Tbf, he brought a shit ton of leftist people together to bring a blue wave that hasn’t been seen in decades.

Humans, generally speaking, tend to give more credit to facts that already aligned with their pre-conceived beliefs than facts that are not.

This isn’t exclusive to conservatives and liberals fall into this trap as well.

The problem is that Fox News and conservative media have figured out how to take advantage of it to further their agenda.

In fact, the RNC and Fox News has done an absolutely fantastic job of convincing their base that educated people shouldn’t be trusted because they are liberal.

The main reason is that you don’t know what rights you might be giving up in the future.

There was controversy when v3 was released that it closed the loop hole for companies to technically be in compliance of GPL but locked people out by using encryption keys. FOSS people, of course, said this was needed due to companies like TiVo at the time using hardware keys to prevent people from boot loading their own firmware when they were using Linux.

Torvalds supported the version but did not want to relicense Linux to force companies to stop the practice. And look were we are now: tivoisation is everywhere from Pixel to routers to tractors.

Your point that FSF is likely to make improvements of the license is valid, but you always want to make sure that you agree with the new license. They could, in future versions, say that by using the license, you transfer your rights to FSF.

Better to be explicit with the version you agree with and then relicense if needed.

That is correct.

Yeah, I don’t recommend anyone using GPL x “or newer”. I explicitly use AGPL 3 for most code.

I’ll provide my perspective from a very strong advocate of FOSS and GPL specifically.

Most code I write I release under GPL because I want companies to think twice before attempting to profit off of my code. AGPL specifically requires companies to release any modifications if they are publicly released.

I will occasionally release some code under MIT because the code is so simple and stupid, I don’t care enough if people lift it. A few spreadsheet formulas fall into this category or a dockerfile that has maybe 4 lines in it.

It’s explaining a reality that disagrees with the pre-conceived beliefs. The reason why Facebook works is that the algorithm makes it so it feeds them information that they already believe.

Trump has always suffered from incompetence. Trump v1, we saw this in spades.

During Biden, GOP/alt-right used the four years to consolidate power, find further vulnerabilities, and capitalize on them under Trump v2. GOP fucking wrote what they were going to do and then they fucking did it.

The DNC suffers from wanting to appeal to centralists, the largest bloc of voters that can actually swing an election. They know that progressives and anyone left of the DNC will vote dem because of the fucking two party system.

If progressives want change, NOW is the time to capitalize! Now is the time to support progressive candidates, set up election committees so when the primaries come up in 1.5 years, they will be front and center.

The reason the DNC doesn’t pander to progressives is that we don’t give them a reason to. We start too late. We hem and haw through the primaries, bitching and moaning that we don’t have Jon Stewart. The number of progressives that are breathing a sigh of relief yesterday was palpable. Yes, celebrate the win, but we didn’t “win”. We have an opposition that we can influence more than the other candidate.

We need to fucking take these new politicians to task.

And, at the same time, find even more progressive candidates and encourage them to run. I want more candidates Chris Gallant. We need more Zohran Mamdanis. We need more Allison Montgomerys.

We need more Gen Zs.

I’m fucking tired of the DNC going to progressive candidates and saying they need to stand down because they won’t win. I want progressives to throw the DNC the middle finger and say, “You go left or we’re leaving YOU.” I want the DNC to be the third party.

So yes, take the victory lap everyone. But start looking for progressives NOW to run in two years.

Don’t wait two months before primaries.

The GOP does not have a problem bringing out their base.

This galvenizes their base away from actual issues like the economy to a moral panic issue that’s much easier for them to defend.

Their base can feel morally superior defending “the children” than trying to defend $6 / dozen eggs.

You don’t. You make them defend why it’s divisive and why it’s a political statement.

You don’t engage them. Make them engage you.

Because when Republicans are “crooks” they are hurting the right people. So it makes it okay.

Conservatism has always been about oppression. It’s not about small government or even protecting the kids.

It’s oppression.

When I was younger (like late 20s), I remember watching an infomercial about the power of trading stocks. It was a “CD/DVD kit” where they teach you how to make money trading penny stocks and shit like that.

I remember talking about it with a co-worker and he said something like, “If they really made all that money, why would they have to sell the kit?”

My response was, “Maybe they want other people to know how to do it to.”

That conversation lives rent free in my brain because I realized years later that that’s what business school is: a bunch of people telling people how to run a business profitably. If they could make money doing it, they wouldn’t be teaching it.

I know that’s not what business school is but damn the analogy still fits.

But will those concerns turn into anything actionable?

I got a ping to send someone a million dollars?

It’s legal when a Republican President does it.

Super duper secret illegal when it’s a Democrat.

Democrats showing yet again that they would rather lose support from their most progressive voters than their most moderate swing voters.

I had to stop using 2-em dashes. Fucking AI taking away a very useful — albeit padantic — aside.

I didn’t read this as AI sentients but as AI killing the world through its irresponsible use of resources like water and electricity.

Basically, he’s saying “I need to get as rich as possible so that I can have enough money to survive the water wars.”

Corporations only have to be motivated by profit due to shareholders. There is no law requiring corporations to put profits first.

In the US, corporate structure provides legal protections to individuals. (Aside: I am convinced that these protections give corporations more rights than individuals but that’s for another post.)