I have lived in the US for 23 years. This week I used the word "keener" at a meeting and someone interrupted me to ask what that was. I explained it's a Canadian word for someone who's just earnestly enthusiastic, an eager beaver, selflessly just excited about learning stuff and participating.
I alwasy thought it was just something we have a cooler word for that they don't -- like toque for beanie, or parkade for 'multi-story parking garage', or garburator for in-sink disposal unit (I mean, come on).
But this week I realized--there is no equivalent in the US, for keeners. It's like that thought-language concept about linguistic relativity (no word for orange= can't see orange) except the other way around (no word for it because it is impossible).
There is no word for keener in America because you can't be a keener in America.
Love learning? You have to display it so you get the top grades and go to Yale and make lots of money as a lawyer. Work hard? Not because you love it but because you don't know any other way to be. Expert about something? You gotta hustle and monetize with YouTube videos else you're not an expert and also you can't afford to send your kids to college. Love music, or dancing? you have to do it eight times a week for a trillion dollars or you can't do it at all.
Having elementary school aged children in the US has been eye-opening. It is Lord of the Flies in the classroom and on the playground. Children learn it's a hierarchy, and it's better to be on top, whatever that takes. Seven year olds on investment apps. Constant culture cramming. Playground games where they literally hit each other with sticks. Grabbing others' toys while some teacher you don't pay attention to says something useless about 'sharing' and you eventually turn that into 'an economy.'
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Up next on the #DEFCON33 Community Stage -- Tech Reclaimers, the social movement we need to reclaim control from Big Tech!! Excited to share this project with the world. Join us!
@TheBulletin@social.techreclaimers.club #optout #reclaimtech #reclaimcontrol #defcon #StopTheScroll #chuckzuck
https://www.reclaimcontrol.tech
Duckduckgo image search can now hide AI generated images:
https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures
New Year, New Digital You! I'm leading a 21-day CYBER-CLEANSE to teach you and your friends how to clean up your digital footprint.
Looking to change your habits online in 2025? Follow along and by January 21, you'll be in a far better place!
https://www.optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cleanse-take-back-your-digital-footprint/
Please forward, boost, and re-post!
#cybercleanse #optout #toxictech
When #Google tells you to eat glue and rocks, and the Internet sinks under hallucinatory generative "content" madly seeking clicks and likes, we went back to an actual, honest to goodness, encyclopedia.
My latest piece, why we should care about knowledge in the age of generative AI, at @publicbooks@bird.makeup
"The challenge is to listen to each other and to integrate among conflicting perspectives with grace and care, not to shout louder."
https://www.publicbooks.org/the-encyclopedia-project-or-how-to-know-in-the-age-of-ai/
My new op Ed in @techpolicypress@bird.makeup
AI is just today’s buzzword for “outsourcing,” and it comes with the same problems that have plagued outsourced companies and workforces for decades, writes Princeton University sociologist Janet Vertesi:
https://www.techpolicy.press/dont-be-fooled-much-ai-is-just-outsourcing-redux/
Reposting after migration: Here’s how I evaded data capture at Disneyland—and more importantly, how Big Tech has hijacked “convenience” to keep us in thrall.
http://www.publicbooks.org/data-free-disney/
More tech details at https://www.optoutproject.net/data-free-disney
#dataprivacyweek
Cyberlyra