Yes the constant meta (and Meta) discussion here is tedious, and often much worse, but what you have to realize is that this isn’t just a social network, it’s a left/progressive political project. I don’t know how many left/progressive political orgs you’ve been involved in, but let me tell you, they are kind of known for endless, agonizing talk about process, factions, outside threats, inside threats, strategy, grievances, etc. And if you have a solution for that, you just might save the world.
@misc
You may get push back on the idea that the fediverse is an “explicitly left wing” project. But I think you might be right. And it’s already “baked in” to the very structure and concept of an open protocol based network.
We are refusing to automatically aggregate our users and their data to be monetized. We just want to socialize! We aren’t exploiting that human desire to connect to generate ad revenue or data to mine— or a social graph that can be sold and exploited.
@futurebird lol I came ready for the pushback. ;) At most I think you could quibble about if it’s a left wing political project, or it’s a political project in which 90+% of the participants happen to be left wing*. It’s definitely a political project though. And there’s definitely a conflict between just wanting to socialize, and wanting to advance the goal of letting socialization happen differently.
* Referring to this fediverse of course, not just anyone running Mastodon or AP
@misc @futurebird Usual problem with prefigurative politics. Sometimes building the sort of future we want is in conflict with other things. But I think it works not too badly on the fedi. I'd say one can see it's successful in that the majority of talk isn't about itself, or its nominal competitors.
Eben Moglen has an interesting speech about free software called Die Gedanken sind Frei, combining the aspects of freedom and equality, and how the free software "solution" is proof of concept, and running code. The fedi is proof of concept and running code that other ways to communicate, run infrastructure, and take care of each other are possible. At least I think it is.
@misc @futurebird
Ok, now I understand why I feel comfortable here.
I disagree, it's not a political project, it becomes politicized.
Is linux a political project?
@bitpickup @misc The inability of the linux community to recognize the inherent political nature of their project has kept them from ever getting anywhere in the PC space.
i would love to hear you say more, if you were ever so inclined (i was initially attracted to linux, as a user, because of its inherent political nature)
@misc @futurebird
“We just want to socialize.”
“You’re a bunch of socialists!”
#EnglishIsHard
@Virginicus @misc @futurebird I like to say to my sister, for example, "I'm very socialist; if I'm not using something, and you need it, do it."
But then I realize I only have this "rule" for people I know well and trust. So I'm actually more communist than I thought. :ba-dum-tish:
dangit