Below are posts associated with the “vice.com” source.
🔗 linkblog: Axon Halts Plans to Sell Flying Taser Drones to Schools'
What’s the point in having an ethics board if you’re going to so flagrantly ignore them? Good on members for responding with resignations, and thank goodness Axon woke up to how dunb their decision was.
🔗 linkblog: Our Obsession With Gas Prices Is Driving America Nuts'
I have long been skeptical of gas prices as a talking point. Some interesting thoughts in here.
🔗 linkblog: Two-Thirds of Republicans Believe Great Replacement Theory, New Poll Shows'
GOP has some reckoning to do.
🔗 linkblog: ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Is a Mashup of the Things That Make Up Star Wars'
I’m interested in this argument about Star Wars feeling like a TTRPG campaign setting. Throughout much of middle and high school, I played the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars TTRPG, and that made even the prequel movies beloved because they became a setting to explore rather than movies to be unsatisfied with.
🔗 linkblog: ‘It Was the Wrong Decision’: Uvalde Cops Waited in Hallway as Kids Called 911 Begging to Be Saved From Gunman'
It makes me sick and angry to read all of this. We have so badly failed the children of this country.
🔗 linkblog: QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter'
If QAnon is excited, the rest of us should be worried—though I think there is a possibility that Musk realizes just how bad his ideas re: limiting moderation are and fails to deliver.
🔗 linkblog: 30,000 New Users Signed Up for Mastodon After Elon Musk Bought Twitter'
Is this just mastodon.social? Seems like it, but that’s not the only instance getting a bump, and sloppy reporting to ignore how federated instances work—that’s one of the reasons we’re all moving there.
🔗 linkblog: Texts Show Mike Lee Released ‘the Kraken’ and Tried to Give Trump a Smarter Coup Plan'
Worrying stuff out of Utah.
🔗 linkblog: The Far-Right Is Doxxing School Officials They Think Are “Groomers”'
This matches rhetoric I’m reading while doing research on Gab. We need respectable conservative movements in the U.S., but our contemporary mainstream right is flirting with these ideas instead of denouncing them. It’s troubling
🔗 linkblog: Cops Tried Playing Disney Music to Censor a Video'
Weaponization of copyright filters is awful, and it’s not even the worst thing about this story.
🔗 linkblog: Marjorie Taylor Greene: If You Vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson, You Must Like Pedophiles'
GOP needs to do more about MTG.
🔗 linkblog: Hacked News Channel and Deepfake of Zelenskyy Surrendering Is Causing Chaos Online'
Oh good, our fears about deepfakes are coming true.
🔗 linkblog: Millions of Leftists Are Reposting Kremlin Misinformation by Mistake'
Interesting if disconcerting story. The idea of whataboutism as misinformation is particularly disturbing, and it’s important to remember that misinformation is a non-partisan phenomenon (even if the GOP is particularly keen on it). The worst part from a personal angle is how this relates to my own struggling to balance calling out the invasion of Ukraine with knowing that I haven’t been as attentive to other conflicts that deserve my brainspace. I think that’s possible in a way that doesn’t support the Kremlin, but there is some delicate balancing to be done here.
🔗 linkblog: Russia Can Now Jail People for 15 Years for Tweeting About the War on Ukraine'
On one hand, this is actual social media censorship, not what bad actors in the U.S. complain about. On the other, it is a reminder that even the best intentioned laws against misinformation, etc. could have unintended effects. We need to tread carefully when figuring out legal responses to social media problems.
🔗 linkblog: Ukraine’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Battalion Is Greasing Bullets in Pig Fat for Russia’s Muslim Soldiers'
We can support Ukraine generally and still be concerned about the integration of the far-right into their armed forces.
🔗 linkblog: Critics Call Out ‘Racist’ Western Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine'
So very gross. What’s happening in Ukraine is terrible, but terrible things are happening all over the world, and we shouldn’t make Ukraine more terrible out of some kind of chauvinism.
🔗 linkblog: Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying To Save Them'
Because the Web feels new to us, it’s easy to forget how important it is to preserve it for the future.
🔗 linkblog: Afghans Who Relocated to Ukraine Are Reliving Their Worst Nightmare'
Oh no no no. This hadn’t crossed my mind as a possibility, but how terrible.
🔗 linkblog: Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Openly Advocating Violence Against Trans People'
Greene is repeatedly awful, and the GOP’s refusal to do anything substantial about it is telling.
🔗 linkblog: Fox News Hosts Keep Taking Putin’s Side in the War on Ukraine'
Putin has outwitted every U.S. President since W, not necessarily because he’s smarter, but because he doesn’t operate with the same constraints U.S. presidents do. To blame this on Biden is moronic. We obviously shouldn’t let this episode of the culture war overshadow the more important crisis happening in Ukraine itself, but this appropriation of the crisis really worries me in the context of U.S. politics. These stances are largely indefensible. Gabbard isn’t totally wrong, I don’t think, but it’s still a sloppy oversimplification.
🔗 linkblog: Trump Thinks Putin Is a ‘Genius’ for Invading Ukraine'
There is no denying that Putin is smart and strategic, but expressing awe instead of concern is typically Trump in its idiocy.
🔗 linkblog: QAnon Isn’t Dead, It’s Growing'
Worrying stuff here. Right-wing media consumption appears to be the big predictor for QAnon beliefs.
🔗 linkblog: Texas Is Going to Start Investigating Parents of Trans Kids for Child Abuse'
Kentucky has taken some bad steps in this direction lately, but this is horrific.
🔗 linkblog: The Internet Is Debunking Russian War Propaganda in Real Time'
Bellingcat does good work. It gives me hope to see people using the internet to fight back against disinformation spread by the internet, but I’m also glad the article touches on the dangers involved.