Things like the #NoKings protests may feel like they're not enough, but they can be useful for building that network. Asking neighbors if they're going can help open up conversations, can lead to more conversations, can provide openings to find ways to escalate resistance, and can let you build what you need to feel safe going hard if you realize it's time.
Protests directly against facilities and other direct actions are small escalations that let you build trust and understand your network. If you want to know where you need to be, look at Twin Cities. That is the type of response that makes the machine grind to halt.
Make that happen everywhere and more escalation may not be necessary. And, if it is necessary to escalate more, that level of community organizing makes all other forms of escalation sustainable.
Usually I say things like "I play a character to do street photography" but my foxes were whispering to me this week and I found myself saying things like "I learned to disguise myself as a human 2.5 years ago" and "I'm here to save y'all from yourselves" -- this lady holds one of my tokens!
#photo
The existence of Israel is a manifestation of European antisemitism, both historically justifying the project of Zionism and European governments continuing to fund Israel instead of addressing the core role of antisemitism in maintaining (at least) the conservative elements of the neoliberal order.
If antisemitism props up Israel, then a core part of dismantling Israel (and thus saving the lives of Palestinians) is addressing European antisemitism. There are Israeli Jews who would leave if they felt safe to do so. There are Jews demanding Israel be armed, because they don't feel safe anywhere else.
Protest, boycott, take whatever action you feel is appropriate. There is a limit to your ability to convince governments to stop funding genocide, but you can learn about antisemitism and you can work to fight it, especially within "The Left." You can learn to distinguish between legitimate critiques of Israel, and antisemitic ones, and you can stand and call out antisemitic ones.
Honestly, this is some of the easy work that I think a lot of people don't consider even doing, don't even realize it is a thing that can be done.
I'm talking to Israeli folks who identify as being on the Left. It's hard because they've been through a lot of propaganda. Israel is a cult that terrorizes its members. This is important work that can have a huge impact, because it focuses on dismantling the networks of support that reinforce what's happening now.
Meanwhile, I still run into wild things like "Rothschild" conspiracy theories among people who identify with the idea of supporting Palestinians.
Not only can you support the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people while opposing antisemitism, but you must actually do both in order to do either. They are exactly the same fight, and anything short of both is thrashing against oneself.
#Gentoo is still one of the bright outposts in #FLOSS where human work is valued and #LLM contributions are banned. However, sometimes I feel that this matters very little.
After all, Gentoo is a distribution. While it has its own value, it cannot exist without all the software it is shipping. It makes no sense in isolation.
And let's be honest, I don't think you can avoid slop today. We are trying our best to sieve out the worst: the copywashing chardet, the vibecoded NIH Perl crypto packages… but it's just that.
As someone who bumps Python packages, let me tell you this: LLMs are omnipresent. I notice Claude in commit logs, I notice the blasphemy of agent instructions all over the place… and there's probably much more than I don't notice. With many core components giving in, you can't avoid it without literally freezing on old, vulnerable versions, or spending hours looking for alternatives or creating them.
FLOSS is dead. People don't care. They don't have conscience. All they care about is the sick idea of "productivity", i.e. generating more slop.
The few of us who do care can do very little. We will continue doing our best until they kill us (as they're literally slowly killing the whole humankind). But that's it. Maybe it will pass once the bubble pops, maybe it won't. Either way, the damage is beyond repair. We will never be able to trust one another like we did. We will never again be a community building a better world.
It's just like everything nowadays. It's hard to find a good washing machine (one that will actually be repairable), good shoes (that won't fall apart shortly after the warranty expires), good food. You need lots of money, and even then you have to sieve through all the scammers who just sell the same shit with higher profit margin. #OpenSource is just another branch of business where people are trying to "sell" you shit, and don't care anymore if it explodes in your face. They don't even care if they're actually making a profit.
#AI #NoAI #NoLLM #enshittification #AntiCapitalism