What is the NED? I have no idea, but Google suggests that could be The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.
Lemmy was also funded by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet programme. Source: https://nlnet.nl/project/Lemmy/
On another topic, there are rumors circulating that we are fascists or supported genocide. These claims are completely false, and like most viral twitter threads, are coming from a single Mastodon user on a personal vendetta who didn’t provide any sources. Such slander doesn’t deserve any response and is best left ignored.
It's definitely good to have people like you investigating the backgrounds of key developers, as there might be ulterior motives behind them developing open platforms that compete with established Western companies outside of loving the free web and open source. Thank you!
However, I wonder how many opinions we disagree with would be unearthed by doing this kind of research on every core developer of Chrome, Windows, MacOS, Google or whatever. I think you would find a lot if you get people to air their honest opinions. In today's climate, if these people were open about certain opinions they might hold (not saying they do, but statistically it's likely some do) they would just be fired, so it's easy for large corporations to shake damage to their reputation from having certain staff members. For OSS it is a bit harder, since although developers can be pushed out, and software can be forked, it's all open and it's harder to understate the contribution to the source code etc. that such a person could have contributed.
It does kind of suck when you hear that developers working on software you like have wildly different worldviews to your own, but sometimes you have to put things in perspective. Having said that, if this guy is the only developer I might feel less than happy about using Lemmy instead of Reddit.
Personally, I'd rather my open source, decentralized software be developed by a nearly fanatical communist than a slimy entrepreneur/capitalist. Either could try to pull the rug out from under you, but at least one is internally consistent until then...
I mean you're more than free to start contributing to Lemmy and / or offer to be on the core team. You can fork it and start your own version of it not owned by them. The nice thing about having a communist (or at least an anticapitalist) developing it instead of a capitalist is that you have the freedom to do that. You cannot do that with Twitter, or with Reddit, or with Facebook, or with Instagram.
Capitalists will not voluntarily do that because it is unprofitable to them. Companies that do end up floundering or dead.
Idk to me there's a very real difference between the two and I'd rather have a tankie developing a platform than someone like Elon Musk making it go to shit.
Wow...thanks. I had no idea this was ongoing. As someone living in Asia and seeing these issues from up close, these ring close to home. I'll be paying attention for any of these...moderations.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
E:
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
Even if there wasn't enough evidence that dessalines is parentis_shotgun - it doesn't matter! dessalines does not deny being a Tankie and makes no efforts to hide their political thoughts. You can go to lemmy.ml and read through dessalines posts. Find the one where they say "I'm not exactly hiding my politics" and link to their essays on Github. Or you can just go to the essays from their Github profile after confirming that the dessalines that is a Lemmy dev is the same dessalines that is admin on Lemmy.ml and find the link to their essays that way.
There you can see they attempt to answer many questions. Some generic to Communism - but many more defending Tankie talking points such as:
Did the Soviet Union manufacture a famine in Ukraine? What about the Holodomor?
And also defend Stalin by linking to revisionist propaganda:
What about Stalin? Didn't he kill millions?
And deny that the Cheka secret police murdered millions of people as ordered by The State:
Did the Soviet Union repress and kill millions of people?
They deny the Tiananmen Square massacre - calling it a propaganda hoax:
What about the Tiananmen square massacre?
Their defense of China's 1-child policy? "60,000,000 girls weren't killed from infanticide. Only 35,000,000 were." and they provide no other explanation for the severe gender imbalance that China has:
Did China really kill / commit infanticide on millions of girls during the 1-child policy?
There isn't any need to prove that dessalines is parentis_shotgun in order to claim that dessalines is a Tankie. dessalines is very openly a Tankie. One only needs to read the political thoughts that they openly share.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
Ask yourself: What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
I dislike genocide apologists about as much as I dislike liars and people who spread misinformation. It's trivially easy to confirm who /u/parentis_shotgun is - so calling it misinformation is blatantly lying especially when their first point is blatantly wrong.
People can be OK with the dev being a Tankie ("separate the art from the artist" which is a terrible philosophy in its own right but people are welcome to believe in it this more of a philosophical difference) but denying that the dev is a Tankie is where I cross the line. The dev is a Tankie. Do with that information what you will but there is no denying it.
