Dave Lane  🇳🇿
To folks aware of the #TPPA & its less-pronouceable alias #CPTPPA that I regularly cite as a real problem for the world & us here in Aotearoa NZ - the #InvestorStateDisputeServices (#ISDS) terms of the not-at-all #FreeTradeAgreement our gov't has signed us up to... this will help you understand how bad it is: https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=xW5dEtjMb-k or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5dEtjMb-k #CorporateCoup @strypey @DrCuriosity This also explains our gov'ts *love* for #BigTech & snubbing domestic companies.
Jul 1, 2023 at 9:08pmWeb
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 1, 2023
I'm still convinced that literally no one (outside of the NZ Greens who always opposed the faux-FTA) in our government understands the real implications of what they (naïvely & stupidly) signed us all up to. They still pat themselves on the back for signing up to a 'Free Trade Agreement', when that's precisely not what we signed up to. See https://davelane.nz/tppa-select-committee-redux-2018-edition
@strypey @DrCuriosity
TPPA Select Committee Redux, 2018 edition

Introduction Hello members of the Committee. I thank you for taking the time to listen to me concerning this vital matter.

Dave Lane
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 1, 2023

This is precisely the behaviour I describe as inevitable in https://davelane.nz/megacorps ... but no one in the 'halls of power' seems to understand this.

@strypey @DrCuriosity

The Toxicity of Public Multinational Corporations

If you live in the connected western world, their cloud of brand identities is in your face all the time. They are (most of) the airwaves. They are the chain stores.

Dave Lane
Show threadversion_aotearoaJul 1, 2023
Not even Chlöe?
Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 1, 2023

@version The Greens seem to understand the erosions of our sovereignty that things like ISDS entail better than most, which is why they strongly opposed the (CP)TPPA deal going through.

They're not quite as focused on the information technology systems side of things and how our digital sovereignty is impacted, but they still seem to be the best of a bad lot in terms of NZ political parties opposing this kind of provision.

Show threadIceNineJul 1, 2023

@lightweight

And the behaviour expected of them too, to the benefit of the few:
https://masto.ai/@rbreich/110623611866436564

Robert Reich (@[email protected])

A General Mills exec admitted to “getting smart about how we look at pricing.” Its net income increased 16% to $2.7 billion in FY 2022. Meanwhile, the company spent over $2.12 billion on shareholder handouts. When I say price gouging is driving inflation, this is what I mean. https://accountable.us/analysis-these-sp-500-companies-inflated-prices-despite-bigger-profits-and-investor-handouts/

Mastodon
Show threadStrypeyJul 3, 2023

@lightweight
The interview mentions the way "aid" and "development" are used as tools of corporate colonisation in poorer companies. So are states.

This masters thesis explores anarchism and permaculture as an alternative to both.

'An Alternative to Development Framework: A Study of Permaculture and Anarchism in Global Justice Movements in New Zealand'

#TaziaGaisford, 2010

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-Alternative-to-Development-Framework%3A-A-Study-of-Gaisford/2e0be744c86f60232e74a56f0a660e82b0665fe8

@DrCuriosity

[PDF] An Alternative to Development Framework: A Study of Permaculture and Anarchism in Global Justice Movements in New Zealand | Semantic Scholar

This study is a response to calls for alternatives to development by postdevelopment authors and critics of post-development alike. It asks “can the praxis of permaculture and anarchism provide an alternative to development?” Although alternatives to development arguably do not exist untouched by the dominant development paradigm, it is possible to imagine and to create the different possible organisations based on principles of mutual aid, direct action and self-management. Anarchism as a politically focused social philosophy and permaculture as an ecologically focused design philosophy are mutually beneficial in strengthening each other. The combined analysis of alternatives to development uses case studies in the Wellington Region, primarily Climate Camp Aotearoa, with permaculture and anarchist principles, and contributes another perspective to the post-development debate. The two approaches share converging central ethics, principles and struggles of praxis. They recognise that transformative change is necessary. Whether it is called a cultural revolution, transition or paradigm shift, the underlying recognition is that we need to live more harmoniously with each other and the natural environment by creating diverse post-industrial societies. Many tools, principles and processes advocated by alternative development and post-development are the same. However, the combination of those tools, principles and processes, and how they are designed and applied in relation to each other systemically, are significant in determining whether or not the intent is that of an alternative to development. Solidarity and stewardship, decentralisation and autonomy, tight multiple feedback mechanisms and a whole system design approach are some of the alternative people-focused solutions proposed by anarchism and permaculture. Fieldwork research was conducted using the qualitative ethnographic and action research methods of participant observation from a constructionist and post-development perspective. Global justice networks are given importance as examples of the anarchistic intent of alternatives to development.

