Allow people to like you, to enjoy your company, to want to be your friend. Allow them to compliment you, allow others to think you're cool and funny even if you think you're not. It is not up to you to tell others how to feel, and remember that people might see the positive things in you and qualities that you have been failing to see while being too self-critical. Allow yourself to be liked by other people, even when you don't see why they should. Don't self-isolate because you think you are not good enough for other people.
This is capitalism's vast irrationality and inhumanity in action. Markets and The Economy™ matter more to capitalism than the concrete distribution of resources according to tangible human need.
Resources exist in abundance -- give them to people. Housing sits empty -- give it to people. The rules of the feast table should apply to our economic system -- no one gets seconds until everyone has gotten a plate.
We stand at a crossroads in these chaotic times: socialism or barbarism! The ruling class repeatedly chooses the latter. We need to organize and choose the former!
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
People have been reblogging this with some points that seem fair to call attention to -- milk expires quickly, farmers are locked into a situation where they have to throw stuff out, etc. But the larger point we were trying to illustrate in the original post was that this system compels people to do irrational things in the name of market laws. We have a surplus of goods around us and yet we arbitrarily build up social constructs (property laws and exchangability) to prevent people from comfortably living off of these goods. Goods are produced and given away only if profit can be extracted from the process. These aren't immutable laws of nature, though, and most of human history hasn't operated this way. Not to suggest that things were just peachy keen in slave empires or feudalism -- class stratification in general is a big part of this, not just the particular market laws of capitalism. But it's still important to realize that these irrational all-pervasive market forces are a comparatively recent invention and that these historical moments of crisis demonstrate how truly anti-human production-for-profit and class inequality truly are. We believe that the economy should be more broadly democratized and managed on a for-need/for-use basis by the people actually impacted by the outcomes; that would entail workplace/community democracy, as well as a new emphasis on direct distribution of goods (rather than having those goods wait around to be bought).
Goods sit unused -- give them to people. Make sure everyone has the means to live a comfortable life. These seemingly obvious goals are perpetually blocked by billionaires and profit-sharks, who'd rather see people sleeping on the streets in the middle of a pandemic than have their bottom lines suffer any hit. Things are fundamentally top-down; we believe it is a reasonable proposal to start moving things into a bottom-up direction. That requires choosing socialism at this crossroads of human history.
Another reminder: capitalism artificially imposes scarcity.
the most implausible thing about superhero movies is that these guys make their own suits, like seriously those toxic chemicals did NOT give you the ability to sew stretch knits, do you even own a serger
“Nearly everything distinctive about our species is a form of cooperation, including our ability to maintain an inventory of symbols with shared meaning that is transmitted across generations. Our capacity for symbolic thought became a full-blown inheritance system that operates alongside genetic inheritance (dual inheritance theory). Cultural evolution is a multilevel process, no less than genetic evolution, and the increasing scale of cooperation over the course of human history can be seen as a process of multilevel cultural evolution.”
— E.O. Wilson Saw the World in a Wholly New Way - Issue 112: Inspiration - Nautilus
Clean water is a human right.
Digital illustration of a indigenous woman and her child sitting on the floor. She’s looking back and is wearing a grey bodycon dress with text that reads, ‘clean water is a human right.’ Behind her, a toddler is looking at you and is wearing a green striped shirt and green pants. Between them is a water bottle labeled ‘sink water’ filled with a brown liquid.
Never ever turn off your phone: rethinking security culture in the era of big data analysis.
Back in the 80′s if you were a pissed off anarchist that wanted to burn down a building, you probably checked your home for listening devices and made a plan. If you were the same kind of pissed off anarchist in the late 90′s, you turned off your phone and encrypted your online traffic. In the 2020′s we’re gonna have to change our strategies once again. Intelligence gathering has adapted and so we must adapt too.
To get a head start at this, let’s look at how big data analysis is being used. To do this, we’ll need to talk about 3 things: metadata, patterns and networks. Those sound boring and complicated but I’m not a techy and I won’t bore you with tech language, I’ll keep it as easy as I can.
