🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Glad to see reporting on Rumble, but disappointed to see uncritical repeating of claims about “free speech,” “neutrality,” and “censorship.” There are no neutral platforms, and content moderation is the real key idea here. link to ‘Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Stop Invasive Remote Proctoring: Pass California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act | Electronic Frontier Foundation'

- kudos:

Seems to me that not using proctoring software is the best response to these concerns, but glad to see the EFF sponsoring efforts to regulate its inevitable use. link to ‘Stop Invasive Remote Proctoring: Pass California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act | Electronic Frontier Foundation’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pride flag displayed at Lexington KY man’s house gets burned | Lexington Herald Leader'

- kudos:

I bike past this house and its flags every day; seeing them is always a boost. How upsetting that people would want to burn one. link to ‘Pride flag displayed at Lexington KY man’s house gets burned | Lexington Herald Leader’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt'

- kudos:

I have been waiting for days to see what Techdirt would have to say on this, and it doesn’t disappoint. link to ‘The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'So how do Russian cosmonauts feel about Russia’s war on Ukraine? | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

This article is the most helpful thing I’ve seen on the cosmonauts’ uniform choice so far. link to ‘So how do Russian cosmonauts feel about Russia’s war on Ukraine? | Ars Technica’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'To Make Social Media Work Better, Make It Fail Better | Electronic Frontier Foundation'

- kudos:

This idea increasingly resonates with me. link to ‘To Make Social Media Work Better, Make It Fail Better | Electronic Frontier Foundation’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Columbia Professor Expresses Doubts over University Ranking - The New York Times'

- kudos:

This is why I’m skeptical of terms like data driven decision making, which are meant to sound objective but cannot live up to their rhetorical power. link to ‘Columbia Professor Expresses Doubts over University Ranking - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Hacked News Channel and Deepfake of Zelenskyy Surrendering Is Causing Chaos Online'

- kudos:

Oh good, our fears about deepfakes are coming true. link to ‘Hacked News Channel and Deepfake of Zelenskyy Surrendering Is Causing Chaos Online’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Now That White Musicians Are Getting Sued For Copyright, Lawyers Say Copyright Needs To Change | Techdirt'

- kudos:

Intellectual property is a social justice issue. link to ‘Now That White Musicians Are Getting Sued For Copyright, Lawyers Say Copyright Needs To Change | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky lawmakers advance bill to resettle war refugees | Lexington Herald Leader'

- kudos:

I do not always have praise for the local Republican supermajority, but I’m glad to see this goes beyond Ukraine to provide support for all kinds of refugees. Tentative optimism here. link to ‘Kentucky lawmakers advance bill to resettle war refugees | Lexington Herald Leader’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Yemen Crisis Has Only Worsened, Despite Biden Pledge'

- kudos:

Yemen has been on my mind a lot since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but mostly because I’m belatedly realizing I haven’t been paying attention. It’s not that Ukraine doesn’t deserve our attention, it’s that Yemen has long deserved just as much. There, we’re the ones complicit in civilian deaths, and we need to own up to that. link to ‘Yemen Crisis Has Only Worsened, Despite Biden Pledge’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation | Techdirt'

- kudos:

I missed most of this yesterday, but Masnick sums up my thoughts so much better than I could. link to ‘Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation | Techdirt’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'U.S. Condemns Russian Bombing Of Hospital As Horrific Act That Any World Power Could Theoretically Commit'

- kudos:

The Onion speaks uncomfortable truth. Americans must hold Putin accountable, but we meed to turn our attention inward, too. link to ‘U.S. Condemns Russian Bombing Of Hospital As Horrific Act That Any World Power Could Theoretically Commit’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How KONY 2012 Trained the Audience— and YouTube — to Love Reactionary Media | by Jamie Cohen | Mar, 2022 | OneZero'

- kudos:

KONY 2012 has been on my mind a lot lately, and this is a good read. It doesn’t bring up why I’ve had it on the mind, though. I’m afraid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could turn into a sequel of sorts: Something important and meaningful that people glom onto because they see something oversimplified on social media. link to ‘How KONY 2012 Trained the Audience— and YouTube — to Love Reactionary Media | by Jamie Cohen | Mar, 2022 | OneZero’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Millions of Leftists Are Reposting Kremlin Misinformation by Mistake'

- kudos:

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.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ky. lawmaker apologizes for comments about Jewish women during abortion debate | Lexington Herald Leader'

- kudos:

Textbook example of why it is never enough to say you didn’t mean any harm. This is shameful and gross. link to ‘Ky. lawmaker apologizes for comments about Jewish women during abortion debate | Lexington Herald Leader’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia Can Now Jail People for 15 Years for Tweeting About the War on Ukraine'

- kudos:

