Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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12 days ago I started my pilgrimage. It took me 12 days to find out I don’t like it lmao. So I quit my pilgrimage. In a way the pilgrimage is now complete as the goal was to gain new insights. And new insights were gained. Not after two and a half months. But after 12 days. Not the ones I expected. Probably the ones I needed. It was a difficult decision to forfeit but in the end I am happier than when I started.
Long distance walking is not for everyone. I’m more partial to hitch hiking.
Well I like hiking, nature, camping and such but everything combined into a months long trip, together with being alone, somehow isn’t for me right now.
Have a great week everyone! By keeping up with your goals and habits, quantitative buildup over a long period of time results in qualitative development. Think of who you want to be, and set in stone tiny habits characteristic of that future person. In no time, you’ll blossom into the person you want to be, because by setting yourself on that road you are merely that person but in the past!
You’re already there! It doesn’t matter if this is about activism, language learning, reading, or something like fitness, by putting a small bit into daily practice you already push yourself onto that trajectory. We must recognize transitional states, as we are always transitioning into something.
As always, communism will win.
Just voted in the local elections. Since there were only liberal candidates, I wrote Rodríguez and Xi. I just hope the people who read it get curious. Now that I think about it, I should also have added a link to prolewiki to really get my point across.
I have never used AI (apart from accidentally on like search engines) and I don’t even know how to use it. Part of me thinks I should at least figure out how to do it but I just don’t see the use of it. And then I stumble into AI subreddits and feel like I entered some dystopian world. Like, people are having full blown conversations with AI.
I mostly use deepseek as a search engine since all the regular search engines have been enshitified.
This is pretty much all AI can do consistently well: find links and sources for what you’re looking for. For everything else your mileage is going to vary.
but I just don’t see the use of it.
How useful it is really depends on what you’d use it for. Which is one of the fair criticisms of it, that capitalism is trying to push it anywhere and everywhere in ways it isn’t all that useful or well fit for.
In my assessment of it, text generation AI (to use one example of gen AI) is actually best for fiction, i.e. being a chatbot who can engage people in their fantasies and play them out with them (roleplay, etc.). This is because in fiction, it doesn’t matter that much if the AI chooses a wrong token and what should have been purple is pink (e.g. it doesn’t matter much if a “fact” is wrong if it’s a fictional world to begin with). I could write a whole post just on the subject of chatbots and the pros and cons of them being a thing.
Beyond that, some of the better Instruct models, models tuned with an assistant/user message exchange dynamic in mind, are capable of coding pretty well and explaining concepts about it. I use Deepseek as an assistant for that on occasion, combining it with regular web searches for solutions. Though I am also firm on the idea of its solutions not being something I yoink without understanding because I want to become better at programming, so I generally won’t outright copy/paste what it gave me unless I already understand the syntax and just needed the reminder. At times, it helps me in ways similar to rubberducking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
It can make errors in code or say things that are wrong, but when combined with cross-referencing from other sources, it can help with working through things that are complex to search for on their own (especially with search engines getting worse over time instead of better). I’ve also used it before to get input on areas I can improve at coding and what metrics might point toward quality in the first place; I take it all with a grain of salt, but it can help crystallize things that I’d otherwise be thinking vaguely about.
There are also models that are adept enough to work through mathematical proofs. I’m not sure of to what extent or how useful it is for helping an actual mathematician, but the best of models have come a long way from speaking nonsense a lot. I still wouldn’t recommend trusting anything an LLM tells you without cross-referencing, but they’re at least less incorrect than they were in the earlier days.
In many ways, people are still figuring out what all use they do have and in what context they are more benefit than they are waste of time. If you do try a text model for free, I’d recommend Deepseek since it’s based in China (and also China being based :P) and so if there are privacy concerns about what you say to it, at least you know the data isn’t going straight to western corporations to sell. Most AI services are sneaky in the margins about what private really means. They’ll often say that things are encrypted, but then have a line about how the data can be used to further tune/train their models, which means at some point it can be looked at by the company unencrypted, even if anonymized, to learn from it.
I only know of like one service that very explicitly puts encryption and privacy first to the point that I’m pretty sure they’d have to change some infrastructural things to even be capable of mass storing unencrypted info like that to train models on it. And they are kind of a niche paid service (no free tier) that lags behind the major corps in model capability because they’re running purely on what they can make off of users rather than investor money.
lol my reactionary relative tried to equate el che with fucking pablo escobar lmao.
There are hot takes, and then there are THERMONUCLEAR takes…
Well you see, they are both from Latin America … (sarcasm)
Touche! :D
Hey comrades, I am sharing this post by a person who needs urgent legal funds for their child for a legal case involving harm towards their child from another party: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11664621?scrollToComments=true
I hope you people donate for the sake of them and their child to live a safe life together.
