I saw something this week I haven't seen in a while: a truck with a crudely taped lettering job on its back window that read "FREEDOM".

It reminded me how selfish the so-called freedom convoy's definition of freedom is, and how narrow a view of freedom it takes to be associated with gas-guzzling pickup trucks.

It made me think about hiring a graphic designer to make a bold-yet-elegant lettering design for my car's back window that reads "Responsibility".

@Dade_Murphy Yes, social media became yet another extension of giving momentum to what's already popular (eg celebrity culture) -- rather than giving momentum to what's right (true, honourable, moral, etc.).

Early on, I learned so much on Twitter, connecting with ideas and communities I had no previous way to access. But there was always this shadow side...and that shadow side is now pretty much all that's left.

Social media are designed to convince everyone using them that they're right. Any ideas which contradict an individual's prevailing narrative(s) are revealed in bad-faith "take-downs" because the algorithm knows that's what drives engagement.

CoSo is not wired like this, which is why we're here, and why we support it.

It is an anomaly.

There is a lot of money to be made by getting people mired in conspiracy theories, ruining their mental health, and/or destroying their relationships.

@redenigma This speaks to the phenomenon of siloed echo chambers which existed far before social media, and their AI-driven algorithms, but which the new technologies have radically accelerated.

Capitalism doesn't doesn't seem less eager to engage in conflict, incarceration, exploitation or repression.

Everything that has happened on the watch of the global West (or North) is a result of capitalism.

Indeed, to me it seems at least as worthy of being a buzzword-boogeyman as communism.

We're in a strange cultural epoch where a growing number of people are challenging the mind/body split which originated in antiquity, and a number of other people (or sometimes, even more bizarrely, the same people) are reinforcing it.

This is part of the interaction, experimentation and exploration of AI: what does it mean to be intelligence without a body?

Or potentially much more importantly: can consciousness exist without a body?

"I am large, I contain multitudes."
-- Walt Whitman

Curate your attention like it's the most important thing you have.

Because it is.

It really is.

Oof. This is a clear articulation of a clear, palpable, global problem, and awareness is a good start. But how do you fix a problem when the problem is pre-emptively breaking all the potential solutions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5mozrUgbkc

@feloneouscat Stepping on the same rake again and again is a bold strategy.

Let's see if it pays off for him.

Headline on Dezeen: 'Kohler's Anthem shower controls give users a "truly immersive showering experience"'

I don't know about you, but to me a fully immersive experience while taking a shower sounds unnecessarily dangerous!

@MLClark By treating our "them" as a hivemind, our "us" moves toward becoming a hivemind, and that makes us much more susceptible to group-think manipulation.

@redenigma This realisation works on so many levels.

People whose rhetoric comes from a ideological position with limited factual grounding assume that everyone else is arguing that way, too.

People who believe that might makes right assume that they're fighting against a whole social order which believes the same thing.

Selfish people assume the least generous interpretations of others' words and actions.

Accusations are confessions.

Projection runs deep.

Whatever the concern being discussed -- from economics, to politics, to social needs -- it's generally being argued only in opposition to its shadow(s).

It's less about candidly stating what an ideology stands for, and what it's doing, it's more about speculating on the nefarious plots it is supposedly preventing. As polarisation becomes more pronounced, an in-group's conjecture about an out-group's (ulterior) motives is given greater latitude.

Fixating on the shadows never reveals the light.

@Kittiekatt53 The actual labour cannot be that different. Carting around a heavy contraption vs scraping the ground with a fancy stick.

Do all the costs really outweigh the benefits?

Not to me, they don't.

When I was a kid, leaf-blowers were much more simple, a lot quieter, and they expelled way less carbon into the environment.

They were called rakes.

@thewebrecluse I think this represents a trend in directing. It is reflected in a lot of current storytelling.

Like, I just watched Fear the Night with Maggie Q, and she has that vibe.

Zoe Saldana has that too in Lioness. And Rosamund Pike in Wheel of Time.

Is there something in this about pushing against the trope of women being "too emotional?" Or perhaps there is such a strong fear of over-acting that we're now deep into the "under-acting" swing of the pendulum?

It's...interesting.

@Pat_Walrond The subtitles are not an advertisement for a company promising accurate, on-the-fly translation.

@DJNoneYa In another place, he was quoted as saying confidential confession is a practice that has exited for 2,000yrs.

If that's the basis for this resistance, and he can't prove it, then what? Because the "seal of confession" is not found in the origins of Christianity.

@DJNoneYa In Canada, everyone has a duty to report abuse. This is especially clear for teachers, community leaders and clergy.

Duty to report isn't an attack on the church. Abuse is an attack on the church. Protecting abusers is an attack on humanity.

Clergy can go to jail if they wish. Conservatives cannot be allowed to jeopardise the lives and welfare of the vulnerable.

@Gardenthymeherbs I decided to start with The Pale Blue Dot.

I'll share some of my reflections as I go.

I'm intrigued by Carl Sagan. Does anyone have a book of his you'd recommend starting with?