Capitalism is now visibly a #deathcult its basic stuff

As far back as 1982, fossil fuel executives knew they were trading a few…

Q. I notice you have used the #deathcult hashtag a few times recently on posts about capitalism, neo-liberalism and green consumerism, so I thought I would look it up. Wikipedia says that Death Cult may refer to an early name for the British rock band The Cult or a compilation album featuring all the songs from Death Cult. Under “See also” it links to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (also known as the Southern Death Cult), and to Southern Death Cult as yet another name for the band. Finally it says it is used as a synonym for the term “destructive cult”.

Destructive cults are described in the Wikipedia entry for Cult as “groups whose members have, through deliberate action, physically injured or killed other members of their own group or other people”. John Gordon Clark cited totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making as characteristics of a destructive cult.

A. good research, am trying to get #XR beyond liberalism were #deathcult solutions are discussed with out a thought. A step.

Q. Hamish just loves a hashtag! Once he gets his hands on one he uses it until it falls apart.
A. The idea is to spread um so that they join the mainstream discussion and then becomes the mainstream. Simple idea, very hard for #stupidindividualism #fashernistas to actually do anything so simple. Much like #stepaway from the #dotcons is simple #OMN One can but keep trying, while sailing away on a lifeboat #boatingeurope

Q. I am beginning to suspect you are getting money each time you mention one of these 😉

A. Sadly not, though when I recommend stuff on my blog I anyway put an affiliate link, more outa curiosity to see if it works than any income. Think the is a little money in a paypal account which I have lost the PW and can’t reset die to old phone number 😉

A. #hashtags click on um, search the web with um, use them to create conversations across the #dotcons and out onto the #openweb it’s a little stepaway that is easy to do. It’s a shame about #stupidindividualism #fashionistas that they can’t be a part of this #stepaway its basic stuff.

A. Of course neoliberal Capitalism was always a #deathcult just now with #XR it’s kinda ok to say this. A good example to give people is the Irish potato famine, as we are likely to repeat this soon with climate change hitting industrial agriculture. We really don’t want to be in the dogmatic neoliberal world when this hits as were then, lots of death and despair to go around.

From the #dotcons

“Thrown into the mix are the US Evangelical Christians who are waiting for Armageddon, the End Times, and the Second coming of Christ, and who welcome climate change catastrophe as a confirmation of their twisted beliefs.

The only time – to my knowledge – that I was ever unfriended on Facebook was by an Evangelical Christian Zionist, now living in the USA, who was offended by my posts showing The Israeli military bombing the hell out of civilians in Gaza. It confused me at the time, but I only recently found out that Jews returning to Israel is also a ‘sign’ of the approaching End Times for those Christian Fundamentalists.

It really is a death cult. US Republicanism, especially in its Christian Fundamentalist form, is a death cult of the most dangerous kind, and is without doubt the greatest obstacle to the continued existence of life on Planet Earth.”

It is a media war and we have no media

We are in befuddling times and the #dotcons and #conspiracynutters agenders are not helping. In fact they make it much wereas, that’s why it best to not spread the chemical crap, it’s not good fertilizer, keep media organic #openweb

In the westen world I would say almost all the war that matters is fought in the media. YES the disadvantaged are the casualties and the 3ed world will be disseminated. BUT they do not matter to the power plays that fight the war, collateral damage. The war that makes a difference is fought in the media and we have ZERO media distribution of our own, its a problem that undercurrents mediated for a time.

It is a media war and we have no media #OMN

 

A Q&A on altmedia

Q. First question, to start things off. Setting aside the negative aspects of social media platforms like Facebook for a moment, what does, say Facebook do well? In other words, how can platforms like Facebook be used in a positive way by your average person? How can it be used in a positive way by someone who considers themselves an activist?

A. Its a pay to view platform for any outreach beyond family and a few friends. So you can keep in touch with family and a few friends while being reshaped by the algorithms into god knows what, but probably not very social.

You can run fluffy activism on #failbook but agen this will be shaped by the algorithms to create friction and then amplify this into social fires. Trolls will take over your pages after a time.

So good for making a few events happen then failing.

