Henry Edward Hardy @hhardy01@mastodon.social

People used to own their own websites in the pre-social media phase.

The ISP model was web hosting. Everyone would be a publisher. Everyone would have their own website.

Now the model is: you provide the content for someone else's website, for free. You don't own it, and it is used for a comprehensive surveillance system like the world has never seen to not only observe, but to manipulate and influence your affect and conduct. It is aggregated and used by every government and large corp.

I've been thinking about the George Floyd killing and other killings like Jacob Blake.

What I see is impunity.

Not law enforcement. Not "serve and protect."

I see pudgy incel insecure white cops who didn't serve in the military, trying to prove how tough they are by torturing and breaking strong Black men. Making them beg for their lives, beg for their mothers, and then killing them in cold blood. In public.

And the whole system is bloody-handed and complicit.

Not just a "few bad cops."

Privilege.

If you don't fear the police & don't understand why other folks do.

Let's break it down.

Hundreds of people are killed by the police in incidents of police violence.

Black folks are stopped & searched, restrained, beaten, tasered, handcuffed, transported to jail, charged, sentenced, and imprisoned longer with much higher frequency than whites with similar alleged offenses. There's a huge amount of statistical evidence showing this.

If you don't fear the police, that's privilege.

Really, asking "what should replace Facebook" is putting things the wrong way around.

A more interesting way to ask the question is, "what did Facebook replace."

People used to build their own websites. People used to have blogs. People used USENET which was truly distributed and un-censorable.

Facebook and Google took the open internet and open standards and monetized and made everything crappy. Enough of that. Nothing should replace Facebook, it's done, stick a fork in it.

It's encouraging that Ms. Marvel and Naru in Prey are not encumbered by the crippling "who am I, where did I come from?" trope which hobbled Alita, Rey, and Captain Marvel.

Some Mad Max or Escape from New York shit here:

"Cages are built inside the Mariupol Philharmonic, as Russia appears to prepare for trials of Ukrainians."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/11/world/ukraine-russia-news-war

"And yet now Amnesty is suggesting that Ukraine somehow brought these monstrous cruelties on itself by positioning troops in its cities. What was Ukraine supposed to do? Not defend its cities and allow Russia to occupy them without a fight? That would simply expose Ukrainians to the horrors of Russian occupation, which has resulted in credible accusations of murder, rape, looting, mass deportation and other heinous crimes."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/08/amnesty-international-ukraine-russia-war-crimes/

"Two Indiana officers were suspended after a stunning courtroom revelation that police thought a potential town council candidate was anti-police and arrested him, stopping him from running for office.

During a July 19 hearing, Franklin County Prosecutor Chris Huerkamp dropped charges that included drug possession against Trevin Thalheimer... Huerkamp, who also did not pursue a rape charge police had investigated, said he was “disturbed beyond words”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/10/indiana-police-arrest-political-candidate/

"Historians privately warn Biden that America’s democracy is teetering

When Biden met with historians last week at the White House, they compared the threat facing America to the pre-Civil War era and to pro-fascist movements before World War II"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/10/biden-us-historians-democracy-threat/

"Amnesty International’s allegation of unlawful conduct by Ukraine is unconvincing...

In my estimation, Amnesty International has acted irresponsibly by making the claim without providing supporting evidence, citing the specific rules that it believes have been violated, or laying out its legal analysis. These failures have deprived Ukraine of a meaningful opportunity to respond and the international community of an ability to properly assess it."

https://lieber.westpoint.edu/amnesty-allegations-ukrainian-ihl-violations/

Office of the
Director of National Intelligence

UNCLASSIFIED ASSESSMENT ON RUSSIAN FILTRATION CAMPS

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2022/item/2312-unclassified-assessment-on-russian-filtration-camps

"Pro-Moscow Figures Hail Controversial Amnesty Report on Kyiv War Tactics"

"Amnesty has come under intense criticism from Kyiv over the report, with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky accusing it of victim-blaming and creating conditions to justify Russian aggression.

"There cannot be — even hypothetically — any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified," Zelensky said late Thursday. "

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/08/05/pro-moscow-figures-hail-controversial-amnesty-report-on-kyiv-war-tactics-a78520

"Some of the expectations expressed in the Amnesty report, such as the notion that Ukrainian troops should defend civilians from Russian attack without stationing themselves nearby, are nothing short of absurd...

Amnesty International has defended its claims. Its Secretary-General, Agnès Callamard, dismissed all objections to the report, tweeting, “Ukrainian and Russian social media mobs and trolls: they are all at it today attacking Amnesty investigations.” "

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/flawed-amnesty-report-risks-enabling-more-russian-war-crimes-in-ukraine/

Open Letter to Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnes Callamard
By Bohdan Nahaylo.

"AI fails to emphasize the following: that the shifting front line in the war zone very often runs through cities, towns and villages, with the Russian invaders employing scorched earth tactics through indiscriminate shelling and missile attacks; and that the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly urged the local population to evacuate the targeted and exposed areas."

https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/open-letter-to-amnesty-internationals-secretary-general-agnes-callamard.html

"No, Ms. Callamard, Russian trolls are not attacking your Amnesty International report, they are turning it into propaganda videos for their disinformation campaign."

https://unwatch.org/the-end-of-amnesty-international/

"BREAKING
Another Senior Amnesty International Official Resigns Over Ukraine Report Scandal"

“I have been a member of Amnesty International for almost sixty years,” Vestberg said. “It is with a heavy heart that I end my long and fruitful cooperation due to Amnesty’s statements regarding the war in Ukraine.”

https://www.kyivpost.com/russias-war/another-senior-amnesty-international-official-resigns-over-ukraine-report-scandal.html

Totally not a gangster.

How could you even think that!

"Amnesty International Assessment That Ukraine ‘Put Civilians in Harm’s Way’ Stirs Outrage
The human rights group accused the Ukrainian military of establishing bases and weapons systems in schools and hospitals."

My letter to the Secretary General of Amnesty about their victim-blaming of Ukraine for Russian bombardment of civilians and protected structures and areas as schools and hospitals.

Amnesty blames Ukraine for Alleged Russian bombardment

by Henry Edward Hardy

https://scanlyze.org/2022/08/10/amnesty-blames-ukraine-for-alleged-russian-bombardment/

I made the rest of the oatmeal raisin cookie dough into bars.

They are maybe not so photogenic, but they are super eatagenic!

"The secret ingredient is nutmeg."

This is rather long-winded, and I don't completely agree with all of it. But I think this is a very thoughtful and interesting review/analysis of the new movie, "Prey."

I really love how he connects food gathering to the instinctive reward structure of hunting, and how all narratives are hunting stories which vicariously give us those frissions of reward for food-seeking. And how the young Feral Predator and Naru eager to prove themselves see the hunt as its own reward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbZ7wzqmASE

"Prey Responses to Exotic Predators: Effects of Old Risks and New Cues
Sean M. Ehlman, Pete C. Trimmer, and Andrew Sih
ORCIDs: Ehlman, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6981-9549; Trimmer, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0914-4150. "

"As expected, prey respond poorly to exotic predators that do not closely resemble familiar predators... Also, prey that evolved in situations where they easily discriminate between safe and dangerous situations can be more susceptible to novel predators.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/702252?journalCode=an