Metadata: In the context of online activity, ‘content’ means ‘the message you send’ and ‘metadata’ means ‘everything other than the content’. So, for example, if you send your friend a text about lunch, the content might be “Let’s go out for lunch” and the metadata might be “Message send at 01/04/2018 11.32 from phone 0478239055 to phone 079726823 using Signal”.
This information is registered by your phone even if the app encrypts your actual message. Your metadata is very badly protected by technology and very badly protected by the law. No matter which country you are in, most of your metadata if freely available to intelligence agencies regardless of whether you are a suspect in anything.
Patterns: Whether you realize it or not, your metadata has a pattern. If you have a daily job you might have a very consistent pattern, if you do not your pattern might be more flexible but you have a pattern. If someone wanted to know the rhythm of your day, they could very easily do so because your pattern is in the metadata.
For example: Maybe you use the wifi at your favourite bar on most Sunday nights until about midnight, you wake up around 10 AM and check your Signal, you use your public transport card to get to class every Monday afternoon and you spend on average 1 hour on Tumblr twice a day. All this is part of your pattern.
Networks: You have online networks. Your facebook friends, the people in your phone adress book, the dropbox you share with coworkers, everyone who bought online tickets to the same punk band you attended, the people using the same wifi points as you. Take your networks, combine them with other people’s networks, and clusters reveal themselves. Your work community, your family, your activist scene, etc.
If you are in an anarchist community that will probably be abundantly clear from all your minor network connections like going to the same band and knowing the same people as other anarchists. Even if you never liked an anarchist facebook page or pressed ‘going’ on an anarchist facebook event, your network is hard to hide.
Now, let’s say you commit a crime,
the kind that would result in some serious research. Let’s say that on Sunday night 3 AM, you are your friends go out and burn down a nazi’s house. (Of course I would never advice any of you to do such a thing.) It’s obvious that anarchists did it but there are no other clues. You use traditional style security culture: you burn your notes, you are careful not to communicate about your plans near technology and you do not leave physical traces.
But because you commited the crime that night, your metadata will vary strongly from your usual rhythm: you stay at your usual bar until 2 AM to wait for your friends, you do not wake up at 10 AM in the morning so you do not check your Signal or Tumblr until 1 PM. You do not go to class. Your metadata pattern is very different from your usual pattern. The metadata patterns of your friends are different too. If one of you is clumsy, they might generate a super suspicious metadata signal like a phone being switched off at 2.30 AM and activated at 4AM. You wouldn’t be the first.
If I wanted to solve this crime using data analysis, what I would do is:
- let a piece of software run a pattern analysis of the local anarchist scene to generate the 300 people most connected to the anarchist scene.
- let a second piece of software analyse the metadata patterns of those 300 people over the last months and identify the biggest metadata variations around Sunday night as well as very suspicious metadata activity
- Illiminate pattern variations with an obvious cause or an obvious alibi (people who are on vacation, people who are in the hospital, people who lost their job, etc).
- Do indepth research into the ones that remain.
Which is how, out of a massive amount of people that I couldn’t possible all listen to at the same time, I could quickly identify a few to monitor closely. This is how I could find and catch you.
So, now what?
If traditional security culture doesn’t protect us as well as it used to, how do we adapt? Well, I don’t have all the answers but for a start, I’d say: know your network + know your pattern.
In the case of the example above: leave the bar at midnight, return home and put your phone on your bedside table. Check the apps you check before going to bed and set your alarm to 10AM. Return to the bar without your phone. Wake up at 10AM and check your Signal. Drag yourself to class or ask a comrade to make the trip with your travel card and do not use technology in your home while the comrade is taking your travel card to class. Stick to your pattern. Never ever turn off your phone.
You might also be able to manipulate your network but that seems much harder to do. Not having a smartphone and dropping out of all social activity online is a big commitment. Knowing your data pattern and making sure your data pattern doesn’t look out of the ordinary? Much less commitment.
