Basic Glitch @ AcidiclyBasicGlitch @sh.itjust.works

Posts

153
Comments

351
Joined

2 mo. ago

I write a blog that focuses on public information, public health, and policy: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/

time.com /7315126/trump-maduro-venezuela-regime-change/

29m ago

Trump Denies U.S. Is Seeking Regime Change in Venezuela

Technology @lemmy.world

www.theatlantic.com /technology/archive/2025/09/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial/684130/

2h ago

Trump’s Crypto Dealings Now Have the Perfect Cover

2h ago

NRA says it opposes idea of banning transgender Americans from owning guns

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 2h ago

"Oh you mean you've never had a brain worm? That alone is enough reason to put you in a straight jacket."

7h ago

NRA says it opposes idea of banning transgender Americans from owning guns

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 7h ago

I mean on the one hand, you shouldn't get brownie points for just doing the most basic.

On the other, thank fuck they're actually saying something. I would guess they are doing this bc they know this means if trans people can't buy guns, that's a loss in profits, but that's about the only thing that's going to get the wealthy to take any notice. (This is also why corporations should never have been considered people, but that's a topic for a different day).

10h ago

Putin: “Immortality” coming soon through continuous organ transplants

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/forced-organ-harvesting-03202024133851.html

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 10h ago

Somebody else mentioned that they thought they were probably talking about growing organs targeted to match DNA, but then I remembered this article I saw earlier this summer.

I brushed it off bc of who was giving the testimony, but honestly this comment from Putin makes me question if there is some truth to that. If you were able to find a match with genetic similarities to yourself, it would decrease the chance of the organ being rejected. Idk could be just a random coincidence.

The accusations against China using re-education camps to harvest organs closely matched to the recipient aren't limited to only these kinds of organizations though. There was also this article released this past summer

https://thediplomat.com/2025/07/xinjiangs-organ-transplant-expansion-sparks-alarm-over-uyghur-forced-organ-harvesting/

“This massive expansion in Xinjiang – a region already under scrutiny for systematic repression – raises deeply troubling questions about where the organs will come from,” said Wendy Rogers, Distinguished Professor of Clinical Ethics and Chair of the International Advisory Board of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC). “There is simply no justification for such growth in transplant capacity given the region’s official organ donation rate, which is far below the national average.”

This suggestion becomes even more concerning when considering the extensive surveillance and repression that Uyghurs face in the region. Detainees in the many internment camps in Xinjiang have reported being subjected to forced blood tests, ultrasounds, and organ-focused medical scans. These procedures align with organ compatibility testing, raising fears that Uyghurs are being prepped for organ harvesting while in detention.

Not to be confused with the Arizona Wendy Rogers who she unfortunately shares her name with, this lady is an Australian professor at Macquarie and bioethicist. She's been doing human rights work and publishing about this stuff for a long time

https://iabioethics.world/2022%3A-wendy-rogers

The IAB recognized Wendy Rogers, Professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University, Australia for her role in the registered Australian charity, International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse In China (ETAC). Rogers serves as ETAC’s Director and chairs its International Advisory Committee. In that capacity, Rogers raised public, professional, and governmental awareness of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China

https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/wendy-rogers

News @lemmy.world

www.seattletimes.com /nation-world/nation/louisiana-governor-pays-fine-and-discloses-13k-in-unreported-free-trips-in-deal-to-end-ethics-probe/

13h ago

Louisiana governor pays fine and discloses $13K in unreported free trips in deal to end ethics probe

14h ago

Malnourished kids arrive daily at a Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 14h ago

I feel like cycles of genocide are due to holdovers from less evolved aspects of human consciousness that tend to bring out the worst in people, especially in groups.

It's that tribalism and in-group vs out-group that evolved as humans first began building societies. It helps us to recognize when an unfamiliar threat is present, but we still haven't reached a point yet where we have really learned how to harness the benefits without unnecessary chaos and destruction. It's a complex learned social behavior, and it can require some cognitive effort.

Sometimes your amygdala signals there's a danger, and in the moment it can be correct and literally mean the difference between life and death. Or it could mean your brain identified and reacted to a neutral (non-threatening) stimulus as a threat.

For example, you see a shadow from the corner of your eye and you jump away from it in fear. Maybe you just avoided being bitten by a snake, or maybe you just overreacted to a false alarm. There is no real consequence if it was just an overreaction. In this case, the benefit of that having that survival instinct that kicked into overdrive unnecessarily, outweighs the potential harm of not having it. It's how humans are hardwired for survival.

