NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Matt Gaetz withdraws as US attorney general nominee in ~society
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentFWIW I don’t think anyone new is really interested in abandoning trans issues, the loss is just being used as an excuse to grind old axes that would have been ground anyway. The same thing...FWIW I don’t think anyone new is really interested in abandoning trans issues, the loss is just being used as an excuse to grind old axes that would have been ground anyway. The same thing happened in 2004 when gay marriage ballot initiatives powered George W. Bush to the win. Every said to abandon it, but actually it just sort of lowered the salience of the topic until it built up enough momentum in the background that it was barely controversial when it finally happened.
A lot of things are obscured right now by the fact that a reactionary faction is in power that is propelled by people who are deeply deranged and actually unpopular. Something about Trump seems to convince a lot of people that the horrible things he says aren’t really about them, or he’s just kidding. But once the rubber hits the road they’ll find out. They’ll never learn, but I think maybe we should just try to turn these sorts of people off politics altogether instead of changing their minds because they don’t listen or take it seriously enough.
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentYeah I agree with all of this. One thing I observed at the women’s march was that a lot of friends I had made throughout my life and a few of my family members were all staying with me and ended...Yeah I agree with all of this. One thing I observed at the women’s march was that a lot of friends I had made throughout my life and a few of my family members were all staying with me and ended up meeting, and they’ve all become friends since and organize stuff together. I think a well organized event like this creates opportunities for people to network who wouldn’t otherwise have met each other. It creates “thicker” bonds of affinity to coalesce activities and support networks around. It’s functionally like a professional convention, but since it draws in a lot more types of people from many different walks of life it enables much better coordination.
I think a LOT of this was lost during the pandemic though, and for the generation that came up during it they will have to develop the social skills to do this sort of organization in ways that aren’t intermediated by tech platforms which will be hard.
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThe Iraq War protests were my first experience protesting and I was super annoyed by the presence of groups showing up to coattail ride for their own cause. As soon as got there it would be lousy...The Iraq War protests were my first experience protesting and I was super annoyed by the presence of groups showing up to coattail ride for their own cause. As soon as got there it would be lousy with a whole bunch of random stuff like legalize cannabis, free Mumia, organic food, go vegan. What does any of this have to do with Iraq? Well it’s all part of the kkkapitalist elite’s plan for. . .
It’s really hard to do serious street action when everything is just people competing with each other to get the most attention for their specific thing. It becomes more like an activism “career fair” with a bunch of groups trying to recruit others from the protest rather than the protest being a tool to make an impression on the public at large.
A contrast, from around the same time, would be the Immigrant March, which I didn’t get to go to but a bunch of my friends did and they said the organizers did a good job of not letting the “Leftist Omnicause” randoms suck up all the attention. The Women’s March was organized well as well. There were a lot of various groups there as well, but it was organized so they all got specific speaking time. In contrast, there was the Science March right after which was a disorganized fustercluck because it seemed more like they were just trying to herd everyone into place to get impressive photos without really communicating anything.
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentThe problem I see is that these don’t actually do anything but be disruptive. If they were tightly linked to an actual political program, with attainable demands and the ability to work through...But general strikes and work stoppages, street protests, road blockages, and other forms of direct action don't require formal unions, just enough people feeling angry and helpless.
The problem I see is that these don’t actually do anything but be disruptive. If they were tightly linked to an actual political program, with attainable demands and the ability to work through formal systems then it’d be different but if it’s just an inchoate expression of rage then it’s little more than a bad storm. It passes and things move on.
My impression of the modern left in general is that there is a romantic attachment to the aesthetic of protest and activism and awareness raising but no seriousness about doing anything systemic. The deep resentment against existing systems or doing what’s needed to work within them makes the whole thing ineffectual.
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentYou need to organize labor before you can organize labor strikes. I just don’t see this as a viable avenue anymore. The old trades, like the Teamsters, are Trumpists because they’re basically a...You need to organize labor before you can organize labor strikes. I just don’t see this as a viable avenue anymore. The old trades, like the Teamsters, are Trumpists because they’re basically a labor aristocracy that already negotiated their benefits and are riding out to retirement. They haven’t grown their membership meaningfully in decades. The new and growing unions are service sector, and they don’t really have the size to do more than shut down specific fields.
