Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

SF Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was assassinated OTD in 1978, wasn't just "openly gay," as he is often called. He was specifically building a coalition that included working people, union leaders, the #LGBTQ+ community, people of color, disabled folks, young people, and elders. That's why he was so dangerous to the Establishment. And that coalition never recovered.

At the risk of sounding preachy, *the cloud is not backup*. Now, to practice what I preach. 😬

Google Drive users angry over losing months of stored data
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-drive-users-angry-over-losing-months-of-stored-data/

How rich. The latest EFF newsletter has as a flagship article: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/address-online-harms-we-must-first-do-privacy and then, in the same post, it entreats people to take a 'community survey' which requires community members to use a Microsoft form. Oh the painful, grating irony. EFF, I, for one, suggest you review your institutional principles, especially given the ease with which you could use an uncompromised platform for running a survey. I know I won't trust Microsoft with my data.

@eff we hear a lot about the 'enshittification' of software services, especially social media... Well, it seems to be happening increasingly to *formerly* principle-led institutions which 'corporatise', experience a frenzy of growth, & let people who don't "get" their principles at all to run things: admirable principles diluted the point of irrelevance. Please don't let it happen to you, EFF. The world needs a *principle-led* organisation with your stated mission & relevant internal skills.

Our 1st stop is Bloomington for the Bloomington Alternative Media Festival

Cop28 host UAE planned to promote oil deals during climate talks - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/cop28-host-uae-planned-promote-oil-deals-climate-talks what a total disgrace #cop28 will be...

Thirty years of Internet have shown me that:

1. Self hosting is always worth the trouble.
2. Open source is always a better option in the long run.

https://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/43258.html
Regarding California's "Age-Appropriate Design Act":
"Both the oral argument before the court and the judge's ruling granting the preliminary injunction cited to us as an example of a service the law would require to collect more user data than we want to, and to use it in ways we find horrifying, in order to demonstrate all the (many) ways the law is pretextual and show that its actual goal is controlling your speech and ending anonymity online."

@siderea have you heard of User Experience Design or HCI? They don’t get respected as much as they ought to, but they do at least exist.

And nobody goes to get these resources, nobody seeks out this expertise, who does not move past the naive arrogance of assuming there's nothing that they need to learn, that they have this social media platform thing all figured out already.

What I am hoping to achieve by this thread is to tantalize you with the evidence that there are things to know which you probably don't yet know, but would, if you only knew, like very much to know. Things that would benefit you to know.

I am hoping to enlist your curiosity in tackling to the floor the assumption you might harbor in your breast that this social media thing really isn't all that hard, you just do it in the right way, and which way is the right one is really obvious.

I am attempting to entice you with the knowledge that is out there (and insofar as there are experts in these things here on Mastodon, in here with us) into wanting that knowledge enough to go looking for it.

And to ask for it.

🧵

There are two problems that are coming for Mastodon of which apparently an awful lot of people are unaware. These problems are coming for Mastodon not because of anything specific to Mastodon: they come to all growing social media platforms. But for some reason most people haven't noticed them, per se.

The first problem is that scale has social effects. Most technical people know that scale has technological effects. Same thing's true on the social side, too.

"In Eloxochitlán this tradition of anarchism and Indigenous communalism continues to this day with assemblies, self-defense groups, direct action and communal work projects. But the defenders of privilege, headed by the Zepeda family, have gained a foothold using fraudulent elections, abuses of the legal system, collusion with corrupt political parties, and illegitimate violence carried out by their minions, the police. In response to their persecution, local women from their neighborhood of La Escopeta have formed a self-defense group."

https://itsgoingdown.org/indigenous-activists-detained-in-oaxaca-following-gathering-on-political-prisoners/

I'm looking for examples of companion planting using #nativespecies for #foodsystems and #ecological #restoration. The Three Sisters method of growing corn, beans, and squash together is an example from #indigenous North America. Are there other regional examples of native plants that can be grown together for mutual benefit? What about sea vegetables in #coastal settings?

#bioregional #ethnobotany #nutrition #permaculture #ecosystem #climatechange #bluecarbon #sustainability #askfedi

Listening to RNZ this morning, and hearing Mr Carnegie (the head of Energy Resources Aotearoa, an industry lobby group) talking about the need for more fossil fuels... saying "we need to be practical about this". What he means is: we need to compromise our values and do the wrong thing because the wealthy elite don't want their profit reduced. Remember: "expedience is the *absence* of principle." I've got nothing but contempt for people like Mr Carnegie and his organisation.

"Discovering evidence that the most famous Indigenous woman in Canada, Buffy Sainte-Marie, was neither Indigenous nor Canadian was not what I expected when I sat down with my son last year to watch her biography, "Carry It On," on PBS. I had hoped the film would inspire him to learn about a successful Native musician." #pretendianism

By Jacqueline Keeler
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/buffy-sainte-marie-pretendian-native-canada-keeler-18508936.php

Our latest #MediaIndigena episode 333 is out!
How Canada Diddles while the World Burns - A Climate Check-in
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWRpYWluZGlnZW5hLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz/episode/OGUwNTRkYzAtMDc5Yi00YjJhLWIwY2UtOTA1MTgwMGQ3MGY2?ep=14

🥶📚❄️ Chilling effects https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/24/2207425/-Cartoon-Winter-book-bargains

This argument that we’re overreacting to MAGAs and trump is so mind numbingly stupid, I want to punch anyone advancing it. There is no way to watch this unprecedented Christo fascism seizing all of norms and governance, even the rule of law itself, and not see that democracy is in dire and immediate peril.

COOL! The spicy article I wrote about satellite pollution is FINALLY published! "Bright satellites are disrupting astronomy research worldwide" in Nature News & Views.

This article required weeks of back-and-forth with the editor, the editor-in-chief, and Nature's lawyers, so I hope that means it's a good one.

During this process, I learned that satellite companies are so powerful and litigious that even giant publishers like Nature are terrified of getting sued. Which is...rather worrying.