This is a donation campaign to help me, Tio, buy a new laptop that will allow me to become more mobile while having all I need to work on TROM and its baby projects. Please see the donation campaign for a detailed explanation and help if you can.
Basically I need to take what is in this photo (except those galaxies):
With all of the shoeboxes full of HDDs and cables:
I had a nice rest day at Refuge Forn de Calç (a bit early for a rest day- I know, but it was 33 degrees outside!). On day 6 I walked to La Jonquera (which was very disappointing) and on to some random shelter in the forest.
Day 5 & 6 on the GR11. I had a nice rest day at Refuge Forn de Calç (a bit early for a rest day- I know, but it was 33 degrees outside!). On day 6 I walked to La Jonquera (which was very disappointing) and on to some random shelter in the forest.
On my third night on the GR11, I had another terrifying encounter with wild boars. Then I spent my fourth day on the trail struggling with heat and water problems.
Here I walked from the Sant Quirze de Colera Monastery to the Forn de Calç refuge (which is a free shelter for hikers and bikers).
Day 2 & 3 on the GR11 thru-hike (ultraheavy style). Here I went from Port de la Selva to the Sant Pere de Rodes Monastery to Sant Quirze de Colera. I spent my first night alone on this trail- and was terrified of the wild animals that came by my tent. The next day I was attacked by dogs and almost collapsed from heat exhaustion :D videos.trom.tf/w/kA4RWoda1kD68…
Day 1 & 2 of my big hike from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic across the Pyrenees Mountains- videos.trom.tf/w/u62qwfJkodtER…
Thanks @Tio for joining me for the first 20 km of the trail! And thanks for taking some stuff out of my ultraheavy backpack! :D
aand also thank you for setting up this great PeerTube instance :) It turns out that uploading videos to PeerTube is much faster than uploading them to YouTube- and much less confusing! :D Not to mention no ads, no data collection, no google evil, and all that :D
Day 1 & 2 of my big hike from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic across the Pyrenees Mountains! Thanks Tio for joining me for the first 20 km of the trail! And thanks for taking some stuff out of my ultraheavy backpack! 😄
I remember @tio talking about how tired he got just from those few days he was on the hike with you, I have no idea how you managed to go the entire way through with that ultra heavy backpack, I hope the antigravity is working so your back wouldn't hurt.
BTW, were you also writing your book during the hike?
haha actually I have no idea either :D it was very difficult :) I already had my book written out but I had it on my book reader and went through it while I was in the mountains, noting some changes that I wanted to make
I'm starting a new video series about hiking the GR11 (an 840-km thru-hike across the Pyrenees) on a very tight budget. Here is the first video: videos.trom.tf/w/bscuS7uYA2PYV… It's me packing my Ultraheavy backpack :D
Here's me getting ready to trek the GR11, alone, but not alone, since my backpack is kind of like a medium-sized person... piggyback riding me for 840 kilometers... Let's see how this goes! Thru-hiking ULTRACHEAP - the opposite of ULTRALIGHT!
Oh wow, amazing start of the series, Sasha! Great equipment you have :smiling face with sunglasses: Can't wait to see how the "hammock plot" turns out.. :grinning squinting face:
Filmed at the Medes Islands, Spain. This marine reserve has been protected since 1983, allowing biodiversity to be restored in this little piece of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Medes Islands, Spain. This marine reserve has been protected since 1983, allowing biodiversity to be restored in this little piece of the Mediterranean Sea. Music: Ocean Voyage by DHDMusic
This is the first image released by the James Webb Telescope:
If you take a grain of salt, put it on the tip of your finger, and stretch your arm...that is the area of the sky that this represents.
Imagine how small we are, yet how big our eyes have become. Imagine how further we can see from one dim pebble. All of those ellipses of light and little dots, are galaxies. Billions of stars each, trillions of planets. Not enough grains of sand on Earth to match the number of planets in our Universe.
Such revelations should shake our species; our values should be reevaluated. Our priorities re-organized.
