The Library Alcove

Digital home of a slightly opinioned and burned-out teacher and writer.     

[the-library-alcove]

New policy: No more arguing with Christianists, especially the ones who think that missionizing is a good thing. Autoblock on sight.

EDIT: Addendum: Antisemitic atheists too.

Less a DNI, and more just an exasperated sigh at this point, yes, I vet new followers for my own safety and I will automatically block missionaries, Christian apologists, antisemitic atheists, antizionists, Nazis (WTAF are you following me in the first place?), and TERFs.

[mariacallous]

[the-wanton-house-wife-deactivat]

You’re welcome 🧄

[mariacallous]

Saw this tweet from a tumblr post and ofc a few tankies got upset with the mention of the Soviet Union being raised as a parallel bad example

Yet these same people have no qualms comparing everything to the Nazi regime. Hmm

[mariacallous]

I wonder if the DSA will even mention either of these after tonight, or will they be too busy celebrating El-Sayed

Probably the latter, and/or they'll blame Israel/AIPAC for the losses

[stephenroot]

So the Hong campaign is going well I see.

[stephenroot]

I can't stop thinking about "folx and women." Does folx not include women???????????????????

[mariacallous]

[mariacallous]

[smol-blue-bird]

I went to a library book sale this weekend and I found a very old book called “Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers,” which was published in I think 1975? I’ve been reading it kind of like how I would read a historical document, and it’s lowkey fascinating

[smol-blue-bird]

There’s a whole paragraph that’s like “okay, find the keyboard. Don’t panic if it has more keys than a typewriter, that’s normal. Really, it’s fine. The extra keys don’t make things harder. It’s FINE”

[smol-blue-bird]

Thought this section was particularly interesting:

Can the computer create something? At first glance it seems obvious that it can. Animated computer graphics, with their fluid transitions and whiplash perspectives, look strikingly new. And if one watches the machine doing animation work, there seem to be lengthy periods when the computer is acting “on its own.”

But if one observes these processes in more detail, it becomes clear that creation is not occurring within the machine. First of all, computer graphics are not unique. Computers have yet to generate anything that cannot be done by hand—and usually already has been done. Second, the apparent ability of the computer to “act on its own” is the outcome of thousands of hours of patient human effort to refine its instructions. The computer can manipulate a shape for us if we have already informed it what a shape is, what the rules for shape manipulation are, what this specific shape is, and so forth.

You can start an automobile engine and it will run by itself, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s being creative. It’s just running.

[theriu]

Somebody in 1975 had a better understanding of why artificial intelligence is not in any way “intelligence” than the majority of today’s intellectual minds.

[mariacallous]

DSA's Achilles' heel goes beyond antisemitism 

The reality is that these candidates are politically problematic to the overall public for reasons that go far beyond their views on Jews or

[byjove]

[lizzylolz]

i feel like we didn’t really need to know this

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

No matter how progressive, compassionate or understanding you think you are, if you routinely dismiss an entire nation of people as bloodthirsty monsters, rejecting the complexity, interiority, and diversity of humanity you allow for yourself and your nation, you’re nothing more than a reactionary bigot, actually.

[mariacallous]

That's from this article, is my understanding:

[mariacallous]

That's from this article, is my understanding:

[sickolib]

I don’t think “no no my idol only accidentally killed thirty to fifty million people! It was negligence not intentional!” Is the compelling defense of his ideology some people seem to think it is

[pedro-friedeberg]

Da context:

[frilledshark17]

That's a lot of people to kill without really meaning to.

[indecisiveavocado]

Allow me to present life expectancy during the Great Leap Forward (highlighted is that period):

Now, you may be thinking "Okay, that's not actually all that awful! I mean, it is, but like...that could be mostly accidental! It doesn't seem thaaat much bigger than COVID!"

Let me be extremely clear: That graph I showed you? Where life expectancy goes down by almost four years?

That is global life expectancy. That is the life expectancy of the entire freaking world, and the Great Leap Forward is still extremely visible.

This is the same time period, but for China only:

Fifteen years. Life expectancy was fifteen years lower.

Data source:

Life expectancy

An interactive visualization from Our World in Data.

[penrosesun]

Also, separately from how bad Mao actually was, I think the attempted downplaying of the whole category of “things that are ~technically~ better than literal Hitler” here is fucking weird! Like. Ok. Let’s say Mao was better than Hitler, sure! There’s a case for that! There’s even a pretty strong case for that! Even setting aside the extermination camps, WWII was a total war on a level the world had never seen before, and the calculated cruelty of the German Hunger Plan is almost unimaginable! With you so far!

This person seems to be arguing from that that ~because~ Mao was better than, again, literal actual Hitler, the accusations the he was a monster who committed genocide must be overblown. I’m sorry but… what?? When did “well at least he wasn’t Hitler” become any sort of defense???

Seeking desperate refuge in Godwin’s law is not the slam dunk that you think it is, my dude. If anyone is making a serious case that your guy is even theoretically in the running for being “as bad as Hitler” then I think we’ve long since passed the “defendability of a historical figure” event horizon.

[chutzpahchesed]

CNN…

[mariacallous]

Chevalier is going to be an iron fucking albatross on this party for years to come even if she's only a one-term representative.