hopelessly fighting the devil futility

terminally online since ninety-nine

[anxietyproblem]

[enki2]

[thebdelliumlady]

For anyone wondering, the PhD student's name is Myra Cheng.

Here's a link to an article about the study from the Stanford Report: link.

[chapscher]

Across three preregistered studies, participants interacting with sycophantic AI became more convinced of their own rightness and less willing to repair relationships. Yet at the same time, participants rated sycophantic AI models as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more desirable for future use, which may explain why this behavior has persisted despite its harmful impacts.

Myra Cheng et al. "Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence." Science 391, eaec8352 (2026).

[northern-punk-lad]

Modern uk history is “the uk had this system that was really good and really benefited the people and then Margaret thatcher scrapped it”

[bonzobotdrum]

Hey don't minimise what the coalition did especially to education. At least New Labour almost tried but every ounce of progress was walked back immediately after to the point where Nick "we made a promise before the election we would vote against any rising fees" Clegg made an apology that got turned into a sick song

[northern-punk-lad]

The coalition is another byproduct of Thatcherism so it still counts to my argument

[stitchposts]

what is your LEAST favorite stitch?

I don't like counted work at fucking all. So: the cross stitch.

[rabbitindisguise]

reading this as someone who does cross stitch but is scared of the other kinds of embroidery is like overhearing an incredibly tall and buff person say they have beef with Mr. Tom, the kitten that chills at the bookstore

[stitchposts]

FUCK Mr. Tom and his stupid little fluffy tail ok. And his little charted designs.

[the-dragongirl]

Okay, but this neglects the true villain of embroidery stitches: the French knot

[stitchposts]

Don't you dare malign my girl again

[im-a-dream-wizard]

Ok the french knot is very useful but it is a BITCH to do it consistently

[stitchposts]

[ao3-anonymous]

We talk about how this website’s hate mail game is insane, but this might just be a new level

[talbatross]

"skill issue" made entirely from French knots is a next level roast. no coming back from that one. damn

[airwar]

we used to turn the tv on and just watch whatever was on there

[correctopinionhaver]

[mintypineapple]

Yes, it was frequently The Simpsons.

[guccifloralsuits]

If THE modern translator of the OG Odyssey text wrote this about my film adaptation I’d kill myself

Emily Wilson you’re goated

[turquoisedata]

This whole piece is a very long read but it's totally worth it (unsurprisingly given who she is).

I do think it's interesting that after everything she has to say about it, including criticism of Nolan chosing to shoot in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and the damage he's complicit in there, she ends with this paragraph:

I hope she's right.

[quasi-normalcy]

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almos

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

The ongoing crime against humanity and the future that is capitalism

[turquoisedata]

The second half of this podcast ep is about this

Horrifying

[allonsybadwolf]

"crochet can't be made by machines" went from being a cool fun fact to being a call to action of "so if you see mass manufactured crochet in Target, that was made by a person and they were underpaid and you should boycott it" which is true, it was made by a person, but EVERY item of clothing you own (that you did not purchase from a company using ethical labor) was made by a person being underpaid (at *best*.)

Sewing machines are operated by *people*. Knitting machines are operated by *people*. Yes lots of the process is automated but you cannot tell a machine "make me a t-shirt" or "make me a knit cardigan".

Higher awareness of fast fashion, and the true human labor and abuse behind it, is GREAT, but let's not pretend that the crochet hat in target is THE problem. Every article of clothing in target is the problem. "All clothes are made by people" is the jumping off point here into understanding this issue it's not just crochet it's the whole thing ahhhhHHHHHHHHHH

[enerdsout]

[marzipanandminutiae]

If you've ever seen images of sweatshops in the early 20th century, in New York or the UK or other developed countries

Guess what

Your clothing is still made in a place that looks like that. The only thing that's different is the tech level of the sewing machines and the race of the workers 

[anarchistmemedistro]

all your clothes are already handmade

[anarchistmemedistro]

[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

My son's tattoo hurt me deeply

When Tess Morgan's son came home with a tattoo, she was griefstricken. She knew her reaction was OTT (he's 21) but it signalled a change in their relationship

This is gold this, absolute gold, the most over the top melodramatic hysterical ridiculous thing I’ve ever read

[brawlcloud]

This is actually so interesting to read- it’s from 2012 but its full of the same anxieties, even some of the same phrasing that many of the guardian’s later pieces on transness use. really hammers home how much of the terfism that emerged in the late 10s was middle class mothers angry at a loss of control over their adult children- whether that be their bodies or their friends or their opinions- and making that everyone’s problem because they have the power to do so

[bel-tamtu]

It’s very interesting, and I would find it hilarious if I weren’t so occupied being disturbed by how very exactly it sounds like parents upset about their kids transitioning.

[transcyberism]

there is so much of that through-line of what basically boils down to white woman tears though. “I’m not in charge of my child anymore and that makes me really sad” almost as if being cast in the social role/identity box of Mom Of All Time can be detrimental to one’s mental health and can produce some exquisitely deranged behavior, especially when your child rejects that kind of box

[turquoisedata]

Tattoos are fashionable. They may even be beautiful. (Just because I hate them doesn’t mean I’m right.) But by deciding to have a tattoo, my son took a meat cleaver to my apron strings. He may not have wanted to hurt me. I hope he didn’t. But my feelings, as he made his decision, were completely unimportant.

I remember reading this article when it was first published over a decade ago and the incredulity that was my response.

