bwinbwin

@bwinbwin@kolektiva.social

lifelong observer of the human condition.
i am not amused.

born at 319 ppm.

#Human #LGBTQIA2S+ #Anarchism #MutualAid #Culture #Cognition #Information #Technology #STS #Sustainability #Accessibility #Philosophy #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Hermeneutics #Understanding #MentalIllness #MajorDepressiveDisorder #AntiCapitalist #AntiNuclear #AntiTheist #SciFi #Photography #NewEngland #MarshallIslands

background pic: ailinglaplap atoll, marshall islands.

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bwinbwin, to ai

instead of called them AIs, can we call them what they really are...LMs (language models)?

AI just over-inflates their capabilities and leads to poor understanding among non-experts.

bwinbwin, to random

this morning i saw an animal i had never seen in this area before. it wasn't a chipmunk or squirrel. it had a longer torso and was brown. i suspect it was either a marten or a stoat, probably a stoat.

A photo of a stoat with two colored fur (brown on its back and head, white on its underbelly) standing upright in a field of grass.

bwinbwin,

@cakeisnotalie

ikr? but i thought they only inhabited england, not new england.

(the above are stock photos; i didn't have my camera or phone on me when i spotted it.)

bwinbwin,

@cakeisnotalie

TIL. we do have "fisher cats" in the area, which, i am led to believe, are big weasels.

bwinbwin, to climate

for anyone doubting that the marshall islands will be uninhabitable by the end of the decade...

this is a bar/club in the capital, Majuro. when i was last there (1995), this club was new and situated well above the sea wall.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/19dvp5l/huge_waves_causing_chaos_in_marshall_islands/

#ClimateCrisis #RisingSeas #CoralAtollNations #KeepItInTheGround #ExtinctionRebellion #NoMoreFossilFuels

didgebaba, to random
@didgebaba@c.im avatar

The Travelling People

"When I was a child we were hunted from place to place and we could never have friends to be always going to school with. The little settled children would run past our camps – they were afeard of the travellers. Other people had a sort of romantic idea about us, because of the horses and the colourful wagons. They would ask us did we come from some place special like the gypsies you see on the films. They thought that the travellers had no worries and that we didn’t feel pain or hunger or cold. The truth is that we’re people like everybody else but we’re a different speaking people with our own traditions and our own way of life and this is the way we should be treated, not like dirt…” ––from ‘Traveller’, an autobiography by Nan Joyce.

Travellers are often referred to by the terms tinkers, gipsies/gypsies, itinerants, or, pejoratively, knackers in Ireland. Some of these terms refer to services that were traditionally provided by the group — tinkering or tinsmithing, for example, being the mending of tinware such as pots and pans, and knackering being the acquisition of dead or old horses for slaughter. The term gypsy first appeared in record in the 16th Century referring to the continental Romani people in England and Scotland who were mistakenly thought to be Egyptian. Other derogatory names for itinerant groups have been used to refer to Travellers including the word pikey.

The historical origins of Irish Travellers as a group has been a subject of academic and popular debate. Research is complicated by the fact that the group has no written records of their own. They may be of Romani extraction, although this theory is disputed and theories of pre-Celt origin also exist. Jean-Pierre Liégeois wrote that the Irish Traveller Gammon vocabulary is derived from pre-13th-century Celtic idioms with ten percent Indian origin Romani language vocabulary. Celtic language expert Kuno Meyer and Romani language linguist John Sampson both asserted that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century, 300 years before the first Romani populations arrived on the island of Britain.

bwinbwin,

@didgebaba

i'm reading a sci-fi/speculative fiction novel right now, The Actual Star by Monica Byrne, where the dominant mode of human existence is nomadic as a response to the climate collapse and the disappearance of ice in the environment.

very intriguing read. makes one wonder if nomadic peoples have an more adaptive strategy to living on the planet than "sedentists".

bwinbwin,

@didgebaba

i've got a copy of Anti-Oedipus, which contains the War Machinne. This gives me more incentive to push it to the top of my reading list. I might start with the article you referenced though. Thanks for the reference.

I'm finding The Actual Star enjoyable. Different than most of the sci-fi I read, more #SolarPunk than hardcore sci-fi. The story spans two thousand years--one story set in the past (1012 BCE), one set in the present (2012 CE), and one in the future (3012 CE), with Mayan folklore at its core. The nomadic clan/tribe(?), known as La Viajara comprise the vast majority of the world's population. There is a strong theme of anarchism throughout the future story. Different, enjoyable, intriguing. I look forward to reading Deleuze and Guattari's analysis of the nomadic. Again, thanks for the reference.

bwinbwin, to motivation

Why are people greedy? Is it an intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?

