Alistair DavidsonThe annoying nerds who said you should install Linux, use decentralised social media, use Signal secure messenger were right.
Control of our own computing is a prerequisite for freedom.
The internet *is* real life.
RRB@moh_kohn My prediction for 2025:
https://www.newsweek.com/russians-keep-mysteriously-falling-windows-deaths-1738954
Erik Ellestad
Beggar Midas@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn
1. If I were to plan something, it would not be in an open forum.
2. If I were to plan something, I would wait until a few tech oligarchs took a long walk out of a short window.
3. I would wait and see how the red state people enjoy paying tariffs when they buy stuff at Walmart.
I would also wonder if anyone suggesting organizing a "fight" might be an agent provocateur.
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn Not all action need be covert, for one. For two any potential for real anonymity disappeared over a decade ago. Three if Darth Gilligan carries through his threat to gut out the FBI there's no expertise to run the pro gear your worried about. Four, Those tech ogilarchs didn't look that joyous today. Bezos looked like he wanted to cry. Zuck look scared. Musk just looked distant. None of them were whooping it up.
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn largely research. Security and DDoS classes use my own texts.
Supply chains, DLT, helping get around censorship.
Dislike dictators. USSR, Campoare, Jammeh, and recent idiots.
Kinda too old to worry that much. Not really an attractive target
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn We're absolutely on the same fucking page about dictators. I've seen the fallout firsthand of what such men do in central america & Sarejevo & dharfur. The aftermath in eastern europe when the Iron curtain fell. As Russia revisited it's tired quest for the myth of the benevolent dictator. I'm old, too. But I'm too mad to sit it out.
As per your specialty...I could actually use your advisory assistance, if you're availably game. Hit me up in DM?
As per your specialty...I could actually use your advisory assistance, if you're availably game. Hit me up in DM?
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn Observed USSR collapse and the Eastern European dictators. Worked/working with Africans countering their kleptocrats. Anne Appelbaum's latest book is good about explaining that it is all corruption underneath.
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn I'm unfamiar with Anne Applebaums work. I'll look her up. I'm not much of an academic. Got chased out of school during the satanicpanic. So i'm mostly self taught. I'd toss college textbooks in my duffel to fill dead time while I was in transit. Which was usually. lol. As per Africa, i'm impressed. I'd gotten the impression many had become rather hostile to outside meddling in recent years. Benevolent or otherwise. I know i've been told to mind my own biz a few times!
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn
With Africa, a colleague of mine advised me to mainly listen. They are tired of White people lecturing them. If you set up a dialog and respond to their interests, things work better.
It is all about the grift:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocracy%2C_Inc.%3A_The_Dictators_Who_Want_to_Run_the_World
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn Can't say I blame 'em. Not even a little. Not sure going 100% is possible due to expertise gaps. Not really fair to lump all us in together, but that's just a minor gripe. I get where they're coming from so I have to respect it. Sometimes folks just gotta work stuff out for themselves. Some sure don't mind being lectured by Wagner asshats though. Wonder how much longer they'll endure meddling from Moscow or Beijing or Tehran.
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn Conversations I have had with African colleagues kind of start from the point of view (I am often in the "former" French colonies) that when the French "left" the governments that were put in place were at least somewhat tied to France. France still ran the economy.
The elections are not really fair and the same semi-autocrats keep stealing from the people. So, this form of "Democracy" is not really giving them a voice, or prosperity, or ..
So they have no love for the quasi-authoritarians the French put in place 30 years ago. How much worse can the putsch be? Why not give it a try.
Also, Russia has latent good will from the USSR supporting anti-colonialism which led to their "liberation."
The Chinese. They don't really like the Chinese. But, they see them as a positive example of how they can move from being poor to having a voice in world affairs.
USA record in Africa is not great, either.
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn Hrm. Interesting. There's still persisting good will towards Russia to this modern day? Man did those soviet PR folks know how to leave an impression. Appalling how many messes France ditched in our laps left us on the hook for across the world. I know we were on an anticolonial kick up until the cold war, but still. In your honest opinion was a soft transition even possible, or was it just doomed to be a hard break no matter what?
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn The French never left. The countries were all kept stable by French troops. Their currency was the Franc CFA tied to the French Franc, then EUR.
And, frankly, I can understand them not liking their colonizers. Whatever our understanding of Russia and China may be, they have never colonized Africa.
That buys them some goodwill.
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn Sorry, I didn't mean to be unclear. I meant all of the west African countries that left the French protectorate & economic zone last year. As far as I know the only non African presence is USA maintaining any military presence, though even that looks like it may fracture soon.
@rrb @ellestad @moh_kohn Thank you very much BTW for your time explaining some of this stuff. I rarely ever have opportunities to discuss this at a long view policy level. It's a about as rare as rooster teeth running across anyone who even knows a damned thing on the topic. African politics is...complicated. lol
@Beggarmidas @ellestad @moh_kohn And everyone has very limited interest in the continent. They just see it as a lot of poverty. When I started traveling there, I actually left feeling uncultured.