andonlyafoolwouldsaythat

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

Sheep/får in Vårby gård, Huddinge (August 4, 2013).

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

Trump’s defunding of CPB means a massive loss to all local PBS and NPR public broadcasting stations. But based on their ability to get sponsorships, advertisers, other grants, private donations, state funding, and membership subscribers, some stations will end up hit a lot harder than others.

And some of the hardest hit stations, the ones who had been relying most heavily on this federal funding, are Native American and Indigenous Nations’ local stations. Radio stations in rural areas and on reservations can often be a really important source of locally relevant information—and publicly available media in Native languages.

Unfortunately, many Native American-serving public media stations listed on Adopt A Station don't have donation or support pages that I can find (KGHR - Greyhills Academy in the Navajo Nation in Arizona; KGVA - The Voice of the Aaniiih and Nakoda Nations in Montana; KSHI - The Voice of the A:shiwi in Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico; KCUW - Umatilla Reservation Community Radio in Oregon; KTNN - The Voice of the Navajo Nation broadcasting from Arizona; KUHB - The Voice of the Pribilofs in St. Paul, Alaska; KDSP - Sand Point in Alaska... if you can find any, let me know! And certainly if you're in the area, show them some support!)

But one that's actively running a fundraiser that could absolutely use more support is KUYI - Hopi Radio in Arizona. Broadcasting from the seat of the Hopi government in Kykotsmovi, KUYI includes local news from the Hopi reservation and programming in the Hopi language. They're also set to lose 60% of their funding with the CPB funds rescinded. Donate to support them here—they’re aiming to raise $25,000 for their 25th anniversary, and as of the time of this posting have raised $1,660.

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I've seen a few comments now like "but without chatGPT I don't know what to make for dinner" or "but character.ai is vital to my mental health" and those are not arguments for genAI. They're signs that you need to sort yourself out.

An adult human being should be able to decide what to have for dinner. Yes, some days it's rough and you don't wanna, but the point is, you can do it. And if you can't, you can learn. Hell, make post-it notes with dinner options, stick them on a dart board, and on days when you really can't decide, throw a dart.

You'd really rather put these decisions in the hands of an AI? As in, a company? And you don't see the issues with that? You don't see how easy that makes it for companies to manipulate you, influence your choices and your spending and your entire life?

And if your mental health relies on talking to a robot about your issues "because it listens and cares" - no, it doesn't. It can't listen. It can't care. It's lying to you. It's parroting phrases said by other people in similar contexts. It's an elaborate predictive text machine.

And again, you're just giving all of this information about yourself to a company. A company that wants to make money and likely has no compunctions about selling your data. You're trusting a software run by a company. And you don't think that'll be used to manipulate you? I've got a bridge to sell you.

What you need is actual human connection with other humans. And if you don't know how to connect with other humans then it's time to learn. Start by caring about other people. Take a genuine interest in them. Listen to them. That's how you connect. Not by treating others as entities to dump all your issues on or monologue at about your boring life. Sure, character.ai will put up with that and humour you, but there's literally nothing genuine about it and you will never ever learn to make actual friends.

Relying on genAI for any of this means you'll never learn, in fact you'll get worse, and if genAI ever goes away or you find yourself without access to a computer/phone/internet or the people running chatGPT or character.ai take down the website or put it behind a paywall, you'll be completely adrift. You are handing control of your life over to a piece of software run by a business. Instead of developing skills and independence you're just handing control over to someone else, someone who by the way does not care about you, someone who's only here to make money.

"But some people need--" to stop infantilising themselves, to start taking responsibility and control of their own life, to realise that they have agency and power, to learn that agency and control are not the same as blame and guilt and that someone trying to help them reclaim control is not trying to blame them for their situation.

People, yes even people with your exact diagnosis or background or medical history, were living and making decisions and dealing with their issues and going to therapy and learning and coping for millennia prior to 2022. As in, before genAI was even an option. You can do it. Trust me.

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

Acknowledging that “critical thinking” means “thinking about things in a thorough way from different perspectives” and not “finding every flaw in a thing and fixating on it until all the joy is gone” is so liberating.

It’s supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, not about finding ways to devalue things that aren’t perfect or that we personally dislike.

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[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and put "text your friend whom you love and genuinely want to talk to" on your to-do list because otherwise it is not getting done

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

Thinking about the homeschooling family who frequent my library and who pulled their teen son out of public school because they wouldn't accommodate his learning disabilities. For context I am in the American South, that mythical land where the education system is so bad that it's not anyone's personal fault that they never learn anything, because they're so helpless and stupid.

Anyway, they were doing basic math and reading and writing at home and had their standard curricula for that, but their project for a year and the reason I saw them every week for a year is that he was learning about 1 country each week. They would get three books, one about the country's history, one about her food, one about language (if possible) or travel (if not). They would read select chapters from all three (he rarely cover-to-covered them, especially if I didn't have books meant for young readers about a particular country, as our collection for such matters is often 'not great buddy') and make up a worksheet of basic facts and history at the end of the week, when the family would also cook something form the cookbook together to eat for dinner.

South of the USA. Public library with books that were not ideal. He didn't even read the whole book if it was too big. They didn't even go looking for the books themselves, they went to a local building with free services, asked a worker there to find them the books, and went home.

You can learn about the world around you! It can be fun and delicious! Your local librarian will not say a word if you want easy books and no one will ever know if you don't read the whole thing! If you have been waiting for a parent or teacher or pastor to tell you what to learn, REBEL! GO LEARN ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND YOU ON YOUR OWN!

[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

my mom was trying to chew through some really tough steak and she turned to me and said “just call me The Gnawer.” she would do numbers here

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i think every british journalist should just be gunned down

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it's a rough day for gluten guy enjoyers

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This panic happens like every few months.

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[andonlyafoolwouldsaythat]

ConcernedApe's portrait

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