← Back to context

Comment by themitigating

3 years ago

How about standing up to the people who implemented the ban and their supporters. I don't understand why we are working around oppression.

Technical workarounds and social activism aren't mutually exclusive; given how long the latter can take to achieve results, it's often useful to have the former in the meantime.

  • By bypassing the block you lessen the need for social activism

    • This is called "accelerationism". It does not work. It is a maladaptive thought-pattern, nursed by people on the political fringe.

      The theory is that as things get worse and worse, there will come a moment when everyone suddenly "wakes up", and acts in unity to overthrow their oppressors and build a better system (under the command of the enlightened few, of course). This happens approximately never (see: Qanon), and when it does, the chances of a good result are even more remote (see: Bolshevism).

      It serves a useful emotional purpose for the adherents: you don't have to do anything, make friends with anyone, understand the world around you. Just wait for the apocalypse, for the day when the Elect will seize power and shoot their enemies etc etc.

      Back in the real world, here is how you build a large effective political coalition: by solving people's problems in the here and now. This is how the Fabians built the welfare state.

      1 reply →

    • Bypassing the block renders the authoritarian control measures ineffective and/or void. This is an act of resistance in itself. Why do you think bypassing the ban is conforming to authority?

      7 replies →

    • your goal should be making these impossible to enforce, social activism is not an end in itself

    • This doesn't add up. Should the `work around` not be used because it lessens the need for social activism ?

      One does not negate the other.

    • Or just self-host your repositories and don't deal with centralized Git services given that techies here are hyping around how 'easy' it is to spin up Mastodon instances.

      Should be even easier to self-host a Git repository then, just like a website.

...I'll guess you've never been hit by an indian policeman with a stick? And they don't wear bodycams. My point being: your words are empty if you're not actualky there. Just imagine what happened pre-body cam (USA/ UK etc) and multiply that by many, throw in a LOT of judicial corruption and 'standing up to' becomes a little more difficult than it would at first appear. Circumnavigation may be the best option at the moment.

It seems to me that modifying the world so that the oppressive policy becomes irrelevant is always preferable.

And when that's not possible, heck yeah, stand up to power with truth in hand.

What would be your favorite way of standing up to the people who implemented the ban and their supporters?

  • Punishing them financially through boycotts, cutting off friends and family, voting them out, and terminating their employment.

    Whatever can be done obviously

How, exactly, do you propose doing that? Do you mean hiring lawyers to try and get the court's decision reversed? Or lobbying to get legislation passed to prevent courts from being able to do things like this in the future? And if the court's decision doesn't get reversed and/or the legislation doesn't pass, what then?

  • Go after the supporters of the people who implemented the ban.

    • > Go after the supporters of the people who implemented the ban.

      I don't know what you mean by this, but if you mean persuading them to change their support, that's a very long timeline, certainly not something that fits into a development sprint...

      And if you mean "attack" supporters of the people who implemented the ban, that's a terrible idea.