- Je eigen wetenschap kapot bezuinigen - Daarnaast stel je (geheel volgens Project2025) voor om opleidingen niet alleen op studentenaantallen, maar ook op 'maatschappelijke relevantie' te financieren 👉 oftewel: kritische & 'linkse' opleidingen worden geschrapt. - Je partij lanceert aanval na aanval op gender & trans - Je zit in een coalitie met de klimaatwappies van PVV & BBB - Kabinet Schreeuwwitje I ❤ ongelijkheid, en haat wetenschap - En dan dit 👇
"Onderwijsminister Eppo Bruins richt een fonds op om zo snel mogelijk topwetenschappers uit het buitenland naar Nederland te halen. De aanleiding lijkt de snel veranderende situatie voor wetenschappers in de Verenigde Staten te zijn, al zegt Bruins dat niet hardop." (...)
"De situatie voor Amerikaanse wetenschappers is op dit moment onzeker. Sinds de beëdiging van president Donald Trump worden fondsen ingetrokken, regent het ontslagen en gaan bepaalde wetenschappelijke termen in de ban. Die harde opstelling lijkt vooral te zijn gericht op on
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Schaamteloos, Bruins.
- Je eigen wetenschap kapot bezuinigen - Daarnaast stel je (geheel volgens Project2025) voor om opleidingen niet alleen op studentenaantallen, maar ook op 'maatschappelijke relevantie' te financieren 👉 oftewel: kritische & 'linkse' opleidingen worden geschrapt. - Je partij lanceert aanval na aanval op gender & trans - Je zit in een coalitie met de klimaatwappies van PVV & BBB - Kabinet Schreeuwwitje I ❤ ongelijkheid, en haat wetenschap - En dan dit 👇
"Onderwijsminister Eppo Bruins richt een fonds op om zo snel mogelijk topwetenschappers uit het buitenland naar Nederland te halen. De aanleiding lijkt de snel veranderende situatie voor wetenschappers in de Verenigde Staten te zijn, al zegt Bruins dat niet hardop." (...)
"De situatie voor Amerikaanse wetenschappers is op dit moment onzeker. Sinds de beëdiging van president Donald Trump worden fondsen ingetrokken, regent het ontslagen en gaan bepaalde wetenschappelijke termen in de ban. Die harde opstelling lijkt vooral te zijn gericht op onderzoek naar klimaat, gender en ongelijkheid."
Bruins haalt nóg meer geld weg bij wetenschap om hen hier heen te lokken: "Topwetenschappers zijn immers goud waard voor ons land en voor Europa."
When in the 1930s would you have decided “no, I’m not going to go to that conference in Germany”?
Because the question now needs to be posed looking westwards across the Atlantic.
If your phone can be taken on arrival & searched for messages critical of the government & then you can be denied entry (or perhaps worse in the future), why would you even think of going in the first place?
@va2lam I made a conscious effort not to go there after 2016, despite my normal schedule including up to six trips a year to the US.
On an occasion when I did go, I took a fully clean laptop & phone, & loaded everything from the cloud after I was in my hotel. I needed one password to access the account & that was separated on two pieces of paper, one in my shoe.
It feels absurd to think I thought that was necessary. But here we are again …
yeah, I was at a conference in Beijing a few years ago and someone who was rotating at DARPA did similar things. But these days it's the US that is actually the danger.
I did go to a conference in the US last October because my Iranian student couldn't get a visa. But in the future I'm definitely planning to de-prioritize US conferences.
FWIW, the article suggests that the date this French scientist was refused entry was just before the annual Lunar & Planetary Sciences Conference in Houston, a key meeting for folk in those fields.
Will be interesting to see if further information emerges.
Yes, I heard the French scientist was planning to attend the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. See also this Le Monde article (I don't read much French myself). lemonde.fr/international/artic…
@EricFielding I strongly encourage people to click on the news article and then use a translation. Because the positioning of the French ministry for research is eye-opening.
@Remittancegirl @EricFielding Indeed. It’s a complete abnegation of democracy to punish someone for having a negative opinion on an elected politician, whether foreign or not.
But the aim is clear here – to use arbitrary & excessive power to signal that dissent will not be tolerated, whether from foreigners or citizens. And there will be many in the relevant authorities who will enjoy wielding that power.
Classic authoritarian state rule. The US is sliding away before our eyes.
France's research minister expressed 'concern' on Wednesday at this decision by the US authorities. The researcher underwent a random check on arrival, before his computer and phone were searched, a source said.
@louis You have my deepest sympathy & concern – it seems to be even worse than the most extreme predictions & it feels certain that a lot of lives are being ruined.
I’ve lived five years in the US, visited more than a hundred times, & have been married to an American – I know that there are many good people there who absolutely don’t want this insanity.
@louis as another American, 100% agree. We don't want any of what's going on and are doing what we can, but any help from the outside is much appreciated.
@demofox @louis Thirding. It seems to be a common foreign misconception that the US's general public is in a position to violently overthrow the Federal government at a moment's notice. We're not, for several reasons.
@pteryx @demofox @louis True, but one does wonder at which point the senior generals might begin to feel that things are going too far. They tend to be fiercely pragmatic people who truly have fealty to the wider country, not just a very narrow, distorted part of it.
Yeah, the military strikes me as a major wild card in all this. I don't feel like I can predict what they'll do either way (unlike police, whom I can pretty confidently say will fall on the fascist side).
Will the military back Trump out of fear and/or misplaced loyalty? Will they overthrow him in a military coup? Will they fragment between those two goals and descend into infighting, and if so what will the balance of power between the sides be?
@pteryx @demofox @louis Trump has fired or had demoted most of the actual military officers who are military college trained. The military really is a wild card. If they do like Korea, then they don’t shoot citizens. If they do like American cops, there’s gonna be a lot of bloodshed and 5th columns sprouting up and it will be a decade or more before we see peace.
@derickr speaking as a non-scientist American (though I’ve got two scientists in the family), I urge you to boycott all things American.
It needs to sink in to the public at large that the US is dangerous (lots still in denial), and one of the best ways to do that is to stop spending money here. Don’t book those flights and hotels for the conference, don’t eat in our restaurants, and get around town via transit or taxi.
@grammasaurus @derickr Sage words & we are definitely moving in that direction in our family, not buying products from certain US companies. And we have no plans to travel there under current circumstances. I lived there for five years, have been hundreds of times, & have many friends & valued colleagues there who I know don’t agree with this slide into autocracy – they all have my solidarity in their fight to preserve democracy & the US as an open, collaborative, rule-based state ✊
@grammasaurus This is not a big business conference, but a community one run on a shoestring budget. Flights are all booked (non US airline), and hotel too.
I don't want to be flaky with the people who organise it, nor miss a chance to see many friends, who honestly could do with some support.
But I might change my mind if it gets worse, and have been talking to the organisers about that too.
Beyond that, I'm definitely moving away from US (tech) providers.
My eyes were opened on this about 10 years ago when a customer of mine acknowledged that their corporate laptops had embedded self-destruct software in case they "fell into the wrong hands."
Those laptops were only intended to be used on trips to their US customers.
I've lost count of the number of times I've visited the US, including multiple times in the same week (just mad!), but I can't see me willingly going again...
If you have to come to the US, which I recommend against, get a spare phone, load it with only a few innocuous contacts and apps, and leave your real phone at home. I am utterly ashamed of the things my country is doing
Don't overlook the profit motive and public corruption behind these immigration crackdowns & extra travel visa scrutiny.
Trump's administration is doing all it can to prolong detention time because it sends money from the detainees into the system. borderreport.com/immigration/c…
Detainees are pressured into posting bail, hiring a US lawyer, working for free, signing over assets, or otherwise "feeding the beast" in order to regain their freedom.
@grb090423 Or only send the folks who are prepared to speak up for those who do not want to go and refute whatever nonsense the less critically thinking inclined attendees may have to say about the topics of the conferences.
How long before USAns are detained and required to submit their phones for examination? Could be anywhere. Social Security office, any federal building, any security point. I advise my friends to memorize two phone numbers in case they are detained and their phone is confiscated: friend who can advocate for them; and their lawyer if they have one, otherwise the ACLU. It’s time to own two phones: one for use in places of relative safety, one for use in and around federal offices.
I'm sure this is getting worse, but this has been an issue at US borders for at least 10 years. If you search you'll see articles advising political folk to wipe their phone before entering the US going way back.
(These are not scientists, but still). I had some business travel to the US come up, showed these to my manager and told him I feel that would be unsafe. I always loved visiting the US and this makes me sad indeed.
I've asked myself that question - and when Trump was elected the first time, I decided I wouldn't attend conferences in a country that had just issued a blanket ban on any colleagues from Muslim majority countries.
This time, however, Trump is launching an attack on US science itself, so I think it would be wrong not to go. As a white European, my personal risk is objectively very low (though I will certainly not carry data or access to data that could put others at risk).
If they were to seriously detain everyone who has publicly spoken out against Trump, ICE would soon be overloaded. If there's any strategy behind detaining visiting scientists, it's to quash dissent and enforce self-censorship and compliance. I think we shouldn't abide.
I'm hitting this right now. Due at a meeting in a month and considering switching to virtual. It's tough as i am the only non US member of a global leadership team and expected to be over three to four times a year
That's once again the proof that MAGA's concern about freedom of speech is not to protect it but indeed to destroy it. US can't wait until the midterms...
The moment the election results got in I canceled all my CfP submissions to US conferences...
It hurt. But I can't make it. And would I have not done it, now would probably be the time where I'd cancel possible gigs. If I can't be certain that I don't end up in some slave-labour camp, I'm out!
@Talia Indeed. I felt the same during the first Tangerine Tyrant era – admittedly, I went for work still, but wouldn’t countenance any holiday there. In particular, we had hoped to go & see the 2017 total solar eclipse, but that got struck immediately.
But this time it’s far worse & I’d be hard pressed to agree to travel there now for any reason.
Yes, I went to a conference in NYC in 2018 with a little reservation. I wouldn't have gone for pleasure. Now, it's actively dangerous to go for any reason.
@yuhasz01 While I strongly support your intent, I must admit that I still find more value in attending meetings & giving talks in person where possible & reasonable. I’ve spent a lot of time in Zoom meetings & they always fall short. But certainly, when needs must, as is the case with the rapidly-eroding civil rights of the US, I’m fully with you (if not physically 🙂)
you definitely shouldn't come here right now. A tiny mistake on visa paperwork will land you in a for profit prison. Anything suspicious on your electronics will deny you entry. Really everyone should be boycotting red states like Texas and Florida and my home state of Tennessee right now regardless of the border shenanigans. I hope conferences move to more friendly countries. Move them all to Canada.
This „procedure“ exists since July 2008! It is always wise to use „Travelequipment“ for the Entry into the USA, instead of traveling with you All-Day Electronics…!
@Ulli I know it does & there have been times in the past, notably during the Tangerine Tyrant’s last term, that I only carried scrubbed laptops & phones on trips.
The point is how often it is enacted, with what tolerance levels, & with what intent. And that has clearly changed, making it far more risky / dangerous for foreigners with opinions to travel to the US than it was two months ago. And arguably travelling tacitly legitimises the regime even if you carry clean electronics.
We carry around 700-1000 inadmissible passengers back to Germany year by year for the last 25 years. That amount hasn’t changed during the last months. What changed was the coverage of single cases by news outlets and in the social media. And it is always the same, the CBP-Officer has the last word about your entry into the US. If he don’t like you, you are going back, that also hasn’t changed for the last 40yrs I observe it as a traveler and pilot.
@Ulli Thanks for putting some numbers on that for us – do you know what fraction of the total number of passengers that is?
And I know that US immigration officials have always had this power – I used to live there, had a Green Card, & have had some very interesting experiences with them over the years. I also spoke at one point with the most senior lawyer at the INS about the rules & they essentially said "it's entirely at the discretion of the officer you talk to on the day."
@Ulli That said, I think it's perfectly likely that the current government is going to weaponise that power, & I struggle to believe that turning back a scientist for having messages on his phone disapproving of the research funding policies has always been a reason for rejection.
So we also need to be careful not to shrug & say "business as usual", as it's clear that this is not a US government as usual.
No, it is nowhere in the US Business as usual!! But we have to concentrate on the cases related with the 🤡 in the WH! If we concentrate on the „loudest cases“, but miss the real ones by that, we fall into the traps set by right-wing-media! We had a large news coverage about our ministry of foreign affairs changing a sentence within the travel informations regarding the US, but there were no coverage of the Gytmo-Camps, or the illegal deportations of the Venezuelans, in Germany…
IATA is naming the number on „less than 1%“, but the Airlines doing a lot in front of the flight to make sure that only Passengers arrive, with a good chance for admission, as there are fines for every INAD for the Airline.
We had issues with VISA for German researchers 9 years ago. They were Turkish Nationals postdpocs at our department. Visa procedure took simply too long so they could not attend We had to sent a US or Canadian on short notice to present So this is not so new. (And we do not need to speak about other nations who always had this issues) This just never made news
New is, the US based researchers have to fear reentry is denied. So either we go hybrid, or we write off US Research.
@mwfc Yeah, I know it’s not new, but it needs to be called out. Too many people are just ignoring these issues because it’s either inconvenient for them or because they’ve grown bored of it. But that merely serves to normalise this corrupt autocracy & also emboldens the right-wing elsewhere in the world. We in Europe are by no means immune to that brain-rot virus, unfortunately.
@canusfeminacanis It’s not just the personal risk, of course, it’s also that one is effectively normalising & legitimising an autocracy by travelling there for work or travel. This is true in many other countries around the world & there are many where I refuse to travel, but it does feel as though many remain in denial, especially when it comes to the US.
