Kereea Says Unionize

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

Gen Z did not get that privilege.

They were called "digital natives" and people assumed they'd "just pick it up" without ever considering that everything else we ever "just pick up" is taught to us. We don't just sing the alphabet one day, someone taught us the song and that the letters mean things. We don't just start talking out of nowhere, we learn it by observing how the people around us do it, which is why you do not see a Mexican toddler spontaneously speaking Chinese.

At the same time that we decided we could throw Gen Z to the digital wolves, companies like Microsoft and Apple started making their software harder to access. When I was a kid, we could (and did!) poke around our computers' virtual guts for fun. We learned to download custom desktop icons and screensavers and where to put those things to make them work; we ran Napster and Limewire and had to sort the resulting files; we had to know where stuff went because autosave didn't exist yet.

Today's kids and teens are not having that experience. Indeed, today's kids and teens don't know how to access hidden files because there's no toggle for it anymore. I met a teenager last year who had no idea what "local memory" was because her entire life she'd been encouraged to "save to the cloud." If she had to set up Steam she'd be fucked.

A lot of the younger generations literally don't know they can do this, because they've been let down by an educational system that decided you could learn computer literacy the same way you learn to walk. And megacorps have taken advantage of that all the way to the stock market.

For fuck's sake don't be an ass to people who don't know. Teach them. Or direct them to someone who can.

I can't remember which exact law it was but I remember when it passed that alot of people used it as proof of apartheid, but I saw multiple Jewish/Israeli blogs explaining why that wasn't true. I wish I could remember exactly what it was so I could look up those posts because I know she's gotten it wrong somehow.

Is there any chance you know what law I'm talking about? She claims Arab knesset members stood up in protest during or after the vote for it, if that narrows it down (if that even happened).

She's talking about the Nation State Law.

The law passed 62-55 in July 2018 and yes, Arab Knesset members did protest it.

The Nation State Law declares that the Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people. It says that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.

Beyond that, it codifies the state's symbols (flag, menorah emblem, Hatikvah), declares Jerusalem the capital, establishes Hebrew as the state's language while giving Arabic a "special status" (with an explicit clause that nothing in the law harms Arabic's existing legal status), and commits the state to ensuring the safety of Jews abroad who are in danger due to their Jewishness.

The strongest critiques I can find in English come from Israeli centrists and liberals, who address what the law omits rather than what it contains.

The Israel Democracy Institute's position is that the Nation State Law's flaw is in its failure to explicitly address equality, democracy, and the Declaration of Independence. Their recommendation was simply to amend it to include an explicit statement that Israel is also the home of its minorities and add an explicit guarantee of equal rights for all citizens. Having lived my entire life as part of a tiny ethnic minority (2% of my nation's population), I think I agree.

However, the law did not limit the rights of any of Israel's citizens, whether Jewish, Arabic, or of any other ethnic/national/religious heritage.

The Arabic language point specifically

People often cite the language provision as the most concrete example of harm. Arabic's special status, though, was preserved - and the law explicitly states that this clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before it came into effect. Arabic went from being formally co-official (in practice, a status that was already largely symbolic) to having "special status" with its existing practical protections intact. That's a demotion in symbolic standing (which is worth noting) but it didn't strip Arabic speakers of any legal protections, access to services, or any practical right.

The Double Standard

Israel is targeted with outrage for defining itself as the homeland of a particular people and prioritizing that people's self-determination - this is characterized as uniquely monstrous and unjust.

It is, however, common to countless constitutional democracies.

Ireland: The Irish Constitution explicitly states that "the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage." Ireland is the ethnonational homeland of the Irish people. No one calls this apartheid.

Germany: Article 116 of Germany's Basic Law grants ethnic Germans (people of German descent living in former Eastern Bloc countries) the right to return to Germany and claim citizenship. German legislation provides unique opportunities for persons of German origin to obtain citizenship based on proof of German ethnic origin, through a repatriation process based on proof of German roots. Germany's constitution privileges ethnic Germans. Nobody calls this apartheid either.