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. link to ‘Russia Can Now Jail People for 15 Years for Tweeting About the War on Ukraine’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Stromae’s Music Delves Into Dark Topics. His Return Is Right on Time. - The New York Times'

- kudos:

Pleased to see Stromae reviewed in the NYT—by someone who liveblogged Eurovision no less. Will be listening all afternoon, I’m sure. link to ‘Stromae’s Music Delves Into Dark Topics. His Return Is Right on Time. - The New York Times’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Religious Education at BYU: An Open Letter to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities | By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog'

- kudos:

Lots of thoughts about this. As someone with an education PhD who teaches and researches outside traditionally education topics, I want to emphasize that the prevalence of education PhDs is a symptom, not the actual problem. In my teaching and research outside my home discipline, I work hard to learn the content and communities that I’m branching into. The disdain for those content and communities at BYU Religious Education is the real problem here and therefore what I’m really worried about.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ukraine’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Battalion Is Greasing Bullets in Pig Fat for Russia’s Muslim Soldiers'

- kudos:

We can support Ukraine generally and still be concerned about the integration of the far-right into their armed forces. link to ‘Ukraine’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Battalion Is Greasing Bullets in Pig Fat for Russia’s Muslim Soldiers’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Critics Call Out ‘Racist’ Western Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine'

- kudos:

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. link to ‘Critics Call Out ‘Racist’ Western Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington KY peace vigil for Ukraine set for Wednesday | Lexington Herald Leader'

- kudos:

Proud of Lexington for hosting this. Also wondering if I should check the Lexington groups on Gab to see if the local far-right is cranky about it. link to ‘Lexington KY peace vigil for Ukraine set for Wednesday | Lexington Herald Leader’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'House Introduces Tax Bill that Would Devastate Kentucky’s Budget for a Giveaway to the Wealthy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy'

- kudos:

Tremendously worrying stuff. Taxes are the price we pay for democratic society. link to ‘House Introduces Tax Bill that Would Devastate Kentucky’s Budget for a Giveaway to the Wealthy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying To Save Them'

- kudos:

Because the Web feels new to us, it’s easy to forget how important it is to preserve it for the future. link to ‘Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying To Save Them’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Afghans Who Relocated to Ukraine Are Reliving Their Worst Nightmare'

- kudos:

Oh no no no. This hadn’t crossed my mind as a possibility, but how terrible. link to ‘Afghans Who Relocated to Ukraine Are Reliving Their Worst Nightmare’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia's still eligible for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest : NPR'

- kudos:

Eurovision is not supposed to be political, but it always sneaks in. My money is on a lot of sympathy votes for Ukraine’s entry, and a very low score for Russia. link to ‘Russia’s still eligible for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest : NPR’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How liberal Russians are reacting to Putin’s war with Ukraine.'

- kudos:

Lots of important reminders in here. I also feel ashamed that I have not protested my country’s wars in the way these Russians are doing so now. link to ‘How liberal Russians are reacting to Putin’s war with Ukraine.’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Openly Advocating Violence Against Trans People'

- kudos:

Greene is repeatedly awful, and the GOP’s refusal to do anything substantial about it is telling. link to ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Openly Advocating Violence Against Trans People’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Man Dreams Of More Equal America That Just Sort Of Happens On Its Own'

- kudos:

Hits too close to home for me. I have work to do. link to ‘Man Dreams Of More Equal America That Just Sort Of Happens On Its Own’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Tabletop Designers Rally to Support Trans Kids in Texas'

- kudos:

Shut up and take my money! This is why itch is one of my favorite game-related places on the internet. link to ‘Tabletop Designers Rally to Support Trans Kids in Texas’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader'

- kudos:

Amazon already has too big a footprint here. Don’t feel great about this. link to ‘KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fox News Hosts Keep Taking Putin’s Side in the War on Ukraine'

- kudos:

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.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Thinks Putin Is a ‘Genius’ for Invading Ukraine'

- kudos:

There is no denying that Putin is smart and strategic, but expressing awe instead of concern is typically Trump in its idiocy. link to ‘Trump Thinks Putin Is a ‘Genius’ for Invading Ukraine’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'QAnon Isn’t Dead, It’s Growing'

- kudos:

Worrying stuff here. Right-wing media consumption appears to be the big predictor for QAnon beliefs. link to ‘QAnon Isn’t Dead, It’s Growing’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'George Washington University apologizes for tracking locations of students, faculty | TheHill'

- kudos:

Certainly not the worst news I’ve read this morning, but still tremendously worrying. link to ‘George Washington University apologizes for tracking locations of students, faculty | TheHill’

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Peloton Outage Prevents Customers From Using $2,500 Exercise Bikes | Techdirt'

- kudos:

Happy that my much cheaper bike does not rely on servers to function properly. link to ‘Peloton Outage Prevents Customers From Using $2,500 Exercise Bikes | Techdirt’