Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

“Probably the most influential novelist of the post-war period.” —The Times

Two new books by James Kelman (and all Kelman books) now available for 20% off with coupon code OCTOBER until 11/1.

See them all https://blog.pmpress.org/authors-artists-comrades/james-kelman/

@leighelse "if you are a person who completed college on time and went on to your deserved place in the upper-middle class" <- I believe education has always been a vehicle for social mobility, but it's sad that even a doctorate these days is no gateway to financial security. Basic living standards are becoming increasingly precarious for anybody not born into generational wealth. All governments should be considering universal basic income.

The vision for Aotearoa New Zealand being touted by one of the new Government's coalition partners relies on the maintenance of an extensive underclass of perpetual desperation, forever struggling just to keep their heads above water. This article describes how a vision like this works out in reality. No-one wants to be the United States of America. https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/on-the-experience-of-being-poor-ish

The EU’s position of fining companies if people lie on social media is bumping into the messy reality that no one knows what the truth is in the middle of a war.

If they actually follow through on fines, the only reasonable solution would be to block anyone from talking about Israel & Hamas. Even a sitting US congressperson has posted images from a different event claiming they were from Gaza over the past week.

You can’t trust any breaking news from a war zone.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/14/propaganda-misinformation-israel-hamas-war-social-media/

It's offensive that the next Internet Governance Forum will be held in Saudi Arabia, which may be the world's most pervasive censor of online speech (up there with China): https://www.wired.com/story/united-nations-igf-saudi-arabia-russia/

ANNOUNCEMENT: We're in the process of mothballing our Twitter account, which was previously our most-used social media platform.

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Educational institutions of all levels should use and teach #FreeSoftware because it is the only software that allows them to accomplish their essential missions: to disseminate human knowledge and to prepare students to be good members of their community. https://u.fsf.org/1dz

I finally have a break from work to demo the Librem 11 again. I was impressed with the quality of the decryption screen and haven't seen pics online anywhere so I thought I would share that here. There are many things to love so far.

#purism #librem11 #linuxtablet #linuxmobile #linuxphone

I don't know if Sister Pat, my middle school social studies teacher, who made us learn our prayers to Mary and also was vehemently anti every component that contributes to war would be allowed to teach in the US now

She along with my religious ed teacher whose name eludes me, were bluntly anti-nationalism and anti-patriotism. They held interfaith dialogues after 9/11. They actively fought against indoctrination and propaganda in a way I am increasingly impressed by

I remember distinctly when the (democrat) US Secretary of State declared that killing half a million Iraqi children with our sanctions was "worth it" so that we could "send a message," so I'm sadly unsurprised that US liberals seem to be basically ok with this and that the Biden administration has given it's approval. And my gawd, listening to NPR's sterile, soulless coverage makes me so mad.

https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide

Surveillance-based advertising, where searching for a sneaker inundates you with sneaker ads, and which perverts the sociality of social media with ad-driven algorithmic curation, has corroded online culture. I would point out that attempts to get people to pay for culture have failed. One of the reasons for the demise of the Whole Earth Review was our principled refusal to accept advertising. If you want online culture without advertising, are you prepared to shell out for it?

It's so weird that left wing party Labour NZ did some actual left-wing stuff and got a huge majority, and then pivoted to ruling out doing pretty much anything that might impact the precious status quo and consequently didn't get those votes? SO WEIRD. If only lessons could be learned from this, but alas, the reasons why this happened will forever remain a mystery.

Latest cartoon: Doom Spiral
#politics #cartoon #war #israel #palestine #hamas #gaza

Excellent piece, and let’s stop touting “cheap” energy. It devalues it by promoting ever increasing consumption. It’s precious and valuable, whether renewable or fossil.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/opinion/climate-change-excessive-heat-2023.html

Sometimes it takes going through a natural disaster to open your eyes to the sad truth of things. Hopefully it doesn't take that for all of us.

The System Isn’t Designed to Help You
https://www.okdoomer.io/the-system-isnt-designed-to-help-you/

Advice on how to be a successful magazine writer.

Veblen writing about the invasion of business methods into the education system in 1915 (from The Theory of Business Enterprise)

I’m not a scholar, but I have spent a fair amount of time with history:

The moment either America or any European country denounces this settler-colonial apartheid military regime, the jig is up. They can’t rein in a hyper-aggressive, genocidal project they forged in their own image. Instead they have to prop up the imperialist lies and violence until the end of time, or else risk the collapse of their own hegemonic states.

With God as my witness, Free Gaza, Free the West Bank, Free Palestine.

New climate chief under fire for weakening EU’s COP28 stance on fossil fuel exit - https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/new-climate-chief-under-fire-for-weakening-eus-cop28-stance-on-fossil-fuel-exit/ oh, look, just as we warned. he's an oil man, always will be... #ClimateCrisis