[liberationtech] Liberation Tech would like a word.

[kaiser kuo]

Thanks, Kate, for stepping up to revive this effort — and for the low-key
shout-out!

I've written and spoken quite a bit on the seemingly sudden swing from the
politically techno-utopian idea still present in this listserv's name to
the techno-pessimism that seems so pervasive in discourse on the
relationship between technology and authoritarian politics. We've gone, as
I've often said, from believing that the spread of digital technology
sounded the death knell for authoritarian governments to believing instead
that tech is the loyal handmaiden of authoritarians, who've become adept at
using them to suppress dissent and other nefarious ends. To an extent, I
get why this has happened — the failure of the later color revolutions and
the Arab Spring, when we too-eagerly appended the names of various American
social media products to these revolutions (the "Twitter Revolution," the
"YouTube Revolution," the "Facebook Revolution"); the Snowden revelations
about Prism; Russian meddling and Macedonian troll farms; Cambridge
Analytica, etc). I suppose some humility about it was needed, but have we
(i.e. the national or "Western" conversation) overcorrected? I'd be curious
to hear from list members with experience in different geographies to get
their sense of how things have played out in the last decade. I put the
inflection point at roughly 2016: that's when I started sensing the
dramatic narrative shift.

And I'm curious whether people think that's related to, or completely
independent from, another narrative shift that seems to have been
simultaneous when it comes, specifically, to China: At about that same
moment, the narrative went from this disparagement of China's ability to
innovate (blaming, in most cases, the lack of free information flows and
academic freedom, and positing a relationship between innovation and
political freedom) to a pervasive sense that China was out-innovating the
U.S. and was an unstoppable juggernaut ready to eat our lunch. Obviously
this latter narrative continues and has been made worse in recent years.

Thanks! Once again, Kate, thanks for your efforts!!

- Kaiser

On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:51 PM Lorelei Kelly <loreleikelly at gmail.com>
wrote:

> hi, thanks for the note.
> I'm glad to see this list momentum effort!  We need it!
> I lead the modernizing Congress portfolio at Georgetown and I'm still
> working adjacent to the US Congress with the members and committees who are
> behind this effort-- The House has passed 202 reform and modernization
> recommendations. It is truly an unprecedented and historic push forward.
> I'm now helping implement the more difficult ones that include a social
> cohesion aspect. (i.e. how to we integrate new forms of deliberative
> technology into the workflow of members so there is a flow of authentic,
> productive, constituent driven feedback)  Also we have gotten ahead of the
> curve on AI and LLMs in the House at least. I'm proud of this old
> institution, even though its looking like a three ring circus in the news.
> I think the Mike Johnson success on Ukraine funding is a very interesting
> turning point for looking at democracy as transcendent critical
> infrastructure (backed up by pandemic measures to go remote and then J6
> reactions to look at the information systems on Capitol Hill as national
> security priorities)  We have begun to marginalize deviant behavior through
> the process and this is a good, emergent, systems way to make sense of it.
> Very interesting time for all of this.
> LK
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:19 PM Kate Krauss <katiephr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi!
>>
>> We didn't move the list, or change its name (Liberation Tech) but we did
>> supply a link which works (after fixing a technical glitch) that you can
>> share with new people who might want to join.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Kate
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:12 PM Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim &
>> Survivor of Many <gmkarl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> > > Hi, I’m confused, what about the list this email was sent to (
>>> lt at lists.liberationtech.org) ?
>>> > >
>>> > > What does the “subscribe” link in this email have to do with that
>>> list?
>>> > >
>>> > > Is it a different list? The same list? Is
>>> lt at lists.liberationtech.org still alive or being moved?
>>> > >
>>> > > Very confused,
>>> > > Greg
>>> >
>>> > I'd like to relate that some communities have been both disrupted and
>>> > defended by influences skilled in social manipulation, and that one
>>> > attribute of that is changing the environment.
>>> >
>>> > Changing an environment can help change, whether overt or covert, be
>>> > adopted more readily. It can separate both from harm and fear as well
>>> > as familiarity and community.
>>> >
>>> > It's pleasant that changing the list name could help people feel safer
>>> > from any trauma associated with the old list, and help anything
>>> > targeting the old list have a little trouble finding the new people.
>>> >
>>> > I hope that everybody who was affiliated with the old list succeeds in
>>> > finding the new one, but I know there will be people who don't.
>>> >
>>> > Some communities often have to move in order to survive well. This
>>> > does sadly often mean leaving people behind.
>>> >
>>> > Crazy Karl (I think I have OSDD from technologically-facilitated
>>> abuse!)
>>>
>>> Apologies, I did not realize it was the _same_ list the subscribe link
>>> was sent to.
>>>
>>> I had assumed by context that this was a new list.
>>>
>> --
>> Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
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>> change to digest mode, or change password by emailing
>> lt-owner at lists.liberationtech.org.
>>
>
>
> --
>
> *Lorelei KellyResearch Lead, Congressional Modernization
> <https://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/project/modernizing-congress/>*
>
>
>
> *Founder, Georgetown Democracy, Education + Service (GeoDES)*
>
> --
> Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
> commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you
> moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe,
> change to digest mode, or change password by emailing
> lt-owner at lists.liberationtech.org.
>
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