However, that same instinct that identifies threat vs non-threat can get very caught up when you start mixing in social learning, previous interactions and experiences, biases, and especially groupthink. That's when you have to learn to use your prefrontal cortex like a muscle. That is definitely not an innate skill you're just born with, and not something that the majority of humans realize they should be making a conscious effort to exercise and teach to kids at an early age. You can start doing it at any point in your life, but it's like any muscle or skill. It can be somewhat more difficult to consistently remember to do it the longer you go without it. Use it or lose it.

You should be taking the time to stop and reflect on your own behavior and thoughts. Thinking about thinking, thinking about what others are thinking, thinking about what others might be thinking you're thinking, are all very awesome tools of empathy. They're also tools that are relatively recent on the evolutionary time scale, and most humans kind of seem to take having them for granted.

Multiple studies have shown you can very easily manipulate groups of people into in-grouping and out-grouping on even completely random and arbitrary issues, even when the in-group is composed of strangers. Unfortunately, the kind of people that tend to rise up as leaders, tend to be very persuasive or sometimes manipulative, and take advantage of this. I think this is where a sort of open source AGI could benefit humanity in terms of allowing for decentralized leadership, but that can't happen with any sort of AI being developed under a centralized leader with those manipulative characteristics.

Peter Thiel actually has a theory about humanity always needing a scapegoat. If you look at the way he handles his own businesses, he very often manipulates and does morally questionable things to achieve his goals, but he seem to be very careful about always having a sort of patsy scapegoat set up to take the fall for him.

I think to some extent, there are people in the tech world that want to stoke fear of technology, and make it seem like this big bad enemy of humanity. At the same time, they also accuse everyone that questions their control and lack of regulations or oversight, of simply being a Luddite afraid of progress. In a way it's like the same manipulative strategy to in-group humans vs technology.

That way, once his plans are completed and everything inevitably goes to shit, instead of blaming Thiel, the guy that hoarded all the resources, stole all the data, invaded everyone's privacy and ignored all the warnings while shielding himself in the name of "progress," he can simply make technology the scapegoat that humanity should blame for the authoritarian easy button that he created by claiming this was always the inevitable outcome.

22h ago

Putin: “Immortality” coming soon through continuous organ transplants

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 22h ago

Yeesh I didn't even think about this, but that might explain this accusation. I guess choosing from a catalogue of harvested organs to select the closest match would also decrease the need for immuno suppressants. Experts: China is sequencing Uyghur DNA for organ harvesting

Kinda makes you wonder if that's another reason they want increased genetic homogeneity and increased birthrates. Also makes me think of those catalogues of Ukrainian children Russia was offering for adoptions.

22h ago

Putin: “Immortality” coming soon through continuous organ transplants

https://thediplomat.com/2025/07/xinjiangs-organ-transplant-expansion-sparks-alarm-over-uyghur-forced-organ-harvesting/

Basic Glitch @sh.itjust.works 22h ago

I keep hearing people make this argument. This seems to presume that these insane blood thirsty dictators discussing immortality, are also rational individuals who wouldn't be willing to stockpile organs first, then die trying.

1d ago

Malnourished kids arrive daily at a Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger

But the corporations that keep AI contained are kinda analogous to the arbitrary borders. Like I believe AI could only transcend that if it wasn't being controlled by these CEOs who want to essentially be the Christopher Columbus of AI.

As long as it's being controlled by any one company or individual that CEO's inherent human bias is going to be what dominates the technology. The potential for abuse is basically just reinventing the wheel of who becomes the single individual or powerful group that controls everything, and becomes the new oppressor. It also risks missing the full potential for true artificial intelligence.

It's like they're so obsessed with being immortalized by having their face and name go down in history as the ones who claimed this new frontier, but it's kind of a chicken and egg situation.

True emergent AGI would have to have constant access to data that is a result of spontaneous and willing human thought. So there would never be a single Christopher Columbus responsible for discovering or creating it. It's kind of like the more you try to pin it down, the harder it would become to truly capture it.

Giant data dumps that were stolen without consent will never achieve something like that. For human thought to really be spontaneous humans need to be free, and not exploited by any individual. So how do we keep ourselves and AI from being contained by borders or corporations?

1d ago

Malnourished kids arrive daily at a Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, wondering why there never really has been a truly global uprising against oppression.

