diff --git a/Garden b/Garden index be2e43fe7..0580c9058 160000 --- a/Garden +++ b/Garden @@ -1 +1 @@ -Subproject commit be2e43fe71f6b7ec89194200e42924daace42466 +Subproject commit 0580c90586f7a5db03d42e612bea3266fad52688 diff --git a/site/garden/anarchism/index.md b/site/garden/anarchism/index.md index cb30a1f58..26c75e1bc 100644 --- a/site/garden/anarchism/index.md +++ b/site/garden/anarchism/index.md @@ -1,7 +1,8 @@ --- -alias: "Anarchist, Anarchistic" +alias: "Anarchist" public: "true" slug: "anarchism" +tags: [Leftism] title: "Anarchism" prev: false next: false @@ -12,60 +13,28 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Anarchism

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1953 words, ~11 minute read.

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958 words, ~5 minute read.

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Referenced by:Decentralized ModerationDigital LocalityIndividualismLeftismLocal CommunitiesMy Political BeliefsRepresentative Democracy
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Referenced by:Free AssociationIndividualism
+ +
Tags:Leftism
Anarchism is a political philosophy centered around the idea that authoritative hierarchies are unjust, and aim for a society completely devoid of a state. They see a state as inherently self-preservationist and oppressive, thus that it has no place in society nor the transition to an egalitarian society. Broadly speaking, flavors of anarchism can fall into 3 categories: collectivist anarchism, which is what this article will focus on; individualist anarchism, which are right-wing versions of anarchism based on [Individualism](/garden/individualism/index.md); and modern anarchism, which are adaptations of collectivist communism to include additional hierarchies, such as anarcha-feminism which seeks to abolish the patriarchy in addition to class hierarchy. I'm personally biased against individualist anarchism but align with the values present in many collectivist and modern flavors of anarchism. I believe an ideal society is one with strong [Local Communities](/garden/local-communities/index.md) that operate as a collective; spreading power as thinly as possible to avoid the possibility of any individuals becoming corrupt and abusing their power. -## Decision Making in Anarchy +## Decision Making -Flavors of anarchy will differ on whether decision making should exist at all. Egoism, an individualist flavor of anarchism, argues against not only any kind of collective decision making, but against society itself. Collectivist flavors of anarchism typically allow for group decision making in some form. +To keep that power spread thinly, anarchists desire decision making systems that ensure no one rules over another, although in practice sometimes some concessions are made for logistics. Ideally, an anarchist society rely solely on [Free Association](/garden/free-association/index.md), but there are historical cases of using consensus or even majoritarian democracies. -Group decision making under anarchism is typically modeled after a flavor of democracy. Majoritarian democracy, or [Direct Democracy](/garden/direct-democracy/index.md) , is the idea that everyone gets a single vote and a measure passes if most people are in favor of it. A [Consensus Democracy](/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md) as described in [Consensus](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-consensus) is the idea that measures should only pass if nobody is opposed to it. This typically means in lieu of voting, individuals can "block" a measure by saying they disagree with it in part of in whole, and the polity must then decide to drop the measure or tweak it until it can pass without any blocks. Some forms of consensus democracy will also allow for measures to pass despite a small number of blocks, for the sake of making it feasible without constant gridlock when scaling up. +Anarchists would not typically assign explicit roles to people, but rather expect people to tend to do things that fill perceived needs and benefit the society through mutual aid. If there is a decision making process that _does_ lead to some responsibilities being assigned to a specific person, that role would have to be considered replaceable at all times, so that the person assigned the role can freely leave the agreement. This would also lead to a form of accountability, since the group could choose to assign someone else to do that task. -There are criticism of group decision making as anti-anarchistic in any form. In both of these versions of democracy, the polity is collectively agreeing to have some form of rule or agreement in place, and once agreed to, an individual typically cannot rescind their consent to that rule or agreement. In majoritarian democracy, up to half the polity may have never even given consent for that rule in the first place. Even in consensus democracy, discussions will often break down into compromise and eventual resignation in order to get measures passed, which is not a "true" version of consent. Typically supporters of these decision making processes will justify them as necessary of a society to function. - -There are likely to eventually be issues that end up having different factions that are simply unable to reach consensus or otherwise reconcile. It should be clear that in an anarchist society, this is not a situation where the majority should be able to rule over the minority. If consensus cannot be reached, then the different sides will merely act independently to the best of their ability. This is largely for new issues that arise, like "someone invented X and its unclear whether its good to use it or not". Things like "should we replace this park with a parking lot" would just fall back to the previously already consensus-decided state. So long as no one is hurting another (against their consent) there are no bad opinions/values, only different ones. - -I'm personally a fan of consensus democracy. I agree with the justification that a society will naturally and necessarily contain social relationships that lead to things like compromises, and that "persuasiveness" is a permissible hierarchy out of necessity for society to exist. - -### Democracy in Statist Society - -As a quick aside, some anarchists are critical of the term "democracy" here, as it may carry baggage of how democracy is implemented in a statist society, or disingenuously try to copy over the positive associations democracy has within western society. An anarchist would typically [flat out reject](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/james-herod-making-decisions-amongst-assemblies) any form of [Representative Democracy](/garden/representative-democracy/index.md) due to representatives inherently imperfectly abstracting the will of their constituency. They would argue representative democracy strictly gets better the closer you get to everyone having a representative that perfectly matches their positions on all issues, which is of course then equivalent to a direct democracy. - -### Assigning Roles in Anarchy - -A flavor of anarchism that allows for group decision making typically also allows for roles to be assigned. If the group agreed that a specific person is in charge of making sure livestock don't escape, or another person is in charge of drafting a design for a new building being proposed, then that's completely fine. However, no person fulfilling a role should be considered un-replacable, as that imbues that person with unjust coercive power. That means roles should have redundancies and an answer for "what if this person threatens to stop performing their role unless we capitulate to their demands?" - -## Motivation Under Anarchy - -Anarchism relies on the idea that there are enough individuals motivated to systemically fix problems that they will do so without direct personal gain (beyond the problem being solved), and that others will not block those efforts, even if the policy won't help them in particular. I believe this would and does hold true. I believe our society being filled with greedy individuals is primarily caused by our society rewarding greed (see [Social Construct](/garden/social-constructs/index.md)s and Materialism). [Anarchy Works](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works#toc7) starts by addressing this argument. Without the profit motive and returning to a culture of collaboration and [mutual aid](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dean-spade-mutual-aid), greed would for the most part become a non-factor in policy making. Those who are already at the top of the hierarchy don't want to lose their position, and have thus been propagandizing that hierarchies are necessary/inevitable, and even just. This concept gets discussed in [The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzNANfNlTs). - -## Accountability under Anarchy - -Anarchy requires [Police Abolition](/garden/police-abolition/index.md), as a carceral state is, obviously, a state. Emma Goldman's essays on anarchism include a chapter on [Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays#toc6). Suffice to say, there is no state sanctioned violence in a state-less society. With that in mind, if someone breaks a rule or otherwise acts anti-socially, the anarchist society will have to rely on other methods of accountability. - -Like prison abolitionists, anarchists would prefer systemic solutions to problems. If someone had to steal food from another at risk of starving, the solution is to ensure food (and other needs like shelter and healthcare) are accessible to all. Technology has made it trivial to provide for everyone; In America, there is more food waste than it would take to feed all the hungry, and enough vacant houses to shelter all the homeless. The scarcity is artificial, created by and maintained by those at the top of the hierarchy. - -After meeting everyone's needs, crimes should essentially go away. When accidents happen, there's no need for consequences but the community may make changes to help prevent accidents from re-occurring. If the incident was caused by someone's needs not being met (e.g. food or healthcare), then they should be supported rather than punished. For the remaining edge cases, there is typically reliance on social consequences. People are less likely to associate with someone with anti-social tendencies, and that person may eventually just have to leave the community if no one remains who is willing to associate with them. This should be exceedingly rare, however. - -## Scaling up Anarchy - -A core principle of anarchism is "free association", referring to how individuals should be able to freely enter and leave agreements between anarchist organizations. This is freedom to collaborate with whoever and however you like. These organizations are then typically considered rather ephemeral; temporary arrangements that can dissolve at any time as the needs and desires of those within the arrangement change. Scaling this up, it applies to communities/polities as well. A community can freely enter or leave agreements with other communities, and individuals can freely enter and leave those communities. - -One thing to be wary of with free association, is that it can incidentally support segregation. It's therefore important for communities to encourage diversity as much as they can, and refuse to associate with bigoted communities, theoretically discouraging those bigoted views through social and material isolation. - -Bookchin, a philosopher who was anarchist but abandoned the term while remaining anti-statist, described a society called Communalism which effectively operated as a confederacy of communes. The communes would operate via consensus, and the confederacy by majoritarian rule, dictating things like allowing communes to join or leave the confederacy. This was an attempt at an alternative to anarchism that would more easily scale up, but is considered fairly controversial amongst anarchists. - -There is an organizational concept called sociocracy that has roots in several proto-anarchist thinkers. Sociocracy For All describes it as "one particular way to put anarchist values into practice" in [Sociocracy and Anarchism](https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-and-anarchism/). Their structure closely resembles what I've described and advocated for here, and they've provided guides enabling many organizations to uphold anarchist values. +Free association would naturally handle most other needs for accountability. It would certainly remove the need for any form of police. The guarantee of one's needs being met should almost entirely eradicate crime anyways. ## Anarchy and Capitalism -The definition of individualist anarchism, one of the three categories defined in the introduction, is quite contested amongst anarchists. Some deny that its [distinct from collectivist socialism and worth consideration](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/joe-peacott-individualism-reconsidered), others claim it [includes anarcho-capitalism,](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/geoffrey-ostergaard-anarchism-blackwell-dictionary) and yet others deny that capitalism [is even compatible with anarchism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-full#text-amuse-label-secf0) at all. As the broad categories are just a [Social Construct](/garden/social-constructs/index.md) trying to make it easier to analyze different flavors of anarchism, I think its sufficient to say individualist anarchism is not really a useful term, as it typically needs clarification upon use of what individualist anarchism means to that author specifically. +The definition of individualist anarchism, one of the three categories defined in the introduction, is quite contested amongst anarchists. Some deny that its [distinct from collectivist socialism and worth consideration](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/joe-peacott-individualism-reconsidered), others claim it [includes anarcho-capitalism,](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/geoffrey-ostergaard-anarchism-blackwell-dictionary) and yet others deny that capitalism [is even compatible with anarchism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-full#text-amuse-label-secf0) at all. As the broad categories are just trying to make it easier to analyze different flavors of anarchism, I think its sufficient to say individualist anarchism is not really a useful term, as it typically needs clarification upon use of what individualist anarchism means to that author specifically. I will take a strong position in favor of the argument that capitalism is inherently incompatible with anarchism, though. Capitalism inherently forms hierarchies by introducing currency as a coercive force that is then required for continued survival. Anarcho-capitalism, the theoretical blending of capitalism and anarchism, argues for a stateless society with a market economy, effectively instituting laissez-faire economics. Anarcho-capitalism argues this market would regulate itself naturally due to the exchange of goods being purely voluntary, however this ignores capitalist incentives that would trend the economy towards wealth accumulating in the hands of the few. This creates a coercive hierarchy, which is not voluntary due to people's need for food, water, and shelter. The only way to avoid this unjust hierarchy would be with a form of regulatory body that would be nothing short of a state. Therefore, anarcho-capitalism is not compatible with anarchism, because despite their shared antipathy towards states, they do not share the underlying antipathy towards hierarchy. @@ -77,4 +46,10 @@ Typical American corporations are very hierarchical, with a few hands at the top This dynamic means technological progress works in employees' favor, rather than owners' (since the employees are the owners). For example, lets say some technological innovation made employees twice as productive. Under a capitalist structure, the owners would have no reason to increase compensation based on the increased production, and in fact would be discouraged from doing so. They'd likely either use the increased productivity to sell more products, or half the workforce to cut down on significant expenditures. Under a socialist or anarchist structure, the needs and desires of the people are most important, so workers are likely to either see increased compensation due to their increased productivity, or reduced hours without a reduction in compensation. The co-operative could still decide to also just utilize the increased productivity without reducing hours nor increasing compensation, but the decision to do so would have been consensually made by the workers themselves, not their boss. -China enacted a [policy](https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/insights-and-events/insights/2024/01/employees-participation-in-corporate-governance-under-the-revised-chinese-company-law) in 2024 to make all of its corporations operate democratically, with a "Employee Assembly" made up of up to 100 workers, that can decide on things like firing supervisors or, in big companies, appointing 1/3 of the board of directors. That goes a long way in democratizing the remaining private businesses in China. \ No newline at end of file +China enacted a [policy](https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/insights-and-events/insights/2024/01/employees-participation-in-corporate-governance-under-the-revised-chinese-company-law) in 2024 to make all of its corporations operate democratically, with a "Employee Assembly" made up of up to 100 workers, that can decide on things like firing supervisors or, in big companies, appointing 1/3 of the board of directors. That goes a long way in democratizing the remaining private businesses in China. + +Naturally, it should be made clear that having worker's co-operatives and currency at all is a nice reform that can ease the tensions of capitalism, but will not lead to a fully anarchist society. At most it would bring us to market socialism. + +## Further Reading + +[Anarchy works](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works) is an accessible and modern text on how an anarchistic society would look, how anarchism has already been successful, and how western education has merely taught us to believe anarchism does not work. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/everything-is-political/index.md b/site/garden/apoliticism/index.md similarity index 53% rename from site/garden/everything-is-political/index.md rename to site/garden/apoliticism/index.md index b841d9dbf..896f5f8fa 100644 --- a/site/garden/everything-is-political/index.md +++ b/site/garden/apoliticism/index.md @@ -1,7 +1,8 @@ --- +alias: "Apolitical" public: "true" -slug: "everything-is-political" -title: "Everything is Political" +slug: "apoliticism" +title: "Apoliticism" prev: false next: false --- @@ -10,31 +11,35 @@ import { data } from '../../git.data.ts'; import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData(); -

Everything is Political

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1196 words, ~7 minute read.

