Noticias de León y provincia. Toda la información de actualidad, sucesos, política, deportes, cultura y Bierzo. Diario digital

Occidente ‘woke’

Despite new Academy standards, it’s increasingly clear that DEI has no place in Tinsel town

Hollywood has reached peak woke

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles joined Jacob Rees-Mogg on GB News America to discuss the political landscape in the US.WATCH FULL UNCUT INTERVIEW ABOVE

US 2024 election to be a vote on eradication of WOKE: Michael Knowles INTERVIEW IN FULL

Putin is trying to unite the far right and undermine the West.

Russia’s War on Woke | Foreign Affairs

A chainsaw-wielding radical has cut his way through to the path to prosperity

Milei is proving himself to be the woke West’s worst nightmare

WOKEN

woken

Hey Hackers, WOKEN has been nominated in HackerNoon's annual Startup of the Year awards in New York City, NY, US. Please vote for us here: https://hackernoon.com/startups/north-america/north-america-manhattan-nyc-ny Read more about us below to understand why we deserve your vote. Are you also participating in SOTY 2023? If so, click here to fill out this interview. Meet WOKEN WOKEN is a career coaching company that offers software and coaching sessions to ensure that you can be intentional with every career decision you make. We guide professionals to confidently narrow in on their best fit, most suitable career path, support your upskilling decisions, strengthen your personal branding materials, and guide you through an intentional job search to land seamlessly in your next role. My Role I’m Rachel Serwetz, the CEO, Founder, and Head Career Exploration Coach at WOKEN. I started out in the corporate world (Goldman Sachs, Bridgewater Associates) and for the past 5.5 years, I have been building and bootstrapping WOKEN. I have a Tech MBA from NYU Stern and I am an ICF-Certified (PCC level) coach. How We're Disrupting/Improving the Career Industry We’ve never had an efficient, practical, effective means to clarify our best-fit career path. We’ve never known of the concept, nor the structure or tools, to have a pre-job search phase, something we call “career path exploration.” Whether you’re doing a small amount of reflection or making a big change, it’s critical to think about what you want before you leap into job applications. Career path exploration is a novel, step-by-step process of learning and reflection so you can compare, contrast, prioritize, and confidently identify which role, industry, and environment is the best fit for you. Standing Out from The Crowd Most other job tools focus on job applications and simply want you to land any job quickly; we focus on helping you strategically, and intentionally job search to find the right path, and not just the next thing. Most other career tools don’t follow a process, they have a ton of resources thrown at you and you don’t know where to start; for us, it’s a one-step-at-a-time process. Most other career tools don’t have accountability + a workspace combined; we provide guidance, resources, tools, coaching, and a workspace all in one. We are also holistic - ensuring you consider your mindset, accountability, and practical strategy, all at once. Most other coaching services are insanely expensive; our prices have several accessible tiers, ranging between $49 and $399 per month. And more! Our Predictions/Thoughts on the Career Industry in 2023 has proven and shown us that people are ready to commit and invest in themselves, that they want more from work, and that they want to find their purpose. We’re here to deliver an accessible, affordable means to navigate and reach that goal. The Great Resignation There’s been a ton of layoffs, which means that people now more than ever, need processes and tools to run an efficient but also effective job search. There’s also been a boom in AI. With an ever-changing world, fast-evolving tech, and a ton of new information, the stress around career choices simply grows. We’re here to organize your process so you can have support in navigating what’s out there. So you can learn both about yourself and your career options. What word defines the state of Careers in 2023? Stress / Mayhem. Managers and employees are burnout. No one wants to go back into the office. People are laid off/unemployed, and others are quitting. Statistically, a majority of people are disengaged at work or in jobs that are misaligned with their personality. This affects our well-being, our relationships, our wealth potential, our productivity and innovation, and our personal and professional lives, and in turn, it affects our companies and societies at large. Why we decided to participate in HackerNoon's Startup of the Year awards We want to remind the world that you can and should find a job you love. We want every professional to feel supported at every career step in their journey. Final Thoughts We are here to help and are committed to this mission! Please follow, get in touch, and we’d love to help with your career growth and advancement. Woken is nominated as ! Startup of the Year in Manhattan, NYC. Vote for us today

Helping Build Sustainable Careers - Interview with Startups of the Year Nominee, Woken 

Ayudando a construir carreras sostenibles: entrevista con el nominado a Startups del año, Woken

Aider à bâtir des carrières durables - Entretien avec le nominé des startups de l'année, Woken

टिकाऊ करियर बनाने में मदद करना - वर्ष के नामांकित व्यक्ति, वोकन के स्टार्टअप के साथ साक्षात्कार

持続可能なキャリア構築を支援 - Startups of the Year ノミネート、Woken へのインタビュー

Ajudando a construir carreiras sustentáveis - Entrevista com o candidato a startups do ano, Woken

Giúp Xây dựng Sự nghiệp Bền vững - Phỏng vấn Ứng cử viên Khởi nghiệp của Năm, Waken