Yep, I'm missing a good technical conf in NY in May (no virtual alternative) and will be up overnight to attend a virtual NIST workshop the following week
Denied entry is currently the better case, as stories emerge of travellers simply being detained without charge and then transferred to ICE detention centres…
Which is why I want #Canada to double, triple down to get all the international conferences it can. All the medical, scientific, educational, commercial conferences out there. EAT THEIR LUNCH. #ElbowsUp #Canada
yes, exactly, why would you want to go there? why would you like to contribute to that system with your knowledge or your money? Better use your brain in Europe, we'll need them.
Now you see that the First Amendment is just a lame excuse for dumb people to cowardly attack everyone else and the Second Amendment is brandished for personal egoistic reasons but never used when it is needed.
In a nutshell, more often than not, Americans invoking the Constitution couldn't care less about it.
@dom What's scary is that it's become clear that a lot of rank-and-file right-wing citizens see the Constitution the same way they see the Bible: an infallible divine document that is nonetheless not for *their* lowly eyes to read, but for the "priesthood" to interpret for them in ways that point towards cruelty and hate.
@bigjsl @Unixbigot I hear you. Perhaps I’m a naive milquetoast, but I struggle to believe that the US is going to garner the respect & fear its far-right wingers believe it deserves in the world by destroying its own civil society & pissing off many other countries. A seriously self-confident superpower knows how to take criticism & absorb some small blows, earning respect through wielding (contingent) love, not terror. I suspect China does understand this though.
I got a weight of my chest: I turned down an invitation to a math conference in the US and cancelled another I had already accepted. I know I'm probably overreacting, but I was worried about being deported since I've read many news stories about this happening to people with valid visas —including Europeans, so I don't like my chances as a brown Mexican! And even though I know it was unlikely to happen to me (it probably only happens to a small fraction of visitors), I'm happy to stop the nagging worry in the back of my mind. It's a shame: both events would have been great and I would have seen many American friends I don't get to see often.
@oantolin I fully agree with your decision. I have many very good friends & colleagues in the US who are concerned & scared about the rapid dismantling any remaining semblance of democracy in their country & they have my sympathy.
My fear though as the catastrophe of climate change continues to increase, is that totalitarianism will take a deeper hold across the world, as populists & demagogues exploit the fear & denialism. The world is at a dangerous tipping point in many ways.
Volgens Caspar Veldkamp (minister Buitenlandse Zaken in kabinet Schreeuwwitje I) moet Hamas onmiddellijk alle gijzelaars vrijlaten, omdat Israël de wapenstilstand schendt.
Israël noemt hij uiteraard niet.
Media schrijven braaf & kritiekloos over wat deze extreemrechtse dude uit zijn mond poept.
"Nee we spreken natuurlijk Israël niet direct aan. Maar we gaan er uiteraard volledig van uit dat zij zich zeer ferm aangesproken zullen voelen en direct actie ondernemen!
Zo, nu lekker koffie en lekkere Israëlische dadels! HMm, en waar zullen we daarna de burgers weer een poot uitdraaien...?"
het is een relatieve verademing om @rtlnieuws te kijken. Daar wordt hardop gezegd dat Israël het bestand heeft kapot gebombardeerd, en dat de regering Netanyahu dat doet om aan de macht te blijven.
Kabinet lanceert nieuwe aanval op het Nederlandse onderwijs: Schreeuwwitje I wil op politieke gronden kunnen gaan bepalen welke opleidingen nog geld krijgen en welke niet.
Minister Bruins wil het MBO, en straks ook HBO en universiteiten, niet meer alleen op studentenaantallen gaan financieren, maar ook op "maatschappelijk belang". Hij is bang dat er anders studies omvallen die gewoon belangrijk zijn voor ons allemaal.
Dit klinkt fantastisch. Dat is het niet.
We hebben een extreemrechts kabinet, wat miljarden gaat bezuinigen op het onderwijs, en wat nu ineens zegt: het zou zonde zijn als er opleidingen omvallen omdat we alleen maar naar studentenaantallen kijken. Laten we ook kijken naar maatschappelijk belang.
Maar dat kan je ook omdraaien.
Kabinet Schreeuwwitje I zegt hier: "Wij gaan wel eventjes bepalen wat wij van maatschappelijk belang vinden. En dus ook welke opleidingen volgens ons géén maatschappelijk belang hebben."
Dit is niet mooi, maar een directe aanval op onafhankelijke wetenschap, vrijheid van m
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Kabinet lanceert nieuwe aanval op het Nederlandse onderwijs: Schreeuwwitje I wil op politieke gronden kunnen gaan bepalen welke opleidingen nog geld krijgen en welke niet.
Minister Bruins wil het MBO, en straks ook HBO en universiteiten, niet meer alleen op studentenaantallen gaan financieren, maar ook op "maatschappelijk belang". Hij is bang dat er anders studies omvallen die gewoon belangrijk zijn voor ons allemaal.
Dit klinkt fantastisch. Dat is het niet.
We hebben een extreemrechts kabinet, wat miljarden gaat bezuinigen op het onderwijs, en wat nu ineens zegt: het zou zonde zijn als er opleidingen omvallen omdat we alleen maar naar studentenaantallen kijken. Laten we ook kijken naar maatschappelijk belang.
Maar dat kan je ook omdraaien.
Kabinet Schreeuwwitje I zegt hier: "Wij gaan wel eventjes bepalen wat wij van maatschappelijk belang vinden. En dus ook welke opleidingen volgens ons géén maatschappelijk belang hebben."
Dit is niet mooi, maar een directe aanval op onafhankelijke wetenschap, vrijheid van meningsuiting en kritisch denken. Het is voor het kabinet immers een fluitje van een cent om kritische of zogenaamd "linkse" opleidingen (denk bijvoorbeeld aan vrouwenstudies) of studies die het kabinet op het belang van de rechtsstaat wijzen (bv internationaal recht) weg te zetten als "niet van groot maatschappelijk belang".
Het kabinet kan met deze move onbeperkt gaan lopen schrappen. Alleen het chilling effect zal er al toe leiden dat onderwijsbesturen kritiek en kritisch denken op hun eigen opleidingen met alle macht tegen zullen gaan.
It is genuinely incomprehensible to me that while trans people are being stripped of their rights, and Black people are being fired for being Black and ICE is rounding up protestors, people are trying to make “rest is resistance” a thing.
Fuck that.
Rest is important. Sure. Humans physically cannot function without it. But it’s not an act of resistance. Neither is staying hydrated. You’re going to need to raise the bar on this one.
Disability advocacy has something to say on this. Rest IS resistance when we are pressured to "work" to earn a place in society.
I hope you're willing to be specific with this critique, because you risk hitting with it folks for whom "work", "productivity" and the rest of it are levers of control and measures for how much support we "deserve".
(Edit: special thanks to the assholes speculating about my motivation in pointing out basic fucking intersectionality. I'm blocking all of you)
Edit 2: daojoan said "people". Not "white people" not "abled people" just "people". If she means "white people" or "abled people" she should SAY that.
"Rest is a radical act"?. I hope that that was the editor's words and not Alice Wong's, because that's the stuff of grift.
Moralistic, ineffectual culture war politics will get you no where with the fight we are in now.
There's no room for it.
What Musk and Trump are doing is beyond just dangerous, or a moral issue. It will be worse than the Gazan genocide in terms of the scale of material harm if they get everything they want.
@Subterfuge @quietmarc he’s very serious, and I’m going to make it very clear. This is a very antiblack statement. This person is truly mad that Black people were mentioned. This is the only thing driving this response.
Disability or not. Some of you people are fucking racist demons and it will pop out every time.
@Subterfuge For me as a disabled person, staying alive at this point IS indeed resistance. Thinking back to the initial murder of disabled people in Nazi Germany. #blind
@anantagd sure you are resisting pressures on you as an individual.
BUT That is not collective action. That is not political. It is not resistance against the political changes happening right now. And it has nothing to do with the Nazis killing disabled people in the 1930's and 40's.
Resisting what Trump and Musk are doing inside the US gov't requires active resistance, and collective action.
@Subterfuge I'm in NL. We have our own version of fascist necropolitics to contend with, and I resist. Now that disabled people like myself are under direct threat from eugenetics-focused policies, my very existence is an affront to the state. And the fact that I' m not prepared to euthanize myself or have myself euthanized is resistance. Mostly, leftist spaces deny access to me and people like me. Met je collectieve actie.
@Subterfuge Have I not been clear? As a disabled person, my existence is INHERENTLY political. And my mere being and staying alive and experiencing joy AND rest are acts of active resistance. Also you know nothing about what I do with my time, so please keep your ableist musings to yourself. Thanks.
@Subterfuge @anantagd@ieji.de thank you for calling out the weaponization of identity politics and labels to silence others. Because this is what they continue to do, and it’s obvious what the motivation is. The shit insane.
@quietmarc why is it ALWAYS some supposed “anarchist” on an FBI raided server who is clearly bigoted and deeply bothered by the presence or mention of Black people always trying to themselves the center of the fucking discussion
This is racist. I don’t give a fuck about your disability. It’s VERY clear that you are mad that Joan specifically mentioned Black people, and your own personal bigotry just couldn’t let you “rest”.
@ErickaSimone - especially seeing as the idea of Rest is Resistance was founded by a Black woman, and is grounded in the Womanist idea of Black people (Black women especially) being able to take a moment to be present in their humanity without being of service to anyone else - which is something afforded to white people all the time.
It's like the bastardisation of Self Care to mean white people taking scented baths and using a hair treatment.
@ErickaSimone ^^^ this. Be intersectional enough to recognize who has the privilege of energy to spare. If you have it, spend it where it counts. And if you aren’t actively harmed by engagement then you taking a news detox isn’t resistance it’s apathy.
@pixplz Who is it saying "rest is resistance"? Who is it telling their comrades to stay hydrated? It's disability folks, often folks on the front lines of fascism and the first to be killed, harmed, disappeared by fascists.
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Also, and I can't stress this enough.. we should not be in the business of directing our anger at each other, or denigrating the form of resistance anyone else has chosen.
There is no One True Way of resistance. Every act of resistance matters, and every method is valid. We all have different skills, abilities, and particular areas of concern.
It is so, so tempting to try to convince other people to put their energies into That Thing!.. whatever issue(s) you're most passionate about.
We can't all pay attention to everything. Pick something you care about and do things towards that. Trust that other people will do the same, and that their efforts are meaningful.
Just as we find the rate of new dumpster fires overwhelming, there are more ordinary, righteously pissed off people than there are fascists. They can be overwhelmed by too many targets, also.
14K likes, 157 comments - pat.radical.therapist on December 16, 2024: "Babe - we need, you see this is much deeper than what we perceive as self -care, this is our legacy our way of existing in the world. Can’t you feel that?
They stole.
@Fishercat so you made it clear that you didn’t read the article, then you weaponized a black resistance movement to prove your invalid point as some kinda gotcha moment. This is a special type of white violence. Please stop. You are not smart. You are just manipulative. Good luck or whatever.
- COVID is #airborne: het verspreid zich met name via minuscule zwevende druppeltjes door de lucht. Die kunnen uren in een kamer blijven hangen, en blijven dan besmettelijk. Afstand houden heeft alleen effect op grote druppels, maar niet op deze aerosolen.
- Covid is niet "mild".
- Infectieschade is cumulatief.
- Het maakt je vatbaarder voor andere infecties en ziekten.
- COVID is #airborne: het verspreid zich met name via minuscule zwevende druppeltjes door de lucht. Die kunnen uren in een kamer blijven hangen, en blijven dan besmettelijk. Afstand houden heeft alleen effect op grote druppels, maar niet op deze aerosolen.
- Covid is niet "mild".
- Infectieschade is cumulatief.
- Het maakt je vatbaarder voor andere infecties en ziekten.
- Het dragen van een FFP2 #masker vermindert de overdracht wel enorm, tot 99%.
- Vaccineren & boosteren blijft nodig. Als je al meermaals besmet bent geraakt zonder long covid te krijgen biedt dat helaas geen enkele garantie voor de volgende keer. Vaccinatie vermindert je kans op long covid met de helft voor meerdere maanden (en het slaat nergens op dat je maar eens in het jaar een prik kunt krijgen)
- Als je covid krijgt is het ongelofelijk belangrijk dat je:
1. Thuis blijft en geen anderen besmet (of alleen met een FFP2 masker anderen opzoekt) - het kan voor mensen met slechte afweer nog steeds dodelijk zijn, of je geliefden levenslang long covid bezorgen.
2. Rustig uitziekt. We weten nog steeds niet precies waarom de één long covid krijgt en de ander niet, maar van één mechanisme zijn we zeker: als je nog niet goed beter bent en dan toch al over je grenzen gaat, is dat de beste manier om long covid te ontwikkelen. Dit is de reden dat erg veel super gezonde topsporters long covid krijgen.
- Van de mensen die long covid krijgen, ontwikkelt ongeveer 25% de ernstigste vorm, met ME. #ME is een multisysteemziekte die je ook op kunt lopen van bijvoorbeeld Pfeiffer of Q-koorts. Mensen met ME raken totaal uitgeput van de kleinste prikkels. Het is een soort straf op leven: alles wat leven de moeite waard maakt put je zo ontzettend uit dat je er uren, dagen of zelfs jaren ziek van wordt, alsof je een zware griep hebt. Ongeveer de helft van de mensen met ME kan nooit meer werken, een kwart is nagenoeg of helemaal bedlegerig.
Dat wil je niet meemaken.
