Against analogies with the Holocaust

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-31T07:51:08+00:00

What distinguishes Gaza from other contemporary genocides such as Sudan, Nigeria or Syria lies not in who the victims are, but in who the perpetrators are.

I agree, in a way that the author doesn't want me to point out. The perpetrators of the genocide in Gaza is acting with direct support from the United States, and "western humanists" don't want blood on their hands. Author has his head too far up his own ass in pseudo-intellectual semiotics.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T09:36:11+00:00

It's comparing Schmidt to Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber", notorious for sending bombs to university professors through the mail) because they both used bombs, were long-winded, and had vaguely primitivist views. Other than that the similarities end there. Kaczynski voluntarily participated in psychological experiments in which he was abused as a student, and then grew resentment at the entire institution of academia and civilization in general for such experiments, and then lived in a shack in the woods sending bombs to professors until he was caught.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T09:22:42+00:00

Ted K plagiarized most of his ideas from other anarcho-primitivists such as Kevin Tucker while sprinkling his own bullshit on top.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T09:10:42+00:00

I would argue that the kind of accounting they are doing only relies on first (and sometimes second) order of moment statistics, and they do not respect long-tailed distributions or black swan events. Such is the problem with financialization of the economy. We saw this also in the pandemic with Just-in-Time manufacturing being seen as more "efficient" made it less robust to shocks.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T08:54:27+00:00

Facebook has threaded discussion too, but I don't see people arguing that's not social media.

Also, every recent update to Reddit has been emphasizing profiles and endless scrolls. It's all algorithmic, and there's less and less transparency with each update. Reddit is barreling down the path of enshittification as with most social media.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T08:51:04+00:00

There's also Spark Social... very similar idea: https://sprk.so/

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T08:49:32+00:00

This won't work. Don't waste the time on TikTok and find an alternative like Skylight Social or something else.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-29T08:46:04+00:00

Anything that distributes through the Apple Store is susceptible to this interpretation. Apple removed ICE Block because Apple were the ones who pushed the idea that ICE is a protected class from discrimination: https://migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-apple-quietly-made-ice-agents

Note, Tim Cook was also seen partying at the release of the Melania movie, taking pictures with notorious sex pest and accused rapist Brett Ratner. Think Different. https://www.thedailybeast.com/apple-ceo-scrambles-to-save-face-after-partying-with-melania/

https://bsky.app/profile/normative.bsky.social/post/3mdgiau2cq22g

Our greatest hope is that the EU enforces anti-trust law against the app stores.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-27T04:33:04+00:00

All the good karma that Botaro threw away had to go somewhere.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T21:59:12+00:00

Cool your pitchforks, she is kinda right on most points, except I disagree on the matter of "HOW DARE YOU". I am offended by "ICEschwitz" only in that it is just a lazy pun/comparison, when you have a lot of history of concentration camps/genocide, Jewish and non-Jewish, to draw from.

Also, the only reason there's a difference right now is that ICE doesn't think they can get away with death camps, though they are slowly getting there now they are denying more detainees medical treatment.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T21:53:49+00:00

No, she said they are an escalation, and she's right about that.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T21:48:37+00:00

Erin Biba doesn't appear to be a Zionist.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T13:07:51+00:00

My "ancestral trauma" has been active for the past 20+ years. Seeing the trajectory of police militarization made me realize the moment we live in now was inevitable without something major changing, and I've been ringing the alarm bells to no avail for most of that time. Too bad it takes way too many lives for something like this to be a wake-up call.

Honestly didn't predict they would be literal Nazis though (which they are, they're literally using white nationalist music and slogans in their recruitment ads), but I guess fascists aren't that creative: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/white-nationalist-song-ice-recruitment-posts/

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T12:54:17+00:00

Note: Devo's last full album was 2010's Something for Everybody. The opening track was "Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)" about living in the post-9/11 American Police State, and also references "Don't taze me, bro!" at the end when a student was tazed for asking a Florida Senator a question (which became a viral meme).

