I agree with the guy about how Wayland might be able to catch up if X was already being sunset. Especially now that even Nvidia is being more supportive of their Linux drivers. While not a great example, Microsoft being super aggressive about making it clear about all versions of Windows lower than 10 being dead. And while I only deal with consumer level computer repairs. I have seen how much those alerts cause lots of people to come in with their Windows 7 and 8 PCs to have 10 installed. Same goes for Adobe finally releasing the final “update” for Flash (which was just an uninstaller) after so many years of pushing back the end of life due to companies not being ready. It took them finally doing it to really move people over to HTML5. Though X is worth keeping patched for both current systems and for being able to run reverse compatible programs on new hardware.
https://files.libcom.org/files/ADA%20fulltext.pdf That is the direct link that the archive site OP linked is mirroring.
I would love to get something like this that is about getting answers/information/media/etc without it being limited by services that only work well with specific apps. Like something that can be local hosted in home and stays home. Like controlling smart devices and all the stuff that Google/Apple/Samsung/Amazon assistants do, but with it being able to work with lesser known apps that will never be on the lists of “options” (like how I can pick YT Music/Spotify/Amazon Music/Pandora, but my much lesser known podcast app can’t be even manually added). And by “staying home” I mean that it isn’t needing to be online to work or not sending all my recordings/typed stuff to somewhere else. And couldn’t therefore be used by cops or marketers that go around your back or approval to build cases/profiles as easily as it currently is to just go secretly to some companies and force it over.
For now, it is awesome to see that there are some major projects like this getting in while the for-profit companies haven’t started making all the rules. And so far those companies have required the user to basically learn how to correctly speak with their assistants. Also doesn’t help that Google has made wording things frustrating with the names of their stuff. Calling all of their Android services “Play” often leads to it ignoring what I am trying to have it do. Context is going to be the real game changer.
Fortunately I only have to deal with it at work while repairing and setting up peoples’ computers. And it does mean I get to see the messed up tactics that are being used on average “non-techie” people. I take pride in removing bloatware and turning off many of the settings in Windows that like to “suggest new features and apps”. And I damn sure make a point to add uBlock Origin to all the browsers. Given how these companies just go nuts with BS “notifications” (the AV programs are the worst, especially the ones that the person is already freaking paying for). It is honestly hard to tell people what is and isn’t a real alert or is just up-sale shit. And the scammers online are hard to inform them about because those “alerts” look just like the “official” ones. Even just trying to go straight to the OEM sites like Dell or HP just cover your screen with shit and freaking surveys before you have even searched anything. The current internet is just corpo shit, scammers, and advertisements that cover up the actual content.
Not Microsoft, but HP also does some shit like this with their software on new PCs. When you first launch the Support Assistant to check for driver updates. Pops a message that asks for your info and their isn’t a visible button to answer “no” right away. Just the info fields and a submit button. BUT if you wait about 20~30secs a new link shows up that says “We can share information later”. Just appears out of nowhere and looks more like a hyperlink instead of matching the “Submit” button style. Good news is that there is a box that can be checked on another message that pops up that allows you to tell it to not show that info box the next time the program is opened. And some of the “free” AV programs like to show “cutey” messages and pictures of sad faced cartoon animals or emojis with sad text. These companies know what they are doing and it is basically gaslighting and/or subliminal messaging.
Would be cool if someone where to make a “have I been pwned” check to see if you were secretly added. It is kind of fucked up to be someone that is on the list and literally have no idea or a chance to even appeal. Especially since being on such a big deal list could lead to you being added to other lists that can be used against you in so many ways. Much like how people that get falsely dragged through the mud by all major media outlets and their talking heads. But when they are found to be innocent (even with 100% proof), those same outlets either don’t report about it or not put the same effort into correcting the stories. So the accused just keeps being treated as monsters because most people only ever saw/heard the false accusations (and the media outlets really only get profits from building more and more drama). It is also possible to be falsely targeted if you have the same or similar names.
So the state where it is understood that you can trade beads for boobs while wasted af is the first to stop you from seeing boobs in private in your home? I am starting to wonder if any of the lawmakers own stock in (or is getting donations from) VPNs. lol, the part about it being required for sites with 33.3% or more porn is a weird metric to sus out. Does it also include adult text stories?
