If you're at war, limiting the communication of troop locations, or the exact details on building weapons of mass destruction I can see being limited. But there's not many situations, and we have seen the above reasons ballooned into much more than they should be because murasama must always drink blood
Government regulation of speech that is factually accurate and true is a like the sword Muramasa; once drawn it's cursed that it must drink blood before it's returned to it's scabbard.
That doesn't mean you never draw the sword, but it is something you only do with the direst need and with a grim understanding of the danger the action poses and that you will be hurting someone today.
That doesn't mean you never draw the sword, but it is something you only do with the direst need and with a grim understanding of the danger the action poses and that you will be hurting someone today.
We've seen big tech "embrace open protocols" before, and they embraced the protocols just long enough to kill the thing they were embracing.
If we let them, they'll suck all the oxygen out of the room. It'll be really bad.
If we let them, they'll suck all the oxygen out of the room. It'll be really bad.
I was waiting until I saw something show up in my feed to verify and I just saw it.
Peertube is the fediverse version of youtube. Different peertube instances can connect together so people can view videos from all over the Internet from the one user interface.
I was running some testing figuring out what I could federate with, and I found that if I plug the URL from a peertube channel into my lemmy search, it shows up like a community. Then I can follow it and new videos will show up in my lemmy feed. (I expect the same would work in kbin)
So for example, the minetest videos channel is at https://share.tube/c/minetestvideos/videos -- Just plug this URL into search, and suddenly minetestvideos is a community you're following on lemmy or kbin, and new videos will show up in your feed and you can watch them and comment on them right from here!
It's a really great example of how ActivityPub support lets you connect things you'd never expect to be able to connect. Imagine if on reddit you could just subscribe to a youtube channel!
#feditips
Peertube is the fediverse version of youtube. Different peertube instances can connect together so people can view videos from all over the Internet from the one user interface.
I was running some testing figuring out what I could federate with, and I found that if I plug the URL from a peertube channel into my lemmy search, it shows up like a community. Then I can follow it and new videos will show up in my lemmy feed. (I expect the same would work in kbin)
So for example, the minetest videos channel is at https://share.tube/c/minetestvideos/videos -- Just plug this URL into search, and suddenly minetestvideos is a community you're following on lemmy or kbin, and new videos will show up in your feed and you can watch them and comment on them right from here!
It's a really great example of how ActivityPub support lets you connect things you'd never expect to be able to connect. Imagine if on reddit you could just subscribe to a youtube channel!
#feditips
Truth.
There is no such thing as a post-scarcity society, because something will always be scarce.
There is no such thing as a post-scarcity society, because something will always be scarce.
The thing I really don't understand is that socialism is the transitionary phase under Marx. You establish a dictatorship where the massive state controls everything, and then you magically end up with a stateless, classless society.
And that's absurd, which is why communism doesn't work.
And that's absurd, which is why communism doesn't work.
Reposting from a kbin thread about the fall of reddit because I think it's a good effortpost.
I'm an old fucker, to me it seems like the tipping point started in 2008, and really started to get bad in 2016.
I was already chatting on online forums in the late 90s, and on slashdot starting around 2000. There was lots of discussion, some of it first, but it was just discussion. Not a lot of politics per se.
In September 2001, al queda attacked the world trade center, the Pentagon, and another plane was flown into the ground. This led to lots of discussion online and a massive increase in political conversations.
In 2003, America went to war in Iraq. This was a generational event, and it fundamentally changed internet conversation. Partisanship really started to show up, in part thanks to George W. Bush's "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" rhetoric.
At some point along the way, I stopped using slashdot. I tried using kuro5hin for a while, then Digg, and eventually landed on Reddit.
Two fundamental changes that happened in 2008 were the election of Barack Obama, and the Ron Paul revolution. In both cases, internet ground game ended up having an outsided impact on politics. Barack Obama ended up being an internet sensation, and his Democrats got the presidency and both houses of Congress by a wide margin. Ron Paul didn't come close to winning any primaries, but the shadow of this campaign cast a long shadow over the Republican party, arguably leading to the tea party faction taking over the party for a time.
This made everyone perk up in politics. Where a few candidates realized before that this Internet thing could be powerful, 2008 showed that it could fundamentally change the game.
