Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Rich people are, by and large, evil. If they weren't evil before getting rich, they become evil afterwards. That's because (as you know) power corrupts. Of course they don't think they're evil. They think they're "exceptional," "outstanding," or "heroic." An effective social democracy puts a cap on how evil they can be. And that's why they hate (real) social democracies, and government in general.

The meat industry is doing exactly what Big Oil does to fight climate action
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-meat-industry-is-doing-exactly-what-big-oil-does-to-fight-climate-action/2021/05/14/831e14be-b3fe-11eb-ab43-bebddc5a0f65_story.html #climatechange #climatecrisis #leadonclimate

Hey teacher … how #SydBarrett’s artistic genius flowered at #school | Syd Barrett | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/16/hey-teacher-how-syd-barretts-artistic-genius-flowered-at-school

#PinkFloyd #History #Art

Made a bot that scrapes the Forbes list and puts billionaires on blast:

⬇️⬇️⬇️
@eatrich
⬆️⬆️⬆️

(Boosts would be appreciated)

Also - the very talented @CGanimated1227 helped with making a dictionary full of colorful adjectives describing the rich.

#EatTheRich
cc @subMedia

This is your regular reminder to join a union if you can
The union is the reason my employer #1 has to pay me for 4 hours work even when they only need 2.5 hours done, and then pay for my cab home if it’s scheduled to end past end of public transport hours.

Authoritarian regimes influence on agricultural soils, the coming sand crisis— a commodity of which huge amounts are traded globally, composting humans, Bill Gates owns more land in the USA than the Native American nations and more!

All in the Soil Network newsletter
https://www.soilcarenetwork.com/2021-april

How co-ops across the US weathered covid-19 by prioritizing their workers. Event (15 May) and report.

https://therealnews.com/how-co-ops-across-the-us-weathered-covid-19-by-prioritizing-their-workers

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/worker-co-ops-vs-covid-a-real-news-special-report-tickets-152892119445

We applaud President Biden's revocation of the “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship,” which threatened internet users’ ability to obtain truthful information online. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/05/president-biden-revokes-unconstitutional-executive-order-retaliating-against

Interesting article that directly compares Tesla's lock-in and remote control tactics to Apple's: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/14/tesla-apple-tech/

You hate how computers don't work? That's capitalism, hubris, skewed incentives and impatience on the part of us people who make the software and the people who tell those people what to make.

It affects proprietary software, corporate-driven open source and community-driven free software or cooperative software/technology, but in decreasing severity as you go toward the cooperative/free software end of the scale.

Proprietary software has anti-features, especially VC-driven or megacorp software. Cooperative software might have them, but only if it mistakenly copies them from proprietary software or if it needs to adapt to proprietary software. There is no incentive to add them otherwise.

Just fleshed this out a bit more at https://davelane.nz/aperitif

@mattcropp @Zee @Matt_Noyes @Greg
For anybody who's interested in discussing this (odd) CA Worker Co-op Federation bill and it's implications: I'll be hosting an open forum this Sunday, starting at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET and going until whenever.
https://socialcoop.meet.coop/jos-gvw-ile-ixu

article that describes the roots of car-sharing in Switzerland as two bottom-up neighbour-based initiatives that developed into cooperatives

User-led Innovation Processes: The Development of Professional Car Sharing by Environmentally Concerned Citizens, in Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research
DOI: 10.1080/13511610304517

https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610304517

I'm so so fortunate in life to have found a fulfilling job working with people I respect, who are unapologetically outspoken and whose principles are well aligned with mine, as I solve interesting problems helping us sustainably make the world a better place for those with the least but who need what we're providing the most.

It sucks when one realises that one has few if any values in common with most of the people in ones chosen industry. And that most people hate the values one holds because they threaten the unethical market distortions on which the profit others have (or, more to the point, have failed to get, but desperately desire) depend.

It used to be that "If you aren't paying for something, you are the product" but now you are the product regardless. https://puri.sm/posts/data-double-dipping-when-companies-mine-paying-customers/

It is utterly heartbreaking to hear about these shitstains in Brazil destroying land for profit and murdering indigenous people who have historically lived there and those keen to protect them and their way of life. Some of humanity is beautiful, but the most powerful seem to be a disgrace. chttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/12/brazil-judge-provides-a-lifeline-for-threatened-indigenous-tribe

Why is it so hard for people to have #privacy? Because a TV company can make almost as much profit selling customer data as it can selling the TVs. https://www.engadget.com/vizio-q1-earnings-inscape-013937337.html