شي خيالي

30 something She/Her

[wallowtoday]

It will all make sense.

[tsscat]

I don’t think people realize what keeping the internet running and producing most tech they use entails like. Physically, labor-wise, energy-wise.

[tsscat]

Purposefully included some older articles here so people can see how baked in this is:

Labor Conditions of Content Moderators (2021)

Inside AOL's "Cyber-Sweatshop" (1999)

Digital Labor and Imperialism (2016)

Amazon Mechanical Turk: The Digital Sweatshop (2012)

Gig Economy, Algorithmic Control, and Migrant Labor (2022)

The Rise of Cyber-Coolies (2003)

Ecological Impact of Computation and the Cloud (2022)

The Environmental Sustainability of Digital Content Consumption (2024)

Carbon Footprint of the Internet (2010)

I think a lot of times I see people talk about this stuff in relation to AI. It's right to talk about it, but I hate when people act like AI is the only tech that has these problems. What you see with AI now is a reflection of the broader tech and internet industry that has grown for the past 20-30 years.

[smsomah]

correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't see any good reason for institutions to hoard thousands of photos taken by people who are no longer alive, keep them hidden, and then make money from access and from people wanting to use them for their own projects or any other purpose. these images are part of our shared history, not commodities. they should be seen, not stay hidden.

[smsomah]

the asala collection (spanning 130 years, 355 albums/items, and more than 30.000 images) is a perfect example

the collection has been exhibited and promoted, & it is clearly an important historical archive. but who gets meaningful access?

a single rare photo album like those in collections such as this can cost thousands, putting them mainly within reach of wealthy collectors, universities, or museums.

these images are records of human history. when our shared visual heritage is locked behind ownership, price, and restricted access, most people lose the chance to see and learn from it.

they should be preserved, digitised & made accessible.

there is a pdf giving a glimpse into this huge collection; here. and this is only one collection; focused on the middle east & arabian peninsula. there are countless others.

[socialmaya]

Occasionally forget people genuinely think capitalism is thousands of years old

[sylestial]

One time I was talking about Robin Hood with some coworkers and one guy was like “he was bad because the people he helped learned to expect handouts” and I wanted to be like… okay can you explain how that flawed capitalist propaganda applies to feudalism

[scallioncreamcheesebagel]

reminder that capitalism was literally invented in the 16th century

[tayefeth]

That’s an exaggeration. What was invented in the 16th century was mercantilism. Capitalism really dates for the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the rise of industry and cash crops over artisans and merchants. Vulture capitalism, with the notion that companies have no duties other than generating profit, is even younger.

[antique-scarecrow]

Capitalism is only 200 years old and I have to say, they have not been an impressive 200 years

[downtroddendeity]

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that most people don’t know the formal definition of capitalism. We all know the word, we’ve all seen the jokes, but very few people bother to actually define it unless they’re talking about political theory and philosophy, so it’s easy to end up with the impression that Capitalism = Money Can Be Exchanged For Goods And Services.

Capitalism is the economic system where most of the means of production (i.e. everything people need to have to make the stuff that everyone wants) are owned by private individuals or corporations, who then hire people to provide the labor necessary to produce things, with the intent of selling the output at a profit. It’s the difference between “you’re a carpenter and you make a chair and you sell it” and “you’re Richard Q. Richington who owns a chair factory, and you pay people to sell the chairs you paid other people to make and then all the excess money goes back to you.” There have been Richard Q. Richingtons on and off throughout history, but that being the norm for every single industry is a pretty recent development.

[antiterfbutch]

An alarming amount of people seem to think capitalism = all trade, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

[sobcat]

when things have to change...

[wallowtoday]

You wound me.

[wallowtoday]

It’s so embarrassing being in love with someone that doesn’t love you back in your 30s. Especially when you’re just “dating”.

[achillesinhighheels]

[depsidase]

[mournfulroses]

Albert Camus, from a letter to María Casares featured in Correspondance, 1944-1959

[aidashakur]

The most romantic thing you can do when you’re in love with someone is giving them room to just exist, they do not belong to you.

[weltenwellen]

Wildness Before Something Sublime Leila Chatti

[smsomah]

looking at bedouin life from decades ago, or really any tribal / semi-nomadic communities, and noticing the same thing over and over:

the women are always working. carrying, building, tending, raising, sustaining everything.

[smsomah]

On The Move: Women of the Desert | حياة الترحال من منظور جديد: نساء الصحراء

i remember reading about it in bedouins of qatar; women still doing the hardest labor while pregnant, while fasting

there's this one scene where the camp is being moved: the men sit down, exhausted, and the women just keep going. building the tents and holding everything together

[iamheavymeta-lll]

[smsomah]

The shibgat, only worn by bedouin women of central Oman, was not worn round the neck, but hung from a loop of leather which was worn around the ears. The diamond-shaped motifs frequently represent figures from Hindu mythology, suggesting the piece was likely crafted by Indian goldsmiths who had settled in Oman.

Scanned from the book Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver; 1997; Miranda Morris & Pauline Shelton

[smsomah]

Silver nose ring worn with two D-shaped halka/dufuf earrings, and through the mid ear cartilage a ma'gel earring (1). Up to eight of these light halka earrings were worn by some Dhofari women.

Scanned from the book Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver; 1997; Miranda Morris & Pauline Shelton

[smsomah]

Scanned from the book Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver; 1997; Miranda Morris & Pauline Shelton