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Worx

@Worx@lemmynsfw.com

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Worx ,

You gotta hate these critics. The Tories are not "playing politics with climate". They are giant pieces of shit who would rather millions of people die due to the climate crisis instead of their disgustingly rich friends being very slightly less disgustingly rich. Please just say it like it is rather than treating conservative politicians as if they had a slightly disagreeable but still valid point of view

Worx ,

I lifted one weight and now none of my t-shirts fit over my raging muscles. Please send help

Worx ,

You do everything you can for them (whilst making sure they're not a danger to other people), give the caretakers / wardens plenty of time off, and you give them the option for assisted suicide. In my ideal world, everyone would have the option for assisted suicide though

Worx ,

No rulers doesn't mean no rules

Worx ,

This is a big question, and the real answer is, "it's up to the community to decide". But I know that's not very satisfying despite being correct, so here's an example of how it could work.

The first step is to lower crime / anti-social behaviour. If everyone in the community is happy, there's less need for anti-social behaviour. Sharing food and pooling resources, helping your neighbour out, teaching children the value of working together, etc. Most people obey the rules and want to be good people but are driven to crime through desperate circumstances [citation needed, but it seems to be true in most of my daily face-to-face interactions].

However, there are always some people who do whatever they want regardless of the cost to others, and some people who specifically want to behave badly. It should be explained to these people why what they're doing is harmful and try to teach some empathy. The next step might be denying resources which aren't essential to life, so that they don't benefit from the community that they are harming. Finally, if they keep being anti-social, they can be imprisoned for the good of the community.

As it stands in my society, the police have a monopoly on legitimate violence. If you want someone physically restrained, it's up to the police to do so. One problem with this is that the police suck balls. In an anarchist society, the solution could be to have a police force that is made up of randomly selected citizens and rotated every few years. No-one gets to keep this position of authority for long, no-one gets to refuse except because of health reasons, and they are held strictly accountable to everyone else.

But honestly, I don't think the police will be needed often. You've probably seen examples of self-governing systems around you. Think of that one shitty neighbour that no-one likes. How often do you look after their plants when they're on holiday, go shopping for them when they're ill, lend a hand when they're doing some building work? The only way they get through life is because they use money to pay people who don't yet know how shitty they are. In a society without money (because money creates unjust hierarchy), a lot of their options for being shitty and still having a nice life are removed.

I hope you were asking your question seriously because I ended up saying quite a lot! This is something I'm quite passionate about as you can probably tell. The organisation that I volunteer with has a flat structure so it's also something that I have a lot of experience with in a smaller way

Worx ,

Which would you rather? One king/governed/whoever that says being gay is bad, or a majority of the population that says being gay is bad?

At least in the second example, you have >50% of the population being happy. And more likely >80% would be happy otherwise you'd just have the 49% fight back and make life miserable for everyone.

Worx ,

I don't believe that every society / political system does seek to cut crime. For example, parts of the USA right now are seeking to criminalise sleeping outside and other forms of homelessness rather than solving the problem. It has been proven (and is also very obvious) that if you give someone housing and a stable income, they stop being homeless. It's kinda in the name of "home less". But a lot of powerful people in America are more interested in keeping rich people rich and people who "don't deserve it" in the gutters - figuratively and literally. In my vision of an Anarchist Utopia Society TM, the main goal would be to keep as many people happy and healthy as possible which would, by definition, involve lowering crime, anti-social behaviour, homelessness, etc.

A good example would be the UK which offers speed awareness courses to drivers who are caught breaking the speed limit. This is sometimes cheaper for the offender and avoids getting points on your driving license (too many points means a driving ban). Drivers who took this speed awareness course are less likely to reoffend than people who chose not to take it.

As for a moneyless society, I think it is possible as part of my Anarchist Utopia Society TM and I don't want to start another arguement about that because I have limited time and energy for online arguments. We'll just have to agree to disagree for now :)

Worx ,

Gift based economy. I help you because I know that you will help me. If someone doesn't pull their weight then they won't get help. Basically everything runs on social currency and who owes who (but it's not as strict as "I owe Jenny £5.83", it's more like "Jenny's my friend so I'll help her)

Worx ,

Just swap people for communities. "we should help community X because we know they'll help us".

Or maybe you do need to barter at a larger scale? This is all theoretical anyway because, remember, this is in Fantasy Utopia Anarchy Land TM

Worx ,

I have been thinking about your question a lot and kept saying I'd wait till I was at my computer and type out something good and thoughtful. But apparently that's not happening so you're getting whatever I type next at 1am and hopefully it's helpful :P

I don't think I can really give advice because it depends on what you want to do, the size of your organisation, and (most importantly) what you and your friends / colleagues want. What I'll do instead is talk about the things I like and dislike at my place and hopefully you can pull something useful from it.

One of the great strengths of anarchism is how flexible it is. I mean this in two ways - firstly, it can be applied in many different forms in many different contexts. The main strength though is that you can more easily change how you work day to day. No single person should be irreplaceable. Of course, everyone has their own strengths, skills and knowledge and you should respect and cherish everyone you work alongside. But there's no one big boss who needs to be there for anything to get done. Everyone is important; no-one is vital. Where I work, it's easy for me to take a day off and know that the work will still get done.

I volunteer for an environmental nonprofit. I'm one of about 70 volunteers and we have 6 staff members, half of whom are part time. There does tend to be a bit of a hierarchy with staff members being viewed as more important. It's something we all try to avoid but because they are paid to be there, they have a lot more available time and effort than those of us who have other things going on in our lives. However, I'm very grateful for the staff because they can take care of all the 'boring but necessary' work - things like applying for grants, paperwork for new volunteers, taking care of rent and utilities, etc. It's useful to have people who are contractually obligated to take care of these things so that I can go about the more interesting (to me) jobs. So my first advice would be to make sure you have any strict obligations covered by someone who is invested in your project.

