Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
Fearless Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Music, tagged advertising, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, ethics, internet, language, politicians, psychology, Twitter, yellow journalism on August 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Unwelcome Mat
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, tagged artificial stupidity, ethics, psychology, robots on August 17, 2026| 1 Comment »
Computers can be useful tools or servants, but they are not human; they have no feelings and no dignity, and humans have no more obligation to treat them as equals than we have toward any other machine. If you don’t think humans need to get the consent of a power saw or dishwasher before using it, you also shouldn’t think computer programs are owed good manners. Yet since the 1980s, humans have been presented with an ever-increasing number of circumstances in which we are confronted by machines whose owners and operators apparently expect others to treat them as though they were sentient beings. It was already bad enough when the machines were merely recordings of human voices intended to guide customers through an ersatz replacement for a phone operator by advising us to press this number to speak to that human; by the ’90s they started expecting us to talk back to them, then in this century humans began to be replaced by machines at every step of the process, so a computer operator would switch callers through to other computers which can virtually never do what their corporate owners pretend they can.
But now that we’re several years into the chatbot invasion, a large number of people have not only conceded their right to be helped by other people, but actually expect others to do the same. Sorry, but no. When a computer answers a phone I’ve called, I do whatever is necessary to get to a human operator, and when a computer calls me I immediately hang up and block the number, because in my view if something isn’t important enough for a human to make that call, it also isn’t important enough for me to waste my valuable time with. As if it isn’t bad enough that we’re expected to treat objects as equals, many people apparently feel comfortable taking a subordinate position to objects! I can no longer use social media without philistines presenting things shat out by chatbots as “art” or “writing”, and though I block strangers who do this, a few of those who have succumbed to this aesthetic disorder are people I otherwise enjoy talking to. It’s just too much, so I’ve decided on a more aggressive policy: I’ve already muted a number of phrases such as, “I asked ChatGPT…” yet I am still assailed by people who have surrendered so much of their human dignity that they consider deluxe autocomplete an “authority”. So from here on out, I’m going to block anyone who quotes a chatbot at me, and I’m only going to give one warning before I do it.
Nosey Parkers
Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, California, cops, Eavesdropping, ethics, Facebook, fascism, Florida, internet, LGBT rights, Mad Libs, Minnesota, New York, Panopticon, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance on July 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Welcome to the future. – Joel Feder
The backlash isn’t nearly severe enough yet:
[Pervert] Glasses…are so [morally repugnant] that [even] some [who were sociopathic enough to buy them] are now leaving their expensive [gewgaw]s at home…men…have been using the glasses to…non-consensually…capture footage of…women [they] attempt…to hit on…then post[ing them] online…Some…have even attempted to extort victims of covert recordings for cash. That’s on top of serious…privacy breaches by [Facebook]…and…the simple fact that [normal] people just really don’t like the idea of the world’s largest [psychopath collective]…facilitating abuse and surveillance in this way…[fortunately] the intensity of the [online] response [has] made [even moral imbeciles] think twice…[about being publicly recognized as] a predator or a creep…
Here’s hoping Flock backlash will snowball:
The Los Angeles Police Department is ending its agreement with Flock…surveillance…”This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras,” [oinked a spokespig, but in reality cops]…are continuing discussions with Flock…[in order to] revis[e the contact to give]…LAPD…[more control of the] data…
If this guy had brown skin, he’d probably be dead now:
…On an otherwise normal Sunday afternoon in late June, I’d decided to take the…Range Rover I was testing that week out to run some errands…and [ended up] surrounded by police…in a Kohl’s parking lot in suburban Minnesota…after a tense hour…the [cops finally admitted they] had been tracking me for days using Flock…cameras…because they thought I’d stolen the Range Rover…[due to] a simple data error made 2,000 miles away in California…that Flock’s [cop-siccing chatbot] was unable to handle…