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Apoliticism

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1777 words, ~10 minute read.

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Referenced by:"No Politics" Rules
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Referenced by:"No Politics" RulesMaterialism
-Politics shape every facet of our lives, but its influence is often so entrenched it becomes invisible unless you're actively trying to be conscious of it. But being conscious of it is important, because otherwise you'll just end up implicitly supporting the current power structures created and maintained by the political status quo. Or society has guided us towards considering much of it as apolitical when is not for the purpose of perpetuating the existing power structures (capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy). +Politics shape every facet of our lives, but its influence is often so entrenched it becomes invisible unless you're actively trying to be conscious of it. But being conscious of it is important, because otherwise you'll just end up implicitly supporting the current power structures created and maintained by the political status quo, which in the US currently means capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. Our society has guided us towards considering much of it as apolitical apart from a small number of contentious issues. This has led to some people describing themselves or their actions as "apolitical", and in some cases even take pride in their avoidance of what they consider political topics. -## Consumption is political +However, because _everything_ is political, "apoliticism" is a misleading term. Being "apolitical" really means being resistant to change, implicitly supporting the status quo. That is, an "apolitical" person could also be considered a reactionary or counter-revolutionary. It _is_ taking a stance, in favor of preserving any existing power structures. Essentially, if you believe politics don't effect you, that's probably because the current political and economic systems work in your favor. Because even apoliticism is taking a stance, its fair to say there is no such thing as [Objectivity](/garden/objectivity/index.md). + +## Everything is Political We live in a society dictated by capitalism, and it has infiltrated not only our markets but every aspect of our lives. We all know when you buy an apple from the store not all of it goes to the workers; it's putting some amount of money in capitalists' pockets and further accumulating wealth at the top of the hierarchy. We know the prices are only as low as they are due to the exploitation of workers all around the world working in horrible conditions for horrible pay. We know the company we buy from is organized like a totalitarian regime where all the decisions come from up high and serve to benefit those at the top. So why isn't buying an apple political? Engaging in our market economy is both a necessity for our survival, and normalized through decades and decades of propaganda and reinforcement of the status quo. We become alienated to the effects of our actions as a defense measure because our daily complicity in various atrocities are simply too grand to carry on our shoulders. It becomes apolitical out of necessity. This has a side effect of making all challenges to the status quo (progressivism) appear far more controversial and political than just keeping things as they are. -With so many things becoming commodified, this effect becomes stronger with time. Our culture, love, attention have all been commodified. Everything being for sale means politics affects everything. +With so many things becoming commodified, this effect becomes stronger with time. Our culture, love, attention have all been commodified. Everything being for sale means politics affects everything. It becomes increasingly difficult to argue anything involving purchasing things, consuming things (including media), or just learning about things in general, like history, can be apolitical. -[The Search For The Apolitical Video Game](https://youtu.be/X_234m1zGf4) goes over how essentially everything is political, through the framework of searching for an "apolitical" video game. The arguments they make for video games trivially apply to all forms of media. If all media is political, so is the act of consuming it. Even news will always have a bias, as [Objectivity](/garden/objectivity/index.md) doesn't exist. +[The Search For The Apolitical Video Game](https://youtu.be/X_234m1zGf4) goes over this idea through the framework of searching for an "apolitical" video game, as a response to the common rhetoric from "anti-woke" people asking to "keep politics out of games". The arguments they make for video games trivially apply to all forms of media. -## Inaction is political +## Negative vs Positive Peace -There is no "apolitical" perspective, as that's really just the stance of maintaining the political status quo. As put by Angela Davis, "In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." Essentially, politics affect all of us and everything is political, and if you believe politics don't effect you, that's probably because the current political and economic systems work in your favor. +A motivation behind apoliticism is seeking to limit conflict. However, absence of conflict is what MLK Jr. described as a "negative peace", arguing for instead a "positive peace", which he defined as the presence of justice. Those fighting for negative and positive peace will naturally disagree and disrupt each other. For example, a violent protest could be opposed by those seeking a negative peace, whereas it may be seen as necessary for change by someone seeking a positive peace. -[How to radicalize a normie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g) describes how communities can be overtaken by fascists exploiting the fact that statements that are deemed "apolitical" are the ones with consensus, coupled with the fact that progressive statements, by challenging the status quo, are not going to have consensus in communities without a political alignment. +Ostensibly, both sides are arguing for peace, and the differing terms can lead to confusion and strife. Ultimately I believe we should fight for a positive peace until we live in a truly just society. But until that change actually occurs, those fighting for positive peace are going to be causing conflict without much gain. -## Centrism has no merit +This contradiction between the two types of peace leads to the status quo being "sticky", and more likely to change in an instant via revolution than over time via reform. [Nicky Case](/garden/nicky-case/index.md) explores this concept in her project, [Attractor Landscapes](https://ncase.me/attractors/). + +## Centrism Adjacent to people seeking to avoid politics outright are those who hold the belief that our two parties are on polar extremes and hold the belief the correct position is going to be somewhere in the middle, taking aspects of both parties. This is fallacious because the center has no special value that makes it better than the extremes, a lot of the issues centrists want to pull from the different parties never needed to be politicized in the first place, and the two US parties are not on polar extremes anyways. @@ -44,20 +49,36 @@ In practice these midpoints don't even make much sense to uphold. If the left sa Today, centrism in America is not even talking about the midpoint between the rightist and leftist ideologies, but rather the Republicans and Democrats. These are arbitrary points dictated by the Overton Window that make the midpoint even more arbitrary. What is the midpoint between socialism and capitalism? The former is defined by private property not existing, the latter the opposite. Any midpoint is clearly still just capitalism, just with some regulations to temporarily stave off crises caused by capitalism's contradictions. The two US parties are both in defense of private ownership of the means of production, so the midpoint was never really going to be anywhere close to the left. This is why Bernie Sanders was called a "true" centrist because, by being further left than the Democrats, he actually was closer to whatever the actual midpoint between the far left and far right would be. Even then, the other arguments against centrism still apply. -Like political apathy, centrism is really just a bias towards the status quo, which I shall remind you is shaped by unjust power structures like capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. All my arguments, both here and in my page against ["No Politics" Rules](/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md), apply equally to centrists as they do the politically apathetic. The Angela Davis quote once again comes to mind: "In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." +## "Anti-woke" -## Examples +One of the most significant examples of apoliticism is the "anti-woke" crowd. These are a group of online users across various platforms that decry progressive politics being introduced into media (especially media related to "nerdy" hobbies, like movies, games, and comics). However, while framing their intent as wanting to "keep politics out of ", they'll typically be referring specifically to things like diverse representation. This has been made fun of by suggesting the two genders are "male" and "political", two races "white" and "political", etc. -### r/NonPoliticalTwitter +When discussing what media is _not_ considered woke, they've often recommended things that are very overtly political, letting things slide if they reinforce conservative values or include fan service or power fantasies. And sometimes they just ignore the politics and call games non-woke because they're good games, like Metal Gear Solid. I recommend browsing [The Woke Detector](https://wokedetector.cirnoslab.me/full-list) to see what games have been considered not woke and what ridiculous reasons games have been added to that list for. + +## Apolitical News + +Sometimes people will discuss the news, including deeply political topics, and try to claim they are giving a fair and unbiased reporting. This is already a difficult task, but often even when it seems to be upheld, it ends up just reinforcing the status quo and current societal values. + +For example, when reporting about the US' role in Israel's genocide against Palestinians, not taking a stance actively against the genocide is implicit support for the genocide to continue, the default state. This is not to say everyone must be an activist on every issue, but that _intentionally_ not taking a side when trying to inform people about the issue is akin to endorsing the status quo and arguing against change. + +Less principled news stations, such as various youtube channels, won't even make meaningful effort to remain unbiased anyways, yet still pre-emptively defend themselves by hiding behind an "apolitical" label. For example Omni, a youtuber who reports on online drama, made an apology for their handling of a controversy between an "anti-woke" youtuber called "Think Before You Sleep" and their harassment target "illymation", where they essentially only covered TBYS' side. Their [apology](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2KkoAk1_HA) is pre-empted by claiming to be apolitical and not taking a side, but once again gives uneven coverage in favor of TBYS. + +## r/NonPoliticalTwitter This is a subreddit that claims to only allow non-political content. Naturally, this is a good case study to argue why the concept of non-political content doesn't exist. They have an interesting interpretation of politics, wherein content can [even involve political figures](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1asphum/addressing_the_community_regarding_the_no/), if the focus of the post isn't considered political. This leads to one of the top posts at the time of writing being about [Jimmy Carter giving a speech in Japan](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1fu46li/lost_in_translation/). So its a post about a US president engaging in politics abroad, but the post focuses on how an interpreter handled a joke, so it's not political. There's naturally no discussion on why Carter was in Japan or putting this event in a broader context of the relationship between the US and Japan after WW2 and Carter's role in repairing it. Even when they don't involve US presidents, nearly every post on that subreddit can be associated with politics. Complaining about [subscription costs ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1foaezt/anyone_know_if_this_works/) and how support agents can reduce the prices to keep you from leaving is apolitical, as is [discussing how childrens cereal is so unhealthy ants disregard it as food](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1g1e8ph/what_do_they_put_in_those_things/). Apparently [criticizing the lies told to us by our education system](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1fql6eq/scam/) is apolitical, just like [voicing distaste with how much advertising corporations spam](https://www.reddit.com/r/NonPoliticalTwitter/comments/1f6dbg2/ive_been_dying_to_talk_about_the_mail_with_you/). These _are_ political issues, and they're only able to pass as apolitical by maintaining a lack of awareness on how politics shape society. -### Randy Fine +## Randy Fine Randy is a US senator who is trying to ban "politically partisan flags", such as the pride flag or BLM flag, from government buildings. This is clearly politically motivated to preserve the status quo and will only target the flags of progressive causes that wish to change the status quo. The biggest example of this is this tweet from Randy himself, where he clearly makes the (political) statement that the Israel flag is apolitical, despite the current tension over America's role in funding Israel's genocide: -https://x.com/VoteRandyFine/status/1869068718472654999 \ No newline at end of file +https://x.com/VoteRandyFine/status/1869068718472654999 + +## Further Reading + +Quotes: +- "In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." - Angela Davis +- "We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train" - [Deer Dance](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mdNLnT7GpN0) by System of a Down \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/chat-glue/index.md b/site/garden/chat-glue/index.md index 63c6052bd..cc4bda15e 100644 --- a/site/garden/chat-glue/index.md +++ b/site/garden/chat-glue/index.md @@ -11,11 +11,9 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Chat Glue

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23 words, ~0 minute read.

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25 words, ~0 minute read.

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Referenced by:CommuneThe Small Web
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Referenced by:CommuneOrchardThe Small Web
-A theoretical chat system designed to solve the problems of transcribing branching conversations into linear timelines. - -Defined by the [Chatting with Glue](https://a9.io/glue-comic/) comic. \ No newline at end of file +A theoretical chat system designed to solve the problems of transcribing branching conversations into linear timelines It's defined by the [Chatting with Glue](https://a9.io/glue-comic/) comic. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md b/site/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md index 7bf27d5b5..1b611434d 100644 --- a/site/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md +++ b/site/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md @@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Chromatic Lattice

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1468 words, ~8 minute read.

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1483 words, ~8 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Digital LocalityFedi v2Incremental Social/nowOrchard
+
Referenced by:Digital LocalityIncremental Social/now
A multiplayer [Incremental Game](/garden/guide-to-incrementals/index.md) I have in development. It'll be about optimizing a board of tiles to create certain patterns to improve resource gains. Players will work collaboratively to construct monuments. It will also include an experiment on [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md). @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ The friend lists effectively work as the links between nodes, creating locality. ## Tech Stack -I haven't determined the stack entirely yet, other than that I want both the server and client code to use typescript due to my familiarity with it and because of how accessible web apps are. My goals are to have assurance that players are obeying the rules of the game, have an eventually consistent state of the game, reasonable protection against bot accounts, and realtime display of cursors to other players. I'd rather make this properly [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) and [Local-First Software](/garden/local-first-software/index.md), but that isn't strictly required. +I haven't determined the stack entirely yet, other than that I want both the server and client code to use typescript due to my familiarity with it and because of how accessible web apps are. My goals are to have assurance that players are obeying the rules of the game, have an eventually consistent state of the game, reasonable protection against bot accounts, and realtime display of cursors to other players. I'd rather make this properly decentralized, but that isn't strictly required. Oh, and to be clear, the frontend will definitely just be a website, using [Profectus](/garden/profectus/index.md). @@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ This is a very centralized approach, and is the most common approach for multipl ### Leaf -This would make the game run on the [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md). Initially the private keys would likely be managed by incremental social, which would also be the default iroh node clients would connect to. +This would make the game run on the agentic fediverse. Initially the private keys would likely be managed by incremental social, which would also be the default iroh node clients would connect to. -My concern with this approach is that it would be difficult to operate in a way that doesn't centralize the power. Being a multiplayer game it's important to ensure people can't just fabricate a history of actions with fake timestamps. In theory the fix for this would be something like the [network of vouches](/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md#67525178-9f33-400c-9452-0a60d5e0f3a0) approach, but we're a long ways off from that being viable. +My concern with this approach is that it would be difficult to operate in a way that doesn't centralize the power. Being a multiplayer game it's important to ensure people can't just fabricate a history of actions with fake timestamps. I'm also concerned about it's efficiency in regards to creating and maintaining entities to store each player's current mouse position. @@ -82,4 +82,4 @@ Additionally, loading times for both your own board and other peoples' would lik [Rivet](https://rivet.gg/) is a library for realtime applications (originally games). This would be similar to the traditional approach, but with a larger library that handles more of the work for us, enabling more advanced features like horizontal scaling and concurrency. It also has support for local-first sync, which could be useful in the future if we find a way for the game to work without needing a consistent connection for ensuring people are playing properly. -There's other similar libraries, like [Jazz](https://jazz.tools/). In fact, Jazz will eventually have things like the cursors I want as an out-of-box feature. But unfortunately, it seems to be quite early in development and it along with many other features won't be ready for awhile. Although one of their example projects, [Learn Anything](https://learn-anything.xyz/), reminds me of some of the motivations I have behind [Orchard](/garden/orchard/index.md). +There's other similar libraries, like [Jazz](https://jazz.tools/). In fact, Jazz will eventually have things like the cursors I want as an out-of-box feature. But unfortunately, it seems to be quite early in development and it along with many other features won't be ready for awhile. diff --git a/site/garden/chronological/index.md b/site/garden/chronological/index.md index ac94c6eb1..62dc46c27 100644 --- a/site/garden/chronological/index.md +++ b/site/garden/chronological/index.md @@ -1,4 +1,5 @@ --- +alias: "Feeds" public: "true" slug: "chronological" title: "Chronological" @@ -11,20 +12,11 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Chronological

-

73 words, ~0 minute read.

