Cocoron @cocoron@sunbeam.city

"It’s strange, isn’t it? The ideology of capitalism is that it is a system that generates immense abundance (so much stuff!). But in reality it is a system that relies on the constant production of scarcity.

This conundrum was first noticed back in 1804, and became known as the Lauderdale Paradox. Lauderdale pointed out that the only way to increase “private riches” (basically, GDP) was to reduce what he called “public wealth”, or the commons. To enclose things that were once free so that people have to pay in order to access them. To illustrate, he noted that colonialists would often even burn down trees that produced nuts and fruits so that local inhabitants wouldn’t be able to live off of the natural abundance of the earth, but would be forced to work for wages in order to feed themselves. "

Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance

https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2018/10/27/degrowth-a-call-for-radical-abundance

I'm starting a co-operative in Belfast, Northern Ireland. If anyone here knows anyone in that area who would be interested in that, please let them know. No money or special skills necessary, we only need your precious time.

Please signal boost

is there a good reason why the time for the sunbeam city community instance meetings are only listed for USA-specific time zones?

UNICEF's guidelines on washing hands in the context of COVID-19. Please read and share.

https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/everything-you-need-know-about-washing-your-hands-protect-against-coronavirus-covid-19

#COVID19 #coronavirus

The Public Utilities Commissions in the USA paid PG&E half a billion US dollars to upgrade their infrastructure. Half of the money went directly to shareholders instead.

On Saturday I went to a protest against the Turkish invasion of North and East Syria and Rojava

#riseup4rojava

@puffinus_puffinus has volunteered to help take over ownership of the website's domain and server. Migration may cause some down time over the following week or so.

One of our cooperative members has kindly volunteered to take over, I will post more details tomorrow.

As I've stated a few weeks ago, I'm currently looking for a replacement to take over ownership of the sunbeam.city domain and our servers. I still haven't found a permanent replacement, which means I will have to shut down the site in due time.

My personal circumstances have changed drastically over the last year and I no longer have the resource or energy to invest in SBC. I haven't been able to keep up with the Mastodon community and I've fallen out of sync with recent developments. Sunbeam City deserves better than an absentee admin and I can not in good conscience keep the place running without stronger participation.

If any of our longer term users would be happy to take on this responsibility get in touch with me, otherwise over the next few weeks I will be starting the process of shutting the site and co-op down over the next few weeks, beginning with a cooperative proposal on what to do with our excess funds.

"It’s strange, isn’t it? The ideology of capitalism is that it is a system that generates immense abundance (so much stuff!). But in reality it is a system that relies on the constant production of scarcity.

This conundrum was first noticed back in 1804, and became known as the Lauderdale Paradox. Lauderdale pointed out that the only way to increase “private riches” (basically, GDP) was to reduce what he called “public wealth”, or the commons. To enclose things that were once free so that people have to pay in order to access them. To illustrate, he noted that colonialists would often even burn down trees that produced nuts and fruits so that local inhabitants wouldn’t be able to live off of the natural abundance of the earth, but would be forced to work for wages in order to feed themselves. "

Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance

https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2018/10/27/degrowth-a-call-for-radical-abundance

I'm not one of these "and yet you participate in Capitalism people" but if you're gonna turn your politics into a superficial performance, expect them to be judged as such

Just walked past a KFC in town and saw someone wearing a leather jacket with photos of Marx and Lenin on the back

"A truly bizarre trend is having an impact on the economy — wealthy people and corporations have so much money they literally don't know what to do with it.

Why it matters: At a time when growing income inequality is fueling voter discontent and underpinning an array of social movements, the top 1% of earners and big companies are holding record levels of unused cash."

https://amp.axios.com/money-companies-investors-assets-buybacks-dividends-f0a4d79b-bfa7-4205-9d27-f09b50266307.html

Since I've been organising in "real life" more, I have noticed that political organising in person is extremely different from interacting in political spaces online. Although, I wonder if this is different in other places such as the US, where it seems like "Internet culture" and social media bleed much more readily into meatspace.

constantly getting angry online? a little sunshine and fresh air can do wonders for your mood and perspective

Has anybody seen this maroon flag before? It's in a mixed area in Belfast. Protestant paramilitaries have a habit of putting up Confederate flags and neo-Nazi symbols up in areas with a large amount of Catholics or Muslims so I was wondering if it's something to do with that.