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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: April 21st, 2025

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  • Non-paywall: archive.ph

    An electorate that has lost the capacity for long-form thought will be more tribal, less rational, largely uninterested in facts or even matters of historical record, moved more by vibes than cogent argument and open to fantastical ideas and bizarre conspiracy theories. If that sounds familiar, it may be a sign of how far down this path the West has already traveled.

    For canny operators, such a public affords new opportunities for corruption. Oligarchs attempting to shape policy to their advantage will benefit from the fact that few will have the attention span to track or challenge policies in dull, technical fields; what a majority now wants is not forensic investigation but a new video short “owning” the other tribe. We can expect the governing class to adapt pragmatically to the electorate’s collective decline in rational capacity, for example, by retaining the rituals associated with mass democracy, while quietly shifting key policy areas beyond the reach of a capricious and easily manipulated citizenry. I do not celebrate this, but our net-native youth seem unfazed: International polls show waning support for democracy among Gen Z.

    Lest you mistake me, there is no reason the opportunity to sideline the electorate or to arbitrage the gap between vibes and policy should especially favor either the red team or the blue team. This post-literate world favors demagogues skilled at code-switching between the elite language of policy and the populist one of meme-slop. It favors oligarchs with good social media game and those with more self-assurance than integrity. It does not favor those with little money, little political power and no one to speak up for them.





  • I keep seeing posts about wetransfer alternatives and so far haven’t seen wormhole.app mentioned. Does it have bad juju I don’t know about?

    We built Wormhole with end-to-end encryption. When you use Wormhole, a key is generated on your device and used to encrypt your files. In transit, your data is unreadable to Wormhole and service providers like your ISP. The key never leaves your device and you’re the only one who has it – unless you decide to share it. With Wormhole, you’re in control of who has access to your files.

    When you share a Wormhole link, the key is automatically included in the link so it’s easy to share with the exact people you want, and no one else. Wormhole never sees the key. And we don’t want to see it.

    Every design decision in Wormhole begins with the safety and privacy of your data in mind. We can’t read your files, and no one else can either. Privacy isn’t an optional mode — it’s just the way that Wormhole works.


  • The SAG-AFTRA post where they list what’s actually in the agreement.

    Now that the new contract has been ratified, video game performers will see an immediate 15.17% increase in compensation with additional 3% increases in November of this year, and in November 2026 and November 2027.

    Additionally, the overtime rate maximum for overscale performers will now be based on double scale. Health and retirement contribution rates have been increased as well, with an immediate 0.5% AFTRA Retirement Fund boost and another 0.5% boost starting in October 2026.

    The new contract also establishes foundational guardrails around A.I., including informed consent requirements across various A.I. uses and the ability for performers to suspend informed consent for digital replica use during a strike.

    I wonder what they had to give up.