#Distributism

[disgruntledexplainer]

boy, but i do love watching companies burn because of their own greed, callousness, disassociation from reality, and short-sighted decisions. It's delicious.

[spann-stann]

[eternal-echoes]

“The following norms seem useful for such cooperation:

a) Developing nations should take great pains to seek as the object for progress to express and secure the total human fulfillment of their citizens. They should bear in mind that progress arises and grows above all out of the labor and genius of the nations themselves because it has to be based, not only on foreign aid, but especially on the full utilization of their own resources, and on the development of their own culture and traditions. Those who exert the greatest influence on others should be outstanding in this respect.

b) On the other hand, it is a very important duty of the advanced nations to help the developing nations in discharging their above-mentioned responsibilities. They should therefore gladly carry out on their own home front those spiritual and material readjustments that are required for the realization of this universal cooperation.

Consequently, in business dealings with weaker and poorer nations, they should be careful to respect their profit, for these countries need the income they receive on the sale of their homemade products to support themselves.

c) It is the role of the international community to coordinate and promote development, but in such a way that the resources earmarked for this purpose will be allocated as effectively as possible, and with complete equity. It is likewise this community's duty, with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity, so to regulate economic relations throughout the world that these will be carried out in accordance with the norms of justice.

Suitable organizations should be set up to foster and regulate international business affairs, particularly with the underdeveloped countries, and to compensate for losses resulting from an excessive inequality of power among the various nations. This type of organization, in unison with technical cultural and financial aid, should provide the help which developing nations need so that they can advantageously pursue their own economic advancement.

d) In many cases there is an urgent need to revamp economic and social structures. But one must guard against proposals of technical solutions that are untimely. This is particularly true of those solutions providing man with material conveniences, but nevertheless contrary to man's spiritual nature and advancement. For "not by bread alone does man live, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). Every sector of the family of man carries within itself and in its best traditions some portion of the spiritual treasure entrusted by God to humanity, even though many may not be aware of the source from which it comes.”

-Gaudium et Spes, PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD

[fictionadventurer]

Art is, in its essence, a conversation. The artist speaks through the work, and the reader, viewer, or listener hears and responds. This is what I see--I want you to see it, too. This is what I feel, know, understand--do you feel, know, understand these things, too? Art can soothe, comfort, inform, challenge, disgust, delight, horrify, enlighten. It connects people by allowing them to share perspectives and respond to each other.

People tend to object when art becomes a commodity. Rather than a conversation, this art is now an object that I am trying to sell you. This makes the conversation less honest, as artists mute the truth they are trying to communicate in order to appeal to the most possible people. It can stop the conversation entirely, because art becomes a series of objects to collect. Art’s value is no longer the message it speaks, but the price tag one puts upon it. Paintings are traded in a vast global stock market for the mega-wealthy. Stories are snapped up by companies that make audiences pay for never-ending series about beloved characters. Music is distributed by corporations that mold all music into whatever sells best. Art becomes mere advertisement, where the only message that matters is the one that convinces people to part with their money.

When people object to “high-brow” art, it's partly because they are not allowed to be part of the conversation, but are expected to mindlessly accept it when other people tell them they have to see it as valuable. When people dismiss abstract art with, “I could make that,” they don’t necessarily mind that the abstract art exists, but that someone is selling it for millions of dollars. When people object to reading classic literature, part of the problem is that literature's exchange of ideas is reduced to a checklist of books that one has to read to consider oneself “well-read”. People are not allowed to have honest reactions, but are expected to appreciate it just because someone else said it was valuable.

The best and most honest art is made in community, because it’s the place where those conversations can happen most naturally. One is not trying to appeal to the masses, but having a conversation with friends about how they see and understand the world. If the outside world also responds to this conversation, it can spread further. But when one is making art with the aim of fame or fortune, that community is lost--the art is being offered as an object for someone to buy. You can’t have a personal connection with a crowd. It’s not that no one should ever be compensated for making their art, but the art needs to start with the aim of connecting to others in honest conversation, or else art becomes a dehumanized commodity. Mere objects instead of a path toward community.

[divinecomedyproductions]

“It is Capitalism that has forced a moral feud and a commercial competition between the sexes; that has destroyed the influence of the parent in favor of the influence of the employer; that has driven men from their homes to look for jobs; that has forced them to live near their factories or their firms instead of near their families; and, above all, that has encouraged for commercial reasons, a parade of publicity and garish novelty, which is in its nature the death of all that was called dignity and modesty by our mothers and fathers.”-G.K. Chesterton

[lokwinske]

I wanna do more research on Christianity and its relation to economic philosophy/politics

[tribow]

I feel like when people are trying to make the point and shift the blame on capitalism they reslly hurt their argument.

