Sven Slootweg (soft-deprecated) @joepie91@pixie.town

A lot of modern both-sidesers will tell you that power dynamics don't matter - that any fight is bad because it's disruptive.

But my perspective is that justified dissent is perfectly reasonable, especially in the face of institutionalized and systemic bias, which our world is absolutely chock full of.

White and other kinds of supremacists will generally claim that the downtrodden can and should always be civil, but civility is for suckers, because it inherently silences a lot of effective kinds of dissent.

I tell all my students that when you feel like your treatment is _unfair_ is precisely the time you should consider _loudly_dissenting_ to the status quo.

But that's probably because I grew up with ACT UP as my heroes. God bless the loud queers, and fuck you if you can't handle it. 🦆

In interrogating and confronting the question, "Are we the baddies?"

I generally look at where the power flows. I look at the groups of people who are advocating dogpiling and brigading. I look at which groups are advocating for themselves, and which are advocating for others. Which groups are encouraging folks to overcommit. Which ones are coming up with and promoting conspiracy theories.

When I work with a group, I try to support from below. I try to give good advice on how to build community, educate each other on how to better care for each other, to factor in strangers and try to make them whole and comfortable, to try to be a good host or colleague. It's important to me to be kind.

Follow the money and the power. If someone is making bank off of their efforts to ostensibly support, or if someone is collating and refining power and influence, raise a red flag and look carefully. See if they're hoarding money or power (or influence) or are they sharing it?

Many people believe that strong, good leaders concentrate and focus power. But I don't believe that. I believe the best leaders are constantly recruiting for and mentoring others so they can be superceded by even better leaders. Look instead for leaders who build power in the community and share it.

"Behind every fortune is a crime"
Freight graffiti seen in St. Paul, Minnesota

Whenever I explain my #research at Google into mobile text editing, I'm usually met with blank stares or a slightly hostile "Everyone can edit text on their phones, right? What's the problem?"

Text editing on mobile isn't ok. It's actually much worse than you think, an invisible problem no one appreciates. I wrote this post so you can understand why it's so important.
https://jenson.org/text
#UXDesign #UX

I think about this video of French rollerbladers from 1923 at least once every month.

@soatok @KayOhtie @arch
Food: $20,000
Data: $15,000
Rent: $80,000
Making all my happily remote employees come back to the office: $3,600,000
Utility: $15,000

Someone who's good at the economy, please help me budget this. My record profit-making business is dying.

*approaching stand-up mic*

There's a lot of things you're not allowed to joke about these days...

[nervous chuckles from crowd]

...they said I'm not allowed to joke about British food.

So I asked why? Why am I not allowed to joke about British food?

Apparently it's considered poor taste.

*sigh* I need some extension to redirect links from Spotify to MusicBrainz

We hear lots about Covid transmission at gatherings that had no precautions, but not enough about events where folks were successfully protected.

I coordinated a meetup for https://Kind.Social during PAX West '23 which was deliberately held outdoors with free 3M VFlex N95s.

Covid was present, but it didn't spread.

1/3

https://kind.social/@texanalysis/111106639213990570
2/3

https://kind.social/@texanalysis/111106642021715508
3/3

@novid
#Covid #Covid19 #CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCautious #WearAMask #WearARespirator

Sorry, what company removes their TOS they published a couple years previous for transparency, because it had a low view count?

🥺 no-one read our legal documentation
🥺 so we removed it
🥺 s-sorry
🥺 pls don't leave us we're only a small company
🥺 who made $1.808B, from June 2022 - June 2023
🥺 a 48.25% YoY increase
🥺 just a little guy
🥺 why are you doing this to me

#unity

The Dutch Mountains. Man made mountains, mostly on former garbage dumps, renatured and opened for recreational purposes in the Netherlands (Source: Volkskrant 23 September 2023)