And yet, such astonishing truths, are a mere excitement for a select few; such images will become one of the trillions of images in the digital universe. On par with any other. Our society will fail to be moved in any direction; our values seem set in stone; our priorities will follow the same mindless and insignificant profits.
To say this is sad, is unjust. It is unbearable for anyone who understands all of this.
We have created a society of idiots. But we should know the cause by now. It is because humans ended up with a society that is based on trade. Trade this, trade that. You cannot survive if you cannot trade. And so, all of the humans are trapped in a nightmare. We can only wake them up, if we take care of them. Feed them, treat them, give them a shelter, a life. Only then we can hope to see them being curious about themselves and the world they live in. To focus on significant endeavors; to discover the universe, to understand their connection with nature, to protect what needs to be protected, to explore what is unexplored. To become a human species that has grandiose goals, and saner wants.
This is the only path forward. We have to march on the streets, we have to scream online, to provide humans with access to their needs, as trade-free. To decouple them from this hamster wheel, this nightmare. To give them back their brains. No change in politics or policies will do anything if all humans are consumed on a daily basis, for mindless trades.
Provide humans with their needs, as trade-free. Do it!
TROM is marching for this for at least a decade now. What are you doing? Where are you? We need you! #tromlive
If anybody knows anybody who wants a great custom-built website, a Mastodon instance, a PeerTube instance, a Friendica instance, or a NextCloud instance- I recommend the WebApe: webape.site/ :)
If anybody knows anybody who wants a great custom-built website, a Mastodon instance, a PeerTube instance, a Friendica instance, or a NextCloud instance- I recommend the WebApe: webape.site/ :)
I am releasing a new project to, hopefully, make some money so that I can support our TROM project and myself. This is it -->> webape.site/
So. I provide managed instances for Mastodon, Peertube, Nextcloud, Friendica, and a few other services. On top of this I am making any kind of website in Wordpress. This is my "skill" and so I will try to make some money like this. I have to, I have no choice.
But listen.
I am not making a "business" out of this. I want to do a decent job at it, so I will only take 20-30 projects. Enough to sustain myself and have the time to focus on TROM, plus be able to properly manage these paid-for websites.
I tried to provide really cheap and very "tempting" offers, if anyone is interested, since I will only post once about this on my profile, the rest go on the Federated profile of the project -->> social.trom.tf/profile/webape
Here is what I offer:
Mastodon:
Peertube:
Nextcloud:
Wordpress:
I can setup huge instances up to 25TB of diskspace. And provide support over email or chat (Matrix).
If you think anyone may be interested, give it a share.
So maybe the situation is not as dire as I felt it to be for the past few days. We submitted some paperwork so that I can try to get residency/working rights in Spain through Tio’s family. This might not work but it’s worth a shot. If I get super lucky, I could (theoretically) get the papers in the next 1-3 months and then I’ll still be able to make some money this summer. If I get denied then I’ll have to wait until next February to get the papers via a contract with a job… The plus side is that it seems to be super easy to find a job here on Costa Brava (as long as you have “documents” that is), so once I get these papers, I think making a bit of money to support our projects should not be that difficult.
Another thing I am happy about is that we (@Tio and I) don’t need much. We don’t need fancy food, clothes, gadgets, subscriptions to any services, or anything, really, but some basic supermarket-bought food and a roof o
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So maybe the situation is not as dire as I felt it to be for the past few days. We submitted some paperwork so that I can try to get residency/working rights in Spain through Tio’s family. This might not work but it’s worth a shot. If I get super lucky, I could (theoretically) get the papers in the next 1-3 months and then I’ll still be able to make some money this summer. If I get denied then I’ll have to wait until next February to get the papers via a contract with a job… The plus side is that it seems to be super easy to find a job here on Costa Brava (as long as you have “documents” that is), so once I get these papers, I think making a bit of money to support our projects should not be that difficult.
