Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
@ophiocephalic@kolektiva.socialFor all the concerns about missed opportunities and the sudden boom of Bluesky, consider that there are aspects of their success story which are not envious at all in the particular historical moment in which we find ourselves. Bluesky's imprint on popular culture is now that of the place that traitorous Twitter lefties escaped to, just as Twitter's not-so-benevolent dictator becomes part of the fascist Trump regime. Bullseyes are being drawn as we speak.
Meanwhile, Bluesky remains a surveillant network with a centralized relay sited in the so-called US. The corporation will of course offer compliance with "law" enforcement requests. This would be true even before turning to the question of who has internal influence there. Some of the information circulating recently on Bluesky investors has been true and some has been bullshit; but either way, the power analysis is indisputable. At least in its current form, this is no community-controlled network.
1/3
The pearl-clutching over Bluesky on the fedi seems to be based on an underlying assumption that it signifies the failure of a destiny that certain power-centralizing figures on here proclaimed as entitled and pre-ordained: The universal ActivityPub network. If so, this failure should be seen as a cause for celebration rather than mourning. In a fascist world, why should we even want a universal network at all?
Considering the changes about to occur in the US, and with friends in Germany and Canada watching the clouds gathering over their own political landscapes, now is the time to start Thinking Differently about everything. The techbro dream and the fascist nightmare are now definitively fused as one. Under these circumstances, "cooperating" with Meta now unambiguously means collaborating with fascism.
2/3
To the extent to which communicating and building community online in unencrypted space is still useful or desirable, the fedi is well-positioned to function as a dissident network. Decentralization means it effectively can't be shut down, short of switching off the internet. It is unquestionably community-controlled, and it is achievable - if not exactly easy - for those of marginalized and targeted identities, activists, radicals and artists, to organize, self-platform and claim their own outpost in the federation.
However, a viable space for opposition to fascism can only be fostered if we finally dispense with the pipe-dream of a fediverse full of influencers and "content creators", Democrat politicians and mainstream journalists. This is exactly the kind of attention we *don't* want cast in our direction in this moment. Watch what happens over on Bluesky in the time to come to prove the point.
Among the consequences of the US election, one has been overlooked: It killed the universal network. Trump retook the empire while sequestered on his own private, defederated Mastodon instance. It is now time for this network to come to terms with what it is, is not and won't be; what is special about it, and how it can be useful for the communities it carries as we approach unfathomable waters. The fediverse won't be a profit center, it won't replace capitalist social media and it won't rule the world. It's time to embrace the niche.
3/3