t3rmit3

@t3rmit3@beehaw.org

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t3rmit3 , (edited )

Mostly a really good article. Even when it's very obvious that all groups of people will have (edit:) members who compete for acceptance by white supremacy hierarchy, it's still sad to see it (and is another reminder why I abandoned the bird site).

Random peeve of mine, but I immensely dislike the emergence of "petty bourgeois" instead of "petit" or "petite". There is a lot of meaning behind them being the "little" bourgeois, versus being "petty", which carries a connotation of being insignificant or unimportant, when in fact they are an incredibly important component of class struggle. It feels like dismissing millionaires (and other petit bourgeois) as "temporarily embarrassed billionaires", sort of belying the very dangerous function they fulfill in countering proletariat power.

They're not "ineffective wannabe bourgeois", they are mini-bourgeois; aligned in interest with their bigger bourgeois counterparts, but far greater in number, and far less easy to identify.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

Dang, this is really serious. You don't call in leadership from Boeing and NASA unless there are some serious issues to hammer out, that go beyond engineering.

Coke—and Dozens of Others—Pledged to Quit Russia. They’re Still There. ( www.bloomberg.com )

After Vladimir Putin’s troops surged over the Ukrainian border in February 2022, the Coca-Cola Co. was among the first multinationals to pledge it would quit Russia in protest. Aiming to avoid the inevitable headaches of complying with expected Western sanctions on the Kremlin, Coke asked its partners there to pull its cans...

t3rmit3 ,

Businesses are not moral entities, and the sooner people stop expecting them to be, the sooner people can start pushing for regulations that control and limit them, instead of trying to "work with" them.

t3rmit3 ,

We know by now that the economy doing well won't translate into helping us. And any minor benefits we do see will then be hoovered up by landlords, businesses that gatekeep essential goods, and legally-required expenditures like insurance, before we even have any chance to decide for ourselves how to allocate it.

"Hey, SF raised minimum wages by 2.50? Great! That means I can bump the rent on my non rent-controlled properties by a couple hundred bucks next lease! Thanks, SF!"

t3rmit3 ,

Yep, people sadly are bad at extrapolating how restrictions on something they dislike can be cross-applied to limit things they don't dislike, by others.

t3rmit3 ,

I like "Bees" best. Simple and easy.

t3rmit3 ,

People often decry accelerationism, but the reality is that the slow-boiled frog is the one that sits and dies. Chipping away at freedoms, consumer protections, product benefits, etc is all less likely to spark backlash than when they drop sharply in a short time.

That doesn't mean you should help to make things worse, but it does mean that you may want to reconsider constantly mitigating every bad thing that others are doing, rather than letting them shoot themselves in the foot. When people are being hurt, help them. When people are being inconvenienced, let them get angry.

t3rmit3 ,

"Israel uses the rescue of four of its civilians as cover to kill hundreds of non-Israeli civilians" more accurately conveys the intent here.

t3rmit3 ,

The EFF's response is right on the money, as usual:

Communications platforms are not comparable to unsafe food, unsafe cars, or cigarettes, all of which are physical products—rather than communications platforms—that can cause physical injury. Government warnings on speech implicate our fundamental rights to speak, to receive information, and to think.

There is no scientific consensus that social media is harmful to children's mental health. Social science shows that social media can help children overcome feelings of isolation and anxiety. This is particularly true for LBGTQ+ teens.

We agree that social media is not perfect, and can have negative impacts on some users, regardless of age. But if Congress is serious about protecting children online, it should enact policies that promote choice in the marketplace and digital literacy. Most importantly, we need comprehensive privacy laws that protect all internet users from predatory data gathering and sales that target us for advertising and abuse.

This warning label announcement just feeds into the right-wing "tech platforms bad, full of librul thought, must protect the kids by surveilling everyone and blocking the harmful (minority-focused) content" agenda.

Keep in mind that this is not happening in a vacuum; many states have already put in place age-verification for sites they deem 'harmful' (and California is considering one as well, so it's not just braindead red states getting in on the surveillance action), and this directly makes the argument that social media spaces (and the speech on them) are harmful, and should be subject to government approval.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

I'm confused. Are Feiglin, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich not Israeli?

Him quoting Hitler isn't even the main issue in this case (to me), it's really what he's using the quote to justify, which is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine/ Gaza, which is, as the article demonstrates, a much more broadly-held viewpoint among Israelis, including ones who unarguably do have a lot of political power.

