ClaraBlackInk

Writer, Artist and Bookdragon with a varied interest in science, history, humanities, biology, technology, food and books.

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Last Notes

2026-01-21 17:16:08 GMT

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We should but, like I say, education has been captured for some time.
It relates to us constantly chasing power. We brought war criminals into our scirnce, tech and government under Project Paperclip. That made a difference in our post war "victory" because we were greedy for that knowledge. Our government hid this because survivors & veterans would have been beyond pissed.

2026-01-21 10:01:23 GMT

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I won't excuse them not getting additional education outside of school but the baseline wasn't great and I think its understandable that if an educational system is actually good there should be a similar baseline on subjects like history.
Even if many Americans did pay attention in class, for many these lessons were left out because they were thought to be too advanced*.
*Texas has had a stranglehold of textbooks so there's that too.

2026-01-21 09:57:21 GMT

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We don't get taught much of the history in school until college. Even in California, which people often point to as progressive in education, we weren't reliably taught much of this history.
I was taught by my parents because both had personal connections to the histories that lead us here. But, a lot of history in grade school was more about American exceptionalism and how capitalism has led to endless progress.
That's the age cohort of a lot of these guys.

2026-01-20 06:40:59 GMT

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I presume you were born in the 1900s?
My side eye over aging was when folks were trying to make "geriatric millenial" happen.
It all makes those "over the hill" cards my parents got at 40 look positively thoughtful.

2026-01-10 08:10:55 GMT

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I picture something like this: https://www.shopterrain.com/shop/stargazer-waterproof-led-light-strand-party-pack-set-of-6?color=000
But, I haven't encountered a motion sensored version.

2026-01-09 22:30:33 GMT

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The funding that came into science from Epstein and his associates as well as how often he socialized with scientists means that they were either involved or being intellectually groomed to accept many of the ideas of that circle in order to access funding.
It is something that requires a reckoning. These guys bring in pseudoscience alongside their science to justify how they want to treat those they want things from. That's exactly what this means.

2025-12-27 18:48:38 GMT

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There's been a lot of propaganda by a variety of people that has sold art as only entertainment (for self or others). Companies like Disney do it because it makes creative folks more willing to compromise vision for limited profit, folks in other industries promote this idea because it gives them a surplus of creative folks to advertise their products and folks in power do it because they want to limit the understanding of ideas as power.
@npub1san…jgxu @npub16nw…ulpa @npub1ppe…qv2g @npub1jsj…dtg9

2025-12-27 18:44:39 GMT

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The: car=freedom idea has been reinforced via advertising.
During the part of 2020 where things had been shut down but some people wanted reopenings, I saw a dramatic increase in car ads that leaned heavily into car means freedom. The cruise companies also advertised like this.
Creative folks need to be re-empowered by the understanding that imagation is a huge source of power in the world. It isn't just entertainment.
@npub1san…jgxu @npub16nw…ulpa @npub1ppe…qv2g @npub1jsj…dtg9

2025-10-24 11:06:20 GMT

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I mentioned to a friend who usually sends postcards when traveling. She was skeptical as she's never had issues before.
I think we'll see the full effect of this plus cuts around the holidays.
Its all bleak but I hate that the only purpose of the postal service under this regime is junk mail. It always arrives in tact and it wastes everyone's time.

2025-10-04 10:03:19 GMT

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I see it as tech bros being in denial that tech has "peaked" and become infrastructure.
Which isn't to say no innovation ever. Just, what people want and need from tech is largely infrastructure. It isn't sexy and it doesn't require some major, novel reconfiguration you hold unique rights to.
Infrastructure requires maintenance. These folks don't even maintain their hygiene.

2025-10-02 08:36:34 GMT

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Absolutely.
When you've encountered it, has it more commonly been writers from the UK or is it usually writers from elsewhere?
Something similar happens with the area I'm from being commonly fictionalized in lazy ways. Its extremely aspirational and I've never seen it done well from someone who isn't somewhat local.
I've always thought that Oxford is used similarly by writers to create a fantasy archetype of a real place compiled via mood board.

2025-10-02 07:58:06 GMT

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The aesthetics of academia over the curiosity about academia.
I suppose some writers get caught up in the shorthand of elite institutions they perhaps wish they'd attended.

2025-08-25 09:03:58 GMT

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I rewatched Modern Times a few years ago and it hit so much harder than I expected.
My parents had the whole Chaplin collection and we watched all through my childhood. Same with Fiddler on the Roof.
Chaplin's films especially come to mind these days. He captured a lot of the experiences of his childhood in stark detail alongside the humor.