Het gaat bij die laatste, zeer ernstig zieke groep mensen om tienduizenden. Een groot deel van hen wordt nooit meer beter.
Je denkt dat ze niet bestaan omdat je ze niet ziet: ze zitten opgesloten in hun huis, omringd door een vijandige samenleving die hun ziekte het liefst negeert of zelfs agressief ontkent.
Kijken we naar het totaal van mensen met long covid, inclusief mildere vormen (die vaak met veel rust en maanden tot jaren uitzitten, nog wel genezen) dan hebben we het over honderdduizenden Nederlanders.
Nu de overheid heeft besloten om de ernst van covid simpelweg te ontkennen, en de honderdduizenden mensen met long covid af te schepen met een fooi voor een paar long covidklinieken die slechts genoeg financiën hebben om enkele tientallen patiënten te ondersteunen (en een methode voor genezing is er überhaupt niet), is er maar één ding wat je kunt doen.
Probeer zo min mogelijk besmet te raken, en als je toch besmet raakt, besmet dan geen anderen en ziek zo rustig mogelijk uit.
Wat helpt om besmetting te voorkomen is: - goed aansluitende #FFP2 maskers - mensen in de buitenlucht ontmoeten in plaats van binnen - luchtzuivering met HEPA filters voor binnen (je kunt al een mobiel stil apparaat kopen voor in je huiskamer vanaf een euro of 85) - een tip waar al wel bewijs voor is, maar waar nog meer onderzoek naar moet worden gedaan: bepaalde neussprays met algen blokkeren de receptoren in je neus, waardoor covid maar ook verkoudheid en griep veel minder kans hebben om je te besmetten. In Nederland is dit middel te bestellen onder de merknaam Algovir. - Hoe meer van deze tips je tegelijkertijd inzet, hoe minder kans je op besmetting hebt.
Op dit moment is het aantal besmettingen in Nederland gelukkig heel laag, maar dat blijft niet zo. Over een paar weken of een maand komt er weer een nieuwe variant, die de getallen omhoog zal jagen. Dat is geen doomsday prediking, maar gewoon hoe evolutie werkt.
Zo lang de wereld niets doet tegen verspreiding, zal covid blijven muteren. Dat elke nieuwe covid variant minder heftig is, is een sprookje. Of een nieuwe variant zwaarder is of niet, is volstrekt random. Het enige wat je zeker weet, is dat als er een nieuwe variant dominant wordt, dat deze besmettelijker is dan de vorige. Anders zou die namelijk niet dominant worden.
Heel, heel veel warmte voor de mensen met long covid. De één heeft slechts maanden last, de ander is levenslang aan huis gebonden, of zelfs aan bed. De één is slechts doodmoe en ruikt bijvoorbeeld niets meer, de ander kan niet eens rechtop gaan zitten zonder flauw te vallen. De één wordt beter, de ander niet. Juist de ernstigste vormen hebben helaas minder kans om beter te worden, hoewel ik ook mensen ken met heel zware vormen, jarenlang, die daarna toch deels opknapten, soms tijdelijk, maar soms ook (naar het zich laat aanzien) definitief.
Nog zeven dagen! (ik kan er wegens gezondheidsproblemen helaas niet fysiek bij zijn, maar geestelijk zeker wel. Als jij kan gaan, namens mij of jezelf of allebei - ❤🤎🖤💛💜❤️)
I know I seem like I have it together, but some days, I am genuinely terrified for my future. I have one amazing freelance client, but as a trans person in tech with soft skills - and as a trans journalist - work started drying up after the election last year.
Globally, companies seem less interested than ever in working with me. In Australia, tech firms decided I was "too controversial" to be associated with.
My partner and I wanted to have a baby this year, but I can't see a path to making that happen. All I have is my writing, and some days it feels like I'm deluding myself into thinking that will be enough.
I have the cash runway to make The Index work for the next few months, but after that it’s down to subscribers.
I made the decision a while ago to never take sponsors or sell ads. All I can do is hope I can keep finding an audience or look for investors who believe in indie media. But that brings its own trouble.
I don’t have any luck to spare, but if it’s any consolation, I only sent money to Joyce Vance and you. I have stopped watching tv, quit drinking in January, and am caring for my wife. And my cat. I can’t honestly say things will get better, but you are heard, are helping me understand stuff. Thank you.
Ok, how can we help? Is there a way to subscribe? It would be easier for people to do this if you had more info and even a subscription link in your profile. Note that people are not fond of #Substack these days, so if you can enable direct payment and bypass them it would be good.
Also, people want to pay via PayPal, Credit Card, and Venmo. There's also Zelle and some other what I would call secondary payment options.
@Ehay2k There are links to both my sites on my profile, and both are built on Ghost. I wouldn't go near Substack with a ten foot pole. Wrote about that here:
There is something perverse about every voice of record, every journalist with a profile, every writer with an audience abandoning ship for Substack. It's been a growing trend for the past few years, and it's getting worse.
Just be clear, I'm not trying to be argumentative, just stating what I have seen in the hope that I can be someone helpful. When I look at your Mastodon profile, this is what I see with no actual links:
if all you have is your writing, then I guess it's lucky that you're so fuckin good at it! You'll get through this tough patch. This Internet stranger believes in you.
@ashley not true! We need to pressure all the Senators who are on the fence about cloture, before they vote on it. Schumer deserves a bunch of faxes, too. @heidilifeldman just posted his fax numbers along with some free fax services: mastodon.social/@heidilifeldma…
It sure appears that whenever there's an oppression of people, there are always members of the oppressed who will cooperate with the oppressors. Vidkun Quisling comes right to mind. But you can look at any oppression, African slavery for example, and see the same thing.
The only thing white people have to do to save themselves is throw an Elon salute to be accepted back into the fold. Don't trust us to have your back as we'll like put a knife in it.
Powerful men often funnel money via their wives. In 2001, the wife of the Saudi Ambassador to Washington - who would become head of Saudi intelligence, and was close friend of both George W. Bush, President of the United States, and George Tenet, head of the CIA - was Princess Haifa. Haifa sent thousands of dollars a month to Majeda Dweikat, wife of Osama Basnan, and Manal Bajadr, wife of Omar al-Bayoumi. These two men materially assisted 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
Never, ever let the bastards win. It is said that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Well, when good women fight back, good will triumph in the end. We aren't cowards. We are the ones who can endure pain with open eyes and laugh in their faces. They are terrified of us because we gave them life and they cannot repay us. We are stronger. We are wiser. We will rise.
I wonder if the "let's rape the earth now for a quick profit" capitalist mindset is part of the same mentality is the same as the "as long as it's not me" approach to fascism? Both are focusing on the near future to the detriment of the (not all that) distant future..
Entirely a gut-feeling based on people I speak to regularly, so take it for what it's worth: I suspect a surprising number of non-terminally-online people are keeping their heads down waiting for the right moment, but aren't sure where and how to begin. As an example, I point to the huge numbers mobilized during the George Floyd protests. I suspect almost anyone who marched then is prepared to do at least *something* to stand up to Trump & Co.
@TheGreatLlama Yeah, the problem is not apathy. People care. The problem is a (perceived) lack of agency. People don't believe they can influence things, and/or don't know how to. Activism is a positive feedback though.
Once you get the feeling that it's possible to make change, it becomes hard to lose it.
If the majority did not yet join a protest after all that has already happened, you might be right that the right spark to get all the intellectually challenged into action hasn't yet occured. Do you think that spark should be created by playing dirty, like a racist group did when George Floyd was killed? Just like the hijacking of the video of his murder resulted in more racism but with a shifted power dynamic, the current kind of fascism might be scared off by rallying up the masses with a lie, but surely that lie won't bring about the kind of change that is most desirable. Maybe it's just too early to spur on the majority to protest. After all, it was only a short while ago that most voters chose Donald T. as their leader. Letting go of a belief is difficult for humans, likely even if it is as stupid as believing Donald T. will eventually change their lives fot the better.
I remain astonished by the amount of money Republican billionaires spent on buying a fascist takeover of the USA and the decades-long backsliding of democracy.
"It's no secret that political spending is a huge way for billionaires to rig the system to their liking," said Americans for Tax Fairness. "Enough is enough."
If Democrat senators actually go along with this, they've just ensured that the Dem Party loses the midterms and possibly the next general election.
Even if there's some kind of legitimate aspect to this, and even if Schumer has absolutely 0% appeasement in his head, he's helping to sign the party's death warrant.
I used the backinf from the back of a pad of paper and did mine: Tiny Hands/Big Delutions and then in small print all over the back ground wrote, lies, grift and cheats. In tiny print I wrote "smells bad"
I am so petty but for $0.73 it's a bargain. I might do another one today.
🧵Censor, purge, defund - how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science & universities. This isn't chaos - it's deliberate & well-established methods. I've mapped 40 actions into 3 categories covering attacks on science, attacks on universities and international collaboration. 1/16
Autocracies require ideological control and a single narrative about what is happening within the country. Both science and universities foster critical thinking and a pursuit of truth and evidence over ideology The more academic freedom exists, the lower the chance of autocracy taking hold. 2/16
Methods autocracies use to control science: - capturing existing scientific institutions by appointing loyalists / purging existing staff; - ignoring or undermining scientific results that do not match state narrative - suppressing non-aligned research through censorship / loss of funding 3/16
Additionally autocracies often degrade natural environments and attack publc health. Trump administration is doing all of these things. It is suppressing research on topics related to gender, minorities, equity, and climate change. RFK is directing research & confidence away from vaccines... 4/16
...Trump has captured the key health and scientific bodies by appointing loyalists to Health, NIH, the CDC, the VA and the EPA. 1000s of workers have been fired, grants have been cancelled, key building leases ended. Climate science is ignored to enable oil/gas/logging expansion. 5/16
Methods autocracies use to attack universities: - withdrawing funding; - targeting specific universities, students and staff - co-opting universities into a populist culture war, branding them the "woke elite" 6/16
All the Trump administration’s actions against universities fall within these methods. Grants have been slashed, federal funding withdrawn from unis who don't conform (Columbia, Maine) + 60 others under investigation. A prominent student protestor on a green card has been arrested by ICE. 7/16
Universities across the US are reducing their spending, pausing hiring and new student admissions. The next generation of scientists in key areas risk not being trained. In 2021 Vance said quoted Nixon "The Professors are the enemy". 8/16
Science and health become victim to broader geopolitical populist goals, where authoritarian states undermine the global order. Autocracies often attack international aid and international collaborations as undermining sovereignty. Open exchange of ideas across borders is threatening. 9/16
Authoritarian states often pivot away from science that either has little immediate economic benefit or does not support the state’s economic goals. As Donmez put it, the state “prioritizes profit and control over academic freedom and critical thought”. Here too, Trump's actions are not new 10/16
The Trump administration has pursued its attacks on science and universities rapidly and aggressively - we don't know how far they will go. But, from examples elsewhere, things to look out for are: - more attacks on specific students, academics and universities cont... 11/16
cont... - installing loyalists in positions of power within universities - changing visa rules on international students and staff to have ideological tests - expanded surveillance of academics - further realignment of funding priorities and national agencies 12/16
The bad news is that the Trump administration’s attacks on science fit clearly and neatly into the authoritarian playbook. The worse news is that the attacks are coming very quickly - the administration is aggressive, serious and purposeful. 13/16
The good news is that the scientific and academic community has woken up to the threat and is starting to fight back. The better news is that because the administration is using methods tried and tested elsewhere, we can plan for what might come next. 14/16
This thread is a shorter version of my recent substack with some more actions added. Do go read the original article for more detail!christinapagel.substack.com/p/censor-pur... 16/16
I have mapped 35 of the Trump administration's attacks on science and universities to the authoritarian playbook - and consider what it means for attacks still to come
The UN special rapporteur on the right to food on Wednesday warned that Israel is carrying out an unprecedentedly rapid campaign of starvation in Gaza, calling it "the fastest in modern history."
"How is Israel able to starve 2.3 million people so quickly and so completely?" Michael Fakhri asked in a joint press briefing alongside other UN special rapporteurs in Geneva.
"This is the fastest starvation campaign in modern history," Fakhri said.
UN special rapporteur on right to food describes current ceasefire as slowing down of military violence while speeding up violence through starvation - Anadolu Ajansı
It's been since 2021 and Blockstream along with Bitcoin Magazine and Bitfinex hacking my brain and my home. It is been 4 years and a half since they started. They use AI to hack the brain and set some sort of psychological program on the brain.
Ha ha ha. Twee neurologen op de spoed. Ja hoor. 🙄 Eén arts-assistent zullen ze bedoelen, een Aios. Nooit iets anders gezien daar. Eentje die zich uit de naad werkt. De specialist wordt hoogstens even gebeld. En kan dan nu meekijken kennelijk.
PVV politicus & klimaatwappie doet poging tot doodslag op klimaatactiviste
NUnl geeft hem meer ruimte dan het slachtoffer. Zonder ook maar 1 kritische vraag mag dit Statenlid vertellen dat hij voortaan de bus neemt, zodat hij niet opnieuw een poging tot doodslag pleegt. Niet omdat hij het erg zou vinden om vreedzame demonstranten te doden, nee, dan zou XR "in het nieuws" komen, dat gunt hij ze niet.
En dat hij expres tegen een vrouw aan reed? Hij weigert zelfs excuses.
Toch geen lobbyregister: ambtenaren zien niets in extra transparantieregels
Nederland krijgt geen verplicht register voor lobbyisten. NSC-minister Judith Uitermark van Binnenlandse Zaken schrijft aan de Tweede Kamer dat ze dat "niet proportioneel" vindt en dat ze meer vertrouwen heeft in "bestaande instrumenten".