Another thing I am happy about is that we (@Tio and I) don’t need much. We don’t need fancy food, clothes, gadgets, subscriptions to any services, or anything, really, but some basic supermarket-bought food and a roof over our heads- and we are happy this way. I’ve had the same bikini, for example, for the past 6 or so years. You know what I did with it today? I went snorkeling (with a mask and snorkel that we found) in a beautiful bay- for free- and I observed two large cuttlefish! If you don’t know what a cuttlefish is, watch this video- ytb.trom.tf/watch?v=GDwOi7HpHt… They are one of the coolest sea creatures ever :)
I value making eye contact with a cuttlefish and watching it change the color, pattern, and texture of its skin. I find that amazing. I couldn’t care less about what I wear or what kind of phone I use to talk about this creature.
The less stuff we want, the less money we need, the less we have to work for money, and the more time we have to live, learn, experience interesting things, and to simply be a human. That’s the way to live a happy and humble life, in my opinion.
We (humans) waste like crazy and are causing a billion global problems for ourselves and other species on this planet. Climate change, pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and a ton more.
Why? Because of the way we (8 billion humans) organize ourselves.
How’s that? Well, to get almost anything we need or want- including our basic needs- we have to participate in a rat race. We have to sell something, someone, or ourselves. We have to convince others that they should buy more shit. Shit that they don’t need. Shit that doesn’t make them happy (though we’ll try to convince them that it would, though it won’t). Shit that will contribute to more waste, more pollution, further climate change, and more destruction.
That’s the only way to get our basic needs met in this society- through trading (trading resources, trading our own time and energy, etc.). Meanwhile we trash close to 50% of the food we produce, we throw away more clothes than everybody could wear, we have more empty hous
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Look at this stupid situation:
We (humans) waste like crazy and are causing a billion global problems for ourselves and other species on this planet. Climate change, pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and a ton more.
Why? Because of the way we (8 billion humans) organize ourselves.
How’s that? Well, to get almost anything we need or want- including our basic needs- we have to participate in a rat race. We have to sell something, someone, or ourselves. We have to convince others that they should buy more shit. Shit that they don’t need. Shit that doesn’t make them happy (though we’ll try to convince them that it would, though it won’t). Shit that will contribute to more waste, more pollution, further climate change, and more destruction.
That’s the only way to get our basic needs met in this society- through trading (trading resources, trading our own time and energy, etc.). Meanwhile we trash close to 50% of the food we produce, we throw away more clothes than everybody could wear, we have more empty houses than homeless people, etc.
Let me repeat: we, humans, waste like crazy, yet we force each other to sell more and more shit- just to get our basic needs met.
And we call ourselves “civilized.” Ha ha ha.
Now here’s my personal stupid situation:
I haven’t had a “job” in years. Instead, I’ve been busy working on a book, helping with some projects, going out in nature, things like that. I have NOT been consuming/buying anything except food/very few basic things.
In the past, I had savings. Now, I am completely out of money. Long story short, I need to make some money so I can contribute to things like food and rent (just the basic needs!).
So now I am ready to work! I am ready and willing to go back to the job game, however awful it may be. And imagine this- I even have a few job offers. I am a certified divemaster, and a scuba diving shop offered me a full-time contract which would pay 1,400 euros a month for the next three months! -They want me to work there, they said I can start now, they can even make me a contract. Woo hoo! And another place- a bar/restaurant- said they have work for me! They desperately need staff- and they’d love to hire someone like me who has years of bartending experience! They want to hire me now!
Oh but no… No no no. I am not “allowed” to work here in Europe. That’s what the authorities say. It doesn’t matter that this dive shop and this bar desperately need staff and they really really want to hire me, no that doesn’t matter- because I don’t have the right papers. You see, I was not born in Europe, therefore I cannot work here.
But wait! There’s a solution, right? Didn’t I “marry” Tio two years ago precisely for this reason? So we could live legally in one place together. Shouldn’t those “marriage documents” give me the right to live and work in Europe? I mean, if my “husband” is European, doesn’t that give me some rights here?!