2025-08-13 14:05:43 GMT

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Which, is especially important to recognize if we want to break this spell we're under.
Tech bros are saying that data centers are more valuable than water. That pixels are more valuable than all life on earth.
They are attempting an end game table flip and we all need to recognize that.

2025-08-13 14:03:38 GMT

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I think gaming spaces make it easier to see some of these psychological effects because you can generate wealth out of thin air and you can tune games to be more or less socially rewarding or competitive.
Wealth in life is also similar to in game resources except that it correlates to real resources but, especially with tge most wealthy, that is somewhat false. Many resources are under or overvalued in order to tweak those calculations.

2025-08-13 13:56:09 GMT

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People who play games for fun tend to be less shitty when the stakes are raised. The ones who see winning as something related to their identity are just beastly about even the smallest hint that someone might be slightly better for a brief moment.
It seems similar with wealth. The more it is correlated to identity, the shittier the people who have it and want it are.
But, there is the underlying anxiety and fear that they are masking.

2025-08-13 13:52:21 GMT

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This is a big part of it.
I played Monopoly with my cousins every summer for years and I watched my somewhat egotistic but generally kind cousin turn nasty the one time he lost to me. Playing certain games with certain people you'll really see that transformative effect of the idea that being smart = winning and how the pressure and ego begin to reveal underlying mental health issues.
Competitiveness vs social engagement makes a difference here

2025-08-13 08:22:46 GMT

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And, I think this in and of itself is the whole underlying psychology that is running around unchecked within Silicon Valley and now the world.
It is clearly a range of mental health issues that go alongside being smart in a certain way and not being given way more actual coping skills for being a human being, being around human beings and communicating with said human beings.
There's so much unchecked mental illness that's been set free with AI...

2025-08-13 08:20:23 GMT

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(Some) Men have this way of covering their deepest, darkest feelings of pessimism with this airheaded optimism that falls apart with the smallest amount of inquiry.
The tech related conversations I've had with some men I've known have run this weird (but now familiar) range of praising how tech will save us because it will allow us to essentially have a Star Trek universe while also saying that most of humanity should die because they're too stupid...

2025-08-12 09:57:00 GMT

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Minimalist finance

2025-07-22 16:11:19 GMT

#ScribesAndMakers Share something you've created. Tell us the story behind it
I worked on this piece while struggling with health issues. I wanted to have a piece that layered writing with abstract painting. There was a phrase "don't forget, you are loved" that became the centerpiece.
Struggling to recover my energy was this horrifying thing because it shrunk my life to a pinpoint. The depths were dark and it feels like struggling against an ocean to stay afloat.
So the piece is a mantra...
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/114/897/731/976/047/284/original/ab041c900cedf7e6.jpg

2025-07-03 14:11:23 GMT

I'm dying over this reddit comment. Not saying that it is wrong but the framing of books as "old timey entertainment" is funny to me. Like my grandpa talking about farming using mules.
#bookstodon #reading #books
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/114/789/690/187/335/345/original/24fbb3cdb725cf6f.jpg

2025-06-29 15:42:08 GMT

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There's that but also, people have had to dumb down as well. People are often doing the work of multiple people in understaffed positions and this removes a lot of intelligence from people's interactions.
There are often times when I'm dealing with overworked people who have clearly given up and its like...yeah...you might be able to use LLMs here. But, also, all that money being poured into these grifts could revitalize human intelligence.

2025-05-18 11:59:31 GMT

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The chocolate craving is apparently associated with a need for magnesium but I was just going to guess its to give them sonething nice because being homeless while on your period sounds incredibly miserable (limited/no bathroom access while on a period seems like a layer of hell). A little comfort is probably a nice bonus.

2025-05-12 08:52:16 GMT

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The problem being that efficency is so contextual.
And this is where artists are usually so troublesome. We can find a million ways to capture the tree, a million different angles that challenge the notion of efficencies.
All to say, yes, the idea is that the artist existing is less efficient than AI and thus the artist is expected to abandon hope and do other work if they wish to eat.
And its always been a shitty idea and always will be.

2025-05-12 08:47:38 GMT

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Art has that capacity to show you that a tree can be a beautiful thing that provides shade, that changes colors depending on the season or the light, provides a whole ecosystem, makes wonderful music as the wind moves its leaves and limbs and that it is one of many wonderous things you could spend a lifetime just enjoying for free.
Tech offers efficencies and says that tree has value only as it is useful. It matches use to profit and utilizes the tree...

