Notices by Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al), page 19

@andre No, I’m not going to kill myself to pass some meaningless test of purity between open source testing frameworks. Have slightly bigger fish to fry at the moment.

@strypey @Tutanota @solstice I didn’t compare it. I asked if you had a line. And if that line isn’t homophobia, what is it. But you know what, I’m so not in the mood to argue minutiae with you right now. With everything that’s going on, you thought: “Hey, here’s my hill. Why Aral called out the homophobia instead of the cryptocurrency play.” Ok, cool, you win. Goodbye.

@strypey @Tutanota @solstice So no qualms about doing business with Nazis, then? Or do you actually have a line somewhere and it just happens to not be homophobia?

I’m stepping away from here for as long as it takes. And I’m going to keep working on building the Small Web for as long as I’m able so we have some sort of an escape hatch for democracy. Hopefully not the only one.

For fuck’s sake, people.

For fucking fuck’s sake. (13/13)

I mean you realise this means Palestine is even more fucked than it was. That Ukraine will fall. Who next? Poland? And fascists everywhere will be emboldened. Putin and Orban are creaming their pants right now. I can only imagine what this means for the UN, NATO, the EU…

I’m so fucking angry and tired…

…the climate crisis…

Fuck this… what good is this doing? (12/13)

Unlike, say, us. Folks like me who are… what was it?… Oh yes, Too. Fucking. Radical. Too fucking radical because we saw the ties a decade ago and spoke out against them. Ostracised because we tried to get you to see. To take a fucking stand. But it was easier to cast us out and protect your place in the pecking order. Good job! (9/13)

(Did I mention we just got turned down AGAIN by NLNet/ngi for EU funding for Small Tech – you know, the exact fucking opposite of Big Tech – you know, the Big Tech that just bought this election for Trump and which now has a fucking army…) But that’s OK, we’ll continue to exist somehow even without funding. Just as we have in the past. And you’ll still call us “too radical” while you try on your fucking Nazi 2.0 uniforms from Hugo Boss. (10/13)

I do hope you realise, when the fascists have you cornered on the street, it’s not going to be Brad from Microsoft that comes to your rescue. It’s going to the be anti-fascists you labelled as “too radical”. Brad from Microsoft is going to walk straight past you and head up this 12th floor office to kick off his morning meeting to deliver the software that handles the deportations… (11/13)

Because this isn’t just a victory for Trump. It’s a victory for Peter Thiel. For Elon Musk. For Silicon Valley. For venture capitalists. For Big Tech.

You know, all those people and corporations that you find Fine and Normal. (8/13)

Congratulations, you’ve travelled the neoliberalism to fascism pipeline and ended up at your final destination.

And you’re not the first, either. Ever heard of Turkey? Look into its history. See how Erdoğan came to power. If you don’t feel like you’re looking in the mirror, you’re not paying attention. (6/13)

Unlike Turkey, I don’t see any military coups saving you. Not that military coups are any solution. What was that Kamala Harris was bragging about? Oh yes, that you have the most lethal military in the world? Guess who’s holding the lead of that particular dog right now. And would you look at that, you’ve given it a taste for Brown blood in the Middle East. Almost as if the weapons you create can and will be used against you. Being in tech, I know that all too well. (7/13)

This isn’t the worst possible outcome for you. The worst possible outcome would have been someone who threatened the interests of the capitalist system you benefit from coming to power. So great job! You avoided catastrophe. You know as well as I do that you’re going to be fine under fascism. Some of your friends and acquaintances? Not so much. But that’s OK, you can learn to turn a blind eye to their suffering just like you did with the children being slaughtered in Gaza by Israel. (5/13)

In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn? Too fucking radical. Why? Because they threatened your system of moderate social injustice. Because they wanted social justice, period. And you were too fucking afraid of losing your own privilege should that come to pass. (4/13)

And some of you have the gall – the fucking gall – to blame this on anyone and everyone else when it was you assholes that perpetuated the myth that capitalism and democracy were somehow complimentary instead of diametrically opposed. When it was you who made sure that any actual alternative – any alternative that might have negatively impacted your own fucking wallets – didn’t have a hope in hell of being presented to the people. Bernie Sanders? Too fucking radical. (3/13)

Fuck you if you’re happy with billionaires and trillion-dollar corporations as long as you get work for them and take home your six-figure salaries and stock options. Fuck you if you’re fine with Brown people on the other side of the world getting slaughtered in a genocide with your tax dollars as long as you’re safe. Fuck you if you vilify anti-fascists and “the far left” as “just as bad as…” (2/13)

You know, fuck this, stream of consciousness coming up. Mute/whatever as you see fit.

Trump didn’t win this election. Kamala lost it. The Democrats lost it. Neoliberalism lost it.

Turns out if you’re on team moderate social injustice and your opponent is team total social injustice, you’re playing the social injustice game with the people who wrote the damn book. Who did you think was going to fucking win?

What I’m trying to say is this: Fuck. Neoliberals. (1/13)

The fucking privilege of some people.

@gva Are you fucking serious right now?

@patrickleavy (And I did try to get through to them: https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/)

@patrickleavy (You’re entirely right, though, it could. It won’t be. Not with the asshats in charge at the moment. But it could.)