Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Get 20% off of Peace by Peace: 99 Steps Toward Violence Prevention and De-escalation throughout the month of January with code JANUARY at checkout. See the link in our bio.

Good morning Mastodon peeps.

I can't tell if I am finished with my latest blog post, or if I am just ready to abandon it.

https://terikanefield.com/democracy-oligarchy-and-tyranny/

#Doonesbury by #GarryTrudeau for January 19, 2025 - GoComics

https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2025/01/19

#Humour #Cartoon

What is happening on RedNote is WILD. I'm having conversations with health care workers in China comparing and sharing experiences. Americans are asking Russian users about Russian social media apps. There is a shared earnest desire for cultural exchange that is transcending politics. I have no impression it will be allowed to last but it's really refreshing.

Cartoon: A very official government proceeding

#MikeLuckovich

Cowardly news publisher pulls the plug on political cartoons -- latest example of the news industry's knee-bending to Trump and his cult.

The first comment under the publisher's pathetic collapse is exactly the right response.

https://www.latrobebulletinnews.com/news/local/a-message-to-our-readers-from-the-publisher/article_30bc1e32-d529-11ef-9cfd-43282dd307ab.html

Here's the cartoon: https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/latrobebulletinnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/36/f3680612-d38a-11ef-9d68-4bc6f440e208/67882e1e90a4a.image.jpg?resize=750%2C585

lol @ element for pulling "our code base is utter trash and we have no intention to fix that, please buy our proprietary rewrite"

https://element.io/blog/scaling-to-millions-of-users-requires-synapse-pro/

Welp, I didn't expect this post to blow up like that. Maybe I should add some context.

I think this is a messy PR move gone awry. It's not a secret that Synapse doesn't scale well. The interesting part lies in the bigger picture.

First of all: There's nothing *inherently* wrong with a company building a closed source product to interface with open software/standards.
People have opionions on whether that's beneficial for the ecosystem or not. It's not the can of worms I want to open, but I can't avoid it entirely.

Some history. In the end of 2023 Element pulled a very interesting move where they forked Synapse and relicensed the code from Apache 2.0 to AGPLv3 and started requiring a CLA for contributions. See: https://matrix.org/blog/2023/11/06/future-of-synapse-dendrite/
Since Element staff is responsible for most of the maintenance work, the Matrix Foundation had no chance but to discontinue their Apache licensed version.
So, essentially project ownership of Synapse (forcefully) changed from the Matrix Foundation to the Element company.

A bit later Element announced a proprietary version of Synapse where they claimed to have fixed some of the most glaring architectural issues.

Suddenly they have a big commercial incentive to keep Synapse slow. And in this blog post they say that, loud and clear.

#fluConf2025 will feature a track on Luddism, and we're still looking for submissions.

We want to hear from people that are talking or writing about the deliberate use of technology, resistance to the dominant narratives in tech hype cycles, analysis of the strategies employed by venture capitalists and their distorting effects on society, activism against extractive and exploitative technologies, sabotage of algorithmic systems, and whatever else Luddism means to you.

Apply up until midnight of January 19th, 2025 (anywhere on Earth)

https://fluconf.online/apply/

#luddism #workingClass #laborHistory #sabotage #classWar #resist #AI #directAction #algorithm #capitalism #hyperCapitalism #enshittification #butlerianJihad

So, it would be a fair cop to say that I am one of the petite bourgeoisie. This has allowed me to do things like buy shares of companies because I want to keep track of what's going on in their shareholder meetings.

And I've noticed something. All of the shareholder proposals to drop #DEI programs, stop charitable contributions to leftist organizations, et.al., seem to be coming from one place: The National Center for Public Policy Research.

The #NCPPR is a privately funded and held charity that doesn't reveal it's donors. It's a pretty far, into extreme, right wing policy churn engine responsible for bullying some of the world's largest companies into getting rid of DEI or facing lawsuits from them. What makes them so powerful that companies like AT&T have folded before the shareholders have had a chance to vote?

I'm really surprised that there's not a major media story about this.

Are we a #racist #society? The majority of us say no – but science begs to differ | #Science and nature books | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/18/keon-west-science-of-racism-book-extract

#UK #US

There has got to be a limit on greed.

Anyone who inherits wealth or earns it by working should be entitled to join the ranks of the billionaires. *However*, for anyone who has a billion or more in assets anywhere in the world there should be a 100% tax on your income. As Senator Sanders points out, you will be able to get by just fine on a billion.
#TaxTheRich

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bernie-sanders-proposes-taxing-income-233949530.html

Latest comic: Oligarchically Correct

#authoritarianism #oligarchy #fascism #media #cartoon #journalism

In memory of Manuel "Tortuguita" Paez Terán, who was assassinated by Georgia State Patrol two years ago today. Tortuguita was a nonbinary Indigenous Venezuelan anarchist who relocated to the U.S. and lived in Tallahassee, FL, among other places, before living in the Weelaunee Forest just south of Atlanta where the city planned to build a $90 million police training compound. They were committed to seeing Cop City stopped, and they put their beliefs into practice.

Waxing a little philosophical.

https://geo.coop/blog/meaning-meaning

Obeying in advance is bad, but cartooning in advance is fine. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/1/17/2297371/-Cartoon-Evergreen-Trump-II-cartoons

Oh hey, apparently Mastodon is becoming a non-profit? That's really cool!

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/

That's a major step, and hopefully one that leads to some better decision-making in certain areas. And now I feel more comfortable adding it to my yearly donations list.

Meanwhile in the progressive paradise of Vermont:

https://apnews.com/article/pregnancy-child-welfare-lawsuit-vermont-2fb1e1b3f89883ecb86b090ac22bf54c

#ThoughtProvoker

#Doomscrolling is in large part caused by #gloom #activism and reinforced by #echochamber reverberation. It works to stifle the activist's audience, so prudent gloom activists carefully tailor their message to reach unaware audiences in hopes to replace ignorance with #awareness and incentives to become energized and active too.

A good #activist brings #audience, #active, and #action together as a spearhead for #change. Well-prepared #solutions give momentum.

There are still two days to submit a presentation, blog post, or session in any other format for inclusion in program of #fluConf2025

https://fluconf.online/apply/

#luddism #FOSS #openSource #antiCapitalism