I was in my 30s and my kid was a baby. Now I'm in my 50s and he's a teenager and currently doesn't care about tattoos - they're just a thing like eye colour to him, not something he has preferences on, not something he wants himself. But my reaction is the same as ever: if he ever wants one I'll pay for it for him if he wants that, he can show me if he wants to but can hide it if he'd prefer that, it's his body and he can own it in any way he chooses.

Personally i can understand the trans parallel, it makes perfect disturbing sense, but to me it feels more like the kind of judginess that comes with victims of sexual violence doing whatever the fuck they want to do to reclaim their bodies.

A lot of my family strongly dislike my (pretty innocuous) piercings and very short very bright hair. It makes me sad that they can't understand the joy that it brings me to own my body life this. I hate when my hair doesn't feel right.

[turquoisedata]

I recently went through a work capacity assessment for universal credit and got my outcome within a few days (probably because I had a complaint in to the service dealing with it 🫠).

The outcome message included this line:

If you want a copy of your full assessment report, or need more information, call us on 0800 328 5644.

It took a while to gather the strength and the exec function but I called.

Only to be told that the way to request the report is to put a message on my journal.

Which i could have done the same day.

I try not to be conspiracy minded. But given everything i know about DWP it's really hard to avoid concluding that this is just deliberately making life more difficult for disabled people. Because why make us make a phone call when you can submit a request online that can just be processed whenever?

[balaclava-trismegistus]

US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system

Concern over US effort to prosecute Sam Tunick, accused by authorities of wiping his phone using GrapheneOS

The case began shortly after Tunick got off a plane in Atlanta, returning from a vacation spent whale-watching and enjoying nature on a friend’s boat. He did not know that a homeland security agent had circulated an email three hours before. The email contained Tunick’s name and photo and indicated he was being investigated for “suspected terrorism activities”. It was sent to agents on the Customs and Border Patrol tactical terrorism response team and an FBI Atlanta joint-terrorism taskforce officer. When Tunick arrived in Atlanta, an agent took him to a room with a table, several chairs and a camera and microphone, and several agents began a “secondary inspection”. But all their questions were centered on child sexual abuse images. These and other details were revealed in Monday’s hearing, held for a judge to hear testimony on a motion filed by Tunick’s federal public defenders, asking the court to suppress all evidence the agents obtained, including the erasure of the phone’s contents after he gave them a passcode, due to violations of his constitutional rights. The interrogation, including the questions about child sexual abuse images, was “a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the movement against Cop City, according to the motion. Tunick asked four times during the interrogation to speak with a lawyer, but was rebuffed each time, according to courtroom testimony. Additionally, the agents produced no warrant and did not read Tunick his rights. But a justice department attorney and the airport agents testifying on Monday asserted Tunick was merely subjected to an everyday interrogation at an international airport, “looking for anything that’s prohibited”, as Larry Findley, a CBP officer, said. Agent Findley and several others repeatedly asked Tunick to open his phone during the interrogation, telling him they would seize it if he did not. When he finally provided a passcode, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart”, according to the motion.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

(Yoinked this from LinkedIn, genuinely interested in seeing how responses align with demographics) (so far it’s those of us over 35 being indignant but I wanna see how those fully plays out) (it’s cultural and technological history/memory, bruh)

18

[bellisima-writes]

I am an old bitch - 20/20.

[turquoisedata]

Come on, I'm 50. Every single one.

[sqrt-73]

screw ray bradburys 6 word poem. here’s my 2 word one:

Keep reading

[zxid]

collection

[fishlung8877]

[ayeforscotland]

Aye, you're playing a dangerous game by pointing out 'British food bad' is classism. I've seen these debates before. They never end because people seem to think jellied eels are something we eat every day (and are for some reason really squeamish about haggis, as if it's not literally just a really, really round sausage technically).

It's a hill I will die on. Beans on toast in particular was born out of rationing during the war, and continued afterwards. Food rationing didn't stop until 1954, almost a decade after the war ended.

The UK only paid off its debt to the US and Canada during World War 2 in 2006. In some ways, the US treated its previous enemies better than its allies after the war, they forgave a significant chunk of German debt to allow the country to rebuild.

[ayeforscotland]

Me with this answer:

[ayeforscotland]

How does fanfic of Harry Potter support JKR? People should be allowed to write fanfiction whenever they want!

You are granting JK Rowling cultural capital and relevance. Write about literally anything else.

[dragonesseclectic]

You are very much allowed to write fanfiction about Harry Potter if you want. No one is going to come to your house and take away your keyboard for it--if they try, have them arrested for home invasion and assault.

There is no such thing as thought crime, in spite of what the morality police would have you believe. Right-wing or left-wing, wannabe censors still suck and should always be pushed back against.

Yes, JKR is a terrible, unhinged bigot with too much money to do damage with. So is Elon Musk, yet no one is telling people not to write Tesla fanfiction.

[ayeforscotland]

Irrelevant and nonsensical comparison. Tesla didn’t endorse Elon Musk, and Tesla is dead. He’s not actively funding anti trans legislation to make their lives worse, including specifically targeting individual trans people. JK Rowling is.

[turquoisedata]

A little while ago I started thinking about a book i read when I was a kid. I knew it was called "You Two" but that's not a book title with good SEO 💀 took me an age to find it.

As soon as someone suggested Jean Ure I knew that was right. I remembered reading other books by her.

Anyway i tried to order a copy at the time but it never turned up. I tried again recently and it has finally arrived.

It was about two teenage girls from different social classes who formed a close friendship and i wanted to read it again partly just for curiosity but also very much because I wondered if it was queer coded and I'd just missed it.

Anyway it showed up today

I'm so excited to read it and see what I missed