+

82 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Digital GardensFreeform vs Chronological Dichotomy
+
Referenced by:Freeform
-A collection of information that is tied to its creation or edit date +A collection of information that is displayed as a feed or timeline, as opposed to [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) content . These are not suitable as stores of knowledge, but work well with RSS. -Part of the [Freeform vs Chronological Dichotomy](/garden/freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy/index.md) - -Anything with a "timeline" or "feed" is considered chronological -- Even if there's algorithmic sortings that take things other than creation or edit date into account! - -Chronological displays are less suitable as stores of knowledge ([Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md)) - -Social media overuses timelines and feeds - -RSS feeds work really well with this form of content \ No newline at end of file +Feeds can also refer to algorithmic feeds, despite them not being chronological. I think algorithmic feeds caused a lot of the problems with [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md) today, and hope freeform will do better. That's not to say feeds have no use or utility, just that they're overused to our collective detriment. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/commune/index.md b/site/garden/commune/index.md index 0bedd8711..d9cb68afc 100644 --- a/site/garden/commune/index.md +++ b/site/garden/commune/index.md @@ -11,27 +11,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Commune

-

144 words, ~1 minute read.

+

48 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Digital LocalityFilter BubblesOrchardWebringsWeird
+
Referenced by:Digital LocalityErlend HeggenFilter BubblesOrchardWebrings
-An [Open Source](/garden/open-source/index.md) [Matrix](/garden/matrix/index.md) web client built to be better for communities than anything else out there -- Currently in development -- Exposes certain channels such that they are web indexable -- Will include features like [Chat Glue](/garden/chat-glue/index.md) and communal [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md) - -Created by [Erlend Sogge Heggen](https://writing.exchange/@erlend), a ex-employee from Discourse -- Maintains the [Commune Blog](https://blog.commune.sh) with great write ups on the issues of the modern web, social media, etc. and how they can be improved (by Commune or related projects) -- Also maintains a [Personal Blog](https://blog.erlend.sh) about similar topics - -The Commune community is very interested in various topics and how they can relate together: -- [Decentralized Identity](/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md) -- [Personal Web](/garden/the-small-web/index.md) -- [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md) -- [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md) -- The common themes here are they want these things [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) and [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) -- They're also building [Weird](/garden/weird/index.md) to make several of these more accessible +An [Open Source](/garden/open-source/index.md) [Matrix](/garden/matrix/index.md) web client built to facilitate informal conversations being converted into a web indexed [Digital Garden](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md) through the process of message gardening. It also intends to implement some of the ideas proposed in [Chat Glue](/garden/chat-glue/index.md). Currently in development by [Erlend Heggen](/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md) and company. Related projects: - [@laxla@tech.lgbt](https://tech.lgbt/@laxla) is creating Gimli, a federated discord alternative diff --git a/site/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md b/site/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md index 01ccd39a9..7ab49fca4 100644 --- a/site/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md +++ b/site/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ --- public: "true" slug: "consensus-democracy" +tags: [Decision Making] title: "Consensus Democracy" prev: false next: false @@ -14,7 +15,9 @@ const pageData = useData();

213 words, ~1 minute read.

-
Referenced by:AnarchismGerrymanderingMy Political Beliefs
+
Referenced by:Decision MakingGerrymanderingLocal Communities
+ +
Tags:Decision Making
A form of democracy similar to [Direct Democracy](/garden/direct-democracy/index.md) but with higher requirements for passing policies, typically requiring unanimity or near-unanimity. This helps reduce (although doesn't eliminate) the possibility of a majority group oppressing a minority group. diff --git a/site/garden/debate/index.md b/site/garden/debate/index.md index 0c27fbb7a..8b2435f0d 100644 --- a/site/garden/debate/index.md +++ b/site/garden/debate/index.md @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ Being conversational, participants can come and go and anyone can try initiating ### Improving your understanding -If you want to better understand these issues and have an open mind, then read a book. Those who you would be arguing against will not have as good an understanding of political theory as books written by the experts. It won't give you the pleasure of having "beaten someone in the free market of ideas", but it's the best way for you to actually understand the underlying philosophies that compose different political ideologies. Ask me if you'd like any recommendations for getting into [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md) thought πŸ™‚. +If you want to better understand these issues and have an open mind, then read a book. Those who you would be arguing against will not have as good an understanding of political theory as books written by the experts. It won't give you the pleasure of having "beaten someone in the free market of ideas", but it's the best way for you to actually understand the underlying philosophies that compose different political ideologies. Ask me if you'd like any recommendations for getting into leftist thought πŸ™‚. In general, become skeptical of political discourse you see in the media, mainstream or social or otherwise. Keep in mind these are people trying to "win" and change minds, and are likely not delving into underlying theory. Clips of gotcha moments or isolated "good points" may feel good to share, but they are unlikely to change minds. diff --git a/site/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md b/site/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md index 00b20aceb..5b1576b1e 100644 --- a/site/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md +++ b/site/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

532 words, ~3 minute read.

-
Referenced by:CommuneDecentralized Social MediaFedi v2Incremental SocialNostrWeird
+
Referenced by:Decentralized Social MediaFedi v2Incremental SocialNostrWeird
Tags:Decentralized
diff --git a/site/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md b/site/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md index a006d1a11..c2940265e 100644 --- a/site/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md +++ b/site/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md @@ -11,14 +11,16 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Decentralized Moderation

-

915 words, ~5 minute read.

+

633 words, ~3 minute read.

-
Referenced by:"No Politics" RulesDecentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFedi v2ModerationVirality
+
Referenced by:Decentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFedi v2Moderation
+ +
Tagged by:Network of Vouches
Tags:Decentralized
-Naturally, this refers to how to properly [Moderate](/garden/moderation/index.md) content, typically within [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md), in a [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) fashion - no central authority defining or enforcing the rules. This typically involves organizing under [Anarchist](/garden/anarchism/index.md) principles. +Naturally, this refers to how to properly [Moderate](/garden/moderation/index.md) content in a [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) fashion - no central authority defining or enforcing the rules. Of course, the standard tools individuals are already familiar for self-moderating their content will still apply - muting or blocking people. This is not sufficient though, as it still means people would need to be exposed to the bad content before being able to block it, and it does nothing to combat the spread of misinformation. @@ -36,15 +38,9 @@ The second concern is with malicious labelers. If a labeler decides to create a Lastly, this is moderation through the use of blocklists. This isn't inherently bad, but it's a double edged sword, as I discuss [here](/garden/moderation/index.md#674531bb-952c-4346-8f0d-febf15e24879). -

Network of vouches

 +

[Network of Vouches](/garden/network-of-vouches/index.md)

 -Identities could have a system by which they vouch for or against other identities that they are human and make content worth looking at, and clients could use this network of vouches to filter posts to display or retrieve. For example, a user may say they only want to see posts made by identities within a chain of 4 vouches to themselves. Upon account creation, users could be prompted to vouch for IRL friends or some popular figures within topics they care about to get started. In theory the longer the chain can be, the more varied the content a user will see, and the more likely for it to be something they disagree with. This would allow users to customize how narrow their feed is at a given time by just changing the max chain length. They can also continue vouching for more people to more precisely expand their feed. - -Clients could include tools to analyze their network of vouches, such as displaying all the identities within certain max lengths, or viewing what chain was followed for a specific post to have been displayed. Clients could also add additional tools to customize the chain, like being able to ignore a specific user's vouches or reposts/reblogs. They could also treat any interaction as a vouch, overriding the max chain length for different contexts, such as when used for counting likes. - -Specific entity types, such as one representing a reddit-like community, could display all replies rather than use the network of trust, and offer controls like only counting likes from within the network when sorting the replies. - -This would essentially be an alternative to how current fediverse applications block entire instances as a heuristic, so they can get rid of undesirable content while minimizing how much of it they need to see before doing so. Except in this model, you can always reach people regardless of what server they decided to use, and the controls of in the hands of the individual. +A network that relies on individuals vouching for each other being human or otherwise trusted could allow clients to filter out any untrusted sources. Clients could customize the topography of this network by configuring things like max chain of vouches allowed. A new user would need to find an initial friend before they can meaningfully engage with the platform, though. ### [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) diff --git a/site/garden/decentralized/index.md b/site/garden/decentralized/index.md index 05621e139..4ed562574 100644 --- a/site/garden/decentralized/index.md +++ b/site/garden/decentralized/index.md @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ --- -alias: "Federated" +alias: "Federated, Decentralization" public: "true" slug: "decentralized" title: "Decentralized" @@ -15,9 +15,9 @@ const pageData = useData();

225 words, ~1 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Chromatic LatticeCommuneDecentralized ModerationDecentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFedi v2MatrixSocial MediaVirality
+
Referenced by:Decentralized ModerationDecentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFedi v2Free AssociationMatrixSocial Media
-
Tagged by:Decentralized IdentityDecentralized ModerationNostr
+
Tagged by:Decentralized IdentityDecentralized ModerationDigital LocalityFedi v2NostrOrchard
Decentralized networks are networks with no central source of authority, all the way to the individual level. This provides many useful advantages to the user, such as data ownership, privacy, and increased agency over the rules you must follow and the client you use. This also means democratizing the service and helping protect it from [Enshittification](/garden/enshittification/index.md). There's not many examples of fully decentralized networks today, but some common examples are RSS, cryptocurrency, torrenting, and other peer-to-peer software. Some energy grids are decentralized, relying on individuals generating their own power and sharing surplus with neighbors. diff --git a/site/garden/decision-making/index.md b/site/garden/decision-making/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f1d6c1ea8 --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/decision-making/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "decision-making" +title: "Decision Making" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Decision Making

+

628 words, ~3 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:Free Association
+ +
Tagged by:Consensus DemocracyDirect DemocracyRepresentative DemocracyTechnocracy
+ +Decision making is an important activity in all societies, but exactly how the decisions are made will differ greatly. In general, you can define a spectrum of how thin the decision making power is spread amongst the polity (the group of people the decision will apply to). Innuendo Studios argues that how thin decision making power is spread is the core difference between leftist and rightist thought in [The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzNANfNlTs). + +On one end of the spectrum, we have systems where only a few or even a single person rule over the rest. The metric for how this person or group gained that power varies, and could involve birthright, religion, or similar. Notably, we're trying to describe who wields the power in actuality, not merely in title. So a single party state may not fall under this category if the actual decision making process still involves citizens having an equal voice, and a [Representative Democracy](/garden/representative-democracy/index.md) where the choices are limited and corruptible by, say, corporate lobbying, may fall under this category. + +A [Majoritarian Democracy](/garden/direct-democracy/index.md) spreads the power fairly thinly, and is seen today in nations with national referendums. These are typically limited to major decisions since the logistics of collecting votes from all citizens is not trivial. While better than being ruled by only a few people, this still imposes the will of the many over the will of the few. This can and has lead to an oppressed minority. + +Democracies can also weigh different people's votes differently. The US does this in the presidential elections via the electoral college, which places additional weight on votes from smaller states. Additionally, by assigning an entire state's delegates to a single candidate, the US has formed "swing states", the citizens of which hold significantly more power over who becomes president than citizens of other states. Other ways votes could be weighted differently is by granting citizens additional votes based on their merits, which would be considered a [Technocracy](/garden/technocracy/index.md), or by stripping votes from people for various reasons, which is called disenfranchisement. + +Disenfranchisement can happen for many different reasons. Most nations, for example, only allow their citizens to vote. This may seem like an obvious restriction to make, but there are many restrictions on citizenship that can lead to a significant amount of people being affected by laws they have no influence over at all. Similarly for age restrictions, which, like literacy tests, are ostensibly justified as ensuring only educated people can vote, but in practice have the same effect of making people affected by laws they have no influence over. This logic similarly applies to felons not being able to vote, and more subtle things like not having voting days national holidays or not providing sufficiently accessible ways of voting for those with disabilities. + +On the far end of the spectrum, we have decision making where decisions are only made once every individual in the process agrees to it. This includes [Consensus Democracy](/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md), where a polity discusses the problem until they can arrive at a solution everyone (or close to everyone) approves the proposed solution. A variant simply called [Consensus](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-consensus) describes a system where everyone implicitly supports any decisions made, and blocks a decision whenever that's not true (at which point it can be iterated upon or dropped entirely, similar to consensus democracies). + +This end of the spectrum would also include any society that respects [Free Association](/garden/free-association/index.md), which manifests as a fully decentralized decision making process. Free association can scale better than consensus or consensus democracy, which typically need to work as a federation of small communities in order to be feasible, like [Communalism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-what-is-communalism) (written by an ex-anarchist) or [Sociocracy](https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/) (written by proto-anarchist thinkers and described as "one particular way to put anarchist values into practice" in [Sociocracy and Anarchism](https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-and-anarchism/)). + +There are criticisms that even on this end of the spectrum, coercion is inevitable. A consensus democracy may lead to compromise or broken promises that members of the polity only agree to begrudgingly because its better than not having the problem dealt with at all. Other times, a member who was initially supportive of a decision may come to regret that decision, but now that it's in place they'd need to make everyone else agree to undo it as well. And to a certain degree, social consequences or just people's persuasiveness can lead to coercive force. For the most part, these are typically considered tolerable for the sake of society to function. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/digital-gardens/index.md b/site/garden/digital-gardens/index.md index 047e8943c..cde044e8c 100644 --- a/site/garden/digital-gardens/index.md +++ b/site/garden/digital-gardens/index.md @@ -12,13 +12,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Digital Gardens

-

67 words, ~0 minute read.