Lastly, if there are not a lot of public quotes condemning this coming out of Israel, for them to quote, isn't that itself kind of a problem?

t3rmit3 ,

Your [judicial bias] is a heartbreaker!

t3rmit3 ,

Sadly, an uninformed populace is a controlled populace, so this aligns with monied interests very well.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

This survey is about people who do not engage with news at all, not just syndicated, local news stations. People in the comments here are likewise also talking about how they don't read any news. What part of my comment did you take to imply I was encouraging people to be uncritical in their choice of news?

Advocating that people distinguish news from propaganda is only something you can do, if you actually read news. If you step away from news altogether, you have by definition lumped actual news and propaganda together as "things you don't engage with".

And if you're not engaging with any (non-propaganda) news, how exactly are you planning to remain informed?

News is:

newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events.

If you get it from another person, who is monitoring news sources, then you're still engaging with news, just second-hand, and without the ability to verify information or choose sources for yourself. If you don't get news, you are by definition 'without noteworthy information especially about recent or important events', i.e. "uninformed".

t3rmit3 , (edited )

This is an extreme acceleration of what is happening in the US as well. Any time employment or compensation is based on research outcomes, it is by definition a monetary incentive to doctor your outcomes.

In China this was down to their ranking system and grant eligibility. In the US this usually happens inside companies (see literally the entire history of DuPont and the research they did, or all the research that is funded by Nestle or Petrochemical companies), or in order to secure or keep tenured positions, or retain grants.

Good research needs to be publicly-funded, and devoid (as much as possible , from a methodological standpoint) of desired outcomes.

t3rmit3 ,

Too bad prices are up 20% on average since 2020, and aren't coming back down. That the 2023-2024 inflation rate is only 3% doesn't matter when wages never caught up with the giant price jumps from the pandemic.

People are still hurting.

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/latest-inflation-statistics/

Prices have risen 20.8% since the pandemic-induced recession began in February 2020, with just 6% of the nearly 400 items the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks cheaper today.

That’s well above the historic average for a four-year period. For comparison, inflation rose 18.9 percent in the 2010s, 28.4 percent in the 2000s and 32.4 percent in the 1990s.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

They're catching up with the recent pace, which is back down (i.e. 3.3%), not the post-2020 pace. It still hasn't caught up.

As you quoted:

Will consumers suddenly feel relieved from the burden of elevated prices? No.

t3rmit3 ,

Your link says, right at the top, under "Key Findings":

Real wages of low-wage workers grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

Not to be rude, but do you even read your own sources?

Wage rates remain insufficient for individuals and families working to make ends meet. Nowhere can a worker at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution earn enough to meet a basic family budget.

It's literally at the top of your article, under "Key Findings", probably because they knew that it's easy to misunderstand statistical data, or to claim it says what you want it to.

So the percentiles you are talking about still cannot keep their heads above water, despite the growth of wages in many of their jobs, and the other percentiles haven't seen that level of wage growth, or have even lost ground to inflation, but you're over here going, "I've got great news for you, you're actually not in a bad financial position, stop taking your actual lived experiences over my big numbers!"

t3rmit3 ,

Don't be deceived. This person is misrepresenting statistics.

Here's the link they provided me about their claims about the low-end wage growth:

https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/

This is where they're getting their 35% claims from.

And here's what it says under Key Findings:

Wage rates remain insufficient for individuals and families working to make ends meet. Nowhere can a worker at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution earn enough to meet a basic family budget.

t3rmit3 ,

Don't be deceived. This person is misrepresenting statistics.

Here's the link they provided me about their claims about the low-end wage growth:

https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/

This is where they're getting their 35% claims from.

And here's what it says under Key Findings:

Wage rates remain insufficient for individuals and families working to make ends meet. Nowhere can a worker at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution earn enough to meet a basic family budget.

t3rmit3 ,

So, no actual answer then. Got it.

t3rmit3 ,

Bruh, you are throwing around back of the napkin math, and you are not impressing anyone with it.

Your own sources say that the groups who saw the most wage gains are still unable to make a livable wage.

It is not a healthy economy or society.

You are obfuscating.

t3rmit3 ,

I don't think anyone here is claiming Biden is attempting to hurt the economy? I certainly haven't seen that.

But he is also not some kind of economic saviour, and most of the changes to the economy are not under his control anyways.

