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Useless, miserable, pathetic people trying to get feminism.lgbt suspended by its domain provider for being ~problematic~ shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

The fact that there's such genuine outrage among many of us about this attempt is just a sign of how plausible the thread actually is. We've all known it for a long time: TLD provision is centralised, under the domain of a handful of authorities who *listen* to appeals like this.

It's the elephant in the room. We can self-host, we can use providers like cockbox who don't give a fuck about what we do, we can obfuscate. But the domain name provision is directly attackable.

I understand the anger going around and the feeling that we need to fight back by any means possible, but doing so by appealing to the same exact authorities with evidence of our opponents' "transgressions" has two problems:

1: Philosophically speaking, are we content to live with the ever-present authoritarian threat that this model represents, even if we can convince it to "rule in our favour" on this one occasion?

2: Let's be real. The powers that be are going to listen to THEM. Not us. Anyone who was there during Gamergate knows that.

I am not a technically inclined man. I won't pretend to understand the wizardry that many of you work with computers and the internet. But even with my limited understanding, I can see that this is just another sign of our inevitable approach to the one true solution: ABANDONMENT OF THE CLEARNET.

You might think ~the dark web~ is only for criminals, druggies, and paedophiles, but as many wise people have pointed out by now: USING ENCRYPTION AND OBFUSCATION AS A NORMAL PERSON, DISCUSSING NORMAL THINGS, HELPS PROTECT THOSE WHO ACTUALLY NEED TO USE IT, BECAUSE THE AUTHORITIES CANNOT DETERMINE WHICH ENCRYPTED TRAFFIC IS WORTH THEIR TIME, AND ENCRYPTION USAGE IS NO LONGER THE HALLMARK OF A CRIMINAL. This means activists. This means rebels. This means insurgents. Yes, this means terrorists. Yes, this means paedos. Fucking deal with it. Ultimately, we have to make a choice: Where do we stand? With the power of the individual to communicate, spread ideas, and share data without restriction? Or with the power of ultimate authority to clamp down, inhibit, censor, criminalise and detain at will?

I know where I'll stand when the time comes. Even if I have to learn a new skillset to do so.

The second method of fighting back against this kind of disgusting, toadying behaviour is to focus on the thing that we should have been focusing on all along: CHANGING CULTURE.

For those who were ACTUALLY THERE on our side during Gamergate (again, it really was a test case for this kind of thing), and who ACTUALLY HAD THEIR EYES OPEN, they saw how quickly the impetus to "win the culture war" for the side of FREE EXPRESSION and UNINHIBITED FUN quickly became, under the guidance of infiltrators and instigators like Milo Yiannopolous, the impetus to "win the culture war" for le ebin right wing xDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Don't get fucking distracted. You know deep down that you don't really stand for ~nationalism~ or for ~muh markets~ or whatever.

You know why you're here. You're here because you love being able to say and do whatever you want. You're here because you don't want to be controlled. You're here because you reject the authority of the many over the ultimate sovereignity of the individual.

So start fucking acting like it. "Be the change you want to see in the world." Accept the viewpoints of others, just as you wish to be accepted. Don't snitch. Don't rat. Don't use the police and other shitty institutions against your enemies. Don't strive to control others. Strive only to liberate them, and to be liberated yourself.

I very often see people on "my side" (in this sense) posting that image of Theoden from LOTR laughing and saying "You have no power here." There's an ultimate irony to that, because in that scene, Theoden is brainwashed and speaking down to Gandalf, someone who VERY DEFINITELY DOES have power there and goes on to demonstrate it mere seconds later. But that aside, if you want to REALLY disempower your enemy? If you want to build a world where shitty accusations like "You're a Nazi!" "You're a pedophile!" "You're a white supremacist!" "You're anti-semitic!" "You're problematic!" etc. won't wash? Won't get you fired? Won't get you hounded and arrested? Then take their power away by NORMALISING A WORLD OF FREE EXPRESSION.

A little at a time. Don't become a martyr in the name of freedom. But push the boundaries. Encourage others to think in liberated and uninhibited ways. STOP persecuting people for dumb shit like their sexual orientation or identity choices, STOP using the tactics of our enemies (attacking livelihood etc) to silence your opponents. Normalise uninhibited thinking.

That's the only way you'll ever save this world.

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