alyaza [they/she]

internet gryphon. admin of Beehaw, mostly publicly interacting with people. nonbinary. they/she

  • 370 Posts
  • 182 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: January 28th, 2022

help-circle













  • POLL CLOSED, the results are as follows:

    1. Kamala Harris (Democratic) (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
    2. Claudia De la Cruz (Socialism and Liberation) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 30–10
    3. Vermin Supreme (Independent/Pirate) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 34–6, loses to Claudia De la Cruz (Socialism and Liberation) by 15–11
    4. Cornel West (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 31–10, loses to Vermin Supreme (Independent/Pirate) by 15–12
    5. Bill Stodden (Socialist) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 34–7, loses to Cornel West (Independent) by 11–9
    6. Rachele Fruit (Socialist Workers) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 34–6, loses to Bill Stodden (Socialist) by 9–7
    7. Jill Stein (Green) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 34–6, loses to Bill Stodden (Socialist) by 15–8
    8. Blake Huber (Approval Voting) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 33–8, loses to Jill Stein (Green) by 13–9
    9. Laura Ebke (Liberal) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Blake Huber (Approval Voting) by 10–7
    10. Joseph Kishore (Socialist Equality) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 35–5, loses to Laura Ebke (Liberal) by 9–8
    11. Peter Sonski (American Solidarity) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Joseph Kishore (Socialist Equality) by 12–5
    12. Lucifer “Justin Case” Everylove (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–3, loses to Peter Sonski (American Solidarity) by 10–8
    13. Jay Bowman (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Peter Sonski (American Solidarity) by 9–7
    14. Robby Wells (Party) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Jay Bowman (Independent) by 8–6
    15. Chris Garrity (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Robby Wells (Party) by 8–6
    16. Richard Duncan (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Chris Garrity (Independent) by 8–4
    17. Shiva Ayyadurai (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Richard Duncan (Independent) by 7–6
    18. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Shiva Ayyadurai (Independent) by 11–8
    19. Joel Skousen (Constitution dissident) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Chase Oliver (Libertarian) by 10–8
    20. Michael Wood (Prohibition) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Joel Skousen (Constitution dissident) by 10–6
    21. Randall Terry (Constitution) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Michael Wood (Prohibition) by 8–7
    22. Mattie Preston (Godliness, Truth, Justice) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 37–2, loses to Randall Terry (Constitution) by 10–5
    23. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 38–1, loses to Mattie Preston (Godliness, Truth, Justice) by 14–6
    24. Donald Trump (Republican) loses to Kamala Harris (Democratic) by 39–1, loses to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent) by 22–2





  • Dystopika (Steam, Windows) is a city builder in maybe the strictest definition of that two-word descriptor, because it steadfastly refuses to distract you with non-building details. The game is described by its single developer, Matt Marshall, as having “no goals, no management, just creativity and dark cozy vibes.” Dystopika does very little to explain how you should play it, because there’s no optimal path for doing so. Your only job is to enjoy yourself, poking and prodding at a dark cyberpunk cityscape, making things that look interesting, pretty, grim, or however you like. It might seem restrictive, but it feels very freeing.












  • As of 2019 the company published 100 articles each day produced by 3,000 outside contributors who were paid little or nothing.[52] This business model, in place since 2010,[53] “changed their reputation from being a respectable business publication to a content farm”, according to Damon Kiesow, the Knight Chair in digital editing and producing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.[52] Similarly, Harvard University’s Nieman Lab deemed Forbes “a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism” as of 2022.[49]

    they realized that they could just become an SEO farm/content mill and churn out absurd numbers of articles while paying people table scraps or nothing at all, and they’ve never changed



  • It’s been just a week since US telecom regulators announced a formal inquiry into broadband data caps, and the docket is filling up with comments from users who say they shouldn’t have to pay overage charges for using their Internet service. The docket has about 190 comments so far, nearly all from individual broadband customers.

    Federal Communications Commission dockets are usually populated with filings from telecom companies, advocacy groups, and other organizations, but some attract comments from individual users of telecom services. The data cap docket probably won’t break any records given that the FCC has fielded many millions of comments on net neutrality, but it currently tops the agency’s list of most active proceedings based on the number of filings in the past 30 days.


    The FCC will surely hear from many groups with different views on data caps, but Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel seems particularly keen on factoring consumer sentiment into the data-cap proceeding. When it announced the inquiry last week, Rosenworcel’s office published 600 consumer complaints about data caps that Internet users recently filed.