#Greed #Incentive #Motivation

bwinbwin,

@stylo_the_unicorn
if i understand you correctly, it comes down to an extrinsically motivated state that becomes internalized. is this the correct reading of your understanding?

i agree that our enlightenment philosophers were immersed in an historical context that led them to make many assumptions about not only "human nature" but the world as well (cf. Hobbes Leviathan). as a scholar of culture, i am always reminding people that what they consider "human nature" is actually "cultural paradigm" and they confuse the two because they can't escape their cultural immersion. this would include the "competition" you refer to, among many other things.

bwinbwin, to random

a voice of experience in the battle against apartheid south africa, regarding prison abolition...

[excerpt:]
"When asked to imagine a world without prisons, many people talk about peace, the absence of police, or a world where everyone’s basic needs are met so we wouldn’t see poverty and inequality driving criminalization and “crime.” White supremacy would be a distant memory in this world. This exercise can be valuable and inspiring, but also at times a little off base. Frequently there is a tendency to leap from the present to utopia without thinking concretely what the path to that utopia might look like. So, in imagining this world, I would like to make three points that might take us in a slightly different direction than most considerations of a world without prisons."

https://truthout.org/articles/imagining-a-world-without-prisons-useful-exercise-or-building-false-illusions/

bwinbwin, to random

@KarlHeinzHasliP @bouriquet @pvonhellermannn

the outer islands of the marshalls are exactly those types of islands. ships make trips from the capital every 3-6 months to drop supplies. no electricity or running water unless someone has acquired some solar panels and batteries. absolutely no wifi, but there are radios to communicate with the capitol. each atoll has an airport, but not each island.

bwinbwin, to anarchism

i like the idea of #UBI but i don't think it is workable with our current model of ownership--private property. i have little knowledge of economics, so i can't argue vociferously for this opinion. i can just imagine that any UBI i might receive could be easily taken by a landlord raising my rent, or another corporate entity increasing costs for other necessary purchasing like groceries, medical care/insurance, or education.

i like the idea of #JobGuarantee better. it makes more sense to me and seems to provide a less-hackable, less-manipulable floor as UBI proposes. it guarantees a livable wage and avoids the precarity of unemployment and gig work. but, again, i'm no economist. though i did participate in the now defunct CETA program when i was a teen.

@pluralistic has highlighted #JobGuarantee in this week's link dump: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/16/hotchpotch/#judge-not-lest-ye-be-bribed where he says...

"The best authority on the Job Guarantee is Pavlina Tcherneva. Her slim book on the subject is a fantastic explainer..." A Case for a Job Guarantee.

"No amount of growth can eliminate the job shortage that exists in virtually every country. Conventional policies have failed as well. The job guarantee is the landmark policy innovation that can secure true full employment, while stabilizing the economy, producing key social assets, and securing a basic economic right." [from https://www.jobguarantee.org/why/]

More information can be found at https://www.jobguarantee.org/faqs/

i'm interested in what people think of #JobGuarantee vs #UBI. i'm not confident in my ability to argue for one over another, but i would like to participate in or observe a discussion geared towards a better understanding. my preferred solution would be implementing anarchism rather than try to rescue capitalism, but at least a #JobGuarantee would attenuate the pernicious ravages of neoliberal capitalism--again, in my opinion.

#JobGuarantee #UBI #EconomicPrecarity #Unemployment #Neoliberalism #WealthInequality #Capitalism #Anarchism

bwinbwin,

@radiojammor

i am in that situation currently. i have untreatable major depressive disorder that has rendered me unable to work for most of the last decade. i have a phd and am overqualified for most jobs. my application for disability is still in process a year after starting it.

i don't imagine that either a UBI or JobGuarantee would eliminate the need for disability assistance. friends who have been denied disability benefits are often denied because they "can work" according to the criteria used for evaluation. i think we could link JG to disability criteria without burdening the disabled person with market forces for job acquisition. but i would need to think about it and get a better understanding of this issue. i would hope that an honest approach in reconfiguring the job market by experts would address these issues.

i haven't seen the studies regarding landlords with UBI, but i never underestimate the greed of rentiers.