Editing to add the following Would the 33.3% adult content also include stories that are all text and no images or other media? If so, then a lot of fanfiction sites will also need to be checking IDs in Louisiana. Which would be kind of funny. At which point is it considered “adult” instead of “art”? It could be argued that sites like Twitter and Instagram could have enough posts that qualify to be 33.3%. Also would sites with lots of gore or violence (anything ranging from accidents that were really bad all the way through stuff like conflict zone footage/pics) count? Given that ultra-violence is often allowed but seeing consensual boobs is automatically cut/censored, I imagine the violent stuff will be ignored.
I get the feeling that we will see a bunch of snake oil that claim to do this stuff. Especially in the education sectors, like the ones you are talking about. And given how much money higher education throws around for at least giving the image of protections and other theatre. It will be like all the PC “tune-up” programs that claim to be doing stuff to help, but just run things the OS already has or slows things down.
That all being said. As long as the tools for AI are made to be open and auditable. Then it could be helpful in giving a starting point for actual professors to double-check. But I also worry that many professors (and other folks) will only go with the AI answer and not bother to look any deeper. Since the hype-people for stuff like AI tend to do the same things that hype-people for other industries. They will constantly play up everything and make it out to be so much more capable that it actually is at the time.
I also worry that some false positives will come from students learning to write things in similar ways as the AI. People do often (IMO at least) seem to emulate stuff they interact with often. They see examples of stuff that is well written/done and try to copy the styles (because they want to get a high grade). Even if they aren’t students, folks that are really focused on “vibes” also try to copy things that they see getting results. Which worries me given how much style over substance is focused on in school and in the business worlds. AI could be a “fake it till you make it” person’s absolute best friend.
This stuff is going to be frustrating and difficult to figure out no matter what side you are on for sure.
Death threats aside, it is obvious that this dev was already getting overwhelmed based on amount of user requests. Goes from being a labour of love/enthusiastic hobby, to being a thankless job without even financial incentives (especially when working on it alone). I hope that they release the code as open source so that those that did appreciate the work and can code could carry on. There are so many people that could keep it going, and could use it as a project for learning. Emulation of old consoles and other computing devices is going to grow in need.
Also I am guessing that they will have keys to get around it when the Feds ask. Or maybe even just have them made for the Feds. When big players like Google really start pushing E2EE (especially when or if they make it standard for the most basic accounts). I start questioning if or how they might be working with (or at least might have undercover agents as employees in the right places) any or all agencies/departments of any/all the intelligence complex. Nice to have E2EE for at least protecting against some non-state actors of course. But if they build methods for decryption “for legal law/government access”, then it is only time before non-state actors also get access. Which then effectively results in non-secure messaging (email or other), just with extra steps.
So the “flaw” I am seeing here is literally the capitalist part of it all. In some situations it may be the culture of “start-ups” where much more attention is paid to effectively “fake it till you make it”. And not being very firmly and honest about it being a very very long-term investment.
While I am not sure about places outside the US with regards to privately and publicly traded companies. The US legally requires that profits being paid to shareholders is the only thing that matters. So even if the real goal is to actually save lives by feeding people. If the shareholders’ greed for ever growing (and unsustainable) profits leads to gutting everything that basically isn’t hype grifter shit. Even though you need lots of workers to build and literally run the things. The company will self-injure in order to make the spreadsheets show even slightly higher numbers for money.
Cost of energy is more or less fake. In that the cabals of energy and fossil fuel producers literally choose to fuck with it. Like how OPEC will just choose to reduce production due to feeling prices are just too cheap and leads to the working and poor classes to suffer (while paying said companies for the privilege).
We need to put people far above profits. We need to be able to be able to come up with ideas and test and test and test, while knowing and accepting that failures are not to be hidden away. But the monetary profit motives keeps the cycles of grifting, greed, and oppression happening. All of the pros and cons should be used to help see what can or can’t currently be done to advance. Those that wish to taint this by feeding their capitalist greed for monetary gains at expense of our lives should be striped of everything and purged. Either just from being allowed to participate or from living anymore. If the first fails, then obviously the other must be done.