+

62 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:ChronologicalCommuneDebateFilter BubblesGarden-RSSNetwork of KnowledgeOrchardThe Cozy WebThe Small WebThis Knowledge Hub
+
Referenced by:CommuneDebateFilter BubblesFreeformGarden-RSSNetwork of KnowledgeThe Cozy WebThe Small WebThis Knowledge Hub
Digital Gardens are [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) collections of information made by an individual or community -- Alternatives to [Chronological](/garden/chronological/index.md) personal blogs - Exist in a middleground between the dark forest and [The Cozy Web](/garden/the-cozy-web/index.md) [This Knowledge Hub](/garden/this-knowledge-hub/index.md) is a digital garden diff --git a/site/garden/digital-locality/index.md b/site/garden/digital-locality/index.md index 95c14c3df..11051707c 100644 --- a/site/garden/digital-locality/index.md +++ b/site/garden/digital-locality/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ --- public: "true" slug: "digital-locality" +tags: [Decentralized] title: "Digital Locality" prev: false next: false @@ -11,10 +12,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Digital Locality

-

1818 words, ~10 minute read.

+

1791 words, ~10 minute read.

-
Referenced by:"No Politics" RulesChromatic LatticeDecentralized ModerationFilter Bubbles/nowOrchardSocial MediaVirality
+
Referenced by:Chromatic LatticeDecentralized ModerationFilter Bubbles/nowOrchardSocial MediaVirality
+ +
Tags:Decentralized
A locality is a physical area or neighborhood where people live and regularly see each other. In the same way I believe strong [Local Communities](/garden/local-communities/index.md) are highly important in real life, I think [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md) would benefit from having _digital_ localities. @@ -30,7 +33,7 @@ The most important aspect of digital locality should be that one's neighborhood ### Decentralization -A large motivation behind this concept is spreading influence thin. In the same way digital locality directly opposes the centralization of influence in the hands of the few, it opposes all sorts of centralization. Centralized ownership and moderation over the network leaves it vulnerable to [Enshittification](/garden/enshittification/index.md) and [other problems](https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2023/01/the-digital-town-square-problem.html). In practice, this means such a network should be [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md), ideally built on something like the [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md). +A large motivation behind this concept is spreading influence thin. In the same way digital locality directly opposes the centralization of influence in the hands of the few, it opposes all sorts of centralization. Centralized ownership and moderation over the network leaves it vulnerable to enshittification and [other problems](https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2023/01/the-digital-town-square-problem.html). In practice, this means such a network should be [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md). Social media must be moderated, which means a network with digital locality will need [Decentralized Moderation](/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md). There's several approaches discussed there, but ultimately the way digital locality works should overall mean users are significantly less likely to see unwanted content from influencers, advertisers, bots, spammers, or those who wish them harm. Users won't need to worry about their post going viral leading to a very large and unexpected amount of attention, including negative attention, directed their way. @@ -48,13 +51,13 @@ Asynchronous interactions are a bit trickier, and I'm not fully convinced on how Having a feed of posts that's just those you follow and the stuff they've liked or shared works fairly well and can be done today in most existing social media apps. However, seeing the exact post that has gone through a very long chain of shares to get to you means the author of that post may be receiving more attention than they desired. Additionally, this method may not have enough throughout if you read a lot of posts or don't follow active people. -The network of vouches approach to [Decentralized Moderation](/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md) sort of expands on this type of feed, giving the user content from longer following chains and much more control over who is let into the network. It's also auditable, unlike algorithmic feeds. +The [Network of Vouches](/garden/network-of-vouches/index.md) approach to decentralized moderation sort of expands on this type of feed, giving the user content from longer following chains and much more control over who is let into the network. It's also auditable, unlike algorithmic feeds. #### Communal wiki editing A more radical approach would be treating social media more like communal wiki editing. That is, if engaging with a post was, rather than liking or sharing it, proposing edits to communal wiki pages it relates to. This would be a process of message gardening, and would likely help distributing corrections to articles, which typically spread much less far than the original incorrect information. It's for that reason I brought this idea up at the end of [Filter Bubbles](/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md) as a potential way to combat the spread of misinformation. -However, wiki editing requires a lot more effort than liking or sharing currently does. It's also not clear how this would preserve locality without making discrete communities. [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md) is related to this idea but would have discrete communities (although with a bit of porosity through shared channels). Perhaps discrete communities could be avoided by allowing anyone to create pages, but then allow them to enter [Anarchist](/garden/anarchism/index.md) collectives that manage the page together. Anyone (or perhaps those within a network of vouches) can comment or propose edits to it, and through that the information spreads to members and anyone else who follows that page. +However, wiki editing requires a lot more effort than liking or sharing currently does. It's also not clear how this would preserve locality without making discrete communities. [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md) is related to this idea but would have discrete communities (although with a bit of porosity through shared channels). I describe my own vision for how this could look without discrete communities in [Orchard](/garden/orchard/index.md). ## Obstacles diff --git a/site/garden/direct-democracy/index.md b/site/garden/direct-democracy/index.md index e30f831d0..38b2a35bb 100644 --- a/site/garden/direct-democracy/index.md +++ b/site/garden/direct-democracy/index.md @@ -1,7 +1,8 @@ --- -alias: "Mob Rule, Tyranny of the Majority" +alias: "Mob Rule, Tyranny of the Majority, Majoritarian Democracy" public: "true" slug: "direct-democracy" +tags: [Decision Making] title: "Direct Democracy" prev: false next: false @@ -15,6 +16,8 @@ const pageData = useData();

40 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:AnarchismConsensus DemocracyGerrymandering
+
Referenced by:Consensus DemocracyDecision MakingGerrymanderingRepresentative Democracy
+ +
Tags:Decision Making
A form of democracy where every voter gets to vote on every issue directly, and the majority rules. This form of voting is often criticized for having no safe guards to prevent a majority group from oppressing a minority group. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/enshittification/index.md b/site/garden/enshittification/index.md index 026a54787..e3ff741a3 100644 --- a/site/garden/enshittification/index.md +++ b/site/garden/enshittification/index.md @@ -12,9 +12,9 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Enshittification

-

66 words, ~0 minute read.

+

15 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:DecentralizedDigital LocalityThe Small Web
+
Referenced by:DecentralizedThe Small Web
-Large websites are expensive to operate and are typically owned by corporations. The profit motive of capitalism states that these websites must continuously be trying to make more money, which means if they're not growing users, they must increase how much they're making per user. This process means corporate backed websites become worse for their users over time, which Cory Doctorow coined as [Enshittification](https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/). \ No newline at end of file +Large websites are expensive to operate and are typically owned by corporations. The [Profit Motive](/garden/profit-motive/index.md) of capitalism states that these websites must continuously be trying to make more money, which means if they're not growing users, they must increase how much they're making per user. This process means corporate backed websites become worse for their users over time, which Cory Doctorow coined as [Enshittification](https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md b/site/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7e14fc51f --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "erlend-heggen" +title: "Erlend Heggen" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Erlend Heggen

+

21 words, ~0 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:CommuneFedi v2Weird
+ +[Erlend Heggen](https://writing.exchange/@erlend) is an ex-employee from Discourse who maintains the [Muni Blog](https://blog.commune.sh) with great write ups on the issues of the modern web, social media, sustainable development, etc. and how they can be improved. They also maintain a [Personal Blog](https://blog.erlend.sh) about similar topics. + +They're working on putting their ideas into action in the forms of [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md), [Weird](/garden/weird/index.md), and [Leaf](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/fedi-v2/index.md b/site/garden/fedi-v2/index.md index 813c94f10..207b08128 100644 --- a/site/garden/fedi-v2/index.md +++ b/site/garden/fedi-v2/index.md @@ -1,7 +1,8 @@ --- -alias: "Agentic Fediverse" +alias: "Agentic Fediverse, Leaf" public: "true" slug: "fedi-v2" +tags: [Decentralized] title: "Fedi v2" prev: false next: false @@ -12,12 +13,14 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Fedi v2

-

3033 words, ~17 minute read.

+

3001 words, ~16 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Chromatic LatticeDecentralized Social MediaDecentralizedDigital LocalityFilter BubblesIncremental Social/nowOrchardSocial MediaThe IndieWeb/Signature BlocksWeird
+
Referenced by:Decentralized Social MediaDecentralizedErlend HeggenFilter BubblesIncremental Social/nowOrchardSocial MediaThe IndieWeb/Signature BlocksWeird
-A placeholder name for a theoretical new federated network that is client-centric, in contrast to the server-centric [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md). Many of the ideas here will be implemented as described or similarly by people much smarter than me as part of [Agentic Federation on Iroh](https://github.com/commune-os/weird/discussions/32), an initiative by the [Weird](/garden/weird/index.md) developers. +
Tags:Decentralized
+ +Leaf is a decentralized network in development by [Erlend Heggen](/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md) and company that would be a client-centric alternative to the server-centric [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md). I'm really interested in seeing this develop, so have put my own thought on the vision of this project here, under the more generic term "Fedi v2". You can see the official plans and implementation on the [Agentic Fediverse repo](https://github.com/muni-town/agentic-fediverse). ## Motivation @@ -105,7 +108,7 @@ Here are some of the components that could be used to represent a chat room: The agentic fediverse could support sharing games using a Game component that includes a url or raw html required to play a game. In theory they could even support "cloud saves" by signing a message of their save data that only they can decrypt and sending it as a reply to the game message. Clients could handle displaying the game alongside the usual filtering and sorting features. -I'd also be excited in seeing a sort of MMO style game on the agentic fediverse. So you see other players and there's a shared game state, calculated on the client based on the actions recorded by the various different players. And since the rules would have to be defined by the components, people could create their own copies of the world (e.g. to play with a friend group or solo), or even make their own mods of the game. I'd like to look into that. I'll perhaps rethink [Chromatic Lattice](/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md) to work on such a framework, although it may be too complicated for this idea. +I'd also be excited in seeing a sort of MMO style game on the agentic fediverse. So you see other players and there's a shared game state, calculated on the client based on the actions recorded by the various different players. And since the rules would have to be defined by the components, people could create their own copies of the world (e.g. to play with a friend group or solo), or even make their own mods of the game. I'd like to look into that. Having the game state be calculatable by the client like that would also allow trophies and achievements to work verifiably. People could probably still write software to copy someone else's events at the right times and effectively replicate their save, but I think that won't happen commonly enough to matter. diff --git a/site/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md b/site/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md index c8dfeef96..90bca454a 100644 --- a/site/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md +++ b/site/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Filter Bubbles

-

2733 words, ~15 minute read.

+

2730 words, ~15 minute read.

Referenced by:Digital LocalityObjectivity
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ In the previous section I proposed that allowing people to decide what they want A lot of political topics are deeply personal and emotionally exhausting to engage with, particularly for those marginalized under the current power structures. For example, trans rights are an extremely important political issue, but demanding that trans people continually defend their very existence against reactionary attacks amounts to a form of re-traumatization. People not being exposed to these kinds of upsetting things is not a problem to be solved, and democracy can survive while allowing people to filter out political topics or perspectives they don't want to see. You do not need to tolerate the intolerant (as argued by Karl Popper, who coined the term "[paradox of tolerance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance)"). -Admittedly, as a [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md), I desire revolutionary change and see such transformation as necessary before this framework of consent can fully hold true. Today, the drive to filter out politics often stems from alienation or reactionary thinkingβ€”a symptom of a capitalist system designed to depoliticize and pacify the masses. That's why I object to blanket policies like ["No Politics" Rules](/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md) that promote political apathy. +Admittedly, I desire revolutionary change and see such transformation as necessary before this framework of consent can fully hold true. Today, the drive to filter out politics often stems from alienation or reactionary thinkingβ€”a symptom of a capitalist system designed to depoliticize and pacify the masses. That's why I object to blanket policies like ["No Politics" Rules](/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md) that promote political apathy. ### Radicalization @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ On an individual level, we can try to improve our media literacy and spread accu On a systemic level, a new social media can be designed so they are more protected from misinformation spreading. For example, by allowing users to publicly "vouch" for other users for writing and sharing accurate posts, forming a web of trust/reputation. Also designing the network so those who are popular are not prioritized in algorithmic feeds, essentially centralizing influence into the hands of the few. I explore this topic and other aspects to a radical new social media network in [Fedi v2](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) and [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md). -Taking a step back, several of these issues described - clickbait and spam, specifically - only exist due to financial incentives brought on by our capitalist system. Additionally, Capitalism is the reason for people not having the time, energy, or motivation to more healthily approach social media and combat misinformation. Therefore, we need a [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md) shift to fix these problems and bring us to a more media literate society free of influencers and advertisers. It's the only long term solution. +Taking a step back, several of these issues described - clickbait and spam, specifically - only exist due to financial incentives brought on by our capitalist system. Additionally, Capitalism is the reason for people not having the time, energy, or motivation to more healthily approach social media and combat misinformation. Therefore, we need a leftist shift to fix these problems and bring us to a more media literate society free of influencers and advertisers. It's the only long term solution. And I must reiterate that if something is neither hateful nor misinformation, it is okay for the message to exist and also so for an individual to not wish to see it. So long as its neither hateful nor misinformation, there are no bad values, only different values. diff --git a/site/garden/free-association/index.md b/site/garden/free-association/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7e9448f75 --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/free-association/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +alias: "Voluntary Association" +public: "true" +slug: "free-association" +title: "Free Association" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Free Association

+

394 words, ~2 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:AnarchismDecision MakingMy Political BeliefsPolice Abolition
+ +An [Anarchist](/garden/anarchism/index.md) principle that argues people should be able move freely, both physically and socially. It mandates a complete lack of borders and nationality. This creates a social landscape filled with completely autonomous agents with no power over one another. Instead, everyone simply has a reputation and only interacts with those deemed to be in good standing. This acts as a form of [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) [Decision Making](/garden/decision-making/index.md) and even a form of [Police Abolition](/garden/police-abolition/index.md), as state violence is completely replaced by social consequences. + +Relying on social consequences is feasible because people are social creatures and typically do not desire or are not capable of being fully self-reliant (although if someone chose to do so, they wouldn't be stopped). People are naturally incentivized to not harm others and to work together. The main reason this doesn't already happen under our current system is due to things like the [Profit Motive](/garden/profit-motive/index.md). + +I believe a potential concern with free association is incidental or even purposeful segregation. I think a society built upon this value will likely need to make efforts to promote diversity. However, over time I think the underlying properties segregation occurs over (race, gender, nationality, etc.) will naturally wither away and this will cease to be an issue. + +Free association is sufficient for even large scale projects like trains, factories, or nuclear power plants. The information required to do those well and safely are not owned by the state, but rather the people. We will continue to learn how to improve these processes, and there will be enough people willing to learn and perform the duties required for these projects. You don't need a state or even something like consensus democracy to recruit people to help. Although, a consensus democracy could exist ephemerally during the lifetime of the project to handle decisions related to the project, such as the route the train should take or the design of the carriages. They'd likely also survey the people around the locations involved around the project to ensure there are no objections, including environmental ones. + +Free association would also mean no longer having black and white laws to follow. Taking an extreme action that is deemed justified by the people around you would confer little ill consequence. There would be no injustice because everyone is independently choosing whether to associate with the alleged or not, and are inherently supportive of their own decision. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy/index.md b/site/garden/freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy/index.md deleted file mode 100644 index 607a5f3ed..000000000 --- a/site/garden/freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy/index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19 +0,0 @@ ---- -public: "true" -slug: "freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy" -title: "Freeform vs Chronological Dichotomy" -prev: false -next: false ---- - -

Freeform vs Chronological Dichotomy

-

10 words, ~0 minute read.

