patter @patterfloof@meow.social

In situations of political conflict, an "underground" is a social structure that allows political actors (meaning, politicized people - from individuals all the way up to mass organizations) to operately secretly - without its actions being publicly known.

This is usually necessary if political actors pose a threat to the status quo, for a very simple reason. Since it is often the government's job to protect the status quo, and the government uses the law & its enforcement to do this, it will make threats to the status quo illegal as they appear, if it has not already done so.

Most governments make it illegal to fight them as kind of a "catch-all" rule for this, but they will usually adopt more specific rules depending on both the general context (what *kind* of status quo do they defend?) and the specific context (who do they fear threatens their power right now, or may become a threat if allowed to grow?).

If a group which claims to oppose the status quo really means what they say, they will have to take steps to be able to function when they're not allowed to. They will have to develop an underground.

No. Just give the people actual housing. Next question.

In the 2017 election in Hartlepool Labour got over 50% of the vote, when Corbyn was leader. Yesterday only 28%.

Obviously many other factors here. Including the government likely pulling two stunts they know would appeal to voters (sending gunboats to sea, and cutting foreign aid).

People need a story to be part of, and the myth of a brave, valiant, independent Britain taking care of it's own kind is something people can hold onto.

Anti-capitalism needs a much more compelling story.

Students forced to use tools like Proctorio are expected to rotate their webcams 360' to prove they're alone in a room at home - which means that poor kids who share a room (or can only get wifi in the parking lot of a Taco Bell) are penalized for poverty.

Unsurprisingly, a company that would knowingly torment children in this way is run by terrible people and behaves terribly. It's not just that the CEO doxed a child who complained about his products on Reddit:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/01/bossware/#moral-exemplar

6/

Getting kids into making games because we can't legally pay adults any less

Why call it "Apache" and not "java's crypt"?

@soft foss is what used to grow on stones at rest until they invented goss, hoss, and so on. Today we're up to moss, but who knows when noss's time will arrive?

The thing about being in a giant, oppressive country is that one is always fighting for space to exist. I became expert at identifying the clues that some hegemonic thing was preparing to squash me. I was ready to fight like hell on a moment's notice, because this was required.

I showed up to England, where I *thought* I'd be speaking my native language, but I discovered I couldn't understand my new neighbours at all. When I did get the pronunciation, I found phrasing that was massively suspect. And, as always, I came out swinging. What I failed to notice was the different context.

To be fair to myself, hegemonic USians are always claiming some sort of contextual excuses that are always bullshit, but, as I was actually in a different country, the context was actually different. Words that were offensive at home were benign abroad. (And worse, benign words at home turned out to have extremely offensive baggage here, which lost me friends.)

The fediverse is international, but people who have lived their whole lives in the US have largely been denied previous experiences negotiating it.

Everyone on this network has some privilege and just as anyone can be gentrifier, anyone can participate in american hegemony. Especially if one is unused to having privilege in a situation, the fighting we all learn can easily turn into this. Indeed, this is some of the origin of white women's tears and similar things.

Couple this with recent news that the FBI has a network of informants within the Proud Boys that it has been paying money to in exchange for information about antifascists. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-before-jan-6-fbi-collected-information-least-4-proud-boys-2021-04-26/

[ https://tweets.newsbots.eu/IGD_News/status/1390096329775345667 — #bot]

it's only "software engineering" if you put the same ethical considerations into it as other engineers. otherwise you're just a sparkling megacorp coder

If your experience does not suit you, mod it. Mod your games, mod your OS, mod your hardware, mod yourself.

As long as you're not in a fair competition, cheat. Cheat if it's an unfair competition. Hack everything, level the playing field.

Remove unwanted mechanics, adjust difficulty, change your perceptions, change your experience. Online, in games, in meatspace. You are the final arbiter in what you experience.

Fuck anyone who claims this is wrong or cheapens an experience.

you: boss, i want to pair program with coworker to write this code

boss: you have a code partner at your desk

code partner at your desk:

https://www.axios.com/desktop-doomscrolling-covid-pandemic-548e19ff-70d8-4db1-b619-9787119f3ffa.html

This could be interpreted as a rebuff to the 'Mobile is the FUTURE!' crowd. (Along with mobile sales flattening out a few years back.)

Having a computer in your pocket to access the Internet with on the go is useful, but the revealed preference seems to be that, in fact, if people are around a machine with a large screen and a keyboard, they'd just as soon use them.