Um, no, not if he’s poor, it turns out. If my “husband” doesn’t make at least 1,000 euros a month, then I have no rights. I cannot get residency just like that and I cannot legally get a job. Imagine that! If my “husband” doesn’t make enough money then I also cannot work! Who’s brilliant idea was this?!?!
And to put the icing on the cake- I also cannot leave Europe and go make money somewhere else- because now I am like an illegal immigrant with an “irregular” status, so the lawyer that we cannot afford to pay told us that we ought to sort out this paperwork or else the cops could stop me at the border and deport me or who knows…
So to sum it up: - We live in a retarded society that wastes like crazy - We force each other to trade even for our basic needs - I am willing to play the trade game - I am not allowed to play the trade game in my current location (EU) - I should be allowed to play the trade game here because I am “married” to an EU citizen - I am not allowed to play the trade game here because my “husband” doesn’t play it well enough himself - I am not allowed to leave the place that I am not allowed to play the trade game in and where my “husband” doesn’t play it well enough- or else I could get in trouble.
And, btw, when we were going through that awful bullshit “marriage” procedure we didn’t know about any of this. We understood that after getting “married,” we just had to come back to Spain and register at the international police and then I could get the right to live with my “husband” and work here. But no, it turns out, not unless he’s rich.
What’s that about “equality” and “human rights” EU????? What? what?? Go suck a possum.
I haven’t made an update about my book in a little while, mostly because I’ve been working on it for so long that at this point I’m embarrassed to even mention it :D I have been working on it this entire time though! Actually I kind of drove myself crazy with it.
Over the past few months I’ve gone over the entire thing again, this time keeping an eye on writing technique (“show, don’t tell,” use strong verbs rather than adjectives, omit needless words, use active voice, etc.). This was useful because there were a few parts of the book that I wasn’t 100% satisfied with, and these writing techniques helped me see how I could improve those parts.
For example- Before: “It was very dark when I arrived. It felt salty and slightly humid.”
After: “I couldn’t make out the beach in the dark, but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. The air felt salty and slightly humid, though I could sense that I was in the desert.”
- But- when I edited those two sentences, for example
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I haven’t made an update about my book in a little while, mostly because I’ve been working on it for so long that at this point I’m embarrassed to even mention it :D I have been working on it this entire time though! Actually I kind of drove myself crazy with it.
Over the past few months I’ve gone over the entire thing again, this time keeping an eye on writing technique (“show, don’t tell,” use strong verbs rather than adjectives, omit needless words, use active voice, etc.). This was useful because there were a few parts of the book that I wasn’t 100% satisfied with, and these writing techniques helped me see how I could improve those parts.
For example- Before: “It was very dark when I arrived. It felt salty and slightly humid.”
After: “I couldn’t make out the beach in the dark, but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. The air felt salty and slightly humid, though I could sense that I was in the desert.”
- But- when I edited those two sentences, for example, I also had to do some research and check if what I wrote was accurate… Where was I exactly, and was that coastline considered to be a desert? -Yes, it turns out that a coastal desert is one of four types of deserts! (Not Desserts!! -also gotta check the spelling/grammar…) :)
So over the past few months I’ve basically gone over every word of every sentence in the book and changed little things. This didn’t come to me naturally, so sometimes I would struggle with one or two sentences (or even one word) for hours, or even days. Sometimes I gave up and reverted back to what I had before. This wasn’t good for my mental health (or for some people around me), but I’m done with that now and I think in the end I have a better book.
Yesterday I sent my book to two wonderful people for proofreading, so if they have time to give me feedback that would be fantastic, if not that’s fine as well (I’ve gone over it like fifty billion times already so it really shouldn’t have any obvious mistakes).
Either way, I will put the book on hold for the next few months to deal with our money situation. I feel really awful that I’ve been living with @Tio and his family for so long and I haven’t contributed anything because I’ve been so trapped in this book and I ran out of money. I was always planning to pay them back for their amazing hospitality though, so if the book never sells, I will go back to the job game, somewhere, somehow. Hopefully soon.
