The Internet is becoming a less useful, less usable, and overall scarier place. Disney and Max purging their content libraries, Google and Microsoft shifting...
Really nice video on this, what are your thoughts? How can we turn it around?
It’s not only internet companies. Capitalism as a whole seems to become more and more anti-consumer. Maybe we reached the point where further growth is just not possible anymore and thus the companies are coming up with more and more shit to milk their customers.
@hardypart@awooo That “fixed” title is an extremely optimistic interpretation of the video. The internet is dying, and capitalism is leading the firing squad. I don’t see anything on the horizon that will flip that power dynamic.
What alternatives we do have are either worse (e.g. feudalism) or are so demonized in capitalist society any good-faith attempt at switching would be destroyed by a bunch of outsiders who know nothing about it (e.g. socialism (specifically, libertarian socialism)). And even if we do succeed in getting an alternative on the internet (or anywhere, really), the most powerful beings in whatever space we do it in will attempt to destroy us. The main reason for the “containment of communism”, or the attempt to do so at least, was not “saving people” from communism but actually fear of its spread, and what a communist world would do to the powerful, capitalist countries of the west. (For the record, that actually was the cause, I’m not trying and don’t want to spread tankie propaganda like Lemmy’s devs are. We need libertarianism.) Capitalism, like most other systems, is fragile if people consider alternatives, so people have been made to not consider those alternatives, and as a result everyone is locked into this sinking ship, with many not even realizing it’s sinking before it’s far too late to do anything to stop it.
I’m very afraid another alternative is being conisidered here, and it’s worse than any of these.
It’s fascism.
And there’s sadly precedent for it, economic crisis leads to political and social instability that can be cleverly exploited by appealing to peoples’ emotions and putting them against an imagined enemy in other people, when the real enemy is hovering above us and cheering it on.
Indeed. And you can already see fascism becoming more and more popular in places around the world. The defining traits of fascism are so plainly visible that anyone with access to a history book can easily identify it. But fascism says that it is not fascism, but instead is the force for a better country, for a cleaner culture, for a more prosperous people, and so the followers do nothing except fight the people trying to attack it.
(For the record, that actually was the cause, I’m not trying and don’t want to spread tankie propaganda like Lemmy’s devs are. We need libertarianism.)
For the record, libertarianism till 50s-60s. when US anti-communism spread like a disease, is, was, and will be, a specific part of anarchism/anarcho-communism, a proposal on how people/workers can organize according to libertarian principles. Libertarian principles are such that seek to protect and maintain all forms of equality in decision making among the members of the body that is making the decision. Emma Goldman, Luigi and Luce Fabri, Errico Malatesta, are among the most essential writers where libertarian principles are described.
This other monstrosity of an ideology associated as libertarianism is pure propaganda for the masses to diffuse interest from the original, to the extent that it is diametrically opposed to true libertarianism. It only appeals to the uneducated and to those who lack any form of critical ability. Capitalism, unleashed from the constrains of the superstructure of state (dialectically formed between the upper class and working class struggle for better conditions) is a short lived dead end situation and the quickest way to ultimate fascism, where the wealthiest can control every aspect of the lives of the lower class. In other words, under such proposals or this other form of anti-communism called anarcho-capitalism (yet another manufactured ideology from the depths of US state agencies), capitalism implodes to its final state, fascism and totalitarianism. The true essence of fascism is anti-communism, it is why fascism was created, to control and suppress communism. An earlier form of a manufactured propaganda to counter what is a threat to capitalism.
The support for what I am talking about is simple logic. It takes enormous political power or brutal force to maintain inequality for a long time (state) and this is all the capitalist state is; the maintainer and enforcer of inequality. A powerful state knows well enough what it takes to prolong its own existence, how far to take things, when to take a step back, to maintain social integrity and prevent uprising and revolt. Without a state, or with a lesser state, capitalists as individualistic as they are, they will suck it all in, and leave everyone else hungry and miserable. Then they have nobody to sell to but it is too late to realize it. It happened in the US in the 30s and spread across the industrialized western world like a fire. Since then they decided social democracy was necessary “to the capitalists” to maintain this great inequality, where 2% have/control 98% of land and resources. Private property can only be maintained by a state (laws, judicial system, police/army) otherwise it is just an immaterial idea.
Outside the US, and its puppets of English speaking world where propaganda spreads the most, people only laugh at US libertarianism as a silly joke. It is also the US that gave birth to distinguishing labels such as libertarian-left or libertarian-socialist etc. True libertarians are true anti-capitalists to the core.