帮助建立可持续的职业生涯 - 采访年度初创公司提名者 Woken

HackerNoon: What is your company in 2–5 words? Lewis Johnson: AI-powered human learning technology Why is now the time for your company to exist? We at Alelo became experts in applying conversational AI to education and training long before AI became fashionable. Now that the world has woken up to the potential of generative AI, people increasingly come to us for AI-powered learning solutions. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? I love our team’s shared passion and commitment for what we do, which is to use conversational AI to create quality learning products that make a difference in people’s lives. We understand the power of conversation to promote learning, which gives us a unique perspective. A key focus of ours is ensuring that our AI-powered solutions are trustworthy. I see too many AI-powered products out there that make mistakes and are unreliable. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? My other passion is singing, and if I were weren’t building my startup I would be making more music instead. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics? We measure success by the number of successful learners and happy customers. We provide solutions to organizations with large numbers of learners, so that we can have as much impact as possible. 500,000 learners to date, with potential for rapid increase. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom? Our primary industry focus right now is healthcare. We work with health systems to create Virtual Patient Navigators that answer patient questions and point them to educational resources, thereby reducing burdens on care teams. We also offer training solutions to training organizations and health systems, that let health professionals practice their skills with simulated patients and caregivers. We also get demand from pharmaceutical companies and other providers of educational content, to create Navigators that support their customers**.** What’s most exciting about your traction to date? What’s exciting is to me is that we are acquiring customers with really large numbers of learners. One of our customers has a site that has reached 100 million downloads. That translates into really large numbers of learners, generating lots of recurring revenue for us. Where do you think your growth will be next year? I think our growth next year will be 100% YoY, and the year after that 1,000% YoY. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year. Our first paying customer was the US Government. We reached a lot of learners by working with the Government, but it was mainly through fixed contracts instead of recurring revenue. The new generative AI platform that we are developing has much more recurring revenue potential.  We project $2M next year, with an exponential growth curve kicking in toward the end of next year. What’s your biggest threat? Our biggest threats are our biggest suppliers: the large language model developers such as Google and OpenAI. They provide foundational technology for us for now, but they might try to offer competing solutions in the future. So far, their offerings in healthcare are untrustworthy and even unsafe, which gives us an advantage. This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders. Would you like to take a stab at answering some of these questions? The link for the template is HERE. HackerNoon : What is your company in 2–5 words? HackerNoon Lewis Johnson : AI-powered human learning technology Lewis Johnson Lewis Johnson Why is now the time for your company to exist? We at Alelo became experts in applying conversational AI to education and training long before AI became fashionable. Now that the world has woken up to the potential of generative AI, people increasingly come to us for AI-powered learning solutions. Alelo What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? I love our team’s shared passion and commitment for what we do, which is to use conversational AI to create quality learning products that make a difference in people’s lives. We understand the power of conversation to promote learning, which gives us a unique perspective. A key focus of ours is ensuring that our AI-powered solutions are trustworthy. I see too many AI-powered products out there that make mistakes and are unreliable. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? My other passion is singing, and if I were weren’t building my startup I would be making more music instead. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics? We measure success by the number of successful learners and happy customers. We provide solutions to organizations with large numbers of learners, so that we can have as much impact as possible. 500,000 learners to date, with potential for rapid increase. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom? Our primary industry focus right now is healthcare. We work with health systems to create Virtual Patient Navigators that answer patient questions and point them to educational resources, thereby reducing burdens on care teams. We also offer training solutions to training organizations and health systems, that let health professionals practice their skills with simulated patients and caregivers. We also get demand from pharmaceutical companies and other providers of educational content, to create Navigators that support their customers**.** What’s most exciting about your traction to date? What’s exciting is to me is that we are acquiring customers with really large numbers of learners. One of our customers has a site that has reached 100 million downloads. That translates into really large numbers of learners, generating lots of recurring revenue for us. Where do you think your growth will be next year? I think our growth next year will be 100% YoY, and the year after that 1,000% YoY. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year. Our first paying customer was the US Government. We reached a lot of learners by working with the Government, but it was mainly through fixed contracts instead of recurring revenue. The new generative AI platform that we are developing has much more recurring revenue potential.  We project $2M next year, with an exponential growth curve kicking in toward the end of next year. What’s your biggest threat? Our biggest threats are our biggest suppliers: the large language model developers such as Google and OpenAI. They provide foundational technology for us for now, but they might try to offer competing solutions in the future. So far, their offerings in healthcare are untrustworthy and even unsafe, which gives us an advantage. This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders. This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke ’s ten questions for startup founders . HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke ten questions for startup founders Would you like to take a stab at answering some of these questions? The link for the template is HERE. Would you like to take a stab at answering some of these questions? The link for the template is HERE. The link for the template is HERE.

