Academia Is Not Law, especially when it comes to subjective things involving marginalised groups. There can be and are massive systematic and institutional failures that mean many papers are misleading.

Most people broadly agree that the treatment of people with mental conditions, black people, lgbt people, etc was shocking and unacceptable even 50 years ago… And yet some people assume we’ve “fixed” that nowadays and everything is above board and perfectly fair and ethical.

Indeed, it’s something I think about quite a bit. The conclusion I’ve come to involves consent: If all people involved in something fully understand and consent to what is happening, then they should not be “judged” for it.

And yes, I know there are holes and loopholes in that conclusion, but I think it’s nearly impossible to have a logically sound and consistent moral framework.

A universal move towards a less judgemental and more empathetic society.

In theory those characters are under copyright, yes. But it’s similar to posting memes or lets plays; they don’t lawyer against it unless they’re assholes. So, avoid Mario, I guess.

However, the training data used by many of these huge models of full of copyrighted material from smaller, poorer creators, which is a serious problem IMO. But they can’t afford to lawyer up against the big megacorps so nobody in the US listens to them.

GenAI is really the rich get richer.

I think it’s a bit unrealistic to expect randos online to 100% accurate and correct about what they are saying, regardless of their political leanings.

Been playing Kitsune Tails recently, which is basically a modern version of Mario Bros 3. I’m at a super advanced post-game level where they are trying to teach me how to shell jump. I’m going to give it a break until I can get into a “grind until I learn the mechanic” headspace.

I don’t have any examples, sadly - I’m basing this on what some people on Bluesky have been saying.

The way I usually see it playing out is that people usually call things are negative “reatarded” (e.g. “This app is retarded!”, “Wow, I thought that tomato was a fruit, lmao I’m still retarded!”). It just pushes the negative stereotypes associated with it. I don’t know if that’s what you are doing, but that’s how I see a lot of “stop being sensitive bros” do it.

I know its easy to say that every one who hears you talk fully understands precisely what you mean, but do they? I’ve seen stories of people who “ironically” use racial slurs and didn’t realise that it resulted in most of their friends turning out to be actual racists. Likewise, are you pushing away would-be friends who don’t want to associate with people who casually throw out slurs? That’s ignoring the impact of saying it in a public place, where victims of abuse can hear it.

What’s wrong with someone having cognitive difficulties? Why do you feel the need to use the word as a descriptor for negative things?

Yes, it’s a slur. Especially outside of the US (where mental conditions are less overtly stigmatised).

Supposedly it’s being “reclaimed” by the alt-right on Twitter. But obvously don’t listen to the alt-right’s views on social progressiveness.

Also, don’t call yourself “retarded”, you’re better than that. <3

Edit: I’m in the UK, and I find this list useful to figure out what’s offensive and what isn’t: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-standards/offensive-language

Out of interest, has anyone here been using Kagi? It’s a premium search engine, which means it has reasons and resources to not suck, in theory. Kind of interested in trying it, but not sure how good it actually is.

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Standard enshittification: They’ve been pushing features nobody wants and making user unfriendly decisions. I’m sure other people will provide specific examples, but that’s pretty much it.

Another thing is that, due to their market position, they won’t let people use alternatives. If there’s a big enough fandom wiki, google pushes it to the top above any independent fan supported wiki.

https://getindie.wiki/ Is an extension that redirects fandom wikis to other wikis.

That people were magically able to understand, sympathise and accept other people’s lives and lived experiences. A world where everyone was accepted as who they are, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.

I’ve been using Protonmail and it does the job (although not for free). To use it with Thunderbird I need to use a “bridge” background app to decrypt it though.

I use Thunderbird. I’m sure there might be other ones that are better, but it does the job.

This is a bit of a long reach, but I can see it switching to ATProto, like Bluesky. The fact that identity, hosting and moderation are all done by the same person in ActivityPub is a big cause of many issues and drama on Mastodon. I think ATProto would fix it, and give access to everyone on Bluesky as well.

Hasn’t Debian relaxed its stance and now allows you to fairly easily use nonfree software?