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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • It’s grim. Obviously twitter still holds sway over a lot of people. And spreading malinformed propaganda is bad.

    But it really underlines that anyone with any conscience whatsoever needs to disengage from it. It’s not okay for governments to engage with it. And though I don’t suggest that capital cares has any sort of conscience, but engaging with it has been increasing in cost and decreasing in benefit. NPR recently left, for example, and saw nearly no impact whatsoever. So the cost of leaving is low.

    Ideally people would deny it any money, advertising or otherwise, until it ceases functioning. I suspect Musk will continue to be a delusional asshole for years to come. But at least twitter will be dead and gone.


  • I feel like good government has a role in preventing this. Is access to the new Willow TV series of moral imperative? Perhaps not. But should Disney, or anyone else, be allowed to produce content for clicks with the express purpose of disintegrating it 8 weeks later? I think the audience, writers, cast, crew, and creative executives would all agree that’s a no. I think only the accountants would say yes to this question.

    This is the same reason that copyright exists, and why Disney has fought so hard against it all these years. Works of significant cultural value cannot be entrusted to the hands of a profit seeking cadre. And civil society has an important role in preventing that from happening. Obviously the 150 year, or whatever it is, copyright expiration is not going to save us here. But this is a very analogous fight. I think legislation has got a role to play in it.




  • I know it’s not easy, but something that has helped me in a similar but not identical situation is to refuse to think about work outside of work. I was up last night worrying about work. So I know it’s not a perfect strategy, but trying to lock your mind against it is helpful. Or has been to me. I try the “yes, this is a ‘problem’ but not a problem for right now. I deserve to only have to try and figure it out on the clock.”

    My subsidiary strategy is to try and have a fun mental game to play with myself. I’m a Star Wars guy so I try: If x was different how would Episode Y play out. Or what would my ideal zombie videogame look like. Essentially something that is “unimportant,” that I like, that has a lot of factors to consider. #1 to enjoy thinking about, and #2 that is complex enough and detailed enough to supply me with an “endless” well of stuff to prevent the scaries from sneaking in.