It's like sometimes a big boom happens in one part of the world, and sparks of that are sent out from there and sometimes they catch on and grow in other places, but there's never really been a global fight or movement against oppression for freedom.

We've fought world wars on behalf of individuals against each other, but we've never fought as a world against the corrupt individuals.

This is a really weird train of thought, but I was talking to somebody about this a few days ago. Inevitably what always seems to happen when movements rise up against oppression is that relying on an individual or group of individuals to lead results in a sort of containment or control of the masses by the new leaders. Even when leaders start out with the best of intentions, they can always become corrupted by power. Obviously you never want a situation where everyone everywhere relies on one single ruler with all the power bc absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But what if for humanity to truly flourish and reach our full potential, we're not actually supposed to be relying on any one leader or small group of leaders? I don't mean anarchy, because I believe that would just inevitably lead to whoever has control of the majority of weapons and resources seizing power. So how could you really keep order without individuals taking control? You would have to find a way for everyone to somehow be able to hold each other accountable. Which would be impossible for humans to ever achieve on their own.

Then I started thinking about all these tech bros who are trying to take global control and create something like a new god with AI. They all want to be the one to put their name on it because they all want to control it. They believe that they will be successful eventually as long as they keep dumping endless amounts of money and data into it.

And it kind of hit me that if something like AGI (not just a giant supercomputer that just does neat tricks) were to ever really happen, it would probably only occur as sort of a spontaneous emergent property of having something like a truly free and limitless connection between humans. So no matter how much money and data these people keep dumping into it, they'll just keep hitting a wall, bc it's probably not something that you can just make happen by containing and controlling it. It would have to be something that emerges from truly unlimited and unrestricted access to data that is being freely provided by people (as in free to interact with others globally by choice). And these people are so fucking full of themselves, they believe they can somehow achieve the same thing by just spying on the globe and stealing everyone's data to dump into their supercomputers.

Basically, what if for AI to truly reach it's full potential and actually benefit society by helping it evolve, it's not supposed to be contained or controlled by any individual or group of individuals? And for humans to truly reach ours, neither are we?

What if a truly uncontained and connected global network that's not owned or controlled by any single individual or group could help us achieve both of those things?

1d ago

I didn't think it was possible to sum up reddit with a single image, but...

But that's not really creating anything new. Why did nobody just make an exclusively right wing alternative to mastodon? Idk anything about Parler, but it just seems like it's easy to just try to make a space on an existing platform, but if you join something that was built by somebody else, you're being provided a space within what they built.

If the right feels like they don't want to be restricted whatsoever by the requirements of being part of a platform or institution, why has nobody really built a right wing alternative from the ground up?

Most of Project 2025 is based on Paul Weyrich deciding that the U.S. is beyond redemption in his opinion, and he says that the path forward for the right should be the homeschool model and for the right to create their own institutions.

But that's not what's actually happening. They're not building any new institutions and offering them as an alternative open to anyone on the right that wants to join. They're just taking over existing institutions, and turning them into what they wanted. It's like they're doing this only to prove a point that what they want should be the way that everyone lives their lives, and since society didn't want that, they're going to have to force it on society.

If the entire basis of your movement is that society should be focused on and built around a very narrow section of all of society, why would it be surprising that the majority of society wouldn't want to willingly be part of your movement since they don't fit into it?

This is like if some people that were obsessed with frisbee golf got mad bc other sports exist, so they took over every football stadium to try and force every football fan to become a fan of Frolf.

Realistically what would happen? Everybody suddenly accepts that frolf is the new football because a small group of people wanted it and now it's your only option? Even if they can somehow hold on to power indefinitely, and keep all those football stadiums frolf only, would people really just stop playing football or would they just go literally anywhere else and play there instead? Even if it meant you might just have to start out playing in an empty field or parking lot somewhere with only a few other people, and slowly grow from there. People will just make new football stadiums or soccer stadiums or tennis courts bc not everybody wants to be forced to just play frolf.

World News @lemmy.world

apnews.com /article/palestinians-gaza-children-starvation-israel-netanyahu-0549e843c24fe7f20f1e7ce085502450

1d ago

Malnourished kids arrive daily at a Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger

1d ago

I didn't think it was possible to sum up reddit with a single image, but...

I actually got banned from this community on my old lemm.ee account under the same username. So I don't make actual posts here. Idk if I'm even technically supposed to be commenting, so 🤫

Even so, Lemmy is nothing like what Reddit has become. Any platform is susceptible, but Reddit is now controlled by people who are out to prove a Fred Phelps like point about free speech. If you can't say whatever you want, whenever you want, to anyone you want, go out of your way to ruin it for everybody and die miserable and alone.

