the idea is years from now there are things that stood out from this time and you remember them fondly, without the hurt and the struggle that stand out to you now.

So… whitewash history for the nostalgia and warm fuzzies? Like I say, really fucking privileged…

I’ll tell you one thing for sure, and from personal experience from growing up around holocaust survivors - they don’t look back at their lives in Nazi Germany and have times they remember fondly. Even individual moments of joy they may have experienced are completely overshadowed by pain and trauma.

Non-Jewish(/queer/communist/Roma) Germans? That’s a different story.

So I’ll say it again - You must be really fucking privileged if you think you’ll be able to look back at this time in history fondly, and regard it as “the good old days” (even when things get much worse, and they will).

You must be really fucking privileged if the idea that now is the time we have it right, gives you any hope or comfort whatsoever

Media reports in the West have sometimes exaggerated or inaccurately described this concept.

But the concept exists, nonetheless.

The idea that the tech and surveillance obsessed Chinese government isn’t keeping tags on its citizens, to at least the same degree western countries are keeping tags on theirs is patently absurd, and all you’re doing by pretending otherwise is licking the left boot instead of the right,.

The fucking side picking on this, and the principles so called progressives and even leftist (being openly welcomed to the tankie side, I guess) are willing to throw out the window just to defend an openly oppressive and abusive state simply because it is “anti-American”, as if both aren’t pulling the same shit in slightly different variations, is doing my fucking head in.

What will it take for people to realise all states exist to oppress and control the working class for the benefit of the ruling one, no matter who it theoretically opposes? (not a social media fad, that’s for fucking sure)

unlikely they will bother watching a camera over a few burned out bulbs

Lol, have you ever met a leech landlord?

they may be thirsty for a platform that isn’t run by oligarchs

Except this isn’t the case at all, evidently.

I doubt they care at all who runs the platform they use (again, evidently), they just want the addictive dopamine hit these apps are designed to constantly provide (the vast majority of people didn’t leave fb or twitter because of zuck or musk, they left because something more addictive and personally tailored thanks to even more intrusive and manipulative algorithms came along). Honestly, the idea that this migration is fuelled by any anti-rich/anti censorship sentiments (neither of which is met by rednote) is completely ridiculous.

Otherwise I agree, the fediverse can be hard for people to pick up, which is a shame, but I think those who genuinely do want to get away from oligarchs, the state, and their censorship, rather than just keep swiping (or whatever you do on tiktok/rednote) for their dopamine, are much more likely to actually make the small effort it requires to figure it out.

Lmmfao, who do you think runs the Chinese government, the workers?

Anyway, thanks for providing an example of exactly the kind of bullshit and excuses I was referring to.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but sadly people wouldn’t listen, they were (rightfully!) so desperate to get the tories out, they didn’t want to hear that the establishment had arranged for them to be voting another one straight in.

And they also don’t want to hear that this was entirely intentional, that it is a well established way of getting the blue tories back in and worse than ever next election, and that continuing to play this silly game of “vote for one of the two people we’ve approved for you to vote for” is ever going to benefit us as a society, but only the ones manipulating us in to keeping them in power.

And so the exact same cyclical shit will keep happening.

“This also highlights the fact that people are thirsty for platforms that aren’t controlled by the same few oligarchs,”

So they move (and apparently willingly provide more access to their info than they already need to) to a platform that is controlled by a different few oligarchs, as a treat… 🙄

Also, you say we’re right here, but the number of people already here praising this shit* because they’re either tankies simping for faux communists, or simply too indoctrinated to realise that you don’t have to choose one, and can oppose both oppressive states (which use almost identical tactics), is pretty fucking gross.

*and before they descend on me with their bullshit and excuses and their throwing of marginalised people under the bus for the sake of maintaining their own black and white view of the world - yes Chinese and American people communicating and breaking down barriers is good. However the idea that this can honestly and freely be done on their oppressive state controlled media, any more than it can on ours, or that one is somehow less oppressive than the other, is a joke, and so are the people ignoring the fact that both states have equally terrible mass surveillance and control over our communications.

This is the way. I really do love @GluWu@lemm.ee’s suggestion, but you’d have to find them first, this is far less time and effort consuming lol

Yay you!

Hope it all goes smoothly and that you get some relief.

a country that only cares about billionaires and companies

So… Both countries involved?

Knowing airb&b, they probably already have an “extra lightbulbs” charge baked in to the cost somewhere…

E: that, or the owner will catch you on spycam and not only charge you but get you blacklisted, too…

Removed by mod

It’s a nice thought, but sadly we will never get to find out…

It’s one of the reasons they maintain a poverty class, and invest in providing free (or heavily subsidised) education, housing, meals, and healthcare for soldiers (not to mention the massive and imperialist propaganda machine) - can’t feed the meat grinder if no one is desperate to enlist just to survive.

The only way to stop them is to abolish the systems and institutions that enable their existence in the first place, and eating removing them from society (unless they agree to give up their ill gotten power and resources, of course. As if).

Anything else is a distraction created by those maintaining said systems and institutions (which includes the governing bodies of all nation states, as well as organisations like the EU*, as noble as the idea is in theory, and in practice in the minds of those who created it, but it is after all an economic treaty, which is upholding an economy system and the status quo) all to buy themselves more time to pillage, hoard, and manipulate society for their personal gain.

*As a brit I feel compelled to say that I’m pro EU under our current system, since our shitty government(s) must have someone to answer to (because it sure doesn’t answer to the people), but I’m fully aware that it is at the end of the day a neoliberal institution that is there to maintain the status quo, not change anything fundamental to better society.

I’m expecting the DWP to instantly adopt whatever AI it is that that insurance company that recently lost its CEO uses to deny claims. And all I can do is hope that they, and those enabling them, get a similar response (though who am I kidding, if the general public gave two shits about poor and especially disabled people being deliberately and systemically denied support and left to die, we’d have seen a reaction a decade ago).

Hate to make you cry a little more, but it’s £14 billion, not million

You’re welcome, and remember that they’re for browsing, not necessarily consuming in bulk, some of them I’ve never read the whole way through, but they provide answers to specific questions and are great for dipping in and out of.