Communists are not scared of censorship. To capitulate to the censors is to admit from the start that we don’t believe in our own theory. It’s opportunistic, because it leads one to the depths of liberalism. After all if one is scared of being censored for being a communist, then the only solution is to toe the line and you might as well become a democrat if you’re scared of saying anything that could get you banned from any big platform.
The solution is to take control of our own tools, and build dual power. And I don’t mean this online specifically, I mean in every aspect of life. Many parties today make the mistake of capitulating to censorship before they are even censored, because they’re scared. Then they become reformist parties, indistinguishable from liberals, diluting theory to become socially acceptable and palatable as the material conditions continue dwindling around us. Anything to get on TV.
Places such as Lemmygrad allow us to congregate, talk and have a community. But more than that, they also allow us to share knowledge and theory and learn from each other. The solution is to have both self-owned platforms and continue the struggle outside of our bubbles too. It’s not all one or the other, it’s both.
Lemmygrad can’t be banned - first of all it’s all federated. Even if lemmygrad stopped existing, every post that’s federated on the dozens of instance we are linked with would still be up. You can’t take down the federated web unless you take down every single federated website. Moreover, lemmygrad is self-hosted. Being self-hosted, the website can also be brought back very quickly. This is the case for any self-hosted website if you run daily backups like you should be doing anyway.
Lemmygrad can’t be banned - first of all it’s all federated. Even if lemmygrad stopped existing, every post that’s federated on the dozens of instance we are linked with would still be up. You can’t take down the federated web unless you take down every single federated website. Moreover, lemmygrad is self-hosted. Being self-hosted, the website can also be brought back very quickly. This is the case for any self-hosted website if you run daily backups like you should be doing anyway.
Independently hosted Internet communities like Lemmygrad are in a much better place than communities which exist as “guests” on corporate platforms like Reddit or Facebook, but we need to be thoughtful about this. This is not a problem which can be solved simply by renting dozens of VPSs. The Internet is not magic. It is composed of data centers, routing hubs, high capacity back-bones, last mile ISPs. The vast majority of the network is privately owned. Many aspects of the network are totally monopolized. There are many ways control can be exerted over it. As ecosystems like the Fediverse continue to grow, we will see this power exerted in new and unprecedented ways. Always be prepared.
i’ve been concerned about this as well and as a non-tech savvy person, it’s hard to figure out how to even learn about ways around it. techie stuff is aggressively gatekept - in fact, i came across some interesting articles about LoRa communications and Reticulum Network, but i can’t find anything written up that doesn’t assume a certain level competence or background in tech - so i tried to ask in a socialist prepper subreddit, where i was told that i should not be interested unlearning about Reticulum Network because it’s way too advanced and only hardcore techies are capable of using that.
but anyway - wrt the concern of privatized internet infrastructure, i think that Reticulum thingie could be promising if the nerds ever start sharing their toys with us lolol
On censorship:
Communists are not scared of censorship. To capitulate to the censors is to admit from the start that we don’t believe in our own theory. It’s opportunistic, because it leads one to the depths of liberalism. After all if one is scared of being censored for being a communist, then the only solution is to toe the line and you might as well become a democrat if you’re scared of saying anything that could get you banned from any big platform.
The solution is to take control of our own tools, and build dual power. And I don’t mean this online specifically, I mean in every aspect of life. Many parties today make the mistake of capitulating to censorship before they are even censored, because they’re scared. Then they become reformist parties, indistinguishable from liberals, diluting theory to become socially acceptable and palatable as the material conditions continue dwindling around us. Anything to get on TV.
Places such as Lemmygrad allow us to congregate, talk and have a community. But more than that, they also allow us to share knowledge and theory and learn from each other. The solution is to have both self-owned platforms and continue the struggle outside of our bubbles too. It’s not all one or the other, it’s both.
Lemmygrad can’t be banned - first of all it’s all federated. Even if lemmygrad stopped existing, every post that’s federated on the dozens of instance we are linked with would still be up. You can’t take down the federated web unless you take down every single federated website. Moreover, lemmygrad is self-hosted. Being self-hosted, the website can also be brought back very quickly. This is the case for any self-hosted website if you run daily backups like you should be doing anyway.
Independently hosted Internet communities like Lemmygrad are in a much better place than communities which exist as “guests” on corporate platforms like Reddit or Facebook, but we need to be thoughtful about this. This is not a problem which can be solved simply by renting dozens of VPSs. The Internet is not magic. It is composed of data centers, routing hubs, high capacity back-bones, last mile ISPs. The vast majority of the network is privately owned. Many aspects of the network are totally monopolized. There are many ways control can be exerted over it. As ecosystems like the Fediverse continue to grow, we will see this power exerted in new and unprecedented ways. Always be prepared.
i’ve been concerned about this as well and as a non-tech savvy person, it’s hard to figure out how to even learn about ways around it. techie stuff is aggressively gatekept - in fact, i came across some interesting articles about LoRa communications and Reticulum Network, but i can’t find anything written up that doesn’t assume a certain level competence or background in tech - so i tried to ask in a socialist prepper subreddit, where i was told that i should not be interested unlearning about Reticulum Network because it’s way too advanced and only hardcore techies are capable of using that.
but anyway - wrt the concern of privatized internet infrastructure, i think that Reticulum thingie could be promising if the nerds ever start sharing their toys with us lolol
Hell yeah! This has been how I’ve felt for a long time!