Fucking awesome! Just installed it to Firefox and will add it to my other browsers. We need more easy/quick ways for knowing what efforts are going on at the moment that it is happening. It would be cool to see if it (or other extensions) could be re-tooled to be used for other pro-worker/anti-capitalist alerts/calls to action/solidarity. It being so simple to use also means that it could be easy to share with friends/family/co-workers without being frustrating.
You can use other instances. You just have to click the + below where the Vivaldi instance icon is and enter the address of the instance you want. Then just sign-in from there and it works the same.
They show you how on this page: https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-5-6-on-desktop/
Edit: To add the link to the site that shows how to add other instances.
While the crypto part of it was a mixed bag. It really sucks to see LBRY/Odysee go down. While there is still PeerTube, it isn’t as easy for new people and easier to search for things and other stuff that being a more central site (while still doing the P2P serving of the data) makes easy. The P2P element was also nicely done IMO since it basically just downloads the actual videos to your PC (if you chose to participate), which made keeping offline copies easy for archiving or adding to home media servers. It also eventually got a somewhat basic app for non-PC devices like Roku that could be connected to my account and show the channels I follow. I tend to watch most of my stuff via my TV+Roku. Which means that I only use PeerTube randomly, and mostly if something is linked from Limmy. If PeerTube is able to get an app that can be signed into on Roku I would loooove to use it. Maybe some of the code used for LBRY/Odysee could be of use to PeerTube in some way. Even just having one app on PC that can be used as a front-end for users. Like be able to add or remove instances that have things you like, and maybe have an API for instances that don’t want to be searchable outside of members of said instance to be left out. Just sucks to see one of the more well known alts to YouTube go down with or without the crypto stuff. It was able to get a pretty nice amount of creators that I already followed on YouTube to at least mirror their stuff so that they had a fall-back if Google decided to delete their accounts or pull content that it feared advertisers wouldn’t like.
While I think I may come across as not liking PeerTube. I actually want to be able to use it more and see it grow into a real option for less technically inclined folks (it is atm a struggle to get my friends to try it out). And if any of the stuff above that I said I liked about LBRY are actually already part of PeerTube. Please let me know. I would love to find out that there is even decent unofficial channels/apps for Roku or other boxes! Or if there is a PC app that can act as a front-end for making it easier to find things and add stuff to my “watch later” or other playlists!
I have only used it on Windows personally, but the GitHub does have info for Mac OS and Linux. It uses I2P but can run its own I2P connection without needing to also install the main I2P router. For the moment it seems to be not super populated due to lack of more people not knowing about it (IMO at least). The UI is fairly simple and “feels” like old-school P2P from the early 00’s. Setting up the folders you want to share might be a little less straightforward up front (at least to me). But it is pretty easy compared to stuff like DC++ while also having some chat options built-in. It also allows you to set the program for speed (no hops and not as anonymous) or for safety (more hops before arriving to or from).
But again, I have only used it on Windows at the moment.
I love how all of the big retail and service companies are treating drops in profits compared to 2020 as if it were smart to have based projections on that year specifically. All of them saw a massive influx of purchases and subscriptions due to people not being able to go anywhere or literally having to all of a sudden buy shit in order to work from home. I work a service position at a retail chain in the US, and have personally seen how my company both treated shit like they were about to go out of business (even though they made crazy big profits compared to any normal year), AND honestly base sales metrics and shit like that on said massive profits like it was something that would just keep going higher and higher. They sent out multiple fake pleas for everyone to understand “we have all had to make massive sacrifices” and how “we have to get rid of workers that have had multiple decades of experience because the company so badly needs more profits”.
Literally some of the most tone-deaf shit I have ever witnessed when I had to watch our CEO’s video messages. Fake sadness in trying to make thousands of workers “understand” why it was important to get rid of them because they want more money. Of course our current CEO is our former CFO, and those fucks literally only care about numbers and not the how or why. The capitalists do weird things to get a good “brand” image. Like maybe have lots of customer service workers that actually help customers with issues (not always just simply giving free stuff either, but actually hearing the people out). But the second they have a “good” year and see that it might drop (or God forbid stay level). Then they start getting rid of the very things that got the “good brand”. And just start getting rid of things and act like “why are the rest of you not ‘adding value’ or building real relationships with our customers?” It is always the workers’ fault and then they get such a low opinion of the importance of workers that they need to work.
