NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Towers of silence in ~humanities.history
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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.”
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
NaraVara Link ParentMy community sent us food when my wife was sick. That’s quite a bit more meaningful than memes. The idea of sending money to contract people to do what a community used to is part of the issue....My community sent us food when my wife was sick. That’s quite a bit more meaningful than memes. The idea of sending money to contract people to do what a community used to is part of the issue. Turning everyone into a transaction erodes actual social connection. Giving someone a lift doesn’t just meet the immediate need, sharing the space with them is what creates the connection over time. The fact that you don’t really choose, moment to moment, whether to engage with a person is important. That’s how you actually learn to share space with other people.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
NaraVara Link ParentYou won’t be able to call any of those people to give you a ride to the airport. Community needs to intersect your real life in meaningful ways.The Internet connects people in a way never possible in human history.
You won’t be able to call any of those people to give you a ride to the airport.
Community needs to intersect your real life in meaningful ways.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
NaraVara Link ParentThe modern, Western conception of religion has the idea exactly backwards. People talk as if a religion is something that falls out of the sky, fully formed, and exists outside of historical and...The modern, Western conception of religion has the idea exactly backwards. People talk as if a religion is something that falls out of the sky, fully formed, and exists outside of historical and sociological forces. This is simply not true.
In fact, what is a religion emerges out of a community’s norms and customs and rituals that acquire importance and weight over time and repetition. The religion is the way of life and structure that people live by. Some religions may stress faith claims on certain historical assertions, like whether Jesus or Mohammad existed and what the nature of their existence was. But the actual religion, which is the practices and customs and value systems that stem from that, is something people create no continuously update.
Christian leaders had to create a conceptual framework where there is a “religion” sphere that is separate from all the other aspects of life specifically so that Christian priests could do their thing without the Roman Emperor telling them what to do. But that’s not inherent to what people are actually doing or how they live.
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Comment on I just switched to an iPhone, what should I do to make the most of this change? in ~tech
NaraVara LinkStep 1 is always “disable notifications for everything.” Eventually you can selectively enable notifications for specific applications that you want to be nagged about (I only have calendar...Step 1 is always “disable notifications for everything.” Eventually you can selectively enable notifications for specific applications that you want to be nagged about (I only have calendar appointments and messages enabled).
Other than that I’m mostly okay with the out-of-the-box experience. I’ve come around on getting rid of most apps from my Home Screen that I don’t access frequently. And I’ve started using the widgets to control things instead of apps which has been nice.
For example, I have 3 main apps that play audio: music, Overcast (podcasting), and audible (audiobooks). So instead of having 3 apps to launch, I have the widgets for each of them in a widget stack and swipe to whichever one I want to use. It’s handier because they have the playback controls right on the widget so I can control it without messing with the app.
Shortcuts are also immensely helpful. I have a tea-timer one where when I hit the button it gives me a single-select menu to pick the type of tea (green, puer, black, white) and sets the appropriate timer for it. You can do lots of little automations like that.
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Comment on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism in ~news
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentGiving fair coverage to Trump folks is tough because, well, they’re inveterate liars. So if your role as a journalistic enterprise is to give people the facts and contexts to make sense of the...Giving fair coverage to Trump folks is tough because, well, they’re inveterate liars. So if your role as a journalistic enterprise is to give people the facts and contexts to make sense of the world you’re in, just letting Trumpists talk works against that goal. But they’re also influential figures in the world so people do need to know what they’re thinking, so how much do you need to editorially signpost that this guy is a liar who has sworn fealty to a liar?
On some level all political coverage has this problem, because all politicians lie to some extent. And I think political coverage in the US in general has fallen into a trap of presenting partisan spin as “political analysis” and expecting to just put spin from “both sides” up and let people figure it out. But all this has ended up doing is creating a pervasive climate of bullshit that has eroded trust in journalism and the political system as a whole. I don’t know a real way around it when a prominent political movement actually goes off the rails into kookoo town.
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Comment on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentThe general pattern with the NYT is that on any topic you’re only passingly familiar with their coverage does tend to do a good job of giving you a cursory enough overview on the subject to be...The general pattern with the NYT is that on any topic you’re only passingly familiar with their coverage does tend to do a good job of giving you a cursory enough overview on the subject to be able to evaluate what’s going on in the world.
