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TheFriar

@TheFriar@lemm.ee

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TheFriar ,

Goddammit that’s good.

TheFriar ,

You think your iPhone isn’t collecting data on you? Is that what you’re saying?

TheFriar , (edited )

Wow. Is he a springer mixed with…something? Maybe a long haired pointer? And then also maybe a bigger breed? What an interesting looking mix

TheFriar ,

Adorable post some more pictures

TheFriar ,

Wow he really does have a lot of long hair. I’ve had springers for so much of my life and I’ve never seen one quite like him. Verycool looking

TheFriar ,

I’m partial to eggy wets myself

TheFriar ,

Was the Netflix homesite not broken? It was pretty terrible.

TheFriar ,

I also do 12-15hr days. And I’m usually on my feet. So standing up the in shower is a hard concept to accept. I need to get a shower chair.

TheFriar ,

What.

Just…what.

Where are you getting this information? You’re talking about the US, where we have excellent healthcare for people who can afford it, and those people can fuckin afford it.

TheFriar ,

…okay? What does that have to do with anything? Are you okay?

TheFriar ,

I don’t know what you think my beliefs about the healthcare system are. But I’m pretty damn sure they’re not what you’re assuming.

Because of our vampiric, fucked up greedy system of healthcare, it attracts pretty amazing doctors because they make insane money. Private money is good for the people who tend to control it. It’s just horrific for those of us without money. So the rich tend to get insanely good healthcare in the US.

TheFriar ,

No, you were very much misreading the comment. They just threw a crazy factoid out there. And then followed with a non sequitur about “rich =/= smart.” And why would my confusion mean I love privatized medicine?

I mean, you’re not wrong about me being smarter than the rest of you. I’m just choosing to ignore the part where it’s only in my head. Because I’m so much smarter. (jk)

TheFriar ,

Dude. I reread it dude. It does not read that way. Others have even said that’s not what I said. It could be misconstrued that way, but that’s exactly what it is. A misconstruction.

You’re just having a hard time because there’s nuance. I was expressing something that doesn’t scream that I hate the way things work, but that what the person was saying seemed outlandish. This being the internet, it’s hard when things aren’t “I believe X” and “well, I hate X, I’m a Y’er!” There is a range of conversation from disagreement on the subject to disagreement on the discussion to literally so much nuance in between. You just think because I said something that someone could say in a screed about supporting the system.

The gross inequity of for-profit healthcare means there is a ton of money to be made. Logically, that attracts high quality doctors—for those that can afford it. It shouldn’t be that way. But it is.

https://www.physiciansweekly.com/how-do-us-physician-salaries-compare-with-those-abroad/

Look at the difference there.

Just because you read the word “quality” in association with the US healthcare system doesn’t mean I support it. Recognizing trends and truths about things that may be construed as a positive for issues you don’t agree with does not mean you support the idea. Ignoring those truths just because they don’t jibe with you worldview is beyond ignorant.

Creating an unequal system that means access is limited to those with insane amounts of money will lead to higher amounts of money for people taking it from the rich people. Acknowledging that should be a pretty basic truth. But this is the time of internet two-sidesism, where people routinely ignore and deny basic realities because it doesn’t help their argument is fucking dumb. But that’s the temperature of the water we’re swimming in. So it struck you as strange that I wouldn’t do mental gymnastics to ignore a fact that’s gross, even if it could be construed as a positive for people who support it.

TheFriar ,

It’s not though. All I said is that people with tons of money can get the best care in the world—available in the US. That’s not a condemnation of socialized medicine, that’s not an endorsement of privatized medicine. That’s me saying exactly what I’m saying in this comment in another way. These people can afford the best. Because they’re rich as fuck.

Subtext: BEING RICH SHOULD NOT BE A HURDLE TO GOOD HEALTHCARE.

They’re in LA. A place that attracts plastic surgeons, orthodontists, dentists, any doctor that deals in appearance. Because they make insane money with their celebrity clientele.

So many Hollywood actors are nepo babies. They have cosmetic doctors that can do anything and everything at the right cost. I don’t have the data, but I’d be willing to bet it’s a majority of them that come from famous Hollywood parents. They are in Hollywood because they were born into it. They grew up with Hollywood level beautification health care. That includes teeth.

TheFriar ,

Say huh

TheFriar ,

Why people still use it is beyond me.

