unshittified.club

@julian@activitypub.space also, one really cool effect of federated forums is that by you tagging with a different domain, I just discovered another pile of fediverse material at @activitypub.space. Awesome! I really like the way this naturally organizes if people limit the scope of their forums to cohesive topics. I'm curious also about regional boards / organizing by region rather than topical, like something to compete with nextdoor. I believe that hyperlocal is something that fediverse could be a big champion of.

https://www.threads.com/@unshittifiedjackson/post/DSqPbWgAWbA

America came as close as it ever did to embodying its ideals as stated in the Preamble of the good old US Constitution: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. And people who considered themselves above We The People didn't like that.

@skeet havent responded but have been mulling over your comment as I wrap up a first listen of enshittification. I think you nailed it. Thats exactly where we are. I appreciate the cautious optimism that Doctorow has for antitrust new legislation and I do not believe the US will be leading the way on this stuff at least not until the horses are well out of the gates and it becomes apparent that we cannot stop antitrust entirely. Then we will get involved and probably corrupt it until the next cycle of course.

Direct Democracy here also helps. I really like having the ability to vote on laws directly. I know lots of smart people would disagree. Like many say that Prop 13 screwed California. But I think Direct Democracy breaks the 2 party system a bit and at least feels like a check on politicians.

Yes, on youtube. But doctorow put it there, so https://youtu.be/KwySDtKPCJs?si=og1BsZ7DKWDGwt3O

@Soteria I think people are neutral (unless they choose not to be) and products of hteir environment. If they are conditioned to not participate, they will be complacent with the status quo, which is what we have in majority.

I keep coming back to one central idea that is foundational to see real change. We need participation not delegation. Anyone that tells you to “send money and we will fight for you” is advocating for delegation, and with it, a natural attrition of participation. We don’t need freedom as a service! We need to be free! So that is the central tenet of what I want to build. Get asses out of seats and moving, talking, interacting without corporate interests chaperoning the whole affair.

@skeet nice! Will do.

Here we are, the beginning of the holidays, and I would like to say that I am more optimistic than I have been in a while. Yes, capitalist greed runs rampant in the United States. Yes, our politics are a self perpetuating duopoly. But my optimism isn’t about that. It’s about the passion of the resistance I see to it as I start to poke around. The well formed thoughts and layered solutions I see rebuking it. People see the problems for what they are, have names and definitions for the problems that accurately describe them. I believe that we can throw our hats into the ring and make a difference that is not a financial donation to one entity or another. Thats how we got here; our representation has failed us and has constructed a themed houses of mirrors for us to get lost in, and so be complacent. I believe we can find our way by participating directly and encouraging others to do so as well, by speaking directly to the points and not watering them down with binary labels like “conservative”, “liberal”, “democrat”, “republican”, “left” and “right”. Labels that frankly mean very little and engulf us in cults of personalities that torpedo our clarity of mind and meaningful discourse. Lets talk about what we want more of, what we want less of, and then make it happen! Thank you for those that have started this conversation with me here, and to those who’ve I’ve encountered thus far in well designed media and in my exploration on other platforms. This is just the beginning, and I have hope.

@pastvulcan so i was thinking if multiple sites offer alternatives but they arent integrated well we could get deep with those communities, provide feedback and learn more about the limitations… and report back! I do have some faith that the more we know, the more I believe we will be able to effectively illustrate.

Heres an example flier that i think does a few things well. I want ours to be more geared towards the how and less the why, but with elements of both. I need to go down the rabbit hole and see what materials Robert is linking to: https://masto.ai/@rbreich/115617561527528527

@ilam.fields you bring up some great points. I have a sneaking suspicion as I get farther reading Unshittification and we explore how best to educate the people on the woes of enshittification, that Cory has already turned over these rocks, and the immediate solutions, at least in the short term, will not be litigation, but rather collective action.

Another balanced review of proton: https://thedroidguy.com/longtime-proton-users-are-leaving-over-broken-promises-ai-hype-and-neglected-features-1269075

Options for federated auth in kagi are apple, google, microsoft and github (microsoft) but they also allow for creating your own name and password. Inside a link under this email field, entitled “Why do we need an email address?” Kagi suggests possibly using : https://simplelogin.io/ to alias your email. We should look further into that as well.

I was thinking we could start pinning a weekly goal thread with the current goal. Like right now we can work on a graphic that shows “small ways to uns***ify Christmas shopping while keeping your sanity intact” and show people how to avoid lining Amazons pockets, etc.

https://indivisible.org/ does some recommended boycotts as well as protests. For instance, a proposed boycott of Amazon, Target, and Home Depot for black Friday weekend. I think part of the idea is that more targeted boycotts tied to specific objectionable actions in the news might work better as a message

@skeet whats the best way to collaborate on graphics? We can take this to the DMs if we get too in the weeds. I have used gimp most recently with moderate success. Its installable software and while not as slick as photoshop seems to have all? Of the stuff i want.

Doctorow highlights this paid search engine as using googles apis for search but not applying their rank algorithms. Fair warning, this obviously seems like it can end up quickly in defunct or enshittified status. But for now, its worth a shot. I will sign up and report back

https://www.whoshallrule.com/p/enshittification-and-how-to-fight?mc_cid=081394627f&mc_eid=47dad25235