It's ok to live off benefits *even if you choose to*. Unemployment is a constant - if you get a job, someone else can't have it - so you're not 'taking' anything from anyone.

We didn't survive and thrive as a species because we had warriors or hunters - pretty much every omnivore can manage that. We did so because we developed Grandmothers, and domesticated Dogs. Community is what defines us as a species, and every "self-reliant" libertarian shitweasel be damned.

One thing that gets me every time this comes up is when somebody turns evil and people act like they were evil their whole life. No. Children are not born evil or hateful or bigoted. That behaviour is learned and people learn it at different points in their lives.

Look at this real human person who just followed me

The Trump-Kennedy Center claims to have lost $1 million dollars in dismal ticket sales due to the cancellation of a free concert

Mary Shelley: sup fuckers? Barker: everyone's real scared about what if a Christmas tree ate their mom Shelley: oh my god, you nerds Shelley: if a Christmas tree ate my mom, i just have sex on top of it with my gay boyfriend

I drew the Pluribuses

I definitely need to make an asian artist starter pack. If you're southeast asian, korean, chinese, japanese, etc you can comment if you wish to be added 💕 SEAsian artists especially are slept on a lot and I'd like to make it easier for people to find them and their work 🫶

Just wow. @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy came out swinging in this article. He's right though and that's the coolest part.

why do networks still have to order TV shows since 2010 or so anyway? Is there some daft contractual reason why production companies can't just make them and sell them online and snub the cancellation imps?

OK what I reckon is going on in #Pluribus Perhaps spoily, but IMO there's only one truly spoilable development and it comes at the end of the finale. I won't spoil that. The virus (it's not really that, but I'll call it that) is an alien weapon designed to destroy technological civilisations.

Nice old lady in the park, just now: Your cat's jacket is so colourful! Me: Thanks! My partner [@evenicholls.bsky.social] made it Old lady: Is she a lesbian?

This was recent, but the level of not just meanness but *moral outrage* expressed by the dude who saw me walking my visibly happy cat in the park and, within earshot, told his small daughter "That man's no' well" will influence my opinion of the human race forever

If you played The Blue Prince, or Fallen London, and/or are queer, and appreciate a thing of beauty made with care, I cannot recommend this book enough.

Actual greatest. Expert setup, brilliant payoff.

OH MY GOD PLURIBUS I LOVE IT NOW

A friend was born on christmas day, and the duty medic who delivered them was also a christmas baby. She made a point of working every christmas day so she could politely and clearly explain to the new parents that their child WILL understand they have a birthday

Five reasons why Hellraiser is a Christmas movie 1) Gift boxes 2) Pins everywhere 3) Addictive overeating 4) Slightly odd relatives 5) Sexual deviancy, human sacrifice and inter-dimensional sadomasochism

Man, the ancient Romans sucked at Wordle

Did you hear about fish Jesus? He was born by immackerelate conception

ME GRIMLOCK TRANSFORMER OF CHRISTMUS PAST It I, Optimus Prime, the Transformer of Christmas Present. The time is now. Y o u s t a n d b e f o r e U N I C R O N, T r a n s f o r m e r o f C h r i s t m a s F u t u r e. B e h o l d y o u r O b l i v i o n.

Fuck yeah!!

Unmitigated illness is a tool used by fascists to eliminate the groups of people they hate & have deprived of resources, while making money off those who can afford to play the pay-to-win game of for-profit healthcare. Wearing an n95 is an act of hope, solidarity, & resistance. Give/get mutual aid:

Some of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing since the dawn of time.

I talked with the wonderful folks at Aftermath about the 34 Rockstar workers who were fired in what seems like a textbook case of what union busting looks like. It's bullshit, and it's nice to see the press cover this well. 5/ aftermath.site/grand-theft-...

did a lot of people do a lot of really unspeakably disgusting, evil things? absolutely. but investigative files are full of weird fake tips and they released all of those on purpose to flood the zone so you’ll take the bait 500 times, start feeling foolish, and either go tinfoil hat or give up.

The confusion and conflation of ‘generative ai that is built on stolen artwork’ and ‘machine learning, character behaviour modelling and proc gen’ is intentional on the part of the grifters peddling the former. They benefit from murkiness of classification, because the latter predates their bollocks

My ex-boyfriend wrote a short play I kind of inherited a part in (pre-dating, no ethics worries here) about a Hollywood director struggling to adjust to the introduction of sound to movies. I found it interesting, because it was sympathetic to this guy whose art form was being radically changed.

Rowling: wormtongue, we are going to do sssomething about this black mold Boyne: what will you do your awfulness? Rowling: i'm going to ssue every sssingle perssson on the internet

Some more Discworld fan art because why not

Reminds me of the post from a goth who had a child ask her to help find her mum. Turned out the mum had taught the kids to find a goth if they ever get lost for this reason.

Things are Terrible, but this isn't. Be weird.

Anecdata: I'm almost certain I'm measurably less sharp than I was before I had (short) covid, and much worse at overcoming the ADHD nopes

jump scare

The older I get the more I notice people being dead wrong about things onaccounta just not being old enough But people older than me are also dead wrong about everything, I don't know what to make of it

why not put count von count into various vampire scenes: thread

I know I said I was going to stop being angry about politics all the time but apparently politics took that as a challenge

Ninja didn't want to be packed, so she hid In her carrier #catsofbluesky

Oh my god Manousos holding a knife to his doctor's throat and insisting he pay thousands of dollars for his lifesaving medical care out of personal honour and independence is the most American thing to have ever happened on television #Pluribus

My professional artists peers! We got a survey request! Researchers at the University of Carnegie Mellon is doing a research to see how generative Al has (or has not) impacted your work and/or sentiments in the industry. Folks in creative fields only, please consider filling this out 👇

NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader. So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.

Love me a dose of antivax-adjacent woo with my daily puzzles, cheers NYT #NYTStrands (get your damn jabs)

Malicious compliance dot jpg

Occasional reminder: the original Luddites didn't hate looms; they wanted everyone to *share the benefits* of looms. Even in that light, it isn't a good analogy for the anti-imitative-AI crowd (of which I am member) because whatever the economic effects of looms, they do at least actually work

"And Tiny Tim, who did not die" = heartwarming, Christmassy. "And Tiny Tim, who would not die" = sinister, alarming.

This is the correct framing.

Movie review: while the performance of Buck Owens, in his first role since making his surprise transition from country music to Hollywood acting, is undoubtedly authentic (if underrehearsed), the plot of "The Man That's Sad and Lonely and Begging Down Upon His Bended Knee" lacks depth

The real ~politics of envy~ is the right telling people they should feel hard done by when other people's lives get better. Your value is based on how many other human beings you're standing on top of. It's inhuman and unnatural thinking which is why they have to push it so hard

People need to understand that working in games is a "theme park job." Everyone on the outside sees the rides and the mascot suits and assumes it's a fun day out, five days a week. It can be fun, but it's still work. But it's that flawed perception that leads to studios taking advantage of workers.

CN: "assisted dying" This is an Issue for which the default Reasonable Opinion of well-meaning, relatively privileged left-of-centre people becomes EXTREMELY Not It when you listen to people likely to be affected. If you're not disabled, please read some disabled people's views on this.