Piefed developer going the extra mile to absolutely defend people who could be wrongly accused of transphobia, of being fascists, as if they were just misunderstood...
Looking at the linked posts about how piefed is trans-friendly and antifascist, something is clear: they really assume those are just individual misdirections and need to be dealt with through facts-based discourse, because the truth always wins.
Unfortunately that's not how it works, and this is yet another example of how enlightened centrism will never defeat fascism. If there is an accusation of pro-fascism, the reflex must be to check how right the accusation is, not how wrong it is. Especially in the current setting where fascism is rising everywhere. Fascism is a virus that is to be fought as soon as it appears, as strong as is possible; if you don't, it wins. History is supposed to teach us so we don't repeat mistakes.
I'm part of piefed staff, wiki editor and doing the french translation of piefed. So there is a bias.
I think we should nuance it.
And for me, history won't teach us how to not repeat mistake. The same way, scientific study hasn't helped us to stop climate change. Yes we had to fight but people still vote far right despite numerous history facts. Same for free software. I think we are fucked up but i still fight for my values because i still believe we can change it through lot hardship.
Let's go back to piefed. Well i partly agree that defending the truth isn't enough but some part are missing.
Piefed project started because Lemmy dev where supporting authoritarian regime as China and Russia.
Rimu went to trans communities and asked them which features they would like to have. There are trans theme, he listen to Ada, she is blahaj admin...we also take care of accessibility for blind people with the help of travis-jean.
The blocklist filter far-right domains sanitize our space. I also suggested that we block figaro on jlai.lu. So we don't support this toxic newpaper that spread transphobia virus through "la petite sirene". I believe those are important tools against fascism : stopping fascist media spreading toxic ideas in social network.
The toolkit discourse explain some mecanism about converting people to toxic ideas. i find it interesting.
Last thing, this serial of blog post is an answer to false accusation about rimu and our staff.
Like the "enlightened centrism" in your post.
There was a huge fedidrama, both side where wrong. it started with lemmy.world and an admin from dbzer0 that had "murder all zionist" in its bio and pseudo. It ramped up with a mod from dzer0 that mass banned people for "zionism"...and rimu was one of those people banned.
Later dzer0 tried a local AI on Piefed.social Rimu is against AI. So it triggered a huge nuclear shitstorm. He mass banned any people related to this.
During the fedidrama, he was very close to stop Piefed project. I also lost my calm and went mad.
So we had to create our own safe space and stay away from lot users.
There is lot things to discuss about...
I don't try to understand it anymore to protect my mental health. I don't discuss with users on this and that. It drained me, i delete comment, post related to this and move on. The same way, i don't expose myself to israel commiting genocide and trump because it utterlly destroy my mental health.
Camus has a more balanced opinion on Piefed then myself.
Thanks, that's very interesting background. That is the kind of things that can explain the reasoning behind this series of post, and why it was worded like that. I can only imagine how hard going back to it though.
I'm sorry rimu, and by extension the team, was falsely accused, but this blog post doesn't begin to explain what is/isn't wrong. But the way the post is worded, this is not what transpires: it sounds like the mere accusation of "fascist" is wrong, and should be avoided. There are some bad vibes in there
I understand. The blog should be reworded. Maybe, its just me, on the threadiverse, it is easier to be accusated of fascism, some debate are polarized and lack nuance.
I think we lack a good framework for discussion as described by philoxime.
So, i tend to stay outside, on jlai.lu and zulip with few people. I also find some peace here, on mastodon.
