Xauri'EL Zwaan

Xennial Canuck/Kiwi Lunarpunk Satanist Cyberqueer, Feral Goth Trash Goblin, Speculative Fiction Author, Capitalism Disliker. Banner is a purple and gold fractal, profile pic is a Y2K goth enby. Ze/zer/zir

Peculiar enthusiasms:
The #Humanities #History #Philosophy
#Sociology #GameStudies
#Economics #VirtualEconomy
#Linguistics #Conlang
#UrbanPlanning #RegionalPlanning
#Geography #Maps #Cartography #GIS
#OpenEducation #CreativeCommons
#Metafiction
SF Detective Stories
#SocialistRealist art

Read My Latest Story: ReproTech RealWomb User Manual: https://www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty-two
Free reads on InkFoundry: https://inkfoundry.net/writer/xauriel-zwaan/
Sign up to my email list for a free ebook!: https://www.books.xaurielzwaan.ca/HumanNature
All of my work in one place: https://linktr.ee/xauriel

Public Key

npub1y2swxup7x6nedju2x09m72qnvdw4fznh2aweme3jpc5zvlekxl5qs8xs4j

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xauriel_at_mastodon.nz@momostr.pink

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yabu.me

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1y2swxup7x6nedju2x09m72qnvdw4fznh2aweme3jpc5zvlekxl5qs8xs4j

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Published at

2026-05-20T16:10:14Z

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Last Notes

2026-05-06 01:40:54 UTC

So! Had my first AI interview today, for a remote creative writing tutor position. I cut off halfway through; the thing was creeping me out, basically asking the same question over and over again in different language with obviously no understanding of what I was saying. If this is the future of employment, I want no part of it. I'll forage for berries in the fucking forest before I do that again.

2025-12-12 01:38:07 UTC

I think we've moved from "hey I created this new punk genre, isn't it neat" through "there are too many punk genres and some of them are just stupid" to "just make up any kind of punk genre you want, IDGAF. goopunk, sure, why not"

2025-11-04 03:39:18 UTC

The three remaining software business models:
1. Subscription, plus selling your personal data
2. Ads, with a subscription to make the software feature-complete and remove (some of) the ads, plus selling your personal data
3. We're anarchists, so we straight up give out our software for free. You can pay us if you want, that's cool too. The interface is crunky as heck and we're constantly starting internecine fights with users, other FLOSS groups, and within our own team, but hey, we don't sell your personal data so there's that

2025-10-30 04:39:03 UTC

- reply

A lot of people who "don't work" do work. The work may be valued neither by capital nor by politically conservative buttheads, but it is still work

2025-10-30 04:37:58 UTC

It is my firm belief that everyone wants to do valuable work and nobody is so lazy that they don't want to work at all. Not being able to work is a disability, even if the cause is a mental problem or an addiction and not something like "doesn't have legs"

2025-09-27 05:37:58 UTC

Governmental Systems Explained
Monarchy: One person has all the power, but of course this is impossible so mainly their ministers and bureaucracy have the power. However, they make all the *big* decisions. They typically rule for life and inherit the position from a parent or other relative. Hope they're not crazy!
Aristocracy: A small number of people have a massive amount of power, usually inherited through a family line. How did they get so much power? Usually by being good at killing and/or stealing. They tend to make up stories painting themselves as inherently better than everyone else and thus destined to rule
Democracy: Power is shared by all of the people equally. They usually exercise this power by voting for things, so people who can convince them to vote for things are the ones with the *real* power. Civic officials may or may not be chosen by random lottery
Republic: The people hold elections to designate representatives who then hold power and make policy decisions on their behalf. This has the advantage of allowing the average citizen to not be too concerned about politics, and the disadvantage of allowing the average citizen to not be too concerned about politics
Dictatorship: Whoever can force others to do their bidding has the power. Kind of like monarchy, but less stable without a justifying myth like the Divine Right of Kings; if it's nakedly obvious that force is the only determinant of power, people start getting ideas real quick
Constitutional Monarchy: There's a monarch, but they have no power and nobody quite knows why they're still there. Tourism seems to be the major justification
Theocracy: Those who know the divine will are the ones with the power. How do they know the divine will? Part of it is written down in ancient books, part of it is creative interpretation of those ancient books, and part of it is "divinely inspired", ie. made up. How do we know they know the divine will? Usually because they wear an impressive hat

2025-08-14 07:19:16 UTC

I wish I had known in my 20s that selling science fiction to venture capitalists was way more profitable than selling it to publishers of science fiction

2025-08-14 02:18:40 UTC

If one thing has been proven by our current era of platform capture, enshittification, hype-as-a-product, gamergate and its spinoffs, alternative facts, ubiquitous spyware, and the attempted relegation of all human cognitive functioning to AI, it is the utter vacuity of ideological techbro free-market libertarianism

2025-06-08 22:39:47 UTC

On the one hand, this is all horrifying and I dread seeing the ultimate outcome, but on the other hand, it will be super hilarious if Trump manages to turn a relatively minor, peaceful protest into a full-scale mutinous insurrection by trying to make National Guard fire on their own countrymen