Show threadStrypeyJul 3, 2023

@lightweight
> Investor State Dispute Services (ISDS) terms of the not-at-all Free Trade Agreement our gov't has signed us up to...this will help you understand how bad it is

When the NatLabs talk about defending the "rules-based international order", this is what they're talking about. China is not exceptional in its economic colonisation of smaller/ weaker countries through "aid". Corporate media is just more honest about it when they do it.

@DrCuriosity

#colonisation #FreeTrade #ISDS

Show threadStrypeyJul 3, 2023

Reading Snowcrash is another aid to understanding where we've been heading since the NeoLiberal coups, and where we might end up if we don't change direction. We need to cooperate on a massive scale to defend and extend democracy (by the broadest possible definition - see David Graeber's book The Democracy Project).

@lightweight
@DrCuriosity

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity Also the sequel _The Diamond Age_, which made the insightful point that a chaotic cyberpunk world isn’t a stable end state to history. People can’t keep living like that indefinitely, so a generation later social hierarchies are reasserted and nationalistic power re-centralised (albeit in many competing non-geographical nations). This is the fascist turn.
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity And I do wish Neal Stephenson still wrote books like that.
Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity I liked the idea of the phyles in Diamond Age. What about them do you see as fascist?

(Except in the old-style literal sense that people are stronger in groups.)

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@alix @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity There are a lot of phyles, but the ones we see most detail on in the book are the NeoVictorians and the Confucians. Both focus on bringing order by re-asserting traditional values and hierarchies. There’s some hand-waving about only-the-good-parts, but this is all standard fascist stuff: the right people are back at the top. Both have large out-groups of abandoned people, our which arise Little Nell and the Mouse Army. 1/n
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@isaacfreeman I think I read it at least 15 years ago, probably longer... so might need to re-read it. Remember being utterly captivated by it (and the rest of Stephenson's cannon). @alix @strypey @DrCuriosity
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023

@lightweight @alix @strypey @DrCuriosity Yeah, it’s a great book. I don’t think I’ve re-read it for a similar amount of time, so this is my recollection.

I’ve found later work by Stephenson less interesting. My impression is that he used to hang out with Greenpeace people, but now it’s mainly just techbros.

Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@isaacfreeman I've enjoyed several of his recent offerings very much. I think he's very aware of the techbro thing and their inherent foibles (and insecure evil streaks). @alix @strypey @DrCuriosity
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@isaacfreeman if you haven't already read Doctorow's Walkaway, I think you'd enjoy it - I read it in the past couple years, but I got some of the sense of wonder from its vision that I did from the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. @alix @strypey @DrCuriosity
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023

@alix @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity Many of the other phyles mentioned seem to be similar: restoring some glorious past from before the degenerate cyberpunk era. The nanotech technology is highly centralised and state-controlled.

The plot revolves around a threat to the hierarchical phyles: a book that would educate and empower the masses. Later it’s connected with a different form of nanotech that’s much more liberating and dangerous. 2/n

Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman
> NeoVictorians and the Confucians. Both focus on bringing order by re-asserting traditional values and hierarchies

Make [insert national flag-wave here] great again! I'd say crypto-fascist Confucianism is very much the ideology of the CCP under Winny the Pooh.

@alix @lightweight @DrCuriosity

Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity

Is it fair to say you're describing some of the larger phyles in Diamond Age as having a kind of nostalgia for past glory and restrictive-but-overall-stable social structure that you associate with fascism? That you're not saying all phyles are necessarily fashy, but the bigger ones we saw seemed that way?

