NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Data show that the amount of sexual content in top films has sharply declined since 2000 in ~movies
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Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe iPad and the iPhone are different product categories even though they run slightly forked versions of the same OS. The form factor changes how people are expected to use it and what they use...The iPad and the iPhone are different product categories even though they run slightly forked versions of the same OS. The form factor changes how people are expected to use it and what they use it for.
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Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentAnd a fundamentally different interaction paradigm.And a fundamentally different interaction paradigm.
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Comment on At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentProtest tactics are incompatible with “conversation” or “education.” That’s sort of their point is they’re a form of engaging in aggression without explicit violence. The objective is to create a...Protest tactics are incompatible with “conversation” or “education.” That’s sort of their point is they’re a form of engaging in aggression without explicit violence. The objective is to create a framework to force a conversation in a situation on more equal footing than the power dynamics would otherwise allow.
But I don’t think the culture of student activism we’re seeing is really equipped to do that second part, they’re too maximalist and doctrinaire in their demands. When you do that you’re not operating from a place of being open to dialogue.
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Comment on At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentI moved from India to the USA a little over 30 years ago, and the thought of calling India my “home” at this point feels absurd to me. The India I grew up in, functionally, doesn’t exist anymore....I don't think there is a conspiracy to "eliminate Israel just through overwhelming the population" as much as it's a lot of displaced people who want to go home.
I moved from India to the USA a little over 30 years ago, and the thought of calling India my “home” at this point feels absurd to me. The India I grew up in, functionally, doesn’t exist anymore. I understand that it’s unfair that these refugees were exiled and haven’t been able to assimilate into wherever they had to be exiled to, but at some point I feel like being able to have an indefinite claim on a territory as your “home” starts to stretch plausibility. Passing down family stories about the ancestral olive grove as if that’s somewhere you’re entitled to go back to while failing to acknowledge the reality of the fact that a new nation has been built on top of it is simply not a mental model that’s operating in the real world.
It’s a version of the “golden age” thinking that conservatives tend to indulge in where they imagine there was a perfected form of America sometime in the 50s and all that ails modern society can be fixed if we just forcibly restored it. We just don’t recognize it as such because, unlike American conservatives, they don’t have a state with any power to speak of and we’re used to associating that conservatism with state power backing it up. But the underlying spiritual poverty of that way of thinking remains dysfunctional and is inconducive to resolving conflicts or producing a just outcome.
However, if we look at Israel's foreign policy, that is explicitly to move as many Jewish people into Israel from the US, Europe, and Africa with full Israeli citizenship to form a solid Jewish majority.
Israel’s policy is to maintain and ensure the viability of a Jewish state. They view the demands of the Palestinian movement as demands to destroy that state. If the desired outcome is a just peace between the two factions, it’s pretty clear that these are irreconcilable. Israel has a separate goal of destroying the viability of an independent Palestinian state. We rightly recognize the settler movement in Israel as an irredentist and unjust demand from Israel. But the “Free Palestine” movement seems pretty all-in on the most irredentist possible demands. Just because they’re much less capable of pushing those demands doesn’t make those demands any more sensible.
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Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentForm factor matters. There’s a reason “handhelds” and “game consoles” are treated as different product categories even though they ostensibly do the same thing. Even today, with things like the...Form factor matters. There’s a reason “handhelds” and “game consoles” are treated as different product categories even though they ostensibly do the same thing. Even today, with things like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch being able to substantially bridge the difference. Nobody looks at a Playdate or a Retroid Pocket and says “This is just a shitty Nintendo Switch.” And for that matter, only really stupid people look at a Nintendo Switch and say “this is just a shitty PlayStation 4.”
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Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThere’s a difference between being a smartphone and running an OS designed for smartphones. I can do weird shit to have my car infotainment run Steam OS (probably) but that won’t make it a game...There’s a difference between being a smartphone and running an OS designed for smartphones. I can do weird shit to have my car infotainment run Steam OS (probably) but that won’t make it a game console, and running Android doesn’t make a smart refrigerator a phone either.
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Comment on I made a mistake, I started using Reddit again in ~talk
NaraVara Link ParentIs /r/iPhone one of the ones that went dark in protest until the admins replaced them with scab moderators? If so, it wouldn’t surprise me if the inheritors were not the best or most conscientious...Is /r/iPhone one of the ones that went dark in protest until the admins replaced them with scab moderators?
If so, it wouldn’t surprise me if the inheritors were not the best or most conscientious about their tooling or their communication skills.
