Mastodawn

McCrankyface

@McCrankyface@beige.party

110 Followers

532 Following

2.1K Posts

Profile picture is a self portrait.
Header is the Niagara river a couple of miles down from the falls.

Just some old white guy from southern Illinois living in the northern suburbs of St Louis Missouri.

Inveterate curmudgeon
Burnt out infosec engineer
Anarchist in training
AI deprecator
Neurodivergent, apparently (whatever that means)
Adept practitioner of maladaptive behavior

I curse a lot

#BlackLivesMatter
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
#StLouis
#SouthernIllinois
#Missouri sucks
#FuckTrump

McCrankyface 3h ago

Cordelya 23h ago

Hey fedi.
I have a young Black acquaintance who is involved in research of pre-17th century African (Malian, to be more specific) cultures and clothing as a hobby, and he's having difficulty showcasing his work on Facebook because it brings out the rancid racist filth in the comments.

I know there are a few fedi instances that are by and for Black folks - I told him I would ask for some recommendations on his behalf. Seeking someplace that will appreciate the work he's doing.

McCrankyface 3h ago

this is so fucking funny to me idk why

#shitpost

McCrankyface 3h ago

Velocirooster adminensis

Air Travel: For when you absolutely positively must step in pee pee

McCrankyface 3h ago

☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭3h ago

#socialism #communism #capitalism #anarchism #anarchy #marxism #anticapitalism #revolution #classwar #politics

McCrankyface 3h ago

Velocirooster adminensis

THIS IS A TEST!

This is a test of the polling system. Please vote, especially if you are outside of beige.party. I'm trying to prove a theory that since v4.3.4 polls with more than 4 options only record votes from the local instance.

Who's your #1 muse?

	Calliope
	Clio
	Polyhymnia
	Euterpe
	Terpsichore
	Erato
	Melpomene
	Thalia
	Urania

Poll ends at May 14 at 11:18pm.

McCrankyface 4h ago

Ricki Crush Bandicute Tarr 4h ago

Surprise comes from the words Syrup Prize. In the late 1700's, it was a practice to leave Syrup on your neighbors stoop as a treat in the winter.

McCrankyface 4h ago

Velocirooster adminensis

THIS IS A TEST!

This is a test of the polling system. Please vote, especially if you are outside of beige.party. I'm trying to prove a theory that since v4.3.4 polls with more than 4 options only record votes from the local instance. This poll is the control.

What's your favorite temper?

	Woe
	Frolic
	Dread
	Malice

Poll ends at May 14 at 11:16pm.

McCrankyface 11h ago

Bread and Circuses 14h ago

#Capitalism is a heartless monster, killing everything that stands in the way of profits.

McCrankyface 11h ago

Church of Jeff 11h ago

#MAGA #Trump #Project2025 #ThisIsFascism #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #14thAmendment #1stAmendment #GunOwners #2A #1A #disappeared #KilmarAbregoGarcias #GreenCard #Deportation #Immigration #USConstitution #ThisIsWhatYouVotedFor #ElectionsHaveConsequences #PunchNazis

McCrankyface 14h ago

Maj - 🇨🇦1d ago

I thought I was beyond being surprised by the level of stupidity being reached by the US government.

Surprise!

#USpol #libraries #usfed

×

XKCD Bot Apr 25

#3081 - PhD Timeline

When XKCD gets explicitly political, I'm reaaaaal nervous about the state of the world.

#StopICE
#DueProcessRights
#FuckTrump

ollibaba Apr 25

@xkcd The term "PhD defense" has gotten a new scary meaning.

Jargoggles Apr 25

@ollibaba @xkcd
https://xkcd.com/1403/

Thesis Defense

xkcd

@ollibaba @xkcd I would take a snake over ICE any day https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense

FAQ: The “Snake Fight” Portion of Your Thesis Defense

Q: Do I have to kill the snake? A: University guidelines state that you have to “defeat” the snake. There are many ways to accomplish this. Lots o...

McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Marina Epelman Apr 25

@xkcd a slight hope for good news... https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/federal-fallout/ice-backs-down-says-it-will-restore-status-of-thousands-of-foreign-students-dhs-f-1-visa/65-82a2bd69-3cce-408f-91cd-f80f065b00dd

Before you continue to YouTube

@marinaepelman @xkcd
The bad news is this should never have been permitted in the first place.

@glutto @marinaepelman @xkcd they are arresting judges now.