In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
Cops across [California] accessed the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s…Flock S[urveillance]…ALPR…system at least 145 times to track protesters within the span of a year and seven months…Eleven [cop shops]…as far as…400 miles away, searched for protesters…on or around dates when protests against ICE were held…Cops are required by state law to list the reason for [warrantless] searching…but the[y]…have been [trained to “be as vague as permissible” so most “reasons” are]…vague one-word responses…A Flock [mouthpiece absurdly barfed]…“leverage”…[and] “crimes” [at reporters]…and…OCSD…[idiotically denied the word “protest” means] Flock is…used to track protesters…
An internal Madison Square Garden database…a[ssigns]…“risk [scores” to]…roughly 400 celebrities…[out of] 39,539 entries in the so-called “talent” database…which…is part of a much larger trove of documents published last month by ShinyHunters, a[n anti-fascist] hacker collective…a celebrity…marked with a risk score…means “you’ve done something [on]…social media…that has caught the attention of the wrong people”…People…are ranked on a scale…“Flag” is the lowest…next is “low risk” [including] Falco, [Tracy] Morgan, and Ben Stiller…After that is “medium risk” [including] Lily Allen, her ex David Harbour, and…country singer Morgan Wallen) and “high risk” (the hip-hop stars Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, DaBaby, and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie). The rapper Lil Tjay…is “BANNED FROM MSG”…The…database also tracks some celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 93 entries are marked as “LGBTQIA”…
Which is greater, Zuckerberg’s greed or his psychopathy?
[Facebook] quietly announced that [its pervert] glasses’ Conversation Focus feature will soon be limited to three hours of use per month, unless [owner is willing to] pay for a $19.99 M[onthly] subscription…The Conversation Focus feature, which amplifies the voice of [nearby people so as to facilitate eavesdropping]…runs on-device, using the chips inside the glasses…[which don’t] require an internet connection …[the feature] isn’t as [morally repugnant]…as…facial recognition [but Zuckerberg is apparently banking on the moral imbeciles who buy these surveillance tools wanting to hear while they leer]…
With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:
A [Florida cop named Lamar Roman sped] 70 MPH down a two-lane highway…over a bridge in the Florida Keys…passe[d two] dump truck[s] in a no-passing zone…[and] nearly caus[ed] a head-on collision…[while stal]king and chasing a woman that he met and harassed on the set of the…TV…show Bad Monkey, [for] which he had worked a security detail shift…After…catcalling her and harassing her for her full name and Instagram details, the [dangerous sleazebag] illegally looked up her vehicle information on DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for [cops]…He then put her license plate details on a surveillance “hotlist,” meaning he would get a notification in real time anytime she drove by an A[LPR]…Roman…was caught and arrested in March…[his victim] told investigators that she tried to be “standoffish” to deter him…[but] Roman would not leave [her] alone….[and threatened] to pull [her] over…in the [future]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1657)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, advertising, agency denial, artificial stupidity, Australia, BDSM, censorship, consensual crime, cops, ethics, Europe, Feudalism Redux, internet, Ireland, Korea, law, Maryland, New Jersey, porn, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, Sexcrime, South Dakota, surveillance, teachers, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, violence vs. sex workers, Walled Garden on July 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
In a few short years, the entire Western world might finally end the age of the open internet. – Kelsey Piper
For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:
State p[igs] and [screwlords] are conducting a “potential criminal misconduct” investigation into…a Western Maryland prison after the latest in a rash of [murder]s of prisoners…on…May 20 [screws found] the body of Colin Wolf…[decomposing] inside his cell in the Roxbury [Dungeon]…Roxbury’s warden and chief of security are out…[and] 19 [screws have been given demerits, while]…eight medical staffers [have been banned] from facilities statewide…officials [are trying] to [figure out how to cover up the] homicides…[but] Wolf was the ninth [victim] this year…and the 33rd…since 2023. [Politician] Carolyn Scruggs…wrote that…the [screws]…had violated “basic human decency”…to…[a greater] extent [than the ordinary violations of basic human decency inherent in locking human beings up in cages]…Just two weeks before Wolf’s death…Kelvin Hite…was also killed at Roxbury…
When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?