@pluralistic

Miro_Collas, to Palestine
@Miro_Collas@masto.ai avatar

"Politics of Memory": Masha Gessen's Hannah Arendt Prize Postponed for Comparing Gaza, Warsaw Ghetto - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtSD2Y5g5OM

It is a valid comparison, in my view. And one that most are too afraid to make, for fear of backlash.

#Palestine #Gaza #Israel #ApartheidIsrael #Genocide #EthnicCleansing #Liquidation

bwinbwin,

the comparisons between gaza and the warsaw ghetto had always seemed obvious to me. it made me wonder why that comparison wasn't utilized by the media and other commentators or bloggers, who instead opted for "the world's largest open air prison," or, for the more radical among us, "concentration camp" (to bring focus on the barbarity of it).

i have begun to understand why "ghetto" has been assiduously avoided, as Masha Gessen explains in this video. as expected, many of the reasons are political and tied up with the unfolding understanding of (and attempts to redefine) anti-semitism and anti-jewish hatred. i don't understand fully, but Gessen's interview starts me down a path of understanding, including some of the recent rejections of Hannah Arendt's work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtSD2Y5g5OM

it also necessitates some attenuation of one of my previous post (though certainly not a complete overhaul of it): https://kolektiva.social/@bwinbwin/111535054677971378

@Miro_Collas thank you for bringing it to my attention.

bwinbwin, to Palestine

Everyone needs to read this blog article:

https://hachyderm.io/@paulbiggar/111579781323665135

I can't sleep
"I can't sleep. I'm lying in bed every night, and images of Gaza are running through my head. Fathers holding their babies, dead, caked in dust. Bombs dropped on homes, on hospitals, on schools. Tens of thousands of dead in indiscriminate bombings."

https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/

#Gaza #Palestine #Nakba #Genocide #Complicit #Tech #ApartheidIsrael #VentureCapital #BDS #Zionism #AntiZionism #FreePalestine

Syphilia, to random

Pure evil. Israel has no limits.
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/12/11/israeli-government-ordered-assassination-of-palestinian-poet-refaat-alareer/
#ApartheidIsrael #Gaza

bwinbwin,

@Syphilia

The original Tikun Olam article:

Israeli Security Cabinet Orders Execution of Palestinian Poet, Because of a Joke

Israel ordered Refaat Alareer's assassination after derided Israeli claim of babies burned in an oven as hoax. He was right, but died for it.

https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2023/12/08/breaking-israel-invokes-amalek-directive-to-assassinate-palestinian-social-media-activist-over-joke/

#ApartheidIsrael #Gaza #RefaatAlareer #Genocide #WarCrimes

bwinbwin, to random

Tailgating at a school board meeting. 😆

"...after voters rejected all the candidates pushed by the rightwing hate group Moms For Liberty and installed a more reasonable school board, it only took the new members a couple of hours to undo all the hateful policies enacted by the previous board."

"Residents were so excited by the anticipated reversals they tailgated outside the meeting like it was a football game."

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/12/people-tailgated-at-a-school-board-meeting-to-watch-new-members-reverse-extremist-policies/

bwinbwin, to random

The Holocaust is often referred to as an "industrialized" process of mass murder, where the process of depersonalized extermination of a people was carried out on an industrial scale. It was a monstrous and horrific atrocity that still shocks the conscience today. If anything deserves the label "Never Again," its that.

Currently Israel is engaging in a "computerized" atrocity that uses a depersonalized extermination of a people, through algorithmic targeting of an entire people. It is the same automated process of killing that protests around the world call out as a monstrous and horrific atrocity.

History repeats itself. Albert Einstein said, "It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists Jews do to the Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews." Alas, it has come to pass, making "Never Again" a hypocritical and cynical slogan, not the ethical imperative it must be.

Owen Jones interviews Yuval Abraham and discusses the issue of automated targeting of Palestinians by Israelis: https://youtu.be/mIbxF7GXfHs?si=Q-r71bpro6865aRt

bwinbwin, to random

From https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/03/if-capitalism-is-natural-why-was-so-much-force-used-to-build-it/

If capitalism is such a natural outcome of human nature, why were systematic violence and draconian laws necessary to establish it? And if greed is the primary motivation for human beings, how could the vast majority of human existence have been in hunter-gatherer societies in which cooperation was the most valuable behavior?

