andrewrgross

joined 1 year ago
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[–] andrewrgross 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is that a real comment or sarcasm?

[–] andrewrgross 28 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Netanyahu is. The Israeli public is highly racist, but much less enthusiastic about total war than Bibi. Unfortunately, they don't get a say. This isn't a democracy.

[–] andrewrgross 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I wonder if this girl considers herself Palestinian. It describes her as a Bedouin, but it's really unclear to me whether Israeli Bedouins see themselves as Palestinians or not.

I think that historically, the Bedouins were a distinct cultural group from the non-Bedouin Palestinians, but it's also really complicated to get any ethnographic information for me as an American, because Israeli media and middle east scholarship has traditionally erased Palestinian identities, instead calling Palestinian Israelis "Arab Israelis". Do people like her family actually see themselves as apart from Palestinians? Or do they recognize themselves within this term, but keep their mouths shut because of how dangerous it is to say such a thing out loud? I do notice that in the article there is a screenshot from a tiktok of people celebrating her suspension, and the screenshot calls her "The Palestinian girl". Is this because she is one? Or is that just them applying it as a slur? I'm very curious.

Either way, as you say, it's wild that "Supporting Palestine" is such hostile accusation to be levied at her. It's just crazy. I feel so terrible for her, and also angry at what Israel has become. I think it's always been bad, but naked hostility and racism is so, so, SO much worse in this generation than it was even 30 years ago.

[–] andrewrgross 4 points 2 months ago

This appears to be paywalled.

[–] andrewrgross 61 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I don't know why this sticks out to me, but it's kind of nuts that as far as I can tell, the IDF and the Israeli government haven't even given a pretense for what legal authority they're drawing on.

The military referenced a "court order", which appears to be based on the Israeli domestic court system, but officially Ramallah is entirely under the legal jurisdiction of the potempkin government of the Palestinian Authority. But the IDF didn't even bother to go through this puppet government: they seem to have just shrugged and cited the ancient legal ruling of Bigger stick v. Smaller stick and robbed a news office of tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and office space at gun-point in broad daylight.

Everytime they get bolder, that's a very bad sign.

[–] andrewrgross 7 points 2 months ago

That meme is... chef's kiss

[–] andrewrgross 2 points 2 months ago

This is such a weird, unproductive observation that people make all the time.

First: my point is that we in the US should recognize that Israel's actions are making the US and Israel less safe. It would definitely be nice if Hezbollah stopped fighting, but that is essentially a non-sequitur. It's not a counter argument that what Mossad did is a good idea that any of us should support.

Second: this observation that they could end the war by not fighting is true of every side in every war. Russia could end their war in Ukraine if they stopped invading. Ukraine could end the war if they surrendered and let Russia invade them. Hezbollah and Israel could both end this war by not fighting it. What practical guidance does that provide?

I'm not interested in watching this like a history channel documentary. When I type, I'm expressing what I think we should all say and do as people with (supposedly) the ability to influence our governments. I don't have control over Hezbollah. I don't really have control over Israel or the US either, but at least I'm supposed to.

[–] andrewrgross 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

The reasons why this is such a big f'g deal are many.

First, this IS textbook terrorism. An entire country full of civilians is paralyzed with fear of any item blowing up at any moment. In addition to the killing and maiming, this is deliberate.

Second, Mossad is innovating new theaters of warfare. Others will imitate this. This further legitimizes any place -- hospitals, schools, houses of warship -- as legitimate venues for bombing. And that includes in the US.

Third, this is ANOTHER escalation! Most of us don't want a giant regional war! And yet people act like Hezbollah was so provocative that they gave Israel no choice. Netanyahu is clearly the instigator! Hezbollah is actually in a terrible place to fight a war. They do not want this, but feel constantly compelled to maintain their credibility. They have repeatedly taken a minimalist approach because they really don't want to fight this war. This could end instantly if Israel just accepted a ceasefire in Gaza. Ironically, Israel is escalating in Lebanon because there is basically nothing left to blow up in Gaza and Netanyahu needs a constant war to stay out of jail. The claim that this is to let residents in the north go home is the same as the claim that the war in Gaza was to bring back hostages. A year later, ask the kibbutzim how that worked out.

All of this is common knowledge in Israel. The head of the military is about to be replaced for repeatedly stating that all of this is contrary to Israel's security!

It's just insane.

[–] andrewrgross 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I agree, although so far there don't seem to be enough of us.

[–] andrewrgross 37 points 2 months ago (20 children)

From a technical standpoint, this is an incredible achievement. From a moral or rational one, though, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS IS TERRIBLE.

I just don't even have the energy to list all the ways this is an insane and destabilizing thing to do. Fuck. God, I wish we had any electoral power of America's terrible foreign policy.

[–] andrewrgross 3 points 2 months ago

What a fresh new hell this is.

[–] andrewrgross 17 points 2 months ago

You messed up the format.

The caption should be "Why would Socialism do this?"

 

I'm looking for books, games, movies, etc. that are set in a relatable, high-tech post-capitalist solarpunk world.

I've got a few of the most popular novels, but I'm looking especially for ones that I haven't seen.

There are a lot of stories within anthologies, Solarpunk magazine, and the Grist's 2200 collections that I haven't seen before, for instance.

Can folks throw out suggestions that fit this tone across any media? Bonus points if it could be described as action/adventure.

 

This is one of those things that wouldn't exist in a fully realized solarpunk world, but might be useful during a transition.

This camera assesses drivers behind a cyclist to let them know when someone is coming up behind them, and other driver behaviors. One idea I particularly like:

A major bonus is that data gathered from Copilot devices can prove useful to aid local authorities and road safety organisations seeking to make cities and towns safer for cycling. “We are in the middle of starting a partnership with the city of Pittsburgh,” says Haynes, “where we’re going to deploy dozens of these Copilots with people that bike to work and use that to actually inform where do we need to improve the bike infrastructure?”

