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I wanna say something to people who work in tech-related jobs in America: this is still a field where most people hate the rise of fascism and want to stop it. I know the media & amplification of the tycoons makes it seem like that’s the whole industry. But it’s not. And we still have power.
@anildash
Where are the antifa devs plotting at
@alter_kaker @anildash I know it’s a joke, but for anyone reading:
don’t say shit that doesn’t need to be said
@alter_kaker @anildash 
fuck, that sucks man. Recent or historic?
I haven’t finished reading https://kolektiva.social/@hakan_geijer/112418649032167981 yet but you might already know it. You don’t deserve to be treated like that. 
@alter_kaker
Preach, man. Help who you can and live without regrets, but care for yourself as sustainably as possible.
@anildash
@alter_kaker @anildash subscribed!
#SURJ I guess?
https://surj.org/
@alter_kaker @anildash (But wherever it is, don't say it here!)
@alter_kaker @anildash if they’re any good nobody knows!
@anildash this. 100% this. it’s time.
Information @anildash Honestly I think we as a working sector need to get involved in politics more. Show folks that those of us building this world give a shit and how they can join us in building that better world.
@anildash I’m in information security and if nothing else, there’s certain kind of work I just won’t do.
@MisuseCase @anildash +1000, I got headhunted a few years back & offered twice what I was making at my current job ... By a weapons manufacturer 
@minusavenue @anildash When I started my career I wanted to work in the defense sector and now I’m kind of glad it didn’t work out that way
@minusavenue @MisuseCase @anildash I know it’s not for everyone, but doing a mediocre job barely enough to keep it is one way to hurt them. Don’t point out vulnerabilities unless you get a bonus for doing so. Don’t offer to do projects outside work hours. Don’t stay late. Take every break and PTO hour. Just enough to collect a big paycheck and prevent them from hiring someone more engaged in the industry. Be a leech.
@anildash I’ve turned down recruiters from Anduril twice now, does that help?
@anildash Wish that last sentence were true.
@anildash Maybe all tech workers need to strike in retaliation.
Time to throw a few wrenches into the machinery of fascism. There's never been a better time.
@anildash I hate to say it, but most of the tech bros I work with in Silicon Valley are total douchbags who view women as not-human cum receptacles and gay/trans people as not-human, and view compassion and kindness as weakness.
@heartofcoyote @anildash I am literally a hundred miles away from the fascism-loving tech bros now. I only deal with them on Zoom calls these days and if they start their bro shit I just leave the call and if they complain I'm like, "I thought you were done because you quit talking technical stuff and started talking BS." But they seem to be the majority of techies in the SF Bay area these days.
@nelrafa103 @badtux @anildash self selection. If you want to chase money and power, that's where to go.
@nelrafa103 @anildash Engineers have always been conservative. They avoid liberal arts in college as much as they're allowed, and hyperfocus on becoming expert in one single thing and then think that because they're an expert on Kubernetes and GoLang that makes them an expert on, say, homelessness. Reading from a diverse set of influences to learn how people who aren't engineers think is dismissed as a waste of time. #techbro #fail
This. Never ever ever work for a toxic CEO/Company/Manager. The world needs your skills. You deserve to be proud of your work and how it is being used.
@anildash most of us coordinated could shut down the entire country just by turning off the switches at the same time. maybe we should hang on to that one
What power?
Exactly, what?
You put your piece of paper in the box.
What other power do you have?
https://medium.com/@colingajewski/the-slow-death-of-american-democracy-a-warning-caae0e6aea70
@anildash lol. No we don’t. Will bet you any amount that when the bidding opens up for Trump concentration camps Amazon and google wills first in the door. 80b+
Per year? They won’t be able to stop themselves.
Let me introduce you to techniques that were used in Nazi factories during WW2:
1. 'Oopsies' where metal shavings accidentally got dropped into the lubrication of manufacturing equipment.
Every hour a metal press is out of commission for repairs means fewer V2 rockets landing in London.
2. Soldiers uniforms & boots so poorly sewed they fell apart upon their first use
https://www.dw.com/en/weimar-exhibit-honors-bauhaus-artists-nazi-resistance/a-4541709
Tech workers have an equally infinite capacity to ...
1/2
2/2
... sabotage a company's Nazi products. Even temporary delays in the DevOp are useful.
Malicious compliance & goldbricking can take many forms.
Poison the LLM's used in Saudi-funded AI with poor data quality practices? Never met a manager who wouldn't leap at a chance to reduce costs by cutting corners on quality.
Or introduce subtle flaws in a cryptocurrency algorithm?
This attack on democracy was funded by #KochNetwork, China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.
Payback is a b*tch.
@Npars01 https://www.openculture.com/2022/01/read-the-cias-simple-sabotage-field-manual.html if you need some more ideas
@anildash Sabotage is still a great subliminal deterrent.
@anildash Our would-be masters don’t understand the tools. If those who do decided to exploit that, the mayhem could be enormous.
@anildash
I wish I could believe this, but I don't. My experience is that the quisling tech industry is even more timid and cowardly than the journalists who "can't" close their twitter accounts.
"I't just a job", they say. I have lost close friends over this. People I thought were better.
@jwz @anildash I know you hate Microsoft a lot so I may suffer some wrath by association for this but
my last act at Microsoft was a six-month sabotage campaign against some (not very important but nonetheless complete) bullshit to keep it from shipping
i won
it never shipped and nobody picked it back up after i made it fail
sabotage campaigns work is what i'm saying and more people need to understand that maybe
@viq @jwz @anildash mostly organisational, which is pretty key.
i got other groups to say their version of this is used by no one, for example, and managed to get into a big argument about whether that was worth boosting our ram footprint by 20%. i launched an attempt to do instead a completely different approach to the thing which frankly was better and i got that process to eat a few weeks. i got another group to say they were going to implant a massively improved version that everyone would have to adopt in less than a year. (they did not do this and I was pretty confident they wouldn’t.) stuff like that.
@jwz @anildash I agree, I know people who continued to work at Facebook, who kept coming up with excuses for why the company might be doing some really evil stuff, but their particular project was a good one.
As for anti-fascism, there are a lot of immigrants working in the tech industry. Many seem to believe that they won't be targets. The illegal or low-skill immigrants will be targeted, but their skill makes them safe, especially if they keep their heads down and keep working hard.
The US citizens might be willing to voice their displeasure, but not to the extent it might cost them a cushy job.
It's not an industry I associate with having a backbone.
@anildash I was revisiting neveragain dot tech the other day. https://artlung.com/blog/2024/11/06/revisiting-neveragain-tech/ mass deportations were planned 8 years ago, too.
@anildash I have spent my career in technology, though I do electronic design automation which is less flashy. What you say is true of the rank and file as well as middle management. But the VCs and the heads of some of the most successful companies are increasingly toxic and fascist friendly.
@anildash And there are many who will close their eyes because it is just a job.
@anildash @dangillmor Sure, sure. Not All Tech Guys. I hear what you’re saying.
@anildash Fine. And where have you been for the last 8 years? There is no "rise" anymore. Fascism is there.
And what are you going to do? Destroying all the data and the infrastructure of your industry? Then quit? All of you? Because that is what is really needed.