But you're the one who is trying to claim 1) the economy is good, 2) Biden is to thank.

t3rmit3 ,

I understand the difference between nominal wages and inflation-adjusted just fine. That you keep using the nominal wage increase of 35% is dishonest, without providing any context, which you keep not doing, or even directly claiming it was Biden's doing, which it was not:

wages have gone up hugely..., which was Biden’s doing

Wage growth at the bottom happened because low-wage workers realized during the pandemic that they could survive without their bottom-wage jobs, which gave them the leverage to demand higher wages when bottom-wage jobs opened back up.

t3rmit3 ,

My disagreement with the post's article is that it is conflating the stock market with the economy, and the financial news sector is pushing this narrative very hard, or even saying it openly.

My issues with the article you linked about wages, in the comments, is that you're omissively citing bits and pieces to different people in order to support the idea that the economy is doing well, as the post article claims, when the post article is really about the stock market, not wages or living standards.

If the wage growth at the bottom 10th percentile doesn't mean they're not fucked, why would you even cite it?

t3rmit3 , (edited )

The bottom 10th percentile covers people making less than $22,880, according to BLS.

That firmly excludes the median mode of American households, by wages. The vast majority of Americans were not helped by that number. Is it good that it happened? Yeah, absolutely. It wasn't Biden though. And it isn't most Americans. And it isn't the economy as a whole.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

So let me ask, if the actual people are "still fucked", why post articles claiming that our economy is the "envy of the world"?

t3rmit3 , (edited )

Wait, are "times tough", or are we in a "great" position, economically? I can't keep up.

But in all seriousness, this all boils down to a simple truth:

Low and middle-class workers today are in far worse positions than our parents' generation(s).

We can't afford homes. We can't afford childcare. We can't afford healthcare. Many of us can't even afford food consistently.

That is where we are at, bottom-line.

Arguing about percentage gains among certain groups belies the fact that this is a shitty economic system, that funnels money upwards.

Do we sometimes claw back a few steps? Sure. But praising the 2 steps forward, while ignoring the previous 10 steps back, just comes across as caping for it.

One particularly depressing graph is home ownership among Millennials. As of 2019, that number sits at 43.3%. But in the year 2000, that number was 20%. The oldest millennials were born in 1981, which means they were 19 years old in 2000.

So at minimum, HALF of the Millennials who own homes now, were rich kids who had their homes bought for them as highschool grads. And that was just the ones literally born in 1981-82. How many of the new millennial home owners are just rich kids who were younger millennials?

This economy is fucked.

I'm sure boiling frogs appreciate when you reduce the heat by a couple degrees, but it doesn't mean they're in a good position.

t3rmit3 ,

implicitly blaming Biden for everything that’s happened throughout generations of neoliberal betrayal of the American dream

No dude, I have literally blamed Biden for nothing. He has no blame, but also no credit, because he doesn't control the economy.

t3rmit3 ,

Just because something is built out of love does not make it safe, and attestation is about safety. You wouldn't trust an un-attested surgical device, just because there's a really positive community around its design.

Signal is a life-or-death app for some people.

Israel added to UN ‘List of Shame’ for abuses against children in war, joining Palestinian Armed Groups, Russia, Sudanese Forces ( www.hrw.org )

For the first time, the United Nations secretary-general added the Israeli armed forces to the “list of shame” of warring parties committing grave violations against children in armed conflict. Although long overdue, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ action was fully justified....

t3rmit3 ,

If nothing else, it's useful to see the double-standard laid so bare.

8,700 child casualties in a 7-year period when there is ostensibly no war going on, but that's not enough to condemn them.

Noticably, that works out to a little more than 1,200 casualties a year, just of children, meaning adult women and men were not even counted.

But of course that specific number is only shocking, and only justifies defensive action, when Hamas does it.

t3rmit3 ,

It was always just a distraction to divert news from asking who was stopping aid getting in, by giving them a narrative about "need to build this pier first". Sleight of hand for propagandists to exploit.

t3rmit3 ,

Also expect them to argue that self defense laws don't apply to women against their husbands.

t3rmit3 , (edited )

Heigh-ho, welcome to Beehaw!

Do you have any recommendations for a newbie at Beehaw to make the most of my experience here?

Comments invite comments. If there's a post you see that is interesting but has no comments, if you make one it is much more likely to bring in others to discuss.

Are there any non-obvious Communities I should join? I’m looking for friends and fun. Where do?

