mastodon 4.7.3Author & blogger interested in #history, #culture & #politics. I lived in East Asia (mainly Hong Kong & Taiwan) for several years. I support #democracy & fair trade, I appreciate constructive, nuanced debate: schedium.net / china-journal.org
The civil rights movement happened without social media. The birdsite may have been useful but it's not necessary to organize political movements.
Besides, those who praise Twitter might be surprised at how many people can be empowered by nonprofit social media where there are no promoted accounts and no algorithms that make lots of users invisible.
Take your time and rebuild communities on platforms that don't exist to serve ads and can't be bought by far right oligarchs.
YouTube is described as social media, yet it lacks the most basic tools of social media.
Such as: the ability to block trolls in the comments. Why do I need to let trolls annoy me with messages repeating the same talking points when I could just block them?
It's baffling that YT doesn't get it.
YouTube has restored Trump's channel, more than two years after it was suspended for inciting violence.
“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YT said. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”
YT dealing with Trump like the Weimar Republic dealt with Hitler.
#Trump
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/youtube-restores-donald-trump-channel_n_641479b3e4b0fef15243afae#:~:text=YouTube%20on%20Friday,to%20an%20election.%E2%80%9D
If you lie your way into Congress, you face no consequences, but you get a lot of free media coverage.
I'm not going to mention the name of that specific person I've been seeing in the headlines for months, and whose lying was exposed after he got elected.
What's the point if media organizations don't cover a candidate's lying during an election campaign, but obsessively overcover it afterwards?
We know what a world dominated by Xi-Putin means.
•Crackdown on democracy movements (like in Belarus, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan).
•Territorial expansion (starting with Ukraine and Taiwan).
•Attempts to destabilize and overthrow democracy (Russian interference in elections, Beijing's "united front" strategy, disinformation etc.).
When people blame the US for confronting Xi's regime (not "China"!) they're either clueless or useful tools
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/17/russia-ukraine-war-news/
Alastair Campbell defending the 2003 invasion of Iraq is nuts.
Especially his claims Blair was given plausible information and that we cannot criticize it *in hindsight* (yes, we can, and we also did it back then, maybe he just doesn't understand the concept of evidence);
And the idea that *we cannot prove* that Saddam wouldn't have been a threat if the US/UK hadn't attacked Iraq.
Why do we need to prove that Saddam wouldn't have been a threat based on some warmongers' conspiracy theories?
"There were 307 anti-migrant protests in 2022, while in 2023 there have already been 64 demos, according to the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force, calling the numbers an “exponential increase”.
“Ireland’s borders are wide open,” Niall McConnell, leader of the Irish Nationalist Catholic Party, told Euronews. “There is no restriction on immigration.”
“The indigenous Irish are being racially discriminated against,” he added."
#Europe #Ireland #FarRight
https://www.euronews.com/2023/03/13/keep-ireland-irish-say-hello-to-irelands-growing-far-right#:~:text=There%20were%20307,against%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20added.
"Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon ... signed a bill banning the sale and use of abortion pillsin the conservative state. He also green lighted a seperate measure, without his signature, which would restrict abortion to become the law.
The governor's decision to prohibit abortion pills comes after the issue took center stage in in Texas, where a federal judge is considering ordering a nationwide ban"
https://www.dw.com/en/us-wyoming-governor-signs-bill-outlawing-abortion-pills/a-65033369#:~:text=Wyoming%20Governor%20Mark,a%20nationwide%20ban
David Rothkopf said that "Taiwan will become part of China."
@YusufToropov@toot.community indeed, the level of fanatical belief in their own lack of judgement is stunning.
A clip of Alastair Campbell still making excuses for the Blair government's decision to invade Iraq.
@yaohsi@swiss.social even more stunning, self-proclaimed leftists who openly side with Putin. To some people, leftism means being anti-US by default, and supporting any anti-US regime.
Letters and Politics with Mitch Jeserich has decided to amplify GQP propaganda. One of the witnesses: Matt Taibbi.
It's annoying to see how a segment of the left, or purported left, acts as a useful tool of the far right (e.g. Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald) due to their common hatred of the US government.
I will let Jeserich know what I think about this. If he doesn't care, I'll put him in the trash can like Taibbi and Greenwald
@marksibly@mastodon.nz I like comments, they allow me to get different perspectives. Some comments are very smart and informative, absolutely worth reading. The issue I have is that I cannot block trolls who keep wasting my time. And I just can't ignore them when they provoke me. I probably should, but cannot ...
@marksibly@mastodon.nz I agree, but when you google 'is YouTube social media', the highest ranking sites say it is, and so does Wikipedia. And the word police came after me for daring to say that YT isn't social media.
Anyway, YT definitely should allow users to block other users in order to avoid trolling.
Ron DeFascist's whole Guantanamo torture story is starting to receive more attention.
Let's see if most media will actually cover it extensively instead of waiting until he gets elected.
@YusufToropov@toot.community yes, it's so absurd. He's repeating the exact same arguments as 20 years ago!
"US European Command released footage of the Tuesday encounter between a US surveillance drone and the Russian fighter jets ...
"The video shows the camera of the MQ-9 Reaper drone pointed backward toward its tail and the drone's propeller, which is mounted on the rear, spinning. Then, a Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jet is shown approaching. As it draws closer, the Russian fighter jet dumps fuel as it intercepts the US drone."
#US #Russia
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/us-military-video-drone-russian-jet/index.html#:~:text=US%20European%20Command,the%20US%20drone.