Some of the old rules will still apply: don’t talk about a crime around devices with microphones, don’t brag after a succesful action, etc. Other rules, like ‘turn off your phone when planning an illegal act’ need to change because their metada looks too out of the ordinary. No one switches off their phone anymore. We look suspicious as fuck when we do.
This is just one idea on how we could update our security culture. There are probably other people with other, better ideas about updating our security culture. If we start the conversation, we may get somewhere.
Finally: we need to keep adapting.
As technology changes, more information is becoming available, including data we have very little control over. Smart-tv’s and ads in public spaces that listen to every word we say and the tone of our voice when we say it are examples. Data analysis projects are currently using license plate reading software on security footage to map the travel patterns of cars. A lot suggests they may soon be ready to do the same with face recognition, at which point the presence of our face in public space becomes part of our metadata. More information means more accurate data analysis. Our metadata may soon be too vast annd too complex to completely map and mirror. Which means we will need to adapt our counter measures if you want to hide something.
How do we keep it all under the radar? I don’t know. But let’s try to figure this shit out. These are some first thoughts about what security culture should look like in the age of modern big data analysis and I’d be very happy for any insights from comrades that have some thoughts on this.
Also: feel free to distribute and rework these words without credit.
…do my Minecraft villagers think I can’t talk? The player never makes any noise close to language in-game…do they know that my little crouch dance means hi? Are they learning that when the strange flying one who doesn’t speak holds out armfulls of wheat to them that means they want to trade? Are they just used to being silently shuffled away from ledges by this cryptic protector who eats golden food and doesn’t seem to need sleep?? Why have I never thought of this before, the villagers must be so confused by dealing with me…
It’s a strange creature, that comes to our village sometimes. They don’t look like us. The butcher says it looks more like the zombies that come out at night, and he’d know, he barely made it back home one night.
The first time it came it seemed confused, stumbling around and into every house. We didn’t say anything. We didn’t know if it would understand. It didn’t go to sleep when the night came and it still walking around when we woke up again.
The next time it came it brought paper. Stacks and stacks of paper, crouched down a few times and held them out to the librarian. It just stood there and waited until she exchanged them for emeralds. Then it moved on, to the toolsmith and held out the emeralds. It can’t talk. But it’s smart enough to trade. And it can bring up things that are dangerous to get.
Sometimes it gives us food. It seems excited over every child. Does it understand what children are? Or is it just exited that there are small poeple around suddenly. It’s hard to say.
One day, we heard a horn in the distance. Panic broke out, everyone was looking for a place to hide. I saw the creature through a window. It had a glowing sword and killed the pillagers before they could reach us. Even the Ravenger.
It took all of them on. Did it understand that they were looking to hurt us?
It came to the village afterwards, stumbled around in that odd way of its, while we celebrated and gave it gifts. That part seemed to make it happy. It likes gifts. I wonder what it’s do if we crouched back at it. It gets excited over the weirdest things.
In another timeline:
This strange creature showed up one day. Its face looked wrong, like its nose had been smashed in or twisted off, but otherwise it looked… Almost like us?
And it could wear armor like the zombies do.
We’ve never been able to wear our own armor despite being able to craft it ourselves, and yet this one walks among us with iron and gold adorning its shoulders.
Get this. It could even wield swords and axes! Yes, I know, it’s strange, but that’s not the strangest part. When night fell on the day that it arrived in our town, it pulled a bed (a whole bed!) from the air beside its hip and set it down out in the open at the center of town. Some of us had already gone to bed, but I was still wandering about, as my house was on the outskirts, and I saw it happen.
This creature climbed into bed, and five seconds after the sun had set, it was morning. The thing can control time! What devil did this strange animal make a deal with to gain such a power?
I turned and ran back to my house as fast as I could, but the creature was faster. Before I could make sense of what had just happened, I was in the back of a boat, unable to move or escape. And the creature took a seat in front of me and started rowing the boat…
On land.
Heavens save me, I have been kidnapped by a maniac.
mysharona1987