Neil's Digital Stream

• Reform UK and digital technologies
• Zettled:
  • Reform UK uses TikTok as a core component of its communication strategy
  • Reform use targeted digital campaigns to deliver messages that speak directly to the priorities of local communities
• Listened:
  • Future Histories International: Jan Overwijk on Cybernetic Capitalism and Critical Systems Theory
    • Quite a mind expanding listen. I think I'm starting to grasp it, and it's more just getting used to new terminology than a particularly complicated concept, I think.
    • Closed and open sounds like it could have interesting parallel to horizontal and vertical in organisational ecology.
    • It's unclear to me how anything in this theory applies to actually changing the world, but it's either that it's a case of better understanding the enemy in order to then figure out how to overthrow it, or simply that I haven't clocked it yet.
    • Ah fair enough at the end that question comes up and he says he has focused on description rather than alternative. Jan Groos points to some possible leftist similarities.
• Data brokers. Vacuuming up your data, then asking you to opt out of them using it.
• I seem to be having the usual post fresh install snappiness, which is nice. Like I say everytime, I should do it more often…
  • I've gotten back up and running pretty quickly.
  • The main thing I need to improve on is how I have slightly different config between my personal and work configs for Emacs, and I haven't yet got a decent way of checking those changes in.

• Listened:
  • Future Histories International: Jan Overwijk on Cybernetic Capitalism and Critical Systems Theory
    • Critical systems theory. I haven't understood half of what's been said so far. But combining systems theory and critical theory sounds interesting.
    • Traces systems theory line through Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to Niklas Luhmann.
    • Then I believe the idea is to address the absence of politics in Luhmann's systems theory.
    • autopoiesis.
    • Today in Focus: Outrage as oil giants profit billions from Iran war – The Latest
    • Today in Focus: What next for Labour as Reform wins big in local elections? – The Latest
      • Greens got a lot of the vote, but didn't translate into a lot of seats. Reform targeted well so took a lot of the seats.
      • Local government is a key locus for fleshing out party apparatus, so this is bad news…
• "According to the CPJ, Israeli forces were responsible for two-thirds of all the journalist killings around the world last year."
  • Guardian newsletter
  • Israeli forces were responsible for two-thirds of all the journalistic killings around the world in 2025
• Bookmarked:
  • European Democracy Shield and EU Strategy for Civil Society pave the way for …
    • "The European Democracy Shield and the EU Strategy for Civil Society present measures to protect the key pillars of our democratic systems: free people, free and fair elections, free and independent media, a vibrant civil society and strong democratic institutions."
  • Linux Distributions as Coops?
    • Linux Cooperatives.
  • Collective Governance for AI: Points of Intervention
    • "This document from the Metagov community has two goals. First, it identifies distinct layers of the AI stack that can be named and reimagined. Second, for each layer, it points to potential strategies, grounded in existing projects, that could steer that layer toward meaningful collective governance."
  • Decolonizing Degrowth: Ecosocialist Alternatives to Green Colonialism and Une…
    • "By engaging grassroots struggles and internationalist justice claims, the article outlines pathways for just ecosocialist transitions rooted in energy democracy, global redistribution, and relational ecological care."
• Zettled:
  • Local government is a key locus for fleshing out party apparatus
• How does Reform UK use digital technology? How to counter it?

• Doing a fresh Linux install.
  • Permanently low on space on my 256Gb drive for some reason, getting a bit sick of it.
    • I blame Snap, Flatpak, node_modules, and keeping a Windows 10 partition around for support purposes.
  • Also on an old version of Mint, solely needed a distro upgrade anyway.
  • But I'm in fact giving Zorin a go. Mainly to get a sense of whether it's something worth recommending in the Repair Cafe.
  • I will likely install Debian later for myself.
  • So - let's see how quick to install and get back to a state where I can do work again. Time to dig out the Setting up a new box notes…
• Notes on Zorin 18.1.
• Some notes for amendments to my new box notes…
  • I need to add fish install to new box instructions.
  • Use git ssh rather than https for git clone of private repos.
  • spacemacs install is by far most time consuming step.
    • bit annoying that you can't leave it unattended - asks to install sqlite and vterm
      • maybe you can?
  • why is my org repo so big?
  • my dotfiles are now on codeberg
  • it's now nerd icons for icon fonts

