Skiluros

Good to hear!

Yes, I do think (hope?) that will be another migration wave. Hopefully one that can kickstart organic double digit YoY MAU growth as well as getting total MAUs over 100K.

It was in no way my intention to downplay how fucked this is. I am just pointing out that it’s worth evaluating and countering agitprop methods.

I agree. That’s why I’ve largely moved off reddit and deleted my twitter accounts.

I would even go as far as saying that the architecture of the fediverse with multiple instances, multiple platforms (Lemmy vs. Piefed vs. Mbin) and multiple frontends has the potential to offer more innovation, a better user experience and better content/communities.

But that being said user growth (via a competitive federated model) is necessary.

It would enable expanded coverage of niche topics of interests and other languages. Potentially more funding for development and administration.

But the most important point is that it would allow the global community to take back digital social interaction from the criminal oligarchs, the marketers and shills and undermine nation state digital propaganda and subversion efforts.

I am talking in abstract, aspirational terms, but still, from my perspective this is all part of getting quality content/discussions.

Crypto is all about shilling bags or criminal activity.

The negotiating tactic angle is also very realistic. But the point remains, the statement in of itself is agitprop initiative.

This honestly sounds like a PR/propaganda move. An attempt to dominate the news cycle and provide cover for on-going corruption and oligarch take-over schemes.

The sad thing is that even with all these scandals, MAU/DAU growth in the threadiverse is flat.

I will speculate that for many American companies such activities would be a positive element on a resume.

It may make more sense to have public website listing their names, personal details and their role around working Musk/Trump. This is something they are unlikely to be happy about (even if major American tech companies block the website).

It’s hilarious to see reputable right-leaning media publications such as FT and The Economist trying to rationalize Donald Trump’s behaviour.

The legal pretext for Trump’s move is questionable, too. He made use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, an executive authority that enables him to respond to extraordinary economic or security threats. Yet that law has not previously been used to enact tariffs. The courts and Congress ought to block them.

Fascinating that FT seems to believe that the US judicial system is going to come to the rescue. I disagree, but what do I know? I am not American (although I have previously lived in North America for a decade).

Boycotts don’t really work. Is there a good example from the last ~40 years of a successful boycott?

That’s a very good point.

To the extent possible, we should not agree to this requirement.

This is clearly done by Trump under the bidding of the Russians.

I think that’s a bit too reductionist and negative. Historically there have been rebellions under far worse odds (some successful, some not).

At any rate, it’s probably way too early to make any predictions or conclusions.

That’s the million dollar question.

At any rate I wish you guys luck. A fascist US is not a good thing for global liberal democracy.

I do wonder if there will be any bottom up resistance to the Trump regime. Things like regional refusals to implement at least some of the orders, occupation of federal buildings, detainment of regime thugs, blockade of key infrastructure nodes (airports, major highway nodes, ports etc.), detainment of senior oligarchs and collaborators.

I recognize that in the US context even talking about such things is both controversial and would be seen as a sort of a fever dream, but in the global context this is not unprecedented.

From living in the US, I don’t think there will be any bottom up resistance (at least initially). US is simply too well off (on a relative basis) for most people to care, there is a strong belief in US institutions (for better or worse) and many people are brainwashed by oligarch propaganda.

That being said, these sort of things are by definition unpredictable.

The White House said on Friday that the new tariffs on Canada and Mexico will take effect on Feb. 1, denying a Reuters report that they would be delayed until March 1.

So did the tariffs take effect or not? Or are they supposed to be announced closer to the end of the day US time?

I am not arguing against this initiative and to be honest I support it even though I don’t believe in it. I am just sharing my own perspective and it’s not meant to be a critique of this post (even if it comes off that way). FWIW, I upvoted this post after reading the linked page.

I don’t believe there is any point in engaging with russians (be it yelling at them or any kind of dialogue revolving around what I see as platitudes). This is not because they are inherently bad or incapable of change or anything like that. They are very much capable of change, not to mention that framing their behaviour in essentialist terms in many ways allows them to avoid responsibility.

Based on the facts on the ground, the lack of information is not relevant when discussing broad support for genocidal imperialism among russians. They are adults, they full well understand that invading another country, annexing their territories and enforcing their language and culture is wrong. The stuff about “nazis in Ukraine” and NATO/BATO expansion is all a ruse and the russians who promote such polemics know this.

For someone to change their mind, there has to be some sort of driver or incentive. Ethical and humanist arguments cannot change minds when a strong majority (at the very least) of the population explicitly endorses and supports a genocidal imperialist position (while also engaging in duplicitous messaging in order to whitewash their crimes in context of the world at large).

One has to be honest with russians and explicitly tell them their ruse is not going to work. That they will be treated as genocidal imperialists until they change their behaviour (end of occupation, extradition of all russians involved in war crimes, compensation for all killings and damage). Tell them that they are welcome to play the victim, lie about russophobia or support putin or do whatever; they will be treated based on their actions. If you do evil things, you will be treated as evil people, no one is buying your lies.

Now you might say this approach is unreasonable, unrealistic or lacking in pragmatism. To that I will answer; look at it from a more long term perspective. Over the last 110 years, 16 nations have de jure liberated themselves from the yoke of russian imperialism (I am not even counting Warsaw Pact countries). Reagan took an explicit position (evil empire) and lo and behold, the USSR did collapse.

I simply don’t believe the vast majority of russians have any interest in changing their views (based on ethical arguments). They know what they are doing is wrong and they still support it. They need real incentives to change their tune.

Regarding the BBC article, I will point out that the Nazi regime was defeated by military force. Denazification was implemented via multi-decade allied occupation aimed at limiting any hint of revanchism both via positive initiatives such as the marshal plan and long term education initiatives. Unfortunately, this is not viable when it comes to russians.

Like I said earlier, this just my opinion and I do think it’s a well meaning initiative. I would be glad to be wrong regarding the above-mentioned arguments.

That is a fair point, I see where you are coming from and I agree on a abstract level.

I guess it’s more that I personally don’t believe the majority of russian want to change. Platitudes about “peace with Ukraine, but also we continue to occupy 20% of your country and continue to eradicate Ukrainian culture/language/identity) in the occupied terroritories” notwithstanding.

Not to be a downer, but I don’t believe access to information is the root cause of russians’ support for genocidal imperialism and authoritarianism.

FWIW, russian language YT channels have been available since 2010, including international services (DW, BBC; in russian) and local opposition leaning channel such as TV Rain (Телеканал Дождь).

For the average russian the fear of shame associated with military defeat and the rejection of the notion “that russia is the greatest culture there is” stand above all other considerations. Even the lives of their own soldiers or the future of their children (the millions of lives they have destroyed in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Syria is not even on their radar).

I am not saying this is true of every single russian, but when 65% [1] to 85% [2] of the population are supportive of genocidal imperialism, this is a society-wide problem and not an issue tied to a single individual or a small group.

[1] Estimates of support for the full scale invasion of Ukraine accounting for preference falsification via list experiments and comparisons with direct polling. With the caveat that the authors of the list experiment believe their methodology under-estimates the true level of support (i.e. it is higher than 65%). [2] Estimates of support for the annexation of Crimea both via list experiments and direct polling (preference falsification with respect to the annexation of Crimea is practically nonexistent even though alleged russian liberals claim otherwise).

Facebook - Zuckerberg and his role in enabling ethnic cleansing in Myanmar

https://systemicjustice.org/article/facebook-and-genocide-how-facebook-contributed-to-genocide-in-myanmar-and-why-it-will-not-be-held-accountable/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/business/facebook-myanmar-zuckerberg.html