Warning: politics ahead
Most of you have probably heard something about parler being de-plarformed. Shocker, all the big bullies were looking for a justification to show who has the real muscle.
It shows that he who rules tech, quite literally rules (or could rule) the world.
Not to be dramatic, or to take a stance on any morality (morality is always predominantly individual, and not systemic) but to make a point to take a long, hard look at the chimera that is society.
Notice that not only are we effectively ruled by tech companies, since they control the flow of information. Note also the demonization and justification. Not to say that Parler is good, I couldn't care less about parler since I think all twitter-style platforms are absolute shite for both normal discourse and a healthy thought-process.
Just note that even the smart people will just parrot eachother about how bad the contents of Parler were. Only a select few have the balls to point out some double standards and crooked logic.
It discourages me to see baseless rumors and blatant demonization being parroted. Not because I agree or disagree, but because it shows that intelligence has nothing to do with fairness, wisdom or respect.
It just seems to amplify your attributes, much like money used to do.
And after deplatforming and demonizing, we see disengaging. The parties that demonized, and others, simply step away. No discourse, no forgiveness, appeal or second chances. Even the drivers license system in the Netherlands is more fair than that, and that is already quite the shitshow.
I guess somebody will soon call this situation by the name Cartel. Although if that voice will then be amplified I will not know.
And this worries me even if parler would be the absolute shitest thing in existence (hint, it's not, if you want to see evil... Go see the swampy depths of pornhub for starters).
Actually please don't go see that. Save yourself.
But yes, this worries me because it sets a precedent of industry-wide ostracization. This can happen to others as well. And remember, locals is built on AWS just the same.
Either way, you ask me: Nevy, is there a plus? Why yes there is, kinda. Some of us here are techies. We know the tools that are used to rule. We know how to replace them.
Perfectly? No. Will we rule? No. I do not believe we can avoid a technocracy by the bish fish anymore.
So what if they deplatform any of us. We self-host. So what if they do not give us VPS we home-host on old harware. So what if they cut our connection? Information is not bound to one medium.
We slow it down, we make small websites, text-only. We wire them through mobile plans, through amateur radio, through meshing of nearby hardware...
It needs not be perfect, we can do a lot with a little. That is what hacking used to be, and that is what we can make it again. Even if it was just for us all to stay connected.
But it won't be easy.
Stay safe out there!
There is so much more to this one chapter, but it is so good already!
I had to cut it short because guests arrived, but this should get you started on your own study :)
@calvinrempel Thank you once again for the Theology Tuesday you did, I refer back to it in this one :)
@JamesDerian Congratulations with your Marriage :)
Next time there might (almost certainly) not be a Theology Tuesday, so the official next one will be February 22nd! I have a marriage to attend. As the groom. Our home is still half a project.
Fun times!
Alc and I talk about my book that is now officially finished. This is part 1 of 2. Parts have not been neatly cut. Part two will air 5 minutes after part 1 for coninuity!
Hope you enjoy :)
This is the third corner to have persistent discussions and talks in. I love tech, but especially once it transcends hardware a little. I have two degrees; a bachelor's in Software Engineering and a master's in Information Security Technology. My graduation thesis focused on assembly-level optimizations (that is, one level above the hardware level) and my free subjects were in formal verification. This is why I love programming in the security corner, or maybe it is the other way around.
I started going down the Security path because I early on saw that the world around us would become a dangerous cesspool of badly-implemented and hostile tech. Now I am one of the people that understands the field around that mess :)
So in here you can discuss secure phones, weird programming languages, sad truths about internet-connected fridges. Also about malware, adblockers, and so on and so fort!
A lot of tech talk I do over at the @Lunduke community, where a lot of nerds hang out and it is ...
Much like the reading corner, let's have a music corner! A few rules for this one, since some music can be provocative. I don't mind much but let's keep youtube links with risque thumbnails out of here.
Other music I might also mind. "Do you find that offensive?" might someone ask. Yes, there is some music I choose not to listen on principle, and I walk a thin line there sometimes. But do not worry, I have a wide taste otherwise so feel free to share almost anything :)
Either way, here is the music corner!
Many times when we talk about security, we mean to say "Digital security". In essence we mean to say that our hardware and software that we use stays safe no matter what we do. And even though the ISO27001 standard (and by extension, for example, the NEN7510 standard) make it abundantly clear that security is a people-domain problem, we usually take that as a process-like truth. Meaning, we think that being secure is a matter of regulating people.
The truth is very different. For example, while writing this I am pretty shot. I slept five hours and I an under influence of a bunch of painkillers and some alcohol. Before you ask what I was thinking, let me mention that I have a genetic defect in my spine that I am dealing with right now by taking measured doses of all three (and yes, to get the Bible into this conversation, there is even a biblical ground for the inebriation with alcohol - see proverbs and the letters to Timothy - , although I did not use red wine. But hey, I am still on top of ...
