Things are not "enshittified". It's capitalism. Those things go together, it's not a "broken form" of capitalism or something. Same with "rot economy" and whatnot.

I get that one likes to coin new terms but more and more I feel like those terms are actively making analysis and insight harder: They cloud more than they explain.

11 yrs ago I found this funny: 'How many Microsoft designers does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They just define darkness as “industry standard”

But now I can't unsee this:
'How many huge companies does it take to fix the climate? None. They just define global warming as “industry standard”

I'm not sure who all needs this right now, but... political consciousness was a thing even before 1990.

You don't have to be glued to the internet constantly in order to maintain a relevant and effective awareness of what's important in the world, or be involved in changing things.

And if that level of info-firehose is negatively affecting you, dialing it back can actually be good praxis.

"How old are you"

"Old enough to have been a working adult when modern-day memes evolved from parodies of inspirational posters corporations would put on their walls"

A few days ago, Greta Thunberg said this…
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As the COP29 climate meeting reaches its end, it should not come as a surprise that yet another COP is failing. The current draft is a complete disaster. But even if our expectations are close to non-existent, we must never find ourselves reacting to these continuous betrayals with anything but rage.

The people in power are again about to agree to a death sentence to the countless people whose lives have been or will be ruined by the climate crisis. The current text is full of false solutions and empty promises. The money from the Global North countries needed to pay back their climate debt is still nowhere to be seen. The host country, Azerbaijan, is a repressive and authoritarian petrostate that has committed ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts towards Armenians. Civil society present at COP29 are being silenced, yet continue fighting and pushing negotiators towards the bare minimum.

All of this while oppression, inequalities, wars, and genocides all over the world continue to intensify. Those in power are worsening the destabilization and destruction of our life-supporting ecosystems. We are on track to experience the hottest year ever recorded, with global greenhouse gases reaching an all-time high just last year.

It is clear that the current systems are not working in our favor. The COP processes aren’t just failing us, they are part of a larger system built on injustice and designed to sacrifice current and future generations for the opportunity of a few to keep making unimaginable profits and to continue exploiting planet and people.

With every negotiation, with every speech made by a world leader, and with every agreement they sign, it becomes clear that it is up to us as a global collective to take the action we so desperately need, and to show where the leadership truly lies. They are not going to do it for us, as this COP29 yet again proves.
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#Politics #Economics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

My Experience With Algorithm Extremism:

So, most of us have been through this. I needed to buy a rug, so, I searched a few websites, and purchased what I needed. Now over a week later, I'm still getting ads for rugs. You bought a rug, DON'T YOU WANT A DOZEN MORE!

This is mostly an annoyance, an Algorithm missing it's mark, but what if this also applied to ideas? Let me tell you another story:

If you follow me, you probably already know I'm a pretty ardent feminist. Occasionally, I will peruse other websites, and social media (not X, ffs get off X) that use Algorithms. I had liked a few feminist posts, so the Algorithm said she likes these let's give her more, which was nice, at first. I started noticing they were getting more extreme, less women deserve equality, and moving more into Fuck all men, I hope they die, territory. Not a fan of that, but I figured it's a one off no big deal. Within a few days it had moved into full TERF territory. It took several weeks of me aggressively blocking and reporting every post I saw for it to disappear from my Timeline.

Now imagine if you're a young man who searches or asks on social media, Why won't women date me?, think about how quickly they could get pulled into a world of lies and extremism. Imagine asking any question about a group of marginalized people. This is why places like Mastodon will become more and more essential, and why teaching children critical thinking skills is paramount.