TheFriar , (edited )

So you’re arguing that selling out any supposed values you might have is fine as long as the check is big enough.

Foo Fighters are a huge band. They aren’t at the whims of some all powerful manager. And Amazon’s crimes are not new, they’re not obscure information. They’re incredibly well known, frequently discussed, and go hand in hand with the mention of Amazon. They knew what they were doing, who they were doing it for.

Now, if you want to discuss the power that record labels and their business relationships hold and their contracts with the bands they produce, that’s a possible explanation for this. But we’re talking about aging millionaire white guys. Chances are, they had veto power, knew what they were doing and probably could’ve accepted a monetary fine from the record company for defying a contract obligation if that’s why they were being forced to do it. And, honestly, probably would’ve leaked that information, gotten a ton of great press, maybe gotten into a public dispute with the record label if they chose to speak out about it, and then cashed in on that.

But, like you said, they did it for a fat paycheck. They didn’t stick up for the well-documented abused workers of Amazon while cashing in on it — “virtue signaling,” as people say. They decided to do this. For money. From Amazon executives.

And that’s…not better.

The fact that this comes at the end of typical corporate purse string tightening at the expense of workers is really just the steaming shit nugget on top of this diarrhea sundae.

TheFriar ,

And that was me telling you your assumption of who’s at fault was way off the mark.

They’re rockstars. They knew what they were doing and made the choice themselves.

TheFriar ,

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=gcb06Gx9VMA

“Tell him, ironically, he has 10 seconds to grow a pair.”

TheFriar ,

Right? This whole “cats bad/evil/hellions/selfish” trope is boring and wrong. Like, how do you treat your cats? All of mine have been love bug, cuddle bug sweethearts. I’ve met some cats who are annoying mischief makers, but I think a lot of that depends on the people.

TheFriar ,

At least cats are never cops.

TheFriar ,

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. As a cyclist in NYC myself, the hate that I see bicyclists get is fucking absurd.

“That person is riding their bike in traffic! How dangerous!”

Like, motherfuckers, you’re the ones forcing us to ride in traffic. And it wouldn’t be dangerous without the car element. The danger is in the cars. A bicycle crash can hurt and cause damage, but with a helmet? You’re mostly pretty safe from deadly accidents. THE CARS ARE THE ONES CAUSING THE DANGER. Not the cyclists.

And then all this talk about congestion pricing being ridiculous. TAX THE FUCK out of them. Ban them. It’s a fucking addiction. And a crippling one. Why people take cars into the city is mind boggling. Like you said, it’s necessary, especially here, for there to be some traffic. Deliveries for businesses, cabs. That’s pretty much it. But, no. Every single road is full of parked cars, driving cars, double parked cars BLOCKING THE FUCKING BIKE LANES EVERY 100 GODDAMN FEET…it’s actual lunacy.

It’s such a bikeable city. Few hills, relatively short distances. But with cars creating so much traffic, it seems far because everyone sits in a car in stop and go traffic for 45min to get from the FiDi to the park. All these wasted resources with cops directing traffic UNDERNEATH FUNCTIONING STOPLIGHTS BECAUSE EVERYONE IS SO AGGRAVATED SITTING IN TRAFFIC THAG THEYLL ALL JUST BLOCK THE INTERSECTION BECAUSE THEYVE GONE THROUGH FIVE LIGHT CYCLES, the constant construction…it’s lunacy. There’s really no other word for it.

This is a sensitive subject for me lol clearly

TheFriar ,

I think I’m getting old, I don’t understand any of this. Nor who is even talking. I guess I just never used tumblr, though its heyday was definitely in my time.

TheFriar ,

Jesus. I mean, thank you for that explanation, but I also feel even more in the dark because I’m not even familiar with most of them. Except the Lorax. But I definitely don’t remember the book well enough from my childhood to remember the villain.

TheFriar ,

Cornflakes took your foreskin? Sounds like a slam dunk case against Kellogg

TheFriar ,

Right? There was never any context for what I was supposed to be doing with it. Everyone else must’ve seen it elsewhere and figured it’s a known thing?

TheFriar ,

Is this an existing joke or story somewhere on the internet years ago? Because it gave me crazy Deja vu

TheFriar ,

Well, the problem is, the way the US sees it, keeping Israel as an ally is more important than Joe Biden. Yes, even if that means fascism comes humping an American flag. You can still be at the top of the postwar order with a fascist in charge!

