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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 27th, 2023

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  • Your stats about hate crimes (102 anti-trans hate crimes in a city of 3.9 million) don’t amount to much when taking into account the 3/4 of the middle east that encourages them, and their hate crimes usually end up in a hate mob hate burning someone to death.

    She was also frightened the person was going to run her over, there is never a clear mention of an attempt. You can’t compare that to Sudan and their civil war for example.

    Idk, when I hear refugee, fleeing the country comes to mind and there’s a clear danger. I just don’t see it at this time. Like, there’s a problem but there’s also trans hotlines and help groups, resources and ways to escape inside the country from even the worst of places. There’s no gay hotline in Iran. There’s no “I snitched on the cartels” help groups in Mexico. We are talking about vastly different worlds and dangers here.



  • It’s not that you’re less dead, it’s that there are less chance of it happening in San Fransisco than in Saudi Arabia. Stop twisting my words please.

    Same for your PS. I never said only. It does augment the chances of it happening if it’s your government thought, since you would be handed to them. Most gangs are deeply embedded in the government in Latin America, I would say it’s essentially the same.

    It isn’t black and white and these things do need to be taken into account. Right now, it sounds like your are saying sending this person back to SF and sending the person next to them back to Saudi Arabia are the same.

    It sucks that we have to pick who deserves to have asylum. Its a shitty system but how likely that person is to die or worse if they go back should definitely be part of the thought process.




  • Well I do have a problem with worldwide quotas and immigration in general, I wish our borders were much more open. Look, I’m just saying that someone from San Fransisco probably has other options available and shouldn’t lean on a system that’s already strained. There’s genocides and civil wars going on. Being gay is a death sentence in 8 countries. A lot of displaced women and girls have asylum or sex trade as a choice, they simply don’t have options.

    I don’t think it’s wrong to say we need to triage and prioritize certain problems because of lack of resources. It doesn’t mean the ones not chosen don’t exist or that the whole system shouldn’t have more resources.


  • I know it’s a tough time but I have trouble imagining it being that bad in SF. I know the situation isn’t ideal but there are only so many places available for refugees each year and some people applying are actually expecting death or worse if they go back.

    Seems to be a bit tone deaf imo, we aren’t at that point yet, at least not in San Fransisco. I would be livid if I was from somewhere with an actual civil war, where whole villages are getting wiped, and see my spot get taken by someone from Cali.

    I want to be clear I think there is a problem with how transgender folk are being treated, but I think the asylum system has a lot of bigger ones to deal with and its already struggling with those. I wish other countries stepped up and offered easier immigration if you’re transgender or something. This just feels like the wrong way to do it.



  • Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey has trademarked his image and voice to protect them from unauthorised use by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms.

    Clips including his famous catchphrase “alright, alright, alright” from the 1993 film, Dazed and Confused, have been registered to the United States Patent and Trademark Office database, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

    Lawyers for the Magic Mike star told the WSJ they had no current examples of McConaughey’s likeness being manipulated by AI, but hoped the trademarks could be used broadly against any unauthorised copies of him.

    A secondary aim would be to “capture some of the value that is being created with this new technology”, Kevin Yorn - one of the lawyers representing McConaughey - told the AFP news agency.“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it”, McConaughey said via email to the newspaper.

    “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world”.McConaughey is not a hardline opponent of generative AI.

    He has a stake in ElevenLabs, a software company specialising in AI voice modelling “for several years now”, according to the 56-year-old.

    The company has created an AI audio version of the ‘Interstellar’ actor, with his permission.

    I felt the headline is a bit misleading. It seems he is just using the clips as examples of his work to copyright his likeness, which is more than fair. Laws around deepfakes are seriously lacking.

    I just hope the court are able to differentiate between a model being able to reproduce someone’s likeness and someone actually doing it and distributing the material. The former is impossible to stop without gutting free local models because of how image to video works.


  • Look, if the minimum wage is half a dollar, I doubt the doctors are making 100k a year. I don’t consider us a great country, but it’s easier to immigrate here than Luxembourg which is my point. It’s not the best but it’s easily better than half the world, and the best places have stricter requirements that make it impossible for most. Mind you, even immigrating here was hard before trump, just easier than better places.

    It just seems hollow to tell people to stay home and find somewhere better, when their choice are between here and Iran for example.

    I also don’t think it’s fair, the current state of the world is a direct consequence of the colonial and imperialistic mindset. You still have to be realistic and honest about it.





  • I misspoke when I said “most”. I’m just saying that with all its faults, there are many worst places to live in.

    Certain countries are in the middle of civil wars, even genocide. Being gay is a death sentence in others while women rights in many basically don’t exist.

    We also don’t have open borders, it’s not like people get a list with every country and all they have to do is pick.

    It strikes me as first world problems and not understanding the actual living conditions in half the world or how immigration works to say “why would anyone come here”.





  • It’s beside the point. I’m simply saying that AI will improve in the next year. The cost to do so or all the others things that money could be spent on doesn’t matter when it’s clearly going to be spent on AI. I’m not in charge of monetary policies anywhere, I have no say in the matter. I’m just pushing back on the fantasies. I’m hoping the open source scene survives so we don’t end up in some ugly dystopia where all AI is controlled by a handful of companies.