"there's laundry to do and a genocide to stop. I have to eat better and also avoid a plague. my rent went up $150. I'll need to pick up more shifts. Twenty people died in Rafah this morning and every major news outlet is stretching the limits of passive voice to suggest whole families may have leaped up through the air at missiles that otherwise had the right of way. I just got a notification that my student loan payments are starting up again and my phone isn't charged. My cousin got COVID for a fourth time and can no longer work or walk or even feed himself. The person across from me on the L train seems to fashion themself a punk rock revolutionary, but they're not wearing a face mask, and that's the kind of cognitive dissonance that makes me want to steal batteries. Fascists keep winning primaries for both parties, and I think I gained a few pounds. The CDC just announced there are no more speed limits on highways, and I think this Ativan is finally hitting. The NYPD farmer
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there's laundry to do and a genocide to stop
"there's laundry to do and a genocide to stop. I have to eat better and also avoid a plague. my rent went up $150. I'll need to pick up more shifts. Twenty people died in Rafah this morning and every major news outlet is stretching the limits of passive voice to suggest whole families may have leaped up through the air at missiles that otherwise had the right of way. I just got a notification that my student loan payments are starting up again and my phone isn't charged. My cousin got COVID for a fourth time and can no longer work or walk or even feed himself. The person across from me on the L train seems to fashion themself a punk rock revolutionary, but they're not wearing a face mask, and that's the kind of cognitive dissonance that makes me want to steal batteries. Fascists keep winning primaries for both parties, and I think I gained a few pounds. The CDC just announced there are no more speed limits on highways, and I think this Ativan is finally hitting. The NYPD farmer's market only sells bad apples, have you heard that one? Listen it's warm today, too warm for March. But I don't have time to think through the implications because there's laundry to do and a genocide to stop."
Ik ben er inmiddels achter hoe je een groep maakt in Friendica. Even gecopypasted uit het Engels, met dank aan @Erik van Schaaik :
"To create a group like Facebook, you have to make an entirely new account on Friendica, then switch it to a Group account in the settings. You can use the same email address as your personal account".
"In Friendica, you can create sub-accounts under your main account. These can function as groups. By giving your sub-account a clear name, everyone will immediately know what the discussions are about.
SWITCHING BETWEEN ACCOUNTS If you have one or more sub-accounts, you can easily switch between your main and sub-account:
Click on your avatar in the top right corner. Select ‘Accounts’ and choose the desired account.
CREATING A SUB-ACCOUNT Click on your avatar in the top right corner. Go to ‘Settings’. In the left menu, click ‘Manage Accounts’. Click the hyperl
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Ik ben er inmiddels achter hoe je een groep maakt in Friendica. Even gecopypasted uit het Engels, met dank aan @Erik van Schaaik :
"To create a group like Facebook, you have to make an entirely new account on Friendica, then switch it to a Group account in the settings. You can use the same email address as your personal account".
"In Friendica, you can create sub-accounts under your main account. These can function as groups. By giving your sub-account a clear name, everyone will immediately know what the discussions are about.
SWITCHING BETWEEN ACCOUNTS If you have one or more sub-accounts, you can easily switch between your main and sub-account:
Click on your avatar in the top right corner. Select ‘Accounts’ and choose the desired account.
CREATING A SUB-ACCOUNT Click on your avatar in the top right corner. Go to ‘Settings’. In the left menu, click ‘Manage Accounts’. Click the hyperlink ‘Register an additional account’. Enter the following details: - Display Name: a name for the group (for instance: Make Love, Not War). - Nickname: a unique username (for instance: Lennon@friendica.world). - Password: enter the password of your main account (no new password required). - Do you want your main account to also participate in the group? Then choose ‘yes’ under ‘Include your profile in member directory’.
SETTING UP THE SUB-ACCOUNT AS A GROUP Log in to your new sub-account. Click on your avatar in the top right corner and go to ‘Settings’. Click ‘Account’ in the left menu. Click ‘Advanced account types’. Choose ‘Community Group’, then ‘Public Group - Restricted (Contact requests have to be manually approved)’. People cannot join the group automatically. When someone requests to join, you will receive a notification with an access request, which you can approve or deny.
ADDITIONAL OPTIONS There are many more things you can add and settings you can set. Besides setting up a group, you can also configure your sub-account as a regular account or explore other options."
Bedoel je dat een groep aangemaakt kan worden zowel op basis van een nieuw account als vanuit een sub-account en iemand er lid van kan worden zowel met zijn originele account als met een sub-account, of dat voor een groep aanmaken en er zelf lid van worden per se eerst een nieuw account en vervolgens een sub-account (of twee?) moet worden aangemaakt?
Ik lees het als: een groep is ook een account, dus je maakt een totaal nieuw account aan dan wel een subaccount onder je originele account. De naam daarvan is je groepsnaam. Verder volg je de beschreven procedure.
@Erik van Schaaik Jij werkt al met een groep. Kun jij dit bevestigen?
Ik heb eigenlijk niet veel belang bij groepen. Mijn interesse ligt meer bij een community, waar je met elkaar over een bepaald onderwerp kunt praten, zoals Discord. Het gratis en open-source Revolt is daarvoor meer geschikt, maar dat moet nog een beetje groeien.
“The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and, later, Elon Musk showed support on Wednesday for the firing of a state employee who refused to remove his pronouns from his work email signature.”
“Abbott celebrated the move on X, sharing a report from the Austin American-Statesman on the firing and writing: ‘A Texas state employee refused to remove pronouns from email signature. He was fired before noon’.”
“Musk, […], replied to Abbott’s post with two fire emojis.”
Having pronouns in your signature is resistance, folks. Put them everywhere.
It begins: Pentagon to give AI agents a role in decision making, ops planning
Former allies, take note The American military has signed a deal with Scale AI to give artificial intelligence, as far as we can tell, its most prominent role in the defense sector to date – with AI agents to now be used in planning and operations. … #theregister #IT go.theregister.com/feed/www.th…
Vandaag zijn drie anti-abortusmoties door de Kamer aangenomen. (Een vierde is nog wel verworpen)
Wat in de VS gebeurt kan ook hier. Wij zijn niet immuun. Niet voor voor het verdwijnen van abortusrechten, niet voor de rest. Sterker nog, voor wie het heeft gemist: ook Nederland heeft een extreemrechts kabinet.
Als Schreeuwwitje een tweede termijn krijgt, zal hij net als Trump (en Orban, en Poetin, en Bibi en alle andere fascisten die via verkiezingen aan de macht kwamen) in een hogere versnelling schakelen.
De enige manier waarop dictators aan de macht kunnen komen, is als mensen daar aan meewerken. Er niets van zeggen. Doen alsof het een normale partij is, waar normale procedures voor gelden. Zich bij voorbaat aanpassen. Mee beginnen te lullen. Proberen om bij ze in een goed blaadje te komen. Collaboreren.
Rutte en Schoof vinden dat Zelensky zich nederiger had moeten opstellen (alsof hij dan wel hulp had gekregen, alsof niet al lang duidelijk was dat Trump de zijde van Poetin kiest.)
(Alsof je fascisten zou verzwakken als
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Vandaag zijn drie anti-abortusmoties door de Kamer aangenomen. (Een vierde is nog wel verworpen)
Wat in de VS gebeurt kan ook hier. Wij zijn niet immuun. Niet voor voor het verdwijnen van abortusrechten, niet voor de rest. Sterker nog, voor wie het heeft gemist: ook Nederland heeft een extreemrechts kabinet.
Als Schreeuwwitje een tweede termijn krijgt, zal hij net als Trump (en Orban, en Poetin, en Bibi en alle andere fascisten die via verkiezingen aan de macht kwamen) in een hogere versnelling schakelen.
De enige manier waarop dictators aan de macht kunnen komen, is als mensen daar aan meewerken. Er niets van zeggen. Doen alsof het een normale partij is, waar normale procedures voor gelden. Zich bij voorbaat aanpassen. Mee beginnen te lullen. Proberen om bij ze in een goed blaadje te komen. Collaboreren.
Rutte en Schoof vinden dat Zelensky zich nederiger had moeten opstellen (alsof hij dan wel hulp had gekregen, alsof niet al lang duidelijk was dat Trump de zijde van Poetin kiest.)
(Alsof je fascisten zou verzwakken als je doet wat ze willen.)
Wat vind jij?
Wil je bij voorbaat buigen? Wil je net zo lang doen alsof het jou niet aangaat, totdat ze aan je deur staan, en er niemand meer over is om je te verdedigen? Vind je dat bullies moeten worden beloond? Of wil je wat anders?
Samen kunnen we ze stoppen.
Niet met één demonstratie. Niet met een petitie (aan fascisten? Ze lachen je uit) Niet met een paar dagen niks kopen bij Amazon, META, Tesla en de rest van het tuig wat hen in het zadel helpt. Niet met een beetje hulp aan hun eerste slachtoffers.
Maar wel met al die dingen tegelijkertijd.
Kies je methode. Kom naar de demonstratie, of ondersteun mensen die het moeilijk hebben, of sluit je aan bij een organisatie die al tegenwicht biedt aan de opkomst van extreemrechts, of doe iets anders. Weiger bevelen uit te voeren die onmenselijk zijn.
Je hoeft geen held te zijn. Je hoeft niet zelf het wiel uit te vinden. Maar wees een steentje, wees een beetje cement, in de grote onverzettelijke muur die we samen kunnen vormen.
Fijn aan dit medium is dat woorden in een afwijkende taal naar behoren, oftewel cursief, geschreven kunnen worden. Ook consistent in taal zijn, kan hier, bijvoorbeeld wanneer bullebakken genoemd moeten worden 😉 😉 Vraagje met betrekking tot die demonstratie: waarom richt die zich niet simpelweg tegen fascisme? Waarom wordt het onterechte onderscheid op basis van ras erbij gehaald, en niet bijvoorbeeld ook het onterechte onderscheid op basis van vermogen (hebben we daar een woord voor?)? Fascisten gebruiken uiteindelijk iedere vorm van onterecht onderscheid voor hun egocentrische gewin. Tegelijkertijd grijpen de racisten die zichzelf anti-racist noemen alles aan om racisme in stand te houden/versterken. Het is toch jammer als zij de kans krijgen een boventoon te voeren bij een hard nodige demonstratie tegen fascisme?
Ik ben bang dat dit gaat lijken op het verzet dat Koot & Bie in de oorlog pleegden toen een duitse soldaat de weg kwam vragen. De verkeerde kant op wijzen: "Doo ist der Bahnhof".
Heller heeft vandaag zijn ontslag aangeboden als Hilversumse wethouder. Daar is hij toe gedwongen door extreemrechtse zionisten en het laffe college van Hilversum.
Waarom? Heller uitte zijn solidariteit met kinderen in Gaza, en volgens rabbijn Binyomin Jacobs (die zichzelf trots zionist noemt) is dat een uiting van anti-semitisme.
Wat een land zijn we geworden. Juist rechts, wat steeds weer beweert dat ze opkomt voor de vrijheid van meningsuiting, censureert mensen. En zelfs in de zogenaamde tempel der democratie wordt daar volop aan meegewerkt.
Mensen zoals Jacobs, die het helemaal okee vinden om tienduizenden burgers af te slachten, stellen het opkomen voor simpele universele mensenrechten nu gelijk aan precies het omgekeerde. En de gemeenteraad klapt voor hem.
Kaltstellen, zo noemden de nazi's deze tactiek. Het monddood maken van mensen die voor onderdrukten opkomen. "Kaltstellen doet men iemand, als men hem tijdelijk of voorgoed uit zijn kring van politieken invloed verwijdert en aldus machteloos maakt." sc
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Solidair met wethouder Bart Heller
Heller heeft vandaag zijn ontslag aangeboden als Hilversumse wethouder. Daar is hij toe gedwongen door extreemrechtse zionisten en het laffe college van Hilversum.
Waarom? Heller uitte zijn solidariteit met kinderen in Gaza, en volgens rabbijn Binyomin Jacobs (die zichzelf trots zionist noemt) is dat een uiting van anti-semitisme.
Wat een land zijn we geworden. Juist rechts, wat steeds weer beweert dat ze opkomt voor de vrijheid van meningsuiting, censureert mensen. En zelfs in de zogenaamde tempel der democratie wordt daar volop aan meegewerkt.
Mensen zoals Jacobs, die het helemaal okee vinden om tienduizenden burgers af te slachten, stellen het opkomen voor simpele universele mensenrechten nu gelijk aan precies het omgekeerde. En de gemeenteraad klapt voor hem.
Kaltstellen, zo noemden de nazi's deze tactiek. Het monddood maken van mensen die voor onderdrukten opkomen. "Kaltstellen doet men iemand, als men hem tijdelijk of voorgoed uit zijn kring van politieken invloed verwijdert en aldus machteloos maakt." schreef men honderd jaar geleden al.
Screenshots van de mail van Bart Heller die tot zijn ontslag leidden, en zijn afscheidsbrief vandaag.
So I didn't know, but Europe already has a backup of PubMed, the database of biomedical research publications. The US PubMed broke down over the weekend. And here is our alternative: europepmc.org/ #pubmed #pmc
"Europe PMC provides comprehensive access to life sciences literature from trusted sources. It's available to anyone, anywhere for free. With Europe PMC you can search and read 45.6 million publications [10.5 full texts], prereprints and other documents enriched with links to supporting data, reviews, protocols, and other relevant resources." europepmc.org/
‘PubMed Central’ and ‘PubMed’ are quite different; the first is a repository for research papers themselves, the second a database of research abstracts that includes an awful lot more. I think this is a back up of the former. Now, I do suspect lots of amazing people have been busy scraping PubMed in case of issues, as it has had a warning on it about heavy traffic a few times recently.
