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How best to contribute to anti-facist efforts as an engineer?

• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• readyplayernull 2y ago
  First, all communications will be grokked by fgov AI, think Google Play Store false positive bans, but for people instead of apps. So stop grokkable communications. Don't support fgov economy, produce yourself and your communities, use paramoney and barter. E-coins aren't paramoney, they are being extracted with fines. Keep a low profile.
• PaulHoule 2y ago
  Calling yourself an anti-fascist is either (a) resigning to those people always driving the bus (why not call your movement after what you want as opposed to what you don't want?) or (b) thinking life is like V for Vendetta or Pink Floyd's The Wall. 20 years of people who could have been behind a movement for positive social change crying wolf is one reason why we are in this mess.
  • eesmith 2y ago
    What a broad brush to use about the antiwar movement, antisemitism, anti-narcotic and anti-drug campaigns, anti-suffragism, anti-statism, antismoking, antisalooners, Anti-Catholicism, antitrust laws, and of course antidisestablishmentarianism.
    • PaulHoule 2y ago
      As well as many conservatives like Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, and 'liberals' like FDR so-called because of an explicit rejection of socialism, not to mention the Republican who ran against him in 1940 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie who pivoted from opposing the New Deal to being the US's diplomatic vanguard for WWII.
  • dttze 2y ago
    Yeah man, let me make my progressive social movement while under the rule of people who are happy to use violence and other nefarious means to suppress any sort of positive change that threatens their power. If only people had made movements against the Iraq war and bank bailouts in 08, things would be so much different now.
    • PaulHoule 2y ago
      Same as its ever been. Back in the 1960s you had Jewish people who learned something in general from how their own people were oppressed and went down to the US South and gave their lives for the civil rights movement. The author doesn't want to face any consequences for his activism but this essay makes it clear you have to take your lumps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau) A woman who rides horses at our barn used to run the soup kitchen in Ithaca but she got arrested and spent time in federal prison because she crashed the gate at a facility where they store nuclear weapons. There's a big difference between that and the people who share hateful memes on social and think they are 'activists'.
• rawgabbit 2y ago
  There are differing opinions on this and there have been academic studies on what levers can an unpopular government keep themselves in power. From everything I have ever read and listened to, the most effective way for the average citizen to check government abuse is to engage in the mainstream media. There is a reason why the US Constitution first amendment sought to protect the "free press". Support the free press, buy a subscription. Several subscriptions. Write letters to the editor. Share articles with your family and friends.
  • ckbishop 2y ago
    Yeah, I have already done some of this. I hadn't read Wired in years, but rewarded them with a subscription as soon as they revealed the identity of Elon's minions.
• like_any_other 2y ago
  It seems the fascist parties are mostly propelled by anti-immigration sentiment [1]. If you want to take the wind out of their sails, the best way would be by creating a liberal, progressive party, that however wants to decrease immigration [2]. This shouldn't take much work, as the left's position is already anti-immigration and anti-demographic-change when it comes to some other countries/territories, such as Kashmir [3]. [1] Though they don't always listen to their voters on that - e.g. after Brexit, the Tories greatly increased immigration to Britain. [2] Such as used to be the position of Bernie Sanders: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/16/years-bernie-sanders-warned-that-increased-immigration-would-lower-wages-us-workers-now-he-barely-mentions-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/16/years-ber... [3] Kashmir’s new status could bring demographic change, drawing comparisons to the West Bank - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/08/kashmirs-new-status-could-bring-demographic-change-drawing-comparisons-west-bank/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/08/kashmirs-new...
  • eesmith 2y ago
    Your [2] doesn't seem to understand how the Sander's opposition to guest workers, eg, H1B, which is a non-immigrant visa, isn't that of "decrease immigration" but an objection specifically to guest workers: > Sanders defended his vote by suggesting that the guest worker provisions in the bill were “akin to slavery,” a notable shift from how Sanders talked about immigrant labor before his presidential bids. The "before his presidential bids" quote from 2007 says the same: > “If poverty is increasing and if wages are going down, I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are right now,” In both cases he singles out "guest workers" as the issue, and not the broad category of "immigrants." This includes guest workers who work under an H1B visa which, quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa: > has been criticized for potentially subsidizing businesses, creating conditions likened to modern indentured servitude, institutionalizing discrimination against older workers, and suppressing wages within the technology sector. Economists and academics remain divided on the program's overall effect, including its effects on innovation, U.S. workers, and the broader economy As for your policy advice, do bear in mind that the last three Democratic presidents have been anti-immigration. Clinton's Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 was part of his "triangulation" to attract anti-immigrant sentiment and take the wind out of the sails of Republicans. Obama was nicknamed the "Deporter in Chief", and Biden was little different, while keeping most of Trump's changes, and even recently boasting about his deportation counts compared to Trump (II). In other words, the Democratic Party has already implemented your suggestion, only to find that it didn't cause enough people to switch parties, while causing them to lose support due to the apathy and resignation by those who think the current laws are far too cruel and inhumane. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 in [3] could also be described as the right's willingness to suppress minority rights and autonomy. Nor is there need to point to India: the left tends to support Native American tribal sovereignty, rather than the older expansionist practices of taking over Native land in the name of explicit demographic change.
• opendomain 2y ago
  I just stumbled upon a whole group of people that may feel the same as you: https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/ https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/
• krapp 2y ago
  The first thing you need to realize is that Hacker News is a pro-fascist stronghold and that it is at best unwise and at worst unsafe (and either way unproductive) to talk seriously about such things here. You can find a lot of resources on Mastodon and Reddit, but be aware that every form of media is being astroturfed and propagandized (including HN.) Look for opportunities for activism within your own community, and network with people on the ground. And accept that resistance may have consequences. You don't need to be a hero. Even something as simple as giving money to mutual aid groups is enough. Raise awareness on social media. Refuse to comply where you can afford to. Anything is better than nothing.
• braunjohnson 2y ago
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