KashifShah

@KashifShah@mastodon.sdf.org

Retired .NET enterprise software developer and computing nerd.
Bachelor of Arts dual-degrees in Mathematics and Psychology.
Neurodivergent and “medically frail”.
Pakistani-Irish-American, Radical Moderate, and (illiterate) Muslim.
Occasional enjoyer of kayaking and sport touring by car or motorcycle.
Connoisseur of science fiction and national-chain pizza.
Looking for ways to give back to the community.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jacobrogers256, to random

Here is my last toot about my thoughts on the Dems and Fr I should pin this:

They are the lesser of 2 evils. You should vote for them until Ranked choice voting comes along or the fascist threat ceases to exist.

I am definitely not talking about the voters, I mean the politicians. Always. The voters aren't the party.

They were partially responsible for getting us into this mess with fascism. The degree to which they did and how they did so is debatable. Contact me or read more of my posts for details.

They are not a good option in terms of policy. They are often Reaganomics lite when it comes to the economy.

The Democratic Party consists of a center left wing and a centrist/center right wing. Think Bernie/Warren vs Manchin/Biden.

The progressive wing should actually be a separate party. They are entirely different from the rest of the party and anywhere else in the world this would be the case already.

If you disagree and this offends your political sensibilities, feel free to unfollow me.

KashifShah,

@jacobrogers256 the party members are the party, technically, so some of the non-politician voters are technically also the party, to be autistic about it 🖖

i won’t vote for evil, period, not any more.

KashifShah, to politics

“Study: People think undermining democracy is ok if others do it first

Merely thinking the other guys wreck democracy raises support for wrecking democracy.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/study-undermining-democracy-is-ok-if-others-do-it-first/

KashifShah, to random

The Alan Parsons Project - Games People Play

"Games people play, you take it or you leave it

Things that they say aren't alright

If I promised you the moon and the stars, would you believe it?

Games people play in the middle of the night"

https://youtu.be/SLi7Ljcy6n8

https://genius.com/The-alan-parsons-project-games-people-play-lyrics

tzimmer_history, to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

Crucial observation from Rachel Cohen over at the new place - and it points to a larger problem: In the mainstream political discourse, especially in mainstream media coverage, terms like “moderate” and “extreme” have absolutely no substantive definition, which makes it easy for conservatives to constantly drag their meaning rightward.

https://bsky.app/profile/rachelmcohen.bsky.social/post/3jvyrl5ra4d24

KashifShah,

@xenophora @Susan60

Personally, I’d much rather see election reforms like ranked-choice voting, abolishing the electoral system, a publicly shared pool of campaign finance, and legislatively breaking up the duopoly of parties.

I compltagree about non-voters and believe that we should work on that problem with the above techniques, but also by adding options for abstention and no-confidence or, even better, by embracing a more referendum based voting procedure.

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

"Anarchism's great project is to dissolve the asymmetry of power. How? There are thousands of alternatives and there is not only one solution. To advance 'one' solution would be a doctrine of power, a manifestation of power."

. Venezuelan University Academic, quoted from

https://www.nodo50.org/ellibertario/english.html

KashifShah,

@strypey Human Rights is the one doctrine, a prime directive, if you will, that by definition does not pit one party against another in a power struggle. Equal rights for all!

raiderrobert, to random
@raiderrobert@mastodon.social avatar

What's a favorite band of yours?

I'll start: Muse

KashifShah,

@raiderrobert Pop Will Eat Itself

KashifShah,

@raiderrobert You are very welcome! I'd recommend that you start with either of the following albums: Dos Dedos Mis Amigos or Cure for Sanity.

Wise Up! Sucker and Everythings Cool are great songs for an intro.

RiverEnodian, to random

Every time I see an acronym that's like "LGBTQI+" I 100% think that they're leaving out the A on purpose and it does not make the vibe check

KashifShah,

@RiverEnodian sometimes I wonder if humanity would be better server to split the difference and have LGBQA+ and TI+, as technically LGBAQ+ is about sexual orientation and TI+ is about sex development

There’s a reason that people in the past had migrated away from the term transsexual - neophobes freak out about sex. Look at what is happening to the term transgender now - it is so commonplace for people to think that TI+ is about sex, when it isn’t necessarily so

shrug what do i know though?

KashifShah,

@RiverEnodian meh, technically, the fact that one “identifies” with the non-cisgender is actually a “divergence” of sex development, localized mostly to the neuroendocrine system, instead of to the genitalia, like in other intersex conditions

latest research is pretty close to identifying enough of the genetic and brain differences to actually diagnose it by genetic testing or high-resolution brain scans

there is a lot more complexity and nuance to the science of T than many give it credit for

KashifShah,

@RiverEnodian but the science is still a work in progress:

“Moreover, none of the biological factors identified so far can explain all of the variances in sexual identity or orientation, nor is it known whether or how these factors may interact. Despite these limitations, the existing empirical evidence makes it clear that there is a significant biological contribution to the development of an individual’s sexual identity and sexual orientation.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6677266/

KashifShah,

@RiverEnodian I’m not here to get into an argument with you, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

I will stick to basing my opinions in facts, but you are free to hold whatever opinion you deem appropriate for yourself.

mori, to random

For anyone into TVs, this is kinda hilarious #LG #OLED #Samsung

Samsung admits defeat and reportedly inks deal for LG’s OLED TV panels - The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/16/23725160/samsung-lg-oled-tv-panels-deal-supply-report

KashifShah,

@mori that’s exciting - LG’s panels are pretty good and they went heavy on OLED pretty early. Back in the day of flip phones, LG made some of the best phones, too.