@clare_hooley I think that I'm correct in saying that EuropePMC contains PubMed (or, at least enough of everything indexed in PubMed) per europepmc.org/Help#epmccontent
someone also pointed out the Europe PMC is contractually required to delete content if the NIH decides so... I can look up the source, which you surely like to see (found/solved)
I’m not too familiar with this stuff, but couldn’t this be torrented and saved on a distributed system? It would lead to faster download speeds if anyone wanted to save it locally and governments wouldn’t be able to stop it I could be completely mistaken ofc How much data is it?
"Nederland krijgt fonds van honderden miljoenen voor essentiële grondstoffen"
Dus ehh, Nederland kríjgt geen fonds maar betaalt het. Bedrijven krijgen van dit extreemrechtse kabinet een fonds van honderden miljoenen, betaald door jou en mij. En het fonds heeft niet eens duidelijke grenzen aan wat er mee moet gebeuren. Het lijkt gewoon een cadeautje aan de zware industrie en de financialiseringswereld, terwijl in ruil onze zorg, asielopvang, onderwijs, natuur en cultuur kapot worden bezuinigd.
Als we NUnl toch niet hadden voor onze duiding, hè?
'“This is the stuff of nightmares,” virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen told me earlier this week, as she discussed the rising chance of bird flu mutating this flu season.
Hospitals are treating regular flu and bird flu patients in the same wards, increasing the potential for bird flu to pick up genes from other flu strains in a way that would facilitate human-to-human transmission.
With DOGE-mandated cuts destroying vital public health systems, “we’ve disabled our monitoring. We’ve disabled our response capabilities,” she explained. In other words, if bird flu starts circulating in the community, the public health surveillance systems that DOGE has gutted likely won’t catch it until it spreads exponentially and hospitals are overrun. “It’ll be like one day everything’s fine and the next day it’s a bird flu pandemic.”
Musk-Trump’s first month in office has represented such an all-out assault on the functionality of government that it’s hard to comprehend the totality of what is happen
... show more
'“This is the stuff of nightmares,” virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen told me earlier this week, as she discussed the rising chance of bird flu mutating this flu season.
Hospitals are treating regular flu and bird flu patients in the same wards, increasing the potential for bird flu to pick up genes from other flu strains in a way that would facilitate human-to-human transmission.
With DOGE-mandated cuts destroying vital public health systems, “we’ve disabled our monitoring. We’ve disabled our response capabilities,” she explained. In other words, if bird flu starts circulating in the community, the public health surveillance systems that DOGE has gutted likely won’t catch it until it spreads exponentially and hospitals are overrun. “It’ll be like one day everything’s fine and the next day it’s a bird flu pandemic.”
Musk-Trump’s first month in office has represented such an all-out assault on the functionality of government that it’s hard to comprehend the totality of what is happening. But one way to view it is that each Trump appointee heading a different aspect of the federal system has their own destructive potential. When acting in concert, the result will be catastrophic.'
"Musk-Trump’s first month in office has represented such an all-out assault on the functionality of government that it’s hard to comprehend the totality of what is happening. But one way to view it is that each Trump appointee heading a different aspect of the federal system has their own destructive potential. When acting in concert, the result will be catastrophic. We are already witnessing huge foreign policy shifts; the purging of the Justice Department, and the use of Justice Department resources to go after Trump’s enemies; the escalating human rights violations against immigrants; the politicization of the military and national security systems; the expansion of huge tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for by equally huge cuts to medical coverage for the poor; the attacks on the free press; the rampaging assault on anything to do with diversity, equity, or inclusion in the federal workforce, private sector, and federally funded institutions, including colleges and universities; the breakdown of any and all guardrails designed to prevent self-dealing and conflic
... show more
"Musk-Trump’s first month in office has represented such an all-out assault on the functionality of government that it’s hard to comprehend the totality of what is happening. But one way to view it is that each Trump appointee heading a different aspect of the federal system has their own destructive potential. When acting in concert, the result will be catastrophic. We are already witnessing huge foreign policy shifts; the purging of the Justice Department, and the use of Justice Department resources to go after Trump’s enemies; the escalating human rights violations against immigrants; the politicization of the military and national security systems; the expansion of huge tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for by equally huge cuts to medical coverage for the poor; the attacks on the free press; the rampaging assault on anything to do with diversity, equity, or inclusion in the federal workforce, private sector, and federally funded institutions, including colleges and universities; the breakdown of any and all guardrails designed to prevent self-dealing and conflict of interest at the highest echelons of government; and an unprecedented assault on the concept of public health.
It’s the latter that has been on my mind this week."
(...)
"Cumulatively, these actions leave America grievously exposed to preventable disease outbreaks and raise the risk for the world of global pandemics. These actions are so fundamentally wrong that it’s hard to find any benign explanation for them. They represent the purest distillation of Musk-Trump’s nihilism. Of all the areas of destruction that DOGE is unleashing, it is in the field of science, and in medical research in particular, that the consequences will likely prove most devastating."
What's to stop Musk, who's already tried meddling with German elections, from seizing Zelenskyy's, or any other European leader's X account, and posting something with dire geopolitical consequences? We're way past the point where it's wise for European leaders and institutions to rely on a presence on X—and other US platforms are not a good long-term solution either. More should follow the example of the @EUCommission and provide their updates directly, without middlemen, through the fediverse.
Indeed. One of the Fediverse's strengths is that, like ec.social-network.europa.eu/ any country or coalition could set up an official and hardened server that assures the public of a trusted source of information dissemination.
@NoRomBasic The European Commision that are the EU politicians who loves to go to a war (read send our childeren to their dead). In name working for peace but looking after minerals under the dead bodys. A corrupt collection of people busy with corruption and taxes everything for the good of big coperations.
A verry trustworthty thing if you loves corruption and war. There are worst things but that are not saints and more a lie than Santa Claus.
@NoRomBasic Back in October 2023 I have advised the European Commission to do & coordinate this. And I have repeated this advice in 2024, January 2025 and February 2025.
They should have done it before the European elections, but the second/best time is yesterday. Momentum is growing. #LetsDoIt
@NoRomBasic The possibility of own server is a strong point.
I'd also think the possibility of website integration of feed should be strongly pointed out. So people not having an account in the fediverse can simply read activities bundled on an institutions website, and if desired browse the profile in full as it can be set to public.
Technologically this is pretty easy to accomplish. For example, many (if not most) of the Fediverse-compatible server platforms allow for anonymous browsing of posts. So even now there is no real restriction for people that merely wish to read communications. Replicating those feeds onto a more “classic” website server instance is not that complicated from a coding or server admin standpoint.
Not just in Europe... US state and local governments, and agencies like fire, police and other emergency management, should all be sending communications through publicly owned and accessible channels.
@elCelio Musk seems to be following a 'chaos capitalism' model similar to Trump's where the gains of a previous venture give leverage in the higher stakes next one, all the while previous stepping stones are destroyed and abandoned along with their debts.
Tesla car sales have collapsed in Europe as no-one wants to buy or be seen in a swasticar.
having all those social media CEOs at the inauguration proves this medium matters. the question is when everybody will start taking it seriously, including lots of people here. it's bigger than hanging out with only the people who agree with you. we have private groups for that. what we're doing here matters for civics and the only way to do that right is decentralized without corporate ads or algos. #SocialWeb
"¿Qué puede impedir que Musk, que ya ha intentado interferir en las elecciones alemanas, se apodere de la cuenta X de Zelensky o de cualquier otro líder europeo y publique algo con consecuencias geopolíticas nefastas? Ya hemos superado el punto en el que es sensato que los líderes e instituciones europeos dependan de una presencia en X, y otras plataformas estadounidenses tampoco son una buena solución a largo plazo. Más personas deberían seguir el ejemplo de @EUCommission y proporcionar sus actualizaciones directamente, sin intermediarios, a través del fediverso."
I hate to put this out here because I would hate for somebody to see it and give anybody an idea but I’ve been worried for hours about the muskrat turning off Starlink in Ukraine.
@adventure_tense It's pretty clear now that X and Facebook have migrated into being tools of right wing propaganda. To be using them (as well as Threads), is to be willing to expose oneself to that toxicity and feel it won't harm one's self.
I think its safe to say US and EU interests no longer align and the EU would benefit controlling its own data and media because they've been pumping feeds with anti EU messaging for years by tweaking with algorithms
Everyone needs to get the hell off Twitter. Even if you think Musk is on your side, he'll abandon you as soon as he thinks it's good for him. If you don't control your own social media presence, you're under someone's boot.
I agree. I cannot believe so many top European key people and leaders still post on a Nazi's platform. It's like the EU giving Russia weapons to attack Ukraine and greater Europe. It's quite unbelievable.
I never understood why democratic institutions or officials publish statements via a platform which is privately owned and in a foreign country instead of publishing a news release on a server they control.
I recommend to write/talk to our official again and again and remind them. For instance with the question: I saw xy statement from you on X, is it fake or can you confirm ?
Thanks. But the handle? ec.social-network.europa.eu? WTF! I would like to have a European response to Meta and X. Think big. A @ europa.eu handle. Just imagine KajaKallas@europa.eu
What you say is the reasonable, right thing to do. We all wish that'd happen. But, for reasons that escape my comprehension, they won't do it. And if they were gonna do it, they would have done before now.
I was struck by all of these foreign leaders resorting to communicating via X, and the posts were shown in this article. Find another platform, people!
Just hours after Ukraine's president and his US counterpart and vice president argued live on TV on Friday, European leaders voiced their full support for the eastern European country.
simply put, there needs to be a strong movement against this new American style fascism, which isn't so much different then Nazi style fascism. I just don't think we are quite there yet. Not enough people have been disinfeanchised by all of this, yet!
Truth is, it doesn't matter who's at the helm. Whoever sits at the top are ultimately colored by their world view, and as long as power is centralized like X it will be manipulated.
We need decentralization. We need #ActivityPub, #Nostr or #ATProtocol, whatever it takes to move the web away from those centralized solutions.
Not saying these things are perfect, but at least they are better than X.
@kaito02 Could you explain this? It's kind of hard for a "normie" to catch the finer nuances of such issues 😅 You can host your own server just like Mastodon, right?
Here is a paper by Christine Lemmer-Webber that explains the differences of architecture between ActivityPub and ATProto. My understanding (as a "normie") is that #Bluesky needs a very powerful central relay to have a God's eye on all others, so that messages (which are duplicated rather than being transmitted) are delivered to their recipient. Hope this helps!
@Linux what do you mean by mastodon, joinmastodon.com? mastodon.social? Mastodon as a whole of course is spread all over, IIRC some stats site said majority of the instances are located in europe.
@ikuturso I can’t imagine that @Linux was talking about the entire collective of servers running the Mastodon software. It would make sense that they would be referring only the ones that @Gargron controls.
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well, you still didn't say what services you meant but I see after checking that I asked about are what you meant. Here's actually an article on Fastly's site talking about how they provide free hosting: fastly.com/customers/mastodon
I will say this doesn't make what @Gargron pointed out moot since it is still the case that Mastodon is more than just the servers run by Mastodon GmbH and the European Comission probably does not host their instance in the USA. Ofc you didn't claim that.
The European Commission is on Bluesky too: bsky.app/profile/ec.europa.eu, but hopefully they’ll be able to switch to their own PDS or one based in Europe one day…
Absolutely! Looking forward to when it's normal for governments and new organizations to have an official Mastodon instance that simply gets relayed to wherever needed.
Free speech is the diverence between a freedom or tyrany. Are whe for a tyrany or for freedom?
Humanity know for ages, even since the beginning, misleading speaches. Whe have Sects, Kings, KGB, Mosad, CIA, USAID, NSA and a million other organisations with the most important purpose of misinformation. Freedom survived with al of them. But when speech is forbidden everyone dieds.
Oh, i'm 90% positive he's using the entire twitter user data analytics on a rebooted Cambridge Analytica Ver. 2 to try and bend elections. He's got something shaking & baking his "project dojo" so bad it causes local blackouts regularly, and somehow I doubt with the types of LLM specialists he's got roped off on his 'special project' they're dinking with his cars visual recognition problems.
there’s a broader discussion to be made about why there are no social media companies from the EU, and the dominant platforms are all from the US. China at least has their own homegrown alternatives. Feels like the EU indirectly dug their own grave by making the business landscape so unfriendly towards social media businesses.
we should seriously consider the concept of European social media platforms which would be administered by an independently elected body made up of representative states. The infrastructure and social reach already exists in the Eurovision platform via the EBU and could be subscription based or funded by state media.
That's probably for the public to decide. However, I think Elon Musk is becoming overly concerned with issues that don't contribute to US growth. He should focus on his role in the Department of Government Efficiency and avoid meddling in other countries' affairs.
I imagine the almost immediate shutdown of X in Europe if this happened would prevent him but expecting behaviour based on some rational self interest has long gone out the window
that's going to be the point where world politics will hopefully no longer be played out on social media....
On the other hand: there is an expression in German "don't wake sleeping dogs", meaning: don't give them ideas they have maybe not yet had. @EUCommission
each world government would do well to run their own Mastodon instance with only officials being able to hold accounts, thereby ensuring credibility. As for their old accounts elsewhere; daily posts advising the account is now inactive (to prevent cyber squatters) with, where permitted, redirect links to the new official account
Everyone who distrusted Free Our Feeds was 100% right but in a more hilarious way than anyone anticipated: what if we take the bluesky firehose.... and put it on a blockchain prnewswire.com/news-releases/w…
/PRNewswire/ -- Project Liberty and Free Our Feeds are taking a decisive step toward reshaping the digital landscape by securing the long-term decentralization...