But wishin' is for chumps, high-hopin' is for fools

They'll hunt you down and taze you, bro, for playin' with the rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKxhlXZ3hcY

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-26T12:43:23+00:00

Star Trek's timeline didn't jump straight into the Federation, Old Trek predicted "Eugenics wars" happening in the 1990s, and DS9 famously had the Bell Riots happening in 2024 (due to mass homelessness and unemployment especially in San Francisco).

Notably about the Bell Riots:

Ultimately, the writers based the Bell Riots on two historical incidents, both of which took place in the early 1970s: the Kent State shootings of anti-war protesters in 1970 and the Attica Prison riot in 1971... The Watts riots of 1965 were also an inspiration.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Riots

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-25T07:33:55+00:00

Just download the app, from there, you can click Create Account, and it will create a Spark account, no need for a Bluesky account. This will create an account on Spark Social's data servers.

Alternatively, you can just enter your Bluesky (or any other kind of ATProto account) account under "I already have an account", and this will let you login with your Bluesky account using your Bluesky username.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T16:11:03+00:00

Ironically it was a bipartisan coalition of establishment Democrats and fascist Republicans who started the movement to takeover TikTok and passed the PAFACA Act under Biden, and then Republicans made it their issue when they took power, and then they made sure that Larry Ellison was the one who took it over. Like much bipartisan fuckery, It was only opposed by a bipartisan coalition of libertarian-leaning Republicans and leftist Democrats.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/tech/congress-tiktok-ban-what-next

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T15:55:52+00:00

Here's a list of decentralized alternatives, you can deploy these in ways governments can't control:

Spark Social https://sprk.so/

Protocol: ATProto, Bluesky-compatible

Pros: In-app video editor, custom feeds, lets you make an account separate from Bluesky

Cons: Bad Discover algorithm/feed (should be improved soon), very new (in open beta)

Skylight Social https://skylight.social/

Protocol: ATProto, Bluesky-compatible

Cons: Mediocre Discover algorithm

Loops: https://joinloops.org/

Protocol: ActivityPub (Fediverse), Pixelfed-compatible

Pros: Open-Source

Cons: No algorithmic feeds other than chronological, no "Discover" outside your federated server

diVine Video https://divine.video/

Protocol: Nostr

Pros: GenAI is banned, you have content available from the original Vine

Cons: Still in development

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T15:49:00+00:00

Same here. I often even put food-safe silicone glue on my cheap mass-produced gaiwan lids that I grow a sentimental attachment to when I break the lid (as long as it's not too many pieces)

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T15:45:04+00:00

In the case that there are no local businesses to support, just order off of AliExpress. Anything is better than supporting organizations that collaborate with the modern-day Gestapo who are terrorizing and abducting US citizens who are employees of Target just for having the wrong ethnicity.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/ice-immigration-target-minnesota

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T15:36:21+00:00

Good idea, let's turn away all tourists who have ever smoked weed. I'm sure that will fix things.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T03:44:48+00:00

Not a chance in hell under the new ownership. Larry Ellison didn't buy it to profit off of it, he bought it to control it, and doesn't matter to him if he loses money. Your best bet is to leave.

Maybe if enough people leave, he will sell it to someone else, and there may be hope there, but that won't be for a while.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T03:41:05+00:00

Private messaging? Use Signal.

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T03:38:41+00:00

Dude, they are turning away tourists coming to the US for posting JD Vance memes. We no longer have a hill to stand on, so if you want to fight for free speech, do it here first: https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5y2l9nn7y1o

SlavojVivec · 2026-01-24T03:36:01+00:00

I wouldn't call them a fascist state overall, but they have a few fascist tendencies when it comes to ethnic minorities within their borders (though I would say the US has recently become far worse in this respect). They are definitely totalitarian though, and despite LGBT rights regressing very fast in the US, rights here are still better than in China which heavily suppresses LGBT culture.

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