If you blame capitalism you will imply the solution is change to a new economic system and that's a herculean task to say the least.

Like I get it, the foundational sructure of our society is flawed, but do you know how vague it is when you just say "capitalism?" Please be more specific, you sound like you don't know what you're talking about.

[hualianisms]

verified ways to donate to gaza directly

[this post is outdated. up-to-date version here.]

Donate to a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical treatment, daily necessities or more. Site run by Palestinians, all GFMs verified (full list here). Spotlights 1 stagnant GFM at a time. (*If you can't decide who/where to donate, just go to gazafunds.com & donate to the 1 GFM they show you!)

masterlist of 200+ verified Palestinian families' GFMs: Operation Olive Branch

Help provide tents:

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents & transport for families in Rafah who urgently need to evacuate to Deir Al Balah. Has a team on the ground in Gaza who have supplied tents to 1% of the displaced population in Rafah. Run by Palestinians. (paypal) (gfm)

@helpgazachildren: Currently helping Palestinians in a refugee camp in Rafah flee the Rafah invasion to Khan Younis. Funds go directly to Hussam, a Palestinian in Rafah who hosts a refugee camp. Funds will cover the cost of tents & transport fuel. Managed by a Palestinian @.fairuzfan. (gfm)

Food:

Care for Gaza: Palestinian charity on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their Twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

We Feed Gaza: Team of Palestinian volunteers in the heart of Gaza distributing food & water to 344+ families. More details & proof in their gfm. Vetted & promoted by LetsTalkPalestine on IG. (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: A Palestinian activist on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash & other essential supplies to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

Water (*urgent and crucial!)

Gaza Municipality: The official Municipality of Gaza is doing vital, life-saving work to rebuild the water pipes in Gaza City to restore access to clean water & waste management services for the people of Gaza.

eSIMs (*very urgent):

guide to buy & send esims to gaza

Crips for eSims for Gaza: donate any amount to this team of volunteers who pool funds to buy & maintain gaza esims regularly (see their financial accountability document).

Medical Aid:

Gaza Wound Care: Palestinian doctors in central Gaza treating injured/sick children & mothers in neglected displacement camps far from hospitals. Facing a severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and medical supplies. Currently raising funds to support their efforts to battle infectious diseases in refugee camps. (gfm) (paypal) (gogetfunding)

international charities: Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians

How to help if you can't donate:

Share & amplify Palestinian fundraisers in your irl & online circles

Organize or help to run an online/irl event to raise funds for Palestine

Boycott

Get involved with a protest/strike/direct action in your area

Contact your reps

Educate yourself & others both irl & online

Daily clicks on Arab.org

(you can even adopt 1 fundraiser campaign to regularly boost it & make materials promoting it online, or print posters/flyers about Palestinian fundraisers to encourage others to donate. (poster/graphic about gazafunds.com: here, flyers about esims: here, flyers about gazafamilyfunds: here)

(longer masterpost of all ways you can help)

(*all these links and more now in this rentry page. will no longer be updating this post, instead refer to the rentry page)

Last updated 3/6/2024 with Gaza Wound Care & We Feed Gaza. Wanted to focus on Palestinian-run grassroots initiatives that will actually reach Gazans on the ground, so all of these except eSIMs, PCRF, MAP are by Palestinians. Donating to international orgs is not ideal rn as aid is still being stopped at the border. Please focus on Palestinian-run initiatives on the ground in Gaza.

Remember, small donations really do add up. Any amount counts, even $1!

[narwhalsarefalling]

my (cis) brother is using my old license to buy wine and it has the gender marker F on there. so whenever he gets asked he just says “oh i’m trans”. its literally worked every single time.

[disgruntledexplainer]

AI

i think a lot of people really misunderstand what the actual threat that "AI" poses is. AI is not going to try to wipe us out for any reason intrinsic to it, because AI is not capable of having intrinsic motivation (thankfully). rather, AI is a problem because it increases the power of those already powerful, and further marginalizes anyone who isn't powerful. In other words, the problem with AI isn't AI itself, the problem is those who use it, who are altogether too human.

Two major threats come to mind, both of them incredibly obvious when you think about it.