A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in]…New Jersey [schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been arrested for] sexually assaulting an underage girl. [Louis J.] Baselice…[groomed and enticed the girl by buying her] an electric scooter…a…cell phone…and…food. [He was reported by her friends]…
Because this worked so well when it was tried next door in the UK:
[Irish politicians] seek…to [invent crim]es relating to the possession, production or distribution of extreme or violent pornography, and acts of necrophilia…Minister Jim O’Callaghan [promied the scheme by absurdly barfing]…”contributes to perpetuating misogynistic attitudes” [in a government know for misogynistic laws against abortion, sex work, etc]…
Most federal courts below the SCOTUS level are still doing their jobs:
…Mayday Health runs a website with information about where people can obtain abortion pills…[but] doesn’t provide abortion pill prescriptions itself…Nonetheless, South Dakota has been engaged in a monthslong First Amendment battle with the group, [absurdly claim]ing…the [First Amendment doesn’t apply to speech about]…abortion…Mayday sued…[over the] unconstitutional [censorship attempt and] U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler seems poised to agree…[as she has] issued a preliminary injunction against South Dakota enforcing the law against Mayday or against…[politician] Nancy Turbak Berry….[for] wearing a Mayday sweatshirt…with…the…[same] message…[as] on Mayday’s gas station placards…South Dakota’s abortion advertising law is a[n illegal] content-based restriction on speech…Commercial speech is generally held to receive less First Amendment protection than non-commercial speech. But Mayday’s website is not commercial speech, as…”there is no evidence that Mayday holds an economic motivation for its advertisements…Rather, [it]…is a nonprofit organization expressing a moral belief and providing information for free”…
These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:
[Perve]rt glasses might seem like a great way of cheating on exams, [if you]…are [a moral imbecile], but…[it may result in legal] consequences …A…South Korea[n] man is facing criminal charges…after using [perve]rt glasses to cheat on a state-run fire engineer test in May. [When] he was…[caught by the test] administrator…he…pretty much copped to the entire thing…This isn’t the first instance where [perve]rt glasses have been at the center of an academic cheating scandal, but it’s a particularly [serious] one given the context of the exam…it’s fair to say that someone’s competency could be a contributing factor in whether people live or die…
The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:
Senator Ed Markey…rolled out what he [advertises as] an “AI Accountability Agenda”…[but in reality] he wants to [put] unchecked power [to spy on and censor the internet]…into the hands of the American [government]…Two bills in the s[cheme]…move the internet toward a place where you prove your age before you read a page or say anything on it…[one is] brand[ed] COPPA 2.0…[and] lifts the age of a [restri]cted user from under 13 to under 17, then rewrites the rule that decides when a company is liable…[so] an ordinary website…has to judge whether some hypothetical reasonable person would have figured out that a visitor was under 17. If you guess wrong, the Federal [Government] can [destroy your business]. The cheapest way to stop guessing is to card everyone at the door…Age gates…stand between a reader and everyone else’s expression, and they turn speaking up into a chore rather than a reflex…
Politicians love aping each other’s schemes while also ignoring their failure:
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that a European Union–wide identity verification scheme for social media users may be coming soon…[saying] “It is up to [the government] to decide when children…can join social media”…[and] touting the European Commission’s [failed] age-verification app…In truly Orwellian fashion, von der Leyen claimed that “this is about putting power back into the hands of parents”…despite report after report suggesting that Australia’s ban is a flop…politicians in the U.S. and in the U.K. are rushing to emulate Australia. Now, it looks like the whole of the European Union could be next…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Tattletales
Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged adolescence, agency denial, cops, ethics, law, psychology, surveillance, teachers on July 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As a weird kid of the ’70s, I advise the weird kids of today not to trust any of your secrets to any adult who is an “authority” of any kind: not teachers, not clergy, not doctors or therapists. If you want adult guidance, you need to find a cool, wise adult who cannot be compelled by law to tattle. When I was a teen this was an easier decision to make, in a way; most adult authority-figures just spouted the party line, and very few pretended to be trustworthy people a troubled teen could confide in. Plus, even if one guessed wrong about an adult’s discretion, there were no “compelled snitch” laws, so unless the wrongly-trusted adult was a complete asshole it was usually OK. But teens of today live in a metastasizing surveillance state, and any adult in an position of authority can be threatened with violence and the destruction of their entire professional future if they refuse to aid governmental snooping into your private affairs. I’m sorry my generational cohort failed y’all like this. But if you have shitty parents, you’re going to have to assume that EVERYONE in loco parentis will be equally shitty. You will need to find that rare specimen, an adult who respects your self-ownership. And they can almost never be found in institutions.
