how many times have you had covid?

(boost for reach! im genuinely curious)

I've seen a lot of voices saying that " #Mastodon does not need to grow to be successful", and "we don't need to put in more effort to welcome new users", and frankly this attitude is pissing me off.

"The reason that social media did not work as promised is not because we misunderstood the nature of the internet and the possibilities of digital connectivity, but because oligarchs took over the digital space."

If there is any chance of using social media as a force for democracy, we desperately need a system that _cannot_ be taken over by the oligarchs. And, right now, the #Fediverse is the best candidate for this.

Thus, there is homework that needs to be done. We cannot just rest on our laurels and proclaim that the tech is already good enough, and that the #Fediverse tech approach somehow magically solves all the problems of other social media platforms. We need to get away from the overwhelmingly white male European/North American user base and look for ways on how to increase #BIPOC user participation - not to mention participation of users from Asia, Africa, and South America.

If we try to maintain the Fediverse as the home of a small, incestuous group of people with a particular tech slant, the oligarchs will win.

https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23896050/protest-decade-2010-revolutionary-handbook-vincent-bevins-arab-spring-brazil-occupy-hong-kong

Gender-affirming care—for ADULTS—is now predictably under attack in #Texas. This is part of a Republican plan of genocide underway against #trans people. We need cis allies to be loud and angry on our behalf. Pay attention, this doesn't end here or with us:

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/25/transgender-health-care-legislature/ via @texastribune

#LGBTQIA+ #transgender #transphobia #HumanRights #Healthcare #news #Politics #TXlege #USpol #gender

So it looks like both ChatGPT and Bard contain the same kind of gendered biases people have been trying to warn you about for at least 8 years, since word2vec was cutting edge.

Here's a screenshot of an interaction between myself and google bard, in which bard displays gendered prejudicial bias of associating "doctor" with "he" and "nurse" with "she."

Again, this is… This is old, basic shit, y'all. People have been warning you about this since GloVe. What are you DOING??

Or, more to the point, why are you NOT DOING what you know you NEED to do?

I'm sorry but this is just the funniest shit ever.

These losers were mad that celebs had checkmarks and they didn't. Now they can buy the same checkmark and they're mad that the celebs won't.

No. No no no no no no no. This is the worst idea I've ever seen in my life.

"church owned"
"public access" (so not public)

And let me guess, the books on science and anatomy will be in private men's only club libraries?

Why do these people want to live in the 1890s??