In 2016, resistance meant defiance.
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In 2016, resistance meant defiance. This time it means sabotage.
That’s the meta-lesson that emerges from me reading this piece from @jaykuo and The Big Picture. The essay is mostly about strategy for D politicians, but that that larger lesson there? That’s for all of us.
Not just defiance. Sabotage.
Readying the Resistance
A Democratic guide to minimizing harm from the coming Trump term
(thinkbigpicture.substack.com)
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What does that mean in practice? Well, here’s a relatively gentle practical example:
Suppose you’re on a software team that gets a contract doing work that will benefit the fascists.
Defiance means you refuse the project, maybe quit your job.
Sabotage means you finally embrace that management mandate to use more AI. Really embrace it. Be incredibly productive. Generate lots of code. LOTS of code. Utterly obscene quantities of code.
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
My fellow software folks, we all know how make a project drag on for •years• giving off all the signs of making progress while never, ever reaching the point of being releasable before the whole thing is finally scrapped.
At last, this is an ability we can use for good.
I jest, but actually I don’t jest. Sand in the gears, people. Burn the fash’s resources. Run out the clock.
Not just defiance. Sabotage.
/end
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Annelies Kamranreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @jaykuo malicious compliance counts!
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Annelies Kamran last edited by
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Not sand. Wrenches.
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@vruz
why_not_both.gif(And with all seriousness, both matter! In some situations, highly visible sabotage will be immediately countered and stopped, whereas low-grade, almost-invisible sabotage sustained over time will have a much larger net impact. Both tools will matter.)
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Sean Boyer 🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINEreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @[email protected]
I'm reminded of the forward-thinking Rene Carmille, who became in charge of nazi IBM punch card machines - he poisoned the data and caused constant slow-dows and losses, saving MILLIONS of lives.
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Sean Boyer 🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE last edited by
YES. YES. Thank you.
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@inthehands yes; and this will be better with union organisation behind it.
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@marnanel
Yes. Any and every kind of organizing and community-building can help, and unions are the vanguard, the prototype, and when at their best the gold standard. -
I've read the CIA’s "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" and it's still very relevant.
Large areas of national governments work in this way.
Read the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944)
I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term of dread for the many government and corporate agencies that have an inordinate amount of power over our permanent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chillingly absurd as the labyrinth the character K navigates in Kafka’s last allegorical novel. Open Culture, openculture.com
Open Culture (www.openculture.com)
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@inthehands "I heard Google's writing 25% of their code with AI now,"
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@joe “we need to set a benchmark of 25% minimum AI code to meet Google-level quality benchmarks”
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A beautiful, beautiful example of the above (thank you, @dumbledope
Dumbledope (@[email protected])
@[email protected] @[email protected] This describes one of the simplest, most elegant acts of resistance I have ever seen. https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/citroens-genius-act-of-sabotage-against-the-nazis-in-world-war-ii/
Mastodon App UK (mastodonapp.uk)
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@inthehands @dumbledope wonder how many times this kind of thing has been carried out, but never discovered so the would-be resisters went down in history as collaborators
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@inthehands @dumbledope that's weighing on me a bit in considering reactions between "don't quit your job if assigned to the Torment Nexus project, instead put sand in the gears" and "anyone who accepts a salary for working on the Torment Nexus team is a Nazi"
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@aburka @dumbledope
Per my thread, I think •this• time around, you don’t quit. My personal opinion.
