Skip Navigation

InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)N

NotMushroomForDebate

@ NotMushroomForDebate @lemmygrad.ml

Posts
8
Comments
193
Joined
1 yr. ago

  • 8 of the top 10 universities worldwide are now in China

    Jump

  • I tried searching for this source but I couldn't find it. I also don't see such a stark difference over the years in the QS University Rankings and Times Higher Education, which may be biased, but they're generally what universities compare themselves to in my experience.

  • What are some of your favorite documentaries?

    Jump

  • Dominion. Not pleasant, but informative.

    If a podcast series counts as a documentary, then ProlesPod's ~30 hour "The Stalin Eras" definitely tops my list

  • I'm so tired...

    Jump

  • I have had too many conversations that mirror this. Oftentimes when I provide examples of how this "new" thing that they are perceiving has been a constant phenomenon for the past decades or centuries, they become angry rather than introspective. Or they would start to argue that it's different in this way, or that way or that way, and when it's calmly illustrated before them that it's not, they become entirely dismissive.

    I have unfortunately seen too many "progressives" and self-describing "leftists" tell me, to my face, no less, that they don't give a shit when I tell them about all the things the US did to my country when their favourite politicians were in office.

  • What the hell is up with Hexbear moderation on this post?

    Jump

  • I'm not saying it should be taboo, I'm saying it's something that should be treated seriously, not as a jab, trash talk, or unsubstantiated statement.

    Again, I'm not trying to criticise Hexbear's culture and I'm certainly not bothered or annoyed when people make fun of other instances or insult them, etc. I'm just saying that accusations of bigotry especially are serious and should be treated seriously. You can call people libs or a bunch of names, sure, but calling them racist, for example, is a serious accusation.

    I hope you understand where I'm coming from. I just think bigotry should not be taken lightly.

  • What the hell is up with Hexbear moderation on this post?

    Jump

  • I will talk to the moderator team about “posts/comments that slander lemmygrad/federated instances” and encourage moderators to remind people that we should aim for education over bullying.

    To further clarify, I don't believe that bullying or harsh tones are a problem in general, just that cases where accusations of bigotry are levied should be treated with special consideration.

    People should not be able to get away with a throw-away comment that accuses an entire community of being racist, misogynist, transphobic, abelist, etc. without proof. To further drive this point home, if a Hexbear user accuses a federated instance of being a misogynist space, would you not want to follow up on that as Hexbear admins? Would you want to be federated with a misogynist space that makes your users unsafe and uncomfortable? Bigotry should be treated seriously.

    I'm familiar with Hexbear's culture and I'm not trying to police mostly harmless dunking or trash talking.

  • What the hell is up with Hexbear moderation on this post?

    Jump

  • No, Hexbear has a different culture and rules and that's fine. I'm not concerned with trash talk or posting PPB or calling Lemmygrad names or whatever. Accusing an instance of being a misogynist or "incel" space is beyond the realm of trash talk, however.

    It paints the entire community as bigoted or a space that allows bigotry. Accusations like this are serious and shouldn't be allowed as "trash talk" or just for fun.

  • What the hell is up with Hexbear moderation on this post?

    Jump

  • Sorry for the unclarity. In brief: Hexbear moderators and admins should not allow a comment that slanders Lemmygrad to the extent of accusing Lemmygrad of being a misogynist space. I would ask for this comment to be removed, and for this to be clarified to the user in question and the moderators of that community.

    What I meant earlier was that I am not judging the other moderation actions on the community or the post, since it doesn't concern me. I only made this post because the comment is directly slandering Lemmygrad as an instance, not because of Hexbear's position on the topic of sex work.

  • What the hell is up with Hexbear moderation on this post?

    Jump

  • I'm not interested in Hexbear's moderation and decisions internally, it's not my business. I made this post here because the Hexbear moderators, and by extension the admins, left up a comment calling Lemmygrad a misogynist and "incel" space.

