Justin (koavf) @koavf@mastodon.social

Today in uplifting news: it looks like American markets are refusing to be fooled by tech unicorns: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/are-we-cusp-next-dot-com-bubble/600232/ #scams #capitalism #latestagecapitalism #techbros #siliconvalley #stockmarket

Exhibit A of how San Francisco is not a liberal city: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7x57mb/san-francisco-property-owners-can-do-basically-whatever-they-want-to-homeless-people-now The Bay Area is made up of vicious capitalists who love get-rich-quick-schemes and tech-libertarianism but agree that climate change is probably happening and don’t really care if a couple of men get married but that is far from a left-wing utopia. #liberalism #capitalism #latestagecapitalism #sanfrancisco #hatecrimes #homelessness

Today in depressing journalism news: https://deadspin.com/inside-themavens-plan-to-turn-sports-illustrated-into-a-1838756286 This has everything: pivots to video, content mills, unpaid labor, underpaid labor, bosses claiming to be friends, serial abusers, sexual harassment, and the tarnishing of multiple long-lived publications. Truly despicable. #sexualharassment #techbros #journalism #sports #sportsillustrated #thelosangelestimes #capitalism #latestagecapitalism #scams #theft #lies

Have you ever wondered what sociopathy looks like? https://newrepublic.com/article/155212/worked-capital-one-five-years-justified-piling-debt-poor-customers As always, being poor is more expensive than being rich. #classwarfare #debt #capitalism #oppression #cruelty #latestagecapitalism

Herd immunity is real and vaccinations are your obligation if you are able: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/10/herd-immunity/ #immunizations #responsibility #publichealth

Chris Ware breaks down his (beautiful) process: https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/chris-ware-rusty-brown/ #comics #design #chrisware

I have seen a few pieces about ecofascism and debunking the tragedy of the commons but none as succinct and with historical perspective as this one: https://thebaffler.com/latest/first-as-tragedy-then-as-fascism-amend They veer in the wrong direction regarding a pro-life and environmentalist axis but this is otherwise an excellent overview #environmentalism #demography #fascism #ecofascism #racism #whitesupremacism #altright

Stock buybacks and financial capitalism have been strangling the middle class my entire life: https://www.worth.com/stock-buybacks-threaten-economic-growth/ #scams #capitalism #corruption

Hereticon seems like it could be a good gathering. Could also be a backdoor for alt-rite garbage but based on the questions posed here, I am cautiously optimistic: https://medium.com/@foundersfund/hereticon-2bb9b23928d5 Thoughts? #thought #dissent #culture #hereticon

I realized several years ago how bad social media is for mental health, genuine relationships, and democracy, so it is encouraging to see the next generation coming to the same conclusions: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/opinion/quit-social-media.html My use of social media is now relegated to Mastodon instances and disapora* and I have a lot of personal rules about how I use them that keep me from the addictive tendencies. #socialmedia #relationships #mentalhealth #society #generationz #millennials

A huge study of the impact on Net Neutrality on telecom expansion finds that there is no negative effect on the ability of Internet service providers to become established or function: academic (https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6430695/Net-Neutrality.pdf), popular (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190927/10225543081/massive-study-proves-once-all-that-no-net-neutrality-did-not-hurt-broadband-investment.shtml) All claims otherwise are from regulatory capture, lies, and useful idiots. #regulatorycapture #netneutrality #telecommunications #internet #lies

In regulatory capture news, an industry group that includes members of or that has defended the practices of Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Monsanto, and the tobacco industry is doing their best to kill non-Americans, too by sitting on government advisory panels worldwide in direct conflicts of interest: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/health/ilsi-food-policy-india-brazil-china.html #brazil #mainlandchina #peoplesrepublicofchina #china #india #mexico #obesity #nutrition #regulatorycapture #corruption #lies #conflictofinterest #cocacola #nestle #monsanto

Factors that encourage obesity: genetics, a sedentary lifestyle, macro-nutrient ratio (dubious?), total calories consumed, presence of existing fat, aesthetic preferences, gut bioeme, and ultra-processing: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-theory-of-obesity/ Any others? #obesity #food #nutrition

Give up sugar and you will enjoy food more: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/my-life-without-sugar #sugar #health #nutrition #taste

On predatory pricing and counterfeit capitalism: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/wework-and-counterfeit-capitalism “Across the West, the basic problem of a corrupted productive process is becoming a quiet crisis. The reason is simple. The people that do the work in organizations are increasingly excluded from the decision-making about the work.” Easily the best take-down of gig economy/Silicon Valley scamming that I have seen. #scams #capitalism #wework #monopolies #amazon

Free will vindicated: (academic): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6640273(popular): https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/09/free-will-bereitschaftspotential/597736/ #freewill #neuroscience #philosophy

https://joshcsimmons.com/2019/09/10/i-quit-social-media-for-a-year-and-nothing-magical-happened/ #socialmedia #mentalhealth #friendship

Opinions are often based on tribal affiliation and accidents of history: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/311/5762/854 (academic) https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/are-your-political-beliefs-principled-or-peer-pressured/ (popular) This comes as no real surprise to anyone following American politics but it is good to show it empirically. #tribalism #politics #psychology

DRM is feudalism: https://locusmag.com/2019/09/cory-doctorow-drm-broke-its-promise/ #feudalism #scams #freedom #books #drm

American law enforcement needs to stop deputizing companies and universities: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-i-wont-start-spying-on-my-foreign-born-students/2019/08/29/01c80e84-c9b2-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html I have felt strongly about this for awhile but this op-ed really puts it into perspective how we have to protect the intellectual freedom and political neutrality of the college campus. #education #academia #lawenforcement #immigration #racism