A draft of something that may become a blog post, or worse, the header to my LinkedIn profile:

Ok, here's the thing. If you're a white man, don't assume I'm going to agree with you because of what you can see of me when I appear on the Zoom call. If you're not a white man, I already expect that you will rightfully ignore any "statements of allyship" and pay attention to what I do and who it benefits; I don't have to tell you how all this works.

"My people" are not all people who look like me. And not all people that I recognise as "my people" recognise me as theirs. That's ok.

I shouldn't have to disclose to you which communities are "most" important to me. I shouldn't have to disclose to you what my mother did for a living when I was a teenager to "justify" my feelings about cops. I shouldn't have to refer to any religious basis when I tell you that my people are the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.

If your space is visibly dominated by white men with beards, it won't be welcoming to me even though I am, in fact, a white man with a beard. Yes, even if most of them are queer.

If your space isn't welcoming to GNC folks (non-binary people or anyone else who doesn't perform gender "appropriately"), it won't be welcoming to me, even though my gender presentation is about as Silicon Valley-typical as you can get.

If your space isn't welcoming to Black trans women, it won't be welcoming to me. And if your organization is claiming to want to do good in the world and you don't have a single Black woman in leadership, I am going to side-eye you and your organization forever. This is table stakes, people.

These all apply whether your space is online or off.

I have always felt most comfortable, most welcomed, most valued as a colleague, when in the company of furries, queers, trans folk, and self-described freaks with their own self-described 'freak flags.'

And finally, though I can't believe I actually have to say this: I am not interested in "winning hearts and minds" of people who want my people and me out of their sight or dead. This includes the vast majority of US Republicans and right-wing Europeans. The rich and selfish are not my people; they mean harm to me and mine.

(Stands to applaud)

I'd love to see that as a LinkedIn header, or really anywhere.

Reminds me how often I am told awful things about people on benefits or who are poor...how long it took me to complain(Because I was Special at being special..) and how much I've had to brush aside "I didn't mean *you*--which, incidentally, sucks as a compliment,

Legendary Sci-Fi Magazine Halts Submissions Amid Deluge of AI-Written Stories

Argh. I don't know why that takes me by surprise but it does.

I am really going to have question those $1.99 or less books that I have been buying with very little reflection from now on.

I have not played around with any of these chat thingies, but the samples or whatever that I have seen posted on occasion do not read like publishable fiction to me. That anyone is happy enough with the results they get to put it out in the world seems pretty bizarre. But I guess low effort for even a little bit of money can be attractive.

My poor indie authors are going to have a harder time than ever being taken seriously now, aren't they? That's very upsetting.

Anyway, my original repulsion was mostly based on this idea I have that SF writers are wanting to explore some idea or other and this seems like the opposite of that. But that's probably very reductive of me. And maybe SF fans are exactly who would embrace any kind of AI assisted anything, given half a chance. People have always gone around saying things like they have this great idea and someone else should write it out for them, maybe this seems like a way to make that happen.

I had no idea the AI stuff had gotten that far. That really is concerning.

I saw, somewhere, that you can't copyright material produced by AI. Not sure if that's for real, but it might give those submitting pause.

Ha! I found the information.

is this because of the monkey selfie?