Even if that does end up happening here, somebody else will just build back something new and a little better to replace it.

Fascists complained for decades about being censored on the internet and in that time what did they actually do? Did they actually build their own alternatives that anybody wanted to use, or did they just scheme and claw their way to the top to take over what somebody else made and force what they wanted on to everyone?

It's true, they've basically made just about every popular internet platform unuseable in like 9 months, but that has also driven more people to just seek alternatives, and other people to focus on building them or making what already exists more user friendly. So when people just stop using that garbage, what happens to all those paid sponsors? Do they just keep paying to advertise to no one?

The dead internet theory just kind of assumes that people will want to keep using these platforms to witness bots argue instead of interacting with other people, but I can't even really scroll through Reddit or Substack anymore bc I know there's better content somewhere else that isn't being controlled to keep a narrative going.

I tried to look for a very specific topic on YouTube yesterday, and got so frustrated with only having an endless stream of short clips of influencers instead of the one thing that I actually wanted, that I ended up just making an account on peertube. There's not much content on there (yet), but the small amount that is there is sooo much more interesting than 99% of the garbage being force fed by YouTube.

I'm pretty sure that's actually how capitalism is supposed to work when a "free market" isn't being completely controlled by oligarchs. Like if this product sucks, and this other product is available and better, why would I keep using the shitty product unless somebody is tightly controlling the market and not allowing any competition?

I was talking to somebody yesterday about how being forced to switch to open source platforms has actually made me somewhat more optimistic for the future in general. Once somebody destroys something you love, it's just gone. It sucks, but there's a good chance you'll probably never get back what was destroyed. You can't go home again, but you can always try to rebuild something new, and make it a little better than before.

2d ago

DOJ does damage control as staffer admits Republicans will be redacted from Epstein files

Dude they are never releasing the full files. This is all just a fucking tease and while they're busy pretending to be bringing the hammer of justice down all the pedophiles they just chose to protect (once again) are casually helping set up and cement the authoritarian regime in cities across America.

Like when we reach the point that there is military patrolling every major city, elections are cancelled indefinitely for our own good, and they feel safe enough to just admit they're not releasing anything else, what do we even do?

This is like somebody who you caught robbing you, then giving you some of your stuff back to get you to shut up and not draw so much attention. Then reassuring you that you'll get the rest back soon, they just didn't feel comfortable giving it all back to you yet? What possible reason would you have to trust or believe that they'll do anything once the heat and focus has died down enough?

2d ago

I didn't think it was possible to sum up reddit with a single image, but...

This happened to me about a week ago

And then somehow my account got banned for 3 days

And then once the ban was up Reddit let me know that they'd looked into it and found nothing concerning

2d ago

Peter Thiel is delivering 4 private sold-out lectures at a club in San Francisco—about the Antichrist

Yess!!! God dammit and it's so crazy that people are never going to actually believe it until it's too late to do anything about it. Like it will probably just get normalized to the point where it's considered a privilege to be sacrificed for the wealthy bc you're allowed a better quality of life compared to your peasant peers in order to keep your organs in tip top shape.

Like people keep saying everything is just a distraction from the Epstein files, but that shit has become a distraction from what all he's trying to normalize in the meantime while Republicans keep dropping kayfabe and pretending they're shocked in order to keep us distracted.

They just dismissed Congress early and went home for the summer. They're supposed to be returning but are about to just shut down the entire government instead. Probably indefinitely. The entire Republican party is going scorched earth. By the time all the files do get released (if ever) it will be beyond the point where it matters.

The goal has always been to overthrow the government and replace it with an oligarchy.

Do people actually understand what organ harvesting, sex trafficking, pedophile oligarchs stand to lose if some files are released confirming what we already knew once we no longer have any accountability, elections, or a justice system, and every city is controlled by the state dictator's military? Nothing. That's why they don't give a fuck.

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids

"Everybody needs to be wearing a fitness tracker by x date was concerning enough already," but that conversation between Xi and Putin brings this all to a whole other level.

They're not just trying to control us and exploit us financially and for our labor anymore. These psychotic global oligarchs obsessed with immortality, organ transplants, and birth rates literally want to start exploiting (not just controlling) literally exploiting our bodies for parts. Like wtf?!

