If you (like me) are American but not Black, you might feel like Juneteenth is a Black holiday that doesn't really apply to you. Nice to have a day off, but not really something to celebrate yourself. That's misguided.

Juneteenth is very much a Black holiday, and we should absolutely center Black people in celebrations of it. But at the same time two things are true:

1. A whole bunch of people were freed from a horribly oppressive institution. Everyone everywhere can celebrate that, even if the specific people who were freed have the most to celebrate. This is a historic change towards a more free & just world, and there aren't that many of those.
2. Like all oppressive institutions, slavery contorted & harmed the oppressors (and those who benefitted indirectly from the oppression). Certainly not to the same degree as the enslaved people, but the harm is real, perhaps most noticeably in how the poison of justifying or even just accepting one oppressive institution invites others to flourish, and also in the ways that harming others or accepting their oppression alienates us from all other humans.

So if you recognize that freedom for anyone is a victory for everyone, then there's good reason to celebrate Juneteenth whether or not your ancestors were enslaved. Again, this doesn't change the need to center Black voices in the celebration, nor does it mean we need to celebrate "America" here. But if you view African-Americans as so "other" that you can't celebrate their emancipation as a great thing for the whole world, and one that makes the world better for everyone including you, then you've got some work to do on your implicit worldview.

Happy #Juneteenth

Content warning: Indie creator rant Reveal/hide

Me at 16: Aw yes, finally true freedom! My driver’s license means I can drive anywhere!

Me at 45: Aw yes, finally true freedom! Being within walking distance of public transit means I don’t have to drive anywhere!

I found this elsewhere.

PLEASE BE AWARE
WHEN ANSWERING
YOUR PHONE!!!
From a friend....
Interesting!
| just got a call from a 304 area code. Thinking it was someone | know in WV, | answered. It was a man claiming to be from customer service (didn't say what company, only "customer service")
The first thing he asked was "Can you hear me?"| remembered something | saw on Facebook saying people are calling and asking if you can hear them, then using the recording of your "Yes" reply as a way to sign you up for all kinds of stuff. So | replied "I hear you" to which he again asked "so you can hear me?"
Me: | hear you
Him: | just need a yes or no
Me: | hear you
Him: *hangs up*
Thanks to whoever posted that story. | probably would have answered Yes the 1st time he asked.

When I install software on my machine, I expect it to act as an agent of _my_ interests and to be under _my_ control.

So, for example, I expect my browser to be operating for my benefit and not the benefit of advertisers or anyone else.

A browser supporting private conscious yet "effective" advertising violates this contract. It doesn't exist for me, it exists for the advertisers.

And I don't like being taken advantage of.

#firefox

In 2020 photojournalist Linda Tirado lost an eye when police shot her with a "rubber" bullet. Today she's dying in hospice due to complications of being shot in the eye.

She's asked for two things:

1. That you send donations to help costs of dying, see below
2. That you attend city council meetings and hold your local politicians to as much accountability as we can.

Venmo: Linda-Tirado-3
PayPal: Bootstrapindustries@gmail

https://lindatirado.substack.com/p/story-thirty-nine

#acab #LindaTirado #Minneapoils #GeorgeFloyd

Story Thirty-Nine

This time, it’s for Linda.

^{Linda Tirado (Stories From The Rail)}

Great news everyone! I finally talk about AI hype. Someone finally mentioned LLMs one time too many, and the reckoning is upon us:

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

Them: Are you an "arr" pirate or a "yo ho ho" pirate?

Me: I'm a "I'm not paying six hundred bucks for Photoshop" pirate

LB: I need people to understand that merely beating this is not going to be enough.

Authorities the world over are going to keep trying shit like this over and over again until they get their way.

We need to get "lucky" every time.

It is super frustrating how the mainstream media fail to explain what #chatcontrol actually means.

Surveillance in the physical world is easy to explain, and obviously super creepy.

But surveillance in the digital world is not immediately visible, and unituitive.

What people need to realize is that chat control ist the equivalent of a robot police man with a raised baton standing next to your bed, watching you have sex.