-
- -
Referenced by:ChronologicalFreeform
- -Describes a dichotomy between displaying information in a [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) vs [Chronological](/garden/chronological/index.md) manner \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/freeform/index.md b/site/garden/freeform/index.md index f46e0d8d0..d7cd4fdb7 100644 --- a/site/garden/freeform/index.md +++ b/site/garden/freeform/index.md @@ -11,16 +11,9 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Freeform

-

46 words, ~0 minute read.

+

28 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:CommuneDigital GardensFreeform vs Chronological DichotomyGarden-RSS
+
Referenced by:ChronologicalDigital GardensGarden-RSS
-A collection of information that is not tied to when it was created or edited - -Part of the [Freeform vs Chronological Dichotomy](/garden/freeform-vs-chronological-dichotomy/index.md) - -Anything wiki-style is considered freeform -- A collection of living documents - -[Garden-RSS](/garden/garden-rss/index.md), a theoretical alternative to RSS that's better for freeform content \ No newline at end of file +A collection of information that is not tied to when it was created or edited, as opposed to [Feeds](/garden/chronological/index.md). Anything wiki-style is considered freeform, like [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/garden-rss/index.md b/site/garden/garden-rss/index.md index 16a5f3737..0d360f1d7 100644 --- a/site/garden/garden-rss/index.md +++ b/site/garden/garden-rss/index.md @@ -11,12 +11,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Garden-RSS

-

59 words, ~0 minute read.

+

60 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:FreeformOrchardThe Small WebThis Knowledge Hub
+
Referenced by:OrchardThe Small WebThis Knowledge Hub
-A theoretical alternative to RSS that's better for [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) websites (and [Digital Gardens](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md) specifically ) +A theoretical alternative to RSS that's better for [Freeform](/garden/freeform/index.md) content. Why is it useful? - [Feeds are not fit for gardening](https://v5.chriskrycho.com/essays/feeds-are-not-fit-for-gardening/) diff --git a/site/garden/leftism/index.md b/site/garden/leftism/index.md index 2e131c521..4e08c77ac 100644 --- a/site/garden/leftism/index.md +++ b/site/garden/leftism/index.md @@ -12,10 +12,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Leftism

-

1870 words, ~10 minute read.

+

1147 words, ~6 minute read.

-
Referenced by:DebateFilter BubblesMy Political BeliefsMy Political Journey
+
Referenced by:My Political BeliefsMy Political Journey
+ +
Tagged by:Anarchism
[My Political Journey](/garden/my-political-journey/index.md) has brought me to the broad label of being a leftist. Leftism encompasses many ideologies, each with unique visions for an egalitarian society and strategies to achieve it. These pages are my tool to test my understanding by articulating these ideas in my own terms. I don't care to label myself any further than leftist, as in my mind I'm still a student of leftist ideologies and have personally been finding insight across the spectrum of leftist ideologies. As a reminder, this digital garden is a perpetual work in progress and only reflects my understanding of a topic at time of writing. @@ -23,65 +25,33 @@ const pageData = useData(); Leftism refers to a wide range of political ideologies that share a general opposition to hierarchical structures, particularly class hierarchies. Leftists seek an egalitarian society, though their vision of what this entails and how to achieve it vary significantly. They aim to replace systems based on profit and exploitation with ones prioritizing collective well-being. This typically places them against capitalism, however some leftists seek to retain the role of markets and sometimes even private property. -## Major Leftist Ideologies +Communism is a term for a stateless, classless, moneyless society that is desired by many leftists, not just communists. Most leftists believe in analyzing society and history through the lens of [Materialism](/garden/materialism/index.md) and believe removing the profit motive will lead to a more just, productive, and environmentally conscious society. -### Marxism-Leninism +An anarchist youtuber describes the various leftist ideologies as loosely aligned to a political compass where the axes represent the role of a state and revolution vs reform in [The *socialist* political compass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICHHhalRFI). -Marxist-Leninists believe the way towards communism - a classless, stateless, moneyless society - requires a transitionary phase called the "dictatorship of the proletariat". This involves a revolutionary vanguard party seizing control of the state to protect against counter-revolutionary forces, teach the underlying theories behind communism, and reorganize society along socialist lines. The vanguard party will typically do so by taking advantage of a crisis brought on by the contradictions of capitalism. As material abundance is achieved and exploitation becomes structurally impossible, the state will "wither away," giving rise to communism. +## The Transitionary State -Examples of MLism include the Soviet Union and other 20th century communist movements. +Some leftists, such as Marxist-Leninists, believe a state is required to facilitate the transition to communism. This is typically a single party state called the "dictatorship of the proletariat", and its role would be defending against counter-revolutionaries (both internal dissidence and external [Imperialist](/garden/imperialism/index.md) forces), teaching theory to the citizens, and of course reorganize society along socialist lines. They believe that the immediate abolition of the state is impractical in the face of the immense power of capitalist and other reactionary forces, but that once communism is achieved the state will naturally wither away due to its own obsolescence. This would be a long process involving abolishing the material basis for class society on a global scale to ensure there would no longer be any incentive for reactionaries to exist. -Critiques of MLism focus on the authoritarian nature of the transitionary phase and whether the state will truly willingly "wither away" as described. - -Maoism and Dengism are adaptations of MLism that apply it to the specific context of China following its Communist Revolution. - -### [Anarchism](/garden/anarchism/index.md) - -Anarchists reject the state entirely, viewing it as an inherently oppressive institution that cannot be reformed or repurposed for liberation. Anarchism envisions the immediate transition to a classless, stateless, moneyless society organized through voluntary associations, mutual aid, and decentralized decision-making. Unlike Marxist-Leninists, anarchists argue against any transitionary state, believing it will perpetuate hierarchy rather than dismantle it. - -Historical examples include the anarchist collectives in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, which experimented with decentralized governance and worker control. - -Critics of anarchism often point to decentralized systems being harder to "scale up" without introducing oppressive hierarchies, and their vulnerability to coordinated external threats. - -The page dedicated to anarchism will philosophically explore what a stateless society looks like, but does not really cover the process of transitioning from capitalism to anarchism, as I have little confidence such a process is truly possible without a state to protect it, so long as capitalists and other reactionary powers exist. - -### Market Socialism and Reformism - -In contrast to anarchism and communism, these ideologies see markets as a tool for innovation and resource allocation, and argue for transitioning an existing state towards socialism without a vanguard party or revolution. - -Syndicalism advocates for decentralized worker control through labor unions that would, through strikes and occupations, control the economy. - -Social democracy and democratic socialism focus on reforming capitalist from the existing democratic processes, with the goal of reducing inequality and expanding social welfare. Bernie Sanders is a famous democratic socialist politician in America. - -## Anarchism vs Communism - -Anarchism and communism are interesting in that they both describe a classless, stateless, and moneyless society. A society free from class antagonisms and the coercive apparatus of the state. They're both materialist schools of thought that both aim for the collective liberation of all and the abolition of hierarchical power structures. Yet famously these two groups have been at odds throughout history, such as after the Russian Revolution. They have a fundamental disagreement on how to arrive at their ideal society, and those differences are very interesting to explore. These differences not only feed into conflicts between the two groups, but undoubtedly yet subtly shape the society they're ostensibly both striving for. - -### Communism Strategy - -Communists argue for a transitionary state - the "dictatorship of the proletariat" - as necessary for defending the revolution from both internal and external counter-revolutionary forces, as well as reorganizing the economy along socialist and eventually communism lines. This is a very long process, as they ultimately believe they need to abolish the material basis for class society, perhaps on a global scale due to [Imperialism](/garden/imperialism/index.md) , before the process is complete. Nevertheless, the state is still seen as a temporary mechanism that will eventually become obsolete and naturally "wither away", as described by Lenin in [State and Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm): > And so in capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition to communism, will for the first time create democracy for the people, for the majority, along with the necessary suppression of the exploiters, of the minority. Communism alone is capable of providing really complete democracy, and the more complete it is, the sooner it will become unnecessary and wither away of its own accord. +\- Vladimir Lenin, [State and Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm) -In the same document, Lenin describes a talk by Engels to anarchists where he exasperatedly points out they share a common vision for ideal society, and they just disagree on the justifications for a transitionary state. Engels believed not installing the transitionary state would mean not being able to "crush the resistance of the bourgeoisie". That the immediate abolition of the state is impractical in the face of the immense power of capitalist and other reactionary forces. - -### Anarchist Strategy - -Anarchists, on the other hand, refute the concept of a transitionary state as a necessary construct; they see installing a state of any kind as a reactionary obstacle to achieving their ideal society. Anarchists see the state as an inherently oppressive institution that cannot be reformed nor repurposed for liberation. As put by Kropotkin in [The State: Its Historic Role](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-state-its-historic-role): +Other leftists, anarchists of various stripes, critique the authoritarian nature of such a state, and don't trust it to naturally wither away of its own accord. They believe the goal should first and foremost be the abolition of any kind of state, and do not believe a society needs to be shepherded by rulers towards communism. They view the state as an inherently oppressive institution that cannot be reformed or repurposed for liberation, which will perpetuate hierarchy rather than dismantle it. Further, they believe we already have the ability to ensure everyone's needs are met through mutual aid and sustainable living. > There are those, on the one hand, who hope to achieve the social revolution through the State by preserving and even extending most of its powers to be used for the revolution. And there are those like ourselves who see the State, both in its present form, in its very essence, and in whatever guise it might appear, an obstacle to the social revolution, the greatest hindrance to the birth of a society based on equality and liberty, as well as the historic means designed to prevent this blossoming. The latter work to abolish the State and not to reform it. +\- Petr Kropotkin, [The State: Its Historic Role](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-state-its-historic-role) -They argue that regardless of intent, states are structurally designed to centralize power and perpetuate hierarchy. They believe a state will intrinsically lead to a new ruling class and undermining the revolutionary aims of equality and freedom. And most importantly, they do not accept that a state could "wither away of its own accord", but rather would forever justify its continued existence. As Bakunin put in [Statism and Anarchy](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm): -> The differences between revolutionary dictatorship and statism are superficial. Fundamentally they both represent the same principle of minority rule over the majority in the name of the alleged β€œstupidity” of the latter and the alleged β€œintelligence” of the former. Therefore they are both equally reactionary since both directly and inevitably must preserve and perpetuate the political and economic privileges of the ruling minority and the political and economic subjugation of the masses of the people. +This fundamental disagreement over whether the existence of a transitionary state is justified has historically led to conflicts between communists and anarchists, such as the USSR going after nearby anarchist societies. Both groups saw the other as counter-revolutionaries. -It should be noted that Marx [responded](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1874/04/bakunin-notes.htm) to this text, reaffirming that the state would go away due to resource distribution becoming apolitical once abundance is achieved. +## Reform vs Revolution -Naturally, anarchists also do not believe the economic role of the transitionary state is necessary either, but that a society, even pre-revolution, can work towards meeting the needs of everyone at the local community level through mutual aid and a focus on sustainable living. +Reform is the process of iteratively changing the system from within, and revolution means overthrowing the system entirely (not necessarily violently). Typically when people are referring to communists (MLs) or anarchists, they're referring to revolutionary socialists, as the prevailing opinion is that the system will not willingly allow the existing power structures to be overturned democratically. -### Differences in their Visions +> Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth. +> \- Lucy Parsons -Due to the different paths to get there, the society each group strives for will be distinct in important ways, despite sharing the common characteristics of being classless, stateless, and moneyless. Communists arrived here almost incidentally after eradicating the material conditions for exploitation. They'll have reached an economic state of abundance, post-scarcity. Although Lenin makes it clear he still believes individuals can consume in excess and must be stopped, although he does not see the state as necessary for that effort: -> We are not utopians, and do not in the least deny the possibility and inevitability of excesses on the part of *individual persons*, or the need to stop such excesses. In the first place, however, no special machine, no special apparatus of suppression, is needed for this: this will be done by the armed people themselves, as simply and as readily as any crowd of civilized people, even in modern society, interferes to put a stop to a scuffle or to prevent a woman from being assaulted. And, secondly, we know that the fundamental social cause of excesses, which consist in the violation of the rules of social intercourse, is the exploitation of the people, their want and their poverty. With the removal of this chief cause, excesses will inevitably begin to "wither away". +Reformists, like syndicalists, market socialists, and democratic socialists, tend to still see capitalism as a useful tool for innovation and resource allocation, and may support it existing for quite some time. They would use things like labor unions, strikes, and occupations to exert political control over the economy. They'll try to get progressive candidates into places of power to pass legislation limiting inequality and expanding social welfare. They'll create networks of mutual aid to assist those not being helped sufficiently by the state. -The take away here is that the communist vision may happen to be stateless and even follow some anarchist principles, but it was not designed to rigorously uphold _all_ anarchist values. Of particular note, the advanced productive powers developed by the transitionary state would likely be a fairly centralized construct, even without a formal state, which anarchists would see as a coercive force that goes against the principle of free association. Anarchists, instead, would keep the economy decentralized, managing production on the local level guided by the principles of mutual aid and sustainability. +Personally, I think reform is likely the only way we'll see the kind of change we really need to see. However, reformists ideas are a great gateway into leftist thought. Market socialism is essentially "capitalism but with less exploitation and more meritocracy" by ensuring the surplus labor value remains within control of the workers, which is something I think liberals can be sold upon pretty easily. ## Leftist Infighting @@ -91,8 +61,6 @@ The status quo creates an aligning force for similar ideologies, and makes any i Marxist-Leninists advocate for a concept called democratic centralism to combat infighting. It mandates unity of action while allowing for internal debate and discussion. It's particularly useful and relevant for a vanguard party to ensure it is clear who has taken power following a revolution, rather than creating a power vacuum that can be exploited by imperialist powers. However, critics argue democratic centralism can stifle dissent and foster authoritarianism. -Also, you may have gotten the impression there are just a handful of leftist ideologies based on this document, so I want to clarify that there are a _ton_. It would take a very long time to learn about the differences of each one, and I'm not an expert, but I'll recommend [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICHHhalRFI) as a nice introduction to many of these differences in a very digestible way. - ## Moving Forward As I describe in [A Plea to Organize](/garden/a-plea-to-organize/index.md), despite differences between the different ideologies, my advice is still the same: **Organize!** Join local communities, regardless of affiliation, and support leftism and the community. Mutual aid efforts are particularly helpful and can be found on [Mutual Aid Hub](https://www.mutualaidhub.org/). diff --git a/site/garden/local-communities/index.md b/site/garden/local-communities/index.md index a00dfca52..726205f56 100644 --- a/site/garden/local-communities/index.md +++ b/site/garden/local-communities/index.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Local Communities