Q. Second question. Can you give an example of an alternative to a platform like Facebook, and describe two or three things that this alternative platform does better?

A. There are many good projects on the #openweb at moment, most of them built around a standard called activertypub. Currently you can reach over 2 million users based on thousands of different services that all talk to each other.

For activist you could try http://campaign@openworlds.info for a fluffy view or http://actavisam@openworlds.info for a more spiky.

These platforms do not have the addictive algorithms that the #dotcons have so you get out what you put in. If you put focuses and activity in you will find yourself taking responsibility for building your own communities of new interesting people who tend to be much nicer that the people that #dotcons connect you too. The applications work easily across all formats with modern ui’s its a simple step, if you can focus for a time.

Q. Third question. Can you briefly describe why we need alternative platforms like the one you mentioned above.

A. The #dotcons shape us into being isolated individuals feeding our attentions/lives to depressing consumption and ecological disaster. All the time distracting us with cat memes and news gossip, to this despair its bread and circuses, an old trick.

Q. And if you’d like to add where you think a conversation like this ought to go, in terms of direction, topics to cover, that would also be really helpful.

A. Could talk about #XR

Anarchists please stop the sniping at #XR from the sidelines and get stuck into some direct action

Feel free to share the #climatecamp videos widely in Facebook/Twitter/openweb pages for #XR as it’s good that the new generation have a connection to their history.

If you’re an anarchist please share these videos, if the #XR admins don’t block them then they radicalize #XR if they block them they question their credibility, simple effective social change.

Please stop the sniping from the sidelines and get stuck into some direct action.

Share link https://youtu.be/7gKRl5lsPOA

Share link https://youtu.be/FhDZjB8f0wo

Share link https://youtu.be/GrlOAdl3ZBM

Post the individual links into your favourite/hated #dotcons and write your own text, best to keep it fluffy as the videos speak for themselves 😉

A question for fashionistas is drinking piss healthy?

A. Start a outreach stepaway from the #dotcons project and watch the old crap crubbale when you glance back. Be a part of a soughted #fashernistas movement to create social change #OMN

Q. You have been saying this over and over for the last few years and railing against the mysterious #fashernistas. And what plan did you announce this week? To start your own YouTube channel! “Physician heal thyself” seems an appropriate comment …

A. Nothing wrong in having one foot in a each camp, have been saying this for years. “Stepaway” is the strategy to try and medate the moralistic shaming that is not constructive. Am still talking about seedboxs for #peertube and the #geekproblem that stops this obviously needed, being a priority http://visionon.tv works as a video host but we have no distributed way to store the seed files… so not an option. Thus the youtube channel for #boatingeurope Of course would need one even if #peertube had seedbox’s to keep one foot in the #dotcons to offer a helping hand to people who won’t to septaway. Good to think these things through.

Ps. Am gently takeing the piss by calling it a #fashernista movement, but if you look at people’s consumption of #mainstreammedia it looks very much like people like drinking piss so maybe its not a joke?

Now that is a “shaming” thought…

A conversation about nuclear power as band aid for climate change

Q. Find it hard to understand people who support new nuclear power as a climate solution. Yes technically it could be but politically its just divide and destroy of progress movements as its not going to happen simple. Look at the history of dishonest/ridiculously over cost agenders, simple its poison, please support something people can get behind.

A. I agree it’s a political problem, not a technical one. Sadly, physics doesn’t give a flying fuck wether a solution is politically feasible or not. The planet is warming at a speed faster than any in the last 60 million years, and that spells serious trouble unless we decarbonise everything really quickly. And that means not just electricity, but transport, cement, construction, industry and everything else. Not in 50 years, but now. That’s why renewables can’t do it. Not because they can’t in principle, of course they could. But simply because it will take us decades to ramp up the production facilities necessary to churn out enough solar panels to plaster them everywhere in order to generate electricity that is needed.

What we need now is a band aid. And there is no band aid better than nuclear power to get us out of the current pickle. Nothing deliver small kilowatt-hours put dollar invested. Nothing delivers more kilowatt hours per unit of greenhouse gas emissions. Nothing delivers more kilowatt hours per unit of land taken up. You just can’t do without it.