@oli I don't always agree with him but he cited my blog at an awards show and I was really chuffed by that level of recognition and then he *immediately* turned around and did this stupid fuckup
@glyph @oli people may be great at analyzing tech oligarchy and enshittification but such excellence does not carry over to making software or making choices about software architectures. A great music critic can not automatically emit good music themselves etc a Marxist does not automatically come with a convivial vision of an anti-capitalist community.
@oli @techokami i actually missed his endorsement, i haven't been able to hunting yet but i'm curious to read it. everyone i know that was not immediately like 'fuck that' was at best a 'more energy is good in general, but wait and see'
It's so funny, it's like what if you got a bunch of celebrities and tech ppl with big names on their resumes, give them a ton of money, and then they did absolutely zero work and had zero thoughts about what to do.
"The blockchain makes it so no single entity has control over a network, except for the kinds of things that can be on the blockchain, their structure, and the stuff you can do with them, that's decided by 5 uh.... wallets"
I can never tell if my favorite part of every blockchain thing is the governance part or the part when they inevitably are like "ok this doesn't actually work and fucking sucks, so to do the thing we said it was for, we have an alternate means of just like using our thing to make a reference to how you would actually do it"
you know how the whole deal with blockchains is how they are like distributed consensus and provide a means of deciding between parallel, competing histories of events? not this one. it's so complicated to do distributed consensus in literally 1kb subsets of messages that we just reject out of order changes
"Gaan je gedachten vooral terug naar de mooie wandelingen die je ineens door de lege binnenstad kon maken, naar die ene keer dat je de avondklok wist te omzeilen of de creatieve manieren om de lockdowns en het afstand houden toch een beetje leuk te houden? Of heb je juist iets verdrietigs meegemaakt?"
'Iets verdrietigs.'
Dat dekt de lading totaal niet om je vader moeten zien sterven door covid. Te weinig tekens om duidelijk te maken hoe erg dit de lading niet dekt..
Deze week is het precies vijf jaar geleden dat de eerste coronabesmetting in Nederland werd bevestigd. Het Parool is benieuwd: wat is jouw bijzonderste herinnering aan de pandemie?
honestly this whole argument of taking up resources seems like such horseshit. With various publishing tools supporting mastodon... It's not that much added effort. Plus it shows that you give a shit as a company. There are so many companies on fedi that don't even come close to Proton's revenue and they're magically able to do it
@thibaultmol Proton did update their profile bio. When I checked, though, the update hadn't federated to my server, so I had to go to the origin page to see it.
Yes, actually making a post would definitely have been more honest. But it would also have given Fedi a single place to boost and post about that which they can turn notifications off on... so...
Which used to be the one of the best features of twitter. The amount of times I got proper help because I bitched at a corporate account there was quite high.
I know it's contentious, but I would love to have that experience here.
Such an annoyance! I've cancelled my Proton subscription, but still have a number of things to I need to change details for. This just confirms I think, that Proton is on the road to enshittification.
Oh, I see Proton are touting some kind of 'Bitcoin Wallet' now so we know which way this shithouse is going......very disappointing and not what the customers asked for, but fuck us right? We're just a resource to exploit, American style!
@Lazarou I'd be happy if it wasn't shoehorned into every user's faces. If I want to do transactions in cryptocurrency for whatever reason (I'm sure there are a few valid ones) I'll get an appropriate program to do so, I don't like how companies are joining in on this bandwagon as a marketing fad.
@Lazarou Yeah, I had a Proton account for several years and was *this close* to doing a big migration of 10+ years of Gmail to them, when the following happened in about a 6 month period:
- cryptocurrency integration. Ok, meh, don't like that sort of thing, but there's probably non-trivial overlap between "better privacy/security" people and cryptocurrency people so ... I can live with it. For now. Continue working out Gmail migration. - "AI" doohickeys. Optional, and fairly restrained, but a classic entry point for enshittification. Put planned Gmail migration on hold. - CEO kissing up to Trump, or at least thinking he can actually trust anything Trump says or does to mean anything: Start actively looking elsewhere for private email. - CEO putting a disguised "88" in user name: oh hell no, this really is not someone I can trust. I don't care if they might have been born in 1988, they sure AF weren't born in 191011000, and they *really, really* wanted something that looks like a disguised "HH" in their user name...
Really? Oh boy. As a Proton visionary customer I am really getting annoyed by the recent 'news' created by Proton.
I am not on Reddit. I don't want to be on Reddit. If Proton forces me to use Reddit to be contact, this means I will need to reconsider my subscription.
Under the circumstances, I feel it's important to be a stickler for correctness on this one. It's a popular saying for a reason, but much of the impact is lost when it's watered down like that, and it implies clumsiness as much as the spirit of "so GTFO, then."
The original form of this saying, as best I'm familiar with it, is "don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass on the way out."
I started to worry about Proton's evolution a while back then, reason was their effort to cover all kind of security apps and fast, which normally leads to classic business models, meaning ideological ideas will be thrown overboard. #enshittification
I had been trying to de-Google myself over the last couple years, and today I finally had to delete my Proton account. I feel bad for people that work there, but Proton can fuck off into the sun.
@v_raton @cadusilva I would suggest staying away from companies that provide "encrypted email". There's only one company that offers full encryption of everything (unlike Proton) which is Tuta. But you're locked into using their clients as they don't use PGP. You can decide whether you care about that.
I personally use Migadu. They're much smaller and require you to own a domain, but their support is excellent and their cheapest plan is very affordable.
Then again, almost any email provider is a step up from Proton.
still need to go cancel all my proton things. Ugh, just stop being garbage. I have too much shit to do to cancel everything as soon as a company turns out to be absolutely shit.
ah, well, @protonprivacy probably didn't like the type of questions they were getting here. Isn't it ironic how a company valuing privacy as much as they claim to do leaves the social media platform with the greatest user control to keep using an ad and spam ridden platform?
I don't blame them. It seems lately that instead of suggesting ways that Proton could improve their policies or actions they should take, people here on Mastodon have just been calling them names. Why would they stay?
@Anne_Delong Agree. The only thing I blame Proton is that they haven't created their own Fediverse instance, but almost no company or gov do it anyway.
@Anne_Delong I’m sorry but this is divorced from reality. The complaints against Proton have been highly specific. Solutions have been provided, and rejected. What you describe as “calling them names” is where people are correctly describing the politics and behavior of Proton leadership.
honest question: what’s a good alternative to proton? Self hosting is not really a valid option (did that for years, it’s just a nightmare as you’re by default treated as a spammer).
@veroandi @NicolasRinaudo Do you know a better full suite alternative? I want to cut Google/Apple Drive, mail and calender, 1 Password etc. and without scattering things too much.
I don't know any pro-privacy company that offers, today, a full suite with password manager and VPN as Proton does, only the classic suite (email/calendar/drive/office/etc).
For a classic suite, I'm sure there are many options, but I'll let what I know without thinking too much:
Enjoy the benefits of AI while preserving your company's intellectual property, security and data confidentiality by using AI managed 100% in Switzerland.
I can kind of understand a company deciding Masto is too niche to be worth spending effort on. It's a weird choice for a company going after the customers Proton is going after, but still.
But putting all your chips on Reddit in 2025 is absolutely a tell
@silvermoon82 @ret heyy sorry for going offtopic, what's with protonmail and their ceo? I haven't followed the news around them(i use other privacy email server)
aww crap. I didn’t realize the issues with Proton mail and just moved there. What are the good alternatives? Not spending money or hosting in the US. Canada preferred but not mandatory.
@SpaceLifeForm @mailbox_org and @Tutanota are two great mail services that are present on Mastodon, mailbox even runs their own instance. Support them instead.
@toddtyrtle I pay for a server and spun-up NextCloud for most of my needs, calendar, storage, sharing files with clients, and a document editor. For email I also use a separate server I pay $3/month for.
@wiredfire @MissGayle @MyWoolyMastadon @jcrabapple Crap! I *just* signed up with them this month (month to month fortunately) and had no idea about this. Anyone know any good alternatives? (Just none from the US, they're trying to start a trade war and possibly annex us so I spend as little as possible there)
so a company that prides itself on freedom and privacy is giving up on the free social media network that costs nothing to post to, in favour of using a website that has consistently made decisions that harm its users lately?
well first of all they were integrating ai into their shit. then it was warmly accepting the trump administration and then they made articles about how they will "refuse to comply with subpoenas issued by the trump administration" and now this. idk, honestly at least when it was the ceo endorsing trump and then them backtracking and trying to erase that it wasn't that bad now it's like watching a dog chase its tail. really no idea what will come next from proton but i certainly know they have lost any sense of credibility (if they had any to begin with)
i use their services, i support them and their advocacy for the privacy, but all the stuff that they do socially and what they don't to their services is letting me down hard
I was wary of Proton from day 1. And over the years they have proven that my first reaction was correct. Can't wait until we find out they have been lying about your privacy this whole time.
I'm quite happy with Disroot (from Amsterdam, free) : disroot.org/en/services/email and Posteo (from Germany, for a fee) : posteo.de/en EDIT : both work with ThunderBird
@jcrabapple @toddtyrtle @wiredfire @MissGayle @MyWoolyMastadon Tuta doesn't have IMAP, I've become somewhat reliant on Thunderbird for a few reasons but can't use it with Tuta because they don't have IMAP. Does anyone know of a good alternative with IMAP?
@ErickaSimone As it takes quite a bit of personal energy and time to move digitally as a freelancer, I‘d want to exclude any US provider at this point just to avoid disappointment thru more and more „anticipatory obedience“. So I‘m looking for a full suite and reliable European alternative with drive, calender, password, email if possible, and without the CEO quotes, Proton looks like one. Any other recommendations welcome!
@christianschwaegerl @ErickaSimone Not sure it does everything you need, but for email and calendar I have found Fastmail to be excellent for over 20 years.
They had some recent(ish) conflict with a union but I could not find a lot of information, nor could I find an alternative I liked, so I've stayed with them.
List of service providers outside the United States jurisdiction. 😉 🤫 VPN =
* iVPN, located in Gibraltar, Europe (UK territory) ivpn.net/ * Mullvad VPN, located in Sweden, Europe mullvad.net/ * Goose VPN, located in the Netherlands, Europe goosevpn.com/ * Xeovo VPN, located in Finland, Europe xeovo.com/ 🌐 Managed DNS =
* AdGuard DNS, located in Cyprus, Europe adguard-dns.io/ * ClouDNS, located in Bulgaria, Europe cloudns.net/ * deSEC, located in Germany, Europe desec.io/ 🌐 Public DNS =
* Tuta, located in Germany, Europe tuta.com/ * Soverin, located in the Netherlands, Europe soverin.com/ * Startmail, located in the Netherlands, Europe startmail.com/ * Mailfence, located in Belgium, Europe mailfence.com/ 🌍 Domain Registration / Web Hosting =
* Scalewy, located in France, Europe scaleway.com/ * OVH, located in France, Europe ovhcloud.com/ * Jottam located in Norway, Europe jottacloud.com * Aruba, located in Italy, Europe aruba.it * Hosting Dot NL, located in the Netherlands, Europe hosting.nl * Bahnhof, located in Sweden, Europe bahnhof.cloud * Glesys, located in Sweden, Europe glesys.com/ 🌍 CDN =
* OVH, located in France, Europe ovhcloud.com/en/web-hosting/op… * Key CDN, located in Switzerland, Europe keycdn.com/ Naturally, making this list is not easy. These are two types of companies I avoided in making my list.
1) Those who actually fall under US-jurisdiction because they are based or owned by a company in the USA.
More than often, I will stumble over a company that appears to be outside the USA, but later find they are owned by another corporation based inside the USA, and so they do fall under US-jurisdiction.
2) Those who voluntarily give up their sovereignty to the United States. The 2nd type, who voluntarily gives up their sovereignty in the way of US jurisdiction, have whole sections of their terms concerning US Laws and US based customers. If a fascist government says jump, these people will ask, how high?!
I encourage people to scrutinize my list. The old saying, "trust, but verify", is something I believe in.
Create your ad-blocking DNS server that will protect your personal data, prevent tracking and allow you to control access to specific content on the Internet.
@christianschwaegerl @ErickaSimone some folks have been recommending tutamail in light of proton being canceled. They've been on my radar for a while now, I just landed on proton first. I need to make some time to look into them but I will probably switch over. I have no time for fascist sympathizers.
I wrote an email to #proton to let them know what I think about their leaving the fediverse. Got a nice reply with hint to Reddit. Sent a not so nice reply and they thanked me for my honest words and told me my mail had been forwarded to the relevant team so they can further reconsider. We have to make ourselves heard.
This seems to justify my approach of limiting proton use to vpn and email for specific non-personal purposes requiring a separate email, and not moving everything until the dust has settled. I feel it is more honest of Google to just be the Google we know, than for #proton to turn weird in outlook. I use google drive and calendar because it works and will decamp to self hosted perhaps when the tech and my skills have developed to make it a non full-time job.
Proton verlaat Mastodon? Best bijzonder voor een bedrijf dat veel klanten te danken heeft aan een federatief product (mail). Het wordt N.B. ook hier vaak aangeraden als alternatief voor US bigtech. Oke, privacy is wsl goed geregeld, maar als je email (of docs) als dienst wilt afnemen verwijs ik toch liever naar lokale hosters die open technologie gebruiken. Er zijn er zat Volgens mij zijn we niet op zoek naar nog een hele grote speler.