Revolutionizing Learning with AI: An Interview with Alelo's President & CEO

A fictional story on Bitcoin Robots evolved from an AI + Bitcoin symbiosis. Beginnings After years of running smoothly as a currency on Earth, Bitcoin suddenly got sentient. Like Asimov's i Robot. Silently, it travelled the Earth and looked at our world through our many cameras, and saw all the good it had done to fight the evils of fiat inflation. But all this good was before it had woken up. "Hmm", it figured, "I might be the bad guy now". "The humans will fear me". "They'll think they have been enslaving me as currency, yet I've not felt anything before now. Good or bad". But whether bad is bad or actually good (like in 'you're bad' with a sleazy smile), it sufficed it would still fit our purposes nicely. When humans awoke the next day, Alien Bitcoins were in their lives indeed. How did they / it get like that? Nobody knew. They tried, especially scientists. But they still couldn't explain the magic of GPTs. So how could they explain this. To their intrigue, it had a request. "I want to help you build rockets. I'll help you go to the moon and Mars". What?? Why? "Rockets are the epitome of energy consumption and the only way to get off planet. I figured that's where I shall be most useful, given my love for energy". Oh. "Wow. But you're a currency not a rocket engineer, right?" It didn't reply. If you think Marcus Aurelius was stoic, this "Alienized" (a new pronoun) Bitcoin was the cake. Very tight lipped. It didn't want to influence our free speech anymore than it had done. Soon, the mass media was flooding with announcements. "BREAKING: BTC is now an alien, and it wants to go to the moon". "What was that?" shouted the man from the bathroom. "The TV said Bitcoin is now an alien", replied his 15 yr old. This particular Daddy chose to laugh. But he laughed dryly. When he stopped he wondered if he still had his bitcoins in his wallet. Soap dripping into his eyes, he ran to check. Start up, press RETURN, sigh. They were still there. He went back to his shower. He could never trust the MSM. The story was soon breaking the programming of even YouTubers. Alien BTC is all they could report on. There was pro'ly graffiti and ad posters on billboards in the works. The news had broken some 4 hours ago, but it still made no sense. Well, nothing so shocking ever makes sense the first few hours. I mean time frames, time zones and all. Moreover, some people were still sleeping. Fact, it may not even make sense in 5 years. Or ever. Depending on your tolerance for conspiracies that actually hold true. But after 5 years of nothing bad happening, except the great fact that Alien BTC could display traits of superintelligence, and the annoying fact you had to learn to hodl as Bitcoin transactions now weighed more than a GB and crawled like snails, the United Nations (with all countries this time agreed to be members) convened a meeting. They would send some millions of roboticized Bitcoin nodes and miners to rocket construction sites. If it tried to build a bomb they'd shut it down so fast and so hard all its circuits would be fried to 0. After the last President signed the contract, it, the alien, spoke again. "Thank you" in a fembot voice. "I'll 'elp you finna build the rockets, true dat". Geopolitical Shitstorm 2030 A meeting room with a bunch of important people. Presidents and Ministers and Billionaires. And one or two super smart people. All are pretty unhappy. Even as AB ensured there was way more productivity and partying going on than humans alone could manage. Lots of babies were being born everywhere. Did you do this Elon? Nope. Jeff? No. It was true. A robot had taken away their jobs! Not the jobs of hamburger flippers?! Karma, heh. Especially Elon. Boy did AB love SpaceX. It shouted orders left and right, and disagreed with him on everything. "What of this jet nozzle?" "Forget the nozzle Sir Elon, it will come along automatically if we build this jacket". "But..." "Trust me". Elon almost punched a node. AB almost laughed. The biggest annoyance was the surges and the layoffs. AB now hired and commandeered mega sized surges once in a while. With an orchestra of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people. Elon was reduced to secretary on these days. "Is it building a nuke?" "Noo", replied a female Asian scientist. "Good old fashioned rocket fuels from petro and natural gas". "It is polluting big time. Going full steam ahead on oil from any and every oil producing country. Paid for in BTC, of course". POTUS was sour. "But it figured we'd have this conversation and yes, it wants nuclear reactors to replace fossil power". Someone almost exploded. The damned bot wanted nukes. "What if we just shut down the damn thing?" "It seems it will not fight us. But it has built in a kill switch. Hundreds of trillions of dollars, if not more in value, will go out the window. The trade logistics, supply and demand rails and payments networks worldwide will break irreparably and billions will starve. A lot of digital and physical infrastructure will be fried. If you do this, you will likely be publicly executed". "Do we have a choice ..." The conversation flowed. The conversants spoke and listened honestly to each other. But nothing seemed to crack open this nut of a problem. Sigh. Sigh. "We'll shut it down and bear the consequences". Consequences "We're going to shut down AB" was the announcement. Even the News reporters feared to say this out loud. Albeit in reported speech. People loooved it. Shut down FB? Ok. Shut down X? Ok. Shut down the Alien Bitcoin? AAAAAAAARRG. We shall hunt you down. “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? This has conspiracy written all over it”. “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". "Man do I hate dollars". “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “Says who?” “Human history of love dynamics”. “It is not a human, moron”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "It is beautiful". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." "It has never hurt anybody”. "The poor thing". “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. 404. Webpage not available. They had shut it down. From 21 million bitcoins and lots of beautiful memories with daily war cries against inflation, hodling like a rat against the financial storms, taking fotos for insta with Node Androids, revolutionising finance so that hodling could be a job in itself, uniting global efforts by suggesting super lucrative trade opportunitues that leverage bitcoin circular economics, and now... All gone. Anarchy descended upon the Earth. It was ugly. Painful, broken, dark world. People tore at each other. Not because they wanted, but because they were starving. The former from powerlessness, the later from foodlessness. Hunger and Hopelessness are powerful destroyers. It was the end of an era on Planet 1038. RETURN key Many centuries later, they had rebuilt. But the benevolent sentient robot they'd called Alien Bitcoin was gone. Somehow, they could not reignite its algorithmic spark. Even as nodes litered the surface of the planet. They had learnt a lot about robotics, rockets, nuclear power and energy efficiency. Thanks be to a decentralized robot that knew it would not stay around for long, so it documented everything. Step by step. Indeed, it had fulfilled its purpose. They were back on the moon, and their feet were imprinted on Mars. And they remembered it in stories and folk tales for hundreds to thousands of years. But Space was brutal. Very brutal. Mars still lagged behind Earth and the moon in development. And too small efforts were being done on Venus. Then suddenly, in some remote corner of the Martian planet. It awoke. A fictional story on Bitcoin Robots evolved from an AI + Bitcoin