🌈Lucy🏳️⚧️ | RevolucianaOn a platform/technology built on #decentralized (& frankly #anarchist) principles, it's fascinating how many comments suggest solutions to prevalent cultural issues with calls for increased authority and centralization. These aren't the only solutions suggested, and there are far better ones mentioned, but it is fascinating how frequently centralized & authoritarian solutions are insisted upon. Like the history of #Anarchism in a nutshell.
Stone Bear 
@revoluciana I remember the golden age of USENET, a global working anarchy - literally no rules, only Guidelines - this feels a lot like that. I'm just hoping that we can hold the line against the dark...
@stonebear Absolutely. And using this microcosm to illustrate a point, this is why cultural revolution is so much more important than ideas of governance IRL. It takes holding the line.
@revoluciana Oooh yes... get people used to decentralisation and anti-authoritarian principles *in here*, where it "doesn't matter" (and teach them that it DOES matter)... and hopefully with a little encouragement they'll take it out into hugspace and smash the patriarchy.
💜😍😍😍💜
@krisnelson@revoluciana I have resisted calling for centralization knowing this, but I admit to being guilty of worrying about the reality of very bad actors, vulnerable people, and no superior authority to intervene—perhaps because I lack enough knowledge of the successes and strategies of #Anarchism for these kinds of situations & power imbalances?
If you are able and willing to recommend, are there any histories or sources that might help inform people?
Jodinha Godiva 🏳️⚧️❤️@revoluciana @krisnelson I think the short answer is that yeah, bad things will happen, but the capacity for negative outcomes in a decentralized system is much lower than for a centralized one. You need a hell of a lot more bad actors to ruin this place than say, Twitter, which really only took 1 bad actor.
@jodinha @revoluciana My main pushback on/confusion about that analysis of centralized versus decentralized systems is that it doesn’t seem to account for power differentials between actors and groups of actors? I’m not sure at all now to address power differentials in an Anarchist way (except maybe re opposing the state).
@krisnelson @revoluciana Anarchism is a continual project and requires it’s population to want to maintain it. There is no authority other than the will of the majority as to what happens. That’s why I’m Anarchist experiments like this platform we need to educate people on the benefits and explain the risks of re-centralizing. All we can do about groups of authorities gaining power on the platform is push back against them.
@krisnelson @revoluciana some may call that authoritarian in itself, but ultimately it’s a very vague word…
@krisnelson would also like to point out that my anarchism is a pretty niche anarchism influenced by more “authoritarian” theorists like Lenin, who advocated the use of authority in the establishment of institutions that facilitate anarchism in the long run, so my answers probably differ from the norm.
@krisnelson Trying not to jump in too much till tomorrow, and I don't want to be pedantic, but just want to address words like "power" which are hard to define. I prefer the distinction Hannah Arendt makes about being a force that exists between people, as opposed to strength, authority, or control.
This is meaningful, too, in the concept of Anarchism because as @jodinha mentions things like "majority" which sound like democracy (cont.)
@krisnelson @jodinha but democracy is not anarchist, and is inherently authoritarian, and why voting is not a solution in a decentralized system or context. In this case, I don't want to put words in someone else's mouth, but majority can also be an issue of power (part of the reason that word is significant) and consensus which might create conditions for cultural norms, but not necessarily control and force by a vote.
@revoluciana @krisnelson I mean im not referring to the us of democracy to mediate anarchist spaces, more so the fact that in a space like this, where most people want it to remain decentralized, those who seek to centralize will be met with strong opposition. its not "respect the will of the majority" so much as it is a battle they cant win.
@jodinha @krisnelson For sure. I didn't think you meant democracy, but I just wanted to clarify what I thought you meant, which is close to the same as your own clarification, because to someone not used to anarchist theory, it may sound like democracy on first glance.
@jodinha Which is, of course, a key tenet of #Anarchist theory in general. 💜
@krisnelson Not in a good spot/time to elaborate more extensively/provide sources ATM, will try to respond later. Feel free to ping me with a reminder if you're interested.
Any #anarchists on this thread please feel free to chime in with your own insight/resources on intro theory as it applies to the question posed.
Gregory Allen-Anderson@revoluciana
I am still feeling my way around here and generally acting much like the wallflower introvert I am in person, but...there appears to be a wide variation in what I guess would be best described as content #moderation. And I suppose that can be a good thing, Different strokes for different folks. I struggle a bit with #defederation though. That seems to move most of the power from the users to the instance owners. And by and large instances seem to not be owned by users (at least with my limited experience so far). And (again a newbie's perspective) this nuclear option seems to be deployed somewhat cavalierly.
But compared to the for profit platforms I find this by far preferable, and hope I can drag some of my facebook friends over here, and to a lesser extent the folks I followed on twitter.
I am still feeling my way around here and generally acting much like the wallflower introvert I am in person, but...there appears to be a wide variation in what I guess would be best described as content #moderation. And I suppose that can be a good thing, Different strokes for different folks. I struggle a bit with #defederation though. That seems to move most of the power from the users to the instance owners. And by and large instances seem to not be owned by users (at least with my limited experience so far). And (again a newbie's perspective) this nuclear option seems to be deployed somewhat cavalierly.
But compared to the for profit platforms I find this by far preferable, and hope I can drag some of my facebook friends over here, and to a lesser extent the folks I followed on twitter.
Victor Jara (Tribute)Good points from Gregory.
Scholars.social afaik defederates >10,000 followers butthe gigantic mastodon.social has very experienced mods and maybe things are not so bad there.
OTOH defederation is essential for those instances set up for the primary purpose of shitposting which rapidly becomes harassment. A bit of both/and.