    “During the last year, nearly 3,000 people have gotten so aggravated by data caps on their Internet service that they have reached out to the Federal Communications Commission to register their frustration,” Rosenworcel said last week. “We are listening. Today, we start an inquiry into the state of data caps. We want to shine a light on what they mean for Internet service for consumers across the country.”




  • Agreed that he himself isn’t particularly relevant, but his supporters are still very influential in some areas of the open source community.

    hilariously you can see some of the reflexive defense of him over in the FOSS thread of this article. way too many people feel obliged to run defense for this guy and it’s just cringeworthy to watch


  • he’s not particularly relevant at this point, but even this one note (and its retraction) feel like they should put to bed whether or not Richard Stallman should have any influence over anything:

    Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization.

    I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.

    [Many years after posting this note, I had conversations with people who had been sexually abused as children and had suffered harmful effects. These conversations eventually convinced me that the practice is harmful and adults should not do it.]

    like, bro, what are you doing. beyond being abhorrent, this is the sort of nonsense Reddit used to be infamous for and it made the website fucking rancid. why would anyone want to share a political movement with Stallman when he has to be debated out of positions like “you should not have sexual relations with people under the age of 13.”




  • Republicans still get what they want.

    respectfully, if you have any political knowledge at all, how are you surprised that the Bad Things Party can do bad things within the confines of a constitution literally written to facilitate the permanent existence of bad things? what Republicans want–a system where they can arbitrarily and undemocratically carve out the haves and have-nots–is completely in line with (and facilitated by) the existing undemocratic, federalist constitutional order. no shit they’re able to get what they want while Democrats don’t when this is the case; it’s like a 100 meter race where only one person actually has to run 100 meters, and everyone else in the race has to run 200.

    it’s why complaining about the Democrats is dumb–you are incorrectly assigning blame and misdirecting people from the correct source of their ire. that doesn’t mean you have to be uncritical of the Democrats, but the problem is you’re not merely uncritical. you are an active impediment to the correct analysis of this situation and what must be done to change it (and sometimes you’re just wrong, like below). no amount of railing on the Democrats will fix the system, because the Democrats aren’t the system that needs fixing. they can’t fix it with their current political power, and meanwhile if everyone took your advice (even though it is being posted on a small and irrelevant-to-the-national-conversation website like ours) it would from first principles undermine their ability to win the needed political power to change anything.

    The thing is, the loss of Roe, the rollback of voting rights, the minimum wage, none of it seems to matter enough for Democrats to actually wield power when they have it.

    this is incorrect and people in this thread have disproven it. continuing to repeat it indicates you are either genuinely very ignorant or actively malicious in the positions you hold. i don’t know or care to disambiguate which–and in outcome it doesn’t matter. it’s not acceptable, and it undermines the value of having discussions in the first place. continuing this behavior of repeating falsehoods and ignoring other people when they correct you will have you removed from this section until after the election at minimum.


  • your rights still depend largely on your zip code.

    i mean: this sort of devolution is how all federal systems work, and especially the one established by the Constitution. your issue is very literally with the system here.

    accordingly: implying that the problem is the Democrats for not unilaterally overturning the entire constitutional order when they don’t have the votes to do that (or anything, for that matter!) is nonsensical. it’s not a materialist way of looking at the world. there are obvious constraints that prevent them from doing this. if you want to productively change things, the goal should be to give them (or another faction i suppose, although i have no idea what faction this would be outside of democratic socialism) the political power needed to begin changing the constitutional order. i don’t know what other strategy you adhere to which is capable of changing this at scale.


  • If everyone here pressured the Democrats to do better

    i don’t know why your assumption is that people–especially in this thread–aren’t simultaneously doing this. i am literally a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America (and have been since… 2019, 2020?) for example. and that activism is a big source of my problem with the arguments in this thread in the first place. there are about 60 DSA state legislators and probably 200 or more local DSA elected officials doing exactly what you’re asking right now. two of our members, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, explicitly lost their Congressional seats this year over their activism for Palestine and pressuring the Democrats to do better.

    what do the Greens have comparable to that? and how does voting third party do anything to pressure the Democrats that Cori Bush’s eviction moratorium protest, or Bowman’s DSA-led Green New Deal for Public Schools, or any of the policies i mentioned downthread at Flashmob like the Build Public Renewables Act don’t do more effectively? i can show you that Bush fighting for an eviction moratorium helped get that extended; Bowman’s GNDPS has led to a surge in activism pressuring local school districts and cities to do the same; and of course, policies like the BPRA are law now. i don’t know what voting Jill Stein in 2016 or even Howie Hawkins in 2020 did (and i love Howie, he’s a cool guy).