The Leewit @ghost_bird@witches.town

@seventhsense Stick around if you can. We need more communists.

@ThisIsLeeloo I think you’re missing the point about training, among other things. But this weird idea that weapons are “protection” is the root problem. I suspect it comes from state rhetoric on military spending.

@ThisIsLeeloo If you’re arguing that Guns are Woke then I think the practical objection is that guns in individual hands don’t help all that much against trained soldiers or militarised police. Insurgency tactics and bomb-making skills are what you need if you’re really going down that route.

@hollyamory I’m not all that keen to be taking part myself and I’m not even academic. (I’d be happier if UCU didn’t have a long history of talking big and then folding during negotiations, too, but what are the alternatives?)

@hollyamory This is also why academics don’t like going on strike, and why it’s hard to keep the strikes solid. Which is what UUK are counting on this time, I think. Vice-chancellors don’t have to care as much.

@fillertrack @shel It was more of a conceptual thing when it was published in the 1930s, though people have done Futurist dinners as events.

@Canageek Which is to say, looking at it from a different angle, a choice between coerced efficiency and risky inclusivity. And people who are excluded by the first option are going to notice that it doesn’t create any barriers for you.

@Canageek ...or choose another suitable language with fewer unfortunate overtones, or retro-fit one of the less suitable ones. Or accept that language standards have a political dimension and that’s why we have Unicode and not ASCII++

@Canageek Yes. Which is a basic problem with your proposal.

@Canageek Fair enough. My underlying thought was that the trouble with English is that it was the language of two successive imperial powers so anything that looks like linguistic imperialism is going to make a lot of people cross.

@Canageek Why English and not, say, Mandarin?

In bed with a cold. Hope I can blitz through it with some rest, but I suspect it’s the kind that lingers.

@Canageek If it’s mainstream tech stuff you often just get a bunch of well-meaning dudes suggesting obvious things you’ve already eliminated - especially if you’re a woman. It can add to the frustration.

@Canageek Sometimes it’s just venting frustration that happens to take the form of a question.

@noelle It’s always meant “freedom from consequences”. It’s just that cruelty sometimes has consequences now.

@CobaltVelvet Feature request: federation with instances whose names contain the word "free" set to off by default.

@sickasfrick I've seen a few spirited defences of soylent from neurodiverse people who have difficulties with food, but as far as I can see if you're a neurotypical techbro then it's just a fashionable affectation.

@TQ It really does. Sympathy.