While reddit was highly political in 2008, there were many factions. That's what made it a fun place to be -- there were right wingers, religious people, libertarians, liberals, socialists, and social justice advocates. I think at this point, however, forces started to work to take over the discourse. By 2015, subtle changes had taken place to really make anyone who wasn't part of a specific ideology feel unwelcome, including a differential treatment of different groups. Most brigading subs were handled by admins (by shutting them down), but notably /r/shitredditsays which brigaded "bigoted" comments was allowed to stay up. Powermods were previously a problem on Digg, eventually the same problem seemed to start occurring on Reddit where a small group of mods were controlling hundreds of subreddits.
By the time I left for good, it was clear to me that reddit wasn't anything like the place it used to be. Many subreddits either through social engineering or through bots would see posts that were not part of the mandatory orthodoxy immediately hammered into the dirt. "The downvote button is not an I disagree button" clearly didn't apply anymore. Until that point, I was deleting my account every few months and making a new one because doxxing was a growing problem and I didn't want to have my real life destroyed for having an opinion people disagreed with, but eventually the site lost all value to me since I knew you couldn't have discussions on the discussion site any longer.
The successful election of Donald Trump put everything into hyperdrive. Controlled subreddits became graveyards of dissent, and polarization became total as people picked sides. At that point I no longer returned to reddit in any regard because there was just no point.
The cultures of the different highly polarized sides became quite different, all toxic in their own ways. The left became ridiculously authoritarian to keep outsiders out, the right became ridiculously offensive to keep outsiders out. The fact that there was one website (whatever that website was) meant that you could kinda play for keeps -- take over a website with authoritarian moderation or with extreme offensiveness, and you win that front.
My hope is that the decentralized nature of the fediverse helps. When Lemmy.ml or beehaw go too authoritarian, people can just find something else on the same platform that's more reasonable. If certain websites are too crass and offensive, people can go find something else on the same platform that's more reasonable. In it's built-in diversity, the fediverse is set up so everyone can have their space, and the worst that can happen is someone shunts you out of theirs (but you get to keep yours).
I've found the fediverse actually deradicalized me a lot. There are still people I disagree with, but I get to participate in discussions that remind me that whatever the "other side" is has some good ideas, and also I get to see that I actually disagree with extremists of all kinds. Being exposed to bad ideas doesn't make me agree with them, it helps illustrate how bad they are regardless of source.
I'm an old fucker, to me it seems like the tipping point started in 2008, and really started to get bad in 2016.
I was already chatting on online forums in the late 90s, and on slashdot starting around 2000. There was lots of discussion, some of it first, but it was just discussion. Not a lot of politics per se.
In September 2001, al queda attacked the world trade center, the Pentagon, and another plane was flown into the ground. This led to lots of discussion online and a massive increase in political conversations.
In 2003, America went to war in Iraq. This was a generational event, and it fundamentally changed internet conversation. Partisanship really started to show up, in part thanks to George W. Bush's "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" rhetoric.
At some point along the way, I stopped using slashdot. I tried using kuro5hin for a while, then Digg, and eventually landed on Reddit.
Two fundamental changes that happened in 2008 were the election of Barack Obama, and the Ron Paul revolution. In both cases, internet ground game ended up having an outsided impact on politics. Barack Obama ended up being an internet sensation, and his Democrats got the presidency and both houses of Congress by a wide margin. Ron Paul didn't come close to winning any primaries, but the shadow of this campaign cast a long shadow over the Republican party, arguably leading to the tea party faction taking over the party for a time.
This made everyone perk up in politics. Where a few candidates realized before that this Internet thing could be powerful, 2008 showed that it could fundamentally change the game.
While reddit was highly political in 2008, there were many factions. That's what made it a fun place to be -- there were right wingers, religious people, libertarians, liberals, socialists, and social justice advocates. I think at this point, however, forces started to work to take over the discourse. By 2015, subtle changes had taken place to really make anyone who wasn't part of a specific ideology feel unwelcome, including a differential treatment of different groups. Most brigading subs were handled by admins (by shutting them down), but notably /r/shitredditsays which brigaded "bigoted" comments was allowed to stay up. Powermods were previously a problem on Digg, eventually the same problem seemed to start occurring on Reddit where a small group of mods were controlling hundreds of subreddits.
By the time I left for good, it was clear to me that reddit wasn't anything like the place it used to be. Many subreddits either through social engineering or through bots would see posts that were not part of the mandatory orthodoxy immediately hammered into the dirt. "The downvote button is not an I disagree button" clearly didn't apply anymore. Until that point, I was deleting my account every few months and making a new one because doxxing was a growing problem and I didn't want to have my real life destroyed for having an opinion people disagreed with, but eventually the site lost all value to me since I knew you couldn't have discussions on the discussion site any longer.
