What We’re Up Against and Where To Go From Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

This video discusses the playbook these techbros are using. The agenda discussed is exactly what we are seeing playing out in real time right now in the USA. They want corporate-owned “network states” to hoard more wealth and make it impossible for others to gain their wealth; as well as having a trapped workforce to extract more wealth.

We need to understand their plan, so we can work to sabotage and stop it.

Their plans Will Kill People and already have.

Plane crashes lately were impacted by not enough air traffic controllers. The timing of Trump’s executive orders and actions to cripple FAA is alarming. It’s possible Trump/Musk’s actions contributed to their deaths; however, their crippling of FAA likely will cause more accidents in the future.

There is also people who will die or are dying due to the freeze on federal funds for nonprofits, USAID, state programs, healthcare institutions, and other crucial agencies and social programs that focus on the most vulnerable.

More will die from the active purge of studies and health data on CDC.gov. A lot of health workers use that data and study results to improve health outcomes for patients. Also, the purging of data for infectious diseases will result in an even steeper rise in diseases, less vaccine availability or research from which more people will die.

Due to the purge of documents and sites pertaining to LGBTQIA people, Black Indigenous and People of Color, and any terms related to us such as transgender, gender, sex, pregnant people, Black, Indigenous, etc., we are seeing a digital book burning across a massive scale.

Musk and his cronies are hacking the US government’s agencies and US Treasury Payment System without being confirmed by Congress nor hired as a federal worker. They’re often acting in secret and seem to be installing private servers to download massive reams of data. They are pushing untested code into the Treasury’s Payment Systems with little to no understanding of how the system works, which is massively dangerous and could destabilize the entire system. All of which is illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and massive security risks.

They are even making ‘target lists‘ that list anyone who has been involved with Diversity and Inclusion or used pronouns in their bios. These lists are incredibly dangerous for marginalized communities, particularly Jewish, Black, Indigenous, Disabled, and LGBTQIA people, who are often the first to be harmed.

It’s great that lawsuits are happening now, but they won’t save us. What we need is people to march in, kick out these goons, and blockade them from entering again. FBI could do this, but instead they’re suing Trump which is good but not enough. Senators should be doing blocking access physically, but instead they do speeches and write strongly worded letters.

So it’s up to us to sabotage the techbros vile plan as much as possible. They are fascist, tech-nazis, and they don’t care who they destroy and kill in their thirst for power.

SO WHAT NEXT?

We need to engage in care toward one another and ourselves first and foremost. We can’t survive a fascist/Nazi coup unless we have energy and health to do so. So make sure you take care of yourself and your friends/loved ones.

For other actions to take, there’s a lot to consider, and below is just to get people started.

Make a safety plan first, which I cover in the below post (Censored Secret expanded on mine here):

https://www.tumblr.com/thatonebirdwrites/774367966546526208/thanks-for-that-right-up-i-didnt-have-the-spoons?source=share

The following are other actions to consider taking. It can be helpful to have people you trust to have your back work through the safety plan and the list below with you.

We are not alone, and although the US culture tries to instill this rugged individualism, that isn’t true to human nature. We’re naturally cooperative creatures, and we can work together collectively to stop the fascists and build up better.

• Archive documents. Archivists right now are working to archive and save thousands of government documents, especially those pertaining to health and other scientific studies. Create your own archives. Here’s two sites that explains how to do that: Practical Guide to Fighting Censorship AND Archiving 101.

• Read up on how to craft a safety plan here: My Post and explore the indepth dive in @CensoredSecret’s Post

• Make a list of your skills and capacity. Make it a skill list party with friends, where you all work on your lists together. (Can do this with crafting safety plans too.)

• Find like-minded groups such as local mutual aid groups, protest groups, mask blocs, etc., who are doing the community care work. Offer to help and follow through with the tasks you agree to do.

• When working with a group/org, make sure the group has some sort of delegation system and accountability. Draft a mini-constitution. This video has a good overview. Also, check out the short but thorough Anarchic Agreements by Ruth Kinna, Alex Prichard, Thomas Swann, and Seeds for Change.

• Plan and/or Engage in Community Grief and/or Community Care sessions. Be creative! Use the arts or writing or talking in a circle (where whoever holds the stone speaks). This can help avoid burnout.

• List people you trust that have your back and make sure you have their contact information in a secure offline location (go-to bag from safety plan for instance).

• Learn some new skills such as first aid, archival work, gardening, etc. Be open and willing to learn from others who have done the work for awhile. Be open to offering to teach others your own skills. A skill-share can be crucial.

• Write up and get notarized an Medical Power of Attorney and Will to avoid your safety and wellbeing doesn’t fall into the hands of people you don’t trust. Make sure you and your loved ones have copies.