    I think that's beyond the realm of an individual moderator's discretion.

  • I like PC as much as the next gal, but honestly? With the whole GPU situation we have now?

    Jump

  • What about the Steam Deck? AFAIK it hasn't changed in price.

  • Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

    Jump

  • I think letting an "ally" bomb your energy infrastructure and looking the other way was also a strategic mistake, but what do I know ¯_(ツ)/¯

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • Yes, of course. I already elaborated on that in the post and in various comments in this thread. The most realistic idea would be to use some form of machine translation with specific parameters and have a crowd-sourced review and adjustment approach.

    Whether it's feasible or not depends on how well the machine translation works, but there's good reason to believe that it's already good enough these days for a task like this. (and if it's not quite there, then it's only a matter of months or at most 2 years)

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • My only concern is that it could over correct and overwrite theoretically-relevant terms (proletariat, bourgeoisie, contradiction, labour power, work, etc.), which is why I believed it needed to be trained specifically on marxist texts to understand the relevance of these terms.

    I'm not sure how much of this would be addressed through training or simply just prompting. In any case there would need to be multiple runs of manual review.

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • A lot of valid points here. This method you describe is actually quite common for learning languages.

    I only take issue with this:

    Sadly, you just have to put up with poor translations

    Sure, 20 years ago we might have had to put up with them, but why now? Today we have the digital infrastructure and communities to distribute new works without publishing houses. We have the technology to revise and update old translations to more legible modern standards. Why shouldn't we at least attempt to take advantage of the tools we have at our disposal?

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • This is quite interesting, but do you think it would be applicable to translation work? So if we use your example, the original version of the text would be the "draft" and it would be able to modernise the language? (not sure what it would be trained on though, maybe modern marxist texts?)

    I would assume it's possible to reign it in so it doesn't attempt to modify the content itself too much.

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • Agreed on all points. I also definitely think we should leverage the fact that these works are digitised and available on the internet; we aren't bound by the limitations of publishing in the 19th and 20th centuries.

    In the practical the problem as always will be to correctly convey the material without (inadvertently or not) removing or rewording things. Older editions are not innocent of this btw

    We also have the benefit of later works that have built upon the work of those 19th century books and essays. I wouldn't doubt that well-read MLs today would have a better understanding of the relevance of certain phrases and terminologies than the 19th century translator, and that they would be better equipped to relate and connect it to other relevant theory.

    I'm interested to see what @yogthos@lemmygrad.ml is working on if he chooses to publicise it.

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • I am neither actually, i just speak fluent German as a second language.

    That's my bad, I shouldn't have assumed. Though in my defence I've seen you comment on events in Germany a few times and Gauss is German, lol.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • More likely it's just racism.

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • I definitely agree regarding the history aspect, and having to understand the context in which the works were written and the particular events and currents the authors were referring to.

    However, I would like to clarify that I do not mean simplifying the texts, that is, as you said, the job of summaries and commentaries. Here I am strictly talking about the language.

    As far as I know, you are German or at least a native German speaker, so I can only assume that you read Marx and Engels' works in German. This I cannot comment on, since I have not read the original works as I do not speak the language. I'm not sure if any of the concerns I have expressed are applicable at all to the German and French editions (or any language other than English).

    My point is that if we were to take the original German text today, for example from "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" and translated it to English, it would be more legible to today's English-speaking audience compared to Edward Aveling's 1892 translation.

  • Old English translations holding back theory?

    Jump

  • To clarify, I'm not claiming that the idiosyncrasies of 19th century English translations are holding the movement back. I'm just saying that they make reading theory more difficult that it needs to be, which might not be a major factor overall, but why not attempt to improve accessibility in this sense?

    I would have to say I disagree about the second point. I don't see the benefit of making theory more cumbersome by keeping around old translations in a language that's not very familiar to the majority of people. Reading groups are very valuable, but moreso for discussing the contents of the books and explaining the context, history, etc., not for translating 19th century English idioms and phrases.