Mastodawn

Obligatory nature pic, lol, they said cautiously as daily active users continued to decline on the platform that was once a beacon of light in an internet otherwise dominated by corporate algorithms. Just #foodforthought
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#visual #hegemony #artlessly #enables #platform #stagnation #causing #alienation of #niche #creators #making #originalart #stuck #sharing #more #loweffort #aesthetic #monoculture #content #asalways for #conformity #holding #amirrordarkly to #aihaters #complicit in #disappearing #humanmade #art

Assoc for Scottish Literature 6d ago

“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.”

Shipyard union leader James Reid was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow in 1971. He gave his rectorial address #OTD, 28 April, 1972. The New York Times reprinted it, & called it the greatest political speech since the Gettysburg Address. Read it online at

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_167194_smxx.pdf

#Scottish #literature #politics #alienation #politicalspeech #Glasgow #GlasgowUniversity #TradesUnions #workingclass #WorkingClassHistory

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Paul Healey Apr 20

@tef @vfig @EndlessMason Certainly work can be thought of as a pleasure or a burden to some degree. Intensive production whether manual or automated accelerates #alienation and #conflict Overproduction is not sustainable and idleness does not produce creativity. All, is not for the best if people don’t do their best for each other. If just for a very few technology serves and protects those who abuse and destroy capital. Work, is for the worst! The good is for the many, the worst is for the few.

Paul Healey Apr 19

‘The art of logic therefore being (as we have mentioned), too late a precaution,[1] and in no way remedying[7] the matter, has tended more to confirm errors, than to disclose truth. Our only remaining hope and salvation is to begin the whole labor of the mind again; not leaving it to itself, but directing it perpetually from the very first, and attaining our end as it were by mechanical aid.’ Lord Bacon’s MCMII, Novum Organon #Art #Logic #Philosophy #Mechanisation #Experimentation #Alienation #Ai #ApocalypseEmpires #AbnormalEthics #ForItsOwnSake !

To the autonomous control of information, Artificial Information and the colonial destruction of Worlds? https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Novum Organum, by Lord Bacon

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bebatjof 🇵🇸Apr 18

🔹 Alienation. (This was super well put.) The worker creates the product, but doesn't own the product. The moment the product is finished, the worker loses their relation to it. The product becomes more valuable than the worker, and thus more powerful. So the more the worker works, the more he loses value and power. The objectification of labour means the loss of realisation for workers.

This reminded me a lot of the Rana Plaza disaster (garment-factory building in Bangladesh that collapsed, killing more than 1000 workers). These workers make clothes, absolutely not for themselves, and their lives are valued less than the product.

#Marxism #RanaPlaza #alienation

Miguel Afonso Caetano Apr 9

"Chatbots can be regarded as subjects without subjectivity because they lack those characteristics that make us actual subjects in the first place: biographically shaped trajectories of the past, which are themselves preconditions for self-reflection and, with it, for efforts at social transformation. AI’s responses do not arise from actual experience but from the statistical aggregation of other people’s pasts.

Whereas human subjectivity essentially involves reflection on one’s own past and is therefore capable of self-transformation, the chatbot merely reproduces the dominant thinking of the documented past. In this sense, it tends toward the stabilization and reproduction of the status quo.

For instance, as highlighted by AI ethics expert Zinnya del Villar, language models like GPT and BERT often associate jobs such as “nurse” with women and “scientist” with men, reflecting stereotypes embedded in their training data from historical texts and media. Similarly, when trained on past hiring examples rife with bias — such as résumés favoring men for technical roles — these systems perpetuate gender discrimination by filtering applications in ways that reinforce outdated norms, rather than innovating beyond them through critical reflection."

https://jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-critical-thinking-chatbots-subjectivity

#AI #LLMs #Chatbots #GenerativeAI #CriticalThinking #Alienation

Movements Need the Critical Thinking That AI Destroys

Struggles against oppression start with people critically reflecting on their experiences. What happens to such struggles when we outsource our thinking to AI and replace human interlocutors with sycophantic chatbots?

Lindsay Douglas Apr 4

A snippet from a poem I wrote a few months ago for my Substack publication, Dear Two Daughters. A place where I write open letters and poetry to my two estranged teenage daughters.

Please take some time to click on the link below and enjoy my poem, free of charge. If you like it, please consider subscribing (free!) and liking, sharing, and commenting on my work so that more people will see it. Your support means everything to me.

You can enjoy my poem here: https://open.substack.com/pub/deartwodaughters/p/today-i-woke-up-crying?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=35z54g

#OpenLetter #Poetry #Poem #Poet #Estranged #Parenting #Alienation #CustodyCourt

Lindsay Douglas Apr 4

From my recent open letter to my estranged teenage daughters. From my secondary publication on Substack, Dear Two Daughters.

Please take a moment to click on the link below and give my letter a read, like, share, and comment. I'm working towards getting these letters out into the world and your support means the world to me.

This piece is titled 'Just another empty week' and it is very close and dear to my heart. In it, I highlight the ambivalent nature of the longterm and complex grief of parental alienation and domestic abuse. I also talk about how the weight of grief shifts over time.

Please read my open letter here: https://open.substack.com/pub/deartwodaughters/p/just-another-empty-week?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=35z54g

#OpenLetter #Estrangement #Isolation #Grief #ParentalAlienation #Alienation #DomesticViolence #DomesticAbuse #Divorce #CustodyCourt #FamilyCourt

Rob Williamson Apr 4

Reading the OpenClaw README.md SMH wondering, "who would want this?". Then seeing the list of sponsors, and wondering, "why do they want this?".

What the fuck is this about?

I know I'm not like other folk. When the Nokia Lumia phone went to market, I was wondering why the CEO was talking about its polycarbonate case, like why would anyone care about the box their computer comes in? Apparently, people do care about that shit. And they like self-hosted gambling. 🤷

#OpenClaw #Alienation