Greece: Greek law maintains a separate, expedited naturalization track specifically for ethnic Greeks abroad, and derives ethnic identity and citizenship eligibility from a single grandparent. Nobody accuses Greece of apartheid.

Poland: The Polish constitution commits the Republic of Poland to providing assistance to Poles living abroad to maintain their links with the national cultural heritage. Apartheid never comes up when discussing this.

All of these countries define themselves constitutionally as the nation-states of specific ethnic or cultural groups. All of them maintain special relationships with their diasporas.

None of them have had this characterized as apartheid.

When Israel is held to a standard applied to no other nation, one cannot help but ask: Why is Israel uniquely held to a different standard?

It's the nation of the Jews. That's what they find uniquely unacceptable.

When every other nation gets to define its ethnic and cultural character and Israel alone is called an apartheid state for doing the same thing, the question isn't whether a double standard exists - it obviously exits.

The only question is if those acting on the double standard will admit it's only explanation.

____________

(You can read the text of the law in English here)

for example, we have a microscope that is perfectly functional, good microscope, but its software is abandonware because the company refused to maintain it. the company is still in business, still makes essentially the exact same software, but they made all of the old tech incompatible with new software to force people to buy the new microscope tech. it would cost a quarter million dollars to replace this microscope. this perfectly good microscope.

As I was chatting with the tech, I mentioned offhandedly to her that my first computer games were on 5 3/4" floppies, and said "you're so young, you've probably never even seen one of those."

Her response: "oh, I have. We do maintenance for a company that still uses them."

For those of you too young to know what any of that means: my school moved to computers with 3 1/2" floppies in 1992. I only used the bigger ones for one year. Three years after that we got converters to also use CD-ROM. I got my first thumb drive in college, in 2007. And the storage on 5 3/4" floppies was minuscule. This post would fit on one. I think. This technology was outdated 34 years ago, which is like 500 in computer years. This is roughly equivalent to someone telling you they're self-publishing their werewolf romantasy on Ben Franklin's printing press.

Now I don't know why this company is still using technology so obsolete it makes thumb drives look like sci-fi. But given that it's functionally useless in the modern day, I'd bet a nickel it's because of abandonware.

I also don't know what this company does.

She also became a prominent abolitionist speaker. To the best of my knowledge, she never actually learned to read (probably because she was too busy kicking ass and proving a Black woman could do everything a white man could do), which means she was giving some of the most eloquent-but-straightforward speeches I've ever read, without notes. She had to do it from memory.

Oh.

And did I mention she never learned to read, but spoke two languages fluently?

Sign me up for the Bong Joon Ho anti-AI military squad.

The Fence has published an exposé on Stuart Semple (of Anish Kapoor 'feud' notoriety) which they have been working on for six months.

investigation reveals Semple / his studio / his partner Emily Mann (who's described as acting as his 'enforcer' in his business) :

mishandled £400k grant of public money intended for a public gallery, allowing the money to flow freely between the public project, his own personal studio and personal projects such as Culture Hustle (his online business selling paint etc)

underpaid or failed to pay many of his assistants to the tune of several thousand pounds each.

former assistants have taken him to court and he simply hasn't bothered to show up and he's threatened to sue former assistants who asked for their back pay

repeatedly funds ambitious projects that never see release eg Abode, an 'Adobe-rivalling' suite of creative software (he claims he still intends to release this)

encouraged a cult-like atmosphere at his studio in Bournemouth

was frequently in debt and having to negotiate with bailiffs etc for his debts while at the same time crowdfunding various projects

ran fake social media accounts boosting Semple and his work

The portrait that emerges is one of decades-long scam artistry tbh and someone who's juvenile, manipulative, narcissistic.

The Fence btw is a decent fairly small-circulation quarterly magazine from the UK which specialises in satire, investigative journalism, culture, and fiction. You can read the piece in its entirety if you register (which is free).

a few links:

The Fence's newsletter from April discusses this article & how Semple has tried to muddy the SEO waters

Semple threatened to sue The Fence for publishing this story - many of you are American so here's the relevant UK law on defamation.