There are 2 proposals against capitalism, the so called (in the US tankie) m-l authoritarian proposal, and the libertarian proposal. The one is pro-vanguard revolutionary the other is anti-vanguard social-revolution oriented. The one mandates economic only equality while building an enormous political inequality (similar or worse than the one in capitalism), the other builds on political equality where economic equality is the obvious logical result (we can’t collectively agree on our own economic inequality). Some will also argue that a powerful modern state can not help but reproduce capitalist relations in society, as the modern state itself is a fabrication of capitalists. Pre-capitalist states have significant differences and organization.
Both proposals (m-l and libertarian) though differ on values and principles, not on content or logical explanation, although there has been enormous debate on whether that is or not. The synthesis of the two can only be found on the necessity of a vanguard organization but not to rule and govern but to serve, protect, and obey those who choose to exit capitalism (zapatistas). It therefore promotes collective/communal autonomy organized by a communal assembly as the highest form of authority, which serves the members and not the other way around. The vanguard protected the uprising and the process of autonomy construction, does not intervene and does not act without the decisions of the communities. The antithesis of lib/m-l can not survive too long (1.5 centuries) without a possible synthesis.
To take it a step further, the most vicious and dangerous defenders of capitalism are reformist liberals and pseudo-socialists, who project some fake liveable-sustainable capitalism that is easy on the “losers” of their gambling game. They will always be the best friends to capitalists who feel threatened by the class they exploit and suppress. A large part of the state apparatus is there not due to necessity but due to class insecurity (the ruling class).
Religion, sports, entertainment, ethnicity, are all aspects of the state as a mechanism to prevent uprising and revolution. It pre-occupies people with non-problems so they don’t seek a collective solution to their true problems.
The only problem is we don’t know what remnants we will have left when we finally find a good alternative, and that good alternative may turn out to be terrible in the long run.
In reality, I think that the main problem is that we’ve allowed capitalism to get to its later stages, and that we should’ve switched to an alternative long ago while it was still in its middle stages. Any way of life has problems, and the only thing that happens as it evolves is that those problems fester under the surface, eventually killing off most of the progress made because of it.
@hardypart@awooo bro, you’re all complaining that shit’s ending when you LITERALLY just were freed from a centralized prison hell hole run by the ultimate BOFH.
maybe ya’ll need to go back with all this doom and gloom jesus fuck ya’ll hopeless.
you seriously need to wake up and smell the future as it’s laying right in your fucking lap right now. you ready to help build it or ya’ll gona act like little whiny beta bitches all day?
FTFY
It’s not only internet companies. Capitalism as a whole seems to become more and more anti-consumer. Maybe we reached the point where further growth is just not possible anymore and thus the companies are coming up with more and more shit to milk their customers.
@hardypart @awooo That “fixed” title is an extremely optimistic interpretation of the video. The internet is dying, and capitalism is leading the firing squad. I don’t see anything on the horizon that will flip that power dynamic.
Definitely agree, there’s just no denying it will take a lot of valuable things down with it and make plenty of noise in the process :/
The only question is, can we get away from it?
What alternatives we do have are either worse (e.g. feudalism) or are so demonized in capitalist society any good-faith attempt at switching would be destroyed by a bunch of outsiders who know nothing about it (e.g. socialism (specifically, libertarian socialism)). And even if we do succeed in getting an alternative on the internet (or anywhere, really), the most powerful beings in whatever space we do it in will attempt to destroy us. The main reason for the “containment of communism”, or the attempt to do so at least, was not “saving people” from communism but actually fear of its spread, and what a communist world would do to the powerful, capitalist countries of the west. (For the record, that actually was the cause, I’m not trying and don’t want to spread tankie propaganda like Lemmy’s devs are. We need libertarianism.) Capitalism, like most other systems, is fragile if people consider alternatives, so people have been made to not consider those alternatives, and as a result everyone is locked into this sinking ship, with many not even realizing it’s sinking before it’s far too late to do anything to stop it.
I’m very afraid another alternative is being conisidered here, and it’s worse than any of these.
It’s fascism.
And there’s sadly precedent for it, economic crisis leads to political and social instability that can be cleverly exploited by appealing to peoples’ emotions and putting them against an imagined enemy in other people, when the real enemy is hovering above us and cheering it on.
Indeed. And you can already see fascism becoming more and more popular in places around the world. The defining traits of fascism are so plainly visible that anyone with access to a history book can easily identify it. But fascism says that it is not fascism, but instead is the force for a better country, for a cleaner culture, for a more prosperous people, and so the followers do nothing except fight the people trying to attack it.
For the record, libertarianism till 50s-60s. when US anti-communism spread like a disease, is, was, and will be, a specific part of anarchism/anarcho-communism, a proposal on how people/workers can organize according to libertarian principles. Libertarian principles are such that seek to protect and maintain all forms of equality in decision making among the members of the body that is making the decision. Emma Goldman, Luigi and Luce Fabri, Errico Malatesta, are among the most essential writers where libertarian principles are described.