Q. Climate chaos is here we need new infrastructure to be usable in a more divided and disorganized society’s. Ie. We need new infrastructure to be on the “horizontal” rather than “vertical” balance. As vertical solution like nuclear power are a dangerous choice in a unstable/changing world. A completely fucked up example is the new Hinkley Point power station build at sea level with a high fixed garrentyed price for generations, it will likely be underwater and abandond before it’s put into use would be a good outcom, underwater after turned on would be a complete human/eco disaster. This is not to mention the nuclear elephant up north Sellafield were the is no solution to sea level rise. Just stop this crap now comes to mind.

Q. I agree that Hinkley Point and Sellafield are idiotic choices. But that argument is the same as saying that hammers should be banned because some idiot use one to bash in the head of his girlfriend. It’s a tool. You can use it well or you can use it badly.

The problem with that disorganised and divided society you mention is that there are so very many of us on this planet. Over half of us already live in cities, and that number is increasing rapidly. We can’t disorganise that. On the contrary, you need scalable solutions to ensure that these people have a decent life, rather than a dog eat dog one.

Q. And, since we have to decarbonise everything to ensure that agriculture has a halfway decent chance of feeding all of these people,

Q. We need to figure out a way of supplying enough energy for all of these people in their needs. In the short term, nothing scales like nuclear. Hydropower destroys landscapes. Thermal power plants have thrown us into the pickle we are in today. Nothing else scales as quickly as nuclear. And, since the balance of the evidence available from the nuclear attacks on Japan and the various accidents that have happened since show that radioactivity is more feared than actually dangerous, I really don’t see what’s stopping us.

A. I hear what you are saying but how do you change nuclear from a long ongoing history a poison to one of light and delight in unstable #dotcons dominated times. Its really not helpful to push this against Decentralized renewables. A state lead enforcement of energy “austerity” to be sweetened by pushing as insulation of existing infrastructure to make the world as it is more sustainable and more robust. The only realistic solution is collective action, everything else is a vertical tecno fixe which are always a problem and never a solution. Its already a mess lets try to not to make it messer. You can argue that the is no time and no hope, a fair point of view, but, keep focus, the solution has to be social and nuclear is not a part of this.

Brixet and the Labour Party -Why the media is full of lies

You do understand that almost all #traditionalmedia coverage of #brixet and the labour party is a right meme the labour party have a solid policy on this subject, that is not explained, thus the right wing meme issue. Please check sources before spreading media #openweb

I think meme is actually a good way of describing the issue as #traditionalmedia moves its #classwar into the internet era. They used to have a fig leaf of objectivity when the only news source. If you look this has now been removed, I suppose am not surprised people don’t look 😉

The labour party POLICY has nothing to do with #traditionalmedia agenders, its a sensible 3 stage democratic process. Ie most articals are FUD https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

People push right wing memes from #traditionalmedia to the #dotcons were the algorithms push it into every unthinking addictive corner of society. Not surprisingly few people have any understanding of the policy of the British Labour party, nothing new here, but our own role, this is new.

Let’s look at a new #fashernista social media project from the perspective of the #4opens

https://mewe.com

Are a simple way to judge the value of a “alt/grassroots” tech project.

Open data – is the basic part of a project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data with out this open they cannot work.

* you can download your data, though I cannot find the link. No RSS or other open data standards – 1/2 open

Open source – as in “free software” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software this keeps development healthy by increasing interconnectedness and bringing in serendipity. The Open licences are the “lock” that keep the first two in place, what we have ain’t perfect but they do expand the area of “trust” that a project needs to work, creative commons is a start here.

* its closed source, though likely used open source code backend but not listed – no open

Open “industrial” standards – this is a little understand but core open, it’s what the open internet and WWW are built from. Here is an outline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard

* nop, it’s all proprietary. – no open

Open process – this is the most “nebulous” part, examples of the work flow would be wikis and activity streams. Projects are built on linking trust networks so open process is the “glue” that binds the links together. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process

* nop, the is no view of the company behind the project #dotcons – no open

* mewe is 1/2 out of 4opens so is not a 4opens project.

