FROM this week’s news ON: society generally, and broader issues [Note: Content Warning - may be links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Frrom this week’s news on society generally, and broader issues (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published):

• “Ignorant. Woke.”   https://theaimn.com/ignorant-woke/   “So the WOKE me looks at the issues that are around me, that in one way or another touch my life and try to do something to let humanity shine, the anti-WOKE people of the world stoke fear of difference, strive to develop an orthodoxy which marginalises difference.   I wear the WOKE label with pride.”   A brilliant response some anti-Woke nonsense  
  

• “Violence in our churches”   https://theaimn.com/violence-in-our-churches/   This discusses violence between competing bigotries, as well as the effect of hateful bigotries on the rest of the community  
  

• “Collective trauma has brought Australians together but rising inequality is leaving many behind”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/21/collective-trauma-has-brought-australians-together-but-rising-inequality-is-leaving-many-behind   “Social cohesion can only flourish in a society that has an inclusive and equitable economy, where safety and respect are assured and fear is minimised”   a thoughtful article with some interesting ideas: well worth a read and a think   See also   “Unstable employment while you’re young can set you up for a wage gap later in life – even if you eventually land full-time work”   https://theconversation.com/unstable-employment-while-youre-young-can-set-you-up-for-a-wage-gap-later-in-life-even-if-you-eventually-land-full-time-work-227042   And many of the dinosaurs of my era still think getting a job is easy   

• “Why the pathology bulk-billing campaign is more about driving industry profits than saving you money”   https://theconversation.com/why-the-pathology-bulk-billing-campaign-is-more-about-driving-industry-profits-than-saving-you-money-228091  
  

• “Supermarket facial recognition failure: why automated systems must put the human factor first”   https://theconversation.com/supermarket-facial-recognition-failure-why-automated-systems-must-put-the-human-factor-first-228284   “... the risk of Māori women and women of colour being discriminated against was raised, and has now been borne out by what happened.   ...   Commendably, Foodstuffs has engaged with the Privacy Commissioner, and has been transparent about safeguards in biometric data collection and deletion protocols. What’s missing is more clarity around protocols for the security response in stores.   This is more than about customers consenting to facial recognition cameras.”   Human bigotry (often euphemised down to “bias”) has long been known to be a problem in AI. Similarly, Newtonian thinking (“the hammer sees everything as a nail”) has always been a problem with security organisations and personnel. So none of this is new ...  
  

• “Every great achievement comes down to two things”   https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/every-great-achievement-comes-down-to-two-things   “Want to change the world? Start with a story and a tribe”   

• “Lara fantasised for years about meeting her celebrity crush. When she finally did, her world collapsed | SBS Insight”   https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/article/lara-fantasised-for-years-about-meeting-her-celebrity-crush-when-she-did-her-world-collapsed/7etyenuba   ... over his normality and lack of exceptionality away from the celebrity world, in the world of everyday interaction  
  

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header; 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/