The Invasion of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged blogging, Bluesky, ethics, left-right myth, psychology, Twitter, Washington (state) on July 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Slaughter of Throwback Thursday
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged Aladdin’s Satellite, animals, artificial stupidity, blogging, cops, ethics, politicians, psychology, Sunset, surveillance, teachers, video, Welcome to the Future on July 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Scientists who create weapons of oppression…are moral imbeciles. – “Welcome to the Future (#1252)”
The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again. – “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and…um…”
I’m only just beginning to internalize that yes, it really is okay to keep slowing down, rather than just saying it aloud but not really believing it. – “Fourteenth Anniversary”
Chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!” – “Aladdin’s Satellite”
In the News (#1653)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, Bluesky, cell phones, consensual crime, cops, drugs, Enshittification, ethics, fascism, Florida, Google, I Spy, internet, law, Panopticon, propaganda, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, robots, sporting events, surveillance, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, The Vultures Descend, transgender, universal criminality, Unsafe for Human Consumption, Walled Garden on July 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
My supervisor…[saw a chatbot] as a digital priest whose primary purpose was to confirm that he was right and everyone else was mistaken.
The Last Shall Be First (#1523)
SCOTUS legalizes sexual assault of minor-age female athletes:
The Supreme Court…uph[e]ld…West Virginia’s and Idaho’s laws that [demand female] athletes [submit to unwanted physical examinations without parental consent]…[to] compet[e] in girls’ sports…[if someone accuses them of being transgender]. This decision has implications for 25 other states with similar laws…
As is typical in our sick society, most coverage of the story focuses on the supposed intent of the laws rather than the actual consequences to female athletes.
The Trump [regime]’s new [mass surveillance] strategy [uses]…the [psychotic “]war[“] on [the important clinical medicine] fentanyl…[to justify] a national surveillance system [unconstitutionally] built from…[routinely-abused] prescription…[monitoring databases], toxicology results, wastewater, electronic health records, license plate scans, and [whatever other private information can be illegally gathered by cops, spooks, and goons]…the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy [threatens]…to “fully resource and empower” [Father]land Security Task Forces, “le[t chatbots kill people],” and “[violate the Privacy Act of 1974]” [in order]…to…[de facto abolish] HIPAA…[and make] patient privacy [a dead letter]. No[thing]…would prevent [the] system…from being used to monitor abortion, pregnancy, gender transition, methadone treatment, protest activity, or any other behavior a future [regime] decides to target…
The open internet is becoming a thing of the past:
Texas users of…Bluesky were [prevented from signing in without using an algorithm]…to verify their ages…[by] putting in the last four digits of their Social Security Number, inputting a credit card number or having their driver’s license scanned…the “App Store Accountability Act,” [which] requires companies that run app marketplaces like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages…was [recently un]blocked by…[the deeply-authoritarian 5th circuit, but it does not require social media age surveillance]. Bluesky told some users who asked [tha]t the age verification [demand] was a “known bug”…
Thanks to fascism, this decision was stillborn:
The U.S. Supreme Court has…ruled…that “geofence warrants” count as a “search” under the Constitution and therefore trigger the Fourth Amendment’s safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The geofence warrant at issue in…Chatrie v. United States…was issued to Google…[and] led to the arrest of Okello Chatrie…[whose] lawyers argued that this police tactic amounted to…the very sort of sweeping assault on civil liberties that the Fourth Amendment was originally enshrined to protect…
Unfortunately, surveillance software from a company called Penlink, which is already owned by hundreds of cop shops and goon squads, allows pigs and goons to do this at will without having to go to court for a warrant or deal with Google. So this is only a “win” on paper.