There is an added layer to the bullshit we have to deal with though… Tio and I got “married” in 2020 so that I could stay with him in Europe. But getting “married” is not enough to have legal status. In order to stay and work here legally, I need to get a “family member card.” But I cannot get this card if my “husband” doesn’t have a job which pays him over 1,000 euros/month- so imagine that, they’re saying that if you’re poor, your partner doesn’t deserve “legal status”- and also cannot work here to help you with your “being poor” problem… That is discrimination written in the law.
So we’ll try to get this card another way, but it may not be possible for a while. And imagine this- the only way to sort this shit out is to pay a lawyer! (Which of course we cannot afford, but it seems that there is no other option.)
And since I’m here with an “irregular status,” this also means that I shouldn’t leave Europe until we get this sorted (or else I can get deported or who knows…)- and that means that I can’t just go back to Hawaii or something and play the job game there…
I came up with the idea to write a book when I got fed up with people saying things like, “Oh Sasha, I wish I could live like you, but I don’t have enough money!” I wanted to explain that I barely ever had much money and that traveling around the wor…
If you are worried that yet another billionaire is owning a social (ad) platform (twitter) then we recommend our own social network that connects with millions of people across the fediverse. This is it : https://social.trom.tf
Fediverse is a network, much like email. So you can register with our instance (website) then you can communicated with everyone in the fediverse.
Our platform is based on Friendica with a custom skin (dark/light and different colors) to make things more modern and simple.
Here are the main advantages:
- it is trade-free (thus you do not have to trade your data, attention - ads -, currency, and so forth); it is purely free - uncensored (your posts and thoughts are yours, so it is your responsibility for what you post) - ability to block anyone and delete posts/comments - it connects with different federated platforms such as peertube, mastodon, pixelfed and so forth (these are blog/video/image platforms) - you can create big posts (no limitations) + format the text and add inline media - it supports markdown - you can follow any RSS source (think about your favorite website, you can simply follow that) - it can connect with Twitter so you can auto and cross post to your Twitter account or follow Twitter accounts and interact with them - auto discovery of contacts based on your profile - several timelines (chronological, based on your activity, or even a global timeline of the fediverse) - works with Mastodon's API so any Mastodon APP also works with our Friendica - and more
Many people believe a fat myth of today's world, that capitalism (this trade-based system) is creating diversity. Look at how many chocolates there are, cars, gadgets, software, etc.. But this is a myth. The diversity is in the package/wrapper and not the product itself. Most phones are the same, nothing new for "new releases". Cars brought almost no advantage to transportation overall for the past decades. Products in the supermarket taste quite the same between brands, and clothes are recycled fashion trends. Movies and books are remakes or copy cats of whatever sells best. And so on.
Anyway, here is a search engine we made to showcase how 175 companies own pretty much everything in this world https://www.tromsite.com/tbf/
But I want to focus on 1 particular domain: software.
Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, VK, and maybe 3-4 more, are the ones that are the most used in the world. They do not communicate with each other and are very limited in terms of functionality. It means you choose one or another, or a bunch of them and manage them separately. They are trade-based platforms (you trade your data, currency, attention to them). Full of ads, full of censorship, full of crap overall.
On the other hand the Fediverse is a network of such platforms: Friendica, Mastodon, Peertube, Pixelfed, Funkwhale, and so forth. Look at the diversity here https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous/ - these are made by different organizations and enabled by different people. A ton of diversity in terms of options.
These are video platforms, blog platforms, photo sharing platforms, platforms for musicians, live streaming, events, you name it. And all communicate with each other. If some organization has an account with Peertube (video platform) I can follow and interact with them from my social platform Friendica. How amazing! If I have a Peertube account and a Friendica one, I can easily setup so that when I post on Peertube a video, it goes on my Friendica too, as a post. The options are very diverse.
This "fediverse" is created not to be traded but to be shared. You will not find ads on these platforms (at least not on the vast majority of them), or data collection or any of that crap.
