Erin Conroy
The Republican party is a dead-end for anyone who is not a fascist.
They. have. picked. their. lane.
You can't wish it away and if you are still trying to, you are clearly far more attached to your own identity as a Republican or as a "bipartisan type guy," than to your country being a democracy.
Erin Conroy
As an aside: the things Dorsey allows to be known about himself - longtermist-jargon slinging "libertarian" who pals around with fascists - are certainly much less scary than what he keeps to himself.
Longtermisim: "a bizarre & dangerous ideology fueled by eugenics & capitalism" @xriskology
See https://www.longtermism-hub.com/critiques on longtermism & its billionaire tech bro proponents.
Longtermism is incompatible with democracy & its proponents' next step is feed us authoritarian agitprop. GOP is an ally.
Erin Conroy
Leaders of the Democratic Party tend to deploy authoritarian tactics & try to activate authoritarians within their ranks only when they feel threatened by people on the Left. When threatened by the GOP, they deploy a placatory response that reinforces & publicly states their legitimacy as a "bargaining partner."
This is a mistake, in both family systems & political systems. It is a ratchet that leads only in one direction. But I digress.
Back to Jack Dorsey's "solution" for online racism:
Erin Conroy
The two mutually reinforce each other, obviously, & as individuals we can bounce between these two psychological states/impulses. I think it comes from living with abusers, personally.
[If you think that these two types have no representatives in the Democratic Party, or on the Left generally, I am here to tell you that is quite wrong. However:]
The Republican Party has hitched its wagon to authoritarianism & abuse & is going to do everything possible to create more subscribers to its content.
Erin Conroy
So. What does this mean?
First, yes, authoritarians (& their human supply chain) have always been with us - though social practices & media exposure can increase or decrease it. A damaged personality devalues consent & equality, including their own, in human relations. Comes in roughly two flavors of response: a) predisposed to seek unchecked power, or b) seeking a "good" daddy to reward the "good, like me" & most importantly, punish the "bad, like Them." Having a Them is essential for fascism.
Erin Conroy
Dorsey has clearly stated "any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it...Content takedowns & suspensions should not be possible."
This will favor fascists.
#Bluesky AT Protocol was invented to be his tool to ensure that "content moderation...can only be done through ranking & relevance algorithms, the more localized the better [i.e., at the user level].
To keep fascists online & radicalizing, #Bluesky is your killer app.
Erin Conroy
The more chaos & violence the fascist[GOP] causes or creates the expectation of, the greater the yearning for "stability" & "return to stasis" is built up in their followers, & the more likely they are to back the only ones they are told can restore order. Coincidentally /s/ that is *also* the biggest perpetrator of instability: the fascist.
[This also has its analog in abusive family systems. Cf. cycle of abuse.]
To recruit, the fascist needs online radicalization that can't be taken down.
Erin Conroy
One thing that fascists are particularly focused on - & tend to be quite good at - is using new media avenues to 1) create & demonize scapegoats, using existing prejudices & amplifying fear & hatred, telling people they need to worry, 2) tell people if they just got rid of Them, they will be released into the before-times, when they didn't worry, & 3) increase real-world violence against Them. Hitler used radio & ad industry; GOP: TV, talk radio, & the internet (social networks, memes, etc.).
Erin Conroy
Anyway, what does all of this have to do with #Bluesky, you may be asking me. Or maybe not.
Longtermists would love a DirectTV channel to the hoi polloi that does not have to go through annoying "fact-checking" by "over-educated" journalists, who may have annoying habits of asking tech billionaires fancy liberal-arts-type questions like "are you using your power to make other people suffer, right now?" [Joking, this is just basic human morality, if you're not an abuser]
Back to that Jack quote
Erin Conroy
His model seeks to block any communal norms. Both longtermist billionaires AND the GOP are hostile to community based anti-racism.
Whoever controls the node, controls who it federates with. Bluesky will federate with Twitter. A Twitter where you can't yeet fascists, just put on blinders.
Dorsey's many times stated that his & Musk's Twitter will use Bluesky. You can spend all your time building a "portable" AT Protocol account, but you can't take it OUT of that universe.
https://progressives.social/@chargrille/110715241171869203
Erin Conroy
But it's not just norms like anti-racism. It's also norms like "don't lie" or "don't call for pogroms."
Imagine 2016, but with no ability to stop the spread of lies. And because you have Bluesky's "Hide fascism" button on, you don't even see the lies unless someone else works to rub your nose in it.
Dorsey said he regrets banning Trump's account in the middle of the Republican coup against our legislature [an auto-golpe, a maneuver that has been common in right wing authoritarian takeovers].
Erin Conroy
This is why I bang on about #Bluesky. We need to create ***the most favorable*** ground on which we'll fight fascism. Because that IS what we'll be doing, for years.
B/c, let's be real: due to insufficient pushback, we are way too far down the road. Farther than your favorite pundit or political expert will ever admit. (Unless maybe they're ALSO an expert in the history of the US far right, or in historical rise of a specific fascist regime).
Stacking the deck against ourselves is a bad plan.
Erin Conroy
I included my Twitter subthread from 2018 because let me assure you, in 2018 the institutionalists & pundits were laughing at this prediction, and assuring everyone that the GOP's silly little "flirtation" with fascism would surely come back to bite them at the ballot box, the institutions would protect US democracy, & the GOP would self correct after a few elections.
I did *not* believe that, I do not believe that, & I'm sure many of you knew in your bones it wasn't true.
Erin Conroy
Trusting that someone else will keep bad actors like Dorsey in check, or that somehow potential threats will magically not be realized, is a poor strategy. In times of crisis it is better to build one's own side's strength than to gamble that the other side will be weaker than you fear.
Especially when the other side is a bunch of fascists. /end
Erin Conroy
@CStamp He's advocating for no content moderation at all. No account bans or removal of specific speech acts of racism or calls for violence (back in 2020, I think, he couldn't say whether he would suspend Trump for calling for someone to be assassinated - it was in an @AmandaMarcotte interview)
Does he have any limits at all? I don't know, and I wouldn't want to entrust anyone's life or safety to him, because those things don't affect him personally.
Carolyn
@chargrille Original author or poster? Content takedowns are when original authors want folk who post their stuff with without permission removed or when really vile stuff that shouldn't be posted and those posters should be suspended. He's going to support child porn and sex traffickers?
The whole idea of no moderation or moderation by algorithm was always going to end up a cess pool, and American idea of free speech is really abysmal. :(
novatorine 🏴🏳️⚧️
@chargrille @xriskology I really don't think transhumanism is inherently eugenicist. A totalitarian notion of it, which seeks a top-down planned, mandated, grand vision of improvement of humanity as a whole, with a singular definition of what improvement means, absolutely is, but wanting people to be able to choose to modify or improve their own bodies affording to whatever improvement means to them, if/when they want to, and believing it isn't immoral to do so, but something that's as natural as tool use and gender affirming care, is just an extension of bodily autonomy. Its like how birth control is not eugenicist unless it's enforced on people; if someone chooses to use birth control, then it's merely an exercise of their own bodily autonomy.
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