I am willing to bet that if Amazon dips low enough, it will be yet another “too big to fail” bullshit moment. They will get no strings attached tax payer money and will purge workers anyway (while giving themselves those “much deserved” bonuses). Though maybe another round of that bullshit that still claims to pray at the church of “free market principles” while demanding free government aid/protection. It might actually awaken enough of the masses to start physically harming the CEOs/elites/politicians IRL. Which would be a boon for converting people to the left.
I hope as many workers as possible take advantage of this and refuse to go back to an obvious abuser. They have one of the best chances to say “fuck you!” to their former employer. Especially the ones that would cause the most setbacks. Maybe even inspire those that remain to leave or at least rapidly form a union while the abuser is being super obvious of how little they think of the workers.
We most certainly aren’t union (though I do wish we were, and I do very openly talk pro-worker/anti-capitalist). I would sign a card the second one were to be presented. I have actually been perma-banned from multiple un-official subreddits that are about the company for saying the “forbidden” word. If we were to try and do it, we would need to have multiple locations also be down. As the main fear is about how they “will shut our store down fast as fuck”.
I started with the pins and face-masks during all of the protests in 2020. Just initially figured I’d just keep wearing stuff until someone finally stopped me. But aside from corp banning hats for some reason that literally isn’t related to me (I am for real about that too). I only ever got told I couldn’t wear my mask that said “Antifa” and another that was left unity (mostly because it had an AK).
It would probably surprise you how I haven’t had any customers/clients go out of their way to attack me or even send shit to my bosses (especially given I live in the middle of NC). I even had a guy that I have helped here and there over the past 4 or 5 years and is/was very right-wing be concerned if any of my co-workers have come at me for my openness. He has over time become more apolitical because I have shown him how to better use the internet. Still a very strange guy, but he truly respected how I firmly stand for real-ass working people and that I went waaay above and beyond to work with him when we first met. He was even a big fan of my “Mao hat”, and said it looked good on me. lol. I had one older black couple be super jazzed to see it too. The husband was a Vietnam vet (which I was thinking would go badly when I saw his vet hat), and he just kept going on about how great it looked. His wife also said that it made me give off very proud vibes (kind of like how some folks talk about liking a man in uniform).
We also have a wall in the back of my area that we at some point started putting up stickers we had found laying around. I have covered most of it in leftist shit (including some fuck cops type shit just without profanity). After three different direct bosses and a GM, no one even tries to stop me at this point. Though I am sure if a much higher up person were to see me and the wall, it would be a firm ban on my nonsense. Until then, I openly try to answer good-faith questions other folks have. Which seems to really soften their stance on socialism and see how little they actually know about it (outside of the constant shit being said in our media and from politicians).
I am much much more visible than what you are trying to do. But I wear a reproduction oldschool PLA hat (aka Mao hat), and even a hammer and sickle pin on my work uniform (sometimes also a Marx pin). I had a lot of fun with cloth facemasks (got stuff like antifascist action, left unity, hammer and sickle, YPG, pro-Palestine). Even just wearing the hat, I get a pretty good amount of random leftists making a point to get my attention or outright start talking with me.
All of this really doesn’t help you, but it is fun to have those moments and know they know. One that I think would work for you is the anarcho-communist/antifascist/CNT-FAI flag. Most people don’t seem to notice that one unless it has the “Antifascist Action” words. I think some folks that aren’t aware of it might just think it is some kind of nautical thing. The “Three Arrows” might also work, but it does rub some folks the wrong way (given that one of the arrows originally was against communists). But I personally replace its meaning with capitalism given how it isn’t used by any political party in the US and is just seen as another antifascist symbol. Or something ACAB might work, I have seen shirts that have it seem like it stands for “All Cats Are Beautiful”.