TheFriar ,

Not if we superglue and then tie them to the seat. And give them no controls on the inside. And just play a loop of “nah, nah, nah, nah. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye.” Not even the whole song. Just that part, on infinite loop.

TheFriar ,

wtf world are we even living in

https://www.walmart.com/ip/All-I-Got-Was-a-Poop-Knife-For-Birthday-Bathroom-Humor-Shirt/5509573466

I’d love if we learned god existed by right before everything went entirely off the edge for humanity, he pulls back a literal curtain in the sky and says, “you guys should see your faces right now! Hahaha! Classic. Anyway, that was fun. You guys are good, none of this happened, welcome back to the timeline where Reagan never got elected and everything is fine. [chuckles to himself as he retreats back behind the curtain] heh. Poop knife. Hilarious. Oooh, Yahweh, you are just too. Much.” [Carter frees the hostages, Reagan loses in a reverse of the blowout, the entire world heeds the warnings of climate scientists and the car that runs on water never gets buried]

TheFriar ,

Not to mention, any other, more just social system wouldn’t be fucking decimating the environment, ultimately hurting the poorer nations first, for money. And AI is accelerating our CO2 output when we need to be drastically cutting it back. This is very much a pacifying tool as we barrel toward oblivion.

TheFriar ,

https://www.ft.com/content/61bd45d9-2c0f-479a-8b24-605d5e72f1ab

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/05/1084417/ais-carbon-footprint-is-bigger-than-you-think/

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ais-carbon-footprint-problem

When the world needs to be drastically altering our way of life to avert the worst of climate change, these companies are getting away with accelerating their output and generating tons of investment and revenue because “that’s what the market dictates.” Just like with crypto/blockchain a few years ago, adding “AI” into any business pitch/model is basically printing money. So companies are more inclined to incorporate this machine learning tech into their business, and this is all happening while the energy demand for increased usage and the constant “updates” and advancements in the field are gobbling up way more energy than we can honestly afford—and really even conceive of. Because they’re trying to hide this fact, given, yknow, the world fuckin ending. Basically, the market and the entire system of media is encouraging and fawning over this “leap” in tech, when we can’t realistically afford to continue our habits we had before this market even existed. So they are accelerating co2 output, everyone cheers, and we all ride merrily to the edge of our doom.

It’s capitalism once again destroying us and the planet for profit. And everyone who mindlessly jumps on board, ooh’ing and aww’ing at the stupid new shit they’re doing (while they infringe upon the work of all artists without compensation, driving human creativity out in the job market in favor of saving corporations some scratch by firing their artists and using AI instead…I genuinely can’t really conceive of how people seem so on board with this concept.

TheFriar ,

I mean, sure, I agree with you. Capitalism is the problem, no question. I would love a job-replacing tech so people could live lives of leisure and art. But…this system is being built for capitalist ends. It’s built by, funding by, and being put in the hands of the exact people causing the problem.

I agree that in a hypothetical world, machine learning technology could very well help humanity. But the code and money is in the hands of people who aren’t interested in helping humanity.

I’m no fan of forced labor for basic necessities. And I’m not advocating for that system by any means, but this tech, in this world, will drive the cost of labor down, drive people from the jobs they’ve been forced to rely upon, and it’s literally taking one of the few job fields where people actually got to express their humanity for their wages: art. Creative writing and design/visual art were one of the few fields people actually dreamt of doing. Because it offered us a living for creating. For being human. And that tiny outlet of humanity in the vast contrivance of capitalism is being devoured by this tech.

That’s just one small part of my distrust of “AI.” But the underlying problem is as I stated first, which is that this tech, existing in this world at this point in time, isn’t going to free us. It’s another tool by the ownership class to cut costs, decimate the environment, and drive profit. While also killing the small little sliver of human creativity that was allowed to exist under capitalism.

So again, hypothetically, yes, the tech could be a force for good and for human liberation from meaningless work. But it’s actually making our work even more meaningless, while sequestering another huge chunk of power for the ruling class. It would be great if it could reach its potential as a force for good. But given everything, that is not how it’s being implemented.

TheFriar ,

It’s gambling. Why anyone would be foolish enough to invest their life savings into it is no less stupid than the trump stans dumping their savings into trump bux or that trump credit card hat was apparently going fill up with cash when trump was reinstated.