It's a good while since I last read it, but I saw a phyle like the Ashanti as a group offering mutual support.

Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity

This raises questions about unions, gangs, guilds, confraternities and mutual societies. If the remains of the justice system are not effective for people like you, and the social welfare is extremely minimal, what do you do to make life better? What happens when "your tribe" - say the SCA, or your iwi - is also your economic support network? That brings up the big questions about groups and individuals.

Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 6, 2023
@alix @isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight
Post-collapse sociology is an interesting topic, indeed. I'm not really looking forward to the possibility of finding practical uses for that, but it's certainly one of the horizons that is starting to present itself.
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023

@alix @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity Perfectly fair. There are lots of phyles with different worldviews, but the NeoVictorians seemed to be particularly influential globally, and the Confucians in China. It could be just the viewpoint of the characters, but I assumed that most phyles would have had similarly reactionary origins.

Also could be just me and my memory.

Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 6, 2023
@alix @isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight
The combination of seemingly rigid hierarchy, retreat into (reimagined) nostalgic values from the height of empire, and a combination of fearful and/or paternalistic attitudes toward out-groups do seem to be pretty common fascistic tropes. Not _solely_ theirs of course, but certainly commonly found together. As we're seeing a little too often these days.
Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 6, 2023
@alix @isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight
You certainly _could_ use those trappings differently, but I think you'd have to underline and provide suitable assurances about the points of difference to ensure people didn't infer different intents from what you were presenting.
Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight

I wonder how much of this response is because the story spends so much time with the phyles that are more imperialist. Would you say the same if the main focus had been on the Armenians, the Senderos, the Ashanti or whatever the hacker phyle was called? (Are the Drummers a phyle?)

I’m currently pondering whether fascism remains a meaningful term if it can be applied to every society with an empire.

Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 6, 2023

@alix @isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight
I'm not making commentary on phyles in general, but the Vickies and their described attributes specifically. Though in passing, worth noting that the terms "phyle" and "thete" are implicitly ones of class.

I can't really speak to most of the other phyles as they weren't really described in significant detail.

Best I could tell, the Drummers were a kind of nanotech hivemind. Possibly a phyle of sorts, but porous.

Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@alix
> whether fascism remains a meaningful term if it can be applied to every society with an empire

Thank you for saying this! The meaning of "fascism" has been stretched to breaking point in recent years (arguably well past it) by overly general use. Mind you, I remember when I was a stroppy young anarcho-punk, and used "Nazi" or "fascist" to describe pretty much anyone I thought was conservative and authoritarian. Pot? Kettle? Maybe ; )

(1/2)

@DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @lightweight

Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@alix
Now i'm a crusty old anarcho-punk. I've learned a *lot* more about political history, not to mention the danger of diluting the meanings of important political terms, by using them as discursive tommy guns. Can't deny it was cathartic though.

(2/2)

@DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @lightweight

Show threadkravietz 🦇Jul 6, 2023

@strypey

George Orwell, writing already in 1944:

It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.

https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc

@alix @DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @lightweight

Show threadStrypeyJul 9, 2023

@kravietz
> It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless

George Orwell, as always, is right on the money. Any social media warriors who want to retrospectively cancel Orwell for being 'soft on fascism' by saying this, will need reminding that he fought real fascists in Spain (both the native ones and the exotic "left-wing" Stalinist variant). With a *gun*, not a keyboard.

@DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @alix @lightweight

Show threadStrypeyJul 9, 2023

@kravietz
If pseudo-pomo representationists had as much courage as George Orwell had in his little finger - let alone a fraction of his political insight - we'd all be in a much better situation.