Optane on consumer laptops has been a huge pain to deal with. It has lead to so many very frustrating moments where I have to explain that their computer actually has two drives but they are seen as one. I have also been running into “fun” moments in trying to get data off a Optane+NVMe SSD that Bitlocker was also on. Non-Optane drives pop-up a dialog box that allows the owner’s recovery key to be entered and then unlock the drive to get data. Optane+NVMe drives will only show up in Disk Management, but will also claim to be dramatically larger than they really are (a 32GB+512GB one might show up as being like 2TB protected). So even if I have the Bitlocker key, it doesn’t matter because unless the unit it came out of boots the drive won’t show data anywhere else. Though I am more than willing to hear any methods for getting around this issue. If we can get NVMe drives as fast as Optane, or just make large Optane only main drives. But I am guessing cost is the main thing stopping that for consumer level stuff?
Thanks for the info! I am using Windows, but I downloaded the extension and tor zip for advanced Windows on their site. Created a torrc file and set it to the localhost:9050 and created a “tor” container. And just tested it with the check.torproject.org site (both with a normal tab and a “tor” container tab) with success! Good to know random things that might be very worth knowing.
SMS is a fallback for iMessage. If two iPhone users send messages via iMessage, it is done through that service’s message type. But if they get or send messages to a non-iPhone user, it falls back on SMS. Which is why they have the blue (iMessage) and green (SMS) bubbles. So it is mostly about it just being a universal format if all you know is someone’s phone number. Which is why a lot of other message apps will also do both. Though I think we will see fewer SMS used as people are getting used to having their contacts auto-added to one or more of the chat apps (assuming they don’t opt-out of that feature). But I also think SMS is too universal to just completely go away all together. As it is the easiest way to send out an emergency alert or something else like that in a way that all carriers can 100% use.
That is awesome to hear!! Make sure to keep an eye out for an email inviting you to the forums. When you get that and make your account, do the introduction thing (the welcome bot should lead you there or you can jump to it). Make sure to say which state you are in, or I would imagine that you could look up which chapter is closest to you and send a DM or email to them directly. After that it is in their hands for arranging on-boarding. Feel free to DM me here if you need any information or whatever. I may not have the specific answers, but I can float them with people in my chapter to see if they do. Solidarity!
I haven’t fully thought about any specific camp to claim. But I do like how the term socialist throughout the history of the left can mean all three (communist, anarchist, socialist). I think a well rounded person can use theory to help with having a good framework. Just the same as another well rounded person can discover theory based around being good at just understanding others and their needs. Obviously there are some people that think they do either of those, and are the cause of much misunderstanding.
I used to be able to really sit down and read non-fiction stuff pretty easy (so long as I had interest), but at some point I just found myself starting a sentence and just losing all focus. Which is weird because I can read the fuck out of really random shit on sites like this. I also can really get lost in podcasts that both teach our (the left) past and present struggles. So I have decided to give audiobooks a try for getting the actual books of theory going. So I might actually get some of my old spark back and feel more sure of how I argue things. But I also will more than likely always consider myself “green” knowledge-wise. When you are new, you have both the excitement and drive to keep learning. I have much more respect for people that don’t just assume they already know it all.
That’s awesome to hear (the part about looking into SRA and not the Google tracking)! The left needs to break away from letting the false left (libs/centrists that are too often called “the left”) choose to remove our ability to arm and defend ourselves. They just default to the defeatist attitude of “you really think you can just take on the military?!? lol, I think not!”. Which is what they mockingly say about the right’s fetishization of guns. Which I tend to respond with more practical examples that they can more easily understand. Unfortunately 2020 and the overall rise in hate based attacks from the right and their avid supporters with badges is one such example. More of my open-minded liberal friends do see how self-defense might be a real need with all that. The mass-shooting stuff is really what keeps them more in the “anti-gun” crowd. Which is understandable, but just banning guns isn’t the actual fix to the majority of the reasons such actions happen. It just makes it easier to ignore them and act like nothing is wrong.
