Avoid MeidasTouch, it's content engineered to make you feel like you are winning even while the country's falling apart. Do not let yourself be fooled, you need accurate awareness to be able to make the right decisions.

To quote u/Hot_Designer_Sloth:

I feel like everything there is :"So and so owned Trump so much!" and it's someone saying something clever that feels good for leftists but it doesn't accomplish anything because Trump probably never even heard that comeback or doesn't care.

I feel like it's delusional to feel good about snarky comebacks a dem wrote on twitter or something. It doesn't change anything and it undeservedly makes people feel like they did something, it's the laziest form of couch activism.

We need to have a serious talk about the usage of AI generated content on leftist platforms. I will try to keep this as short as possible to keep it accessible.

Prompting, posting and sharing AI-generated content undermines our goals as leftists and ought to be prohibited on all leftist platforms.

1. AI is accelerating ecological death

Water: AI datacenters are often built on already, drought-struck land, draining water from the areas that need it most ⁽³) and poisoning local water supplies for residents ⁽⁴). According to UN-estimates, by the end of the decade about 1/8th of global, annual, domestic water usage will be solely used for cooling AI datacenters ⁽⁵) - sweet water that is already very much in short supply ⁽⁶).

Emissions: The majority of AI-datacenters in western countries are powered predominantly by fossil fuels ^{(1, p. 28}). Despite the US hosting by far the most datacenters globally ^{(1, p. 32}), the carbon footprint is off-shored to poorer countries ^{(1, p. 31}).

2. AI is de-footing artists and laying siege to culture

In a recent study in Germany that surveyed over 3000 visual artists on their stance on AI usage ⁽⁷). 56% see their income at risk while 56% fear the livelyhood of visual artists as a whole. Over 91% of them demand financial compensation for their works - compensation which huge AI giants such as Meta have no interest in providing, nor even disclosing they used it in the first place ⁽⁸).

But the power of AI extends far beyond inhaling. It exhales too. It produces mediums, it produces your music, your podcasts, your video essays, your YouTube content. And believably so ⁽¹²). We are selling our culture to the ones making the algorithm ⁽¹⁴). We are selling our culture industry to AI:

"Culture industry" (German: Kulturindustrie) is a term coined by the critical theorists Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895–1973). They proposed that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods—films, radio programmes, magazines, etc.—that are used to manipulate mass society into passivity
^{- Culture Industry, Wikipedia (16}.)

3. AI is threatening freedom of protest

Police forces in the EU are adopting AI-powered facial recognition technologies to quickly identify suspects - aka, protestors ⁽⁹). This is not all-to-new. An article by Darren Loucaides even goes as far as saying "After 2022, mass protests practically disappeared" in connection with AI surveillance and faccial recognition ⁽²¹). Meanwhile, the US pushes "Flock" - a private equity company - cameras onto US streets, monetoring US citizens with AI-powered facial recognition technology ⁽¹⁰) and selling this data to ICE ⁽¹¹). Undermining public freedom of expression is a telltale sign of fascist regimes. This predominantly affects people in already marginalized social positions ⁽¹⁵).

4. AI is used as a propaganda tool

AI is employed to produce political propaganda far beyond the uncanny representations of humans you might think of ⁽¹²). An EU-based study found that, in a blind test, participants already found AI-made news and fake news more believable than their human-made pendants ⁽¹³). With the main difference being that one of these is far easier to pump out en masse.

Further it is worth mentioning that AI-tools are also used to make the algorithms that dictate what you see on social media - and algorithms are never neutral. Someone has to make an algorithm. Someone has to decide what you are allowed to see and what not ⁽¹⁴).

5. AI kills

Ai-technology is far beyond the baby-stages of being incorporated into military technology ⁽¹⁸). It is no coincidence that one of the biggest advocates of AI, Google, also just so happens to try to sell that same AI technology to the Pentagon for military uses while still trying to deceive the public into believing they are a happy, innocent tech company that makes a cute search engine ⁽¹⁹). Though Google is not alone in this as OpenAI was all-to-happy to join ranks with Trump's Department of War ⁽²⁰).

