Mark Goody @marramgrass@nitech.online

Maybe one day when we've all left Unity behind us there will be Godot drama too and we can refer to it as "Godot War"

I absolutely abhor that with every study that proves universal basic income works (how many studies does it take before it’s actually implemented universally?) there’s the qualifier “homeless people didn’t spend as much money on booze and drugs as we thought”. So condescending.

We don’t scrutinize rich people this way. There’s the assumption that rich people deserve that choice because the money belongs to them.
Poor people have to answer to some arbitrary social expectation of acceptable behaviour before they are “allowed” to be housed, fed, clothed, etc.

It shouldn’t matter how basic universal income is spent. The whole point is that we all get the choice and the possibility to live a comfortable life. It’s not up to any of us to decide what comfort looks like for anyone.

Some people don’t fit social expectations and it’s apparently not ok only when they are poor.

From @Mr_Dave_Haslam

Labour will treat Channel people smugglers as terrorists, says Starmer

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/14/labour-will-treat-channel-people-smugglers-as-terrorists-says-starmer

Fuck Starmer. The man has his finger unerringly on the pulse of English tabloid opinion, which makes him a hateful bigot and an authoritarian control freak.

Really tired of "we must adapt to this new reality" takes in response to horrible people doing preventable things.

Fuck that.

Make anti-vaxxers adapt to 20th century medicine. Make selfish people adapt to living in a society. Make billionaires adapt to paying their fair share. Make climate deniers adapt to science. Make conspiracy theorists adapt to reality. Make fascists adapt to getting punched in the face.

The rest of us aren't the ones who need to be "adapting."

Once more: fuck that.

I know how to fix British politics.

If we kick out or jail enough Tories for breach of ministerial code, dereliction of duty, insider trading, market manipulation, outright corruption, and first-degree murder, there won’t be enough Tories around for Labour to copy policies from.

This is a true story.

In 2014, I happened to be on site at a software development company, where I wound up being a proverbial fly on the wall during a notable conversation.

I was being shown around by the head of technical documentation, and had just been introduced to the head of engineering. Maybe he was a VP, I don't recall. Anyways, he decided that was the occasion, with me, random contractor standing in front of him, to engage the head of technical documentation in a conversation about how there might be layoffs coming, and he was of the opinion that they should probably lay off his division's techwriters, and make the software developers write their own documentation, to save money.

The head of technical documentation was, of course, flabbergasted and appalled, but substantially outranked, and she had to be diplomatic in her response, tying her hands - and her tongue. Also she was caught somewhat by surprise by this fascinating proposal.

1/?

This¹ popped into my feed again, and I want to add something else: being a bit shit at stuff and doing it anyway is specifically a radical, anti-capitalist act. ✊🏻 An underlying reason you want to do things well is because you’ve internalised the lesson that stuff only has value if it literally has economic value – if you can sell it.

Post your wonky drawings. Throw an ungainly pot. Make sub-par dinners. You’re literally smashing the system. ♥️

¹ From @ITOmarHernandez, reposted by @girlonthenet

🖼️ 🎨 🤖

In reply to a quick conversation with Lord Bethell of the UK Parliament on Twitter, I composed an open response.

You can find the original (ongoing) conversation here: https://twitter.com/mer__edith/status/1692547122850111667

The the open response here: https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/LBResponse.pdf

So, if everyone had their needs met, I imagine a world bursting with all kinds of art and creativity.

Elsewhere there's a conversation about how artists would be "compensated" in a post-scarcity, egalitarian society, and some find it difficult to imagine. I happen to find it easy to imagine, here's one vision:

If everyone had their needs met (eg food, water, shelter, safety, care, community, this is not exhaustive, you know what humans need), I imagine most people would engage in the arts. I see everything from small community to global-spanning projects, multigenerational artists' schools, hobby groups, local art fairs and continental expos, in-person, online, private and public.

Art pre-dates money, it will outlive it. Ask archaeologists and historians around the world and they will tell you so much about the diversity and complexity of the art-forms, and that's only the stuff that's preserved. Song, dance, sand sculpture, anything that washes away or decomposes away or erodes away - our ancestors were singing, painting, dancing, storytelling, sculpting, thinking, rhyming, drumming, in as many different ways as there are people who ever lived.

What if you could spend just a few hours more on listening to music, editing videos, writing or speaking poetry, sitting in nature, dancing in your kitchen or painting a landscape you'll only ever show your loved ones, because you knew your shelter, food, medical care, education, weren't dependent on working a third of your life for someone else?

Artists would be FREED if we smash capitalism, we'd be able to create our hearts' desire for the audiences who need it, and we would be "paid" with admiration and community and opportunity to expand our craft.