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  • 26 Comments
Joined 5 months ago
Cake day: February 16th, 2026
  • metermatic26@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•Did anyone else note that emphasizes of tolerance/respect over merit, and this causes accumulation of degradation, corruption and Third world traits?
    6·
    11 days ago

    Yes, absolutely. Its by no means scientific (at least I’m not aware of any research on the subject), but I have worked with colleagues from Mumbai for years and I have experienced many situations in which socials norms -especially adherence to hierarchy- strongly hampered results.

    In fact, this is by no means an issue limited to the Third world. In my experience this issue also pops up a lot in sectors of Western economies, such as banking, hospitals or construction. Companies that strongly value hierarchy tend to have persistent problems with things like workplace safety, compliance and innovation.

    In fact, we have an unique example of how values and beliefs can hamper effectiveness and results in the form of the Trump administration. Trump blatantly favors loyalty and obedience over competence. He has effectively purged nearly all offices of government of political opponents, but in doing so he has filled the ranks with unapologetic yes-men who are utterly incompetent at their assigned task. The speed with which this has degraded the US economy, military power, political influence etc. is absolutely astounding and is very similar to countries considered ‘Third World’.

  • metermatic26@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•How do you feel about financing a genocide?
    1·
    14 days ago

    I get your point: by engaging in this social, economical and political system we are all complicit in the crimes perpetrated in Gaza. But moralism alone won’t actually get you far. The problem isn’t our collective lack of morals, it’s a lack of power.

    Case in point: I live in the Netherlands, and a lot of people I know actually do feel deeply uncomfortable by this. Some actually did take to the streets in mass for several weeks. Btw, I am talking about retirees and young mothers, so not your average leftist student either.

    However those that did protest quickly learned a lesson about class struggle in a Western democracy: our right-winged parlement didn’t budge an inch. Instead it turned the PR-machine on them, branding them as ‘troublemakers‘, ‘wokists’ and even ‘Islamic youths’. After building the narrative for several days, it started to deploy the riot police. And once they’d mopped up the demonstrators, they blamed the damages on the heartless, antisocial demonstrators who wreaked havoc on our peaceful society.

    When faced with state propaganda and state violence, most protesters eventually give up. Gaza is too distant an issue for them to risk sacrificing their social status, relationships or even personal safety. People nowadays are also deeply apolitical, so these protests typically aren’t part of any rooted and well organized opposition.

    Back in the 1960’s or 1970’s you had workers parties that would actually connect different groups and social issues to the wider narrative of class struggle and organize sustained and effective opposition. Workers parties could actually throw in in their weight to somewhat counterbalance the state narrative and even attempts at suppressing protests.

    But the fall of communism and the rise of neoliberalism effectively killed the political left. Conservatism and corporatism are now the leading ideologies in Western governments. Therefore solidarity with Gaza is quickly branded as extremism. And if the movement then doesn’t dissipate on its own, it is often actively suppressed.

  • metermatic26@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Why Students Are Rejecting Silicon Valley's Vision Of The FutureEnglish
    41·
    15 days ago

    Let’s all just pauze for a moment and try to take in the utter stupidity of Big Tech and US capitalism.

    AI has been a thing for over ten years. Even before LLM’s we were doing great things with self-learning algorithms and there was a great deal of enthousiasm about where this technology would take us.

    Fast forward to today and the blatant incompetence of AI agents, LLM’s or VLM’s to perform even the most simple tasks, stands in stark contrast to the billions being thrown at tech companies, to the hundreds of data centers popping up to fuel Big Tech’s hot air balloon, to greedy eagerness of corporate America to replace skilled workers with untested and unproven technology and to the devastating effects this AI bubble is having on the real economy.

    Don’t get me wrong, AI is definitely the future (even if LLM’s are not). But this AI bubble is an utter waste of capital, resources and talent that could’ve been used to fuel actual AI development and innovation. What we’re seeing is not the birth of a bright new future, but the death throes of a dysfunctional political and economic system.

  • metermatic26@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•School Phone Bans: Great Politics, Mediocre Education PolicyEnglish
    221·
    28 days ago

    Banning smart phones in class is a no brainer if you want students to actually pay attention in class. But I’m baffled that they actually expected this ban to meaningfully improve test results.

    Getting good grades involves doing your homework, prepping for tests, getting enough sleep to maintain your focus. All of which are done outside the classroom. If social media addiction is really the cause of plummeting school results, them banning phones inside the classroom is not going to solve the problem.

    That’s like telling a junkie he can’t do drugs in class, but he can get his heroin back after school.