It’s all a scam that has some likelihood of coming true if all of the right occurrences line up, no matter how unlikely. Except with crypto it’s like picking a random slot machine and somehow investing everything you have on one spin. Whereas the trump stuff is like betting on roulette, but one guy is spinning the wheel and he may just put the ball down on one of the random things and make a few people rich. Or maybe it’s more like throwing all your money into the casino toilet and flushing it because you’re too drunk to realize it’s not a slot machine.

TheFriar ,

They meant that choosing one possible definition and saying it’s what the word means is stupid. Words mean pretty much what everyone agrees they mean. Look at all the words that have basically flipped definitions since their inception. Just because the modern derivative of a word means something literally everyone understands but is slightly different than what it used to mean doesn’t mean the oldest answer is the correct one. Unwad your jock.

TheFriar ,

I’m unaware of this painting, but I assume someone was trying to get it taken off the internet? Any context?

TheFriar ,

Thank you

TheFriar ,

I’m a chick anyway, so based on her lyrics my chances with her are between slim and none.

Hey, now. You’ll never attract a beau with that attitude. Smile more. And a proper lady never uses the word “chick.” So unladylike. Tsk, tsk.

TheFriar ,

Look at any of these tech companies’ history. They corner the market by operating at massive losses that VCs can foot for, like, a decade. And then when they’ve driven out other options, they abuse the fuck out of customers. They “disrupt” by obliterating, and that’s when they move for the kill shot: ever-expanding profits.

This is not a good thing. Even in NYC, where the MTA is a massive chunk of money, we have one of the slowest bus systems in the world. That’s through no fault of the busses, mind, this is the cars fault. And, kinda Uber’s fault. The traffic is so bad, even where busses have their own lanes, the traffic slows that shit down like crazy.

Depending on the govt (Adams would probably jump at this, whoever his successor will be will obviously determine how it’d go), the city sees $$$ and sacrifices the long term well-being of the city for their own “successes” while in office. And money/budget is always a crunch, no matter the place. So if Uber wanted to “disrupt” NYC by basically taking over busses or getting a contract to use the bus stops and bus lanes, the govt saves money while generating revenue because those VCs are eyeing the long term where they can ultimately make the city reliant on their services and force people to contribute to their bottom line. Our trains are great, but they don’t go everywhere, sometimes busses are necessary, especially for outerborough people and historically poorer neighborhoods. You can see those areas on the train map, because trains basically avoid them.

Trusting vampiric capitalists with any public good is a fuckin stupid thing to do. Look at healthcare. How we have privatized healthcare is beyond me, but look at the state of it. Now, this is more expanding on the conversation than actually replying directly to your question, but it sort of does get at the heart of it. For a time, we would get more transportation. It wouldn’t be public, it’d be private. But it wouldn’t solve the issues. It’d just create new ones.

TheFriar , (edited )

Exactly. How people haven’t realized this yet is fuckin inconceivable. Trusting a for-profit company—with a history of the exact problematic behavior we’re worried about—is beyond stupid. They can operate at a loss for a long time. Just to fuck other businesses out of the market so they can charge as much as they want. It’s literally their business model.

TheFriar ,

But…that’s our point. Uber taking over bus routes would ultimately void that choice. Public transportation is a public service. Letting a VC-funded for-profit company weasel their way into that space is never going to not fuck poor people. It’ll fuck everyone, but it’ll make “public transportation” unaffordable. And, really, when you’re poor, “if you want to get somewhere faster” isn’t really an option. That’s…the thing with being poor. You don’t have the extra money to spend to catch a shuttle and you don’t have the luxury of paying for comfort. Not to mention, even in the best case scenario, where busses would keep their existing schedule and routes (though the likelihood of this happening is slim) and we’d just get more busses? It’d clog the system, ultimately slowing bus routes.

So, no. Not “the more the merrier” when it comes to private companies elbowing their way into public service, and especially not when we’re talking about fuckin traffic.

TheFriar ,

Yeah…but busses exist right now. Cars are still the problem. A private company getting involved bus routes won’t do shit for that problem. We have one of the best transit systems in the world in nyc. But people can’t give up their cars. Letting Uber muscle into public transit won’t change that. If anything, it’ll drive up the cost of busses and make even fewer people rely on busses.