The MacOS and Windows vs Linux is yet another example of how diversity is actually achieved when humans do not sell their stuff and themselves, when you have a community of people who share their work and ideas. Linux comes in so many flavors for so many needs and wants. Look at this:
So if you look at software overall, the "capitalism" world, which is the trade-based world in which people make software to trade it (for data, attention, currency, etc.) is like a handful of options. But when the software is created for the sake of creating it and is shared and anyone can copy these, modify, redistribute, as trade-free, then real diversity is created and a better environment emerges overall.
We should take the software example and try to provide other goods/services in the same manner. But to do that we have to decouple humans from the trade-based society. At least when it comes to their basic needs. Else no one can have the time to engage in such things. Software is easy to create and maintain from the comfort of your home and in your space time, but is difficult when it comes to food or other goods and services. In any case there is still and abundance of such trade-free goods/services out there as we showcase here directory.trade-free.org/. But this is not enough.
So. If we want to create a wonderful society, we first have to decouple humans from this trade-based society by at least providing them with their basic needs as trade-free. That creates a good soil for the emergence of lots of trade-free goods/services, in a positive feedback loop. Imagine how much good we can create in this world. Imagine how much real diversity. Imagine how wonderful this could be.
Tio from TROM explains concept of our trade-based society using Monopoly Game as an example. To find more about the TROM visit - https://www.tromsite.com/
As someone who traveled around the world for many years, I do not consider myself to be “Russian” or “American” or Asian or European or whatever. I like to think of myself as a human being. Just that. Just like you.
I love different people and different cultures all over the world, but I hate politics, politicians, and patriotism. Politicians lie, cheat, and hurt people- all over the world. Politics and patriotism divide people.
Some people have been asking me, “as a ‘Russian’ and ‘American’”, what I think about the war in Ukraine.
I don’t have much to say other than it’s an atrocity. I think war, in general, is an atrocity.
War is the absolute most wasteful use of human lives and resources- ever. It shows that we, humans, are incapable of solving problems on a global scale. It shows that we resort to t
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As someone who traveled around the world for many years, I do not consider myself to be “Russian” or “American” or Asian or European or whatever. I like to think of myself as a human being. Just that. Just like you.
I love different people and different cultures all over the world, but I hate politics, politicians, and patriotism. Politicians lie, cheat, and hurt people- all over the world. Politics and patriotism divide people.
Some people have been asking me, “as a ‘Russian’ and ‘American’”, what I think about the war in Ukraine.
I don’t have much to say other than it’s an atrocity. I think war, in general, is an atrocity.
War is the absolute most wasteful use of human lives and resources- ever. It shows that we, humans, are incapable of solving problems on a global scale. It shows that we resort to the most primitive measures: fighting. Exactly what we teach our children not to do.
So far, here are a few things that piss me off about this war:
• Thousands of humans have been killed. • Millions of humans have been displaced; their cities, homes, and lives have been ruined. • Bombs continue to be thrown in residential areas, even at hospitals, schools, theaters, airports, and places where civilians are seeking shelter. • As always, normal people that gain absolutely nothing from this power struggle are the ones who suffer the most. Those who gain anything (-if there is anything to gain from this) will hardly suffer at all. • Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine- this should be as much a human rights violation as throwing bombs at civilians. No one should ever be forced to risk their own lives to fight for this or that nation. If they choose to fight, fine. If not, let them leave. • Speaking of that, in Russia, 18-year-old boys are forced to serve in the army- forced against their own will. And now they are forced to kill and die for some douchebag politicians. • People in Russia are getting arrested for protesting against the war. • People in Russia are getting arrested just for saying “war” or for holding a blank sign that says nothing. • Russia does not even call this a war, but a “special military intervention” and its media shows no pictures of the reality of this war, almost nothing about the millions of refugees that have fled Ukraine, and almost nothing about the death and destruction they’ve caused. Russian media and schools have been banned from referring to the war as an “invasion”, “attack”, or “war” and those who spread “fake news” about the war can get up to 15 years in prison. • People in Russia are fleeing because they are scared of their own government. • People in Ukraine are terrified because they are getting bombed. • Poor people around the world will suffer because of this war. Many developing countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for wheat imports (among other imports). Rising prices of food, fuel, and fertilizer can devastate countries that are already struggling.
