More like yay hem! 🤘🏼✊🏼

The high price of (many) new zines today is why I love zine libraries, and libraries with zine collections. Also while I prefer paper zines, I do appreciate that so many zinesters are putting digital copies online for free!

I wonder if many new zinesters are coming into the scene from an Etsy business perspective, where you have "production costs," and not a punk DIY perspective, where scamming free copies from Kinko's and re-using postage stamps was a common way to save money. That might explain some of the prices...

I've definitely seen $20 zines in the wild before and as an indie author it blows my mind. I've written multiple books with professional editing and design and everything and I'm not silly enough to think they'll sell for $20 a pop. The idea of a book that took years to finish being cheaper than an eight page zine is wild XD

But I really like this zine's thesis of zines being a part of liberation and community building, NOT a way to make an income. When I finally finish my first zine, I'm gonna post it here for everyone to use and then distribute it among my in-person friends c:

Wait - some people pay for zines?

I also wasn't aware that people ask for money for zines. Then again, I have never seen a zine in the wild :/ This one is definitely worth a read, it's a whole mood

Yeah, 30+ years is far too expensive. 🫤

You should consider using local models instead of cloud ones. That both reduces the power you give to companies and your reliance on them remaining free.

Language translation is only as good as the data set. There's a ton of TS/js out there (and a lot of it is horrible) so LLMs tend to be able to spit out working js (but the security properties are at best questionable). They tend to be less good at python, and obscure things like lisp are more likely to just be totally wrong. (IMHO, the entire paradigm of having machines try to make code to be read by other machines is nonsense because code is for people. That's literally the point.)

This is also true for natural languages.

Finding things is really just about encodings, so if you're building something like a RAG then you kind of don't even need to bother with the inference. I've build half-RAGs before just to get semantic search and then just skip the inference part after I have my doc list.

This is, of course, less useful if you're looking for something on the internet and you don't have a local search engine. But I'm not sure that an LLM is better than just using a search engine. That's just my take, though. Perhaps I just haven't experienced it.

Yeah, there's definitely a bit more nuance. I think most folks can just skip LLMs, but there are some use cases in tech.

The thing about local models is that inference is cheap. They're trying to charge for inference to cover the cost of training, and training is what uses all the resources. If you refuse to pay for inference, then the economic model collapses. IMHO, that's the critical part.

ChatGPT agrees

As a coder / engineer who occasionally uses AI but also likes countercultural zines, I would add a few thoughts.

Using generative AI for art, music or essays is a foreign concept to me. The things that I make aren't intended to look nice, and essays aren't given any weight in this field.

1. I use AI to locate texts to read.

A language model has read millions of books and articles. More than I can possibly browse. If I need to locate literature about a subject, I sometimes ask a language model to propose works on a certain subject. If it hallucinates and a text does not exist, I will find out when attempting to access the text. So far, I have not yet personally encountered this situation, but I have seen others stumble into this pit because they only wanted to reference a text, not read it.

Check everything that you get from a language model.

2. I use AI to locate software by functionality.

A language model has trained on great amounts of source code. More than I possibly can. It can also quickly bypass the confounding factors of non-intuitive project naming or project obscurity. If I need to locate free software which can already do something so I won't reinvent the wheel - I sometimes query a language model.

I have got several false or poor leads, but I have also located algorithms and implementations which avoided me considerable labour.

3. I use AI to translate between languages (natural and artificial)

I know only a few human languages (Estonian, English, Finnish, Russian, some amount of Ukrainian, French and German). If I need to read stuff in Spanish, Czech or Chinese, language models can make it much easier. Double-checking seems advisable.

Similarly, I only read and write C, C++, Java, Pascal and Basic. If someone has written a piece of code in Rust, Python or LISP, using a language model seems very appropriate instead of head-banging at language barriers. Sometimes it won't compile or run. I've seen a case where Chat never used the arguments for a function, and a case where Claude invented a lookup table out of thin air instead of the other project's sources. Double-checking is advisable.

4. I don't pay.

To ensure that I'm not causing an excessive burden on resources, I only limit myself to what is offered freely. My average usage is about 5 sessions (each maybe 10 queries) per month, during an intensive period of research. Typically less.

I wish I knew how many liters of water this would boil, but sadly they don't tell.

this is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!! I also didn't know about the Bright Green Futures anthology, I'll have to pick up a copy :D

There's this set !
https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/zines
They come accompanying the Bright Green Futures anthology (The Bright Green Futures: 2024 anthology is a collection of short solarpunk stories from guests of the Green Bright Futures podcast) on their website !

Thanks definitely look into all these sources.

Here's a guide on how to build up our ability to rise up :D

I'd also highly recommend Full Spectrum Resistance to anyone who wants further info on how to resist (audiobook version here).

You almost always lose in the first court for civil rights violations, you appeal and sometimes the appeal court gets it if not you appeal again to state supreme bb

The fact that they were convicted should shock everyone and it is about fucking time we rise up. We need revolution yesterday. Fucking bullshit might as well throw First amendment out the window. SICK AND TIRED OF FASCISM WINNING.

Don't you know opposing the government even if just in your thoughts is terrorism? /S

wtf are even those charges? it feels like ai was told to mix up a variey of words like conspiracy, conceal, and corrupt into something that sounded like a charge. You are charged with traitorously conspiring to conceal your movements and identity!!!

“Corruptly concealing a document” sounds absolutely made up to add on an additional charge.

This article was release before the federal trial of this person. They were actually convicted.

Rueda and her husband, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, were convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents. That charge centered on Sanchez’s movement of boxes containing radical pamphlets after her arrest. Sanchez was also convicted of corruptly concealing a document.

https://theintercept.com/2026/03/13/ice-protesters-terrorism-prairieland-antifa/

They're targeting zines now? LMAO, I've seen some literally made with nothing more than a fine point Sharpie, a few pieces of paper and a pair of staples.

Good thing that they don't cost 0.05¢ to produce, right? How are Anarchists going to produce content driving for prison reform and against corporatism if the FBI tells them not to? /s

This is super cool! Thanks for sharing.

Written by ChatGPT. I'm blocking Alexander and I suggest everyone else does the same.

I really liked it so I thought of posting the audiobook too.

'ol Smedley keepin' it real.

This should be in every school

The heart is the softest of your fist-sized antifascist body parts, so deploy it directly as a last resort.