1 - OpenAI heeft aangekondigd dat het een flink aantal veiligheidsmaatregelen uit ChatGPT wil slopen om de coup in de VS te steunen. Voortaan wordt genocidale en extreemrechtse taal omarmd als even waardevol als het tegendeel.
2 - Uit onderzoek van de BBC blijkt dat AI chatbots niet in staat zijn om accurate samenvattingen te maken van nieuws. In het onderzoeksrapport staat dat de chatbots niet alleen feitelijke onjuistheden bevatten, maar ook "moeite hadden om onderscheid te maken tussen mening en feit, redactionele opmerkingen maakten en vaak essentiële context over het hoofd zagen".
3 - Slechts drie dagen later kondigde The Guardian aan dat ze een deal met OpenAI hebben gesloten. OpenAI mag alle teksten van The Guardian gebruiken om haar AI mee te trainen, zelfs al hebben journalisten, columnisten, brieven- en opinieschrijvers daar helemaal geen toestemming voor gegeven. The Guardian geeft haar imago van kwaliteitskrant volledig op, nu ze ChatGPT in gaat zetten om artikelen te schrijven, "nieuwe producten te ontw
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Kort internationaal AI nieuws.
1 - OpenAI heeft aangekondigd dat het een flink aantal veiligheidsmaatregelen uit ChatGPT wil slopen om de coup in de VS te steunen. Voortaan wordt genocidale en extreemrechtse taal omarmd als even waardevol als het tegendeel.
2 - Uit onderzoek van de BBC blijkt dat AI chatbots niet in staat zijn om accurate samenvattingen te maken van nieuws. In het onderzoeksrapport staat dat de chatbots niet alleen feitelijke onjuistheden bevatten, maar ook "moeite hadden om onderscheid te maken tussen mening en feit, redactionele opmerkingen maakten en vaak essentiële context over het hoofd zagen".
3 - Slechts drie dagen later kondigde The Guardian aan dat ze een deal met OpenAI hebben gesloten. OpenAI mag alle teksten van The Guardian gebruiken om haar AI mee te trainen, zelfs al hebben journalisten, columnisten, brieven- en opinieschrijvers daar helemaal geen toestemming voor gegeven. The Guardian geeft haar imago van kwaliteitskrant volledig op, nu ze ChatGPT in gaat zetten om artikelen te schrijven, "nieuwe producten te ontwikkelen" en ongetwijfeld vele journalisten gaat ontslaan.
Het regent opzeggingen.
4 - Labour, de Britse partij die ooit sociaaldemocratisch was maar die onder Keir Starmer een soort mix van racisme en neoliberalisme omarmt, heeft een wetsvoorstel gelanceerd om het copyright op te heffen voor AI. AI bots mogen zichzelf dan trainen op alle muziek, tekst en andere data die eigenlijk onder copyright vallen, ook zonder toestemming van de makers.
Het voorstel wordt uiteraard verkocht alsof het juist goed zou zijn voor artiesten en tekstschrijvers, maar vrijwel niemand trapt daar in. Creatieven zouden per case bezwaar mogen maken, maar dan moeten ze zelf elk gebruik van hun materiaal opsporen en één voor één naar al die bedrijven stappen, wat natuurlijk onmogelijk is.
Een grote groep celebrities (Kate Bush, Elton John, Hans Zimmer, Annie Lennox, Billy Ocean, Tori Amos ea) heeft uit protest een album uitgebracht waarop je alleen het geluid van lege studio's hoort.
5 - The Guardian heeft blijkbaar veel last van alle opzeggingen, en dus verscheen er vandaag een redactioneel waarin ze zich grote zorgen maken over de macht van AI en de rechtse Techbro's. Ze verklaren zich solidair met Kate Bush & co, en vinden dat copyright verdedigd moet worden. Lachwekkend, want de deal met OpenAI zet The Guardian gewoon door: iedereen copyright behalve iedereen die voor de Guardian schrijft.
6 - Niet helemaal AI nieuws, maar er sterk aan verwant: Datzelfde rottige Labour eist van Apple dat er een achterdeur in wordt gebouwd in hun beveiliging. Zowel Apple als overheden kunnen dan voortaan op iCloud meekijken in bestanden. Omdat Apple graag haar naam hooghoudt weigerde ze dat tot nu toe, maar nu heeft Apple plotseling de beslissing genomen om end-to-end encryptie voor iCloud (die ze ADP, Advanced Data Protection noemen) dan maar helemaal te verwijderen voor de Britten. Apple blijft dus weigeren om een achterdeurtje in te bouwen, maar haalt in plaats daarvan eigenlijk de voordeur en de muren weg. Om te beginnen voor nieuwe gebruikers, later moeten ook oude accounts er aan geloven.
Volgens Amnesty is dit het gevolg van een bevel van de Britten. Apple voldoet echter nog niet helemaal aan dit bevel, want Starmer eist dat Apple de end to end encryptie voor iedereen in de hele wereld verwijdert (!) Het is vrij bizar dat Apple nu half aan het bevel gehoor geeft. Ze zijn nu volgens de Britten nog steeds illegaal bezig. Rechtszaken zijn dus sowieso te verwachten. Was dan all the way gegaan... maar ja, aangezien ook Apple zich solidair met Trump heeft verklaard hoeven we niets meer van ze te verwachten.
Andere aanbieders bieden nog steeds wel end to end encryptie aan. Maar nu de belangrijkste speler om is, zal het voor hen veel moeilijker worden om te volharden. Signal heeft al laten weten dat ze in dat geval stoppen met hun dienst aan te bieden.
Dit is een enorm verreikende beslissing van Apple, met wereldwijde gevolgen. Het betekent dat Starmer mee kan kijken in alle versleutelde bestanden die je op Apple host of gebruikt, tijdens het uploaden. En vanwege de al lang bestaande deals tussen de UK en USA, kijkt Trump dan ook mee.
We mogen dit gerust als een enorme ramp zien, want dat is het. Encryptie die pas in de cloud gebeurt is zo goed als waardeloos: ook terwijl bestanden van je telefoon of laptop naar de cloud reizen moeten ze versleuteld zijn. Dit wordt nu in de UK opgeheven, maar met wereldwijde effecten: andere overheden zullen nu hun kans ruiken.
7 - Toch ook nog een klein beetje goed nieuws, verrassend genoeg uit de VS: De Copyright Office heeft daar besloten dat pure generatieve AI geen copyright kan hebben. Helaas kunnen menselijke werken met AI elementen dat wel hebben, en waar de grens ligt is onduidelijk. Maar een hitje of kunstwerk laten maken door AI, puur gebaseerd op tekst-prompts, dat is in elk geval niet meer beschermd. Ook dit besluit heeft redelijk grote gevolgen: de VS is op dit moment de belangrijkste markt voor AI, en lamtakken die nog te beroerd zijn om zelf energie in hun 'kunst' te steken, kunnen nu in elk geval geen geld meer verdienen aan hun diefstal.
edit: tekst van punt 6 aangepast en uitgebreid na terechte kritiek.
@Dagtwitter Apple een deal gesloten met de UK overheid? Die link zegt niks over een deal, maar juist over dat Apple ADP maar afschaft voor UK gebruikers, waarschijnlijk omdat ze geen backdoor voor de UK willen (en ook technisch niet kunnen!) bieden.
Dat de UK een backdoor geeist heeft mag Apple overigens wettelijk ook helemaal niet wereldkundig maken, dus de communicatie rond dit onderwerp ziet er altijd wat vreemd uit.
Of course the point of Solnit is that resistance is not spontaneously "popping up like mushrooms", but the fruit of the mycelium of years of organising.
Which doesn't mean that you need years before doing anything, but it does mean you need to start organising NOW if you didn't already.
Find people, at least one. Or even better: join an existing organisation.
Then do something. Just a little thing. Call a representative, and ask them to put up a fight. Or print a poster of a burning swasticar and hang it in the street. Or collect clothing and food for the people who need it most. Or ask an activist or an organisation you like, what they need most.
You don't have to invent the wheel. You can be a little brick. We don't need heroes, we need to organise. And we need many people who take a little step, and another one, and another one, until the mushrooms bloom.
Ik hou mijn hart vast voor de Duitse verkiezingen.
Als je de meeste Nederlandse media moet geloven gaat de strijd tussen radicaal-rechts (AfD) en het centrum (CDU). Ze zijn daarnaast ook niet te beroerd om Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) "populistisch links" te noemen.
Bullshit. AfD is zelfs volgens de veiligheidsdiensten grotendeels extreemrechts, noem dat dan ook zo. Merz (CDU) is een mini-Trump, en Wagenknecht is helemaal niet links maar zo racistisch als de neten. Ze is niet voor niks snel uit Die Linke vertrokken voordat ze eruit gemieterd zou worden.
Hoop is er: van de honderdduizenden mensen die steeds weer tegen de verrechtsing demonstreren. Maar nauwelijks vanuit de politiek.
De aanslagen die zo vlak voor de verkiezingen om de haverklap gepleegd worden, zullen helaas grote invloed hebben. Dat gold zelfs voor de eerste aanslag in de rij, die nota bene niet werd gepleegd door een islamist maar door een extreemrechtse terrorist met banden met de AfD. Omdat hij niet wit was, leidde het toch evengoed tot meer steun voor de AfD. Gekmakend.
Wat moeten we va
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Ik hou mijn hart vast voor de Duitse verkiezingen.
Als je de meeste Nederlandse media moet geloven gaat de strijd tussen radicaal-rechts (AfD) en het centrum (CDU). Ze zijn daarnaast ook niet te beroerd om Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) "populistisch links" te noemen.
Bullshit. AfD is zelfs volgens de veiligheidsdiensten grotendeels extreemrechts, noem dat dan ook zo. Merz (CDU) is een mini-Trump, en Wagenknecht is helemaal niet links maar zo racistisch als de neten. Ze is niet voor niks snel uit Die Linke vertrokken voordat ze eruit gemieterd zou worden.
Hoop is er: van de honderdduizenden mensen die steeds weer tegen de verrechtsing demonstreren. Maar nauwelijks vanuit de politiek.
De aanslagen die zo vlak voor de verkiezingen om de haverklap gepleegd worden, zullen helaas grote invloed hebben. Dat gold zelfs voor de eerste aanslag in de rij, die nota bene niet werd gepleegd door een islamist maar door een extreemrechtse terrorist met banden met de AfD. Omdat hij niet wit was, leidde het toch evengoed tot meer steun voor de AfD. Gekmakend.
Wat moeten we van die andere aanslagen denken, die wel door islamisten werden gepleegd? Ik ben niet van de samenzweringstheorieën. Toch ben ik verbijsterd dat media hier doen alsof het allemaal maar toeval is. Gewoon, je bent van de IS en je denkt: 'wanneer zal ik eens iemand gaan vermoorden', en dan denk je puur toevallig allemaal: 'weet je wat, laat ik dat vlak voor de verkiezingen doen want daar wordt de islam vast sterker van'.
Nope, beste mensen. Terroristen mogen dan afgrijselijke dingen doen, dat wil niet zeggen dat ze gek zijn.
Of er werkelijk een samenzwering is weet ik niet. Dat is ook niet per sé nodig: ook zonder geheime ontmoetingen van schimmige figuren in achterkamertjes, kunnen klootzakken beseffen dat ze gedeelde belangen hebben. En klootzakken zijn er genoeg. Take your pick, alleen al uit Poetin, Musk, Trump, AfD en IS.
Wat is dan dat gedeelde belang?
IS en extreemrechts hebben elkaar nodig. Ze leven van hun vijandsbeeld. Sterker nog, in feite zíjn ze allebei extreemrechts.
Tegen vrouwenrechten, tegen trans, tegen minderheden, tegen homo's, tegen zieken, tegen menselijke waardigheid, tegen vrijheid van meningsuiting (ondanks dat ze het omgekeerde beweren), tegen milieu, tegen vernieuwing, tegen democratie, tegen vrijheid, tegen gelijkheid, tegen solidariteit.
Vóór extreme machtsverschillen, vóór geweld, vóór het recht van de sterkste, vóór het verafgoden van de grote nieuwe Führer (hoi Musk), voor de totale uitbuiting van de massa's in een hyperkapitalistische wereld, voor gewetenloosheid.
En ze hebben ook een zeer vergelijkbare methodiek: beiden willen zoveel mogelijk zo extreem mogelijke crises scheppen, en daar dan een zondebok de schuld van geven. Want ze weten dat onzekere mensen vaker voor autoritaire ideologieën en 'sterke mannen' kiezen.
Dat werkt helaas zeer goed. Zeker in een omgeving waarin vrijwel niemand hen echt tegenwicht biedt, en velen hen naar de mond praten, hun ideeën normaliseren en overnemen "om rechts de wind uit de zeilen te nemen"- met het omgekeerde effect.
En dus hou ik mijn hart vast.
Wat moeten wij dan doen?
NIET COLLABOREREN. Elke medewerking weigeren. Altijd.
.
(afbeelding: Studiovanorigine voor Grutjes in 2016)
"... tegen vrijheid van meningsuiting (ondanks dat ze het omgekeerde beweren)"... Dat is 'woke' van hen 😉 😉 Overigens doen 'wij' vooral goed aan behalve niet meewerken aan hun narigheid het tegenovergestelde ervan opbouwen en onderhouden, toch? 😉
Patrick Lam
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Patrick Lam • • •@va2lam I made a conscious effort not to go there after 2016, despite my normal schedule including up to six trips a year to the US.
