Don’t know if this goes here or in /AskLemmy, but just wanted to know the best FOSS social networks, why are there so good? What would be the propietary equivalent?

  • @jackalope@lemmy.ml
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    12 years ago

    I mean traditionally the people who were techies have generally been “middle of the road Libertarian minded people”. Just look at the founding of the EFF.

    I grew up very conservative and then became libertarian, and now I’m anarchist/socialist. I think a lot of people have had a similar journey as me in tech. Increasingly more and more tech people are waking up to the ways they’re being shafted by their bosses and they aren’t happy with it.

    In the 90s it was easy to believe in a utopian sort of capitalism. The USSR had just fallen, jobs were booming, and even after the dotcom crash, most engineers were well paid even if they weren’t particularly good at their job.

    But code boot camps, machine learning, outsourcing, the corporate harvesting of open source, have all put greater pressure on the average techie. This is why there’s so much backlash against Elon Musk, because people are starting to get tired and see through the schtick. Techno utopianism has worn thin. Where’s my mfing flying car?!

    And in addition to that, when Trump was elected, a lot of anti-racist libertarians looked around and realized how many of their “libertarian” friends who ranted all the time about “State’s Rights” were really just white supremacist chucklefucks. The Libertarian movement online has split. A lot of people went one way or the other.

    I’ve never been on Parler and fear the tyranny of “the Left” as much as that of “the Right”.

    My only issue with this is that the Left, at least in America has no power. Who is “the Left” to you? Biden? Biden is not really very Left at all. AOC? She has a platform and no power. Are you afraid of Spotify kicking Rogan off their platform? Spotify the capitalist tech monopolist that rips off artists?

    Leftists in America are basically powerless fringe weirdos.

    Whereas right wingers are literally most of our government. And they have drones and they kill people with those drones.

    • @GenkiFeral@lemmy.ml
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      02 years ago

      I like the EFF - what I know, at least. I am against the fascism of BigTech and that is what I hear you describing - though I am no political expert or tech graduate. I’ve seen how they try to replace developers with immigrants from India and China - who they also take advantage of. I think most people think of Big Biz when they think of capitalism, but in my mnd, it is a world mostly full of small businesses and mostly devoid of businesses with over 100 employees. Government is supposed to be objective about business, but is sadly very involved (in backroom deals, I’d bet). Again, I don’t know the more precice lingo. I only know that what I see scares me - that all of those chances our grandparents had to get ahead are going away. I am not sure about Elon Musk yet. It is terrifying to think that he could corner the internet market with satellite, though. I worry about AWS/Amazon cornering the server market and thus having the power to censor us. Satellite internet seems far more powerful than that. I’ve never met a white supremacist Libertarian online and have met almost no Libertarians at all in person. I was put off by a couple misogynists, but think those were broken-hearted lonely men who just needed to rant a while - even if it did hurt the women in the group. Libertarians are very, very independent types and will always be too split to go too far. I feel the same about the FOSS community. They simply don’t work too well with others and that makes it hard to get ahead sometimes. They don’t want to dominate (usually), but don’t always want to cooperate, negotiate, or compromise. I don’t know who AOC is.

      I left Spotify because of censorship already, but still hate how they are treating Joe Rogan - though I never watch his show.

      I think the lines are quite blurred about who or which co. is capitalist or just opportunist or leftist. I prefer tthe term fascist for co. such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. If you get help or forgiveness from the gov’t, that is fascism and I hate it. It is tyranny and deprives others of a fair chance to compete. I realize there many shades of grey and I thought Trump was a moderate Republican (he used to be a Democrat) and that many Democrats can be as greedy as any Republican. The Left is cancel-culture and gets people fired or not promoted- people who aren’t always celebs. They censor people. Its a modern-day witch burning or Maoist weeding out of anyone would disagrees. I think of Biden as Left, but what degree is he? idk. He’s nothing but a figurehead like most presidents are. I think the Left would be largely without power if the Right wouldn’t be so domineering…and, vice versa. Its like being kids and watching your parents have a big fight that continues to escalate to the point of insanity - each trying to out-maneveur or out-do the other. The kids just stand by cringing, thinking, “holy shit, I have the DNA of both of those lunatics”. You both hate them and begin to hate yourself for being a reluctant passive party to it. But, I also think conglomerates and other BIGGG players (central banks, IMF, WEF) are controlling or heavily influencing the left and right. They bait the Left and Right and the fools take the bait. They divide and conquer and are a bit outside of that Left or Right box.
      I think that group is the one with drones, and the ones who orchestrate those wars. i fear another war within the next 5 years - maybe including Russia, Ukraine, and the Middle East. I suppose we ‘need’ more oil, so need that land access to where the oil pipelines will go. I say “need”. because most Americans have far too much crap already.

      • @jackalope@lemmy.ml
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        12 years ago

        I think most people think of Big Biz when they think of capitalism, but in my mnd, it is a world mostly full of small businesses and mostly devoid of businesses with over 100 employees.

        The only problem with this, is that it is objectively false: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/big-business-is-getting-bigger/

        Concentration of ownership in business is at highs we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age. That isn’t even an opinion, it’s a measurable fact.

        I don’t think you’re really understanding what people mean when they talk about “capitalism”. Capitalism isn’t simply “big business” or “small business” or even “government versus business”, because Capitalism is enforced and upheld by Government. Here is a short video by an economics professor that might help clarify what leftists mean when they talk about “capitalism”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnY_ZqJ64cI

        I think of Biden as Left, but what degree is he?

        You might consider him left but Leftists, or at least the kind of people who self identify as Leftists on Lemmy would disagree with you strongly.

        But, I also think conglomerates and other BIGGG players (central banks, IMF, WEF) are controlling or heavily influencing the left and right. They bait the Left and Right and the fools take the bait. They divide and conquer and are a bit outside of that Left or Right box.

        No, the IMF, central banks, and WEF are capitalists. They are right wing. They are exactly what Leftists oppose. They are not outside of divide between Left and Right. They ARE the basis of opposition. You are literally complaining about Capitalism.

      • Jay Baker (he/they)
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        02 years ago

        The current obsession with “cancel culture” is a constant cause of amusement for me. It’s largely a myth born out of the far right’s attempt to push back against progress on LGBTQ+ issues, BIPOC anti-oppression, etc and it’s only very slightly clever in the sense that it’s caught on. Whereas 5, 10, 15 years ago “cancel culture” was simply referred to as…consequences: Someone did something scandalous, or disgraceful, and people were in uproar, and withheld their custom, and basically boycotted. But as an attempt to protect their bigoted (and increasingly inappropriate and outdated) views, right-wingers have attempted to rebrand consequences as “cancel culture” - and it’s caught on. And if it’s successful? Well then people will be able to get away with saying or doing what they want with consequences eliminated; they’ll be able to get away with, abusing, harassing, tormenting, torturing, or inciting hatred as much as they want, again, without consequence - and that fascism becomes the dominant culture (yes, we’ve been here before in history). But that’s basically what the aim of the rebrand is. It’s pretty simple, if not obvious.