There’s going to need to be some other axis to organize people around that’s not their shop floor. I don’t know what that would be, but I suspect it’d end up looking more like the mafia than a union.
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Comment on The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out. in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentUnfortunately “finding out” doesn’t usually result in people learning anything. It just breeds more cynicism and scapegoating. The people responsible will never see a consequence unless it’s...Unfortunately “finding out” doesn’t usually result in people learning anything. It just breeds more cynicism and scapegoating. The people responsible will never see a consequence unless it’s forced on them by external forces.
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Comment on How Bluesky, the rival of Elon Musk’s X, is seizing the moment in ~tech
NaraVara LinkI’d be really interested to hear @deimos’ take on Bluesky’s moderation strategy. As a summary, there is a moderation team that mutes and bans accounts as they see them. But any user can optionally...I’d be really interested to hear @deimos’ take on Bluesky’s moderation strategy.
As a summary, there is a moderation team that mutes and bans accounts as they see them. But any user can optionally publish moderation lists, which are basically meta tag files, for other users to subscribe to. Users can then optionally have any account possessing a tag automatically muted or blocked. And a blocked account functionally does not exist from your perspective. They don’t see your stuff or anything even connected to your stuff. It’s as if you never existed.
This functionally crowdsources moderation to volunteer taggers so users are sort of curating their own feeds by opting into whichever sort of moderation list they want. (There are also feed lists where users can curate lists of accounts for others to subscribe to. And I expect sometime in the future there will be “algorithm” lists to populate non-chronological timelines with tuneable parameters people can subscribe to). This sort of amounts to a “trust” system where users invest trust in the people who maintain the tag repos. Some of these operate semi-automatically. Like I’m subscribed to one that scrapes all BlueSky profiles to identify if they have any number of MAGA or TERF adjacent emojis or language in their profiles which you can auto-mute or block.
It’s kind of great. I feel like I have a TON of power to moderate my own feed. I can definitely see some people going really far with it and turning the space into a hug box where any dissenting opinion get excised. Like I noticed I got added to a bunch of blocklists on a specific day where the only skeet I made was saying that “Time to Say Goodbye” is really mawkish and over the top—which seems like a weird thing to block someone over—but hey that’s their prerogative. If they don’t want my negativity in there it’s probably best for their mental health that they not see it!
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Comment on John Thune elected as US Senate Republican leader to succeed Mitch McConnell in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThe only reason this is possible is because it’s a secret ballot. There are clearly some Republicans who do have some principles, but it’s unfortunate that courage isn’t one of them.The only reason this is possible is because it’s a secret ballot. There are clearly some Republicans who do have some principles, but it’s unfortunate that courage isn’t one of them.
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Comment on Dwayne Johnson became the world’s biggest movie star. Now he’s trying to disappear. in ~movies
NaraVara Link ParentHe did a Reddit AMA a long way back before he was signed for Black Adam where someone asked if he’d do a superhero movie and he basically said “only if I get to be a big bad villain that all the...He did a Reddit AMA a long way back before he was signed for Black Adam where someone asked if he’d do a superhero movie and he basically said “only if I get to be a big bad villain that all the heroes have to team up to beat.” And THAT’S when people suggested he’d be a great Black Adam.
So at that point, he was okay playing villain. He was the villain in the Mummy III as well. So I wonder if maybe it’s just bad memories of that movie flopping or if his agent is just giving him bad advice.
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Comment on Donald Trump nominates Fox News host and Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth for US defense secretary in ~society
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Comment on Dwayne Johnson became the world’s biggest movie star. Now he’s trying to disappear. in ~movies
NaraVara Link ParentI mean a problem in terms of branching out of where he is now. I think his shtick has peaked and will only start to get stale from here. He’ll be fine regardless, but if he wants to keep at it...I mean a problem in terms of branching out of where he is now. I think his shtick has peaked and will only start to get stale from here. He’ll be fine regardless, but if he wants to keep at it he’ll need to reinvent. The article makes it sound like he’s experiencing some amount of burnout.
