[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago

Of course they do. They are extremely impartial on the matter and I trust their judgment.

34
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

The news first came in 2024, but it's been very quiet since.

I've been waiting this whole time to jettison WhatsApp from my phone.

Is it available only in some parts of the world? If so can I spoof it?

We know that adversarial interoperability works, so why have we not been able to make this work?

All else failing, are there any unofficial WhatsApp clients I can use to preserve my privacy?

19

Sorry for the YouTube link, I realise Lemmy doesn't like that format much.

This is a video trying to explain the bathshit crazy views of Pete Hegseth, the GOP and the rest of its Christian Nationalist followers.

Not to excuse them, but to help understand what they will do next and what their goals are. As to many of us, myself included, it sometimes seems like random chaos.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 163 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sometimes the conspiracy theorists pop out of their echo chamber and make a statement that seems reasonable and widely accepted to them but can only be believed if you first believe 17 layers of propaganda, leaps of logic and generally brainrot. Usually all fed to them by bigots and billionaires.

They are then surprised by normal people clowning on them and instead of reflecting, they just tell themselves they know something the normies don't and that makes them special.

48
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

This is a follow-up to banning puberty blockers for children under 16 in 2023, pausing or cancelling all trials recently, and the banning of trans people from gendered bathrooms this year.

It's a progressive attack on trans rights, where evidence of the safety and benefits of trans healthcare is ignored and decisions is taken out of the hands of trans people, trans children and their parents. They're treated as people unable to make decisions for themselves. A tactic often used against women, disabled people and black people historically.

In this particular case, it's still breaking news but I've heard the way they fit the data to their desired result was to make the filters on what was to be accepted as evidence extremely narrow. Things like "all subjects in the study must have never taken puberty blockers, but must be on hormones and born male". When they find that no study exactly matches their criteria, they throw up their hands and say "we just don't know if it's safe" and ban all healthcare.

It doesn't matter how many experts criticise these choices and peer-review the reports. We've been shown by the Cass Review (still referenced in these decisions, despite its provably terrible quality) that all evidence outside the transphobic agenda will be ignored and every possible side-effect of treatment will be used as justification to eradicate trans people.

16
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

More pointlessly cruel policy changes from the UK's Labour government.

This won't even be taken to a parliamentary vote because the party knows it wouldn't pass.

Imran Hussain, from the Refugee Council charity, told the BBC that reviewing the status of refugees - who were successful, not failed, asylum seekers - would be costly and distract the Home Office from speeding up the system.

He also warned that if refugees felt they "had one foot in the departure lounge" even though their asylum claim had been accepted, then this would make it more difficult for them to hold down employment and to integrate.

So this genuinely helps no one. All it does is pander to the far right, who will never vote Labour.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 123 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

To be fair, markdown is a very cool standard.

While I don't know if it really makes sense for Notepad to be anything other than a plain-text editor, there are better tools for that, supporting markdown is kind of nice.

This means you have support for it on fresh Windows installs, which could be good for virtual machines. That said, Markdown is intrinsically pretty readable without formatting anyway.

It's a shame they flubbed the implementation though...

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 121 points 1 month ago

It's not certain this is true, but it's somewhat likely. At least, that's what I'm getting from the Wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_(tortoise)

She was not kept as a pet by Darwin, but she may have been collected by him on a journey, then kept at a museum(?)

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 147 points 1 month ago

Social housing typically doesn't look as good as high-end apartments, but it doesn't have to look terrible. Here's some pretty neat looking social housing in south Paris.

It's kind of the China Town of Paris.

It's right next to an accessible tram station, has green spaces and social areas spread around, a couple of malls with great independent restaurants right next door. There are cycle lanes all around the place.

If you're curious, here it is on Google Maps

I'd live here. I only wish there were more neighbourhoods like this.

61

Let's make sure the Streisand Effect goes into full-swing here.

Personal Note: Landlords, especially those owning more than two houses, are a cancer on society and their existence should be banned.

51

D_____ T____ 🤔

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 164 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Source is a 2015 xkcd comic:

https://xkcd.com/1599

61

Rather than directly banning Medicaid reimbursement for transgender care, the rule would bar any hospital that accepts Medicaid funding from providing gender-affirming care for trans youth at all, regardless of whether that care is paid for by Medicaid.

The new rule contains no exceptions for patients already receiving care... For many, this would amount to forced medical detransition.

This rule appears to violate multiple U.S. statutes and constitutional limits on federal authority.

The government attempts to get around this by stating that gender affirming care is not part of “the practice of medicine.”

61
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

A story of the kind of disdain Palestine Action hunger strikers experience in UK prisons.

“Can you ring an ambulance? I’m scared”. They hung up on her.

[hours later] the nurse returned and informed her that “you don’t decide if you go to hospital, I do”.

