret statements differently. To me it reads like they were lamenting how trans ideology is kind of reinforcing gender. To you it reads like they are lamenting the lack of some people’s ability to explore gender. That’s totally ok. Hopefully they chime in and make their intent clear. Either way I hope we all get to a place where we can live as and present as whatever we wish whenever we wish.
- Comment on Anon's best friend is a repper 5 months ago:
They said: “They’re very rigidly stuck inside little Identity boxes anyway. You’re automatically “trans coded” if you’re a guy but like dresses, looking pretty and shaving.”
That stuck out to me as some of the same trans fear mongering that the right wing uses when they say “tomgirls are a thing. You don’t have to be trans”.
Im not saying they are right wing, but the idea that doing something gender nonconforming signals that you’re trans is not correct and in my experience not a widely popular belief among young people. It seems to me like they were saying people are too quick to call people trans and that’s just not the case. If that wasn’t their point, I’m not sure what they meant by suggesting that someone is “automatically trans coded”.
I agree that there are still spaces where it’s not safe, but I don’t see that argument being made in the comment.
- Comment on Anon's best friend is a repper 5 months ago:
Your comment shows either a very limited knowledge of queer identities or potentially large regional differences in the younger gens, because agender, bigender, and gender nonconforming people make up more of younger gens than they do older gens. So many young men are getting into makeup, nail polish, and wearing dresses and skirts. Way more than the older gens.
I’m a gender abolitionist, but your comment is either misguided or outright false.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9380989/
“Boomers+ and Generation X groups were more likely to identify as trans women compared to the younger generational cohorts, who were more varied in their identities.”
- Comment on Banned across multiple communities, posts deleted, for upsetting a mod 6 months ago:
I guess this section seems to indicate otherwise: “Like everyone else, you see issues in your environment - but unlike most people, you actually try to understand them and find solutions. And for that, you get nothing but pain.”
But I will take you at your word that you were more commiserating than directly agreeing. The internet in general is leading to more tribalism, sure, but I’m not seeing it any more on Lemmy than I am elsewhere. Mostly seeing it as it relates to politics. Would you mind sharing where you’re seeing that? Have you noticed specific communities or instances or topics? I follow a variety of content and it’s mostly pretty chill people with some political vitriol sprinkled in for novelty sake.
- Comment on Banned across multiple communities, posts deleted, for upsetting a mod 6 months ago:
I don’t know if you’re a guy, but honestly really amazing display of allyship right here. Regardless, congrats on explaining things so succinctly. This is exactly correct.