Never forget to read theory and, if you have the luck, buy books from comrades!
The US should switch up the goofy “thank you for your service” culture directed at members of the armed services. Instead, it should have a culture where when you finish checking out at a grocery store, you say to the cashier or self scan attendant “thank you for your service.” And then if you see a uniformed member of the armed services, you say “thank you for nothing” but do it with a big liberal smile to get in their head.
If you see someone in uniform you tell them “The cafe around the corner are giving away free icecream and coffee to soldiers and veterans.” and they show up and look a fool and by then you are long gone.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!
Did they catch you on doing parody or something lol? How in the world would they read you as a zionist.
I think that the problem was that I shared two sources written by Zionists: a report linking Islamomisia with antisemitism, and a report on poverty among U.S. Jews. A Herzlian coauthored the former report and the latter source says in the ‘Who We Are’ section that it blows money on Palestine’s occupation. I didn’t bother to check these things but the moderator seems to think that I deliberately peddled hasbara.
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11657217/8220622?scrollToComments=true
I have a few issues with Acknickulous’s research, but putting that aside it is worth noting that both the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation as well as Acknickulous cite Pew Research as a source, and Pew Research says this:
When asked to describe their household’s financial situation (largely before the pandemic began), roughly half of U.S. Jews say they live comfortably (53%). By comparison, 29% of U.S. adults overall say they live comfortably.
The ‘glass half empty’ types can easily read this as 47% of U.S. Jews living uncomfortably. I’d say that 47% is statistically significant, but what do I know.
Oh, I see. So if you’d posted based on the Pew Research source instead of the others, I wonder if that would have worked out better. I can sorta understand the reaction on their part if they are used to people posting sus sources, but on the other hand, not everything that awful entities peddle is wholly made up. Some stuff is outright lies and some of it is about taking partially true things and couching it in a particular narrative.
As we see with sources here often. For example, the “at what cost” theme about China that will go something like “[here is something true or partially true about China that you might think is good and here’s why it’s bad actually].”
Lol, what? Have they not looked at your post history? Ridiculous.
I unknowingly shared a couple of biased sources, which I think is the reason that they booted me.
This is, without exaggeration, the first time that anybody has called me a Zionist, which may be the funniest thing that I have seen all month. Me, a Zionist. Imagine that. If I were a Zionist, I wouldn’t be caught dead writing a topic titled ‘Why Zionism is bad for Jews’.
you either die young or live long enough to turn into a villain, or smt like that
I am in agony. This Friday I woke up early in the morning because my teeth on the right side hurt so badly. Then I realized… it’s my wisdom teeth and I have an infection. I didn’t hang out with my friend or anyone today, I just didn’t feel like it because of the pain
I can’t take it anymore. I want to end it all
Please do not hurt yourself. I worry for you.
Tooth pain is some of the worst pain. Get it dealt with asap because it wont get better.
tried making Fesenjan today and it tastes amazing
Pomegranate and walnut chicken sounds rich as fuck. I could go for that.
I hope you all have a nice week :D
You too, Oppo!
You too!! (=･ｪ･=)
You too Comrade! ❤️
Have a good one, tovarish Oppo! :)
Stretch! Even for 10 minutes a day! You’ll notice how different you feel after a week
🫵 You WILL have hope, comrade.
I am having trouble with that at the moment.
Today I would like to remind comrades of DARVO which is related to what you might have heard before: “Every accusation is a confession.”
Have you ever been stuck in a situation where somethin just ain’t right and you might decide call it out, but instead of an answer you get insulted and blamed? DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. If you are interested in Marxism chances are you might have a keen eye on contradictions, in the struggle between classes, now it’s important to not get ahead of ourselves and stay humble. At the same time, a calm explanation for an issue is usually fairly reasonable demand.
Has someone you care for said one thing and then done another? Are you a part of a friends group and notice someone is being treated unfairly? Are words being shoved into your mouth that you didn’t say?
Useful things to keep in mind:
- You could always be wrong. Do a fact check based on tangible evidence.
- Document incidents in order to strengthen your point.
- Choose the correct moment to approach, you don’t wanna run into problems first thing, unless absolutely necessary. The more is at stake the greater their retaliation might be, for being put on the spot.
- Approach the problem collectively and strategically, it’s like eating a meal, you must eat a bite at a time, can’t just gulp the entire banquette.
All reactionaries are ultimately paper tigers, dangerous to splash, but if you fill up a big bucket of water and pour it on them, the people will see who they really are.