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Comment on Dwayne Johnson became the world’s biggest movie star. Now he’s trying to disappear. in ~movies
NaraVara Link ParentHis not willing to be the bad guy is the problem. The Rock, at his most iconic, was a heel. You can ham it up and be as theatrical as you want as a heel in a way that’s harder to do as a face....His not willing to be the bad guy is the problem. The Rock, at his most iconic, was a heel. You can ham it up and be as theatrical as you want as a heel in a way that’s harder to do as a face. He’s more suited to playing villains, he’s not relatable enough to play an everyman hero the way John Cena is.
He maybe could have done the pivot, but everything I’ve heard about his on set behavior and professionalism (bad and worse, for the record) along with how he presents himself in his social media and cross marketing efforts makes me think he’s just turned into a narcissistic rich dude now, so go ahead and play one on TV. It’ll be easier. His whole public persona is LinkedIn hustle-culture grind now and you can never make that likeable.
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Comment on I've added ~society for topics related to politics, law, policies, and similar societal-level subjects in ~tildes.official
NaraVara LinkI think we might need to make sure we’ve cultivated some community norms and etiquette around particularly the intersection of ~lgbt and ~life.women and ~society because I expect those...I think we might need to make sure we’ve cultivated some community norms and etiquette around particularly the intersection of ~lgbt and ~life.women and ~society because I expect those distinctions are going to get very blurry.
FWIW I think I’d default to making ~society the category of last resort if there is an intersection with something else. Like, if the Dept. Of Transportation is putting out a new rule around EV tax credits I’d put that in ~hobbies.automotive. But if it’s a new secretary being announced or fired I’d put that in ~society. Does that seem right?
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Comment on The man problem | “Why are men moving right?” in ~life.men
NaraVara Link ParentI think one would have to be pretty dense to not pick up the racialized nature of those insults directed at Leslie Jones.I think one would have to be pretty dense to not pick up the racialized nature of those insults directed at Leslie Jones.
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Comment on Understanding the leftist that didn't vote: "Everybody else gets one, but not me" in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentI don’t think repeating fact-agnostic talking points ad nauseum constitutes “high quality discussion” regardless of tone. Asserting “Democrats have moved right” is false. Full stop.I don’t think repeating fact-agnostic talking points ad nauseum constitutes “high quality discussion” regardless of tone. Asserting “Democrats have moved right” is false. Full stop.
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Comment on Understanding the leftist that didn't vote: "Everybody else gets one, but not me" in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThe fact that the Democrats just had a President who enacted the most progressive policy platform since LBJ and you people are still saying this shit is exhibit A for why Democrats will move...The fact that the Democrats just had a President who enacted the most progressive policy platform since LBJ and you people are still saying this shit is exhibit A for why Democrats will move “right” (in your mind) and will be electorally correct to do so.
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Comment on Understanding the leftist that didn't vote: "Everybody else gets one, but not me" in ~society
NaraVara (edited )LinkHonestly I don’t think this is a productive avenue for arguing because such engagement with politics is simply uninterested in the things one should be interested in if you believe in liberal...- Exemplary
Honestly I don’t think this is a productive avenue for arguing because such engagement with politics is simply uninterested in the things one should be interested in if you believe in liberal democracy.
De Tocqueville talks about how what makes American democracy work is the preponderance of voluntary associations. People go around forming groups and committees to take care of stuff in their communities. Those committees give them day-to-day practice communicating, collaborating, persuading, deliberating, and getting along with people with whom they disagree for mutual benefit and the common good. They’re not there to promote an ideology, they’re there specifically to solve problems.