Really depends on your interests. Unless you don't play games at all, I'd recommend the Gaming community as one of the most active interest-based communities.

Beehaw feels a little lonely. Not a lot of activity.

I think that for some of us, Beehaw is a nice quiet respite from the "loudness" elsewhere on the net, especially as many of us are refugees from Reddit. Speaking only for myself, over the years I've killed my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and only maintain a private Instagram for a few family and friends. Beehaw is somewhere I lurk daily, and it doesn't feel like I'm being inundated with "content" like I was on Reddit or Imgur.

I sort of think of it like a 'home base', that I can come back to to relax after foraying out into the broader and 'wilder' social media and news worlds.

t3rmit3 ,

Actually this case was a two-pronged attack; first on mifepristone, but more broadly about whether federal agencies have the authority to conduct regulatory actions without express and specific direction and permission from Congress.

Republicans have been attacking this fundamental function of the Executive branch for a while now, as a way to kill regulations. They know that Congress is deadlocked over many issues and that it will never or rarely pass highly specific and technical regulations (e.g. environmental regulations, water quality standards, manufacturing safety regulations, communications rules, etc), and when it rarely does it takes years to do so, which will allow companies to do all sorts of horrible shit in the meantime.

This case was brought on the grounds that the FDA didn't have the authority to authorize mifepristone without express congressional direction.

This was a huge relief, because much more than just access to contraceptives was on the table.

t3rmit3 ,

Better late than never. Kudos to him.

The credit system is a scam, and shouldn't exist.

t3rmit3 ,

Not only humans can use language to impart abstract concepts. Crows have been observed sharing information about danger to crows who are not present to witness the danger themselves, but then successfully recognize it in the future. They've also been found to be able to create tools they have not seen before in order to solve problems.

Koko the gorilla was also famous for her abstract thinking. Others species include dolphins and elephants, and obviously we haven't tested most species out there.

Hong Kong arrests three for 'insulting' Chinese anthem: They were turning their backs, remained seated when China's national anthem was played prior to a football match ( www.france24.com )

Football fans in Hong Kong used to boo the national anthem as a show of political discontent, but the government in 2020 banned the practice as part of a wider crackdown following huge democracy protests in the city....

t3rmit3 , (edited )

I can't tell if China wants to be Texas, or Texas wants to be China?

*Sips tea* "Nationalism."

t3rmit3 ,

Y'all got one of these cool diy projects for killing whiteflies? xD

t3rmit3 , (edited )

Because you don't like the truth?

“I think it’s so important to understand how immigration enforcement has been a pillar of the Democratic party’s governance for three decades,” activist and scholar of border imperialism Harsha Walia told Intercepted podcast in February 2021, when it was already becoming clear that Biden’s tenure would hardly see the undoing of the border regime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsha_Walia

Harsha Walia is a Canadian activist and writer based in Vancouver. She has been involved with No one is illegal, the February 14 Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eastside housing justice coalitions. Walia has been active in immigration politics, Indigenous rights, feminist, anti-racist, anti-statist, and anti-capitalist movements for over a decade.

Walia is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013) and Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (2021), co-author of Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration (2015), and Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (2019). She has also contributed to over thirty academic journals, anthologies, magazines, and newspapers.

I feel this person knows what she is talking about.

t3rmit3 ,

Apologies, I am just very used to seeing knee-jerk reactions denying Biden's culpability for his actions, and clearly I've developed some knee-jerk reactions of my own that I need to work on.

t3rmit3 ,

They just need to gamify it. Have a "Verified Accurate Alt-Text Submissions" leaderboard or something.

t3rmit3 OP ,

I believe they prefer the term "orange cream soda" now, rather than 'white' or 'orange' separately, in order to be more inclusive.

t3rmit3 OP ,

Yes, obviously they are not actually changing their actual view(s) at all; their only actual view is "what we do is right, what 'others' do is wrong". That stays forever unchanged, it's just their outward-facing rhetoric that changes.

The laws around felons and felonies is a whole 'nother discussion. It's an arbitrary category that differs by state, and was only really created in order to give a veneer of legality for punishing certain groups more harshly. But yes, I'd vote for Debs in a heartbeat.

t3rmit3 OP ,

Their only real view is that They are Right and Good, and Others are Wrong and Bad.

t3rmit3 OP ,

Conservatives never intended white people to become felons, but they also can't give away the game by admitting that.

t3rmit3 ,

Deez GNUs

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