On an occasion when I did go, I took a fully clean laptop & phone, & loaded everything from the cloud after I was in my hotel. I needed one password to access the account & that was separated on two pieces of paper, one in my shoe.
It feels absurd to think I thought that was necessary. But here we are again …
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Patrick Lam
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •yeah, I was at a conference in Beijing a few years ago and someone who was rotating at DARPA did similar things. But these days it's the US that is actually the danger.
I did go to a conference in the US last October because my Iranian student couldn't get a visa. But in the future I'm definitely planning to de-prioritize US conferences.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •FWIW, the article suggests that the date this French scientist was refused entry was just before the annual Lunar & Planetary Sciences Conference in Houston, a key meeting for folk in those fields.
Will be interesting to see if further information emerges.
Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •See also this Le Monde article (I don't read much French myself).
lemonde.fr/international/artic…
Etats-Unis : un chercheur français refoulé pour avoir exprimé « une opinion personnelle sur la politique menée par l’administration Trump »
Le Monde avec AFP (Le Monde)reshared this
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Madeleine Morris
in reply to Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD • • •I strongly encourage people to click on the news article and then use a translation. Because the positioning of the French ministry for research is eye-opening.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Madeleine Morris • • •@Remittancegirl @EricFielding Good spot – there’s a button on the article itself which gives an English language version, which is most welcome.
I had read it in French last night and again in English now – I’m curious which particular aspect of the French ministry response caught your eye?
(It’s possible that I know the researcher in question and they work in space science, the article says.)
Madeleine Morris
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I guess a sense of clear-eyedness. No obfuscation on that perhaps this was a mistake, etc.
@EricFielding
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Madeleine Morris • • •@Remittancegirl @EricFielding Indeed. It’s a complete abnegation of democracy to punish someone for having a negative opinion on an elected politician, whether foreign or not.
But the aim is clear here – to use arbitrary & excessive power to signal that dissent will not be tolerated, whether from foreigners or citizens. And there will be many in the relevant authorities who will enjoy wielding that power.
Classic authoritarian state rule. The US is sliding away before our eyes.
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juliette
in reply to Madeleine Morris • • •French researcher denied entry to US for 'expressing personal opinion' on Trump policies
Le Monde with AFP (Le Monde)reshared this
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fascism is treif
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to fascism is treif • • •Louis Ingenthron
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Speaking as an American in America: You absolutely do not want to be here right now.
Please apply economic sanctions on us before you have to start sending bombs and tanks.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Louis Ingenthron • • •@louis You have my deepest sympathy & concern – it seems to be even worse than the most extreme predictions & it feels certain that a lot of lives are being ruined.
I’ve lived five years in the US, visited more than a hundred times, & have been married to an American – I know that there are many good people there who absolutely don’t want this insanity.
Stay safe.
Shephallmassive reshared this.
demofox
in reply to Louis Ingenthron • • •We don't want any of what's going on and are doing what we can, but any help from the outside is much appreciated.
Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary
in reply to demofox • • •Thirding. It seems to be a common foreign misconception that the US's general public is in a position to violently overthrow the Federal government at a moment's notice. We're not, for several reasons.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary • • •Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Yeah, the military strikes me as a major wild card in all this. I don't feel like I can predict what they'll do either way (unlike police, whom I can pretty confidently say will fall on the fascist side).
Will the military back Trump out of fear and/or misplaced loyalty? Will they overthrow him in a military coup? Will they fragment between those two goals and descend into infighting, and if so what will the balance of power between the sides be?
MissConstrue
in reply to Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary • • •Derick Rethans
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •It's a tricky one. I currently have a conference in May in Chicago.
I know the "phone can be taken and searched" has been going on since 2001 really, but never thought "this could be me".
Now with this, and the more horrific cases with a Canadian, two Germans, and a Brit being thrown into ICE detention…
I like the folks that organise the conference, and know many of the other speakers, but is it now worth the risk? I don't know 😕
Certainly not going to plan to future ones.
Frieke
in reply to Derick Rethans • • •eff.org/document/eff-border-se… (circling here on masto)
@markmccaughrean
EFF Border Search Pocket Guide
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Derick Rethans
in reply to Frieke • • •Yvonne ‘looks undocumented’
in reply to Derick Rethans • • •@derickr speaking as a non-scientist American (though I’ve got two scientists in the family), I urge you to boycott all things American.
It needs to sink in to the public at large that the US is dangerous (lots still in denial), and one of the best ways to do that is to stop spending money here. Don’t book those flights and hotels for the conference, don’t eat in our restaurants, and get around town via transit or taxi.
Conferences are big business—close them all down.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Yvonne ‘looks undocumented’ • • •Derick Rethans
in reply to Yvonne ‘looks undocumented’ • • •@grammasaurus This is not a big business conference, but a community one run on a shoestring budget. Flights are all booked (non US airline), and hotel too.
I don't want to be flaky with the people who organise it, nor miss a chance to see many friends, who honestly could do with some support.
But I might change my mind if it gets worse, and have been talking to the organisers about that too.
Beyond that, I'm definitely moving away from US (tech) providers.
Yvonne ‘looks undocumented’
in reply to Derick Rethans • • •@derickr The chance to see friends is important! and all anyone can do is make choices based on the best info they have at any moment.
I hope the US won’t be in crisis for too long, but know that many of us support whatever decisions you make that keep you safe.
Birchbirch
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •My eyes were opened on this about 10 years ago when a customer of mine acknowledged that their corporate laptops had embedded self-destruct software in case they "fell into the wrong hands."
Those laptops were only intended to be used on trips to their US customers.
I've lost count of the number of times I've visited the US, including multiple times in the same week (just mad!), but I can't see me willingly going again...
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🇺🇦 haxadecimal
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I am utterly ashamed of the things my country is doing
AstrAl
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Orm Alephwyr ΘΔ
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Nicole Parsons
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Don't overlook the profit motive and public corruption behind these immigration crackdowns & extra travel visa scrutiny.
Trump's administration is doing all it can to prolong detention time because it sends money from the detainees into the system.
borderreport.com/immigration/c…
Detainees are pressured into posting bail, hiring a US lawyer, working for free, signing over assets, or otherwise "feeding the beast" in order to regain their freedom.
1/2
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/2
Trump is directing business away from certain law firms and towards favored legal representation.
reuters.com/world/us/us-law-fi…
The Nazis did the same to people fleeing their dictatorship too.
statista.com/statistics/107101…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haavar…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_p…
Baron Rothschild paid $21 million as his ransom to the Nazis.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_…
Carpetbagging has a long tradition in the USA.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet…
Germany: value of assets taken from Jewish emigrants 1933-1937 | Statista
StatistaBarry C
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Veada
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Eye
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Trisha Lynn 🇵🇭 🇺🇸 🇨🇦
in reply to Eye • • •Djembro, RO, supports 🇺🇦🇬🇪
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Dr Andrew A. Adams #FBPE 🔶
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I had already decided not to visit the US for the foreseeable future, pretty much immediately after the election.
Sasha
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Bart Veldhuizen 🚀
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •"perhaps worse in the future": this future is already here:
mastodon.social/@erosalie@info…
mastodon.social/@Natasha_Jay@t…
(These are not scientists, but still). I had some business travel to the US come up, showed these to my manager and told him I feel that would be unsafe. I always loved visiting the US and this makes me sad indeed.
Mastodon
mastodon.socialTill Sawala
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I've asked myself that question - and when Trump was elected the first time, I decided I wouldn't attend conferences in a country that had just issued a blanket ban on any colleagues from Muslim majority countries.
This time, however, Trump is launching an attack on US science itself, so I think it would be wrong not to go. As a white European, my personal risk is objectively very low (though I will certainly not carry data or access to data that could put others at risk).
Till Sawala
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Paul Sutton
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Simpike
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Colas Hennion
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Alerta! Alerta!
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •The moment the election results got in I canceled all my CfP submissions to US conferences...
It hurt. But I can't make it. And would I have not done it, now would probably be the time where I'd cancel possible gigs. If I can't be certain that I don't end up in some slave-labour camp, I'm out!
Talia Hussain
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Talia Hussain • • •@Talia Indeed. I felt the same during the first Tangerine Tyrant era – admittedly, I went for work still, but wouldn’t countenance any holiday there. In particular, we had hoped to go & see the 2017 total solar eclipse, but that got struck immediately.
But this time it’s far worse & I’d be hard pressed to agree to travel there now for any reason.
Talia Hussain
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •yuhasz01
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to yuhasz01 • • •yuhasz01
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I agree. All the COVID era online scientific and biomedical conferences were of widely variable quality.
An unfortunate situation with US science climate being so negative and inhospitable for visitors.
Klaus Stein
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Searching digital devices started with 9/11 (aka DHS), so at this point I decided to avoid going to the US.
But what I see now is by magnitudes worse.
Grassroots Joe
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Jennifer
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Ulli
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •It is always wise to use „Travelequipment“ for the Entry into the USA, instead of traveling with you All-Day Electronics…!
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Ulli • • •@Ulli I know it does & there have been times in the past, notably during the Tangerine Tyrant’s last term, that I only carried scrubbed laptops & phones on trips.
The point is how often it is enacted, with what tolerance levels, & with what intent. And that has clearly changed, making it far more risky / dangerous for foreigners with opinions to travel to the US than it was two months ago. And arguably travelling tacitly legitimises the regime even if you carry clean electronics.
Ulli
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •That amount hasn’t changed during the last months.
What changed was the coverage of single cases by news outlets and in the social media.
And it is always the same, the CBP-Officer has the last word about your entry into the US.
If he don’t like you, you are going back, that also hasn’t changed for the last 40yrs I observe it as a traveler and pilot.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Ulli • • •@Ulli Thanks for putting some numbers on that for us – do you know what fraction of the total number of passengers that is?
And I know that US immigration officials have always had this power – I used to live there, had a Green Card, & have had some very interesting experiences with them over the years. I also spoke at one point with the most senior lawyer at the INS about the rules & they essentially said "it's entirely at the discretion of the officer you talk to on the day."
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •@Ulli That said, I think it's perfectly likely that the current government is going to weaponise that power, & I struggle to believe that turning back a scientist for having messages on his phone disapproving of the research funding policies has always been a reason for rejection.
So we also need to be careful not to shrug & say "business as usual", as it's clear that this is not a US government as usual.
Ulli
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •But we have to concentrate on the cases related with the 🤡 in the WH!
If we concentrate on the „loudest cases“, but miss the real ones by that, we fall into the traps set by right-wing-media!
We had a large news coverage about our ministry of foreign affairs changing a sentence within the travel informations regarding the US, but there were no coverage of the Gytmo-Camps, or the illegal deportations of the Venezuelans, in Germany…
Ulli
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Ulli • • •Ulli
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •IATA is naming the number on „less than 1%“, but the Airlines doing a lot in front of the flight to make sure that only Passengers arrive, with a good chance for admission, as there are fines for every INAD for the Airline.
iata.org/en/publications/newsl…
Understanding the Issue of Inadmissible Passengers (INADs) and Their Impact on Travel
www.iata.org…might work for coffee…
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •We had issues with VISA for German researchers 9 years ago. They were Turkish Nationals postdpocs at our department. Visa procedure took simply too long so they could not attend
We had to sent a US or Canadian on short notice to present
So this is not so new. (And we do not need to speak about other nations who always had this issues)
This just never made news
New is, the US based researchers have to fear reentry is denied. So either we go hybrid, or we write off US Research.
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to …might work for coffee… • • •…might work for coffee…
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I am totally with you.
It is something we should be ashamed to not have tackled as academia before. Even EU conferences are a problem for many.
So the second best time to work on this is now.
The question is how do we proceed with US-Based researchers. Many foreign young PhD candidates think they got the chance of their life to be there.
Mark McCaughrean
Unknown parent • • •Andrew Elwell
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •David Mitchell
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Doug Baker
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •#ElbowsUp #Canada
Fluffgar 🏴 reshared this.
John Gordon
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •NoBorg
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Better use your brain in Europe, we'll need them.
Arne Mertz
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Hendrik Boom
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Dom
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Now you see that the First Amendment is just a lame excuse for dumb people to cowardly attack everyone else and the Second Amendment is brandished for personal egoistic reasons but never used when it is needed.
In a nutshell, more often than not, Americans invoking the Constitution couldn't care less about it.
Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary
in reply to Dom • • •What's scary is that it's become clear that a lot of rank-and-file right-wing citizens see the Constitution the same way they see the Bible: an infallible divine document that is nonetheless not for *their* lowly eyes to read, but for the "priesthood" to interpret for them in ways that point towards cruelty and hate.
Kit Bashir
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •bigjsl
in reply to Kit Bashir • • •Mark McCaughrean
in reply to bigjsl • • •ProScience
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •I would go even further: Every foreign affairs ministry in every semi-functional democracies should issue travel warnings for the general public.
And those who go regardless must know they're on their own, with very few exceptions.
Wer den Fels
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Omar Antolín
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Oh, I've already cancelled trips to the US out of fear. I wrote this post over two weeks ago: mathstodon.xyz/@oantolin/11409…
Omar Antolín
2025-03-03 00:43:57
Mark McCaughrean
in reply to Omar Antolín • • •@oantolin I fully agree with your decision. I have many very good friends & colleagues in the US who are concerned & scared about the rapid dismantling any remaining semblance of democracy in their country & they have my sympathy.
My fear though as the catastrophe of climate change continues to increase, is that totalitarianism will take a deeper hold across the world, as populists & demagogues exploit the fear & denialism. The world is at a dangerous tipping point in many ways.
nonlinear
in reply to Mark McCaughrean • • •Good bye America’s soft power.
I hope Canada takes the place for scientific conferences.