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Comment on At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin in ~news
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentSure, but you don’t need to make them featured speakers either. The problem is that it’s often the organizers who have these views, and I have very strong suspicions that the number of loudmouths...I also think that protests lack the organization required to prevent bad actors from showing up
Sure, but you don’t need to make them featured speakers either. The problem is that it’s often the organizers who have these views, and I have very strong suspicions that the number of loudmouths who can’t resist yelling it are just the tip of the iceberg while the rest just know to not say the quiet part out loud.
For the most part, with genocides in general, your typical person on the street is going to be uncomfortable with the idea of doing it. But in their hearts they have a general sense that “man it would sure be convenient if those people would just. . . Go away.” That average sentiment is what provides room for the ghoulish among them to follow through. I feel like this mentality is prevalent on both sides of this issue. And the people who have it will say “Of course we’re anti-genocide” but will continue advocating for policies and methods of engagement whose only logical and realistic end-point is a genocide that is either successfully or unsuccessfully resisted. This is because they don’t want to take seriously the desires and fears of the other side.
The Israeli ones are obvious enough since the status quo will amount to a slow-moving ethnic cleansing campaign. And there is no serious alternative proposal besides “crack down on settler violence” which can only ever be a “pause” button taken by itself. It’s not a “stop” button.
But the Palestinian ones basically amount to a form of “demographic warfare” to eliminate Israel just through overwhelming the population by insisting on a “right of return” while still having a committed and explicitly genocidal terrorist group that nobody seems keen on wiping out. These aren’t factions that are serious about having peace.
The idea that you can have a “binational state,” which is the sort of “acceptable” proposal I’ve heard to justify how “River to the Sea” calls shouldn’t be taken as explicitly genocidal, are farcical. India has such a plural society and even they’re trying to figure it out. There are communal riots between religions, language groups, tribes, etc. all the time. The reason India hasn’t fallen apart yet is just because it has a whole lot more people and different groups to absorb the chaos without being too perturbed by it. The Levant does not.
Accomplishing this would require Israelis and Palestinians to magically figure out an entirely new form of nationalism that can survive the internal pressure of the terrorist groups within their own societies (and if by some miracle people did agree to this you can bet Right Wing Israeli parties would very quickly develop an armed wing to overthrow whatever “unity” government comes up to contest Hamas). One which has a massive amount of economic inequality between the sides and absolutely zero reason to trust each others’ intentions.
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Comment on At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentSeveral of my friends in academia—all of whom are pretty firmly in favor of DEI initiatives broadly—have told me that they feel like the way it’s implemented in their universities feels like it...It is times like this that I remember being told that DEI and other reforms in higher education are harm reduction because the institutions are built on white supremacy, classism, racism (sometimes literally built by slaves), sexism, etc. I already feel like I do so much harm reduction work.
Several of my friends in academia—all of whom are pretty firmly in favor of DEI initiatives broadly—have told me that they feel like the way it’s implemented in their universities feels like it was designed more as a cudgel for administration to hammer their workforce with for not toeing the line than a sincere attempt to address the issues they’re meant to.
I told them that’s what it’s evolved into in Industry as well but they still refuse to believe me.
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Comment on Towers of silence in ~humanities.history
NaraVara Link ParentThey do acknowledge what they were used for though. They just don’t make it the focus of the episode because it’s a design podcast and they’re talking about the design. As a born and bred darkie...They do acknowledge what they were used for though. They just don’t make it the focus of the episode because it’s a design podcast and they’re talking about the design.
As a born and bred darkie heathen who grew up in the Bible Belt and dealt with Chick Tracts deployed against me unironically as a tool for bullying, I found the episode did a good job of signposting why the tracts are bad while also pointing out why they were effective for what they were used for.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link Parent“The US is self interested therefore it should allow other self interested geopolitical rivals to undermine its stability” is certainly a take.“The US is self interested therefore it should allow other self interested geopolitical rivals to undermine its stability” is certainly a take.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link Parent“It’s bad when the people in power are for it” is as deep as the logic goes.I don't understand how people who are often the most critical of local governments find these weird edge cases to ignore.
“It’s bad when the people in power are for it” is as deep as the logic goes.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentI’ll bet that briefing was the location data of the congressmen, their staff, their families, and maybe even their mistresses all neatly compiled and sent off to intelligence agencies. And if they...I’ll bet that briefing was the location data of the congressmen, their staff, their families, and maybe even their mistresses all neatly compiled and sent off to intelligence agencies.
