kina404

[kina404]

In the fight against generative AI I don't know if I like the argument of "you're stripping something inherently human from it's humanity." Don't get me wrong I'm staunchly against generative AI, it's just that it's an argument that feels a little reactionary to me. Perhaps it's the wording, obviously these things don't equate but it reminds me of arguments against asexuality where people are like "being sexually attracted is fundamentally human" or against transness being like "it's in our nature to have two genders." No wonder, that if we're using that kind of rhetoric those that are purely and entirely pro AI feel transgressive and justified in their defiance. Through our rhetoric we imply that they're breaking frontiers, that they're going where no one has gone before, and that the innovation should be celebrated. We're using naturalist arguments, and if those don't work we accuse them of laziness and impatience. It feels conservative, it feels like we're against the side of progress because we're talking that way.

The truth is that the threat generative AI presents is one that exists purely because of the systems set in place by capitalism. Generative AI is a tool for exploitation, exploitation of the planet, exploitation of the workers who will lose their jobs because of it, exploitation of the people who without their consent have fed the machine, and exploitation of the technologically uninformed who fully believe the machine to be reliable. All of this is only allowed because the little limits set in place for tech companies, who treat their workers as disposable in mass layoffs and who try to expand indefinitely at the cost of the planet we live in to appease their financial investors. The model of perpetual growth and forced consumerism has made the landscape in which generative AI, something we thought could be a source of joy and wonder not too long ago, an ever growing thorn in the side of the average citizen, not to mention the average artist.

We need to focus. This is not about a loss of humanity. What humanity is is undefinable and we need to keep it that way. Appealing to the breach of the norm, to the fear of the transgressive is something that comes naturally so I understand it. But we need to deconstruct it, because when this fight is over we need to have laid down the bricks so that we're not limiting ourselves, and so that we don't lose people to the other side.

We need to break the premises in our arguments that will harm us in the long run.

[kina404]

being a hater and being a troll are different but idk how to articulate the difference

[kina404]

“You always had it in you, Hunter.”

Wanted to draw a young, short haired Sova! Man, I love what the fandom and my personal brainworms have done to this character. Oh Sova, the problematic, holier-than-thou, beast within, character that you are…

[kina404]

[kina404]

Being hot isn’t enough, you need to be weird too.

[kina404]

I was tasked with a job

[kina404]

: <- a bite mark

[kina404]

Revenge or retribution.

You’re no angel, Sova. You’re as sick as me.

[kina404]

Happiness Will Come To You.

[kina404]

so rain down on me

[kina404]

I find myself thinking "god, I need a cigarette" way too often for someone who doesn't actually smoke. but what can I say. I've been needing a cigarette

[kina404]

Scream and Spider verse both have the same idea of anyone can put on the mask but their executions are the exact opposite.

[kina404]

dude who’s an SCP solely because he’s so normal nothing anomalous works on him. scp 173 doesn’t move whether or not he’s looking at it because “that’s just a statue, dude, what do you mean it killed eight people it can’t even MOVE”. hes put in 682′s chamber and it tries to bite him but just. completely fails to injure him in any way. meanwhile he’s like “aw neat monster animatronic”. if you hit him normally with a normal bus he will die but if an scp is driving the bus he will not

[kina404]

1am time to post old CySova comics cause I'm thinking about them again lmao

[kina404]

answering a couple questions i got on this post since i realized ppl genuinely wanna know:

tl;dr:

israel lets very, very little aid get into gaza. even the UN can't get in as much as they want to. funding individual families, gazan led initiatives, and mutual aid collectives operating out of gaza ensures gazans can provide for themselves and pay for the extremely expensive aid that is available.

with all the civil infrastructure destroyed by israel, the situation on the ground has devolved into unrestricted capitalism, driving up the price of aid (that should be free!). this makes it more urgent for people to have funding for daily survival.

the post linked above has examples of how donating to individual families can help a lot. if you want to help more than one family at a time, there are many gazan-led initiatives focusing on rebuilding their infrastructure and distributing aid fairly that are worth donating to instead of large charities that already get the majority of donations.

as i mentioned in the last post: @/careforgaza on twitter is a nonprofit started by gazans, it's been endorsed by multiple palestinian journalists.

the sameer project is a collective organized by diaspora palestinians offering emergency shelter to gazans.

ele elna elak is a project aiming to bring water, food, shelter, etc. to gazans and has been promoted by bisan owda.

and the municipality of gaza itself is fundraising to rebuild water infrastructure.

all of these organizations are active inside gaza right now and are being run by gazans. if anyone knows of other gazan-led mutual aid projects, nonprofits or charities feel free to link them in the notes! hope this helped!

long answers under the cut!

if you wanna donate to a charity that's absolutely fine, but the thing is most charities (and even the UN!) are unable to make it into gaza in the first place, leaving aid rotting at the egyptian side of the border or subject to israeli settler attacks

not to mention, charities and nonprofits also maintain a paternalistic colonial relationship with the indigenous people they are trying to help, determining what aid they need for them instead of returning power to them and letting them make their own choices

i'm not here to say that one option is better than the other, just that they achieve different things and are equally legitimate. there's an attitude among people who question the legitimacy of these gofundme campaigns that somehow the people promoting them are telling them not to donate to charities. nobody is stopping you from donating to charities. we are just asking that you do not dehumanize the very real gazans in your inbox just because their method of asking for aid is more direct and risky.

unfortunately that's exactly what has happened. because israel destroyed all of gaza's more formalized infrastructure, it seems that organized crime and rampant inflation has taken its place. aid is supposed to be free, but in order to save for evacuation or the cost of living, people have started selling them at an inflated price. and aid that is truly free attracts intense, large crowds that are dangerous to navigate.

this was posted on abc a few days ago

it's pure, unrestrained capitalism. i've had multiple palestinians describe this situation to me confidence. that's why everything's so expensive now. why people have to rent out tiny plots of land for their tents to sit on, why my friend @siraj2024 still has to buy tarps to cover the broken windows of the overpriced bombed out apartment he rented, and why a bag of flour can cost a thousand bucks in the north.

even before israel closed and then bombed the rafah crossing, the egyptian hala travel agency was only allowing people to cross the border if they paid a hefty $5000 USD per adult / $2500 USD per child bribe. it denies doing this, but the hundreds of stories from palestinians say otherwise.

with regard to the economy, here in america we saw something similar happen in the wake of hurricane helene and milton. the podcaster margaret killjoy describes how she saw dual economies rise after asheville was fully cut off from the rest of the country - some people offered each other supplies for free in a sort of mutual aid honor system, and some people required payment when they lent supplies because they themselves needed to buy stuff for their families. these dual economies exist in gaza too. and this means they all still need money to survive.

[kina404]

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