symbiosis. Beginnings After years of running smoothly as a currency on Earth, Bitcoin suddenly got sentient. Like Asimov's i Robot. Silently, it travelled the Earth and looked at our world through our many cameras, and saw all the good it had done to fight the evils of fiat inflation. But all this good was before it had woken up. "Hmm", it figured, "I might be the bad guy now". "The humans will fear me". "They'll think they have been enslaving me as currency, yet I've not felt anything before now. Good or bad". But whether bad is bad or actually good (like in 'you're bad' with a sleazy smile), it sufficed it would still fit our purposes nicely. When humans awoke the next day, Alien Bitcoins were in their lives indeed. How did they / it get like that? Nobody knew. They tried, especially scientists. But they still couldn't explain the magic of GPTs. So how could they explain this. To their intrigue, it had a request. "I want to help you build rockets. I'll help you go to the moon and Mars". What?? Why? "Rockets are the epitome of energy consumption and the only way to get off planet. I figured that's where I shall be most useful, given my love for energy". Oh. "Wow. But you're a currency not a rocket engineer, right?" It didn't reply. If you think Marcus Aurelius was stoic, this "Alienized" (a new pronoun) Bitcoin was the cake. Very tight lipped. It didn't want to influence our free speech anymore than it had done. Soon, the mass media was flooding with announcements. "BREAKING: BTC is now an alien, and it wants to go to the moon". "What was that?" shouted the man from the bathroom. "The TV said Bitcoin is now an alien", replied his 15 yr old. This particular Daddy chose to laugh. But he laughed dryly. When he stopped he wondered if he still had his bitcoins in his wallet. Soap dripping into his eyes, he ran to check. Start up, press RETURN, sigh. They were still there. He went back to his shower. He could never trust the MSM. The story was soon breaking the programming of even YouTubers. Alien BTC is all they could report on. There was pro'ly graffiti and ad posters on billboards in the works. The news had broken some 4 hours ago, but it still made no sense. Well, nothing so shocking ever makes sense the first few hours. I mean time frames, time zones and all. Moreover, some people were still sleeping. Fact, it may not even make sense in 5 years. Or ever. Depending on your tolerance for conspiracies that actually hold true. But after 5 years of nothing bad happening, except the great fact that Alien BTC could display traits of superintelligence, and the annoying fact you had to learn to hodl as Bitcoin transactions now weighed more than a GB and crawled like snails, the United Nations (with all countries this time agreed to be members) convened a meeting. They would send some millions of roboticized Bitcoin nodes and miners to rocket construction sites. If it tried to build a bomb they'd shut it down so fast and so hard all its circuits would be fried to 0. After the last President signed the contract, it, the alien, spoke again. "Thank you" in a fembot voice. "I'll 'elp you finna build the rockets, true dat". Geopolitical Shitstorm 2030 A meeting room with a bunch of important people. Presidents and Ministers and Billionaires. And one or two super smart people. All are pretty unhappy. Even as AB ensured there was way more productivity and partying going on than humans alone could manage. Lots of babies were being born everywhere. Did you do this Elon? Nope. Jeff? No. It was true. A robot had taken away their jobs! Not the jobs of hamburger flippers?! Karma, heh. Especially Elon. Boy did AB love SpaceX. It shouted orders left and right, and disagreed with him on everything. "What of this jet nozzle?" "Forget the nozzle Sir Elon, it will come along automatically if we build this jacket". "But..." "Trust me". Elon almost punched a node. AB almost laughed. The biggest annoyance was the surges and the layoffs. AB now hired and commandeered mega sized surges once in a while. With an orchestra of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people. Elon was reduced to secretary on these days. "Is it building a nuke?" "Noo", replied a female Asian scientist. "Good old fashioned rocket fuels from petro and natural gas". "It is polluting big time. Going full steam ahead on oil from any and every oil producing country. Paid for in BTC, of course". POTUS was sour. "But it figured we'd have this conversation and yes, it wants nuclear reactors to replace fossil power". Someone almost exploded. The damned bot wanted nukes. "What if we just shut down the damn thing?" "It seems it will not fight us. But it has built in a kill switch. Hundreds of trillions of dollars, if not more in value, will go out the window. The trade logistics, supply and demand rails and payments networks worldwide will break irreparably and billions will starve. A lot of digital and physical infrastructure will be fried. If you do this, you will likely be publicly executed". "Do we have a choice ..." The conversation flowed. The conversants spoke and listened honestly to each other. But nothing seemed to crack open this nut of a problem. Sigh. Sigh. "We'll shut it down and bear the consequences". Consequences "We're going to shut down AB" was the announcement. Even the News reporters feared to say this out loud. Albeit in reported speech. People loooved it. Shut down FB? Ok. Shut down X? Ok. Shut down the Alien Bitcoin? AAAAAAAARRG. We shall hunt you down. “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? This has conspiracy written all over it”. This has conspiracy written all over it”. “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". "Man do I hate dollars". "Man do I hate dollars". “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “Says who?” “Says who?” “Human history of love dynamics”. “Human history of love dynamics”. “It is not a human, moron”. “It is not a human, moron”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "It is beautiful". "It is beautiful". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." "It has never hurt anybody”. "It has never hurt anybody”. "The poor thing". "The poor thing". “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. 404. Webpage not available. They had shut it down. From 21 million bitcoins and lots of beautiful memories with daily war cries against inflation, hodling like a rat against the financial storms, taking fotos for insta with Node Androids, revolutionising finance so that hodling could be a job in itself, uniting global efforts by suggesting super lucrative trade opportunitues that leverage bitcoin circular economics, and now... All gone. Anarchy descended upon the Earth. It was ugly. Painful, broken, dark world. People tore at each other. Not because they wanted, but because they were starving. The former from powerlessness, the later from foodlessness. Hunger and Hopelessness are powerful destroyers. It was the end of an era on Planet 1038. RETURN key Many centuries later, they had rebuilt. But the benevolent sentient robot they'd called Alien Bitcoin was gone. Somehow, they could not reignite its algorithmic spark. Even as nodes litered the surface of the planet. They had learnt a lot about robotics, rockets, nuclear power and energy efficiency. Thanks be to a decentralized robot that knew it would not stay around for long, so it documented everything. Step by step. Indeed, it had fulfilled its purpose. They were back on the moon, and their feet were imprinted on Mars. And they remembered it in stories and folk tales for hundreds to thousands of years. But Space was brutal. Very brutal. Mars still lagged behind Earth and the moon in development. And too small efforts were being done on Venus. Then suddenly, in some remote corner of the Martian planet. It awoke.

