Why YSK: If we want to keep the Fediverse in the hands of its users and prevent “enshittification” (search it), it’s good to know how corporations kill grassroots projects like this.
I saw this in another thread on /c/Showerthoughts. I think it’s important for this to be circulated widely so that the broader Fediverse community is aligned. We don’t want admins second-guessing their decisions when users start infighting. We should be united in our thinking and ready to protect our platform.
(Edit: I know the Fediverse isn’t only American, but these American companies are the ones fucking things up, so that’s where my focus is)
I know this was probably meant to be an innocuous comment, but I think this is dangerous thinking.
We’re in the current situation due to inaction and forces acting against us. The US populace stopped worrying about trust-busting. We assume that the current system is inevitable. We let our government not serve our needs. We don’t selectively place our purchasing and attention to promote good behavior of companies.
If we recognize that we can do something and we decide to work together, we can make things better. We can reject Meta. We can agree to not federate with them and pressure others to make a morale choice rather than a convenient choice. We can do this in other aspects of life, too.
We just need to make sure that we don’t let them divide us. We see this among the American population, dividing us based on issues that affect a tiny population and ignoring the things that could help us all, including those tiny populations. We let fighting over the optimal solution for problems get in the way of doing anything, even if imperfect, to at least improve things.
Let’s do better. Let’s unite. Let’s make it clear what results we want. Let’s make incremental progress (and giant leaps, if possible) towards making things better. We can’t just accept not having nice things. Let’s demand nice things, together.
“American companies” smh, let me introduce you to “The City of London”, not to be confused with London the city in England.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London
The UK has a metropolitan region called “The City” (of London) where banks get to basically play without rules. It is for that reason the financial capital of the entire world.
The UK has a square mile dedicated to white collar crime and fraud and it exists because the international wealthy were more powerful than the monarchy ever could be, let’s not pretend Americans are the ones who gave up. This is a very long, very old battle - older than America the nation itself.
Sadly true, as much dirty money runs through that place as the rest of the world combined, the US included.
Having the EU defend the community free space against corporations, like they do with GDPR and the standard laws hitting Apple, should be a powerful ally and strongman for our liberties
As much as I hate all the work I’ve had to do to comply with GDPR, I love it. The EU did a good job with it