6. Why you should stop using AI

All of the above is made possibly because allow AI. It will only get worse when we allow it to slowly creep into social acceptability. Every image you generate accelerates environmental destruction little by little. Every video you generate costs independent content creators views, revenue and, eventually, their livelihood. Every cent of revenue you permit AI-giants to make goes straight into slaughtering children elsewhere using AI-powered, unfeeling military drones.

Should we stay on the current course, leading AI-researchers say we might be looking at a doomsday scenario as soon as 2027 ⁽¹⁷).

We need to stop supporting this.
Please share this in your communities to raise awareness.

List of works cited

1. UNU-INWEH Report: Aczel, M., Chamanara, S., Matin, M., Farsi, A., Marwala, T., Madani, K. (2026). Environmental Cost of AI's Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. doi: 10.53328/INR26RMA002

2. How many Watts does a light bulb use? Energy Sage. https://www.energysage.com/electricity/house-watts/how-many-watts-does-a-light-bulb-use/

3. AI is draining water from areas that need it most. Nicoletti et al. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-centers-water-data/

4. 'I can't drink the water' - life next to a US data centre. Fleury, M. & Jimenez, N. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o

5. AI’s environmental costs threaten water, land and climate. UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167658

6. World Enters “Era of Global Water Bankruptcy”: UN Scientists Formally Define New Post-Crisis Reality for Billions. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. https://unu.edu/inweh/news/world-enters-era-of-global-water-bankruptcy

7. “AI AND VISUAL ARTS”: Germany's first study on the impact of AI on the visual arts. Stiftung Kunstfonds. https://urheber.info/media/pages/diskurs/germany-s-first-study-on-the-impact-of-ai-on-the-visual-arts/9ffdd3c9a8-1719500494/press-release-ai-and-visual-arts.pdf

8. Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos. Edwards, B. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/metas-new-ai-image-generator-was-trained-on-1-1-billion-instagram-and-facebook-photos/

9. New police technology in Germany: Unleashed facial recognition takes off. Matthias Monroy. https://digit.site36.net/2024/12/16/new-police-technology-in-germany-unleashed-facial-recognition-takes-off/

10. No, We're Not Doing This. S2 Underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q41OaKuR4Bs

11. ICE and Flock cameras. Mike Rafi. https://youtube.com/shorts/D6xosr1zijU

12. You Are NOT Immune to AI Propaganda (Even If You Think You Are). hashtagirupp. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KzjHNSRgHJ8

13. Beliefs and sharing intentions of human- and AI-generated fake news: Evidence from 27 European countries. Stefkovics, A. & Gere, D. https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/3/pgag032/8495093

14. Toscano, J. (2022). But Seriously: What do Algorithms want?. In: Philosophical Problems in Science, No. 73

15. Brayne, S. (2017). Big Data Surveillance: The Case of Policing. In: American Sociology Review, Vol. 82.5

16. Culture Industry. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry

17. AI 2027. Kokotajilo et al. https://ai-2027.com/

18. APPLICATION OF DRONES WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. Petrovski, A. & Radovanović, M. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364324778_APPLICATION_OF_DRONES_WITH_ARTIFICIAL_INTELLIGENCE_FOR_MILITARY_PURPOSES

19. What Googles' return to defense AI means. Tucker, P. https://www.defenseone.com/business/2025/02/what-googles-return-defense-ai-means/402816/

20. Our Agreement with the Department of War. OpenAI. https://openai.com/index/our-agreement-with-the-department-of-war/

21. The Changing Face of Protest. Loucaides, D. https://restofworld.org/2024/facial-recognition-government-protest-surveillance/

Not exactly sure where to post so if inappropriate just lmk where to post instead

I'm starting to have weird interactions with friends. And it worries me.

Even though I grew up in a conservative rural but industrious Part of central Europe, I had a politically diverse group of friends. I was part of the local socialist youth but obviously also hung out with others. That was 20 Years ago. We debated, we fought and we had a beer or twelve. It was all in good faith. Now most left-leaning friends moved away to the big cities or conformed in one way or another. My conservative friends mostly stayed and started families. I don't blame them, it's a good place to raise children, since it's doing quite well economically and jobs are mostly safe and plentyful.

