Notices by Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social), page 5

The #survival skills I learned as a poor #Indiana redneck didn't have much to do with the suburban prepper fantasy play I see a lot of these days.

For us, survival was mostly about knowing how to:

Fix things that break..
Feed ourselves with little $.
Make things instead of buying.
Be good to our neighbors.

During Trump's first botched pandemic response and tradewar buffoonery, I remember *well* how little was on the shelves, how expensive it was and how having those skills helped.

/1

And I'm not locked in now, and the grocery shelves are full, and me and my husband have a good income. For now.

But I *still* practice all of those skills. 2020-2023 ... changed how I think about them.

And y'all I get up to some crazy shit, and people sometimes shake their heads at my various household projects.

But I like knowing that I can *do* things rather than buy them. And I'm more proud of the end result. And my paycheck likes that I know how to be thrify.

2/

But looking at current events ... I can't help but think about "survival" and what it means. And how it looks like those skills are going to be needed.

And how much of them are so much less about "how do I hole up in a bunker with a bunch of ammo and canned peaches" and more about "how do I make friends in my community and share knowledge and skills."

3/

All the fediverse has to do is stick around and keep developing. As every new shiny corporate app inevitably begins to enshittify itself into unusability, some percentage of folks will choose the decentralized alternative over whatever new toy the oligarchs are dangling in front of them.

We just have to be here to welcome them each time it happens. We don't require constant, massive growth to survive over time. We just need staying power and solidarity.

THREAD

The entire messy collection of different types of people who will fight the new regime need to remain clear eyed about the regime's strategy.

That's to push very many national and local policies as far rightward as they can in this moment. They aren't trying to get all of it to stick. They just need us to accept a rightward shift as politically inevitable. To demoralize us into accepting compromise positions that we wouldn't have accepted 8 years ago.

Don't fall for it.

/1

Under this new regime everyone on the outs is now your ally. Whether you like it or not. We are in a mutual survival fight.

THE GOAL needs to be to fight every single fight. To never give an inch without pushback. To be unified in our rejection of fascist policy.

When we waffle, give credit for some accidental good thing the regime does, or cave from expediency ... we're doing its work.

We have to get used to working across some of our most sacred ideological lines to defeat fascism.

/2

And working across ideological lines? That's something that corporate social media has made nearly impossible for some by driving the discourse into opposing corners and ironically eliminating the public square by pretending to BE the public square.

I cannot say this more loudly. I have a few bright lines, but I do not have to agree with all of your positions to join you in defeating fascism.

/3

Right now - if a fascist is proposing it, I oppose it. Whether it looks like a good idea or not.

We can't give them anything.

If the fascist offers me free lunch? I don't accept it. There is no policy they can propose that I am willing to support.

Everything they do is in service to tightening their grip.

No pats on the back for fascist politicians.
No money spent on fascist corporations.
No comfort for fascists.

They have to go.

/4

You don't have to be ideologically radical as I am to be tactically radical.

You have to make an active choice to give no aid or comfort of any kind to these people. Not even if you think they have a few good ideas.

It should be clear now that their ideas are a smokescreen. They just want to own everything. If they are speaking with their lips, it's a lie.

/5

You have the right to document #ICE arrests. Be safe! And know that agents might ignore the law.

Tienes derecho a documentar los arrestos de #ICE. ¡Estar a salvo! Y sepa que los agentes podrían ignorar la ley.

From the Immigrant Defense Project:

@lxo thanks for the recommendation!

I like Signal and use it. I think the group behind it is pretty cool.

For those who are responding with good information and technical deets about how some platforms do or do not meet the specs I mentioned... thanks for your labor.

For those who are here to lecture about why my question is wrong... meh. I said what I said.

Platform capture of centralized services by oligarchs should be top of mind for anyone watching current events even a little bit and we should all be asking questions.

@nicfitzgerald not entirely, obviously. But it's helpful in that it means I don't have to worry about one single CEO caving to the feds and turning over data. And I don't have to simply trust their word about where and how data is used/stored.

It seems like Matrix is the going thing. Any thoughts about it?

Signal is great and widely used but it's still closed and owned by one company. I find that to be a security risk and it makes me feel weird recommending it.

What's the best E2EE messaging app that is community developed, open source and potentially self hostable?

Caring for and nurturing spaces that exist outside of the grasp of the ruling class is a form of activism and that's why I'm here.

I'm awake to the current limitations of this place, and I don't care. None of them are worse than the disgust I feel at the idea of giving any of these fascists a single fraction of a penny's worth of my online life.

OMG you really believe all these rich people are going to allow one of their favorite advertising and disinfo machines to go permanently dark. L O L

TikTok has just demonstrated why you need to futureproof your creative endeavors.

I'm not asking you to simply abandon a platform that is helping you earn a living -- but you should at least consider planting seeds somewhere else as an investment in your future.

Maybe somewhere like the Fediverse where a single government, company, billionaire, president, whatever can't ever just arbitrarily turn out the lights on your source of income.

Goddamnit I guess I need to find myself a VPN provider who isn't supporting far right politicians. Any suggestions?

I have the misfortune of needing to prepare for attacks on my family next year.

History shows that moderate supporters follow the pendulum during times when it swings away from justice.

When you are tempted to, remember how little harm my husband and I are. Compare the way we live our lives to the way they describe us.

Every "necessary" oppression is a Trojan horse to enable worse.

Do we deserve it?

I don't believe we do. And I don't think you do, either.

Still #trans. Still proud to be.