orthogonal to alive @avi@computerfairi.es

The FidoNet chapter from BBS: The Documentary (2004) is I think required viewing for fediverse admins.

Bulletin board services (BBSes) were pre-web online communities with forums, mail, games, etc. FidoNet was/is basically a volunteer-run federation layer that let BBSes communicate with each other.

The video talks about FidoNet's growing pains, especially around governance & a mismatch between what users wanted and what the sysops felt was required to maintain the net.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cm6EFYktRQ

Medical examiner found traces of gasoline and crystallized fruit sugar. They're callin' it Vanilla Donut. It's an artisanal drug Donut from Seattle.

My bank just sent me an email asking for donations for a food bank.

I have an idea of who has plenty of money to donate.

One of the best things I ever did for my creative productivity was to realize how much easier it is to edit a rough draft that has been completed than to edit it as I draft it. This goes for most all creative endeavors, not just authoring.

Extreme Funkopops forever

sharpening my dick with a whetstone

if you're paid to work you're a worker

if you're paid to own property you are unnecessary

sorry

Congratulations! It's a [null pointer exception]

Would you like to give the gift of a totally rad computer pin this holiday season?

You can!

They're $8 each with $5 flat-rate worldwide shipping

DM @mavica to buy them

Get in soon though, last date I can do delivery by Christmas is 2019/12/06

gotta love the nonprofits that are just apparatuses to redistribute money from people who give a shit to politicians who don't

dear nonprofits: "size of pride parade" is an awful metric for the quality of life of lgbtq+ people and you need to stop

I'm circling back to one of my favorite writers, Corey Robin, and his definiton of conservatism: "A meditation on--and theoretical rendition of--the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back."

This is what the poor white person has in common with the billionaire: having power, and seeing it threatened. It's the common thread behind reactionary ideology from bathroom bills to bank deregulation. It's not false consciousness at all. It's a true expression of having held social power and refusing to admit that that power might be illegitimate.

You might argue that there will be more to be gained if you erase racism and focus on the real shared enemy, the bourgeoisie, and you'd certainly be right, but you'd be missing a key component of what's happened here.

Namely, someone who has no power in the economic sphere has been given the right to have power in a social sphere. In other words, they sit at the top of a different hierarchy now. Sure, they don't currently have anything to gain from lowering billionaire taxes, but that's not the point. They now have a vested interest in *maintaining hierarchies exactly as they are.*

Because if being a billionaire is illegitimate, then whiteness might be illegitimate, and then the whole social order around which they've built their lives might crumble.