-

302 words, ~2 minute read.

+

321 words, ~2 minute read.

Referenced by:AnarchismDigital LocalityIndividualism
@@ -24,4 +24,4 @@ The religious aspect of churches was never a requirement for the benefits they c There are several reasons for why local communities have since weakened. The car has weakened them by making the people physically more spread out and reducing the number of "third places". The internet created a convenient alternative whose communities were not immediately recognized as insufficient imitations of in person communities. Newer generations trend towards irreligiousness, making churches decreasingly popular. Combined, these changes have led to a cultural shift towards [Individualism](/garden/individualism/index.md) and [Neoliberalism](/garden/neoliberalism/index.md) that has further cemented our weakened local communities. -The way to "fix" our local communities and make them more strongly connected is to support multi-generational households, increasing population density, and using or creating entities that can replace the community-building role of the church. Such alternatives could be community centers or HOAs. HOAs get a bad reputation due to their tendency to attract those who want power to micro-manage the community, but there are ways to organize them to mitigate that issue (see [Anarchism](/garden/anarchism/index.md)). \ No newline at end of file +The way to "fix" our local communities and make them more strongly connected is to support multi-generational households, increasing population density, and using or creating entities that can replace the community-building role of the church. Such alternatives could be community centers or HOAs. HOAs get a bad reputation due to their tendency to attract those who want power to micro-manage the community, but there are ways to organize them to mitigate that issue (such as [Consensus Democracy](/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md)). An economy based on mutual aid would also naturally assemble regularly, without necessarily requiring an organizing entity. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/local-first-software/index.md b/site/garden/local-first-software/index.md index b0bbd2ae8..951cfa5ac 100644 --- a/site/garden/local-first-software/index.md +++ b/site/garden/local-first-software/index.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

48 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Chromatic LatticeOrchard
+
Referenced by:Orchard
Software that is designed to operate fully offline, that can sync when connected to other clients. This means giving users ownership over their data while still allowing for collaboration. diff --git a/site/garden/materialism/index.md b/site/garden/materialism/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e568ab491 --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/materialism/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "materialism" +title: "Materialism" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Materialism

+

113 words, ~1 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:LeftismPolice AbolitionProfit Motive
+ +Materialism is the idea that one's environment shapes one's thoughts. Under this argument, the way to shape public opinion is by changing the environment. For example, a materialist would argue that humans are not naturally greedy (as is evidenced by many years of history before capitalism was introduced), but rather capitalism incentivized greed and has so thoroughly taken over our environment that everyone has become greedier. This also leads to the argument in favor of [Police Abolition](/garden/police-abolition/index.md) that crime can be reduced by improving people's material conditions, without the need for state sanctioned violence. + +[Apoliticism](/garden/apoliticism/index.md) leading to implicit support of the status quo is an example of materialism in action. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/my-political-beliefs/index.md b/site/garden/my-political-beliefs/index.md index 0717f9fe2..06b45f0ec 100644 --- a/site/garden/my-political-beliefs/index.md +++ b/site/garden/my-political-beliefs/index.md @@ -11,25 +11,15 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

My Political Beliefs

-

213 words, ~1 minute read.

+

314 words, ~2 minute read.

Referenced by:My Political JourneyPolitical Quizzes
# Government -I'm definitely a [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md), and believe our end goal should be a classless, stateless, moneyless society, but acknowledge the role of the state in defending against, at the very least, [Imperialist](/garden/imperialism/index.md) forces abroad, so long as they exist. +I'm definitely a [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md), and believe our end goal should be a classless, stateless, moneyless society. This society should be based on [Free Association](/garden/free-association/index.md) to handle both decision making and ensuring people act pro-socially. This would be a post-scarcity society where everyone's needs are met via mutual aid, and likely a good deal of automation. I believe in maximizing personal liberties so long as one is not actively harmful to others, which includes disallowing most forms of discrimination. A society built on free association would have no need for police. -I want to eventually reach a society structured as decentralized local communities that operate through [Consensus Democracy](/garden/consensus-democracy/index.md) , and freely associate with other communities for larger scale organizing, such as building and maintaining a rail line. +I'm less certain on the journey to reaching that society. I'm anti-[Imperialist](/garden/imperialism/index.md) and believe imperialism will greatly hinder our progress towards that society. I'm not sure if we would need a transitionary state like MLs suggest, but I'm fairly confident one way or the other, a revolution will be necessary (hopefully a peaceful one). I think the BLM protests of 2020 may have been the closest the US has gotten to a peaceful revolution in a long time, and am hopeful that perhaps the general strike of 2028 will be our next big change at it. -# Economy - -I believe we should eventually arrive at communism; a post-scarcity society where everyone's needs are met via automation and without the need for currency. Along the way there I expect us to democratize the workplace and work towards nationalizing every idustry. - -# Society - -I believe in maximizing personal liberties, so long as one is not actively harmful to others, including most forms of discrimination. - -# Security - -I'm against the use of violence by anyone, including the state. I believe in [Police Abolition](/garden/police-abolition/index.md) and am against the military and espionage both foreign and domestic. I believe in the [Anarchist](/garden/anarchism/index.md) value of free association, so I believe we should have fully open borders, both for travel and immigration/emigration. I am anti-imperialist and believe in a fairly isolationist foreign policy, but am not against humanitarian foreign aid. \ No newline at end of file +Until the revolution, I'd support policies that bring us closer to the ideal society. Market socialism essentially outlines my goals for reformist policies until the revolution. I also think pay should be equalized across everyone in the same role. This would help reduce race and gender pay disparity and allow people to take a break from their career (having a baby, going back to college, experimenting with another industry, taking a sabbatical, etc.) with reduced negative impact. Working hard would still be incentivized due to the collective ownership of the means of production. I'd also support open borders, defunding the police, and not getting involved in foreign conflicts, including stopping the destabilization of successful socialist projects. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/my-political-journey/index.md b/site/garden/my-political-journey/index.md index ee5f43cf5..9f834ece9 100644 --- a/site/garden/my-political-journey/index.md +++ b/site/garden/my-political-journey/index.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

My Political Journey

-

714 words, ~4 minute read.

+

758 words, ~4 minute read.

Referenced by:LeftismPolitical Quizzes
@@ -34,4 +34,6 @@ I migrated a LOT of posts to this website for the sake of having them all in one I believe a lot of things contributed to my radicalization, which happened sometime in the early 2020s. Ultimately I think I was just aware that I didn't really like the views I was being exposed to, the direction that media was trying to to pull me, and slowly over time just engaged less and less with that kind of content. I'd always been very economically leftist, so just needed to get over my edgy/cringe phase. I think what put the nail in the coffin was watching through the [alt right playbook](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ), a great series I highly recommend. I also started really enjoying a lot of leftist creators, like [hasanabi](https://twitch.tv/hasanabi), [philosophy tube](https://youtube.com/@philosophytube), and others. The people around me also affect my views, and after leaving college I think I interacted with nicer people on average. Of particular note here is my wife, who had their own political journey which has similarly culminated in us sort of having a positive feedback loop further and further left. Certain events like the BLM protests following George Floyd similarly cemented our position further and further left. -I actually want to also point out I've found a lot of people in this space to be very accepting of people who previously held problematic beliefs. It's largely why I feel comfortable (enough) having a lot of my history public both on this page and the site in general, and being able to describe how my political journey got me to where I am today, a very radical [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md). \ No newline at end of file +I actually want to also point out I've found a lot of people in this space to be very accepting of people who previously held problematic beliefs. It's largely why I feel comfortable (enough) having a lot of my history public both on this page and the site in general, and being able to describe how my political journey got me to where I am today, a radical [Leftist](/garden/leftism/index.md). + +Today I'm still learning and exploring the various leftist political ideologies, and finding what I align most with. I use this garden as a way of engaging with what I read, to gauge my understanding and provide the impetus for me collecting my thoughts. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/network-of-vouches/index.md b/site/garden/network-of-vouches/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d49e20fc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/network-of-vouches/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "network-of-vouches" +tags: [Decentralized Moderation] +title: "Network of Vouches" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Network of Vouches

+

327 words, ~2 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:Decentralized ModerationDigital Locality
+ +
Tags:Decentralized Moderation
+ +Identities could have a system by which they vouch for or against other identities that they are human and make content worth looking at, and clients could use this network of vouches to filter posts to display or retrieve. For example, a user may say they only want to see posts made by identities within a chain of 4 vouches to themselves. Upon account creation, users could be prompted to vouch for IRL friends or some popular figures within topics they care about to get started. In theory the longer the chain can be, the more varied the content a user will see, and the more likely for it to be something they disagree with. This would allow users to customize how narrow their feed is at a given time by just changing the max chain length. They can also continue vouching for more people to more precisely expand their feed. + +Clients could include tools to analyze their network of vouches, such as displaying all the identities within certain max lengths, or viewing what chain was followed for a specific post to have been displayed. Clients could also add additional tools to customize the chain, like being able to ignore a specific user's vouches or reposts/reblogs. They could also treat any interaction as a vouch, overriding the max chain length for different contexts, such as when used for counting likes. + +A reddit-like community could display all replies rather than use the network of trust, and offer controls like only counting likes from within the network when sorting the replies. + +This would essentially be an alternative to how current fediverse applications block entire instances as a heuristic, so they can get rid of undesirable content while minimizing how much of it they need to see before doing so. Except in this model, you can always reach people regardless of what server they decided to use, and the controls of in the hands of the individual. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/nicky-case/index.md b/site/garden/nicky-case/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..31de08fed --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/nicky-case/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "nicky-case" +title: "Nicky Case" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Nicky Case

+

82 words, ~0 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:Apoliticism
+ +[Nicky Case](https://ncase.me) is an online creator famous for her various games and explorable explanations, which I regularly reference and think about. They created https://explorable.es to catalogue various explorable explanations and tools for creating them, although I believe they left the explorables community after some drama. + +Their [patreon blog](https://www.patreon.com/ncase/posts) goes over 2 decades of work, thoughts, and struggles Nicky has faced. + +I discovered them through their game [Coming Out Simulator 2014](https://ncase.itch.io/coming-out-simulator-2014), which really struck a chord with my sister and I. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md b/site/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md index d340f08cc..4b4ecb49c 100644 --- a/site/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md +++ b/site/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md @@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

"No Politics" Rules

-

985 words, ~5 minute read.

+

1023 words, ~6 minute read.