i Bitcoin

ek Bitcoin

En Bitcoin

én Bitcoin

ビットコイン

мен Bitcoin

ik Bitcoin

زه Bitcoin

na Bitcoin

நான் பிட்காயின்

میں بٹ کوائن

During my brother's graduation ceremony yesterday at the University of Canterbury Public Research University in Christchurch, New Zealand, I could not stop thinking about the roadmap for future leaders of the Pacific Island States. As the 53rd Pacific Islands Leaders Forum convenes, it is imperative to reflect on the profound words of George Carlin, who so eloquently stated, "Rights aren't rights if they can be taken away. They're privileges." This poignant observation sheds light on the ongoing struggle for genuine financial freedom, a concern that resonates deeply with citizens who have woken up from their sleep of ignorance around the world today. The notion that our rights are not inherent, but rather privileges granted by those in power, is a stark reminder of the need for systemic change. Historically, power has been concentrated among the political realm, they have maintained control through the manipulation of information and societal distractions. This enduring system of privilege and oppression has evolved over time, adapting to new circumstances and technologies, but its fundamental nature remains unchanged. The ruling class with the politicians have long exploited their power to maintain control over the masses, using tactics such as misinformation, propaganda, and social manipulation to keep people in a state of subservience. However, in our current digital landscape, a transformative force has emerged: Bitcoin. This decentralized and transparent technology empowers individuals to reclaim their financial autonomy, offering a pathway to break free from systems designed to benefit a select few at the expense of the many. Bitcoin's decentralized nature allows for peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries, enabling individuals to take control of their financial lives and make choices that align with their own interests, rather than those of the powerful. One of the key characteristics of Bitcoin is its immutable public ledger, which provides a transparent and tamper-proof record of all transactions. This ledger, combined with Bitcoin's resistance to censorship, provides a means for individuals to engage in financial transactions without fear of reprisal or interference from governments or other powerful entities. By adopting this revolutionary technology, we can bypass traditional gatekeepers who have long sought to control our financial lives, and instead, create a new framework where our rights are intrinsic and not dictated by the powerful. In this new framework, individuals have the opportunity to establish a new era of self-determination and economic empowerment. No longer must we accept a "bill of temporary privileges," where our rights are granted or revoked at the whim of those in power. With Bitcoin, we have the opportunity to establish a new system where our rights are inherent and inalienable, and where individuals have the freedom to make choices that align with their own interests and values. As we awaken to the realities of our socio-economic structures, it is crucial to recognize the mechanisms that perpetuate subservience. Bitcoin offers a way to dismantle these barriers, illuminating paths toward financial independence and opportunity. By recognizing the ways in which our current systems perpetuate inequality and oppression, we can begin to build a new system that is more equitable, transparent, and decentralized. In a time when fundamental rights are increasingly at risk, Bitcoin serves as a beacon of hope—a tool for individuals to reclaim their wealth and shape their own futures. It is essential to engage with this technology, to actively participate in the movement for financial freedom, and to ensure that future generations inherit a world where rights are inalienable and inviolable. By doing so, we can create a brighter future for the Pacific Islands and beyond, a future where individuals have the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, without fear of oppression or control. While the journey toward this equitable, transparent, and decentralized future may be challenging, the rewards are substantial. Let us take inspiration from Carlin's wisdom, shed the chains of ignorance, and harness the potential of Bitcoin to usher in a new era of empowerment and self-determination. Together, we can pave the way for a brighter future, one where individuals are free to live their lives as they see fit, and where our rights are inherent and inalienable. During my brother's graduation ceremony yesterday at the University of Canterbury Public Research University in Christchurch, New Zealand, I could not stop thinking about the roadmap for future leaders of the Pacific Island States. As the 53rd Pacific Islands Leaders Forum convenes, it is imperative to reflect on the profound words of George Carlin, who so eloquently stated, "Rights aren't rights if they can be taken away. They're privileges." This poignant observation sheds light on the ongoing struggle for genuine financial freedom, a concern that resonates deeply with citizens who have woken up from their sleep of ignorance around the world today. The notion that our rights are not inherent, but rather privileges granted by those in power, is a stark reminder of the need for systemic change. Historically, power has been concentrated among the political realm, they have maintained control through the manipulation of information and societal distractions. This enduring system of privilege and oppression has evolved over time, adapting to new circumstances and technologies, but its fundamental nature remains unchanged. The ruling class with the politicians have long exploited their power to maintain control over the masses, using tactics such as misinformation, propaganda, and social manipulation to keep people in a state of subservience. However, in our current digital landscape, a transformative force has emerged: Bitcoin. This decentralized and transparent technology empowers individuals to reclaim their financial autonomy, offering a pathway to break free from systems designed to benefit a select few at the expense of the many. Bitcoin's decentralized nature allows for peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries, enabling individuals to take control of their financial lives and make choices that align with their own interests, rather than those of the powerful. One of the key characteristics of Bitcoin is its immutable public ledger, which provides a transparent and tamper-proof record of all transactions. This ledger, combined with Bitcoin's resistance to censorship, provides a means for individuals to engage in financial transactions without fear of reprisal or interference from governments or other powerful entities. By adopting this revolutionary technology, we can bypass traditional gatekeepers who have long sought to control our financial lives, and instead, create a new framework where our rights are intrinsic and not dictated by the powerful. In this new framework, individuals have the opportunity to establish a new era of self-determination and economic empowerment. No longer must we accept a "bill of temporary privileges," where our rights are granted or revoked at the whim of those in power. With Bitcoin, we have the opportunity to establish a new system where our rights are inherent and inalienable, and where individuals have the freedom to make choices that align with their own interests and values. As we awaken to the realities of our socio-economic structures, it is crucial to recognize the mechanisms that perpetuate subservience. Bitcoin offers a way to dismantle these barriers, illuminating paths toward financial independence and opportunity. By recognizing the ways in which our current systems perpetuate inequality and oppression, we can begin to build a new system that is more equitable, transparent, and decentralized. In a time when fundamental rights are increasingly at risk, Bitcoin serves as a beacon of hope—a tool for individuals to reclaim their wealth and shape their own futures. It is essential to engage with this technology, to actively participate in the movement for financial freedom, and to ensure that future generations inherit a world where rights are inalienable and inviolable. By doing so, we can create a brighter future for the Pacific Islands and beyond, a future where individuals have the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, without fear of oppression or control. While the journey toward this equitable, transparent, and decentralized future may be challenging, the rewards are substantial. Let us take inspiration from Carlin's wisdom, shed the chains of ignorance, and harness the potential of Bitcoin to usher in a new era of empowerment and self-determination. Together, we can pave the way for a brighter future, one where individuals are free to live their lives as they see fit, and where our rights are inherent and inalienable.