10
submitted 3 months ago by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/transgender@lemmy.ml

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40180143

What happened

Going against policy, the UK's EHRC chose to not record (or perhaps even destroy) the meeting minutes for a 2023 consultation with trans groups after one of its worst acts towards their rights.

This meeting was the day after the EHRC sent its now infamous letter to Kemi Badenoch, suggesting the Government to rewrite the Equality Act by redefining the words sex, man, and woman to mean “biological sex"

Context for Americans etc.

For context, the EHRC is the UK's primary human rights organisation. However, since Kishwer Falkner's takeover in 2020, the organisation has taken a clear trans-exclusive direction that has only gotten worse over time.

They offer guidance to businesses and the government on how to interpret human rights laws. That guidance authority has been used to twist the meaning of legislation intended to protect minority groups, against all legal precedent, to instead use as a basis for removing the rights of trans people specifically.

The EHRC has since rarely met with trans organisations when deciding how to advise on their rights. Instead, they frequently meet with trans hate groups like Sex Matters. This is to the point that their views closely mirror these hate groups.

Back to the article

Looking at the meeting notes, it's clear why they chose to hide them, as it's clear that they were entirely unable to justify their change in definition of sex and gender, and they knew that it went against the stances of most other human rights organisations.

Have a read for yourself. The long pauses are wild.

20
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

What happened

Going against policy, the UK's EHRC chose to not record (or perhaps even destroy) the meeting minutes for a 2023 consultation with trans groups after one of its worst acts towards their rights.

This meeting was the day after the EHRC sent its now infamous letter to Kemi Badenoch, suggesting the Government to rewrite the Equality Act by redefining the words sex, man, and woman to mean “biological sex"

Context for Americans etc.

For context, the EHRC is the UK's primary human rights organisation. However, since Kishwer Falkner's takeover in 2020, the organisation has taken a clear trans-exclusive direction that has only gotten worse over time.

They offer guidance to businesses and the government on how to interpret human rights laws. That guidance authority has been used to twist the meaning of legislation intended to protect minority groups, against all legal precedent, to instead use as a basis for removing the rights of trans people specifically.

The EHRC has since rarely met with trans organisations when deciding how to advise on their rights. Instead, they frequently meet with trans hate groups like Sex Matters. This is to the point that their views closely mirror these hate groups.

Back to the article

Looking at the meeting notes, it's clear why they chose to hide them, as they were entirely unable to justify their change in definition of sex and gender, and they knew that it went against the stances of most other human rights organisations.

Have a read for yourself. The long pauses are wild.

37
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

Edit: Also covered by the Guardian here

After recently announcing they'd like to take the gold and jewellery of incoming immigrants, Nazi style, last week, the UK government has now revealed it's latest plan to make immigrant lives worse, possibly fatally.

The government now plans to restrict access to benefits (unemployment or health-based financial help) immigrants without Settled Status.

Settled Status, previously available for anyone who has been in the country for more than 5 years, will now also be raised to up to 20 years for legal entry and 30 years for illegal entry.

This double-whammy of changes will likely result in huge amounts of unnecessary suffering, homelessness and possibly death.

If that wasn't enough, homelessness is a lot more expensive than paying out benefits, so this is likely to further add to the financial burden of the country.

Who is to say whether the government will stop there? How long until they start revoking settled statuses and kicking out people who have lived here for decades (like myself)?

On top of this, all of these actions embolden the far-right. People are regularly having to stop them from trying to harass refugees currently being kept in hotels.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 229 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, calling the only black dude Shacklebolt as well. The more you look the worse it gets.

511
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

...I could have told you that 🤷

Source: https://x.com/BriannaWu/status/1984574165643403370

Not my usual kind of source (Xitter), but I want any centrists out there who ask trans people to "just get along" / compromise with actual hate groups that want them eradicated to know that it doesn't work.

There is no such thing as a reasonable bigot, by definition.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 175 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Controversial take (though maybe not in this community):

If it's needed for survival, it should be free. No exceptions.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 152 points 7 months ago

Reminder that there is a petition for UK residents, now with 500 000 signatures: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 177 points 7 months ago

The company should be sued into the ground. This is horrendous

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 121 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Janet Petro—the first woman to hold the position since its founding 67 years ago—wrote that diversity programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,”

In 2021, when she was the director of Kennedy Space Center, she spoke at length in an interview about the value of diversity, saying “our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility has been paramount to mission success.”

The turnaround is giving me whiplash.

There's no begrudging following of the rules, it's wholeheartedly embracing the new regime.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 145 points 1 year ago

Hey, as long as you don't try to

  • Sell it
  • Claim it's yours
  • Use it instead of hiring professionals if you're a business

not too fussed.

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Armand1

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