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Top-level
 I really do believe that continued support for Big Social inevitably helps create the conditions for Fascism. And that support for the Fediverse preserves democracy. I’ve got pushback for the notion. A lot of people don’t like idea their Twitter account assists the cause of Fascism. But what gives Elon Musk his power? Claims of reach. What diminishes his power? Reducing his reach. Stop using Twitter and thwart Fascism! 17 comments
Some people believe social media is silly and inconsequential. On the contrary, it’s the most serious and consequential technology of our generation. It can give opportunity or destroy it. It can preserve democracy or destroy it. It can save lives or destroy it. But it’s up to us to say, “I’m going to use social media for good, not evil.” Some nihilists continue to say, “But if you build the Fediverse, surveillance capitalists will just exploit it for themselves.” Maybe, but that’s not inevitable. And it’s only inevitable if you resign yourself to doom and gloom. Guess what? Doom and gloom doesn’t usually win. If that were true, the Internet itself would be some mega corporation’s proprietary technology. But it is not. A true digital commons can win.  @atomicpoet On twitter I became all doom and gloom. Here, I see so much possibility and my optimism is slowly returning. @atomicpoet Exactly, a true digital commons can and probably will win eventually. The fediverse can be the real town square that Elon Musk pretended he wanted Twitter to be. Truth is, no matter how well-meaning, a centralized social network owns your social life. They own your social graph, the posts and the experience. A new owner or changing business needs can and will break everything eventually. @atomicpoet @atomicpoet my main issue is who is excluded by social media. That'll be women, black and brown people, poor people, people with disabilities etc. So many people, myself included, quiet quit social media in the last few years, it felt increasing unsafe for me. My controversial solution would be to end anonymity online. @atomicpoet In case Folks don't know what Surveillance Capitalism is. https://youtu.be/hIXhnWUmMvw @atomicpoet  @atomicpoet the world is run by Disney villains, and so we can blame it all on Trump or Putin. Installing grapheneOS or using Linux is too much effort, so I'd rather throw the middle finger at capitalism on my iPhone and post it on Twitter. Yeah baby it's time for the revolution. Support Ukraine save the Uighurs I'm with her People who write books about social change for mutual good, but then only promote them on Twitter... ...only want to sell books... ...not change society for the mutual good.  @atomicpoet The problem with for-profit social media is that moderation is an added expense. Even Reddit with its thousands of volunteer moderators has to have administrators step in when things get out of hand. They have too often been slow to remove racist and misogynistic subreddits. Mastodon seems to work because any administrator can quickly choose to isolate misbehaving servers. And people will move to the moderation they are comfortable with. |
Gregory's Server
As I said, though, it’s not enough to stop Elon Musk. We must stop predatory surveillance capitalism from exploiting our lives.
“They” say personal data is the new oil. Think about it. Surveillance capitalists see you merely as a resource for profiteering.
Or in Mark Zuckerberg’s words, they see us as “dumb f*cks”.
I don’t know about you, but I refuse to be a dumb f*ck.