@demofox @glutto @marinaepelman @xkcd Sounds like something out of the playbook of some CIA-installed fascist state in Latin America. Next step is house arrest for the SCOTUS for stepping out of line. After that, civil war is easily the LESSER evil.

Scott D. Strader 😐Apr 25

@xkcd → Judge never intervenes because they've been arrested.

@sstrader @xkcd
..by masked government agents.

RowinSpeez Apr 25

@xkcd ???? = prison profits

CharyouTree Apr 25

#fascism #disappearances #concentration-camps #xkcd

Weird Socks Apr 25

@xkcd
This

The US Empire is doing at home what it has been doing others for decades.

Because not enough American's spoke out then.

Don_Rubiel Apr 26

@rzeta0 @xkcd Like no one was arrested for the thousand of immigrant kids abused at the border, and still people voted again for him... they knew what he is capable of, they just didn't care cause he attacked brown people https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/immigrant-children-sexual-abuse.html

Thousands of Immigrant Children Said They Were Sexually Abused in U.S. Detention Centers, Report Says

There were 4,556 allegations in four years, including a rise in complaints during the Trump administration’s family separation policy.

The New York Times

Retepkce 🐈Apr 25

@xkcd they have a GESTAPO, they are preparing lists of diseased people/ neurodivergent people, they have concentration camps... but can it be called Fascism? /sarcasm

Rpsu (326 ppm)Apr 25

@xkcd Taking USA back to the Stone Age is well on track with the new policies and practices.

Florian Schmidt Apr 25

@xkcd
Since it's not linked: This is a really serious one.
https://xkcd.com/3081/
#xkcd #PhD #FreedomOfScience #HabeasCorpus #xkcd3081

PhD Timeline

xkcd

@schmidt_fu @xkcd There’s a bare face in the video of that assault. Who is this GESTAPO son of a bitch?

DrALJONES Apr 26

This might get more boosts if you leave out accusations of criminality & nazism. It's not that I disagree, but... shadowbanning (edit: call it "limiting" if you like) happens over even milder posts.

InfinityVerified

@DrALJONES @su_liam that is not a thing in mastodon, by definition, you need an algorithm to shadow-ban. There might be federation issues, happens sometimes, but most of the time people just didn't see or care

DrALJONES Apr 26

Hmm. What makes you so sure?

I respectfully disagree. Call it "limiting" if you like. People's posts & accounts can be hidden (eg, from some users) on very debateable grounds.

And it doesn't require an algorithm: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_banning

Shadow banning - Wikipedia

InfinityVerified

@DrALJONES @su_liam that would be straight up moderation. Blocking, defederating, etc are not shadow-banning. User-side tools like word filters and silencing or blocking wouldn't fit either even on the loosest definition of a shadow-ban.

The second paragraph of the linked wikipedia page acknowledges the definition I was thinking about as an evolution of the term, and I think it's the one that applies more often on modern social networks. The "algorithm hell" is definitely the most commonly used definition I've seen.

Regardless of the definition you like the most, on the fediverse you can't just get hidden from the masses, without knowing it, for talking about sensitive topics. You can be moderated, but if you don't like your instance or it's defederated you can just migrate to a more visible one.

DrALJONES Apr 27

Re "on the fediverse you can't just get hidden from the masses, without knowing it"

Thanks for your thoughts. I'd like to see hard policy statements on the question (not asking you to show them to me), as people's personal opinions can be wrong (not saying yours is).

Re. "straight up moderation... User-side tools wouldn't fit either even on the loosest definition of a shadow-ban"

No, i'm not referring to these....

InfinityVerified

@DrALJONES well then I have no clue by what do you mean by "shadowbanning" ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Here's how the fediverse and, by extension, mastodon servers work with each other:
https://w3c.github.io/activitypub/

And here your server's rules, which is the hardest policy you can get:
https://mastodon.social/about

Anything else is conspiracy theories, corrupted mods, or non-activitypub compliant server software.

ActivityPub

DrALJONES Apr 27

I don't want to pursue this issue without due cause, and I'm not asking you to resolve it.

As I mentioned, I've noted lots of accounts flagged by Mastodon as "hidden", for which, on inspection, the reason isn't apparent. Of course I can't tell what the offense was that prompted the hiding.

Have all "hidden" account holders been informed that their posts aren't visible to all users? Is this a stated policy available to all users?

My enqiry is observation, not conspiracy-theory, based.