Cheerleaders for capitalism — who generate endless arguments that greed is not only good but the dominant human motivation — tend to not dwell on the origination of the system, either implying it has always been with us or that it is the “natural” result of development. Critics of capitalism, interestingly, seem much more interested in the system’s origins than are its boosters. Perhaps the bloody history of how capitalism slowly supplanted feudalism in northwest Europe, and then spread through slavery, conquest, colonialism and routine inflictions of brute force makes for a less than appealing picture. It is not for nothing that Marx wrote, “If money … ‘comes into the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek,’ capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.”

bwinbwin, to anarchism

In Marshallese culture, there is a prominent attitude of "Enaaj Emman," which translates loosely to "It will be okay." It is strongly embedded in the culture and people's everyday thinking. If you are ever despondent, somebody is always there to remind you that "enaaj emman." It is a focus on hope and happiness that pervades daily life despite the struggles, setbacks, and disappointments that inevitably happen. People retain this optimism even after being irradiated by nuclear testing by the USGovt throughout the 1950s.

Having lived in the Marshall Islands for eight years, I am acutely aware of the threats and dangers posed by both nuclear waste and fossil fuels.

At this point, I expect to see this country of beautiful coral atolls and generous, gentle people be subsumed by rising sea levels. They are undergoing severe stress at 1.1C and will be completely uninhabitable at 1.5C. We will push past 1.5C by the end of this decade, and I don't think we have enough time, nor are we doing the right things, to reverse the momentum. These islands will be gone, and an entire country and culture will have been displaced or extinguished.

It fills me with profound sadness, especially when I think how it all could have been prevented but for the fraud perpetrated by fossil fuel energy companies and the greed of their executives. And let's not forget about the collusion of our politicians through bribery, nor forget about the perpetuation of the fraud through mass media owned by members of the same bourgeois class.

I understand the need to continue seeking solutions. I hope people create those solutions. Enaaj emman. I appreciate people like @pvonhellermannn who, despite feeling despondent, has provided to us long threads informing us about this crisis. Hope is still alive as Tina Stege, #ClimateEnvoy from the Marshall Islands, impresses upon us in these two posts:

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111482858888081587

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111381241869510068

Yet I am despondent. I am also very angry. My reaction is to want to dislodge and remove the parasitical elites of the 1%, punish them harshly, and completely dismantle their capitalist systems. I despair that billions will have to die before we make that happen. Certainly among the first great wave of casualties will the Marshall Islanders. And that fills me with rage.

It also brings back memories of living in the islands. It's as close to an anarchist way of life as I've ever seen in the world. And I'm now reminded of an elder woman who was asked by another Peace Corps Volunteer, "Who do you think is the best US president?" Her response: "I think President Kennedy was the smartest president. He sent all these young people here so they could learn "mantin majel" (Marshallese custom). There is so much wisdom in that statement, that it resonates even more strongly for me 35 years later. The world needs to learn Mantin Majel and enact its inherent values of peace, cooperation, solidarity, and optimism.

#NuclearWaste #FossilFuels #MarshallIslands #EnaajEmman #COP28 #Capitalism #Anarchism #MantinMajel

bwinbwin,

@pvonhellermannn

From the New York Times, January 20, 2024, waves rush over Roi-Namur, which is an island in Kwajalein Atoll that serves as a military base for the United States. The military base spans Kwajalein Atoll and is referred to as the world's largest catcher's mitt. It serves as a missle testing range for ICBMs launched from California. It is inhabited mostly by non-military scientists who conduct research into radar tracking of missiles, among other research efforts.

Marshallese citizens aren't allowed to live on the military bases leased by the US. They must commute to work on the bases from other islands in the atoll. Most live on Ebjā (aka Ebeye) and take a ferry to and from Kwajalein island.

This wave happened on Roi-Namur, which is an island at the northern tip of the atoll, and also leased as a military base.

If anyone doubts that the Marshall Islands will be uninhabitable by the end of the decade, take a good look at this video: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000009280496/waves-marshall-islands.html .

(Apologies for the NYT link. I don't generally like posting paywalled content providers, but this is an important exception.)

When I see things like this, I am reminded that "Enaaj Emman" never exclusively refers to a particular situation, but rather to our being-in-the-world and considered over a lifetime. The implication being...we persist and we will overcome hardship and calamity, no matter where we end up, together. The cynical part of me, coming from my american cultural roots, can't help but imagine Waterworld. How we will persist in that world together?

bwinbwin,

@pvonhellermannn

Kwajalein Atoll, known as the world's largest catcher's mitt because it "catches" ICBMs launched from California, is the world's largest atoll. The majority of it and the surrounding area is leased by the US military for missile testing and research purposes. (Google Earth is great for exploring this location.)