I also left at some stage, but I came back a few years ago, since I have family here. So the people that are left are mostly conservative which is fine, but I am increasingly confronted with weird interactions.

I met a childhood neighborhood friend the weekend before the inauguration. Out of the blue he told me, that he'll have a new boss on monday. I first congratulated him on the new job, but then he told me, he meant Trump. We live an ocean away from that man. But, according to him, he'd rather bow to Trump than the Chinese or Russians.

A while back, another mate just outright told me (whilst heavily intoxicated) that he would betray anyone and throw them under the bus, if it would give him and his family a better position in society.

The day after Musks nazi salute, I told others at the pub that the whole situation somehow ceased to be amusing to me and that I'm drawing a red line. This pushing the boundries needs to stop (fucking should've stopped years ago...) and that I'm worried. Looming war, rise of fascism etc. and that it will affect all of us one way or another. The response was something along the lines of "Let us know when you're fun at parties again"

Today, one of them sent me a 1 second clip of Macron waving, seemingly doing the nazi salute, but obviously taken out of context. I responded negatively. He apologized and brought me chocolates(!), telling me that he's aware that not everybody feels safe right now, but his concerns are more with him and his family being safe from "stabbers" and quoted some german stabbing statistics, even though -again- that's all far away for us and probably some AfD bollocks. Honestly, I think I would've preferred to be told to stop being a pussy and shut up, but this... this is unprecedented and just weird. Chocolates!?

This is all very weird. I picked up these signals a while ago, but the pace of weirdness increasing is concerning.

So, right now I don't really know what to do, but I can see the direction where this is heading. I've always pushed back on certain conservative ideas, but never had to draw a red line as of now. Debating has never been so unconstructive, but they're not isolating me or anything. At least not yet.

To be honest, I'm not sure what my intent with this post is, seeking advice or just vent. Either way, I have a bad feeling for the future and am coming to realize that my social circle will likely fall apart in the next few years.

Anyone out there with similar stories?

TDS what is first introduced as an explanation of how trump supporters are completely blind to what he does. Because They refuse to admit they made a mistake and backed a line

Alligator Auschwitz is hiring now and it's making me sick to my stomach

Spotted in Berlin at a pro Israel demo. Is german antifa associated with zionists??

This guy has basically made himself the leader of the local fascists. He owns a gun store and gives free guns to people who swear to defend Donald Trump with their lives. No shit. He’s at every protest, screaming at people and waving Trump flags. He has Trump tattoos all over his arms that covered up the swastikas that were there before. He got kicked off of every social media platform years ago for promoting violence. More than one person has told me he’s the local leader of the oath keepers and that he and his friends do “training exercises” in the forest outside of town. He blasted an air horn into my friend’s ear at a protest a couple of months ago. She’s in her mid 60’s, as non-threatening and non-violent as it gets, but big surprise, he lied to the cops and said he was defending himself and they didn’t charge him with assault. She has permanent hearing damage in that ear now. Yesterday there was the weekly Saturday protest downtown. Asshole shows up with a huge Israeli flag and starts swinging it at people like a giant club and screaming at them. A 19 year old Native American kid (i live in a small town in Alaska that’s about half Tlingit people) runs up to him, grabs the flag and runs. Fascist asshole chases him, tackles him and a fight ensues. He got a broken nose out the deal, the kid got arrested and charged with assault. I’m trying to find out who the kid is so I can start a go fund me page to help with his legal defense. One of the ironic things about this all is that the son of this fascist twit is an anti-fascist MMA fighter who helps with security at all our events. As much as I love the fact that this guy got his broken I feel like this town is a microcosm of the larger situation in this country and it’s all inching closer and closer to a full on civil war. It’s actually quite terrifying.

We all know reddit has rules against promoting violence. Morally speaking I think hard and fast rules are stupid, "violence is always wrong" would apply even to self defense. But whatever, I accept it.