First, corporations will naturally favor any innovation which cuts costs or gives them an edge over their competition, regardless of the consequences to both their workers and their customers. Those in charge of the corporation will always seek to automate any part of the company that isn't them to cut costs, even if it is significantly less efficient or more infuriating to work with. This means that, as with the agricultural revolution and the various periods of automation during the industrial revolution, we are on the cusp of a massive loss of employment across all sectors as humans are replaced with machines.

however, this will be worse than previous periods, because while in previous centuries the removal of some jobs would introduce new jobs to replace them, such will likely not be the case for jobs replaced by AI. Further, certain occupations which we had assumed would be safe have turned out to not be safe from automation at all. Nobody seemed to care about how automation will destroy jobs until "AI art" became a thing, and do you know why? because everyone assumed that creative work was safe. and while algorithms cannot truly match an actual gifted artist in skill and creativity, it doesn't need to, because it's just more convenient, and much more cost-efficient to generate an image procedurally rather than commission it.

maybe next time the art community will take the threats posed to the working class by automation more seriously smh. But i guess it's too late now.

And when I say that corporations will replace humans regardless as to it's efficiency, I mean it. Have you noticed that almost no major company has an actually useful customer support system any more? it's all automated, and it's all useless. Some companies are flat out just not hiring humans for customer support any more, instead relying on a series of generic automated response trees that do nothing to solve the problem and just make the customer angry. What's to stop them from doing the same thing, but with everything from marketing to janitorial work?

AI will continue to replace jobs over and over again until the only jobs left will be the ones that are actually doing the replacement themselves. In other words, at a certain point we will reach a point where the only jobs are government jobs, high-level corporate jobs, and the engineers who are designing the AIs. And if any engineer is stupid enough to design an AI that can design other AIs, that job may be gone too.

the other major problem with AI is what happens when it gets into the hands of government agencies. Which it already has, to an extent. We have been using simple, dumb AI in drone targeting systems for quite awhile now. Despite the fact that it doesn't really work and gets civilians killed more often than not, governments still use this software because it doesn't put their own men at risk. Likewise, the government will almost certainly begin employing robotic soldiers as soon as they become available, even if they don't work very well, because it means they aren't putting their own people at risk. But often in war you need people to be there, in order to make judgement calls. What if a lazy commander tells the machines to "kill everyone in that bunker", but the bunker turns out to be a civilian residence and now dozens of civilians have been killed? The issue here is that AI WILL obey whoever orders it to do something, regardless as to if the order makes any sense or has been negated by unforeseen circumstances.

all this to say that if AI destroys civilization as we know it, it will be because humans told it to. in order to survive, we must restructure society, remove the focus from profit and place it on human dignity. We must deliberately employ people even if it would be cheaper not to do so, because not doing so will have horrific repercussions. Also because it's the right thing to do.

while we're at it, it would probably be best to decentralize government and corporations so they don't get the chance to do something like this. *cough distributism cough principle of subsidiarity cough*

[spann-stann]

[mjalford98]

I'm pleased to announce that after some time of dither and delay, I'm in a position o relaunch my website with a new address, link in the above photo. It's still a bit empty at the moment as I build up the blog and online store, but it's set to serve as the central hub for my online presence as a creative entrepreneur.

As I may have previously mentioned, my initial plan is to offer a photography service, mainly to heritage-inspired, ethically-driven enterprises of all industries and sizes, with the view of expanding the offering into a fully bespoke marketing service as I develop further skills. There is, however, also a public-facing side to the business in the form of the blog, Michael's Mission, and online store.

For the record, the photos on the home page, some of which are shown here, are for illustrative purposes only and were not taken for commercial purposes. They will be replaced over time as I develop more of a commercial portfolio.

[eternal-echoes]

The Life of a Distributist Girl

A distributist girl goes to her local small business cafe for her morning coffee to get energize for the day. 

Then she opens up the local small business bakery store that she’s a cashier at. As she raises the blinds of the window of the bakery she waves her hand at the local passer-by on his way to open up his own small business store. 

During lunch time she goes to the local co-op pizzeria to satisfy her hunger. 

 After work she goes home riding the train. 

The next day she does it all over again.

Then at the end of the week, she deposits her paycheck at the local credit union bank.

This is the life of a Distributist Girl.

[fictionadventurer]

This IMDB trivia about Meet John Doe suddenly makes Frank Capra's distributist worldview make perfect sense. Of course he hated both corporations and the government! They're both massive impersonal machines that crush the little guy trying to make his way in the world!