Everything I read about modern work makes me happier I became a whore:
…numerous employees…spoke to Futurism about their experience with [chatbot]-obsessed bosses, relaying feelings of frustration and anger as managers and executives use the tech to barrage staff with nonsensical directives, unnecessary work, and perpetual pivoting…it’s a distinct new type of toxic work environment for the slop era. Slate found more evidence for the phenomenon earlier this year; one worker told the publication that managers “are getting cavities in their brains” due to the tech. In some cases, employees…felt as though their employers had started living in a completely different reality. The workplace had become a constant battle between [actual] reality versus [chatbot-driven delusion]s — and their boss…always chose the latter…
These companies need to be sued until they’re completely annihilated:
[A] coalition of [almost 400] local newspaper publishers [has] filed a federal lawsuit…against OpenAI and Microsoft…[because] the…companies systematically [plagiariz]ed copyrighted reporting…to train and develop [chatbots], including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, without permission or compensation…violating the Copyright Act and threatening the future of local journalism…OpenAI knowingly stripped copyright management information from publishers’ work — including author bylines, copyright notices, and terms of use information — in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…OpenAI founder Sam Altman…a[dmitt]ed during testimony before the British House of Lords that it would be “impossible to train [chatbots] without using copyrighted materials”…Although major national news organizations and prominent authors have previously sued OpenAI and Microsoft over similar [violation]s, the new case marks the largest coordinated legal effort by local and regional newspapers [to shut down these plagiarism machines]…
Government thugs don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their evil:
…Florida [cops] arrested a man and held him in jail for nearly three months based on a bad facial recognition result…In April 2025, a man in Jacksonville…purchased a car from someone he met in a grocery store parking lot. When he learned the car was stolen, he reported the crime…[lazy pigs] ran [surveillance footage] through facial recognition software, which flagged Jalil Richardson…[despite the fact that he] lived in Charlotte, North Carolina—400 miles away…[and] time cards showed Richardson was at work when the suspect was selling a stolen car in Jacksonville. But [cops didn’t care, so] Richardson was arrested in North Carolina and held for 33 days…[then] extradited to Jacksonville and held for another 53 days. Prosecutors finally dropped the charges and released him[, but not before] he had…[l]ost…his job, his house, and custody of two of his children…
Jacksonville cops are just as psychopathically-unconcerned with the innocence of people they target as those in Detroit are.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Atom Age Throwback Thursday
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged blogging, Catholicism, ethics, imaginative fiction, language, Mad Libs, psychology, STEM on June 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’ve always thought [“inflation”] was a serious misnomer, because the problem isn’t really that prices are going up; it’s that the value of the currency is going down. –
“When Ends Don’t Meet”
The one moral concept from my Catholic upbringing which has remained steadfastly lodged in my head is that waste is a sin. – “Throwback Thursdays”
While traditional zombies are objects of horror to be feared, modern “zombies” are objects of loathing, to be exterminated…they…are people it’s OK to hate and even kill without having to worry about their rights, a fantasy outlet for violent impulses. – “Why Zombies?”
Digital computers…are fundamentally unable to think as we understand the concept, regardless of how big or fast they are or how complex the software, because intelligence requires grasping the concept “maybe”, which is excluded by binary data processing. – “Mad Libs (#1546)“
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