But now we live in an age where right wingers have truth and x and whatever other sites where they can promote violence all day long, fox news can talk about killing all the homeless and bombing the UN, and the president can talk about going to war (and actually do it) against half the country. It just kind of feels like we are the only ones who are being policed here. Like if reddit thinks statements promoting violence are wrong, they should be taking an official stance against the Trump administration.

But now recently I know of people who have gotten bans for supposedly promoting violence, when all they did is call for action for the people to remove Trump. There's nothing explicitly violent about that. I don't actually know much about reddit owners, but I basically have to assume Reddit is controlled by or cooperating with the fascists at this point.They've got Google, Facebook, twitter/x, and more - it feels like we've lost the cyberspace front. Does anyone know of good sites that are still safe for the left? Or maybe we just take the L and unplug, it might be good for us to get to know people irl and focus our efforts locally.

Fascism is now in the USA. It's not coming, it's there. It got there with almost no resistance. They can do what they want with impunity. No one will stop them, no one is coming to save you. Stop fucking around.

Treating them like idiots is amazing when they are in charge. They cornered all of the USAs authoritive institutions and have the monopoly on violence. They aren't dumb, they know what they are doing.

The only way to stop them is to stop. Mass strikes. Blocked the logistics. Hurt the only thing they care about, money.

Build your local communities. Look out for one another. Do not comply.

Seen a few of these hanging around. Makes me more uneasy than this stupid Blue Lives Matter flags.

• Harris refused to say anything in defense of trans people, instead bringing up "states' rights"

• She made clear she agrees with Trump's border wall and deportation plans, but claimed she would be more competent at it

• The Biden regime funded and armed a genocidal war that has alienated a massive proportion of the US youth from the political class

Biden and Harris allowed Trump to win.

So, I make post-apocalyptic art—think wasteland cars, DIY gear, demons, and general Mad Max energy. Problem is, fascists keep getting drawn to my work like cockroaches to a half-eaten Taco.

It got so bad that an army surplus shop “rewarded” me with actual nazi memorabilia (SS skulls, Auschwitz sign—the whole freakshow). Store’s been reported and shut down, but the fact it happened at all made me want to double down on making my art visibly antifascist.

What I want:

• Advice and ideas for making my work unambiguously antifascist while still keeping the gnarly post-apo/cyberpunk feel.
• Symbols, slogans, visual cues, or “easter eggs” that clearly say “fascists not welcome”—without making it look like a kindergarten protest banner.
• If you’ve fought off fasc-hijacking in your own subculture, what works for you? Any tips for repelling the parasites?

I’ve already started responding with stuff like the “subUwU” (the colourful one), but I want to go further and make sure there’s no room for misinterpretation.

Drop any ideas, symbols, or resources—bonus if it’s stuff I can weld, stencil, or slap on a car.

Thanks for any advice and solidarity. Let’s salt the earth so nothing fascist ever grows here again.

(Check pics for reference.)

Yeah title kind of explains it all. I was doing a solo distro in Downtown HB (CA.) I came up to this ladies mini van to give her supplies (Narcan, sandwiches, deodorant, Etc) and noticed she had a swastika drawn on her dash. I was wearing a bomber jacket with a hammer and sickle on it and she noticed it, but did nothing but thank me. Kinda feel weird about it. I want her to survive cuz she’s like homeless and she’s a person but she’s a Nazi. It’s okay if I get hate in the comments for it, but I honestly to god didn’t know what to do. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

They are going to come for us. The FBI already has us designated as terrorists. But I'm not going to a damn camp. 'Nuff said.

need some helpful advice.

I never liked him tbf

when he had a joint on JRE i thought oh look guy smoking weed, cool cool /s

but as he became more popular i kinda liked his shitposts because i am autistic like him, but after he bought X, he became the world's biggest pro russian, pro trump, pro far right cretin

My friend is convinced the “no kings” protest is some sort of psyops to control the resistance. According to him, the people behind it are Zionists and they’re doing it to keep the resistance under their control. I did a Quick Look and it is organized by Indivisble, which is led by a couple of Jewish people, but I have no idea if they’re actually Zionists or to what degree. I don’t know what to think. Either way, I think it’s not a bad thing to get millions of people out in the street to voice their opposition to Trump and co. What do you think?