If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/13/uncle-sucker/#willing-marks2/

@pluralistic I've stopped watching US late shows, because even as comedy news written & performed by some of the best & sharpest comedians alive, nothing going on over there is the slightest bit funny - but this one I'm going to watch

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/09/temporarily-embarrassed-founders#solidarity-beats-scarcity2/

@TotalSonic @tomjennings @pluralistic I think political abuse of the legal system is a separate issue - but yes, that approach sounds very interesting indeed.

*VIII. Careless People, Sarah Wynn-WilliamsWynn-Williams was a lot closer to 3 of the key personalities in Facebook's upper echelon than anyone in my orbit: Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Joel Kaplan, who was elevated to VP of Global Policy after the Trump II election. I already harbor an atavistic loathing of these three based on their public statements and conduct, but the events Wynn-Williams reveals from their private lives make them out to be beyond despicable. 14/

@pluralistic This great "we took a multi-level menu, slapped a chat interface on it and called it an AI" trend. Not because LLMs or machine learning, it's just a HORRIBLE user interface. And because people designing those interfaces are often so dumb they forget to add a "cancel operation" or "return to the previous menu" option. The worst, if only it was just for websites, it's also a thing with phone calls too. I often say to those "AIs" "no compreendo! ajúda!" so it redirects me to a human since that's the failback for handling foreigners.

@pluralistic One evening I went into the Jazz department of Sam the Record Man in Toronto. I asked for an obscure album from a long-disbanded fusion group. The clerk, who was also a musician and part-time public radio DJ, shook his head: "I've sold you enough Dead Jazz. Go out, listen to some live musicians, and come back for their albums."You'd think this kind of thing only happens in movies, but yes, there are people who get that Art requires supporting artists.