I do sometimes like to point out that armed leftists have actually taken on our military and won (wasn’t easy and did cost many lives of course), like Vietnam is still one of the best. Many firm libs are under the misunderstanding that the only “valid” form of change is non-violent and just voting “blue no matter who”. Which the non-violent part is very important to always try first, but violence is very much valid if the non-violent attempts are ignored or only paid lip-service without actions. The right has been allowed to claim guns as their thing, and libs want to be on whatever the opposite side of them. So if the right wants guns to be legal and easy to get, the libs want to see them banned and hard as hell to get. They can fuck right off with banning some guns because they are “scary” and therefore “not needed for anything other than killing”. I don’t make my life about pushing for a shooting war, as the point isn’t to win by those means. We will only truly win by ending the money over people system, and that means education and winning over people in ways that actually help. But I am damn sure not gonna allow my ability to fight back if shit does happen be taken away.
I hope that if you do join the SRA that your local chapter is as supportive and amazing as mine has been. And they might just be a great place to learn about other groups/orgs near you. I only really learned about and got motivated to volunteer with clinic escorting because we had a couple of people already doing it. And while my insomnia makes it frustratingly hard to go out as much as I feel that I should. It is such and amazing boost of joy to know that by just doing such a simple task I am helping part of my community. The leftists (us and some random others) that show up are known for being ready to help and not afraid to stand firm if fucked with. lol
Which is why (to borrow a phrase about planting trees) the best time to organize was 30yrs ago, and the next best time is now. Right now we are seeing a real rise in general interest in socialism by millennials and zoomers. With the obvious and looming failures of our current capitalist systems. Now is basically one of the most opportune times to really push forward.
As we (definitely millennials like myself) were raised in the post-“victory over the evil USSR” 90’s. As such we were pumped full of indoctrination about the “greatness/correctness of free capitalism” and consumerism. Told lies about how you “must go to college or you will be poor” and all the false promises. We were taught that the US is basically ordained to be the protector of the world, and that other nations are wrong (especially the remaining socialist ones). Even to the point where being the ones that are against the conservative views still presume that there isn’t any freedom in such nations. That their suffering is because of their oppressive systems, and not really taught about the stuff done by us “good guys” to cause suffering. 9-11/Afghanistan/Iraq really taught me the lesson of how our “free” media and “good” leaders are able to create the demand for “liberating” other nations and installing our systems.
The big crash of 2008 really showed me that laws and rules are only for the poor. For all the talk of what should happen to “bad guys”, and that “the market decides if a business grows or dies and shouldn’t be messed with by our government”. We saw those that broke laws and very much caused law abiding people to lose everything get off with nothing. At least nothing when compared to folks that are caught dealing drugs for their crimes that “ruin society”. We saw our money go everywhere but into helping working and poor people. Money isn’t around when talk of public healthcare that actually works. Yet it is there to burn when the military industrial complex is knocking, or when companies are deemed “too big to fail”. We didn’t place real terms on the bailouts, which lead to those same people firing hundreds of thousands of workers and giving themselves higher bonuses than any other year. Our tax money went into badly ran car manufacturing that was in-part failing due to our companies not wanting to focus on MPG and just sucking down gas. And we don’t even get the benefit of dividend payouts like other shareholders do.
The right-wing has been growing and growing more bold and open since before I was born in the 80’s. Yet the left is either placed in the same camp as the right when libs/centrists want to feel superior. And we are blamed for “throwing away votes” when they lose again and again to conservatives/far-right leaders. They love to steal our words, but always say “it just isn’t the right time to do X” when we ask/demand actions that they promised while running. If we don’t start being more visible and active in interacting with both comrades of various leanings as well as taking back our stuff from the centrists and conservatives. No more just letting them claim victories when nothing was done!
I have personally been openly outspoken and am willing to take time to speak with people when they ask why “I support socialism/communism when they are anti-freedom”. I have opened their minds to at least second guessing what we have been told. I am unfortunately not very well versed in book theory (and am working one that), but I think they like how I am coming from a place of sharing what I have learned. I don’t speak in the way that some academics do where they care more about being smug and letting you know that they are smarter than you. Maybe because I speak like just another worker is helpful. Some right of centre folks aren’t prepared for me to agree that the Dems are focused on the wrong things and that I am very much pro-gun owning. We have so much to do, and so many hearts and minds to win.
