darkoshi | Entries tagged with very bad things

Errant thought from June 13:
The world keeps seeming more and more dystopian. But it is really amazing to be able to ask a computer complex things in natural language, and get back coherent, valid responses in natural language too. My mind often glosses over that wonder because of everything else going on. And also because of knowing that wonderful achievement has its own associated dystopian aspects to it, which will just get worse and worse as they are exploited.

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Like this: The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel

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Kids growing up now and in the future may find it difficult to believe actual photos and movie footage from past atrocities, including the Holocaust. They will have no way to trust that the images are real and were not generated by AI. Perhaps if they looked through an old book with photos, and could trust that it was published in the year it said it was, before AI was capable of what it is now, perhaps that would be believable to them. But books are becoming rarer, especially old ones. Old books didn't have many photos. Were there many books with photos of atrocities? Encyclopedias would have perhaps a few photos for each topic. Certain magazines were more likely to have extensive photos. There may be digitized versions of the books and magazines available online, but then you get back to how can you trust that the digitized item you're looking at isn't a fake?

I'm already at that distrusting stage with much of what I see online. When you don't know what is trustworthy, you end up choosing to believe the things which align with your already-formed beliefs. "This aligns with my beliefs; I don't know if it is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was." "This doesn't align with my beliefs; why spend time and mental effort considering that it might be true when it very well might not be?"

After my other posts about the Olympics opening ceremony, I feel I should at least mention the Uyghur situation and other human rights abuses by China so it won't seem like I'm ignoring it.

It is horrible; it is akin to Nazi Germany and the 1936 Olympics.

I was ambivalent enough about it to not be particularly interested in even watching the opening ceremony. But Qiao recorded it for me, knowing that I'm usually into such things. And I was curious about it, so I did watch it.

I know that the China situation is not the fault of the athletes or all the many people involved in the Olympics. If we only allowed the Olympics to be held in countries without human rights violations, how many countries would be left, and how many of those would even be capable of hosting such a big event?

Would boycotting the Olympics completely do anything to help the situation? How?
And if so, shouldn't we be boycotting everything from China, not just the Olympics? We depend on China for so many products, I doubt that would even be feasible.

So, like so many other things in the world, I don't know what the "right" or best approach would be.

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Other things that struck me about the ceremony:

Xi Jinping is shown wearing a face mask. If I recall right, he took it off to give his speech, and put it back on right afterwards. Sitting in the stands, he wore it.
Whereas Putin is shown maskless, hatless, gloveless, like the cold doesn't bother him. (And maybe it doesn't, if he's a sociopath and if sociopaths don't feel pain as intensely as others.)
But I wonder if Xi Jinping was at all annoyed that Putin didn't wear a face mask.

In the part where the snowflakes with country names were (virtually) spinning in the air before the lighting of the "cauldron", the one for "ROC" (which Russia is competing under) was shown at least 3 times. Seems odd to me. Would China have done that as a nod to Russia?

While some of the speeches were going on, in the part where you could see 4 or 5 young males in the background holding various country's flags, those flag-holders were smiling so cheerfully, for so long. They even looked like real smiles, not forced. Were those people chosen to stand there because they are good at holding a smile? How much pressure was on them (and the other participants) to keep a cheerful face? (I've wondered that about performers in other events too, but this being China, I wonder if there would be punishment given to performers for failing to meet expectations.)

The soldiers in military uniforms who transferred the Chinese flag before it being hoisted... at first, those slow & quick goose steps they did in unison were disturbing to see. But then again, it also looked very neat.

(Like everything else) It's a disease that is slowly running its course, and in the end will either kill its host, or won't.

This is very disturbing: Chechnya’s president: I will eliminate the gay community by the start of Ramadan

Rainbow Railroad - a Canadian organization that helps LGBT people escape persecution and violence. They are making Chechnya a priority right now.

American Friends of the Rainbow Railroad - if you are a U.S. tax-payer, this site lets you make tax-deductible donations to the Canadian organization.

Other ways to help

Long Night (Staying Woke) - on dealing with uncomfortable truths and injustice in the world. I read this a few weeks ago and it impressed me enough that I finally got back around to digging through my browser history to find the link again in order to post it.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/598476.html

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Another rather disturbing news report about a soldier who objected to interrogation methods in Iraq.

I feel this is the most disturbing part:

“Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed."