We have meetings once a month where everyone is invited where we tend to discuss the big-picture issues. This could be topics like "what is our vision" or applying for an award or talking about ongoing problems we might be having. We have an agenda and take minutes, and we have a newsletter and several group chats so everyone can be informed. Communication is very important. However, don't be disappointed if not many people show. We only have about 10% of our people show up any given month. Most people only have an hour or two a week to volunteer and don't care for flat structure, big picture, whatever. They just want to help out and have other things going on. That's fine, because the door is always open for those who do want to have a voice.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I would say expect a lot of informal chats and decision making to end up being important. A lot of issues can be solved just by talking to your teammates, because everyone has the power to discuss and make changes. This is a good strength of flat structure! However, it can mean that sometimes you have an informal chat while working, it doesn't stay in your mind, and one person walks away thinking the problem will be solved and the other person has completely forgotten about it. That might just be because we are always feeling overworked though!

Last thing I'll say just because I feel like this is very long - you have to appreciate everyone's efforts and meet them where they're coming from. Everyone is unique and brings something important with them, and it's important to tell them you appreciate them. If they give an hour a week, they helped and are valid. If they are joining different teams, weighing in, stepping forward, that's great too. You have to make sure that people have the option to take leadership positions but also have the option to step back.

The place I work has really changed me for the better. It's a journey I was already on, but my time with these wonderful people has made me more patient, understand, emotionally open, happy, able to share in the success we make together. Finding the right group of people and letting them be free to make their community better is the essence of anarchism to me

Worx ,

If you're anything like me then you are planning the perfect version of your project and won't be happy unless you can get there straight away. We have a physical storefront, many people to organise, legal obligations as a business, and we work with several other charities and businesses that we need to coordinate with. That's why I like having some people who I know are there to work on admin tasks.

When we started though, it was just three university students distributing food from the back of a car. Start small, with what you and your people can manage, and you'll grow and adjust in time. And if it turns out that you can't make it work, then you still made a difference in the time you were operating and you still had a good time with your friends along the way. There's a recent post that's very pertinent that I'll try to find and link to

EDIT: https://chaos.social/@saxnot/112349120606446433

Worx ,

Ah, nice! I don't have any specific advice for that front because I only joined my thing when it was mostly set up and going strong already

Worx ,
NSFW

I was with my mistress one day when she heard her husband walking up the drive. She said, "quick, use the back door!". I wasn't sure we had time, but it's not every day you're offered anal

Worx ,

Actually true though, in roughly half of all cases. More if you count cloud cover as not being blue

The BBC Won't Use AI to Promote Doctor Who Again After Being Yelled at by Fans (gizmodo.com)

The backlash was immediate, but it didn’t stop the BBC from using text generated by LLMs—and purportedly checked and copy-edited by a human before approval—in two marketing emails and mobile push notifications to advertise Doctor Who. But now, the corporation will stop the experimentation entirely after a wave of official...

Worx ,

Without meaning to be rude, you've not been paying attention. Throughout the history of capitalism, rich arseholes and then corporations have done as much as they can to avoid paying people for labour. It shouldn't be surprising that this latest tool is used the same way

Worx ,

Large-language models and computer tools in general are different to traditional machines, to be fair. For every spinning Jenny that you make, you need people to make it, people to service it, and people to operate it. These people all have jobs now. For every piece of software you make, you only need the one team who originally develops it. From then, it can be replicated endlessly with no extra human input. You also only need one set of people to "service" it (bug fixes, updates etc.) for the entire world, rather than one per factory or workplace

(Also, I disagree with your premise and your assumption that jobs = good, but you probably don't want to hear about it and I don't want to type an essay :) )

Worx ,

Why the fuck are you on Lemmy then? Go build a canoe, try to row to a deserted island, then sink and die in a storm. Live free, friend!

Worx ,

We know this comment by Shannon Martin is correct and sensible because it was reviewed by Shannon Martin! As a licensed insurance agent, I'm sure she is qualified to talk about uh.. electronics.. hmm

Worx , (edited )

I think they're saying "America is a bad example, please don't follow us"

Worx ,

Then you'll have to send in a bird to catch the spider and next thing you know there's an entire horse stuck in the monitor

Roku TV bricked until agreeing to new terms of service

See title - very frustrating. There is no way to continue to use the TV without agreeing to the terms. I couldn't use different inputs, or even go to settings from the home screen and disconnect from the internet to disable their services. If I don't agree to their terms, then I don't get access to their new products. That...

Worx ,

And where do you plug in the aerial to watch TV? Or doesn't it work like that where you're from?

Worx , (edited )

I was shocked too. You really think some nerd who updates websites needs a SWAT team to take him down?! American police are crazy don't listen to me, they're not American!

Worx ,

Yep, quite right! I got it mixed up with Puerto Rico in my head which is why I called them American

Worx ,

Thanks! No need for awards, just saying nice things is always nice

Worx ,

I'm actually going to disagree there. Where I live there is a monthly magazine delivered free to anyone who wants it. The magazine is 100% adverts and is paid for entirely by the people advertising. It's very useful when you're trying to find a plumber of sell a car or whatever.

EDIT: But you were probably being hyperbolic and I will agree that I dislike to see adverts anywhere that I'm not actively searchibg them out

Worx ,

Nice, maybe we should try injecting bleach. I heard it also cures Covid!

Worx ,

I wonder if these idiots know you can buy a second-hand laptop for less than half of that $40,000 and install Linux on it yourself

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