tripu @tripu@social.cleverlibre.org

@freemo

To me, this amounts to an attack:

* https://nitter.net/elonmusk/status/1716342871916257739
* https://nitter.net/elonmusk/status/1716102436123783175
* https://nitter.net/elonmusk/status/1716099814264328390

I have much respect for #Wikipedia as a project and as a community. And about the #Wikimedia #Foundation, I doubt those veiled accusations against it are substantiated.

/cc @admitsWrongIfProven

I don't hate #ElonMusk. I have very mixed feelings about what he has done in the world, and what his goals are.

But if he has attacked #Wikipedia in any way, that's too much even for me.

@admitsWrongIfProven

I don't know much about that issue you mention, and I'm happy to be educated.

Can we agree both things are bad?

@LouisIngenthron

@LouisIngenthron

Of course we need distractions. There are many distractions that are gratis, productive, generous, creative — or at least neutral. And there are distractions were we can justify real improvement in well-being for us or for others.

Choosing to spend your time visiting a “dog bakery” and to pay for a fake carrot cake to actually malnourish and spoil a poodle which couldn't care less about the texture of the thing or the colours of its toppings (or about how well it shows on Instagram, or about the childish impulses of its owner) ticks none of the boxes above, and is so patiently decadent, pointless and wasteful that I wouldn't put it in the same box as “doing the crossword”, “watching a TV programme” or “juggling”.

Just an opinion.

/cc @admitsWrongIfProven

@admitsWrongIfProven

I think we should not strive to be distracted from calamities and suffering.

…billions of sentient beings, _human and non-human_.

…for a spoiled caniche to eat a cute cupcake _in five seconds, deriving no special pleasure from it (it's a treat **for its owner**), and being effectively worse nourished compared to unremarkable inexpensive regular feed for mascots_.

A #dog #bakery in #Madrid today.

I have said with pride that I can't be offended, that I'm immune to that.

I'm still not offended by the existence of “dog bakeries” — but it gets close to that.

I don't blame specifically the shop owners (who detected a market need) or the clients (who are vulnerable to whims, curiosity and overindulgence, like anyone who cares for another creature). I blame us all, collectively, for creating a society and a moral code that enables this and doesn't give a second thought to the logic (or lack thereof) behind this.

Our priorities are so skewed. Our allocation of resources, empathy and attention is zero-sum. We neglect unthinkable quantities of suffering afflicting billions of sentient beings every day but pay for a spoiled caniche to eat a cute cupcake.

#EffectiveAltruism

@admitsWrongIfProven

It tells small children that everyone can be just what they want to be; that sex isn't binary; that neither genitals, anatomy nor clothing can't give you a clue about someone else's sex.

I stumbled upon this #book for small #children at the local #library, and I think it's very inappropriate and misleading.

> _“Man, woman… everyone what they want”_

> _“What if it is neither one thing nor the other?”_

etc

#gender #sex

https://joanaestrela.com/menino-menina/

@ImperfectIdea @fidel @gasull

#YouTube detecting #adBlockers might even be _illegal_ in some jurisdictions:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/26/privacy_advocate_challenges_youtube/

/cc @LouisIngenthron

#Book shortlist at the local #library today:

T. S. Elliot's [_The Waste Land_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land)

Albert Camus' [_The Plague_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague_(novel))

Warren Ellis' [_Transmetropolitan_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmetropolitan)

I ended up borrowing the last one.

#JordanPeterson (and so many others): if this materialistic reality is all there is, how can you build #morality?

Let's assume there's an afterlife. You build morality down here to grant a good outcome after we're dead, right?

Yes.

What is a “good outcome” beyond the material world?

Well, there is salvation or condemnation, bliss or torture — heaven or hell, if you will. You surely prefer we all go to heaven, don't you?

Sure. Can we summarise that prospect as “suffering vs bliss”?

OK, you could put it that way.

And we want to avoid hell because… suffering is bad, right? Is #suffering bad?

Sure it is. That's self-evident.

Alright, we agree. Then, why can't we make _the avoidance of suffering_ (or the pursuit of bliss, or a combination of those two), the cornerstone of #ethics _in this life, right now_? Can't you see there's enough of a foundation to distinguish between “good” and “evil” in this plane of existence already, without the need to project consequences into a hypothetical non-materialistic reality? I'm not asking you to dispense with your supernatural world, I'm just saying you can't claim any more that it's impossible to have ethics without a “superior being” or an afterlife, because at the root, you are guided by the same principle as us, the same axiom (“suffering = bad”).

@ImperfectIdea

😠

I don't trust online reviews and I don't trust awards given by voting online. I've seen too much begging for positive reviews and votes.

Rational optimisation for individuals and organisations, by Nuño Sempere:

https://nunosempere.com/blog/2023/07/19/better-harder-faster-stronger/