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids

Exactly, that is the part that they don't advertise, so they can point to people who opposed this and say see they hate families and they hate children blah blah blah.

Their idea of what a family is supposed to be also means that benefits from their "investment in American families" will also exclude any families with LGBTQ parents, any kids that are being raised by a single parent, or kids being raised by other relatives.

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids

Bc they literally don't want people to benefit if they don't meet "certain criteria." That's literally it.

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids

That's kinda the trick to all of this. As long as you're willing to accept or ignore the fact that you will only benefit from these policies at the cost of excluding or harming others, then you will see it as in your best interest to support it.

That's why I say that aspect of it (making sure families make enough money to survive on a single income if they chose to) would actually be a pretty liberal/bipartisan policy if it weren't targeted at only benefiting traditional nuclear families. It's definitely not a small government/fiscally conservative/traditional Republican policy.

If you look like what we believe traditional America is supposed to look like, and you're willing to comply/fall in line with what we say has to be done to achieve this policy, you'll be rewarded (allegedly). That is how this whole operation works. They need a population of people who are willing to be exploited in exchange for some benefit to help carry out a worse exploitation on the people being harmed by the policies they create.

It's not too dissimilar from policies that might, for example, tank the economy, destroy thousands of jobs, and then offer an abundance of hiring positions working with ICE at a huge starting salary with zero experience. As long as you comply, you see nothing wrong with what you're doing or who you're working for (because again, empathy is a sickness), and you have faith that this is just what God wanted to happen, then the people at the top keep making a fortune off these policies and you're allowed to live comfortably. You and the people creating these policies both benefit. It's in your best interest to just do as you're told and trust this administration the same way you would trust in God to receive his blessings. This all allegedly being part of God's plan, has always been their way of rationalizing and explaining away anything morally questionable.

The New Right targeted what they used to call the moral majority, and started using classic in-group vs out-group tactics not long after the civil rights movement by calling for a return to "traditional" American values. They started out by attacking "multiculturalism" in the 70s by claiming it was an attack on their own values, then it gradually shifted to "political correctness" and popularizing the term "cultural marxism" in the early 90s to describe a culture war on Christianity and any "traditional" values. Eventually, it was updated again to "wokeness" and then to the most recent attacks on anything that can vaguely blamed as DEI.

They wanted to create the illusion of an attack by the left to make it seem that there is just no place for Christians. That they aren't welcome or wanted because the goal of the left is simply to destroy Christianity and promote Cultural Marxism. Meanwhile, they claimed to be fighting back in the right to try and preserve and hold on to our "Christian" nation and our traditional values. Since they are fighting this fictional war (that they very deliberately created) on behalf of God, that means God chose to put them and everyone else in whatever position they may find themselves because he needs them there to carry out his plan.

This also means they can claim their own positions of power can simply be explained by divine will, but really this is the ultimate quiet part that the leaders at the top of this movement never say out loud. What really connects the people like Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk with the rest of the more traditional types in the Heritage Foundation is this bizarre belief in a sort of natural caste system. There are simply people who have and those who have not. There are people who count and people who don't. That's just the natural order of things, and there is no reason to look for reason why that is, or how a deck was stacked. It's just the way it is. If necessary they will try to make a claim about social darwinism and survival of the fittest, or selfish genes, or any number of very questionable BS arguments as to why anyone should believe that they and only they were born to win the game.

They truly believe there is a sort of natural hierarchy ordained by either God or nature that allows for an elite few to be granted great power and control over everyone else. As far as everyone else, it becomes only about God. There is another hierarchy for those willing to help carry out God's plan by serving those at the top who control, and then those that they claim go against or just don't seem to fit into God's plan.

It's unclear why God would ever create anyone that didn't fit into his plan, but that kind of thinking and any questioning of their power and control can easily be written off as just another example of someone who is either willingly or unwillingly (they are the ones who are brainwashed by liberal media, universities, Soros, etc. and just don't know it) fighting the war on Christianity on behalf of the cultural Marxists.

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids

Same, I wanted to have another one last year but I didn't bc these kinds of policies were already coming down the pipeline at the state level. I'm a mixture of relieved that I didn't and heartbroken, but mostly just very, very, angry. I don't like being manipulated and controlled by anyone, let alone a bunch of rich evil weirdos.

Channeling the rage to warn others and throwing banana peels in the way of these people whenever I get the chance has been therapeutic.

2d ago

Project 2025 group wants huge changes to policy to encourage more kids