2025-05-12 08:42:14 GMT

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I mean, its a eugenics argument.
Tech and eugenics are interlinked in ways that are important to understand. We've witnessed it in the past and the same arguments are being made today.
The devaluing of art and artists is intentional. Art is a way for anyone to deeply engage with their world at a fairly low costs and it reinforces a sense of awe that fights dehumanization. If you're making art for fun you're not producing value for an owner. And you also see beyond commodification.

2025-05-11 13:06:20 GMT

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I'm also bummed that search engines no longer help you find the most popular reliable or semi reliable website for a topic.
This used to be best within niches but now I really need a hunan to recommend niche sites because I no longer consider search engines reliable. They're something to be navigated but not trusted.
Though that's also on all the folks who gamed search engines to boost their traffic. It isn't only the companies.
@npub1ppe…qv2g

2025-05-09 13:09:45 GMT

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I've never seen ads for walking or biking but arguably there should be.
There are a lot of cool things to highlight about the experience for people who have forgotten what either offer. They're more than practical modes of transportation. People typically think about the downsides (being in the elements) because they don't have enough experiences to pull from.

2025-05-09 13:04:59 GMT

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As a non driver I've always noticed car ads and the way they talk about the "freedom of the road".
Walking is my version of everything in those ads BUT car adverts always showcase driving in scenarios that drivers almost never actually experience. When I've been asked about why I don't drive, people inevitably point to how "freeing" that driving is and they're shocked when I say that I find walking to be freeing.
Its clear that ads shape that perception...

2025-04-08 09:05:44 GMT

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I rely on there being bad reviews of some sort when I look at popular books that are heavily recommended.
If a book has exclusively positive reviews it feels wrong to me. A review isn't as much about the quality of the book as it is about how the work resonates with the reader. A polarizing book can be complex and compelling. Sometimes its the subject matter, sometimes its the writing or the writer.
I like reading the rant and often a bad review makes me interested.

2025-04-03 13:39:21 GMT

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Watching this unfold after having spent the last few years reading various texts that indicated exactly how this would unfold...
I feel like a lot of people are simply watching it in real time as though it's one of those tv shows where you can tell by the second episode that it's a terrible series but everyone genuinely believes the writers will pull it together in the end. They never do and people feel outraged for giving believed.
I don't know if it is optimism + ignorance...

2025-03-03 10:53:09 GMT

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What a weird read.

2025-02-22 01:57:48 GMT

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You laugh but someone I know peripherally did that with stickers on Etsy. She'd steal other people's designs and make money selling the stolen designs. Her store got shut down but she just started a new one.
I don't think she ever made a ton of money from the stores but it supplemented her shitty wages. I think that's a lot of the audience for these grifts.

2025-02-19 13:56:17 GMT

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When discussing this type of tech (both nuclear and AI) it seems like the pro-tech folks I've talked with start at the vantage point of assuming that arguments against are misinformed by a lack of faith or knowledge of science. They see themselves as cautious people and assume that the people smart enough to set up these high tech operations are equally smart.
But the argument against each new tech is always about human nature not typically against knowledge itself.

2025-01-29 17:35:41 GMT

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Not to be dense but isn't a tool only as useful as the person who wields it?
Which is to say, some folks pick up a hammer and hit people over the head with it. Others use it to build with. The tool has certain capacities and limitations (a hammer isn't going to help you harvest wheat, unless perhaps you use it to threaten someone so they harvest for you). But, it is also limited by the imagination of those who use it.

2024-12-30 16:36:16 GMT

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Arguably, things that people see as "woke" are attempts at combining morality plays with a consumable work and as such there's an extreme split between those who "get" it and those who feel directly attacked which a consumable isn't supposed to do. It's supposed to comfort you, make you feel "good" (cathartic sadness counts) but it isn't supposed to challenge your beliefs.

2024-12-30 16:33:46 GMT

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Id say that part of it happened as all forms of media became about the audience rather than the artistic vision or morality play.
The centering onto the audience as a consumer of an artistic creation rather than someone being invited into a world where you're guided towards a specific end point changes how the audience arrives at a work and what they demand from it.

2024-12-30 13:13:58 GMT

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I think you're right on so many points. I come from an old school watching background but I think my ex husband consumes media more in line with how people currently do and it's been interesting (and depressing) to see people trend towards his style over time.
He's older but he never "got" English classes and I use the word consume because it's most accurate.
There was a surface enjoyment but it was usually background (while playing video games or working).