When its elecetronic brain thinks you're doing something immoral, it will automaticlly start beating you up. And there will be nothing you can do to stop it, because as we all know, computers make no mistakes.

Even if years later, some judge decides retroaxctively that the robocop DID make a mistake .... your bones have already been broken, and nothing can undo the violence.

It is an automated life-destroying machine.

And the definition of what makes the robocop beat you up in your own bed can change any time.

What if AfD gets >50% next time on the federal elections, do you think that CSAM material will remain the only thing on the blacklist?

#freedom #chatcontrol #StopChatcontrol

Endless rage at commentators that say things like "Kids these days are addicted to their devices" because:

1. Look at adults. We are too.
2. Why do you think that is? Perhaps because we built cities where you NEED to drive to go anywhere and EVERYTHING costs a ton of money that young ppl don't have?
3. When young ppl DO hang out together they get called loiterers, troublemakers and get the police called.
4 The solution they have is to ban their phones instead of listening to their needs.

/rant

There are definitely times where I wish bartering was a more common thing.

“Your total comes to $70. Alternatively, we will accept a dozen ghost peppers.”

"Tory donor who gave Boris Johnson £500,000 urges public to vote Labour"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/18/tory-donor-who-gave-boris-johnson-500k-urges-public-to-vote-labour

Tory donor who gave Boris Johnson £500,000 urges public to vote Labour

John Caudwell, the Phones4U founder, says he is ‘rather despairing’ about Conservatives after 51 years of support

^{Nadeem Badshah (The Guardian)}

Wow, this is actually insanely cool I've loved the prospect of a totally open, patent unencumbered chipset that Intel or ARM don't have dictatorial powers over. RISC-V seems like it's early days in the consumer sphere, but it's awesome to see it coming to laptops from more established brands.

The Verge: The Framework Laptop 13 is about to become one of the world’s first RISC-V laptops

#Framework #RISCV #RISC5 #RISC #Intel #AMD #ARM #TheVerge

The Framework Laptop 13 is about to become one of the world’s first RISC-V laptops

Modular computer company Framework is working with DeepComputing on a new mainboard for the Framework Laptop 13 that uses a RISC-V processor instead of Intel, AMD, or Arm.

^{Sean Hollister (The Verge)}

Fuck me sideways my mate just shared a fursuit head photoset that made me realize what kinds of seams I actually love to see, and the kinds of seams I always want Calyo to have: sewn fabric seams. 🤩

And I'm now imagining Calyo sometimes mimicking the soft, svelte texture of having neoprene skin. 🥰

If I ever get an actual fursuit it's going to be made using neoprene just like this one:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/57055891/

Spike the Dragon by Temperance

Commission piece.. Spike is a fullsuit, however the customer was a little too large for me to take proper full body photos.. He is made ...

^{www.furaffinity.net}

🐾Wah! Look at me, I'm a red panda now! /j🐾

#kemono #furry #furryfandom #fursuiter #fursuiting #kemonosuit #fursuitphotography #furrycommunity #catfurry #catfursuit #fursuits

Content warning: If a rabbit fur passed their fursona down to their kid, would that be... Reveal/hide

... the family hareloom?

Should I start replying with moans when people post links to "articles" which are actually links to giant computer programs to download to my computer and run; programs which may or may not eventually display an article on my screen and/or try to hack my computer and/or track my behaviour?

Ie, should I start complaining about toots with links that don't work without JavaScript turned on?

STIHL is ready to run in his new full body taur badge!

#furry #furryart

If you're in London, I encourage you to visit the national covid memorial wall on the south bank of the Thames. It is about 500m long, between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Palace, facing Westiminster Palace.

I found it by accident this morning and I really wasn't prepared for the scale of it or the notes written by the bereaved. It stands as a memorial to the 240,000 people who died from COVID in the UK, and a monument to the incompetence of the Johnson government.

It will make you sad, and it should also make you angry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Covid_Memorial_Wall

mural in London, Greater London, England

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}