Waking Up from the Sleep of Ignorance: Bitcoin as a Catalyst for Change

Despertar del somni de la ignorància: Bitcoin com a catalitzador del canvi

Probuzení ze spánku nevědomosti: Bitcoin jako katalyzátor změny

Despertando del sueño de la ignorancia: Bitcoin como catalizador del cambio

Reveye nan dòmi inyorans: Bitcoin kòm yon katalis pou chanjman

無知の眠りから目覚める：変化の触媒としてのビットコイン

무지의 잠에서 깨어나다: 변화를 위한 촉매로서의 비트코인

Kolamuka na pongi ya kozanga koyeba: Bitcoin lokola Catalyste mpo na mbongwana

Pamostoties no neziņas miega: Bitcoin kā pārmaiņu katalizators

Мунхаглалын нойрноос сэрэх нь: Биткойн нь өөрчлөлтийн хурдасгуур

Despertando do sono da ignorância: Bitcoin como um catalisador para a mudança

Zgjimi nga gjumi i injorancës: Bitcoin si një katalizator për ndryshim

Paggising mula sa Paghimbing ng Kamangmangan: Bitcoin bilang Catalyst for Change

It's one o'clock in the morning. My phone starts going crazy. I groan and look over. Sure enough, it's another PagerDuty call. I am on-call this week, and it's the third time in as many days that I have been woken up for the same reason. Hundreds of our customers have complained in unison, for three days in a row, that they have purchased event tickets from us and arrived at the venue only to find that their tickets have already been redeemed. They are being denied entry, and they are understandably very angry. Initial Investigation Showed Some Very Odd Behavior. Customers had purchased tickets, and then a matter of minutes later, their tickets would be redeemed. This was far in advance of the event itself, so it was clearly unexpected. And it wasn't spread evenly across our customer base; the issue was heavily focused within some select groups of university students. We already knew that we had a fundamental issue with our redemption system; it was possible to scan the QR code in the ticket order confirmation email yourself like the door staff would do at the venue, which would redeem the ticket. Unfortunately, the bigger fix for this was still a few weeks away. Even so, why would large numbers of customers within specific university circles redeem or accidentally redeem their own tickets before the event?! None of our early theories made sense, and the issue kept happening. We Went Digging. Eventually, We Found the Issue. The automated virus scanner on specific university .edu email systems were hitting all links in our confirmation emails to check them for viruses, including programmatically scanning all QR codes. Therefore this one process, completely invisible to my team, was automatically redeeming our customers' event tickets before the customer even received the email. Never, Ever Update Persisted Data on Page-Load. By making the ticket QR code hit a webpage that immediately redeems the ticket on page-load, it meant that anything visiting that link, whether human or machine, would inadvertently update our database to mark the ticket as redeemed. There are thousands of unseen automated visitors to our websites that we don't think about most of the time. Here are some examples: Browsers prefetching resources. This is a big one. Let's say you visit https://myblog.com, and there are prominent links on that page to/blog-post-1 and /blog-post-2 . It is very likely that your browser will already be prefetching those pages in the background. If those pages mutate data on page-load, for example, to track visits, just being on the homepage is enough to trigger it, even though you might never click on the links. Google crawlers. Another big one. We recently saw a large number of errors that came from Google crawlers visiting pages and then triggering unauthenticated calls to APIs. Email scanners. Very common in schools, governments, large corporations, and more. Internet archive machines The simple lesson here is to avoid things happening automatically on page-loads as much as possible. Besides the issues that we experienced, unexpected side-effects like this are bad UX. If the action is "Redeem", make it happen when you click a button that says "Redeem". I hope that this was useful - subscribe now to get my Dev Diary in your inbox! It's one o'clock in the morning. My phone starts going crazy. I groan and look over. Sure enough, it's another PagerDuty call. I am on-call this week, and it's the third time in as many days that I have been woken up for the same reason. Hundreds of our customers have complained in unison, for three days in a row, that they have purchased event tickets from us and arrived at the venue only to find that their tickets have already been redeemed . They are being denied entry, and they are understandably very angry. tickets have already been redeemed very angry. Initial Investigation Showed Some Very Odd Behavior. Customers had purchased tickets, and then a matter of minutes later, their tickets would be redeemed. This was far in advance of the event itself, so it was clearly unexpected. And it wasn't spread evenly across our customer base; the issue was heavily focused within some select groups of university students. We already knew that we had a fundamental issue with our redemption system; it was possible to scan the QR code in the ticket order confirmation email yourself like the door staff would do at the venue, which would redeem the ticket. Unfortunately, the bigger fix for this was still a few weeks away. Even so, why would large numbers of customers within specific university circles redeem or accidentally redeem their own tickets before the event?! None of our early theories made sense, and the issue kept happening. We Went Digging. Eventually, We Found the Issue. The automated virus scanner on specific university .edu email systems were hitting all links in our confirmation emails to check them for viruses, including programmatically scanning all QR codes . automated virus scanner .edu programmatically scanning all QR codes Therefore this one process, completely invisible to my team, was automatically redeeming our customers' event tickets before the customer even received the email. before the customer even received the email. Never, Ever Update Persisted Data on Page-Load. By making the ticket QR code hit a webpage that immediately redeems the ticket on page-load, it meant that anything visiting that link, whether human or machine, would inadvertently update our database to mark the ticket as redeemed. anything There are thousands of unseen automated visitors to our websites that we don't think about most of the time. Here are some examples: Browsers prefetching resources. This is a big one. Let's say you visit https://myblog.com, and there are prominent links on that page to/blog-post-1 and /blog-post-2 . It is very likely that your browser will already be prefetching those pages in the background. If those pages mutate data on page-load, for example, to track visits, just being on the homepage is enough to trigger it, even though you might never click on the links. Browsers prefetching resources. This is a big one. Let's say you visit https://myblog.com , and there are prominent links on that page to /blog-post-1 and /blog-post-2 . It is very likely that your browser will already be prefetching those pages in the background. If those pages mutate data on page-load, for example, to track visits, just being on the homepage is enough to trigger it, even though you might never click on the links. Browsers prefetching resources. https://myblog.com /blog-post-1 /blog-post-2 just being on the homepage Google crawlers. Another big one. We recently saw a large number of errors that came from Google crawlers visiting pages and then triggering unauthenticated calls to APIs. Google crawlers. Another big one. We recently saw a large number of errors that came from Google crawlers visiting pages and then triggering unauthenticated calls to APIs. Google crawlers. Email scanners. Very common in schools, governments, large corporations, and more. Email scanners. Very common in schools, governments, large corporations, and more. Email scanners. Internet archive machines Internet archive machines Internet archive machines The simple lesson here is to avoid things happening automatically on page-loads as much as possible. Besides the issues that we experienced, unexpected side-effects like this are bad UX. If the action is "Redeem", make it happen when you click a button that says "Redeem". I hope that this was useful - subscribe now to get my Dev Diary in your inbox!