The #geekproblem pushing over #openweb agen

https://www.wired.com/story/how-blockchain-can-wrest-the-internet-from-corporations The #encryptionists are trying to pushing there flagging project over the healthy #openweb reboot.

Q. need a new hashtag? lovers of blockchain (bloccatenaphile?) are a breed unto themselves, and not likely to be as sensible as some those who are in to encryption.

how broad is your definition of #encryptionist?

A. #encryptionists my “fuckyou” thoughts started with the #indymedia network. The #geekproblem installed a self signed certificate on the domain to increase “privacy” alongside not logging ip addresses on the local server.

The “good affect” only securaty theater, the bad affect, every user received a browser pop up saying “do not trust this site” and the IP addresses could just be collected “upriver” at the ISP/switch level by the state actors who were monitoring the project

#openweb

The affect of not logging IP address locally was a rising deluge of spam and moderator burn out.

The was not democratic process on these changes, and no way to role them back or even address the issue. The project of over 100 globle news sites, with thousands of media creators and millions of users. Ossified and then died, the #dotcons soon replaced it.

#fashernistas moved on, the #openweb started to die.

The #geekproblem pushing #encryptionists agenders OVER #openweb projects.

The is a role for #encryptionists /closed but it’s on balance a smaller one than “open” is my core experience over the last 20 years.

All tech is “ideology” as code, we need to talk about this

Extinction Rebellion outside the filterbubble

https://youtu.be/To5tZpjkakU

https://feralculture.blog/2018/07/30/interview-with-extinction-rebellion/

If you won’t to network about this outside #failbook https://activism.openworlds.info/about or http://campaign.openworlds.info

We need to reboot our networks outside the #dotcons if they are to speak beyond the #filterbubles to wider society.

You can find this wider view by searching on the #openweb http://openworlds.info

#OMN

A look at how technology shapes progressive/radical media-looking forward-looking back

3 events at newspeak house this winter:
Session 1) Looking back – how technology shaped the production and distribution of radical/progressive media like #Undercurrents, #Indymedia etc.

Session 2) The current day – failure of radical media technology. The rise of the #dotcons and the new alt-media projects.

Session 3) Looking forward – The #activetypub meetup. This is an update on the state of current #openweb projects. A continuation of the very successful #Mastodon meetups that I set up last year, opening up to the wider projects like #Peertube, #Pleroma, #Pixalfeed etc.

What kind of format do you imagine?

First two would be presentation, with long Q&A sessions and feedback from other participants that arrive on the day. Following the successful meetups last year, the last session is a user group go round with a few lightening talks and Q&A.

Session 1) I’m planning to invite one of the founders of both Undercurrents and #IMC to speak. I was also involved in both, so we would have 3 perspectives. I would have to cover the expenses of these speakers.

Session 2) I’m currently looking for speakers. I can talk/guide on this subject to shape the agenda to the subject.

Session 3) We have a list of people to invite from our meetup group from last year, so it will be a continuity user group meetup with fresh outreach.

And who do you imagine as your target audience?

Session 1) People who were involved (a lot) in the production and distribution of radical/progressive media. Historians (a few), and people interested in the 3 workshops and the subject of tech and politics in general.

Session 2) The same people from the first session will come to the second one, plus next generation who built good things inside the #doctons (for example UK uncut, student protests, current radical media projects and their ordinances).

Session 3) The same people from the first two sessions, plus the people running the Mastodon instances. Both developers and users, as well as the new alt media producers to connect with the developers/sysadmins

For outreach, there will be two bites of the cherry, the publicity for the event and the publicity for each of the sessions.

Helping the stepaway from the #dotcons

https://campaign.openworlds.info

https://activism.openworlds.info

https://visionon.tv

https://openworlds.info

http://omn.openworlds.info

I have 5 working/funded/stable #openweb projects to push this winter to wider ordences.

Covering News, Social Media, Video and Search.

Be the change you wont to see #stepaway from the #dotcons back to the openweb. are key for projects to work dont drink to deeply from the #encryptionist stream 😉