WhatsApp has a web interface, so does Element (Matrix) if you use that. I think Signal too. Not disagreeing that it’s inconvenient, I don’t do this myself.

I don’t think it is manufactured but a reflection of the brand-ification of USAmerican thought. The culture is to think in terms of brands. The brand is a first-class concept, while the commodity as such is not as relevant, being the generalization of brand. It’s not that people misunderstand the generality of the phenomenon that Flock expresses. The brand is, rather, a natural mode of expression under monopoly capital, in which the particular pretends to be the general. Consequently people lose sight of the distinction altogether.

This is the poster I thought of but I didn’t have it saved, ty for finding it

They are also on your computer which is harder to scroll mindlessly at a bus stop

Some couples do this. I guess sitting across is more comfy for first dates

John Bellamy Foster is on YouTube. I don’t think he is a degrowther, but he is essential reading / listening if you are interested in this stuff. He advocates for an “environmental proletariat” and the need to view socialism as an environmental movement on equal footing with the labor question

To solve this you have to abolish capitalism. We can quibble over the need to pathologize Americans, but the important point is that this so-called pathology simply reflects the logic of value production and capitalism more broadly.

Capitalism is essentially the production of surplus-value. This can never ever change so long as we have capitalism. Degrowth is incompatible with the requirement to expand value. Our relationship with nature is extremely fucked (obviously) and the only way to fix that is with careful, conscious management and wind-down of the global economy. That is possible only in a society capable of conscious and planned economy, an economy designed for production of use-value instead of value, and that necessarily means socialism.

It should also not be forgotten that the world economy is predicated on the US as a major consumer of the exports which other countries, including China, rely upon to drive their own economies. Making matters worse is not only must all countries increase value over time, they need much of that value in the form of US Dollars. The world economy is not ready for a disruption in the flow of US Dollars.

I don’t think it’s an irredeemable mistake

It is irredeemable for a role that demands trust.

SA is a betrayal of trust, not only of the immediate victim, but of every member of the organization.

You are talking about personal redemption, redemption of a person qua human being. That should not be confused with redemption as leader, nor with the possibility to avoid immediate consequences.

I was thinking this guy

Ted Chews

AI could never do this

For example https://protesilaos.com/books/2020-09-30-ethos-dialectic/

The Dialectician’s Ethos

2020-09-30

Dialectic is an inter-personal experience: a rigorous dialogical process where parties to an argument exchange views in pursuit of the common objective of approximating the truth. Socrates used the dialectical method in this exact way: a certain kind of targeted conversation.

To effectively and consistently partake in dialectic, one must have developed several virtues.

They must be honest. To stand by their arguments, recognise any possible mistake of theirs, not misrepresent the other side’s positions, not employ rhetorical tricks, not assume malevolence in the opposing side’s propositions or act in bad faith, and the like.

You can see how he embodies this honesty in practice /s

He’s a Greek Cypriot, he talks about dialectics but in the Socratic sense

lol what? I made it through almost the entire post and somehow missed that at the very end. Wild

Microsoft also makes SQL Server, Azure, and .NET which are all pretty big too. I’m not knowledgeable enough to evaluate them but I think they are at least decent

Along with what @infuziSporg@hexbear.net said, in my opinion term limits are not the solution to this problem. If the same person is elected for a really long time, then your org is not doing enough to train up the next generation. But if presented with that problem, it doesn’t really help to be forced into electing someone less competent just for bureaucratic reasons. In my opinion. It’s attaining the symptom instead of the cause, in a way that could be harmful.

A thriving org that nurtures new leadership will not have a problem of finding people willing and able to take over periodically

I guess term limits would help with one situation: when Betty from accounting wants to be the Forever Treasurer and will be deeply offended if someone else takes that role. But actually solving that requires org discipline and the strength to tell her that she can’t do that. Using term limits is the passive/avoidant solution in that scenario.

, mostly joking

Capital doesn’t have term limits, why should we? It would be an unnecessary concession to remove from power an effective leader that is not causing problems.

I get where you are coming from, but the left does not have control over, nor created this particular trend. It’s wholly mainstream. Anyway fascism has to be defeated both in practice and in ideology, and this is one front on which to do that. It is a good thing that he is widely ridiculed.

“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone reads his name on a road sign.” — Ernest Hemingway