Mauve 👁💜 @mauve@mastodon.mauve.moe

Here's a "typical Western attitude" that most of us are utterly unaware of: social systems are either hierarchical or horizontal; they either have strong states and laws or they don't.

Actual people, however, living their actual lives in the actual world do not seem to agree with this sentiment, and have never had any problem adapting different ways of interacting at different times of year or different places in the landscape. Political theorists should probably be taking this into account.

I feel like the older I get, the more I resent manipulation of all kinds. Like, not that I'm more immune to it, just that it pisses me off more and more once I recognize it. Advertising, sales tactics, rhetorical techniques, dark patterns - all of it just feeling ever more cynical & obnoxious to me.

@silberfuchs

Something that I think was not clear to me and maybe to many more people at the beginning: We all have an idea to not say anything incriminating during an interrogation, but cops will be fishing for *any* information at *all* times, and they will use sketchy emotional strategies to catch you off guard or provoke a reaction. A formal interrogation in a room is 1% of it.

**Edit**: Details about laws in these examples are specific to Germany, but the general idea and cop behaviour apply universally.

"Good cop" in my experience looks less like the nice detective from the cop show, and more like a non-cop-looking woman in cleaning lady clothes coming to you at the corridor and asking if you would like a cup of coffee. If you accept the next question will be "are you doing OK?" or "are you being mistreated? would you like to file a complaint? I can ask for a female officer if you prefer." This is a trick. Your emotions are high, you'll be thirstier for support and a bit of fucking humanity than you can imagine right now, and they'll deliberately exploit that to get you to slip more info, about yourself and others.

So your answer to "would you like a cup of coffee" is silence. If you're pressured to say something that's not silence, you say "no comment". "Is this your first time here?" No comment. "If you don't follow the proper procedure we'll have to hold you for longer" no comment. "You know, I don't really want to do this, actually I'm really proud that young people like you are taking a stand, this is just my job, can we just get this done so you can leave earlier?" No. Comment.

"Bad cop" in my experience looks less like the tough guy Dick Tracy slamming on the table, and more like snarky xenophobic or transphobic remarks, or punching protesters under the banner where the cameras can't record it, more to rub on your face that they can do what they want than to hurt, angling for a reaction; or flashing a heil hitler from the van when they pass antifas. If a cop shows my gender marker to others and make mocking comments and I say "that's transphobia and it's illegal", I fall into the trap. This will start a conversation and in the conversation they'll have all sorts of *other* tricks to enrage and scare and provoke you to talk. Complaints are to be filed with a cool head and through your lawyer.

They get you angry enough to return an abusive insult with "fuck you, you bigot"? Congrats, you just did a crime. Furthermore, anger leads to mistakes. At one protest, a cop doing a torture hold on my hand while dragging me around whispered on my ear like, "had enough? I can do much more". The beard of this creep rubbing on my ear while he got off on hurting girls got me so pissed, so eager to be a hero of the resistance, to defy them even harder and prove that pain won't break me, that I refused to show my ID when requested later. Had he not said the thing, I would have been clear-thinking enough to remember that refusing to show the ID, in my particular situation, would just give them a pretext to fingerprint me anyway while increasing my punishment.

Cop walking with you on the corridor: "We know you broke the Starbucks window at the protest, we have you on camera." You, indignantly: "That's preposterous, I was at the other side of the march, I have witnesses!" Now you just helped the cops figure out that one of the other 3 comrades they detained is the culprit, and in addition they get some fresh new witnesses to do their manipulations on.

A trick I heard of: Cop: "We have a complaint that you have been photographing those right-wing protesters, that's illegal." (It's not actually illegal to take photos here, only to publish them; it's also not illegal to photograph cops doing abuse; but they often will tell you it is.) "You must delete the photos from your gallery immediately." (This is not a thing they can demand, but they will anyway.) You, indignantly: "I have no photos of them, look!" Cop will swiftly grab your unlocked cellphone from your hand and take his time scrolling through all folders. Cops are not instant street prosecutors and can't accuse you of things. If an angry cop shouts and accuses you of a crime, you don't prove that you're innocent, you say nothing. "No comment". Criminal lawyers are trained to deal with this type of trick; leave your defense to them.

Want to file a complaint about this type of illegal yet omnipresent cop behaviour? Good luck proving it, it's your word against theirs and who do you think the judges will side with, antifa radicals or cops?

Mikola Dziadok from Belarus recounts that a favourite of cops who catch anarchists, in the post-Soviet world, is to do 4chan-ass political debate, like "you claim to be anarchist but you do judo, that's hierarchical!" Or for good cop, "in my heart I think anarchism makes sense, can you recommend me something to read?" (Your book recommendation is "no comment".)

Browser plugin that detects a “this web site wants to show you notifications!” request, and instantly puts the web site on a black list so it never shows up in searches for you again.

"For absolutely no reason, your local storage is corrupt for the third time this month. Do you want to sign out and delete your encryption keys for reasons that are not explained at all, or just not use the app?"

Hard to imagine why people don't use Matrix more 🙄

as a "computers person" i do not know how to solve the problem correctly the first time, what i do have is an endless list of strange tactical maneuvers that might solve a problem and an ability to prioritise them

You know how when you go to the house of an absolute colossal nerd and you ask them

🐇 Hey, how do I watch Netflix?

🦝 Yeah no problem, well first you've gotta turn on the amp. That's the power button on this remote here. The right-hand power button that is, the left-hand one isn't programmed to anything yet

🐇 OK

🦝 Sometimes that makes the TV come on automatically, but if it doesn't then you've gotta turn on the TV. That's this button here on this other remote.

🐇 So we're on two remotes now

🦝 Nearly finished. Oh by the way, if you want to adjust the volume, use the first remote, the volume on the second remote doesn't do anything. Well it does, but it sounds terrible because that's the TV speakers, so leave that at zero

🐇 But I'm *watching* tv

🦝 Yes but you're *listening* to the amp. Oh, sorry, forgot, set the amp input to 2.

🐇 on the amp remote?

🦝 Yeah, the video goes through the amp too.

🐇 In my house we set the TV to a different input, should -

🦝 Don't do that here. Don't. The TV stays on input 1 with its sound muted. Next you've just gotta use this third remote, for the -

🐇 for Netflix?

🦝 Well, technically for Kodi, but that's nothing to worry about yet

🐇 yet?

🦝 We'll come to that,

🐇 I'm being *so* patient right now, I'm really proud of myself

Anyway, imagine that, but your your lightbulbs. This is what Home Assistant promises