KashifShah, (edited ) to random

The Neo-KKK wants you to die.

#ameriKKKa #KKKanada #racism

#bothsides #edgehumans #hate #dignity

#humanrights

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

Sure, I’d agree that naïve capitalism is a big factor in the misuse of science, but the atom bomb was invented to defend against the German and Japanese imperialism of WW2.

Also, without capital, how is good science supposed to be conducted, though?

The days of cheap and easy science are long gone and proper, “good” science is even more expensive than ever.

For example, see the modern difficulties with even the “gold standard” of double-blind research in medicine.

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

I’m not sure that I understand your line of reasoning there - how are people supposed to do science if it requires the extraction of rare resources from the earth and the dedication of entire lifetimes worth of intellectual labor to do the science?

I’m certainly open to the argument that science shouldn’t be conducted at all, but that’s not what you are debating is it?

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh @JoBlakely Just making sure.

It’s one thing to be anti-something, but it’s quite another to be pro-something.

I’m all for cooperative scientific outfits that are funded from a shared pool of taxpayer dollars, abolition of academic or governmental mechanisms that enable “publish-or-perish”, and for establishing an integrative society for scientists and non-scientists, et al.

But, at the end of the day, it still requires real, tangible economic resources in order to conduct science.

KashifShah,

@strypey

I couldn’t agree more! I’m thoroughly disgusted by both branches of the american duopoly of aristocratic-ochlocracy.

You might appreciate some of the posts that I’ve made in - in particular there is a yard-sign design that needs to take off in a grassroots way.

If all of us reasonable, non-extremophiles can band together into a new majority third-party, we’ll be able to clamp down on the civil war mongers.

@Judeet88 @PaulNickson @soc_i_ety

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

I’m pro-human rights (via UNUDHR), pro-science, pro-sustainability (in all of its forms, not just environmentally speaking), and pro-pragmatism, pro-reform (politically speaking), and some other things too.

Did you ever get ahold of Angel Mounds to talk to them?

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

Cool, you had told me not to call them, so I was wondering, but local matters ought to come first, most of the time.

And I’ve answered: not much yet, in terms of what you would consider activism, except through hiring lawyers in defense of employee rights. I can’t speak to it directly, but there were some positive outcomes.

My latest personal goal is to organize a local chapter of Amnesty International

I prefer that activists embrace science rather than reject it

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh And I vehemently disagree and assert that you can protect human rights from a comfort zone

A comfort zone is the end result of Human Rights and I consider it ludicrous to hold the opinion that defending human rights necessitates violence. It utterly does not necessitate anything beyond becoming educated about Human Rights and educating others about Human Rights

As Asimov liked to paraphrase, “violence is the last resort of the incompetent”, against the evil of tyranny

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

I suppose, furthermore, I would ask you in counter-inquiry: how big of a voting bloc can you muster?

Because if you muster a big enough voting bloc, you can enable the Optional Protocols in Human Rights that allow individual citzens to make appeals for assistance, OUTSIDE of your country, when your country is violating your Human Rights

Then, if violence is necessary, rely on trained combatants and not innocent citizens, if the tyranny were to reach such a magnitude

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

Fair enough, you said that you would call them after I said that I would call them, so I took that as implying that you didn’t want me to call.

Indeed, by definition, one must seek in-nation refugee assistance before one can seek YN assistance and furthermore, a nation must have enabled the optional protocols in order for an external body like the UN to have any actual authority.

Hence, one needs to muster a large enough voting bloc to enable the optional protocols.

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

I’m not sure that you’ve fully internalized the UNUDHR, because one could paraphrase the whole document as simply stating that “basic comfort is an inalienable, universal right of all humans”

The entirety of the document, from the legal theory in the Preamble to the 30 Articles of rights, is in support of the concept that all humans should be free from fear and free from want

I’d appreciate it if you stopped delegitimizing the UN with your words. Build a voting bloc

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

I do not have the means to make a 6 hour round trip to get to the capitol of my state for every AI meeting.

Besides, doing so would defeat the purpose and intent for having local chapters. Indiana is a large state and the concerns of Central Indiana are quite different from those of Southern Indiana.

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

It’s becoming clear that BC is analogous to the Red States in America where the locals tend to support police authoritarianism over human rights.

If non-violence is your style, then the only thing to be done is to win the hearts and minds of the locals and build a large enough voting bloc to make a legislative difference.

“Comfort” is a universal human right, vis a vis the right to a standard of living, shelter, food, healthcare, etc, and NOT a privilege.

@JoBlakely

KashifShah,

@msquebanh

“The Blessed One said: "Now what, monks, is noble right concentration with its supports and requisite conditions? Any singleness of mind equipped with these seven factors – right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness – is called noble right concentration with its supports and requisite conditions.”
— Maha-cattarisaka Sutta

I take the Buddhist perspective that Right Speech just as noble as Right Action.

@JoBlakely

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