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Update: My take on this has changed, due to @jeremiah, @jorgecandeias, and @koen_hufkens referring me to essays about this issue by @cwebber (I had read parts of them but not all). I'm convinced by Christine Lemmer-Webber's analysis: the AT protocol is decentralizable in theory, but seems constructed in such a way that any real implementation of a second bluesky server would cost millions of dollars; it does not seem feasible to make a network of bluesky-type servers on "normal-people" budgets, unless something about that codebase changes.

Original post (much more optimistic) below. -----------------

"Smart leftism pays attention to these differences [in flavors of capitalism], because they represent the potential fault lines in capitalism's coalition..."

"I'm saying that it's good praxis to understand these divisions in capitalism, because then we can exploit those differences to make real, material gains for human thriving and worker rights. Lumping all for-profit businesses together as identical and irredeemable is bad tactics."

"My answer to 'why spend money fixing Bluesky?' is 'why leave 20 million people at risk of enshittification when we could not only make them safe, but also create the toolchain to allow many, many organizations to operate a whole federation of Bluesky servers?' If you care about a better internet – and not just the Fediverse – then you should share this goal, too."

@pluralistic politely but firmly calling the purity-testing, gatekeeping leftists (and Fediversians) on the carpet and it's a discussion that is always timely. I am here for it.

pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/cap

pluralistic.netPluralistic: Enshittification isn’t caused by venture capital (20 Jan 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

@guyjantic @pluralistic @jeremiah @jorgecandeias Thank you but just note I'm not Dr. Lemmer-Webber but my wife @mlemweb is :)

@cwebber @pluralistic @jeremiah @jorgecandeias @mlemweb Oops! Sorry. Um... just refer to you by your handle? As Christine Lemmer-Webber?

@cwebber @guyjantic @pluralistic @jeremiah @jorgecandeias

I mean, since @cwebber has been unofficially dubbed "The Queen of the Fediverse" you could go with "Her Majesty" ... but other than that her name works just fine ;)

@mlemweb @cwebber @guyjantic @pluralistic @jeremiah @jorgecandeias You should not have said that, there are some barbaric French people in here, and we are known for inventing a machine to cut off the heads of Monarchs.

"Luckily I am not actually the queen of the fediverse" -- the Queen of the Fediverse

Philip Bernhart

@cwebber I wonder if there is not some law, which prohibits naming yourself as some kind of royal or identity which you are not.

I had today a conversation with a lawyer. They achieve to make me instantly nervous, all the many ways your existence, what you are doing, what you write, what you think which could cause "consequences" in the form of angry letters written by a lawyer.

@phantasus Probably is legal concern in *some* places of the world

But remember that I just said I am not queen of the fediverse. I proclaimed it, a royal decree