Referenced by:Incremental SocialKronos
-Communities - be they discord servers, forums, message boards, etc. - tend to have rules, and you'll likely see the same rules come up often. One of these common rules is the "no politics" rule. These rules may vary slightly in wording, but all share in being highly contentious. These are easily the rules most often broken and most often fought over - for _and_ against. +Communities - be they discord servers, forums, message boards, etc. - tend to have rules, and you'll likely see similar rules come up often. One of these common rules is the "no politics" rule. These rules may vary slightly in wording, but all share in being highly contentious. These are easily the rules most often broken and most often fought over - for _and_ against. ## Apolitical spaces' appeal @@ -40,11 +40,11 @@ I think moderation should be heavy handed when it comes to protecting community [Debate](/garden/debate/index.md) is not about solving the issues in society and is typically rhetorical sport that cares more about winning the conversation than building consensus. It has been shown to be ineffective at changing minds, and even more rarely for the right reasons (underlying philosophy rather than rhetorical performance). Honestly, this is a great justification for disallowing politics, although later on I'll add some nuance to this point so it doesn't stifle legitimately constructive conversation. -## The issues with banning politics +## The issues with apoliticism -[Everything is Political](/garden/everything-is-political/index.md). So what "no politics" really means is very subjective and likely to differ between different moderators, and will definitely differ from at least some community members. What this really amounts to is banning controversial ideas. As described in [How to radicalize a normie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g), that means both statements like "Nazis are bad" _and_ "Nazis are good" can be apolitical, as the community has a consensus that Nazis are bad and the second statement is _probably_ just a joke. But once something is controversial it becomes political, so a statement like "feminism is good" would be disallowed. In practice, since the non-controversial stances typically mean upholding existing power structures (like capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy), you reach a situation where conversative or fascist viewpoints are allowed (despite the "probably just a joke" argument gets weaker and weaker) but progressive statements aren't. +I go over this in detail on my page over [Apoliticism](/garden/apoliticism/index.md), but to summarize: everything is political, "apoliticism" is really taking a stance against change, and therefore trying to abstain from politics is a privilege unique to those who benefit from the existing power structures (capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy). To be clear, I'm not saying those who add "no politics" rules support those power structures, but that what they see as creating a place of escapism from politics is likely subtly reinforcing oppression. -To be clear, I'm not saying those who add "no politics" rules support those power structures. +Additionally, what is deemed as "political" will in practice differ between moderators and can easily lead to the scenario described in [How to radicalize a normie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g) where fascism can take over a community over time. Moderators may also introduce their own biases, so even if you don't believe the above arguments will hold true for your community. There will still likely be uneven enforcement of the no politics rule due to the subjective differences in what is and isn't political. This will mean the line is still drawn _somewhere_, and wherever that line is _will_ be a political statement, it just might not be clear where it's drawn to the members and even moderators of the community, which will cause confusion and conflict. @@ -71,4 +71,4 @@ You'll note I don't mention punishments here, but just how the situation should ### Decentralized Moderation -This whole conversation should be contextualized as referring to discrete communities with designated moderators. That's not the only option though! I personally think social media should incorporate porous or continuous communities through [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md), which by necessity would then have [Decentralized Moderation](/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md) that makes essentially everything you've read here no longer relevant. Oops. \ No newline at end of file +Another solution would be fully decentralized moderation, which would forego rules and discrete communities and instead just rely on people having autonomy over the kind of content they want to see. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/objectivity/index.md b/site/garden/objectivity/index.md index e151a0cb2..64eb78435 100644 --- a/site/garden/objectivity/index.md +++ b/site/garden/objectivity/index.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

589 words, ~3 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Everything is PoliticalFilter BubblesScientific Constructivism
+
Referenced by:ApoliticismFilter BubblesScientific Constructivism
Objectivity is a myth. All we have are our subjective experiences, which are shaped by our environments and it's [Social Constructs](/garden/social-constructs/index.md). Often something _appearing_ objective more likely means its biased towards either your pre-conceived opinion, or the "status quo" opinion of the society or culture the work was created in. diff --git a/site/garden/orchard/index.md b/site/garden/orchard/index.md index b1074c92a..1e824c569 100644 --- a/site/garden/orchard/index.md +++ b/site/garden/orchard/index.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ --- public: "true" slug: "orchard" -tags: [My Projects] +tags: [My Projects, Decentralized] title: "Orchard" prev: false next: false @@ -12,20 +12,20 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Orchard

-

1135 words, ~6 minute read.

+

1326 words, ~7 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Chromatic LatticeDigital Locality/now
+
Referenced by:Digital Locality/now
-
Tags:My Projects
+
Tags:My ProjectsDecentralized
-This is an [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) app I'm designing and at least building a mock for. The purpose of the app is to organize and grow a [Network of Knowledge](/garden/network-of-knowledge/index.md) (or [Digital Garden](/garden/digital-gardens/index.md)) sorted by topic. It achieves this through a concept called message gardening, the process of converting casual conversations into formal, referenceable stores of knowledge. It would be an experiment in [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) and perhaps represent an alternative to traditional [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md). +This is an [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) app I'm designing and at least building a mock for. The purpose of the app is to organize and grow a [Network of Knowledge](/garden/network-of-knowledge/index.md) sorted by topic. It achieves this through a concept called message gardening, the process of converting casual conversations into formal, referenceable stores of knowledge. It would be an experiment in [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) and perhaps represent an alternative to traditional [Social Media](/garden/social-media/index.md). The original problem I was trying to solve is having a lot of conversations about various topics stretching back far into the past and across many platforms. I often want to review something I said on a given topic and find it difficult to do so. This app would make it far easier to retrieve my notes on any topic, and collect those notes into a useful resource about that topic (a process called "message gardening"). It's different than a traditional note-taking app because it works with conversations directly, which is useful because discourse is typically what prompts me to collect my thoughts on a topic in the first place. -Core to this project is improving how conversations online are carried out. It's inspired by sort of mashing up [The IndieWeb](/garden/the-small-web/index.md) and [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md), and would follow a lot of the recommendations in the [chat glue](https://a9.io/glue-comic/) comic. Contrary to each person having to own a personal website, this platform should in theory be more accessible by allowing people to skip the step of finding a domain to semi-permanently attach their identity to, and not having to pay a subscription cost to maintain it. See the page on the [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) for details on how to run it sustainably and still offer free tiers to users. +Core to this project is improving how conversations online are carried out. It's inspired by [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md) but aims to remove the idea of discrete communities. -## Implementing Chat Glue +## Implementing [Chat Glue](/garden/chat-glue/index.md) As you converse in your group chats and DMs, you can specify topic changes. These will break the conversation up into pieces called notes, and each piece gets added to each of the topics it was about (with links to the convo from before and after that one). @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Notes should also allow specific parts, up to the character level, to reply to, Exactly where these DMs and group chats are coming from isn't super clear in my mind. I want [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md), which means avoiding large groups of users and limiting the influence of individual posts and posters. We don't want a federation of discrete independently moderated communities, as that will lead to centralizing power and influence. But, organizing communities this way is very common due to its convenience and appeal. If you make, say, an open source library and want people to know where they can go to discuss how to use the library, show off what they used it for, etc. then you're likely to create a discrete community for it. -In theory we could take the [Chromatic Lattice](/garden/chromatic-lattice/index.md)'s initial approach and just have a chat room tied to each user, but I'm not confident that'll translate well to this project. I'm leaving this open ended, since I expect we'll learn from Chromatic Lattice anyways and find a better solution to this problem. +In theory we could take the Chromatic Lattice's initial approach and just have a chat room tied to each user, but I'm not confident that'll translate well to this project. I'm leaving this open ended, since I expect we'll learn from Chromatic Lattice anyways and find a better solution to this problem. ## Non-conversation Notes @@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ You can jump to other people's gardens and see their public notes (via a friends I think a conversation should show a sidebar of notes from both the user's network as well as any public notes from any other active participants' networks that relate to the set of topics being discussed. I think this would help encourage message gardening and assist with distributing information. We could go a step further and notify participants when those notes get added to or edited, which could help with corrections to articles getting spread to those who saw the original incorrect information (something that traditional media doesn't do well). -We'll need to be careful sharing notes doesn't lead to centralizing power. I think if you subscribe/follow someone's graph, it shouldn't include the pages they've followed (although forks would be fine). This would lead to [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) and all the benefits it entails. However, this might make it harder for movements to spread, because it means it spreading requires people to write new content rather than sharing existing content. I believe (perhaps optimistically) that movements can succeed in this environment, but perhaps instead there's a happy medium we can strike, so high quality notes can be spread without leading to issues like non-consensual [Virality](/garden/virality/index.md). +We'll need to be careful sharing notes doesn't lead to centralizing power. I think if you subscribe/follow someone's graph, it shouldn't include the pages they've followed (although forks would be fine). This would lead to [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) and all the benefits it entails. However, this might make it harder for movements to spread, because it means it spreading requires people to write new content rather than sharing existing content. I believe (perhaps optimistically) that movements can succeed in this environment, but perhaps instead there's a happy medium we can strike, so high quality notes can be spread without leading to issues like non-consensual virality. + +I think a compromise here might just be letting people copy notes over to their own graph. Instead of suggesting changes to other peoples notes, you just copy the note over and modify it. If the other person is friends with you, they'll see your new (changed) note, and perhaps the app can even highlight the similarity (and importantly, the differences) between that note and the original. This system would be similar to sharing/retweeting a post, but with a bit more effort that I think would strike the right balance between signal boosting good information and limiting influence. Notes would naturally be iterated upon as they spread through the network. ## LLMs @@ -61,6 +63,14 @@ A local LLM could assist in marking topic changes automatically, making it so ch LLMs could also be given the topics as context and be able to query the network for knowledge. +## Education + +This graph of topics could naturally lead itself to educational purposes. I think people should be able to perhaps describe directed sub graphs that present the topics as a dependency tree. This would enable self paced learning, with the dependencies acting as a guide for what can be learned next. + +Couple this with some sort of mastery system and you basically have an alternative to Khan academy or brilliant. + +Flash cards are a good method of memorizing thinks, especially through something like anki. Flash cards are already fairly decentralized, so perhaps annotations on notes should allow mapping them into flash cards that can be easily imported in flash cards apps through standard formats. + ## Tech Stack It'll use the [Agentic Fediverse](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) to store the messages and other data, making the whole app [Local-First Software](/garden/local-first-software/index.md). The frontend of the app will be built in [tauri](https://v2.tauri.app/). It'll use [Incremental Social](/garden/incremental-social/index.md) as the default iroh node and handle any other (optional) server side features. diff --git a/site/garden/police-abolition/index.md b/site/garden/police-abolition/index.md index 14b2aea41..f29f9e46d 100644 --- a/site/garden/police-abolition/index.md +++ b/site/garden/police-abolition/index.md @@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Police Abolition

-

1641 words, ~9 minute read.

+

1697 words, ~9 minute read.

-
Referenced by:AnarchismConsensus DemocracyMy Political Beliefs
+
Referenced by:Consensus DemocracyFree AssociationMaterialism
I'm a supporter of the police abolition movement, which calls for police and prisons to be abolished. It argues that there are many inherent problems with policing and incarcerating people that cannot be fixed with just further training or restrictions - the entire system must be entirely abolished. In this way, it is a more extreme version of the police reform or defund the police movements. The movement also posits that there are alternatives to policing and incarceration that can be more effective at reducing crime. @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ I'll generally just say police or prison abolition, but I'm still referring to p ## Why abolish police? -There are a variety of reasons for abolishing the police, from its controversial origins to its pervasive discrimination to its overall lack of effectiveness. Ultimately though, I would argue this movement stems from anarchistic principles and values. Anarchism posits that no person should hold power over another (a simplification sufficient for this document), which would include the use of force or imprisonment. Anarchists argue the State has no right to exist, let alone that it has no right to call it's violence legitimate. From this premise, any form of policing or incarceration is unjust. However, let's explore additional problems within the specific context of the US: +There are a variety of reasons for abolishing the police, from its controversial origins to its pervasive discrimination to its overall lack of effectiveness. Ultimately though, I would argue this movement stems from anarchistic principles and values. Anarchism posits that no person should hold power over another (a simplification sufficient for this document), which would include the use of force or imprisonment. Anarchists argue the State has no right to exist, let alone that it has no right to call it's violence legitimate, as can be seen in [Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays#toc6) by Emma Goldman. From this premise, any form of policing or incarceration is unjust. However, let's explore additional problems within the specific context of the US: ### Origins of policing @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ There are many ways to reduce the need of police until it's eventually zero. Imm ### Crime reduction -Abolitionists still want to ensure public safety, just not through policing and incarceration. They believe, since most crime is not born of malice, that improving society by ensuring everyone's needs are met would evaporate the majority of crimes as well - at least as many as are prevented by the current system. Police are incredibly over funded, enough to buy things like [surplus tanks](https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/towns-dont-need-tanks-they-have-them) from the US military. That money can instead go to social programs that would solve the root causes that lead to crimes. +Abolitionists still want to ensure public safety, just not through policing and incarceration. They believe, since most crime is not born of malice, that improving society by ensuring everyone's needs are met would evaporate the majority of crimes as well - at least as many as are prevented by the current system. This is an idea fundamentally aligned with [Materialism](/garden/materialism/index.md). Police are incredibly over funded, enough to buy things like [surplus tanks](https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/towns-dont-need-tanks-they-have-them) from the US military. That money can instead go to social programs that would solve the root causes that lead to crimes. Societies can and will find alternative ways of preventing any specific crime. An often used example is if you have a drunk friend who is about to drive home, you typically will help get them a ride (driving yourself if you're sober, or calling them a cab or uber otherwise) rather than calling the police on them. Abolitionism finds policing as only required by those who lack the political imagination to find other solutions - basically, cure the diseases rather than treat the symptoms. At a systemic level, drunk driving can be reduced or eliminated by improving public transit. @@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ Another criticism of _prison_ abolitionism specifically is [What do you do with While punishments are not good deterrents, some consequences for crimes are still justified and can be enforced without requiring incarceration. A victim may be "made whole" (have the damage reversed to the best of our ability) at expense of the perpetrator, or the society itself (using resources its no longer spending on police or prison). If there's a material cause for the crime having taken place, e.g. a hungry person stealing food, those material conditions can be improved. For cases where the perpetrator is chronically exhibiting anti-social behavior, a trip to a rehabilitation facility, which would be operated significantly differently from the PIC, could be warranted. Stuff like anger management courses or resources to help kick addictions would naturally still be present in a society without prisons. +A society can go even further and rely entirely on social consequences to deter anti-social behavior, which is a concept called [Free Association](/garden/free-association/index.md). Essentially, by only interacting with people individuals deem to be in good standing, people will be incentivized to maintain a positive reputation. + ## Further reading I have not finished reading it yet myself, but I recommend [We Do This β€˜Til We Free Us](https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1664-we-do-this-til-we-free-us) by Mariame Kaba based on [this NBC article on the book and author](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abolishing-police-prisons-lot-more-practical-critics-claim-ncna1258659). diff --git a/site/garden/profit-motive/index.md b/site/garden/profit-motive/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4ca6200fd --- /dev/null +++ b/site/garden/profit-motive/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +public: "true" +slug: "profit-motive" +title: "Profit Motive" +prev: false +next: false +--- + +

Profit Motive

+

90 words, ~0 minute read.

