[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago

So like uh I'm not trying to out myself as a boomer but how do they use Tiktok nefariously? I used it for about 5 minutes once, the whole experience was just not for me. Do they just take people's videos and put captions on them?

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago

arguably, that's a good thing because it means project decisions are made uncorrupted by profit motive

Argue-er here, chiming in. This statement could be interpreted as considering only half of the central relationship of capitalism. (Capitalism isn't just about deriving profit from the control of surplus, it's about the relationship between surplus and scarcity. Surplus doesn't mean shit if no one wants what you have.)

The decisions that volunteers make may not be motivated by the desire/ability to make profit, but they can be (and often are) motivated by the opposite; they have to account for the fact that their volunteer work is labor that isn't contributing to their survival -- aka, their day job. The demands placed on them by their other responsibilities will have to take precedence over the volunteer project.

In practice, this means they have to take shortcuts and/or do less than they would like to, because they don't have time to devote to it. It's not exactly the same end product as if it was profit-seeking, since that can tempt maintainers into using dark patterns etc, but they're similar.

Ideally, they would have all the money they needed, didn't have to have regular jobs, but also had families/friends/hobbies that would keep them from over-engineering ffmpeg.

To say this in a simpler/shorter way (TD;DR), their decisions can be motivated by the fact that they aren't making money from it, don't have enough time or resources to do everything they might want.

(Why is this so long?? I'm bored in the train, gotta kill the time somehow..why not say in 1000 words what I could have said in 100)

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago

The idea is sound but for most places I've heard of (ie in my city), condos just pay a management company to do all the landlord stuff, so even as an owner, I still have to call some crabby woman when the roofers drilled a hole in my A/C and fight with her -- and then also fight with the roofers -- to get it fixed

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 7 months ago

Tell me it was "Top 10 Steven Universe Betrayals" without telling me it was "Top 10 Steven Universe Betrayals"

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah, the Serenity Prayer context might help.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 8 months ago

As you get older, the thing that's "the process" changes -- dating stops being the process, and life becomes the process. Dating just gets annoying.

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago

If everyone who flips burgers gets a "better job" are you going to stop having burgers?

The issue is that while there is work that needs to be done, then there will be a need to pay people to do it. If you're a business owner and you have work that needs to be done, and you can't afford to pay your employees enough for them to pay their bills and lube decent lives, and you can't personally take the hit to your own income to cover the difference, then your business should fail.

Right now, the arrangement forces people to work more than 40 hours a week -- which is illegal, but companies get away with it because they don't work at the same company for the whole time. In fact, many people with multiple jobs don't even have full time jobs -- they have 3 part time jobs, all working them less than 40 hours a week, so they don't have to give them the benefits they're required to provide for full time employees.

(Personally, when I was young I had multiple places scheduling me for 39.5 hours a week. Now I'm a white collar FTE and I work 35 hours a week.)

So, next time you call someone who's flipping burgers "lazy," think about how lazy a person must be to work 100 hours a week. Is that what laziness looks like to you? How many hours a week do you have to work too not be considered not lazy?

Because, the thing is, you know they aren't lacy. They're working their fingers to the bone, and have much shittier and shorter lives than middle class people. Calling them lazy (or stupid or unlucky or whatever) is how you rationalize the fact that you're unwilling to accept any inconvenience it might cause you to help them.

In this scenario -- aka, the real world, the world we are in right now -- they are working harder than the rest of us are, for less money.

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

Where's the button I can press to project this comment onto the moon

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

None of the rules and restrictions that they impose on us will ever impact them or anyone in their families, political power is just about maintaining and increasing political power. If we ever get any protections or services it's just because doing so will enable them to get reelected.

I don't think most people understand how politicians live - every room they go into, everyone in the room is suddenly their servant; they live every moment surrounded by sycophants who are making a career out of preventing access to you. There are a handful of people that have more power than you, but you hardly ever encounter them. A few months of that would change anyone - imagine living years like that?

One day, someone taps you on the shoulder; it's some dirty 20 something who doesn't even know what wagu steak is, much less why you shouldn't be interrupted while it's still hot.

What the fuck do you want, kid?

I'm up to my ears in medical bills, is there anything you can do about socializing our healthcare?

You look around the table apologetically at the people you're eating with, three of whom work for health care companies. They don't say, "that would destroy our line-goes-up" or "any normal job will get this kid health insurance, he just doesn't want to work." They don't say anything. They just roll their eyes and flash a sheepish, such an embarrassment kind of look.

Now's not a great time, ok? But call my office and we'll set something up.

But there never really is a good time, is there? You turn back to your plate, your beef is still mostly hot, and don't bother giving the kid your number. You forget the kid a moment later and don't think of him again until years later. What ever happened to that kid? I hope he figured out his debt problem.

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

Hmmm. What about anarchocapitalists that leave capitalist out of their descriptors and larp like they're contemporary versions of the DK-listening, doc martens wearing, spiky hair having kids from the 1980s. And ancaps might be slightly better than the rich people at the top that use every advantage they've been given as a lever to suppress the success of everyone else. At least ancaps still have the potential to change.

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago

Yeah the whole argument skates over the question of why they were in a refugee camp in the first place. Probably a tree feel over and damaged their apartment building or something.

[-] jeremyparker@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago

I don't think that's it. Mentioning the Missing White Woman Syndrome in this context implies that we should not feel disgust or concern because we're only feeling that way because she's white.

The point of MWWS isn't that we should care less about white women, it's that we should care more about non-white women; it would be more apt trip being it up in the context of the brutalization and humiliation of a non white women about whom no one seems to give a shit.

As I've said in a few posts on this thread: the point of equality isn't to treat privileged people worse, it's to treat underprivileged people better.

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jeremyparker

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