• 99 Posts
  • 255 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 5th, 2023

help-circle
rss




  • This is especially vile to announce on Transgender Day of Remembrance; but I have no doubt in my mind that it was intentional.

    This feels like a move made with the explicit purpose of hurting people as much as possible. (“The cruelty is the point.”)

    To my knowledge, there is no legal recourse for this, but I am not a lawyer, so I could be wrong…

    I know it likely won’t do much, but I do recommend calling your representatives. I asked mine to issue a statement saying that they will not be party to enforcing this rule. I hope they issue such a statement of solidarity soon 🤞



  • To me, it feels like fear-mongering. If you don’t think trans people are dangerous, you won’t “need” a Republican to “protect” you from them.

    The bathroom argument is especially silly when you recall that unisex bathrooms have existed for a long time, and all they require is better stalls than American bathrooms tend to offer. If protecting people in bathrooms was really a goal, they would just make walls that go to the floor legally required.

    I doubt if most of the Republican politicians/ pundits even believe half the stuff they say about trans people. They are simply the target du jour, and Republicans will say anything they can think of to make you afraid of them.


  • I don’t think anyone could make the case that Rep. McBride is dangerous; but Republicans are fighting not to release the ethics report on Matt Gaetz before he is placed in a position of immense power, when it seems quite likely that he was directly harming women.

    As you say, this is all about tormenting Rep. McBride (along with any other Trans women they are able to hurt at the same time).

    The bill’s cruelty is precisely why I think it’s so important for every American to contact their representative (even Republican ones). It might not be enough to change a Republican Congressperson’s mind, but it’s good for them to know that the American people are not going to let Trans people be an easy target for them.


  • I encourage every American reading this article to call their district representative and let them know that you do not approve of this bill. It’s hateful and cruel; and I fear that if it passes, it will pave the way for similar, wider reaching, legislation.

    I called my Representative earlier today and their intern was able to tell me the bill number: H.Res.1579. Knowing the number should hopefully make it easier to voice your disgust in this abhorrent bill.

    While on the phone (or email) with your Representative, I encourage everyone to voice their displeasure with H.R.9495 as well. H.R.9495 will allow the executive branch to unilaterally declare non-profits as terrorist organizations and strip them of their non-profit status. This would functionally give the executive branch authority to end any non-profit that is engaging in activities they don’t approve of, which would likely result in the destruction of any non-profit engaging in harm reduction.



  • I encourage every American reading this article to call their district representative and let them know that you do not approve of this bill. It’s hateful and cruel; and I fear that if it passes, it will pave the way for similar, wider reaching, legislation.

    I called my Representative earlier today and their intern was able to tell me the bill number: H.Res.1579. Knowing the number should hopefully make it easier to voice your disgust in this abhorrent bill.

    While on the phone (or email) with your Representative, I encourage everyone to voice their displeasure with H.R.9495 as well. H.R.9495 will allow the executive branch to unilaterally declare non-profits as terrorist organizations and strip them of their non-profit status. This would functionally give the executive branch authority to end any non-profit that is engaging in activities they don’t approve of, which would likely result in the destruction of any non-profit engaging in harm reduction.



  • I don’t know the actual budget, but I think it probably cost much more than 1kUSD, though probably still less than real human work would cost.

    It’s important to note that no shit could last more than a second or two because after that the generated video starts to much more noticably have errors. So at minimum you still need editors (plus the music needed to be composited, etc). Also, as the article notes, all the logos needed to be added in post as well because GenAI cannot reliably do text or logos. With that in mind, I’d guess there was probably a significant amount of “cleaning up” that had to be done in post as well.

    With all that said and done, I’m sure the commercial was not exactly dirt cheap, but it WAS probably still cheaper than having dignity and paying humans.

    What’s actually kind of wild, though, is a lot of these shots just look like bland stock imagery. And since they couldn’t have any cohesion between shots because of GenAI’s own limitations, the majority of these shots could have been replaced with stock footage and they probably would have only needed to CGI a few different shots…










  • I posted about H.R. 9495 a couple of days ago and the danger it presented; and I thought it was important to share it got rejected too.

    Going from almost unanimous support to 145 nays, is a pretty big swing. I would imagine a lot of it came from the fear of the next president abusing that power, but people contacting their Reps cannot be undersold here as well.

    Over the next four years a lot of nasty bills are going to be floated, but please let this be a reminder that contacting your Congresspeople can help make a difference.

    You can view the results of the vote here.

    If your representative voted no, please contact them and let them know you appreciate it. I’ve heard that helps too.

    If you aren’t sure who your representative is, you can find that here.