But on any subject that you have any level of depth of expertise in it’s always going to seem pretty dumb, seem like it’s surfacing a lot of “conventional wisdom” that’s based on misinterpretations of facts and sources, and making major oversights. But this is really just a challenge for journalism as a discipline. Journalists have a skill set that revolves around finding a story and talking to the acknowledge subject matter experts on it. They’re not subject matter experts themselves. So almost everything they do is going to come from the position/perspective of a general person on the street who is missing a lot of the underlying foundational knowledge and experience of the subject to really be able to make sense of it.
But that’s still a valuable perspective to have because that tells you what the general consensus in society is on the topic, including among the people who make the important decisions in industry, corporate board rooms, and political chambers.
I have a decent amount of expertise on topics in international relations, tech policy, as well as history and religion and spirituality as they pertain to India. Let me tell you, all Times coverage on these topics are pretty damn bad and bring with them a ton of biased narratives and fundamentally incorrect frameworks for understanding key elements of the story. But I don’t really know how anyone is supposed to actually be able to teach those topics under the constraints of writing a newspaper article, most of it would require a graduate school seminar to make people unlearn stuff they’ve learned. But for a newspaper you’re constrained to about 1 broadsheet page, at most, and have to write at an 8th grade level. That’s a tall order.
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Comment on How Hertz’s bet on Teslas went horribly sideways in ~finance
NaraVara Link ParentPartly these guys are over-engineering the solutions to be able to use these as “range extenders” or be totally off the grid. Realistically what they should be trying to build for is an emergency...Thousands of dollars, all the time, and hassle to be able to charge his car in 4-5 days? If that was sold as a product, nobody would be buying it. What's good for clicks on youtube don't always translate to real world workable solutions.
Partly these guys are over-engineering the solutions to be able to use these as “range extenders” or be totally off the grid. Realistically what they should be trying to build for is an emergency back-up plan to charge the battery just enough to get you to an actual charging station. In a situation like that, you’d maybe be willing to spend an hour or so just to get an extra 30 miles of range, not expecting to be able to charge the full battery capacity.
But at that point, maybe just get a solar charger for your phone and call a tow truck with it instead?
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Comment on How Hertz’s bet on Teslas went horribly sideways in ~finance
NaraVara Link ParentArguably it’s the “luxury” of being an early adopter on a new technology. The supercharger network is also a big perk that isn’t necessarily part of the car itself, but a luxurious part of the...Arguably it’s the “luxury” of being an early adopter on a new technology. The supercharger network is also a big perk that isn’t necessarily part of the car itself, but a luxurious part of the experience of owning one.
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Comment on How Hertz’s bet on Teslas went horribly sideways in ~finance
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentSo I looked for some examples. This one was interesting. And after seeing how his retrofit works, yeah it’s a really fucking stupid idea haha. I reckon maybe, in a true emergency, if you just need...So I looked for some examples. This one was interesting. And after seeing how his retrofit works, yeah it’s a really fucking stupid idea haha.
I reckon maybe, in a true emergency, if you just need to get enough juice to get you to a charging station you could have something like this but you sacrifice a lot of all your trunk space, a ton of weight, and make a ton of noise. Massive waste.
I’ve seen some solar panel solutions that supposedly can charge a Tesla as well, but the inverters are like half the size of an AC unit. Seems doable for an emergency, but you’re losing a bunch of cargo capacity and probably introducing a lot of safety issues in a wreck.
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Comment on The “bad nanny” wars in ~life
NaraVara LinkA look into the phenomenon of anonymous monitoring of nannies and those who hire them in New York. I found this interesting. I hired a nanny for the first 2 years of my son’s life and never...A look into the phenomenon of anonymous monitoring of nannies and those who hire them in New York.
I found this interesting. I hired a nanny for the first 2 years of my son’s life and never realized how lucky we were to have someone as reliable and trustworthy until she had to leave us for 3 months and we hired a substitute who really was glued to her phone all day. Once I started visiting parenting groups I realized this was apparently quite common, and a lot of parents only view the nanny as an extra pair of eyes but don’t really trust them.
The traditional employer/employee relationship and the norms around it really seem to break down when we’re talking about “care” work and I think we are seeing similar tensions around adjacent fields, like early childhood education and elder care, as they’ve gotten more professionalized.
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.