Justine Bateman Profile picture
Nov 8 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years.
I have found the last four years to be an almost intolerable period. A very un-American period in that any questioning, any opinions, any likes or dislikes were held up to a very limited list of “permitted positions” in order to assess acceptability. 2/
I’ve never in my life known that to be an American environment. It’s an environment I have encountered in smaller groupings (a church, a private club,a clique), but never before as a national blanket. It has been suffocating. Common sense was discarded, intellectual discussion 3/
… was demonized. Only “permitted position” behavior and speech was “allowed.” Complete intolerance became almost a religion and one’s professional and social life was threatened almost constantly. Those that spoke otherwise were ruined as a warning to others.Their destruction 4/
… was displayed in the “town square” of social media for all to see. This was the #MeMeMeMeToo moment, where every effort was made to divert attention to oneself, instead of recognizing how one contributes to the whole.This was the era of trying to exercise control over those 5/
… who did not want to follow the crowd and has their own ideas about what they needed to do. This dampened our culture and innovation, bringing people to even think that generative #AI, a regurgitation of the past, was actually our cultural future. /6
When you starve a society of those called to be independent thinkers and cultural and intellectual innovators, you rob that society of any forward movement. Those that tried to impose that control maintained a kind of “hall monitor” position by threatening others with damning 7/
…labels like “Sexist,” “racist,” “homophobic,” etc, when the free-thinking and questioning was nothing of the sort. However, the mob mentality that followed caused these social convictions when there was often no evidence to support them. (See Charles McKay’s 1841 book, 8/
“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” 9/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordi…
I am neither one extreme or the other, but am one of the millions of people who believe in common sense, and that everyone should be free to live their lives however they want, unless that freedom interferes with someone else’s freedom to live their own life.
That’s it. 10/fin

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More from @JustineBateman

Nov 20
True. And yet that negative result will serve to break up what needs to be broken, so something else can emerge. Something magnificent is happening. I know it sounds counterintuitive. Yes, gen #AI is one of the worst ideas society has ever come up with. Yes it will destroy jobs, and more importantly crush people’s sense of self and worth. However, what was borne of greed will happen to give way to something very special, something truly new.
When a certain structure is inflexible and is not shifting as it should (the arts, education, etc), then it needs to be destroyed. There is sometimes no other way for the truly new and unique to emerge, as it’s meant to.
Both things can be true: gen #AI is bad for our society, AND ALSO gen AI’s destruction will finally clear the structures that were too stubborn to allow The New.
Since the spring of 2023, I’ve been telling people how gen AI is fueled by greed and how it will cause destruction. I have said this knowing I can’t stop it. I have said this so that people aren’t surprised by the tsunami of AI infiltration into our systems and institutions. I also say it to point fingers at those tech bros, studio execs, CEOs, etc who worship money for having disregarded any respect for human effort and worth.
But the real prize here is what comes after. #AI is the next chapter, but it is not the last chapter. And it’s not even a very interesting chapter, compared with The New that comes after that. The dystopian films and books you’ve read and watched were just “set-ups” and not conclusions. There is something remarkable coming. Set your sights beyond the destruction, on The New. Something real and raw and very human. Don’t focus on the mountain that seems to be in the way, but lift your POV, so you can see the land beyond it.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 15
#SocialMediaVideoCritique
- This one is a fresh piece.
- The actress is playing a bird who is crushed that "her family" (the birds who raised her) have left the nest.
- She takes this as an enormous rejection with "I'm (a) white (bird). I shouldn't be taking up space (in this nest)."
- We understand immediately that she has donned the beige cape of a Boreal or Elf owl to cover her white feathers and fit in. The actress' beige sweater neatly accomplishes this.
- The makeup department has done a great job in applying smudged black eye pencil under her eyes. We understand that the character tried to look more like a Boreal owl, by simulating their eye area markings.
- Cast pictures are below. Fin.
The "White Bird" Image
"Mom" Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 8
#SocialMediaVideoCritique
- We again have that overhead light issue, but the director tries to counter that by putting a brimmed cap on the actor.
- Unfortunately, this causes a diffused light on the actor’s face. Better to turn off the overhead light and set a key light on 1/
-… the actor’s face.
- The footage is out of focus. We see the knit of the sweater in focus, but not our actor’s face. Be sure to rehearse beforehand to set focal distance.
- There are distracting objects in the background, one behind his head and one camera right. 2/
-… These pull the attention from the actor.
- The actor did not memorize his lines and we can see him reading from the cue cards. If this is necessary in your production, consider an earpiece through which the lines can be fed. Or shoot the scene in smaller, easy-to-memorize 3/
Read 4 tweets
Nov 7
As a filmmaker, I want to point out the issues with these recently released projects. #SocialMediaVideoCritique
- The actress starts out 3/4 figure, but the she needs to lean over to have her 2-Ts shot in frame. Consider placing the camera higher, so she doesn’t have to 1/
-…make this effort.
- the dialogue is spoken at low volume and is difficult to hear. Perhaps the Director is adding the element of danger, and that there was someone in the house who might be dismayed by this scene. Or perhaps the location was not secured with permits, etc.. 2/
- If the former is true, we needed some indication of that. If the later was true, prep properly like we said.
- She adjusts her hair frequently and it breaks the focus of the scene. Even when working with a skeleton crew, 3/
Read 4 tweets
Nov 5
Are you paying attention? Do you see what is creeping along, seeping into our systems and institutions? See how Altman & other tech bros are planting this “#AI religion”? That their AI models are “god,” always with you, giving you “wisdom,” and 1/
Altman suggesting God is onboard with this plan to replace our relationship with Him with a relationship with #AI models instead. Watch closely. They will say things like this more and more, so they can suck the life out of you, emotionally, 2/
spiritually, intellectually, & (their ultimate goal) financially. First, it’s something to “help you,” then it’s “AI can do it better,” then it’s “we don’t need you,” then UBI & loss of purpose, then it’s loss of identity & agency. Don’t let them steal your life from you. 3/fin
Read 9 tweets
May 19
I hope people are understanding what’s being said by Sam Altman, the lunatic to whom everyone is capitulating their lives. He is lying that #AGI is “inevitable.” It’s like saying the pouring of sugar over everything you eat is “inevitable,” because he benefits from the pour. 1/
This quote is supposed to refer to OpenAI’s “safety issue.” It also reflects Altman’s refrain, insisting we need some dumb algorithmic formula to pretend to “think” for us. “Life’s too hard, you have to have #AI do it for you.”
Complete nonsense. 2/ mashable.com/article/openai…
Image
And this quote below is code for “You must divert as much of the world’s money as possible our way.” See? If he’s convinced you of the first “learned helplessness” position, that #AI is inevitable because humans can’t handle life, then… 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets

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