• 15 Posts
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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: July 15th, 2023

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  • I think it’s nuanced. The internet did democratize information and even societies. It allowed communication. Twitter was a key part of the Arab Spring but Facebook was used to spread misinformation during multiple genocides.

    Really, when the web was young — “Web 1.0” — it was all decentralized and required some knowledge to use. Then, social media companies created closed networks and governments were able to fight back (or co-opt them). That was “Web 2.0” (which isn’t a technical term). I think it was a huge mistake. “Web 3.0” won’t ever involve the blockchain, which is useless except for naive people. But the concept of decentralized communication platforms is a good idea.

    Basically, we need a better version of “Web 1.0” without the VCs, Monopoly money, and NFT horseshit. Give users control of who they follow, break up monopolies, and let censorious governments play whack-a-mole while still being able block harassers and bots.



  • As someone who lives in Louisiana’s 2nd district, the main problem (some) Republicans have with the map wasn’t that a 2nd black district was drawn. It’s that it was drawn so Speaker Johnson and Rep Scalise got even safer seats and they had to screw one Republican Congressman and they chose one to screw.

    This isn’t really a fight over civil rights anymore. The Voting Rights Act requires 2 majority black districts in a state with 6 seats and a 33% black population. It’d be easy enough to make two without it being so weirdly drawn but that would have required two members of the Congressional Republican leadership to make their districts competitive and that wasn’t happening.