The successful election of Donald Trump put everything into hyperdrive. Controlled subreddits became graveyards of dissent, and polarization became total as people picked sides. At that point I no longer returned to reddit in any regard because there was just no point.
The cultures of the different highly polarized sides became quite different, all toxic in their own ways. The left became ridiculously authoritarian to keep outsiders out, the right became ridiculously offensive to keep outsiders out. The fact that there was one website (whatever that website was) meant that you could kinda play for keeps -- take over a website with authoritarian moderation or with extreme offensiveness, and you win that front.
My hope is that the decentralized nature of the fediverse helps. When Lemmy.ml or beehaw go too authoritarian, people can just find something else on the same platform that's more reasonable. If certain websites are too crass and offensive, people can go find something else on the same platform that's more reasonable. In it's built-in diversity, the fediverse is set up so everyone can have their space, and the worst that can happen is someone shunts you out of theirs (but you get to keep yours).
I've found the fediverse actually deradicalized me a lot. There are still people I disagree with, but I get to participate in discussions that remind me that whatever the "other side" is has some good ideas, and also I get to see that I actually disagree with extremists of all kinds. Being exposed to bad ideas doesn't make me agree with them, it helps illustrate how bad they are regardless of source.
After a bit of struggle, I got a Lemmy instance up and running just in time for an exodus to that part of the fediverse. Unfortunately lotide stopped federating with most Lemmy instances at the exact wrong moment.
Played with kbin and got to the 99% mark but just couldn't get federation running. Maybe another day.
Played with kbin and got to the 99% mark but just couldn't get federation running. Maybe another day.
I believe it's a direct embrace, extend, extinguish. I think that in order to produce the Google talk product they start off using xmpp, and once it was fully operational and people started using it, they cut off xmpp compatibility including federation.
Incidentally, Google chat sucks compared to previous offerings.
Incidentally, Google chat sucks compared to previous offerings.
Both facebooks messenger and Google talk had periods where they were xmpp compatible, and if you look at a lot of xmpp clients, they're basically stuck in that exact era.
These big companies are dangerous. One difference is that this time we know they're dangerous. Many of us specifically left their services because we viscerally understand they're dangerous.
These big companies are dangerous. One difference is that this time we know they're dangerous. Many of us specifically left their services because we viscerally understand they're dangerous.
Keep finding ways to let people borrow more money to buy homes and the prices will keep rising because people borrow more money to buy the house they want.
If the principal is lower, then you start getting some options. You can amortize over a shorter span of time, or you can pay extra, or you can save more for your down payment. If you're paying no interest on a million dollars of principal, your option is to pay until you're dead and pass the loan to your kids like in the UK.
If the principal is lower, then you start getting some options. You can amortize over a shorter span of time, or you can pay extra, or you can save more for your down payment. If you're paying no interest on a million dollars of principal, your option is to pay until you're dead and pass the loan to your kids like in the UK.
Reading through it, Notes from the Underground seems to predict both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as natural outcomes of the "rational" 19th century.
Two things in particular that he mentions in the chapter I just finished were:
1. That people aren't math equations where you can just explain to them how to live optimally and they'll do so, and
2. That people in rational and civilized ages are no longer bloodthirsty and in fact may be more bloodthirsty than in less civilized times.
It seems that both regimes failed to account for or were themselves an example of these issues. In the case of the soviet union, it turns out that just making everyone a cog in a machine will ultimately fail because people don't want to be optimal cogs in a machine. In the case of Nazi Germany, it turns out that the rational western world of the 19th and 20th century hid monstrous capacity for bloodshed right under the surface.
While it doesn't necessarily directly predict the two regimes, where they would occur, or the specifics of why, I find it interesting how closely these two themes in notes for the underground predict both regimes. While it isn't perfect, it's a long way from the way people claim nobody expected any of these outcomes could have come about. World War 1 was supposedly this huge shock to the "civilized" Europe and that was one of the shocks that led to the development of modernism. World War 2 was supposedly another huge shock, and that led to the development of postmodernism. Meanwhile, if people understood what the outcomes would be, I don't think anyone would have willingly chose the path of the soviet union.
