Pete Hahnloser

Unemployed journalist, burner, raver, graphic artist and vandweller.

  • 231 Posts
  • 1K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • One of the first things drilled into me in journalism was “Smith thinks” should be recast to “Smith said he thinks.”

    The C-suite is likely well aware of limitations, but shareholders like to hear about the hot new thing.

    The thing is, the idea isn’t wrong. Automating complex tasks is a bitch, but the repetitive tasks that turn any job into a grind are prime candidates. The larger issue is instead of letting employees spend more time doing fulfilling activities because of increased efficiency, companies tend to do layoffs.






  • I’ve been homeless for 18 months. I have hospital bills I’m simply ignoring.

    You know what happens? You stop wanting work. I’m not going back to subsistence wages after usurious housing and utility costs that meant while I was making my boss ten times my salary, I couldn’t afford a car, and then I couldn’t afford housing.

    Show me a job that fairly compensates me and isn’t a bunch of bullshit where it’s unlikely the job even exists, and I’ll re-engage. Until then? “Missing work” is not a concern. I never had kids, so my decisions affect no one else.

    That’s why they want everyone having kids! It’s not about a larger labour force (we’ll outsource that, anyway); it’s not about having more conscripts for the armed forces; it’s simply about making people feel trapped. And if you think that’s a life, you do you.

    I do not. And I refuse to play this game any longer.


  • Throwing this on Frum is an odd take. I don’t agree with his policies, but a free press means an exchange of ideas. And in this piece, we see reasoned discourse, not some sort of batshit set of plans (but who needs that when you have Project 2025?).

    Saying that a concept (or set of concepts) has no value because of who is saying it is an interesting intellectual choice. We all fuck up; we all change over the years. My dad, for example, was a die-hard Reagan supporter, and he didn’t drink, let alone use cocaine. Now, in his 80s, he won’t touch any GOP candidate, voting straight Dem regardless.

    If my dad can realise in his golden years that the message is more important than the messenger, it’s not a stretch to think others can as well.


  • Past civilizations show us rebuilding generally takes centuries (Germany did not suffer complete collapse in the '40s – think more Rome, Egypt and China), and they didn’t have power grids and datacenters to worry about. Whatever descendants remain will be trying to do this in the hottest climate humans have experienced, which complicates matters.

    I’m not seeing anything reputable that suggests we aren’t on track for at least 3.5C above preindustrial, given feedback loops we’re already seeing. The horses are out, and we’re arguing about the finer engineering points of barn doors.







  • That’s ultimately the question. We can get rid of Trump at some point (and by “we,” I mean the Grim Reaper most likely, the way things are going), but how do you deprogram the decades of misinformation that installed him in the first and second place?

    I’m not an academic – though that’s apparently of about as much use as being a journalist these days – so I’m not really qualified to answer that. I suspect it would take MAGA hats having their lives become completely unaffordable to effect any demonstrable change. Ignoring the Constitution clearly isn’t having enough of an impact.








  • The vigil on Sunday evening drew a crowd so large that police in Vancouver had to move the crime scene barriers back so that people would not spill out onto the busy traffic along 41st Avenue, writes Dustin Godfrey, in his dispatch from Vancouver, about the strength of the Filipino community in the face of a devastating car attack that has killed 11 people and injured dozens more.

    I made an edit for not so much clarity, but “11 eleven”? Come on, Van. I know you can do better.

    There are times where this is used for comedic effect. Fully unable to read the room, we get redundancy in the wrong order: “eleven (11)” is correct, but that’s just the beginning. This is not a moment of levity. You aren’t The fucking Onion.

    Nothing that can be done, says one of the other countries where this is starting to be a regular occurrence.