Aral BalkanDec 20, 2022

Are folks really pressuring independent artists, authors, etc., not to promote their work here?

Do you also picket your local independent cafe and mom and pop stores? What happens if you succeed in shutting them down? That’s right, you end up with a McDonald’s in their place.

Please learn to separate capitalists from folks trying to survive under capitalism. Independent people trying to pay their rent isn’t advertising, it’s existing. What Coca-Cola does is advertising.

#fediverse ❤️ #indie

Show threadSzymon NowickiDec 20, 2022
@aral what’s the problem with big companies advertising here anyway? Assuming they open their own instances or donate to existing ones IMO it’s all good. They have same abilities to post their content just like celebrities and everyone else. If I don’t want to see it I can mute it. Or ban even.
Show threadAral BalkanDec 20, 2022
@hey What’s wrong with having Nazis advertising here? If you ask the Nazis, nothing. If you ask those of us who want nothing to do with Nazis, everything. So too with big companies. This is a place that came about in reaction to the swamp of surveillance capitalism that Big Tech mired us in. So are they welcome here? No. Can they set up shop by creating their own servers? Sure. Will some of us do our best to protect this space from them for as long as we can? You bet your butt we will.
Show threadSzymon NowickiDec 20, 2022

@aral
I don't like putting Nazis everywhere because it trivialises Holocaust and total collapse of Europe but ok.

IMO some big brands are more than welcome here. I'd prefer to reach them out here than to open Facebook if I need to communicate with them.

They can't buy traffic here so civil communication is a must-have, otherwise they will soon be forgotten.

Assuming, again, they pay for their instance. No indie maintainer should keep big accounts for free.

Show threadAral Balkan

@hey Well, given how nearly every tech billionaire these days sounds like a mini Mussolini in the making and given the cushy transition from neoliberalism to nigh-on fascism we’ve seen in various so-called democracies this past decade, enabled in no small part by the infrastructure of authoritarianism constructed by Big Tech, I don’t think it’s a trivialising comparison. Think of it more as a warning to try and avoid repeating the past.

And yes, at the very least we shouldn’t subsidise them.

Dec 20, 2022 at 9:39amWeb