• Make a list of needed medications, where you can source them, and alternate healthcare options in the case of emergencies where you cannot access your usual healthcare or pharmacy. This may require a little research.

• Have your group/org work on building up mini-libraries for repair, books, food, essential supplies, and other items. Andrewism has some excellent videos about this here.

• Check on your most vulnerable folks and find out what they need then follow through. Ask for their consent and only assist in what they ask for. Never presume to know what another person needs.

• Do a Digital Cleanse (this site has actions you can do daily to work toward this). Secure your data using encrypted tools, such as encrypted email, Signal, and tools like cryptpad.org for any organizing/protest conversations.

• Defend your community by organizing together for safety and care — this site has a good guide. Books on disability justice, transformative justice, and climate justice often have good organizing strategies and action items.

• For more tips see an easy-to-read version in CensoredSecret’s Post.

Andrea Pitzer on Next Comes What covers a lot of good tips and ideas to consider in order to survive and fight fascism. She digs into past examples as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwFZpROLvX4

For another good video, check out Imani Barbarin, a disabled activist and writer, who discusses how to establish a Progressive Media Apparatus: https://www.patreon.com/posts/establishing-121218731

For ways to build up library ecosystems, Andrewism has some good starter videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYa3YzVtyk

Books and articles to read about organizing and mutual aid:

• Surviving the Future edited by Branson, Hudsen, and Reed.
• Imarin Barabarin has a set of videos on how to organize.
• Mutual Aid by Dean Spade (also in anarchist library).
• How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong
• A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice by Katie Tastrom
• The Sea is Rising and So Must We: A Climate Justice Handbook by Cynthia Kaufmann
• Creative Interventions Workbook
• Building Accountable Communities by Project Nia
• eBook repositories may have the above books if one can’t find at local library or have funds to purchase.

Protest Tips (I wrote in this reblog/post but copying here):

Protests rely on the movement of large amount of people. Signs can be made for them, plans on routes can be done (keep offline or use encrypted tools for planning), and assigning roles to help keep it organized.

When organizing sit-ins, it’s even more crucial that people be trained to NOT talk to random folks pretending to be journalists. Have a designated communications role with people trained on what to say, and direct all journalists to that group. Stick to your assigned role’s tasks.

If the care work for a sit-in is on a rotating schedule, make sure you are aware of that and pitch in your part to keep the sit-in safe, secure, and fed/watered.

Below are tips that focus on safety and security:

• Wear a mask with and safety glasses. (Harder to identity you and it protects you from smoke, tear gas, and diseases.
• Do Not Bring Your Phone. Or at the very least Do NOT turn it on as it can be used to identify you or obtain your location.
• Do NOT advertise the full details of the protest and who is coming to the protest all over social media. Share about the protest’s start locations as needed in your groups, but don’t advertise it’s march pattern or its end goal location or who is attending. These conversations about the march route, goal location, assigned roles, and etc need to happen either in-person with all phones off OR use an encrypted chat. You want to limit what the surveillance state can pull from posts.
• Have designated medics who can help in case of injury or if Police try to shoot people or throw tear gas.
• Have designated frontline people. These are the people at the front of the protest, the ones that are most likely to deal with police and/or fascists first. Use make-shift shields to help protect frontline people.
• Have designated communication roles for people who are educated/trained on how to speak to journalists/news and who can keep the message consistent.
• Have designated people who assist those with disabilities to make sure they care able to stay safe and escape if things turn sour. Stay with your assigned peeps!
• Have a designated protest partner to help watch your back. Stay with your assigned peeps!
• Have designated suppliers, who carry supplies for medics and/or frontline and/or other roles.
• Have a plan in case the police try to kettle protesters. A kettle is when police block off routes to escape, thus trapping protestors in a smaller area. This is done to shut down protestors, demoralize, frighten, and mass arrest. Make sure everyone knows the plan and abides by it.
• Write on your arm the numbers of lawyers and/or people you can contact in case of arrest.

We’re in a fight for our right to exist and for survival.

Be safe all.

A thread I wrote on a different platform. I'm transferring it here.

‪Matt Browner Hamlin‬ ‪of @mattbh.com‬ (on AT Protocol) WRITES:
@aoc.bsky.social e-mail going after TikTok & social platforms collaborating with Trump - with a shout out to @bsky.app

ALT TEXT:
First of all, Donald Trump is not president right now. He's a private citizen. He does not have access to presidential powers. He does not have the ability to do any of that. Please understand that TikTok's decision to name Trump in the notification is a choice. They are signaling that they have agreed to privately collaborate with Donald Trump and the Trump administration. For all of those concerns that people were saying that TikTok is gonna be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese, understand they're using it as a propaganda tool for the right. Now, I want you all to put all the pieces together because what this effectively means is that every mass social media platform in the United States has been taken over by the right wing, with the exception of Blue Sky (but Blue Sky is still very small, relatively). (The thread: https://bsky.app/profile/thebirdwrites.bsky.social/post/3lg5p5lhyqk2i )

MY RESPONSE (I'm speaking to those that may see the above post and fear all social media sites are falling to fascists):

Not every social media site is being taken over. People forget that the fediverse (a decentralized web) still exists. There are servers of people who are decentralized communities of Leftists - some use the Mastodon client, some use Sharkey or Misskey, Friendica, and others. Stop forgetting them.