This other monstrosity of an ideology associated as libertarianism is pure propaganda for the masses to diffuse interest from the original, to the extent that it is diametrically opposed to true libertarianism. It only appeals to the uneducated and to those who lack any form of critical ability. Capitalism, unleashed from the constrains of the superstructure of state (dialectically formed between the upper class and working class struggle for better conditions) is a short lived dead end situation and the quickest way to ultimate fascism, where the wealthiest can control every aspect of the lives of the lower class. In other words, under such proposals or this other form of anti-communism called anarcho-capitalism (yet another manufactured ideology from the depths of US state agencies), capitalism implodes to its final state, fascism and totalitarianism. The true essence of fascism is anti-communism, it is why fascism was created, to control and suppress communism. An earlier form of a manufactured propaganda to counter what is a threat to capitalism.
The support for what I am talking about is simple logic. It takes enormous political power or brutal force to maintain inequality for a long time (state) and this is all the capitalist state is; the maintainer and enforcer of inequality. A powerful state knows well enough what it takes to prolong its own existence, how far to take things, when to take a step back, to maintain social integrity and prevent uprising and revolt. Without a state, or with a lesser state, capitalists as individualistic as they are, they will suck it all in, and leave everyone else hungry and miserable. Then they have nobody to sell to but it is too late to realize it. It happened in the US in the 30s and spread across the industrialized western world like a fire. Since then they decided social democracy was necessary “to the capitalists” to maintain this great inequality, where 2% have/control 98% of land and resources. Private property can only be maintained by a state (laws, judicial system, police/army) otherwise it is just an immaterial idea.
Outside the US, and its puppets of English speaking world where propaganda spreads the most, people only laugh at US libertarianism as a silly joke. It is also the US that gave birth to distinguishing labels such as libertarian-left or libertarian-socialist etc. True libertarians are true anti-capitalists to the core.
There are 2 proposals against capitalism, the so called (in the US tankie) m-l authoritarian proposal, and the libertarian proposal. The one is pro-vanguard revolutionary the other is anti-vanguard social-revolution oriented. The one mandates economic only equality while building an enormous political inequality (similar or worse than the one in capitalism), the other builds on political equality where economic equality is the obvious logical result (we can’t collectively agree on our own economic inequality). Some will also argue that a powerful modern state can not help but reproduce capitalist relations in society, as the modern state itself is a fabrication of capitalists. Pre-capitalist states have significant differences and organization.
Both proposals (m-l and libertarian) though differ on values and principles, not on content or logical explanation, although there has been enormous debate on whether that is or not. The synthesis of the two can only be found on the necessity of a vanguard organization but not to rule and govern but to serve, protect, and obey those who choose to exit capitalism (zapatistas). It therefore promotes collective/communal autonomy organized by a communal assembly as the highest form of authority, which serves the members and not the other way around. The vanguard protected the uprising and the process of autonomy construction, does not intervene and does not act without the decisions of the communities. The antithesis of lib/m-l can not survive too long (1.5 centuries) without a possible synthesis.
To take it a step further, the most vicious and dangerous defenders of capitalism are reformist liberals and pseudo-socialists, who project some fake liveable-sustainable capitalism that is easy on the “losers” of their gambling game. They will always be the best friends to capitalists who feel threatened by the class they exploit and suppress. A large part of the state apparatus is there not due to necessity but due to class insecurity (the ruling class).
Religion, sports, entertainment, ethnicity, are all aspects of the state as a mechanism to prevent uprising and revolution. It pre-occupies people with non-problems so they don’t seek a collective solution to their true problems.
All this just for the record :)
Full agree. I don’t see a viable alternative right now, but I’m sure one will evolve naturally once everything around us is in ashes.
The only problem is we don’t know what remnants we will have left when we finally find a good alternative, and that good alternative may turn out to be terrible in the long run.
In reality, I think that the main problem is that we’ve allowed capitalism to get to its later stages, and that we should’ve switched to an alternative long ago while it was still in its middle stages. Any way of life has problems, and the only thing that happens as it evolves is that those problems fester under the surface, eventually killing off most of the progress made because of it.
@hardypart @awooo bro, you’re all complaining that shit’s ending when you LITERALLY just were freed from a centralized prison hell hole run by the ultimate BOFH.
maybe ya’ll need to go back with all this doom and gloom jesus fuck ya’ll hopeless.
you seriously need to wake up and smell the future as it’s laying right in your fucking lap right now. you ready to help build it or ya’ll gona act like little whiny beta bitches all day?