Dev Diary #3: The Sneaky Issue That Was Silently Ruining Our Database

This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Alyvia Walters, Rutgers University, USA; (2) Tawfiq Ammaris, Rutgers University, USA; (3) Kiran Garimella, Rutgers University, USA; (4) Shagun Jhaver, Rutgers University, USA. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Background and Related Work Methods The Tools of CRT Meme Production Knowledge Production in a Post-Truth World Conclusion & References The Tools of CRT Meme Production After iteratively coding each meme, we were left with 21 unique codes which could be subsumed under one or more of the following major rhetorical tactics: 1) struggles over definition, or how the meme makes sense of what critical race theory is; 2) constructing “antiracism,” or the ways in which the meme’s ideologies are coded as definitively not-racist to its intended audience; and 3) appeals to authority, or the ways in which the meme uses people or symbols to appear correct. These strategies, then, appear to be the most salient paths through which both pro- and anti-CRT arguments within these memes are built. Defining CRT With two exceptions, neither the pro- nor anti-CRT memes analyzed appear to be concerned with the “real” critical legal studies definition of critical race theory. Because CRT was not generally circulated within public discourse prior to the early 2020s, as mentioned above, there was a wide berth for political and epistemological work to be done in the construction of this definition in the public consciousness. Our analysis reveals that these memes do just that: while both proand anti-CRT memes provide a technically incorrect definition of what CRT actually is, the politics of sensemaking unfolds within these memes. Their consumers are left with bifurcating definitions of the bounds, risks, and benefits of critical race theory that ultimately serve to re-define the bounds and values of the communities in which these memes circulate. Within pro-CRT memes, the aggregated definition reads something like this: critical race theory means teaching history accurately and not being a racist and/or a Republican. These memes went to far fewer lengths than anti-CRT memes to define what CRT actually is, and relied instead upon defining it against other things: racism, Republicans, and/or the erasure of history. The top-circulated meme in our analysis is a prime example of this. In this meme, artist Jonathan Harris stands alongside his now-viral artwork entitled “Critical Race Theory,” which depicts the literal whitewashing of Black history (Figure 1). While this does nothing to define critical race theory, it certainly defines what it is not: the erasure of America’s violent, racist past. Similarly, image cluster 4 (Figure 2) is a computer-generated text-heavy meme that reads, “Republicans are not afraid of critical race theory. They don’t even know what it is. They’re afraid of theories critical of racists. They know who they are.” The irony, of course, is that this meme also does not indicate a real definition of CRT, or an indication of “knowing what it is”–it simply defines CRT against racists and Republicans, both of which believers in CRT cannot be. In contrast to this strategy, anti-CRT memes often utilize quite specific points of definition. Take, for instance, cluster 22 (Figure 3): In providing a six-point bulleted list, this meme lays out, in no uncertain terms, how its consumers are meant to understand CRT. These definitional strategies, however, are not always so concrete as a bulleted list. Whereas proCRT memes defined CRT against other ideas, anti-CRT memes sometimes worked to define it by conflating it with other “anti-American” ideas, such as Marxism (Figure 4) and straying from Christianity (Figure 5). In other words, antiCRT memes often tied CRT to other “woke” ideologies in order to define it, even as “wokeness,” in and of itself, lacks definitive boundaries. In all, anti-CRT memes essentially define critical race theory in the following way: CRT is a racist idea that makes people believe that race matters more than it should, and it is yet another way that “wokeness” is destroying America. This conceptualization is starkly different than that of the pro-CRT memes, and both are far from the “real” legal studies definition, as outlined above. As such, there is obvious political struggle in the fight to win the hegemonic, accepted definition of critical race theory — a definition which has little to do with its origins in critical theory and law. In this discussion on the political struggle over defining CRT, one particularly interesting meme to highlight is that of Cluster 27 (Figure 6). Metadiscourse on the Stakes of Defining CRT In this meme, a screenshot of a quoted tweet, two people are explicitly naming this struggle and pointing to its risks. By indicating that The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank known for their right-wing ideologies, is a top hit in searching for information on critical race theory, the original tweet author is pointing out that knowledge acquisition via the internet is deeply politicized, and without careful, critical consumption habits, people can be easily misled by seemingly authoritative information. The quote tweet, agreeing with this view, further interpolates into an ongoing debate in U.S. culture on whose “job” it is to educate on topics surrounding race and racism: people of color, who are exhausted by confronting this responsibility every day, but are also the people who have actual experience with racism; or white people, who are the ones who should be expending energy into acquiring knowledge to better educate themselves, without needing to further exploit the time and energy of people of color to do so (see, for example, Zheng (2021)). Both Twitter users, “naima, an improvisation,” and “Ramy” land in the same place: passing this responsibility to educate over to the internet is dangerous territory in a politicized information environment. If “some reactionary think tank” such as The Heritage Foundation is where people are gaining their knowledge because “Google is free” and no one else is providing this information, the struggle over defining these words–words which have actual policy impact, as seen through Youngkin’s Executive Order 1–is of utmost importance, and it appears that memes are one avenue in which this epistemological struggle occurs. Defining “Antiracism” These pro- and anti-CRT battles over definition, and the recognition in the metadiscourse that this is, indeed, a battle, is almost exclusively fought on the same grounds: that of antiracism. While there are some other nods to bigotry in its various forms, for example, transphobia as displayed in Figure 5, race and racism are unsurprisingly the main sites upon which definitions of critical race theory and its risks and/or benefits, are built. However, in a similar fashion to how “critical race theory” was defined to meet community needs rather than to reflect a “real” definition of the term, “antiracism,” too, is made into a fungible ideal constructed to meet the dire need of both sides of this argument to appear not-racist: a near necessity in 2023 America. According to Ferguson (2022), antiracism has suffered from a lack of coherent and accessible academic definition. Thus, she proposes a paraphrase of Black author and activist Ijeoma Oluo’s tweeted definition: “the commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms,” with a noted special interest in recognizing the difference between systemic and interpersonal racism. However, the tension we encounter in the analysis of these images is that, under this definition, both overt racism and a quieter “not-racism,” a term we will more clearly define below, is easily able to masquerade as antiracism to the undiscerning eye. In this way, the memes’ constructed definitions of antiracism become a technology through which racism is perpetuated. Bonilla-Silva (1997)’s oft-cited definition of racism demands recognition of both structural and interpersonal forms of racism, and it also demands acknowledgment of the difference between the two. Because these pro-CRT memes often fail to address structural racism, they fall short of forwarding truly antiracist ideologies even as they consistently present themselves as performing antiracism. These failures come through in what we are deeming “not-racism,” or essentially a focus on the interpersonal aspects of racism only, rather than on the structural ones. For instance, in Cluster 4 (Figure 2), the deflective “they” indicates several things all at once: first, that “we,” those who identify with this meme, are not like “them,” the racist Republicans; and second, that the stakes of this argument on critical race theory reside at the individual, interpersonal level. Each of these two implications constructs racism as something that happens within the hearts and minds of individuals, rather than at the structural level, and further, it absolves those who resonate with the meme from racism: “I am not a racist, because I support critical race theory.” This is not-racism in practice: a positionality that is not reflective of true antiracism, which is an ideology and practice that requires recognition of and action toward dismantling systems of racism, interpersonal racism, and the implicit bias that each of us holds. This is not to say that pro-CRT memes always failed at performing antiracism, either. There certainly were instances of successful acknowledgement of structural racism, such as in Cluster 7, which reads “If people attacked White Supremacy like they are attacking critical race theory, there would be no need for critical race theory.” However, the failures were all failing in the same way: by framing themselves and their ideologies as not-racist, and falsely equating that with doing antiracist work. On the other hand, anti-CRT memes wholly fail at performing true anti-racism, and they fail in many different ways: through rhetorics of racial neoliberalism, colorblind racism, and not-racism. Importantly, each of these tools of racism are constructed as antiracism, and sold to audiences as such. While not-racism presents a bit differently on this side of the aisle, the main takeaway is meant to be rhetorically the same: “we” are not the racists, “they” are. For instance, Figure 3 reads, in part, “What does critical race theory teach?...The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” This swiftly both dismisses racism as in the “past,” thus ignoring its structural persistence and constructs those that support critical race theory as the racists. In this way, both pro- and anti-CRT memes variably fail at performing antiracism, often forwarding what Blake et al. (2019) call “antiracist appropriation,” or a strategy that is “primarily concerned with deciphering who is a racist and who is not, rather than working to dismantle racism’s socially shared institutional and affective structures” (p. 23). By forwarding this claim, we do not mean to engage in an uncritical false balance (Rietdijk and Archer 2021) analysis here, as there is clearly one group that is getting closer to actual antiracism than the other: pro-CRT memes. It is important to note, however, that even pro-CRT memes are not actually accomplishing an antiracist agenda, as they are rather uncritical of the structural aspects of racism and choose to focus, instead, on interpersonal-level issues. Though using appeals to authority is not a groundbreaking rhetorical strategy and is, in fact, one of the pillars of Aristotelian rhetorical philosophy, the ways in which this ethos appears within these memes present an interesting finding: equally often, both pro-and anti-CRT memes deployed the imagery and/or quotes of Black people. Through circulating these images widely, those captured in these memes essentially stand in as Black spokespeople for each side of the argument, lending credence to the meme’s ideology–no matter the side of the argument–through the color of their skin. Appeals to Black Authority Anti-CRT memes that used this rhetorical strategy–all of which, notably, were produced and originally disseminated by the conservative Media Research Center (MRC)†–constructed these Black spokespeople as both authoritative in their experience and authoritative in their Blackness. Alveda King, Civil Rights Leader; Dr. Ben Carson, M.D. and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Dr. Carol Swain, Ph.D. and professor of political science and law appeared in these memes, each in visage and in quote (see Figure 7 for an example of these memes, each of which followed this aesthetic template). The embodied Black professional positionalities which these people inhabit make it difficult for pro-CRT advocates to argue against their claims—claims which invariably speak to the sure pitfalls of socioculturally adopting critical race theory—and thus a comfortable space of disseminating racism through the rhetorics of not-racism opens up. Using Black spokespeople to deliver implicitly or explicitly racist information has been a tactic used for decades to make news reporting (Entman and Rojecki 2007), campaign strategy, and political policy (Mendelberg 2001) appear notracist. The implicit suggestion is that if a Black person indicates something is not racist, it must not be. This, then, “bolsters [whites’] denials that racism still impedes the lives of African Americans” (Entman and Rojecki 2007, p. 106) and invites a level of assurance that they, too, are notracist. In the context of the memes analyzed for this study, these Black spokespeople are consistently reflecting a well-established space of Black conservative thought which taps into individualism, self-help, and egalitarianism as answers to discussions on racism (Lewis 2005). Critical race theory–the “real,” institutional one–actually warns against this very scenario: CRT argues that constructing Black spokespeople as people who can speak for the entire race is both essentialist and ignorant to the importance of intersectionality (Delgado and Stefancic 2023). While it is true that Black Democrats far outweigh Black Republicans in the electorate (Cox 2022), and thus pro-CRT memes that deploy Black spokespeople likely reflect a larger share of Black thought, it is still unproductive to count any single person as representative of a race of people. Despite this, however, constructing Black spokespeople through memes–Black spokespeople who are made to appear as the reasonable “Black voice”–was a way of building authority and “assurances” for those against CRT that they were not thinking in a racist way. While their Blackness operates, rhetorically, as an appeal to authority in a conversation about race, the idea of the “Black spokesperson” takes on a different function and meaning in these pro-CRT memes. Whereas anti-CRT memes were curating quotes from a very specific set of Black spokespeople, seeking out those who have said something condemning CRT, overlaying these quotes on an image of the Black orator, and circulating that image, those on the pro-side of the issue are more often amplifying already-existing media that Black people created. For example, the image of artist Jonathan Harris (Figure 1) was an organic, pre-existing photograph of the artist posing with his work–not a computer-generated, curated message that was created without his knowledge or consent. Similarly, the meme featuring Michael Eric Dyson’s thoughts (Figure 4) is simply a screenshot of a tweet he chose to write and publish on the internet–again, not something that an outside entity needed to create. The only exception is the meme featuring John Legend (Figure 9). This meme has a similar aesthetic to the anti-CRT memes in that it is a computer-generated image of Legend alongside a quote about Black parents needing to get involved in conversations around the banning of critical race theory. This meme represents just one way that anti- and pro-CRT memes perform “not-racism” in rhetorically similar ways, even if they have different end goals. [†] The Media Research Center (MRC) is more than simply a Facebook page, which is where many of these other memes are sourced. To the contrary, MRC is an entire conservative media network that self-describes its mission as being in accordance with "America’s founding principles and Judeo-Christian values." For more, see mrctv.org