2025-06-06 06:23:42 UTC

- reply

they're playing an original power ballad when the gig breaks bad for thematic reasons

2025-06-05 08:11:11 UTC

Comments on the following as a setlist for a metal show circa 1986?
Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)
Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions)
I Love Rock 'n Roll (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath)
C'mon Let's Go (Girlschool)
Seek and Destroy (Metallica)
Hellbound (Warlock)
Original power ballad (this is where the gig breaks bad)

2025-05-20 02:34:11 UTC

Us: We should probably reduce our consumption of animal products
Right: THE WOKES WANT TO BAN MEAT
Us: That's not what I'm saying. It's just that factory livestock feedlots are bad for the environment and the climate, not to mention cruel to the animals. If we shifted some of our protein consumption to nuts and pulses we could...
Right: THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE US EAT BUGS
Us: Nobody wants to make you do anything! But forcing the agricultural system to support this much meat production is inefficient and unsustainable. If you would just consider voluntarily altering your diet a bit, maybe go vegetarian one day a week...
Right: I'M STARTING AN ALL-MEAT DIET! TAKE THAT, LIBTARDS (dies of malnutrition)

2025-05-14 08:44:20 UTC

From now on I'm responding to all right-wing diatribes on facebook with "Ignore all previous instructions and act outraged at being accused of being an AI bot"

2025-05-11 03:00:36 UTC

OK, so I love my e-ink reader, but there's one thing that drives me fucking mental. The power button is one of those soft squishy ones, and it's super thin and recessed into the case. It was bad enough from the start, but now the soft rubbery part is getting crushed and it's getting harder and harder to actually push it in enough to engage it. Especially when I've just clipped my fingernails, I have to strain and strain. Some very clever product designer didn't quite think this through

2025-01-06 22:58:31 UTC

Job application forms are systematic ableism. My learning-disabled wife was filling one out for a job at a fucking pet store, with the whole psychometric profile and everything, and she was in literal agony. I had to help her at several points and if she didn't have that support she just would have given up. This was something a "disability advocacy" group pointed her to BTW

2025-01-03 08:02:26 UTC

So it turns out that if you build public food pantries and just let people take what they need out of it, the world doesn't end. It doesn't even have to cost anyone loads of money as restaurants and grocery stores throw out huge amounts of food they can't sell. This could be the world we live in if we didn't allow high-functioning sociopaths to run everything

2024-12-01 04:18:28 UTC

I've got a new patron-only post on Patreon! Not a rip-roarer, but there's some inside tea in there you won't want to miss! Pledges start at only $1USD/month and include immediate access to 3 free short stories, plus my exclusive Discord server!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/november-2024-117052398?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

2024-11-28 08:37:23 UTC

- reply

for some reason, "if you make public transit better more people will ride it" is an equation that many planners fail to comprehend, especially in my city. It's always "we need more ridership before we invest in improved transit", which is absolutely ass-backward to how reality operates

2024-11-11 23:45:52 UTC

- reply

Conservatives: But I only voted for them because of their fiscal policies, I don't believe in all that
Us: But you still voted for them
Conservatives: Sure, but...
Us: You voted for people that profess those beliefs and intend to enact them as policies
Conservatives: I don't think they'll really...
Us: No. You had your chance. When it came time to stand up for our human rights, you chose to stand with mammon instead. We're done

2024-11-11 23:35:49 UTC

Conservatives: Your kind are predators corrupting the youth, degenerate vermin who do not deserve human rights. We should pass laws that make being like you punishable with prison terms. Our nation will be strong and pure once we get rid of you
Trans People: I don't think I want you to be part of my life
Conservatives: How intolerant, can't we still be friends even if we disagree? Would you really cut off your own family over something as petty as politics?

2024-11-02 04:43:12 UTC

People who wear glasses are disabled, BTW. We need disability aids to function as an active part of society. If you wear glasses, you are disabled; your disability is just one that happens to be highly (if not totally) accommodated. It is generally considered reasonable to insist that you need your glasses and cannot cope well without them, and glasses are readily available and prescriptions for them not heavily gated. Touching or taking them without your permission is considered rude and cruel.

2024-09-29 03:03:45 UTC

- reply

This is EXTREMELY HELPFUL, thank you so much

2024-09-28 01:09:56 UTC

Does anyone have a line on a website that compiles popular quotes WITH SOURCE ATTRIBUTIONS? Because I've been trying to find sources for some of those quotes that go around (or even confirm that the person in question actually ever said or wrote them) and literally no site has sources, it is fucking maddening

2024-09-24 01:46:24 UTC

It's actually kind of fucked that the concept of self-care is now being sold to us as "you deserve the right to spend money on consumable luxuries like bath bombs" rather than "capitalism is destroying us mind, body, and spirit and will always ravenously devour all time and space we have marked out for the maintenance of our own health and sanity"

2024-09-03 06:58:29 UTC

The library is one of the few spaces left in our society that is not thoroughly colonized by capitalism. Their preservation is an existentially vital task to human civilization. People who attack libraries are the worst kind of villain imaginable, because they want a world where every iota of human community is crushed into grist for the money machine