Here is the initial Arizona Public Radio report.

i'm afraid.

i don't want to live in a fascist country.
i don't want war.
i don't want to be afraid of the police.
i don't want to be a sheep.
i don't want to live in a country where millions of people think getting rid of democratic ideals and freedoms is a good thing.

i don't understand why people do these things...

i don't want to live in a country where you can get into trouble at a presidential rally
just for wearing a t-shirt saying "Protect Our Civil Liberties".

i don't want to be afraid like this, that the election won't even be a fair election.

i don't want to think about things just getting worse and worse.

but i don't see what's going to stop it.

and maybe living in turbulent times, with something to fight against,
is more interesting and challenging than living in a peaceful idealistic world.
but i don't want it.
because it won't really be interesting and challenging, it will be dreadful.
it is dreadful already.

but why should i dread.
big fucking deal.
what will be, will be.
what is, is.

i don't want all the other things which have been going on, to go on, either.
sigh......

you know what? this is a bad place. yep. whatever.

people make me uneasy, when i can't understand their motives. when i can't picture the world through their eyes. when it doesn't make sense.

and it's an interesting thought... that people make me uneasy, too, because i fear my lack of ability to communicate myself to them.

read yesterday about the Buckeye egg farm in Ohio closing.
15 million hens there for them to get rid of.
a shelter took one thousand.

even if they allowed all the hens to go to shelters
instead of killing them,
and even if each shelter took a whole thousand hens,
there would need to be 15 thousand shelters.
that would be about 300 shelters per state in the United States.
impossible.
what can they do but kill them?

so many chickens. doomed.
and that's just from one big egg "farm".
of course farm is a misnomer.
it's one big factory.
one big disgusting factory.

and even if that place weren't closing down,
considering that the lifespan of hens
is 1 to 2 years in these places,
that means they've been going through 15 million hens
every couple of years they've been in operation.
not even counting the chicks that were killed after hatching
for being male and incapable of laying eggs.

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numbers.
large numbers.

i try to remind myself
that no matter how many beings suffer in the world,
it's not the numbers that really matter.

each being is an individual.
like me.
each being only suffers for a single lifetime.
at a time, at least.
each being only feels the pain of their own body and mind.
it's not suffering multiplied by n million.
it's just one.
one at a time.

each hen at that place doesn't feel fifteen million times worse
for there being that many other hens there experiencing the same thing.

i don't feel uncountably worse than i do
for the existence of everyone else's pain.
i only feel my own ration of it.
while it may cause me mental misery
to consider all the suffering that exists elsewhere,
i don't actually experience that suffering.
each individual only experiences the amount of suffering
that one individual can experience.

unless the universe has its own consciousness
which feels everything.

who hears every single voice cry out?
who hears the past and the future,
the near and the far?

i only hear myself and the things around me.
everything else is imagined.
not quite real.

and yet, even if i truly did feel someone else's pain...
there's a thought here that i can't put into words right now.
an old thought.
something related to whether a hundred mosquito bites
is really any worse than ten.

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having a dog
gives one an excuse to go for walks.
it gives one a reason
to do that which one otherwise might like to do,
but wouldn't for there being no real purpose to it.
and one doesn't have to go alone.
and one doesn't have to listen to someone else chattering
while one is trying to listen to the outside world
and to one's own inner voice.

so. many horrible things happening in the world and i'm spending my time writing computer programs. it seems rather short-sighted... hiding away tinkering with machines... but if the people who are free from such suffering don't enjoy their freedom, what good is it?... yeah, right. flippety flip. wars in africa. the scary stories of africa and latin america and everywhere else. check check check. you're dead. because we can kill you. you're imprisoned, because we can imprision you. we're in power, because... why do people do it? because they can, just because. forces of nature. there's no reasoning it. be aware of the evil but don't let it hurt you... tripoli said something. still in the center of the storm. i am a force of nature too. machetes starvation gunshots to the head mass-graves. and then there is everyone who doesn't think killing animals is evil. the blood runs out... the cages... they're too stupid to have any compassion for... too alien, dumb animals... if that's not evil, why should anything else be? nothing's evil. just forces of nature. incomprehensible. it makes sense to them. you're the enemy, you're bad, that's why it's ok to kill you, to electrocute you, to come in a helicopter and gun you down and walk away as if life goes on in a good way for anyone after that. the cia assassinating people, hiding secrets too hideous... and when things aren't secret anymore, nothing happens. nothing changes. hollywood is america's PR machine. the lovely wonderful place of freedom and french-fries and fast cars. it doesn't matter what we do, hollywood is what people see. and what they remember until the truth is too obvious to be covered over with shiny paint and catchy tunes. and by then, it's too late.

the doggy-oh. oh, oh. i'm getting attached, but i'm not letting myself. the most cat-like dog i've encountered. stubborn eater. as if he forgets that food exists. turning his little head away... but then gobbling it up minutes later, proving that he's not all that cat-like. doing his little tap-dance of anticipation on the kitchen floor...
but we can't keep a dog. we don't want to. we don't have the time, the effort, the long-term commitment. he would be better off with someone who cares, really cares... i can't care. the shelter will find someone to adopt him... i always have to wash my hands after touching animals... even humans... i'll have to get over that some day too, perhaps. if there's a reason. i feel bad thinking that he'll have gotten attached to us, and then be disappointed by us giving him up... like we'll be letting him down. or maybe he'll be glad to have someone else... what good are we... no litter-box to clean, at least. wait a minute, wasn't there a mockingbird trapped in the backyard yesterday, i'd better check... oh, dear. it's dark already again.