This is so weird to me lol, maybe I'm just odd but it's so weird seeing McCarthyism still rearing it's ugly head after what... 5 decades? I am by no means an ML (can't stand them as an anarchist) but this is wildly blowing out of proportion what @dessalines@lemmy.ml has said and done.
I mean like why link a 'Socialist FAQ' that's literally just a ton of links to education on socialism and the different schools of thought it has? Not all communists are tankies (not even most) lol. Just generally shows a lack of familiarity with actual leftists / anticapitalists.
Please stop spamming this in the thread, it's annoying af.
Sometimes people just like spreading drama. Other times they just have weird or different beliefs. Accusing someone of having ulterior motives isn't useful or helpful unless you can demonstrate that this person isn't just having an internet debate that they feel strongly about.
Accusing someone of having ulterior motives isn’t useful
@spirit is making claims out of his ass though and taking lots of upvotes.
I don't agree with spamming but there is no proof the reddit user is Dessalines.
Okay, what I'm saying is a vast majority of the time people just say stupid shit online. And that's it. This is a good way to say it, not 'what does this person have to gain by doing the thing that internet users have done for forever to earn imaginary internet points? Are they trying to destroy Lemmy?'
Seeing as you're spamming this reply - I'll go ahead and spam my response to it.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
Ask yourself: What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
Seeing as you're spamming this reply - I'll go ahead and spam my response to it.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
Ask yourself: What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
I believe those people saying lemmy is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy were being sarcastic. Thanks for rounding this up though, I appreciate people who do the due diligence.
Seeing as you're spamming this reply - I'll go ahead and spam my response to it.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
Ask yourself: What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
I never said anything about that person, your copy/paste comment is not relevant to what I said. I don't hate the devs, I said the comments section of the post that was linked to is a dumpster fire of tankies and genocide apologists.
Seeing as you're spamming this reply - I'll go ahead and spam my response to it.
Since you didn't notice that in that post /u/parentis_shotgun claims to have made Jerboa and links to it - which links to github.com/dessalines/jerboa - you're not very observant so I'll provide you with some alternative posts as evidence.
Step 2) Old PgDn to load some posts. Find the one that says nothing but "Yes" on it. This post specifically.
Step 3) Click Context to see which question it is answering
Step 4) Read the question: "Wait a second, are you the same dessalines that narrated my The State and Revolution by Lenin and Fascism: What it is and how to fight it by Trotsky?"
Step 5) See /u/parentis_shotgun's response: "Yes."
"Misinformation".
Ask yourself: What exactly do you get out of defending Tankies?
Alternative route #1: Find parentis_shotgun's post about creating thumb-key - a privacy-conscious Android keyboard made for your thumbs. Notice it links to a Github profile for dessalines.
lmao you actually believe that us joking around that we're being funded by the NED is evidence that muad'dibber is funded by them?
For your information the NED is a CIA front created by an Act of Congress, it's a tool of regime change established after the CIA lost their capabilities to simply go change presidents in other countries in the 60s-70s.
The running joke on Lemmygrad is that we're all feds. You're wayyy out of your depth lol
The way it works in practice is that the largest instances are where most people go. What is stopping those devs from imposing their views on the community, e.g. by censoring?
The beauty of federated networks is you can avoid the platforms with these kinds of people altogether. I typically avoid lemmy.ml altogether unless I don't have a choice and even then it's pretty easily to find alternatives.
Reddit's admins are taking decisions based on their worldviews and objectives that affect the content of Reddit, i.e. what we can talk about, what we can do, what tools we can use, what information we can access...
As of my current knowledge, the worldviews of Lemmy's devs (that I certainly don't share) don't affect content on instances that they do not administrate or moderate. Even if they were building and shaping instances around hatespeech (which I don't know they do), I'd simply block them and let the police and justice act on the potential crimes or offence they may do.
Girl calm down, please just take a step back. Maybe read up on communism or communists / the far left before blaring off takes like this. I'm not an ML and not a fan of them as an anarchist, but this is suchhhhh an overreaction to what they actually said.
Additionally if you don't like the dev team, then fork it. Or volunteer to be on the core team. Submit some PRs. Start your own alternative. One of the cool things about having anticapitalists develop software is that it is open and you can do that. It actively does the opposite of what capitalism wants us to do. I think just that fact alone should make you pause and maybe reassess the language you're using (Hitler and other fascists rose to power actively aided and funded by capitalists because it helped retain their power).