And if they know that about the congressmen they know it if the entire federal bureaucracy, and they also have all their background check information since the OPM hack in 2015. There’s a lot of very effective spear phishing and blackmail material you can pull about basically anywhere you want.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThey want you getting mouthy because discontent and anger that can’t be productively resolved through the political system is what ruins nations. This is explicitly the Russian PsyOp playbook to...I'm some normie American; what do Xi's toadies care if I'm getting mouthy?
They want you getting mouthy because discontent and anger that can’t be productively resolved through the political system is what ruins nations.
This is explicitly the Russian PsyOp playbook to astroturf online arguments to turn up the tension and polarize people against each other. China almost certainly is aware of the tactic and employs it themselves. You, specifically, being mouthy is part of that. But the bigger part with general political polarization and stochastic terrorism also comes from this.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentWe’d all like it if people only did business on their business phones but we all know that’s not how the world works. Not if the application is breaking laws we can’t. We also can’t do anything...I don't know why it would have access to US government officials data. It's already banned on US government phones.
We’d all like it if people only did business on their business phones but we all know that’s not how the world works.
And yeah, maybe it is tied to a foreign influence operation, but the US is ostensibly a free country, and that means that its people are generally allowed to use products made by whoever they want.
Not if the application is breaking laws we can’t. We also can’t do anything with outlets that operate in sanctioned countries.
If anything we should also be slapping Facebook and Twitter with fines for enabling these things too.
It's a dangerous path to go down when US approved media and platforms are the only ones Americans are legally allowed to interact with
Less dangerous than having a foreign influence operation acting as a disinformation funnel. The security concerns are hardly nebulous, they have literally been caught exfiltrating data to intelligence services.
On the other hand though, the US gov is not exactly shy about protectionism when it comes to China. We already have heavy tarriffs on many Chinese imports.
About time. China’s been playing fast and loose with its currency markets and monetary policy, in violation of WTO rules, to goose its current accounts balance. A correction is long overdue and well within the American national interest.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentOr it could be exactly what it says on the tin and TikTok is actually tied closely to a foreign influence operation and is funneling sensitive information, including location data about US...Or it could be exactly what it says on the tin and TikTok is actually tied closely to a foreign influence operation and is funneling sensitive information, including location data about US government officials, to Chinese intelligence.
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Comment on Instagram's Nudify [non-consensual fake nude photo generator] ads in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentPeople will 100% do this with minors, which to my mind is worse than drawn anime minors/lolicon stuff. You won’t catch it 100% but you could still make it illegal to knowingly possess it.People will 100% do this with minors, which to my mind is worse than drawn anime minors/lolicon stuff. You won’t catch it 100% but you could still make it illegal to knowingly possess it.
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Comment on Iran launches dozens of drones toward Israel in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentThe pressure came from people inside his political coalition, not outside of it. Elizabeth Warren made the cabinet picks for financial regulation and consumer protection posts. Labor union leaders...The pressure came from people inside his political coalition, not outside of it. Elizabeth Warren made the cabinet picks for financial regulation and consumer protection posts. Labor union leaders had a hand in deciding who was going to represent labor issues.
The model of politics where you’re like, boycotting products based on what you like or don’t like is not how policy agenda setting actually works. That’s trying to engage with politics as if it’s a consumer product/branding thing. I find it bizarre and ironic that people who call themselves “Leftists” are so thoroughly bought into the capitalist, individualist logic of a consumer products marketing campaign instead of the socialist logic of mass organizing and coalitional negotiation.
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Comment on Iran launches dozens of drones toward Israel in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentBiden’s agenda has been the most progressive of any President since Lyndon Johnson. This assertion that he’s just pussy footing around and not doing anything progressive really has zero connection...In this case, I'd wager Biden is counting on exactly this happening. We've had Trump and the GOP generally held over our heads for years, used as a cudgel to try and force leftists to go along with the Democrats even if and when they don't do any good, or worse yet betray us. This is not a healthy relationship.
Biden’s agenda has been the most progressive of any President since Lyndon Johnson. This assertion that he’s just pussy footing around and not doing anything progressive really has zero connection to reality.
It makes it hard to take people online who talk about being “leftists” seriously when the idea of being “left” seems to be focused more on reflexive opposition to the whatever the Democrats happen to be doing as “not good enough” without any concrete policy agenda beyond just taking whatever has actually been put forward and saying “it should be more generous though.”
We will be able to biohack away the need for sex long before violence.