 

This is a very minor thing, but I just wanted to ask if anyone else thinks that dark mode should be the default theme.

Obviously I like dark mode, and it's the one I've chosen, but every so often I see SLRPNK while logged out, and I think the dark mode looks much better.

If I'm in the minority on this, let me know, but I'd like newcomers and people who don't bother setting their preferred themes to have the best user experience, so I thought I'd suggest it.

Does anyone strongly prefer light mode? If so, no judgement, I'm just curious if others feel differently.

 

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7550276

Marigold was adopted at birth by Carol and Georgie Sinclair in 2108. As the oldest of five, Marigold has always been a leader in their large household. They’re the product of their mothers’ inquisitiveness, their father’s confident passion for service, and a general love of taking things apart. In school, communication and writing were long their favorite subjects, narrowly beating out applied science and engineering. After a class field trip to the KNOCK LA newsroom when they were 12, Marigold became captivated by the sense of heroism they associated with investigative journalism.

On their school newspaper (Toypurina’s “The Recruiter”) they made a beat in looking for undisclosed potential conflicts of interest in procurement processes (they found five over two years) and performing other investigations into administrative oversight. Their greatest achievement was an expose on the fraction of school district travel opportunities which were provided to administrators versus educators. Marigold’s discovery that educators only received one sixth of the district’s off-world travel opportunities compared to upper level administrators when adjusted for group sizes received passing coverage from all the major municipal papers and earned them an angry letter from the school district’s head office, which Marigold framed and hung up in their room.

Knowhound spends their time hanging out with their friends Shoshana, Rocco, and Goat; going on adventures around Torrance with their younger siblings (where they’re equal parts protector and bad influence); and chasing leads for stories that either make it into an article for the school paper or wind up as microreports on the neighborhood Community Post.

Character sheet link

 

Marigold was adopted at birth by Carol and Georgie Sinclair in 2108. As the oldest of five, Marigold has always been a leader in their large household. They’re the product of their mothers’ inquisitiveness, their father’s confident passion for service, and a general love of taking things apart. In school, communication and writing were long their favorite subjects, narrowly beating out applied science and engineering. After a class field trip to the KNOCK LA newsroom when they were 12, Marigold became captivated by the sense of heroism they associated with investigative journalism.

On their school newspaper (Toypurina’s “The Recruiter”) they made a beat in looking for undisclosed potential conflicts of interest in procurement processes (they found five over two years) and performing other investigations into administrative oversight. Their greatest achievement was an expose on the fraction of school district travel opportunities which were provided to administrators versus educators. Marigold’s discovery that educators only received one sixth of the district’s off-world travel opportunities compared to upper level administrators when adjusted for group sizes received passing coverage from all the major municipal papers and earned them an angry letter from the school district’s head office, which Marigold framed and hung up in their room.

Knowhound spends their time hanging out with their friends Shoshana, Rocco, and Goat; going on adventures around Torrance with their younger siblings (where they’re equal parts protector and bad influence); and chasing leads for stories that either make it into an article for the school paper or wind up as microreports on the neighborhood Community Post.

Character sheet link

21
submitted 8 months ago by andrewrgross to c/fiction
 

I'm reading "The Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow. I'm about half-way through, so I don't know what it's like in the second half, but so far it feels so apiece with the vision in my head when playing games of Fully Automated, and that's really exciting.

The book takes place in Burbank, California, in an unspecified year that sounds like slightly less than one generation removed from today. Around 2040, I'd say.

It's been a few presidential administrations from now, and the US has implemented a Green New Deal, and Climate Corps are commonplace internationally. But also, things are tense. The world is still on fire, and a lot of conservatives are not pleased to see this new world taking shape. And within this context, the story is very communal. The protagonist knows all their neighbors, and everyone is always doing things for one another and relying on each other. Mutual aid is just integrated in to everyday life.

It's a great book, with an interesting plot and good characterizations. But there's another level of enjoyment, because I feel like reading the story makes me think of all the ways its tone, locations, and conflicts could be appropriated the way you do when running RPGs. It hits especially hard, because for anyone who isn't familiar, Burbank is a suburb of Los Angeles, and the intensely local sense of cultural pride that is a theme of the book is so familiar to my attempts to present that same feature when playing Fully Automated! with friends. I think the rich culture and patchwork nature of LA inspires that in a lot of people.

And also, I'm thinking of how much more I want to see this genre of writing expand, and how sharing a game like this can do a small part to add to getting people into writing more of these stories. And also, obviously the feedback loop that happens when people make more stuff that inspires other people to make more stories themselves.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm really liking this book on three levels:

  1. "I'm really enjoying this good book."
  2. "I could steal so much stuff from this book for running games."
  3. "This seems like further proof that at lot of people are working in this idea sandbox, and I can't wait to see where that cycle of inspiration leads."
 

Pulsação aka Pulsa aka Aide Fuentes is a Capoeira master who loves dancing and defending anyone in danger as a member of the LA Protectors League.

Full character sheet

73
The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle (www.humblebundle.com)
submitted 8 months ago by andrewrgross to c/solarpunk
 

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/10927570

Lose yourself in the visionary fiction of Cory Doctorow, the celebrated author and digital rights activist known for his masterful explorations of the intersection of tech and society. And help support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with your purchase.

 

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/10927570

Lose yourself in the visionary fiction of Cory Doctorow, the celebrated author and digital rights activist known for his masterful explorations of the intersection of tech and society. And help support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with your purchase.

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