Kwajalein island, the primary military installation is located at the southernmost tip of the atoll. Roi-Namur, the secondary military installation, is located at the northernmost tip of the atoll. There are several other islands and vast swathes of the lagoon and surrounding ocean under the same lease.

Often left out of discussions about Kwajalein is the islands of Ebadon and Mejatto, located at the westernmost tip of the atoll. Mejatto is the refuge of the Rongelap Atoll people who were irradiated by Castle Bravo--the first testing of a hydrogen bomb---in March, 1954. The Rongelapese have suffered generational ills from this irradiation, and had to be evacuated from their home atoll by Greenpeace after being returned to Rongelap by the US government, having a resurgence of acute illnesses, and the steadfast refusal of the US government to relocate them again. Greenpeace has the story of their tragic journey and relocation: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/victories/rongelap-the-exodus-project/ .

If one understands the plight of the irradiated people's of the Marshall Islands (and other peoples across the planet), one also understands the dangers of nuclear weapons, energy, and waste. Nuclear energy is not what we want as a substitute for fossil fuel energy generation. The word in Marshallese for nuclear radiation and waste is "baijin" (i.e., "poison").

Not only will nuclear power NOT solve our energy crisis or address our anthropogenic climate disruption, it is, in fact, poison.

bwinbwin,

Apparently the storm surges also close airports on Ailinglaplap Atoll, the outer atoll where I lived for three years.

Ailinglaplap was the traditional capital of the Marshall Islands and home to the Paramount Chiefs ("Iroojlaplap") because it's islands are the largest/longest, naturally and without landfill, in the entire country.

The storm closed two of the three airports. The airports are small and made by scraping the reef that lies beneath the six inches of topsoil and sand. The planes that land on the outer island (read: not the urban atolls of Majuro--the current capital--and Kwajalein) airports are small 19-seat planes. Pretty exciting take offs and landings if you enjoy short, unpaved runways in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.mvariety.com/news/regional_world/freak-waves-cause-damage-at-army-base-shut-airports-in-remote-islands/article_6c7050ce-b85b-11ee-87c4-07a643c4792a.html

[Excerpt:]
"MAJURO — Powerful waves, driven by offshore storm surges, hit an important U.S. military installation in the Marshall Islands Saturday night, causing some damage and resulting in evacuation of all 'non-mission personnel' from the island.

"Flooding caused by the waves also hit two airports at Ailinglaplap Atoll, leaving rocks, coral and debris in their wake that will keep those airports closed for weeks. Other islands in this atoll nation were reporting flooding and moderate damage."

...
"Wave swells also seriously flooded islands in Ailinglaplap Atoll, tossing debris onto airfields at Woja and Jeh islands. It likely will take weeks to clear the runways for air service to return. Kili Island, home of the displaced Bikini Islanders, also experienced flooding Saturday-Sunday.

"The elevation of most islands in this atoll nation are in the three-to-six-foot (one-to-two-meter) range. Ocean flooding due to rising sea levels has increased throughout the Marshall Islands in recent years, with dozens of small, “nuisance” inundations on Majuro Atoll, the capital, and other atolls each year. Saturday night’s wave flooding incident at Roi-Namur was a significant escalation over minor ocean inundations seen in the Marshall Islands the past year."

...
"While Kwajalein and Ailinglaplap were dealing with the aftermath of wave-driven ocean flooding, Majuro has been facing an ongoing power crisis for the past two weeks, with numerous extended power outages affecting most parts of the capital atoll. These have resulted from the decline of old generators that constantly break down, leaving the utility company without adequate electrical generating capacity to power the entire atoll."

The Marshall Islands are a harbinger of what's to come from climate change.

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateDisruption #ClimateChaos #MarshallIslands #KwajaleinAtoll #Ailinglaplap Atoll #KeepItInTheGround #NoNukes

VoxofGod, to random

Gotta say,Mastodon is conspicuously silent regarding the Palestinian plight with exception of a few accounts, I think there is #censorship happening

bwinbwin,

@VoxofGod

i won't pretend to know what is happening on your instance, but i've not had any problems with receiving lots of palestinian coverage. maybe try some other instances?

bwinbwin, to israel

@crassuck

is imprisoning children is a joke to you? or do you think the article you linked is an unbiased source of truth that trumps other accounts of the same incident and thought of it as a "dunk"?

you could have posted it without the mocking emojis, which would have given your post an entirely different set of implications/inferences. it would have been respectful, at least. instead you responded in a way that makes you look like an immature debate bro.

@palestine @israel

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