2024-12-16 22:11:33 GMT

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The line art cat is my favorite but I'm also curious which ones are the art that you're most interested in featuring/are your most popular pieces. I think I'd go with whichever one was most representative of your current work and the art that you're most interested in getting commissions/sales/recognition for.

2024-12-16 07:31:03 GMT

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 16: What would be the best writing-related Christmas present someone could give you?
A morning without responsibilities such that I could have my truly ideal writing day.
The cats wake me up in the morning and I miss being able to wake up and write immediately. That was something I did in my late teens. It's a different state of mind and although I have a different functional routine, it's something I miss.
Now, gotta get the cats fed 😅
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/661/315/034/032/534/original/60384fbcc2b5a565.jpg

2024-12-10 17:00:10 GMT

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I think we're going to have deep knowledge gaps. Which already exist but it feels like a ton of people are willingly giving up their own knowledge and others are willing to gobble up access to real expertise to gatekeep it.
Which absolutely is dangerous.
I think this is what is not understood by those looking to profit off of gatekeeping knowledge. Making people stupid takes away from their ability to self regulate and creates deeper resentment towards those who keep it.

2024-12-10 11:22:40 GMT

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It makes sense that the general public doesn't know.
There's an ad I see sometimes that basically says that AI makes it so you never have to pick two out of three of the: cheaper, faster or better compromise.
As long as marketing departments are the ones reaching out about AI, the average person is likely to believe that somehow it's innovative and because it's being adopted it must be good.
Reaching out to people makes a difference, but it's a slow process.

2024-11-22 15:36:21 GMT

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I'm guessing that for you, these other projects fit better into what's going on in your life right now (they don't take away from your limited focus or energy).
Once I got more flexible about my relationship with writing it became easier to accept that sort of energy/focus aspect and how it enbs and flows with different projects and mediums.

2024-11-22 15:32:59 GMT

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I used to feel like it was a crisis when I couldn't write every day.
Over the last few years I've recognized that writing is like any other activity, it takes a lot of energy and focus. I think we're taught to see it as "easy" and so it's hard to recognize that if there are other issues going on that require your energy and/or focus that those will naturally take away from the writing. Or you'll ignore those things and write. But that you can't do both all the time.

2024-10-23 22:31:50 GMT

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I think a lot of it comes from an abundant material/science education without the requisite ethics to actually discuss what implementation means under real circumstances.
Great science classes actually do discuss these aspects but I think if you look at how people who have specialized in those areas think about tech and policy, it's clear that it's not been taught in practical and meaningful ways.

2024-10-23 18:36:13 GMT

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I think, seeing how it could fester in an educational environment among smart, often compassionate and interesting people made it easier for me to grasp.
And then a job in that same city where the business owners pitted two managers against each other and I watched as this destroyed the business--that prepared me for the political environment we've been in. And it was still shocking to see it at such a scale.
Fin/

2024-10-23 18:31:08 GMT

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She seemed fairly "normal" in class, fairly average during discussions but she thought it was common sense to want to get rid of "bad" genes.
It was weird being face to face with that and it was weirder that no one else seemed especially flummoxed by what she said.
It haunted me ever after.
Other things happened before and after I attended that college that also reinforced my sense that whatever this is it's always there in any society.
2/

2024-10-23 18:26:48 GMT

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When I was in college (2009ish) there was a girl in my English class.
It was a literature and tech class that covered a lot of fiction that was dystopian and the subject of eugenics was vaguely within a few of the texts.
During a discussion, the girl couldn't understand why eugenics was bad. It was chilling to me because I'd been reading a lot of WWII related books about the history beyond the war itself and into the weeds of why it happened.
1/

2024-02-25 09:59:30 GMT

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I think there's this weird missing piece in the puzzle, books ARE wealth. Full stop.
They represent genuine riches and enrichment. The main absurdity of a book that is never intended to be read is that it's like having a pile of money you do nothing with. It ends up being just paper.
A large library doesn't have to be constantly thumbed through to have value. Books go out of print & the promise that they can be read is also important. They are available to the curious.

2022-11-05 13:43:11 GMT

#introduction
Introductions make me nervous so, I put this off for a bit.
-I'm a #writer and an #artist
-I love #books
-I've become too casual to call myself a gamer but Cities Skylines continues to be a fav
-I enjoy #walking as exercise and philosophy
-Can't go wrong with #cats
I've been on a variety of social media and online social spaces since the mid-90s and am always looking for interesting communities.