Two things in particular that he mentions in the chapter I just finished were:
1. That people aren't math equations where you can just explain to them how to live optimally and they'll do so, and
2. That people in rational and civilized ages are no longer bloodthirsty and in fact may be more bloodthirsty than in less civilized times.
It seems that both regimes failed to account for or were themselves an example of these issues. In the case of the soviet union, it turns out that just making everyone a cog in a machine will ultimately fail because people don't want to be optimal cogs in a machine. In the case of Nazi Germany, it turns out that the rational western world of the 19th and 20th century hid monstrous capacity for bloodshed right under the surface.
While it doesn't necessarily directly predict the two regimes, where they would occur, or the specifics of why, I find it interesting how closely these two themes in notes for the underground predict both regimes. While it isn't perfect, it's a long way from the way people claim nobody expected any of these outcomes could have come about. World War 1 was supposedly this huge shock to the "civilized" Europe and that was one of the shocks that led to the development of modernism. World War 2 was supposedly another huge shock, and that led to the development of postmodernism. Meanwhile, if people understood what the outcomes would be, I don't think anyone would have willingly chose the path of the soviet union.
It was over about 1974 when American cars weren't allowed to be quintessentially American anymore. :(
That show was annoying because it was about Southern California, and a bunch of the crap they talked about has nothing to do with many other places.
"Save water!" If you're in the everglades or on the shores of Lake Michigan, there's no such thing as saving water. You're taking water out of the environment, using it briefly, then returning it to the environment. It's a renewable resource.
"Save power!" If you're living somewhere that's entirely fed by renewables like hydroelectric, there's no real need to save power. You're not burning coal to keep that light on, you're relying on some water flowing through a dam.
"Stop smog!" If you're not in a valley where pollution is kept in one spot, smog isn't really a thing. This is an L.A. problem, maybe a couple other cities, but it isn't a global problem.
"Don't cut down trees!" If you're in an area that mandates that trees be replaced after they're cut, then wood is a renewable resource. It's not a big deal cutting down new growth forest then replanting new trees, and in fact under some circumstances that could mean a negative carbon footprint (for people who care about that sort of thing) since you take wood and semi-permanently put it somewhere it's not going to degrade, and then start growing a new forest pulling new carbon out of the air in the same location. Not everywhere is old growth amazon rainforest.
Environmentalism need to be a local thing, because most environmental issues are local, not global.
anyway, that's my rant. Welcome to my TED talk.
"Save water!" If you're in the everglades or on the shores of Lake Michigan, there's no such thing as saving water. You're taking water out of the environment, using it briefly, then returning it to the environment. It's a renewable resource.
"Save power!" If you're living somewhere that's entirely fed by renewables like hydroelectric, there's no real need to save power. You're not burning coal to keep that light on, you're relying on some water flowing through a dam.
"Stop smog!" If you're not in a valley where pollution is kept in one spot, smog isn't really a thing. This is an L.A. problem, maybe a couple other cities, but it isn't a global problem.
"Don't cut down trees!" If you're in an area that mandates that trees be replaced after they're cut, then wood is a renewable resource. It's not a big deal cutting down new growth forest then replanting new trees, and in fact under some circumstances that could mean a negative carbon footprint (for people who care about that sort of thing) since you take wood and semi-permanently put it somewhere it's not going to degrade, and then start growing a new forest pulling new carbon out of the air in the same location. Not everywhere is old growth amazon rainforest.
Environmentalism need to be a local thing, because most environmental issues are local, not global.
anyway, that's my rant. Welcome to my TED talk.
History says what it says. More people ultimately means life becomes cheap. Just like it is right now.
It seems inevitable that we're going to see a massively depopulated world in just a few generations.
Some people see that as bad, but a depopulated world historically has been the sort of era that provides booms in human rights and worker's rights and wages.
The black death and the period after WWII were both eras where the normal guy on the street was better off than the era before the mass death, because suddenly there's a lot less people and still lots of work to be done.
The line won't go up, so the mega-rich won't see their lot improve as much, but most people aren't mega-rich.
Some people see that as bad, but a depopulated world historically has been the sort of era that provides booms in human rights and worker's rights and wages.
The black death and the period after WWII were both eras where the normal guy on the street was better off than the era before the mass death, because suddenly there's a lot less people and still lots of work to be done.
The line won't go up, so the mega-rich won't see their lot improve as much, but most people aren't mega-rich.