Hihi, it’s time for your periodic disclaimer: This newsletter mailing list is running on a piece of software that seems to bork when certain conditions are in place. I don’t know what exactly those conditions are. When it borks, it affects those of you trying to unsubscribe or those of you trying NOT to unsubscribe. It seems chaotic and random, often Proton email users are affected, but sometimes it’s other domains. I don’t know. Maybe I should move to Ghost or Beehiiv, Buttondown or other. Anyway, TL;DR: if you unsubscribed and then keep getting these emails, please do hit reply and say “I’ve been trying to unsubscribe”. I promise you won’t hurt my feelings, I will delete your email from the DB and all will be right with the world.
Well, no, all will not be alright with the world, but at least you won’t have to listen to me whine about economics, politics, philosophy, psychology or entropy anymore. You won’t have to read about how irritating I find it to repeat solution-finding when the current solution was working just fine. In this case, I’m talking about international world order, which since WWII has been arguably pretty ok with all it’s alliances and trade deals and stuff. Yeah, ok things could be improved, but sticking dynamite down a fox hole only results in utter destruction.
You also won’t have to read about how enraging it is to watch people say they are going to tackle big problems and then come up with solutions that are so fucking banal my brain is breaking. This week an announcement that some folks are releasing a “European” alternative to X sent rage juice all over my body. It was a fluffy marketing thing that took up an entire hour of my time as I wrote and rewrote responses that I never sent.
It was typical hyper-capitalist and misguided start up nonsense. It was not “Europe” announcing this social media platform, it was some Europeans. Big difference there. The investors are mostly politicians and there was reporting that EuroStack is a coalition of the “300 most important tech CEOs”. Fake news, as far as I can tell. EuroStack has a bunch of signatories, and a letter that sets priorities that are antithetical to this social media network.
It is clear the governance of this new platform will be centralised and there is nothing else apparent in the story. No technologies were mentioned, no comments on protocols or standards. Just a note that anonymity will not be allowed. It doesn’t seem to exist.
These people made a big to-do about their stupid thing at Davos. I accidentally heard about the thing and didn’t immediately understand that it was just people in Europe cosplaying corporate big tech BS that has gotten much of the world in serious trouble. In short, the thing is just bullshit headed up by some gross capitalist bullshitters who will probably pay talented people to build a piece of bullshit. I saw profiles and then I remembered that the Big Life is a lie. But it’s a lie that people keep on chasing.
I then tried to avoid the internet for the rest of the week because of Davos.
Maybe I’m cosplaying
cc-by-nd the great Bryan Mathers
I’ve been anti-capitalist since before it was cool and feel a deep seeded hypocrisy in my own existence. I do, actually, have to live inside of a system that is fundamentally at odds with a lot of my beliefs. Still, sigh, I try to square the circle through thoughtful and precise hyper-rationalisations in regards to capital and I have spent, as you are well aware, my time working in the open – in open communities, on open protocols, open standards and decentralised, privacy protecting infrastructures – since the beginning of my career. I try to help organisations understand the trade-offs. Sure, you can meet people where they are on this or that proprietary platform, but you have to understand that you are relinquishing control. In the mess of data brokers and surveillance capitalism, I have not been strictly radical. This is an intellectual stance that has gotten me yelled at multiple times, but I just don’t have the time.
I’ve also been yelled at for not being a pacifist, which some think is a radical position. I believe in counter violence. I think we should fight back, and I say that having worked with plenty of non-violent, direct action (NVDA – not the Nvidia stock ticker) organisations for the last decade. I am glad the continuum of activism includes pacifists, but I’m not one of them.
As I said, I’m aware of my hypocrisies. I don’t expect anyone to be able to follow along, I’ll make my judgements as I see fit. I’m allowed to change my mind regularly. Being educated is at least in part about being wildly uncommitted to any one stance.
A lifetime of being yelled at for not being radical enough and for being too radical has made me a bit confused as well. I genuinely do not understand what the hell is going on. Do you?
Maybe I need help
So here’s the thing, I have been online doing Amnesty International work (we’re kicking off our pilot next week!) and I have been reading books. I haven’t been scrolling or keeping up with any of my feeds. Like at all. So I only have a few random links for you this week. I don’t think anyone is here for the links anyway…
- The state attorneys general are as mad as you are > https://www.theverge.com/policy/865882/democratic-state-attorney-general-rayfield-ellison
- Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback > https://www.404media.co/comic-con-bans-ai-art-after-artist-pushback/
- AI-Ready Documentation for the Social Sector > https://llmstxt.social/
(featured image Darth Fisher by Frankey)