gitremote
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gitremote.bsky.social
gitremote
@gitremote.bsky.social
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Shift Left << Anti-tankie social democrat. 🌹 Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️‍⚧️
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gitremote.bsky.social
An attempt to steelman Will Stancil just so happens to invert the Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_t...
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an *affordable* pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that *good* boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.
November 10, 2025 at 4:07 AM
gitremote.bsky.social
A man wearing a party hat stands alone in the corner and watches couples dance. He thinks, "They don't know when they skeet, they help train AI."
November 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM
gitremote.bsky.social
Added alt text for blind and low vision users.
An angry man with steam coming out of his ears wearing a cap with "AI SUX" says, "If Alan Turing were alive today he'd say LLMs aren't real AI!" A duplicate angry man with steam coming out of his ears wearing a cap with "I ❤️ AI" says, "NOOO! He would! They pass the Turing Test!" Alan Turing if he existed today: "I'm quite fond of this Grindr app"
October 30, 2025 at 3:17 AM
gitremote.bsky.social
Added alt text to an excerpt from Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx, an anti-Luddite.
About 1630, a wind-sawmill, erected near London by a Dutchman, succumbed to the excesses of the populace. Even as late as the beginning of the 18th century, sawmills driven by water overcame the opposition of the people, supported as it was by Parliament, only with great difficulty. No sooner had Everet in 1758 erected the first wool-shearing machine that was driven by water-power, than it was set on fire by 100,000 people who had been thrown out of work. Fifty thousand workpeople, who had previously lived by carding wool, petitioned Parliament against Arkwright's scribbling mills and carding engines. The enormous destruction of machinery that occurred in the English manufacturing districts during the first 15 years of this century, chiefly caused by the employment of the power-loom, and known as the Luddite movement, gave the anti-Jacobin governments of a Sidmouth, a Castlereagh, and the like, a pretext for the most reactionary and forcible measures. It took both time and experience before the workpeople learnt to distinguish between machinery and its employment by capital, and to direct their attacks, not against the material instruments of production, but against the mode in which they are used. [113]
October 24, 2025 at 5:43 AM
gitremote.bsky.social
Would it be cheap though? Non-AI companies and universities would have the same cost constraints as AI companies.

AI companies currently eat the real costs by selling flat rate pricing to users who burden them with high usage. This is a good summary of the problem.

www.ikangai.com/the-llm-cost...
The classic prisoner's dilemma: Everyone charges usage-based → sustainable industry Everyone charges flat-rate → race to the bottom You charge usage, others charge flat → you die alone You charge flat, others charge usage → you win (then die later) So everyone defects. Everyone subsidizes power users. Everyone posts hockey stick growth charts. Everyone eventually posts "important pricing updates."
October 24, 2025 at 2:46 AM
gitremote.bsky.social
20. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
19. Be a patriot. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
17. Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to the use of the words EXTREMISM and TERRORISM. Be alive to the fatal notions of EMERGENCY and EXCEPTION. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
15. Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
14. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
12. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
11. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate with others.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
8. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
7. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
6. Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union—and take its side.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
gitremote.bsky.social
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

by historian Timothy Snyder

🧵
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
October 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM