I used to live a few blocks away from Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver, on East Hastings, while the occupation was happening. I saw people openly injecting at 1am while I walked home from work. Worst that happened was being asked for money. Mostly? They just said “Hi,” and “Good morning.”

Yeah, it looks bad when folks are drunk and on drugs in the open, but those people have nowhere else to go. Cops kept raiding and shutting down the independent harm reduction sites set up to keep the worst of it off the streets. No kidding people attack the police, I don’t blame them.

“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on X.

That’s some Lex Luthor sounding shit right there.

…when you’re in an echo chamber all the weird misinformation and emotion-driven politics are coming from inside the house.

I love this and I’m stealing it.

I used to get a lot more freelance writing and design gigs before AI. It was great under the table money because, at times, I recieve partial support for my disability, and they deduct from my monthly funds if I make money. It’s not enough to live on to begin with, so I relied on side gigs for any savings at all.

Now? I get none. Former clients have outright told me it’s just cheaper to use AI or Canva or whatever. I have friends with similar stories, so I wonder just how much of the unseen labor market was affected by this.

I don’t blame AI. It’s a neat technology and there’s nothing inherently wrong with. I blame capitalism for stealing from artists, building unsustainably, and for creating a world where people have to worry about lost funds from designing bullshit web graphics and business cards instead of having the time, money and bandwidth to follow our passions.