Tenderheart.Treasures.Ky Apr 25

@xkcd What has happened to our country

Linda 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇮🇹Apr 25

@TenderheartTreasuresKy @xkcd The origins of fascism in the United States date back to the late 19th century with the passage of Jim Crow laws in the American South, the rise of the eugenicist discourse in the U.S., and the intensification of nativist and xenophobic hostility towards immigrants. The underbelly has always been there. Trump and his acolytes have just emboldened them to come out from the shadows.

Poloniousmonk Apr 26

@Lassielmr @TenderheartTreasuresKy @xkcd

The nazis learned from us, and Hitler openly wished he was able to do in Germany things that were legal and commonplace in 1920s America.

@Lassielmr @TenderheartTreasuresKy @xkcd We *inspired* the Nazis. Hitler had a picture of Ford hanging by his desk. And it goes way beyond "just" racism (as if that weren't terrible enough on its own). To this day, 31 states have laws *explicitly* legalizing the forced sterilization of autistic people.

Tenderheart.Treasures.Ky Apr 26

@hosford42 @Lassielmr @xkcd I REALLY want to read on THIS-- can you direct me on the laws/bills?

@TenderheartTreasuresKy @Lassielmr @xkcd

I don't have links to the actual laws, but there are multiple sources documenting it. Here's a few I grabbed with a quick search. I'm sure you can get specifics if you take the time to search particular states listed here.

https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/%C6%92.NWLC_SterilizationReport_2022_Appendix.pdf

https://19thnews.org/2022/02/forced-sterilization-guardianship-reproductive-justice/

https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/sres703/BILLS-118sres703is.pdf

CuriousMatter Apr 26

@hosford42 @TenderheartTreasuresKy @Lassielmr @xkcd There was just a story on the local public radio about how my state passed, but the Governor would not sign, a eugenic sterilization act. I found more info here: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/veto-of-eugenics-law/

Veto of Pennsylvania Eugenics Law

Teaching American History

Tenderheart.Treasures.Ky Apr 26

@CuriousMatter @hosford42 @Lassielmr @xkcd Thank you So much

Andreas K Apr 26

@hosford42 @Lassielmr @TenderheartTreasuresKy @xkcd Well, Ford was a big admirer, who also gave freely to the Nazi cause.

If we go with the stuff that is very well documented:

* the Ford Werke gave Hitler's birthday present 1939.
* the Ford Werke produced about one third of the critical important trucks for the Nazi Army.
* Ford get the highest award Nazi Germany gave to foreigners.
* Ford even was mentioned positively in Mein Kampf.
* Ford was raging antisemitic.

Andreas K Apr 26

Now it seems the NSDAP was "surprisingly" well funded, and a number of gossip rags like the NYT mentioned that the "rumor" is that a certain "Henry Ford" is behind that.

But hey, on the right extreme that seems more common than many realise, the current #noafd seems to be very unlucky with getting caught repeatedly getting illegal contributions from outside the EU. And they are also surprisingly flush with money.

Tenderheart.Treasures.Ky Apr 26

@Lassielmr @xkcd truth

VHG 🇪🇺🇺🇦Apr 25

@xkcd #xkcd goes politics. Times that serious.

doesnotcompute Apr 25

@xkcd PROFIT

quangobaud Apr 25

@xkcd
For this, I can forgive XKCD for fan-nerding over Musk ...

... okay ... that's actually still pending ...

InfinityVerified

@xkcd Espero de verdad que este tío tenga un plan sólido de huida, no sé si yo me hubiera atrevido a publicar esta viñeta desde dentro de las fronteras de USA. En cualquier caso, mis respetos

@xkcd nobody will tell you your rights. from now on it will be better to not enter the U.S.
Especially when you are a scientist or anyone with any knowledge. The U.S. is taken over by a gang of nitwits and not safe anymore. Anyone you meet in the streets could be carrying a loaded gun. Look out for tattoo's with confederate flags: they are "Donald" gang members. Keep a low profile: don't show your university diploma because it's suspect to know anything.

Evan Prodromou Apr 26

@xkcd #FreeRumeysa

GhostOnTheHalfShell Apr 26

Xkcd has come into the age of color. What will be next talkies?

Chaucerburnt Apr 26

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @xkcd that happened a while back: https://xkcd.com/689/

FIRST Design

xkcd

🦊 🍸Faux around & find out⚠️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Apr 26

@xkcd
I hate this new reality.