Post AwKqAIMyKyGfP18GaO by festal@tldr.nettime.org
 (DIR) More posts by festal@tldr.nettime.org
 (DIR) Post #AwKqAIMyKyGfP18GaO by festal@tldr.nettime.org
       2025-07-20T09:52:57Z
       
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       I fear that "Resisting AI" will lock us into a fundamentally losing battle, the same way that "Protecting Privacy" does. It's not that the political ends are wrong, but the means are conceptually inadequate. It locks us into a battle where we might achieve a few tactical wins, while the overall situation is deteriorating all the time. At the same time, it's obvious that "protecting privacy" is one of the few institutionalized ways we can push for non-market values in the digital context. So it would be foolish to give this up. But it still locks us into a battle we cannot win.For privacy, see this article by @malteengeler and others.https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13671
       
 (DIR) Post #AwKqAJHgw5dcEvfYzg by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2025-07-20T20:03:18Z
       
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       @festal @malteengeler One of my recent realizations is, "everything I (we?) have been doing is wrong" regarding politics. The right works at strategy; we work at aesthetics and tactics. The right is willing to give up autonomy for collective ends; we are not. Our diversity has ended up as fragmentation. Identity politics was this fragmentation. The one group tool we have, unions, are disdained, undeveloped. I know this just sounds cynical, but I'm in general, though def deeply skeptical. And I realize now I have no idea how to proceed.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwLga03GGDZzjhUUZk by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2025-07-21T05:50:39Z
       
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       @festal @malteengeler The moment has past but I realized late that I posted an incomplete thought that's almost backwards. I meant to say, identity politics was so fragmenting, we had to use 'intersectionality' to begin to stitch things back together; when long ago, as far back as you care to go, if eg gay people had fully embraced that black peoples oppressions are the root of our own, that joining efforts was the obvious path. Even today we don't have that. Because gay folk, like most Americans, can't or won't see those shared oppressions.  And here we are.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwMAfFvNfc6b2PE8yu by festal@tldr.nettime.org
       2025-07-21T11:27:44Z
       
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       @tomjennings @malteengeler For me, the most amazing thing is, and this is different on Europe, is that Trump has managed to forge an surprisingly diverse coalition (TechBros, wealthy Chamber-of-commerce-types, disaffected working class, radical Christians, nationalists, racists etc.). All united, for different reasons, against the liberal elites, protection of minorities, and the rule-bound administration.And what do we have? Fights within feminism (TERF vs Trans) and impossibly high demands to realize the new world within our movements first, and a conservative desire to return to the 1990s. For me, the elephant in the room is climate change. The US right managed to articulate a "coherent" program: build walls against the South, capture the North, and bet on AI to magically solve all problems through super-intelligence. And what do we have? The center is saying climate change will kill us, but we can't do anything about it. The left is into organic farming and recycling. Basically identity politics as personal virtue signaling. I thought the experience of living in an ecologically precarious world might provide a new framework for solidarity, but minus-sum games are tearing things apart.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwMeKheeN8rNaKW8SO by malteengeler@legal.social
       2025-07-21T11:48:39Z
       
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       @festal @tomjennings I do not agree with your characterisation of "the left". While your admittedly cheeky description certainly fits to certain groups (I personally would assign them to green-liberal camps but that's useless semantics), these groups by no means describe the organized left I work with. I do not disagree with your grim assessment of the status quo though. Organizing with other dedicated transformative anti-capitalists in your neighborhood is the best thing I can recommend.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwMeKj4D7atrxtU3w8 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
       2025-07-21T17:00:09Z
       
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       @malteengelerI accept the criticism, and agree it's at minimum too broad. But these are posts not essays, and it was partly personal dismayal, including my own behavior, roughly assessed.But yeah we are left with this fragmentation. And part of the 'everything...wrong' is exactly that, moving more locally. Starting with local food banks, for me. And neighborhood anti-ICE. As an old whit guy I can stand out in the street and not worry about certain things happening to me. I and we etc should be using that to others' advantage. @festal