This experience creates an instinctive, gut level understanding of how stuff gets done democratically that translates to higher levels of government as well. Nobody does this anymore. Very few people participate in organizations and associations. For most people their primary method of engaging with the world outside their immediate control is to buy a commodity or service. This consumer preference model means you approach things like shopping for a car or buying an appliance. You’re not looking for who has judgement, who can be worked with, who works hard. You’re looking for what features they have, what promises are they making, what sorts of tribal signifiers are coming through their advertising that indicates they’re “like me.” You’re not asking “how can I/we create the change we want to see?” you are instead asking “where and how can I acquire the ‘change’ I want?”
If you approach politics with this sort of “consumer preference” framework you’re just gonna be incapable of even having this conversation. It literally doesn’t fit into your model of how the world works or what politics even is. It’s, ironically for leftists, a fully commoditized and market minded approach that’s incompatible with actually achieving leftist outcomes because you’re trying to reduce the commoditization of everything and you can’t do that approaching politics as a commodity. But it’s seductive, and it’s very suited for mass media and advertising. Social media supercharges it because social media makes everyone behave like an advertiser to get attention.
There’s no fixing it through arguing or persuasion. You have to actually teach people how to democracy by making them interact with the world in ways other than buying shit and blasting their opinions out into the ether.
There’s a reason “leftist” governments aren’t democratic. They don’t cultivate this sensibility. They, like right wingers, view everything as a matter of commodity distribution or exchange. It’s a patronage and transactional model of politics rather than a collaborative one. We are fooling ourselves if we think they have values compatible with democracy, which is why they seem more comfortable with authoritarians in power than (lower case) democrats, even if those authoritarians have diametrically opposed social and/or economic policies from them, they’re playing the same game. They’re speaking the same language.
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Comment on Why US Democrats won't build their own Joe Rogan in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThe Left has a decently robust viral presence as well, the problem is they also spend most of their time attacking Democrats now. Being interested in understanding the system to understand how to...The Left has a decently robust viral presence as well, the problem is they also spend most of their time attacking Democrats now.
Being interested in understanding the system to understand how to fix what’s wrong makes you a minority. It’s an hard road to walk. Offering answers about revolutions and having a strongman go a fix it is easy. These sorts of simplifying, highly abstracted ideologies are seductive because they’re like having a decoder ring. If you’re struggling with not knowing why something about the world is the way it is you just point a reductive ideology at it and it’s very easy to get a coherent seeming answer without having to do much research. It’s very often not a correct answer, and if it is a right answer it’s generally not arrived at through the right process and is missing critical nuance, but it’s an answer that lets you spout off like a person who has answers. That’s good for mouthing off on social media. It’s bad for understanding the world as it is.
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Comment on Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back. Rachel Plotnick's "re-buttonization" expertise is in demand. in ~design
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentHeh I was told that the drive towards touch-screening everything had more to do with ease of assembly and minimizing the numbers of parts needed for long-term maintenance. Since you don’t have to...Heh I was told that the drive towards touch-screening everything had more to do with ease of assembly and minimizing the numbers of parts needed for long-term maintenance. Since you don’t have to maintain a stock of every type of control panel for every model if it’s just one or two big screens, that’s a ton of logistical complexity taken care of. Did that just never come up as a rationale?
Also I never really liked that explanation because, in truth, I don’t think it’s that important to have a different type of AC or radio control panel on every model of car. Just make a standard one for every model you make and use it for 10 years it’s not a big deal. Might have been back when you had to wire everything together but nowadays the panel just talks to a microcontroller that talks to the car. You ought to be able to plug whatever into it. The stalks and drive mode selectors are probably a bit more finicky but even the touch-screens for everything cars still have those anyway.
Someday maybe it’ll be normal and reliable to use voice commands for basic functions like climate control, and then we won’t actually need the tactile interfaces as much and it’ll be okay to put it all on a screen, but we’re probably a good 5 to 10 years away from that.
He made the announcement 6 minutes before a news story broke about YET ANOTHER 17 year old girl that he paid for sex. They had reached out to him for comment on it prior and told him the story was dropping at 12:30. Timing the announcement to drop at 12:24 was probably a tactic to muddy up which headline comes up when you google him.