Notices by Michael Potter (mpotter@social.coop)

Happy Pride Month.

@ntnsndr Pop-up co-op?

@cwebber There's definitely similarities with the Moldbug philosophy. I also noticed parallels with the old Cambridge Analytica/Brexit scandal from the 🍊 1.0 days.

In the following book, a whistleblower describes helping to build big-data and AI-enhanced simulation of a population's political behavior, specifically referred to as a "Palantir" or society "in silica," to win elections.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/mindf-ck-cambridge-analytica-and-the-plot-to-break-america-christopher-wylie/9593326?ean=9781984854636&next=t&next=t

@cwebber @m_22 Congratulations to our first female president.

@jwildeboer I know it sounds like I'm really down on nonprofits, but some of the coolest organizations I know of are nonprofits, and even worker co-ops themselves will sometimes opt to incorporate as 501c3 .

There's also the incoming administrations' intent to demonize nonprofits, which means some of them must be effective, although I suspect at least 90% of the nonprofits hate is about Greenpeace and other climate-advocacy organizations.

@jwildeboer I recently had a thread where I talked about spinning up worker co-ops with all the laid-off tech labor out there, and it was an interesting thread, but I'm finding myself a bit overwhelmed at the logistics of it all.

Many problems must be solved, and you touched on the biggest, that non-profits are often more enmeshed with the dysfunctional status quo than the solutions the future needs. Another is the dissipating or deflective energy that threads like this often encounter.

@skinnylatte I've been trying to work out the clearest way to express what I think is wrong with the left/Democrats right now. We're a dog that's been wagged, an ant hill that's been kicked. We've been convinced to throw ourselves under the bus.

If we can collectively learn some psychological opsec, and stay frosty in the face of the outrage machine that's being used to keep us muddled and angry, we can turn things around.

@skinnylatte Your arguments are logical, and I believe you. I worked at Caltech in the past and I never worried about losing my job to people at that level because they didn't want my job.

But the incoming government here is likely to abuse the visa system if they can, to help corporations drive down wages and union-bust, even as recent layoffs have already flooded the market with qualified applicants. They also lie a LOT and say divisive things to cast blame off themselves and onto others.

@silverwizard I think there are niches for a FOSS cloud, or apps built on the same. I also think maybe we're going to have to build them if we want them.

It's easier said than done, of course, but I can remember when Microsoft was the juggernaut, and we moved past that.

With all my random thoughts about worker cooperatives, I haven't specifically mentioned what I have in mind.

I'm kind of a broken-down old sysadmin. I can't really code and I'm not an engineer, and a lot of the intermediate-level type of work I was doing has been offshored or has morphed into SRE/DevOps.

Most of the clouds now in use, AWS, Azure, VMWare and even Google, are proprietary, and I loathe what they stand for.

#coop #workercoop #FOSS #Linux #sysadmin #genx

So I'm suggesting a solarpunk, open-sourcy, cooperative, web-based thing. Probably run from an existing FOSS cloud like OVHCloud, because cracking the cost of entry for a data center is... for later.

With the right group of people, the product or service is open to debate. A business needs to solve some problem out there, and there's lots to choose from.

I'm not asking for money, and I don't have much myself. I'd like to hear what people think, is any of this interesting at all?

@cwebber If bird flu or the zombie raccoons don't get you, hopefully the drones will be merciful and quick.

It's easy to get into a doom loop these days, but I honestly have faith in humanity. I'm not naive, we could all end up living in a real dystopia.

BUT

The darkness in the world is being deliberately caused by a tiny, greatly outnumbered fraction of the population to distract us from the truth, that if we can stop ourselves from being divided and learn to cooperate instead, their time in power will end.

Scientists, man. We need them.

YouTube link to video entitled, "How to Counter Disinformation: Communication Strategies, Best Practices, and Pitfalls to Avoid" from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsEi5hRQ6Vw

@carmenbianca At this point, Stallman should probably step down for the good of the community. The controversy is harming the FSF's reputation, and they do have key roles in the community, such as litigating GPL violations.

The GNU Public License is ingenious in how it protects software from Capitalistic encroachment, and I'm sure proprietary vendors would be only too happy if people were put off from using GPL offerings.

@AnarchoNinaWrites Nope. Divide and conquer is the primary weapon of our ruling class. Any amount of conflict helps them, civil war probably excites them. The one thing they fear is if we all realize we're on the same side against the aristocracy. So if you see a MAGA hat, smile and wish them a nice afternoon. Don't try to hug them, that might be pushing it.

@csstrowbridge I'm not saying that bigoted speech is okay, it's not, and I despise it. I'm saying we're caught up in a sport-team kind of rivalry designed to mess with our emotions so we won't use our brains.

@LambdaCalculus I'd be the "hapless techno-weenie" from Hackers. When I discovered Linux, I was a corporate drone grumbling about the severe failings of Windows NT 4 server.

I watched as the free software movement pushed juggernauts like Microsoft back into their corner and restored balance to the market. It was enlightened self-interest in action.

Now, our juggernauts are AWS, etc, and we really need viable free alternatives for both clouds and corporations.