He/Him. Marxist-Leninist, Butcher, DnD 3.5e enthusiast and member of UCFW local 880. I administrate a DnD 3.5e West Marches server for Socialists called the Axe and Sickle. https://discord.gg/R5dPsZU

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: March 24th, 2022

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  • I’m part of a coalition trying to prevent a private equity firm from buying out a local nonprofit hospital and using AI to “Improve efficiency” is one of their plans that we’ve had to study (done by people much more competent than I).

    The main thing they plan to use AI for is filling out paperwork - nurses will record their introductory interviews with patients and the AI (basically, speech recognition + knowing what fields to fill out for certain information) will automatically fill out that patient’s chart.

    I’m sure they’re planning on using AI for other purposes as well, but this is the most prevalent use - speech recognition and filling out charts automatically.












  • It does feel kinda weird asking someone out at their place of work and I don’t want to put her in an awkward situation.

    While I get that things are different across genders, my first date out of high school was a girl who asked me out while I was working (in fact, I’ve never dated a person I met outside of school or my or their work). My dad asked my mom out while she was working. Everyone meets people at work, it’s where we spend the vast majority of our time out of the house; and the same people who say you shouldn’t approach women at their place of work say the same thing about the gym, the store, and public transit.

    I find that when (many) young women say “I don’t like it when men do X” (such as, “ask me out while I’m working”), they really just mean guys who are (1) way too old, (2) overly persistent, or (3) complete strangers. If you roughly fit within the “half your age plus seven” rule, and she’s spoken to you longer than she is contractually obligated to by her job, you’re probably in the clear to offer to give her your number and to let you know if she wants to grab lunch sometime.





  • China has successfully reverted anything remotely socialist about the country over the last 40 years.

    Again, I think the situation is more complicated than you give it credit for.

    I am not a believer in Deng Xiaoping. I believe he was basically a Chinese Gorbachev, and attempted to destroy Socialism in China through Liberal reforms. The difference between the USSR and China is that, in China, they missed the “Yeltsin coups the government” step. They tried, in the June 4th Incident, and failed. And now that most of the grifters are dead or dying, we’re left with the principled Socialists who believe in Socialism with Chinese Characteristics; and it turns out that, so long as the Communist Party maintains its integrity (and, by and large, it has), the building of Productive Forces through a mixed-system economy is actually really great. It’s what Gorbachev wanted for the USSR before Yeltsin’s coup.

    China is still in the early stages of their transition from a market system to a Socialist one, but they have made great strides in this regard. They’ve nationalized industries, they’re building trade infrastructure with other countries to rival the West, they actually enforce anti-corruption laws, they’ve completely eradicated extreme poverty. They’ve eliminated privatized schooling, they’re constantly modernizing rural life by moving villagers to apartment complexes and single-family suburban homes. Xi Jinping grew up in a cave sleeping on a stone bed - heated with a dung fire - with his entire extended family. Now these sorts of living arrangements are preserved to be toured by newer generations as “how your grandfather used to live”. This is the success of Socialism in China.



  • For example, what should be shown when you subscribe to a video hosting service through a Lemmy instance? An aggregated list of thumbnails? A list of videos? What is a video hosting service to a link aggregator.

    While I agree with the general premise, this is actually something a link aggregator would handle well. Translating, say, a YouTube video to a Reddit or Lemmy post is just title to title, video as the link, description as the text, replies as comments. Despite being shown very differently and used for different purposes, they’re about as similar on the backend as any two formats. Converting Tweets to Reddit posts and vice-versa is more difficult.


  • I think things are more nuanced in China than most people give credit for. The difference between the market system in China versus the market system in the United States is that in China, Business is subordinate to the Party, while in America, the Parties are subordinate to Business.

    Communist Party leaders don’t need campaign donations from billionaires to win elections, and every business of substantial size has party officials stationed in their offices to check for compliance with State mandates. The same way Americans are taught the value of Liberal Democracy in schools by default, in China, children are given Marxist literature and treat Socialism as an obvious moral good. America is a cynical country, and because of this, we view all other countries with the same cynicism. China is not a cynical country. Chinese people actually believe in their government, and in Socialism. And Communist Party officials are people; most are middle-class (much less oligarchic than the millionaire-stuffed American Congress) and believe generally in Socialist ideals. Just like how in America bureaucrats need to believe that they are “doing the right thing” for the preservation of Liberal Democracy, in China, Chinese bureaucrats believe they are building Socialism. Ultimately, this belief is the only important thing; as long as the Chinese people do not become cynical, the Socialism is real. What Westerners on the internet think of it does not matter a bit.

    You only need to look at how China deals with the super-rich. Despite only having a couple hundred of them, China has executed dozens of billionaires; further dozens have been murdered, committed suicide, or jailed. I can only find data from 2011 (72 dead, no data for prisoners), but they haven’t stopped, and I would be willing to bet the number is well over 100 by today. If Billionaires were truly in charge in China, don’t you think they would object to the government executing and imprisoning them?