• Bookmarked:
  • The Explicit Manifesto of Digital Fascism: Palantir and the Alliance of Monopoly Capital with the Far Right
    • "The Palantir manifesto is not merely a document from a tech company announcing its positions. It is a loud alarm bell that progressive forces must hear clearly: the battle over the future of technology is no longer lurking backstage. It has stepped into the open, announcing itself without shame. Those who delay in grasping this shift delay their entry into the most decisive arena of struggle in this century."
    • Digital fascism.
  • The Capitalist Vision of Artificial Intelligence: Profit, Power, and Control
    • "The current development of artificial intelligence cannot be understood merely as technical progress, it is part of a system of class domination through which major corporations and capitalist states seek to increase profits, concentrate wealth, and reproduce existing relations of production"
  • The Leftist Alternative to Artificial Intelligence
    • "This vision aims to liberate AI from the constraints of the capitalist market and redirect it toward serving all humanity, transforming it into a means to improve quality of life, free people from burdensome routine labor, and enhance human creativity in all areas."
  • Reform faces questions over tech investor's role in cost-cutting drive - BBC News
  • Algorithmic politics: How Reform UK is leveraging TikTok in the next election
  • How digital strategy helped shape Reform's breakthrough | Millbank - Leading digital for global leaders
  • AI-and-the-productivity-revolution.pdf
  • Revealed: Reform UK Crypto Partner's Ties to Pro-Trump Big Tech and Kemi Badenoch – Byline Times
  • Reform UK, Big Tech, and the Future of Online Safety in Britain
  • A modern machine write-up - A-modern-machine-write-up.pdf
  • Farage trying to avoid scrutiny over £5m gift from crypto billionaire, Labour…
  • What’s behind surge in support for Reform and Greens across England? Five key…
  • How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now …
  • Go Away Microsoft! The Netherlands is Quietly Building Its Own GitHub Replace…
  • ‘Nigel is mad to accept his money’: who is Christopher Harborne, the mystery …
  • Main Page — ibis.wiki
  • AI as a Fascist Artifact
  • Acting ethically in an imperfect world
  • European Alternatives - Discover European & Open Source Software

• Reflecting upon the use cases of current AI, they feel mostly boil down to doing something you could feasibly have done before, but now you can do it faster, and yourself rather than needing help from others.
  • I suppose that's pretty much a description of all technology.
  • So the question is do you really need to do it that fast? How come? At what cost? (As with all technology).
  • If a technology can be used to increase emancipation, reduce toil, for all, without exploiting labour or nature, then good. If not, scrutiny is required.
  • AI can reduce toil, the others seem uncertain.

• Listened:
  • Today in Focus: The secretive billionaire bankrolling Nigel Farage
    • Rich crypto guy has given tens of millions of pounds to Brexit Party and Reform over the years.
    • Tether.
    • Suspected motive: wants to be the 'king of crypto'.
    • Donates to parties that he feels most likely to be favourable to crypto.
    • No link between his massive donations and any pro-crypto positions, of course.
• Bookmarked:
  • The Left Must Plan for AI - by Alexei Gannon

• Bookmarked:
  • The AI Denial Industry: The Left’s MAHA - by Alexei Gannon
  • Artificial Intelligence, Universal Machines, and Killing Bourgeois Dreams
  • Artificial Intelligence

Notes that link to this note (AKA backlinks).

• Neil's Digital Garden
• Neil's Digital Stream

• Anagora - Neil's Digital Stream