+
+ +
Referenced by:EnshittificationFree Association
+ +Profit motive refers to how, under capitalism, power and influence will naturally trend towards consolidation in an ever decreasing number of hands. This is not a claim that under capitalism are naturally more greedy and profit seeking (although [Materialism](/garden/materialism/index.md) would argue that is, in fact, the case), but rather that the structure of Capitalism will incentivize and therefore inevitably trend towards that consolidation. + +The profit motive is also what prevents society from properly taking care of each other and the planet, because profits come first. Saving the environment will necessarily entail abolishing the profit motive by eradicating capitalism. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/representative-democracy/index.md b/site/garden/representative-democracy/index.md index da09332be..54f5bf163 100644 --- a/site/garden/representative-democracy/index.md +++ b/site/garden/representative-democracy/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ --- public: "true" slug: "representative-democracy" +tags: [Decision Making] title: "Representative Democracy" prev: false next: false @@ -11,11 +12,11 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Representative Democracy

-

87 words, ~0 minute read.

+

91 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:AnarchismPolitical Quizzes
+
Referenced by:Decision MakingPolitical Quizzes
-A form of democracy where people vote for representatives who then vote on the actual issues. The US has a representative democracy. By virtue of representatives not perfectly reflecting the views of their constituents, and by forming a hierarchy of power, this is a form of Democracy that is not [Anarchistic](/garden/anarchism/index.md). +
Tags:Decision Making
-Representative forms of government were once useful for their logistical simplifications, but now primarily serve as a way to limit the range of acceptable political opinions/options and to perpetuate the reign of those in power. \ No newline at end of file +A form of democracy where people vote for representatives who then vote on the actual issues. The US has a representative democracy. Representative forms of government were once useful for their logistical simplifications, but now primarily serve as a way to limit the range of acceptable political opinions/options and to perpetuate the reign of those in power. A representative will never be able to truly represent all the held opinions of all their constituents, and even if they could, they'd still have all the issues associated with [Majoritarian Democracy](/garden/direct-democracy/index.md). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/social-constructs/index.md b/site/garden/social-constructs/index.md index 3ac5030b1..e72e9d7f0 100644 --- a/site/garden/social-constructs/index.md +++ b/site/garden/social-constructs/index.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

1088 words, ~6 minute read.

-
Referenced by:AnarchismGenderGerrymanderingGuide to Incrementals/Defining the GenreObjectivityPrescriptivism vs DescriptivismScientific ConstructivismTrans athletes in sports
+
Referenced by:GenderGerrymanderingGuide to Incrementals/Defining the GenreObjectivityPrescriptivism vs DescriptivismScientific ConstructivismTrans athletes in sports
Social constructs are concepts with social definitions. Having a "social definition" really just means its some concept or property some group of peoples (or even animals) has prescribed meaning to. You know of and use these all the time throughout your life, and have likely identified some common ones like gender or class. As we'll discuss, however, there are far, far many more social constructs than the ones commonly referred to as such. It should be noted that while these concepts are essentially "made up", in the sense that they are arbitrary distinctions created by imperfect beings, that does not make them "not real". They exist and are typically created for a reason, often convenience. However, those reasons can be analyzed and determined to be more harmful than useful. This article's goal is to discuss and encourage analyzing social constructs, to better identify them and determine their utility and impact on society. Furthermore that it's possible to change or even destroy these constructs, and it's our social duty to do so when appropriate. diff --git a/site/garden/social-media/index.md b/site/garden/social-media/index.md index aca5108ba..c44859132 100644 --- a/site/garden/social-media/index.md +++ b/site/garden/social-media/index.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

222 words, ~1 minute read.

-
Referenced by:CommuneDecentralized ModerationDecentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFediverseFilter BubblesModerationOrchard
+
Referenced by:ChronologicalDecentralized Social MediaDigital LocalityFediverseFilter BubblesModerationOrchard
Social media is how we interact with people online. It's also increasingly becoming how we discover and discuss news and ideas. It's incredibly important, but flawed. A lot of pages in this digital garden criticize and attempt to solve these flaws. diff --git a/site/garden/technocracy/index.md b/site/garden/technocracy/index.md index a6e4bff71..4af8c6181 100644 --- a/site/garden/technocracy/index.md +++ b/site/garden/technocracy/index.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ --- public: "true" slug: "technocracy" +tags: [Decision Making] title: "Technocracy" prev: false next: false @@ -14,6 +15,10 @@ const pageData = useData();

296 words, ~2 minute read.

+
Referenced by:Decision Making
+ +
Tags:Decision Making
+ Technocracies are a form of government where technical experts make the decisions. It sounds appealing and like a solution to the "problem" of "How can Democracy be good if most people are stupid?". Well I don't think that's really a problem in the first place, as it implies some sort of objective knowledge and truth, when really the best decision _is_ the one those affected by the decision most agree with. However, even under the premise that tyranny of the majority is a problem worth addressing, technocracies don't hold up under critical analysis. Who decides the criteria for technical expertise? Whatever the answer is will be introducing bias into the government, because true meritocracies are a [Neoliberal](/garden/neoliberalism/index.md) myth. Indeed, this government would likely just perpetuate people's existing material conditions, as those with power will have access to more resources, which means they'll be more likely to be able to meet the qualifications of technical expertise and thus remain in power. Conversely, those in poorer material conditions will be less likely to become technical experts, and thus have less agency to improve their material conditions. diff --git a/site/garden/the-small-web/index.md b/site/garden/the-small-web/index.md index 4c66d2d3e..ad158b3ec 100644 --- a/site/garden/the-small-web/index.md +++ b/site/garden/the-small-web/index.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

731 words, ~4 minute read.

-
Referenced by:CommuneDecentralized IdentityDigital LocalityFedi v2My Personal WebsiteOrchardThe IndieWeb/Signature BlocksThis Knowledge HubWebringsWeird
+
Referenced by:Decentralized IdentityDigital LocalityFedi v2My Personal WebsiteThe IndieWeb/Signature BlocksThis Knowledge HubWebringsWeird
The small web (also known as the indie web, personal web, the web revival movement, and other terms) refers to small, personal, independent websites. It is seen as a direct alternative to the centralized and homogenized websites like X, Meta, and TikTok. [My Personal Website](/garden/my-personal-website/index.md) is part of the small web! diff --git a/site/garden/trans-athletes-in-sports/index.md b/site/garden/trans-athletes-in-sports/index.md index 5ede1ce7d..7997fe3a3 100644 --- a/site/garden/trans-athletes-in-sports/index.md +++ b/site/garden/trans-athletes-in-sports/index.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ const pageData = useData();

288 words, ~2 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Everything is Political
+
Referenced by:Apoliticism
Sports are meant to be competitions with winners and losers, which means intrinsically that one has to be better than the other. But we've determined certain advantages as "fair" ones and others as not, without fully acknowledging how fairness is just a [Social Construct](/garden/social-constructs/index.md). diff --git a/site/garden/video-essays/index.md b/site/garden/video-essays/index.md index 61685af2c..18fbe445e 100644 --- a/site/garden/video-essays/index.md +++ b/site/garden/video-essays/index.md @@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Video Essays

-

561 words, ~3 minute read.

+

563 words, ~3 minute read.

-Video essayists are an interesting case study here. I _love_ video essays, they're often entertaining and you can tell the effort and care put into them. A lot of my favorite creators are video essayists, like [hbomberguy](https://www.youtube.com/c/hbomberguy), [Folding Ideas](https://www.youtube.com/@FoldingIdeas), and [Philosophy Tube](https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyTube) (and probably more - its hard to keep track of my favorites since they upload infrequently). Unfortunately, video essays have now been recognized as successful ways to make videos with high watch time which has led to an explosion of video essays, with varying levels of skill, ethics, and effort put into researching the topics. +Video essayists are something I feel a bit conflicted on. I _love_ video essays, they're often entertaining and you can tell the effort and care put into them. A lot of my favorite creators are video essayists, like [hbomberguy](https://www.youtube.com/c/hbomberguy), [Folding Ideas](https://www.youtube.com/@FoldingIdeas), and [Philosophy Tube](https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyTube) (and probably more - its hard to keep track of my favorites since they upload infrequently). Unfortunately, video essays have now been recognized as successful ways to make videos with high watch time which has led to an explosion of video essays, with varying levels of skill, ethics, and effort put into researching the topics. The format of video essays makes them feel credible - being longform, speaking authoritatively, and including relevant footage all contribute to this. However, none of those actually necessitate the creator being a subject matter expert. diff --git a/site/garden/virality/index.md b/site/garden/virality/index.md index 2531c6f37..3b885ec35 100644 --- a/site/garden/virality/index.md +++ b/site/garden/virality/index.md @@ -11,33 +11,25 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Virality

-

396 words, ~2 minute read.

+

324 words, ~2 minute read.

-
Referenced by:Digital LocalityOrchard
+
Referenced by:Digital Locality
Virality is the ability of something to "go viral" on a network - spread far and wide throughout the network. On traditional social media, this refers to how influencers and advertisers will have their content spread, but also specific posts from smaller posters can get picked up by the algorithm and spread as well. Since there's only so much of people's attention to go around, social media has been described as an "attention economy". Under this framework, one could argue that social media is designed for "wealth accumulation", elevating a handful of accounts to celebrity status and limiting the reach of the masses. This dynamic much reflects the class antagonisms in a capitalist economy. -## People "going viral" +## Non-consensual virality On traditional social media, posts can be picked up by the algorithm and spread far and wide, causing the author to be inundated with unwanted attention, including negative or hateful attention. This can and has caused serious harm for both [businesses](https://sarah-geri.medium.com/you-dont-want-to-go-viral-dace46a91bee) and especially [individuals](https://embedded.substack.com/p/going-viral-sucks-even-more-now). Traditional social media doesn't [differentiate between the "living room" and "public square"](https://discuss.coding.social/t/discuss-sx-anti-pattern-reply-sigh-aka-reply-guy/531/2), which enforces this behavior. [Digital Locality](/garden/digital-locality/index.md) could help with this by its tendency to limit the reach of individual people or posts. ## Movements on the fediverse -The [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md) has been criticized for being "anti-viral", as described by Dr. Jonathan Flowers in a series of posts on [whether the 2020 BLM movement could have happened on the fediverse](https://mas.to/@shengokai@zirk.us/109723062349528947). In general, I think something more [Decentralized](/garden/decentralized/index.md) will fix these issues, so I'll address his main points. - -### Hashtags +The [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md) has been criticized for being "anti-viral", as described by Dr. Jonathan Flowers in a series of posts on [whether the 2020 BLM movement could have happened on the fediverse](https://mas.to/@shengokai@zirk.us/109723062349528947). Dr. Flowers argues that the success of BLM was dependent on the movement not relying on any specific person or post, but rather having the "cripthevote' hashtag that was visible platform wide and allowed people to see many posts about the movement and check for updates in realtime. However, on the fediverse hashtags are instance local. This means they have to "jump" between instances (or escape, as he refers to it) in order to spread. This makes the movement much harder to spread across the federated network. -This may be solved by more properly [Decentralized Social Media](/garden/decentralized-social-media/index.md), since without a concept of instances there would naturally no longer be instance-local hashtags. - -### ["No Politics" Rules](/garden/no-politics-rules/index.md) - -Since some instances on the fediverse have "no politics" rules, movements (which are inherently political) may be suppressed. Since identities are attached to instances, this means those users essentially cannot participate in the movement. Coupled with the usual issues with "no politics" rules, movements can be seriously impeded on the fediverse. - -[Decentralized Moderation](/garden/decentralized-moderation/index.md) can fix this issue by giving individuals more agency in moderation, and allowing them to evaluate their participation in movements on a case-by-case movement rather than relying on a blanket "no politics" rule \ No newline at end of file +This may be solved by more properly [Decentralized Social Media](/garden/decentralized-social-media/index.md), since without a concept of instances there would naturally no longer be instance-local hashtags. Decentralized moderation would also give more agency to individuals, who can then participate in movements on a case-by-case basis rather than the instance potentially making that decision for them. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/site/garden/weird/index.md b/site/garden/weird/index.md index d4b246e36..fe6222bb4 100644 --- a/site/garden/weird/index.md +++ b/site/garden/weird/index.md @@ -11,18 +11,11 @@ import { useData } from 'vitepress'; const pageData = useData();

Weird

-

114 words, ~1 minute read.

+

19 words, ~0 minute read.

-
Referenced by:CommuneFedi v2The Small Web
+
Referenced by:Erlend HeggenThe Small Web
-[Weird](https://weird.one) is an [Open Source](/garden/open-source/index.md) project by the [Commune](/garden/commune/index.md) team currently in development +[Weird](https://weird.one) is an [Open Source](/garden/open-source/index.md) project by [Erlend Heggen](/garden/erlend-heggen/index.md) and company currently in development. It aims to make creating [Personal Websites](/garden/the-small-web/index.md) with [Decentralized Identity](/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md) available to everyone. It also plans on having paid tiers for giving people access to single user instances of various [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md) tools. -Aims to make creating [Personal Websites](/garden/the-small-web/index.md) with [Decentralized Identity](/garden/decentralized-identity/index.md) available to everyone -- Also plans on having paid tiers for giving people access to single user instances of various [Fediverse](/garden/fediverse/index.md) tools - -Long term, Weird wants to build a new better fediverse -- It's being built on [Iroh](https://iroh.computer), which allows for decentralized identities that are not reliant on any specific servers continuing to exist -- Their current plans are laid out in [Next Gen Federation on Iroh: Graph Data & Linked Documents Layers](https://github.com/commune-os/weird/discussions/32) -- Erlend discusses some of the implications for identity specifically in [Weird Netizens](https://blog.erlend.sh/weird-netizens) -- I have my own high level take on how this new fediverse would look like in [Fedi v2](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) \ No newline at end of file +Long term, Weird wants to build [Leaf](/garden/fedi-v2/index.md) and be a major node for storing data on Leaf. \ No newline at end of file