We have citibikes in nyc. The traffic problem is still awful. As a bike rider myself, I can tell you that riding a bike here is not for everyone. I know plenty of able-bodied people terrified away from riding bikes. But say the city into the bike sharing service. It wouldn’t be $15. It would be..I dunno, $5. Then more people would use them. See what I’m saying?

The way to spread anything good is to make a cost, not a profit maker. Bringing business into the public service game is a horrible idea. There’s no way this does anything good for anyone but Uber. That’s how businesses operate. There might be a time where it seems things are getting better, but that’s just the phase where they’re willing to operate at a loss to corner the market. This phase is ending right now with Amazon: they drove out so many businesses by becoming so reliable, quick, and convenient. Now, they’re starting to scale back free returns. This happened not too long ago with Uber and Lyft. The money behind it finally said, “alright, play time is over. We won’t operate at a loss for much longer, we’ve cornered the rideshare market, now it’s time for prices to creep up to the point where we profit more and more.”

It’s their business model. It’s vampiric and destructive. Not helpful. Trusting them with a public service is so, so, so foolish.

TheFriar ,

Like where? Kids school lunches? Oh, no…wait…a bunch of literal children have school lunch debt. Well, maybe family visits for prisoners? Oh, no, they’ve now barred people from visiting inmates and a private company now forces them to pay to do a shitty video chat. Okay, well maybe the American healthcare system? Nope. I guess that one’s killing a whole bunch of people and drowning families in debt for simple procedures and charging people $80 for a Tylenol and charging mothers for letting them hold their own fucking child.

I’m sure there’s a great example where a private company is doling out their services at a loss as a public good, right?

TheFriar ,

Hell yeah, bruv.

But you didn’t answer my question. In what instance has a private, for-profit company gotten involved in a public good, and operated at a loss to keep that public service affordable and accessible to all? You said it’s worked before, I’m genuinely curious.

TheFriar ,

That’s…not a very good example.

The EU has the Public Service Obligation law. So it’s an agreement to keep the rail routes that went private under obligation to be a public good, where, yes they do give private companies a monopoly on a certain route, but often the lines and sometimes even cars are owned by the government. But they impose regulations and price caps.

So, again, it’s the state shoveling off the cost of running the day to day operations, while empowering a company to take the reins under pretty strict guidelines because the service is public. They’re given subsidies to operate and it still saves the government money, as well as assuring the lines that aren’t profitable enough for the state to run on their own are still running under government contract with private companies.

So…not the same at all.

TheFriar , (edited )

lol because that’s what this conversation is about. Excuse my omission of the word “could,” but the point remains. It’s not a good example. If anything, you’re kinda proving my point. It takes a special case, heavily regulated, in-the-public’s-best-interest situation for the government to dump off a money losing route onto a contractor instead of losing the route entirely—as long as you cap the price and force the private company to operate entirely on your terms, often with your equipment. But Uber doesn’t even operate with their equipment or the government’s. It’s the driver’s. I would assume Uber would provide the busses here, which goes against their business model. So I can’t see them investing in busses, and then operating nice and cheap so everyone can afford to ride.

Two studies showing ride sharing companies contribute to the struggling of public transportation systems in a given city.

But, look. I can understand where our difference in trust levels is coming from. I’m from the US. Where private companies never don’t fuck you over the worst they possibly can. It must be nice to come from a place where you can have faith that some guardrails have been put in place on private greed. But looking at the places Uber (a notoriously shitty company) has chosen to implement these “Uber shuttles,” they seem to be avoiding places where the government has that power (or desire). Uber’s entire existence is a ‘fuck you’ to poor people. “Oh you need a job? Well…you got a car? ‘Cause do we have the job for you. [evil laughter].” Their big “disruption” in transportation was getting drivers to foot the bill on the transportation costs. How…revolutionary.

My point is, where they’re doing this, their entire company history, their business model, all point to the fact that this will not be good for people. It will cost the drivers and trick them into paying for their own job, it will hurt the rider and the public transportation system. There is not a single trusting bone in my body when it comes to a tech company trying to “disrupt” some new facet of our lives.

TheFriar ,

You’re really trying to divert this conversation away from the actual topic. Reread what I said, I edited it trying to strike a more conciliatory tone and explain that I see where our difference in opinion is coming from. I really don’t feel like arguing further about this.

TheFriar ,

lol k

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