Nick De Roeck

Mandelson’s Fifth Column The British government’s business department exists to undermine democracy.

1. In 2009 I wrote this. I argued that Peter Mandelson's department “functions as a fifth column within government, working for corporations to undermine democracy and the public interest.”
This thread explains what I saw, and reaches a startling conclusion.🧵
www.monbiot.com/2009/05/04/m...

Lol, nee.

🧵 Let me post this here from Italian history - the history of my own family, from the 1920s to the 1940s:

Rise of the Fascist Movement:

-The Blackshirts, initially known as the Squadristi, emerged in the aftermath of World War I, fueled by widespread social unrest and economic hardship. 1/1

3 years ago, when I recommended a massive organised switch away from X/Twitter, the EU Commission’s argument was “but our audience is there.”

Since then, that argument has become less valid by the day.

#DefendDemocracy #DSA #HandsOffMyEU

Eigenlijk zijn we allemaal geboren influencers.

Hi, It’s Me, Wikipedia, and I Am Ready for Your Apology “Wikipedia, the constantly changing knowledge base created by a global free-for-all of anonymous users, now stands as the leading force for the dum...

Let's hope Wikipedia survives so it can save us from the knowledge apocalypse that is "LLM generated truth" - www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...

Banken zijn trouwens geen echte privé instanties volgens de correcte vrije markt definitie. Anders zou je kunnen failliet gaan zonder dat de overheid je moet en zal komen redden. Ze zijn meer een publiek-private samenwerking.

Digitale euro is munt zonder missie Waarom miljarden investeren in een nieuwe digitale munt waarop niemand zit te wachten, schrijft Michael Anseeuw, de CEO van BNP Paribas Fortis en voorzitter van de bankenfederatie Febelfin.

Commerciële banken lusten de digitale euro niet… altijd een goed teken. In het artikel legt men niet uit dat deze commerciële banken nu zelf geld kunnen maken, en dat ze er met de digitale euro een geduchte concurrent bij krijgen!
www.tijd.be/opinie/algem...

Climate turning point Three excellent essays last month point to a turning point in climate with, I think, a broad political ramification.

Climate extremism the past 2 decades may explain the western world moving right wing. Maybe, it is also a given that when you govern against the interests of the broader population, that population will vote you out. Which I think is now happening. Worthwhile read: open.substack.com/pub/johnhcoc...

Zo'n "geen-actieve-herinneringetje" vertelt je eigenlijk exact alles wat je wilde weten 😁

'Volgens de openbare omroep werkte de voormalige premier in 2019 als consultant voor Huawei. Leterme bevestigt dat hij het Chinese bedrijf enkele jaren geleden geadviseerd heeft, maar kon er geen specifieke timing op plakken. Ook wist hij niet zeker of hij op dit moment nog advies geeft aan Huawei.'

Wat

Wat denken politieke partijen over politie? Klik op de partijlogo's om te ontdekken wat de verschillende partijen denken over politie. ...

@openvld.bsky.social mijn positieve bijdrage aan jullie tocht door de woestijn. Hoe kan een liberale partij die indertijd de minister van justitie en de premier levert, op deze test zo hopeloos scoren. Wat moet je als liberale kiezer dan? Werk aan de winkel! mensenrechten.be/pagina/kies-...

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has a plan to overhaul college education — by embedding its artificial intelligence tools in every facet of campus life. If the company’s strategy succeeds, universities would give students A.I. assistants to help guide and tutor them from orientation day through graduation. Professors would provide customized A.I. study bots for each class. Career services would offer recruiter chatbots for students to practice job interviews. And undergrads could turn on a chatbot’s voice mode to be quizzed aloud ahead of a test. OpenAI dubs its sales pitch “A.I.-native universities.”

Every future imagined by a tech company is worse than the previous iteration.

Liz Truss tweets 'Britain should keep the Elgin Marbles.Those trying to undermine our national culture should be taken on, not appeased.

Exactly Liz, nothing represents 'our national culture' more than Greek statues made in Greece by Greeks.

ING: women take less risk with their money, and 40% of women are of the opinion that the stock market is a casino. It's not a casino, but if you do not have any leverage on the company management, fiscal policy or monetary policy, then the market behaves like a casino for mortals. They are right!

Take note.

Nick Clegg's trajectory of absolute worst life choices is shaping up to have him end up as the political commissar in the 44th Volunteer Anglo-Saxon Battalion of the Red Army, staring down a FPV drone operated by some vengeful Lithuanian gamer somewhere at the Suwałki Gap.

ChatGPT a désormais plus d'utilisateurs mensuels que Wikipédia.

Shit.

Set the "techbros reinvented the bus" timer back to zero

1 year ago ~to the day~

www.kidsunplugged.be/open-brief-a...

Not enough

Elon Musk takes hit as Europeans ditch X in droves The right-wing billionaire’s platform has recently lost about 10 percent of its European user base.

Twitter lost eleven million users in the EU last year, a tenth of its EU users

The biggest exoduses reported in France (2.7 million), Poland (1.8 million) and Germany (1.3 million) - Politico

www.politico.eu/article/elon...

Vance sehen und sterben.

More AI dystopia: it calls your elderly parents if you can’t be bothered 😫 www.intouch.family/en

En de stilte van onze politieke leiders en instituties is, indien mogelijk, nog ondraaglijker.

“What’s the emergency with Belgium?”

Senator Warren says Congress needs to step in on the #TrumpTradeWar

The Great Tesla Sell-Off You should buy a car from Elon Musk’s company—but only if it’s used.

Refusing an old Tesla doesn’t hurt Elon or help the planet, writes Andrew Moseman. But it does stop you from getting a good deal.

Sterk stuk van Maud Vanwalleghem. Het is belangrijk om je eigen ethische grenzen te bewaken, vooral als dat moeilijk is. www.standaard.be/opinies/anne...