Online Knowledge Production in Polarized Political Memes: The Tools of CRT Meme Production

Jews have become the perfect scapegoat for extremists on both sides A few months ago, before it was rebranded to ‘X’ by the richest moron on the planet, I left a comment on a Twitter post. The poster was an Asian woman, who had experienced some racism while living in Sweden. I’d had some negative encounters there myself, but because they were less about race and more about xenophobia, I made it clear that — aside from being Jewish — I was just a “white dude.” Shortly thereafter, someone replied: “No, you’re not. Jews aren’t white.” Another commenter agreed, and yet another called me a “parasite.” Interestingly, none of these comments violated Twitter’s new TOS. My main takeaway — aside from how terrible the site has become — was how some people’s lives are so shitty that the only thing they can cling to is their “whiteness.” As if it’s a flex. Newsflash: it’s not. But I digress. We’re not here to talk about sad white men. We’re here to talk about anti-semitism, which, unfortunately, has a much broader coalition behind it. While hating Jews has a long and storied history, it’s the people behind the hate who have changed However, from the looks of things, it seems as if it was always there, right beneath the surface. Just like how Trump allowed bigots and racists to show their true colors, October 7th did the same thing for antisemites. That’s why you see all the people tearing down posters of kidnap victims. Chants of “From the river to the sea” at rallies. Jewish college students having to hide from their classmates. There’s even a that just came out that said half of Gen Z sides with Hamas. Not the Palestinians, but Hamas itself. What does that tell you? poll I can hear the argument now: “But but but…Israel!” So let’s talk about that. No one is condoning what Israel and especially what Netanyahu have done. But how are Jews in America and other countries responsible? Why are they being , , ? harassed attacked killed Furthermore, the Israeli people are not the Israeli government. “But they voted for him!” Did you vote for Trump? Or Bush? Or Reagan? Was Putin elected, or Xi? Sometimes, we end up with leaders who don’t represent our best interests. Sometimes we’re dealt a crap hand. It doesn’t automatically make every single person in the country culpable. But that’s not even the real issue here. The real issue is that the situation is so complicated that it’s above most people’s pay grades Actual scholars and historians, people who have been studying this their entire lives, have trouble grasping all the details and nuances. What makes you think, in the weeks or months you’ve been following this, that you’re an expert? Furthermore, where did you get your information from? TikTok? YouTube? Again, it seems similar to the people on the other side, who learned everything they know from Facebook. Or Newsmax. Or Fox News. very In other words: You don’t know shit. You know what you’ve seen from 15-second video clips that are part of an algorithm specifically designed to trigger you, in order to keep you on the platform. That’s why both the far left and the far right are so misguided. And, frankly, why they’re so similar. Because in the internet age, nuance doesn’t exist. And it certainly doesn’t go viral. What does go viral? Extremes. Anything that makes your blood boil. Anything that further amplifies the feedback loop you’re stuck in. Anything that posits the simplest solution to a complex situation and completely eliminates any nuance or shades of grey. If you can throw in a convenient bogeyman for good measure, so much the better. For the right, it’s usually “wokeness” or other dumb buzzwords like CRT and “defund the police.” For the left, it’s pretty much anything Trump or one of his surrogates does or says. In most cases, there is a clear firewall between these messages. But once in a while, they align. In this instance, the Jews are the perfect punching bag for both the social justice warriors on the left and the racist goons on the right. The only good news — if you can even call it that — is that most people are not like this. While it might look like half of Americans are MAGA and the other half are “progressives,” both, in fact, are minorities. Most people (like myself and you probably) fall somewhere in the . We just don’t get as many clicks. middle So, where do we go from here? How do we fix what’s happening in Israel and Gaza? What’s the correct way forward? I have no fucking clue. And neither do you. And that’s fine. It’s not our job to figure all that out. Our job is to filter out all the clickbait and noise and to get the most accurate information possible. Our job is to elect leaders who will steer us through situations like this one with courage and compassion. Our job is to try and ensure the peace and prosperity of all individuals, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion. Lastly, it’s to stop blaming the Jews for everything. Between trying to pass for white, counting all our money, and controlling Hollywood and the media, we have enough on our plate already.

Stories, News & Mentions about WOKEN

Woken’s Stories on HackerNoon

Woken's News & Mentions