[liberationtech] Remember Aaron Swartz

[Rand Strauss]

> > you have a disgusting mentality… 


Let’s please have no name-calling here, or pretend people have a "mentality", much less that one can deduce it.  Let’s keep the conversation constructive and curb our impulses to insult each other, even to highlight contrasting views.

We have the institutions we have, and they have advantages and disadvantages.  When the academic publishing groups began, they added a lot of value- there was no internet. They were expensive because publishing was expensive because distribution was inefficient. Alternatives are emerging.

Aaron Swartz was one of many non-neurotypical people who were born long before the term was coined.  Back then, one was either fit to stand trial, or unfit, sane or crazy. Today, we know that there are many spectra of cognitive abilities and tolerances. Many more people are capable of standing trial, of thriving in schools, of contributing in many ways to society if accommodations are made.  Aaron had both genius and short-sightedness.

Clearly Aaron missed the many compelling perspectives that showed he was valued and needed and, after a time at least, could find a community in which he could thrive. And he continues to have a lot of company in this regard.  Suicide, as well as near-suicide, suicidal thoughts and depression are all too common, especially in America.  Humanity has made some incredible strides in understanding and treating these phenomena, but there are still huge holes in distribution.

Many, many prosecutors have been guilty of overreach, filling America’s prisons with all sorts of people who should never have been there, or should have had much shorter sentences.  These prosecutors reflect a large fraction of society that reacts to small crimes with name-calling, labelling a whole person as a criminal, especially if they have a cognitive difference, seem to oppose an establishment norm, or if their skin is darkened by pigments. This extends to our schools as well, with the rallying cry of "zero tolerance."

What are we going to do about it?

Except, humanity also seems to be weak when it comes to "we", and "doing."  

For instance, I have a list of dozens of web-based political-reform efforts (sites).  While all but mine, and perhaps another, seem unlikely to make a real difference, there’s no group maintaining the list, much less embellishing it, much less publishing it, much less (to my knowledge) studying the phenomena to see what’s promising and what’s missing (much less working on mine...)

> > We created it, and it still exists. It's called Diaspora*. 


You didn’t even say how to find it ( https://diasporafoundation.org/ <https://diasporafoundation.org/> ), much less how to participate on this list through it.  Is there a LiberationTech pod?  I spent 5 minutes looking around it- it seems almost impenetrable…

Does MeWe.com satisfy your anti-facebook requirements?   We could make a group there, such as:  https://mewe.com/join/liberationtech <https://mewe.com/join/liberationtech>.  To augment, certainly not to replace, this forum.

Every single one of us, and every single one of "them" is every day doing what we think and feel is appropriate given our thoughts, feelings and judgements of our abilities, needs, wants and opportunities in the world.  We’re swept up by inspirations, whether of Aarons willingness to oppose the the paywalls around knowledge or the prosecutor’s willingness to defend society’s rules about property and order.  Meanwhile, Trump has further institutionalized chaos and stupidity, CO2 levels are averaging about 406, and the new normal is ever-worsening climate change catastrophe.  While we have many partial answer, we clearly have a long way to go.

'Best wishes as we approach Thanksgiving.
-r

> On Nov 10, 2019, at 8:11 AM, Yosem Companys <ycompanys at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In fact, the masses ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿 would like to see an Anti-Facebook - with the potential for limitless friends, more efficient algorithms and no distortion of information. We can all collectively usher in a more beautiful digital 💻 world, free of Facebook's limitations and unjust ♠️ social media practices  #️⃣
> 
> But people need to use such alternate, community friendly solutions if they are to dethrone Facebook. And that requires public awareness. And that requires mass-scale earned media or expensive marketing/advertising. (In the absence of collective action, the only other solution is turning these networks into public utilities.)
> -- 
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