This isn't to say that far-right fascists don't exist on the fediverse. They do, but many defederate/block them. (EDIT: This also isn't to say bigotry doesn't happen on fediverse, it most certainly does and needs to be better handled).

For example, threads (run by Meta) is fascist transphobic racist trash.

Disabled.social, the disabled server I help mod, defederated/blocked them. This keeps us safe from those trolls.
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A majority of centralized social media like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads), Tiktok, Twitter/X are all owned by corporations and funded by venture capitalists. THOSE are the ones that have already been taken over as Right-wing fascism already.

Bluesky isn't immune to this as it is also centralized.
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Bluesky has shown a willingness to allow bad faith actors that harass and harm trans people. I haven't really seen a resolution to that yet, just people stopped discussing it. That's testing the waters. Bluesky has also taken venture capitalist funding. It's protocol is a centralized silo.
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Will Blue Sky go the way of the others? Maybe. Based on Bluesky's own plans and documentation, they show a strong tendency toward profit and growth paradigms.

Will those community servers in the Fediverse fare the same? No, because they are based on community and safety paradigms NOT growth.
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Decentralized networks in the Fediverse include these open-source clients: Mastodon, Misskey, Sharkey, Pixelfed, Peertube, Diaspora,Writefreely, and many more. People like myself can host a server on any of these for people to join. That community decides on how to handle moderation, updates, etc.
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All of the fediverse uses the ActivityPub Protocol, which is NOT what bluesky uses. ActivityPub has more privacy built into it. (Edited to add: this is in comparison to AT protocol. It's not enough privacy - more should have been built in, but of the two, AT is worse in regards to privacy. Also, protocol and clients are not the same. Protocol is like infrastructure and clients is buildings atop it. The features in clients on ActivityPub hold far more privacy than the BlueSky client on AT).

Bluesky's AT Protocol has no privacy features (for one, I'm furious that it allows one to query block lists of people. ActivityPub doesn't allow queries like that, which is the difference I reference above.)
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Open-source developers are making bridges between Blue sky and the rest of the larger fediverse, but the bridges aren't always stable as the two protocols don't talk well to each other.

So Blue Sky sits in a precarious spot, where their venture capitalists could push it toward an X demise.
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But the larger fediverse (those dozens of different clients) are not affected by profit-driven, growth-paradigms. Most servers like disabled.social are run by people like me. Folks who live at home, maintaining software, so people can chat. Costs for hosting are paid for by donations.

However, centralized networks do not want you to know about decentralized servers. They don't want you to leave their silos, so they try to make it look unappetizing, while making their centralized services as easy to join as possible. But this leaves us to the whims of capitalist propaganda.

It's easy for centralized social media to become a propaganda machine (like Tiktok, X, and Facebook are doing) because they trap their users in their silos. The captive audiences end up seeing whatever these silos allow in.

Fediverse, since it's decentralized, is too diffuse to capture.
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Focus of decentralized must become:
1. keeping the servers up and running (donations, combating attacks on Internet access).
2. Finding the safe servers where the community is good at blocking bigoted trolls and right-wing fascists
3. Solidarity between marginalized groups to protect each other.
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4. Working together to fight the growing fascist state.
5. Teaching and beefing up safety and security culture to help us survive the growing fascism
6. Teaching and showing how to engage in collective action, community building, and horizontal democracy (See book: Anarchic Agreements https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1286)

Our routes of communication is hindered, yes, by centralized networks falling under the control of far-right fascists, but my above thread is a reminder to all of you that not all social media has been taken over. Marginalized populations exist on the fediverse and are fighting back there too.
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Remember, Community is the only way we'll survive this. They want us isolated and easy to destroy. That's why they are doing huge spectacles right away to demoralize us.

As long as our community continues to exist, as long as we continue to write and creative art, we are resisting and surviving.
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Do not let the huge spectacles and take over of centralized sites demoralize you.

Community can be built. We can work together to build that community. It won't be easy to build and maintain. We all will have roles to play for that. But it can be done. We can survive and defeat these fascists.

#Community #BuildingCommunity #FightingFascism #SocialMedia #Fediverse #AntiRacism #AntiFascist #LGBTQIA #Disability #Justice

Edited to clarify what I meant when comparing ActivityPub and AT protocol in privacy.