@DrCuriosity @isaacfreeman @alix @lightweight

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 10, 2023

@strypey @[email protected] @DrCuriosity @alix @lightweight I’m sympathetic to being precise in language, but on balance I come down the other way on this, for a few reasons:

1. Fascism is concerned with power, not consistent policy, so it was hard to pin down a precise definition even in Orwell’s time. Some only count Italian fascism, others include German and Spanish. Japan is sometimes handwaved in. You’ve included Stalin, whom I’d have called history’s foremost antifascist.
1/n

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 10, 2023
@strypey @DrCuriosity @alix @lightweight
2. Since Orwell’s time I think we’ve developed a greater awareness of the continuity between European fascism and other historical phenomena such as settler colonialism and the American Confederacy.
2/n
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 10, 2023

@strypey @DrCuriosity @alix @lightweight
3. Organised far right groups often extend their influence by offering deniability to the much larger sphere of fellow travelers who aren’t formal members. This also allows centrists to deny the extent of fascism by defining it too strictly.

Given these, I’m comfortable using the term ‘fascism’ in a broader sense than Orwell. If people in a discussion prefer ‘fascistic’ or ‘totalitarian’ or whatever, I’ll happily follow their lead in that context. 3/3

Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman
> Also the sequel _The Diamond Age_, which made the insightful point that a chaotic cyberpunk world isn’t a stable end state to history

Didn't know this was a Snowcrash sequel and haven't read it yet. Will head to the public library at the next opportunity.

@lightweight @DrCuriosity

Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@strypey I just requested a copy from our library, and am considering reading it out loud to the boys. I read Little Brother and Homeland as well as For the Win (all by @pluralistic ) out loud to the boys who loved them... think they might be read for Diamond Age. @isaacfreeman @DrCuriosity
Show threadJon SullivanJul 6, 2023
@lightweight @strypey @pluralistic @isaacfreeman @DrCuriosity I remember Diamond Age being intense, and overflowing with crazy speculative ideas. (Dave, I have a copy if you want to borrow it.)
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@joncounts that's very kind Jon - I've just requested it from South Library :) - and I'm 1st in the queue. @strypey @pluralistic @isaacfreeman @DrCuriosity
Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@lightweight
> think they might be read for Diamond Age

... after Snowcrash, surely? If it's a sequel...

@pluralistic @isaacfreeman @DrCuriosity

Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@strypey my older boy already got most of the way through Snowcrash on his own (it was the first Stephenson book I read) but I think was a bit young for it (he didn't grok some of it, although I'll be able to help with some concepts if reading aloud). I don't remember Diamond Age being a sequel, but there was probably a pretty big gap between reading them for me... @pluralistic @isaacfreeman @DrCuriosity
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@lightweight @strypey @pluralistic @DrCuriosity I remember being quite proud of figuring out that it must literally be a sequel, as it's basically an easter egg. It reads fine as just occurring in a historical period that might logically come after the stereotypical cyberpunk world that Snow Crash parodied.
Show threadDr. Curiosity 💻🔬Jul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @lightweight @strypey
Quoting>>>
"Chiselled Spam," Miss Matheson said, sort of mumbling it to herself.

"Pardon me, Miss Matheson?" Nell said.

"I was just watching the smart wheels and remember an advertisement from my youth," Miss Matheson said. "I used to be a thrasher, you know. I used to ride skateboards through the streets. Now I’m still on wheels, but a different kind. Got a few too many bumps and bruises during my earlier career, I’m afraid."

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@DrCuriosity @lightweight @strypey That was it, yeah.
Show threadStrypeyJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman
Another book that makes this point beautifully is Accelerando by Charles Stross (from which I believe Lobster.rs takes it's name). Again, the main protagonist is not really a hero, but is a classic posthumanist nutter. Rapture of the Nerds, his collaboration with @pluralistic, picks up on this theme.

Stross also encoded some insightful monetary theory into Neptune's Brood (must read the whole series sometime).

@lightweight @DrCuriosity

Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jul 6, 2023
@strypey yup, they're all superb :) (have read them all in the past couple years) - @cstross is great, too! :) @isaacfreeman @pluralistic @DrCuriosity
Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity
I guess that's arguably a spoiler, sorry. If I remember correctly there's one place where it obliquely indicates that a character is a grandchild of a character in Snow Crash. Apart from that the novels are independent, but there are references to a historical period that would be Snow Crash.