So planting the correct seeds in in of itself is one of the simplest and important actions for day to day life and building the communities we must build. At least that is my most basic personal goal as one person outside of efforts made with my chapter.
I too ran into this when I first started actually thinking of joining groups. DSA was an easy one to find out, but I did have to actually sign-up for what I thought was the one closest to me (it was named two different areas depending on which page I was on). Which was mildly frustrating. I thought they would more specifically get with me after joining the national org. Even after I started sending my monthly donations to the chapter, I didn’t get any on-boarding stuff for around 4 months. And the person that reached out didn’t get back to me when I did reply (which to be fair was at least a week) asking if I really should be setup with one closer but smaller. I will eventually reach out again.
But I kind of got spoiled when I signed up for the Socialist Rifle Association around the same time. After like a month or two I was sent info about making my account on our national forums. After doing the “Hello” introductions post that the forum bot that was showing me how the site worked. I was pretty quickly noted for my state, and added to that part. Which then lead to my closest chapter reaching out directly and setup on-boarding. Was very simple and easy.
I would start by seeing about some of the more nation wide ones. See if they have maps or lists showing where they have active chapters. Or if you don’t mind saying which state you are in, maybe someone here might happen to know of some. Also might be able to get information as to what they are about. Aside from the DSA and SRA, I know that Socialist Alternative is active in a number of states. If you live near a college or university, there might be some smaller groups on-campus.
I will say that the SRA isn’t about being a political party nor a militia, and isn’t specifically tied to a particular version of leftist (like ML, MLM, anarchist, etc.) outside of being anti-capitalist. It is more about learning and teaching gun safety and inspiring more leftists to not just think of guns as a right-wing thing. We believe that the left should be armed and know how to defend if needed. Some chapters either have, or are working to getting certs to teach concealed carry classes. There are also community efforts, but that really depends on the individual chapter. My chapter has adopted a street in a often ignored part of one of the cites we live in. We have also handed out PPE and other supplies during Covid. We have also started coordinating with some other local orgs to raise funds for the Carolina Abortion Fund. But I have also heard that folks that joined other chapters have had less than active efforts or other standard annoyances that can happen when joining a chapter for any org. Our national level org has also been making dumb choices for use of funds that were based on the higher than normal influx of people joining during 2020 and 2021. But it seems that real efforts are being voted on and started to fix that. There are also other big-tent and more specific leaning leftist gun groups.
You might very much be onto something with regards to the lack of “needing” to learn another language from a place like the US being its own excuse. Truly needing to learn or be completely left behind (depending on the situation) is a very powerful motivator. My use of random things is sure to be no different than the folks you know for sure. Some is just because maybe a word from somewhere else in the world just sounds better to me (though I try to use them correctly). I will say that I imagine that the youth and the next generations that have such easy access to different ways to learn language might be a game changer. It would’ve been great to have super easy access to stuff like Duolingo when I was a child. The simple difference in just how a sentence is constructed in different languages does give an insight into how people think (or even explain why to a non-speaker folks from other places are no nonsense or super expressive). Which is very very helpful in building both relationships and real understanding. Also for what it is worth, I do tend to go with original languages of the media I am at least watching (dubbed over voice acting quality has definitely gotten much better but still “feels” wrong in most cases for me). The only times I tend to go with English dubs are normally due to needing to multitask or if my ADD is making focusing hard. Sometimes a dub that is done well might have me re-watching stuff just to see how things are presented differently. Having random interactions like this comment and reply also help me have a better understanding of the world. So many things are just catered to the US and leads to arrogance on our part. Just going through life thinking that we (US citizens) are “correct” about things. When the reality is that we just don’t care to understand. Especially re-enforced by our “America is the greatest nation in the world” indoctrination from our right-wing and centrist politics. We are seeing a rise in the drive to “whitewash” history and to keep forgetting all the times we have been both wrong and the creators of suffering (both metaphorical and literal).
If they can handle playing 1080p videos streaming without lag or tearing, then I am very much going to get either the 16GB or 32GB.