This is the reality of war. It is barbaric and inhumane. It is the most inefficient and stupid way to solve problems. No sane ordinary humans want war. Not Ukrainians, nor the Russians. The only people that ever benefit from wars are the few rich and powerful motherfuckers at the top. And that’s what ordinary people die for.
To me, that is a sure sign of a flawed system.
War, I’d say, is a consequence of the structure of our society. Billions of humans are divided into many different tribes and are taught that they are different from one another; some tribes are friends, some are enemies. They are also taught that they should aim to get more and more- more stuff, more money, more power. This trade-based society gives a handful of powerful people the means to do that. They gain more and more wealth and power, then they exploit this power, using ordinary people as pawns to get what they want.
This trade-based society also pushes people to create and sell more weapons, rather than to look for a peaceful solution to problem solving. As a species, we should be ashamed that we have enough nuclear weapons to bring our own selves to extinction. What an idiocracy…
If we ever want a peaceful, intelligent society, we have to see ourselves as one human species. We have to organize ourselves in a way that puts humans (all humans) and the environment first. Not profit, not selling weapons, not taking territories, not trading this for that, not gaining power.
I know that we’ll probably never get there, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it.
That's unbelievable that we even have to ask people on their opinion about war these days.. For every modern human this must be obvious that absolutely any war is a total disaster and both sides of the conflict are always the ones to suffer from the outcomes. It should have remained a thing of the past, just a paragraph in the history books many many years ago, but here we go again..
These days I kept an eye on the current war, from 4-5 sources. DW (germany), Aljazeera (qatar), BBC (uk), Rt.com (Russia Today), and TASS (tass.com - russian news agency). So 2 are from Europe, 1 from Asia, 2 from Russia.
I was curious to see how they report it and how the information is presented.
What I've seen:
Aljazeera, DW, and BBC (ADB) kinda present the same things, the same story line. BBC seems to be more jumpy with the facts, as in presenting more information that even they say could not be verified. More politicized I felt. Also they add a lot of opinions from their editors. You kinda sense it is "Let's beat Russia now! Fuck them.". But seem to try to also be balanced in regards to "he said that, she said that" sort of thing.
So ADB showcases a lot of the horror in Ukraine and how Russia is doing a lot of bad things. They show footage and photos from the conflict, with the victims, with the refugees, with the people sheltering.
The Russian Media (RM) doesn't even call it a war, and their main pages are quite voided of any photos or videos of the horror of the war. Almost as if those dead people, sheltered, the refugees are not even existent. You can clearly see a bias in this regards. Their websites are full of "diplomatic" photos with the politicians that discuss these events.
Here are the ADB front-pages, in order:
And RM:
Clearly ADB is like "WTF people are dying, Russia is at war, Europe is at war". While RM is like "Russia is doing a special intervention to free up Ukraine. Calm down." Although ADB may exaggerate things and make them too bloody explosive, and they are for sure biased too, RM is clearly biased and being a jerk for not highlighting the human suffering.
As for what they are saying, ADB tells us that Putin is a lunatic and has no reason to invade Ukraine or fear NATO. Putin may start a WW3. They do not tell me why he fears NATO or how we came to this point very much. They tell me that what Ukrainians say is probably true and that Ukrainians are heroes defending their land. It feels like a clear fight between the good (ukraine and the world) and the evil (putin and russia).
ADB tells me that Russia is full of lies and Putin is a dictator basically. They say RM is full of propaganda.
RM tells me that this is not a war, but a "special intervention" and that Russia only attacks the Ukrainian military and not civilians. RM tells me that there are Nazis in Ukraine, but ADB seem to not talk much about it. Is it true and to what extent? Who knows for sure, but RM sounds like some 1930s Germany Nazi propaganda in my head - the irony...
So overall RM tells me that Russia had no choice, it got scared of NATO and NATO broke its promises + NATO is a bad bad guy. Tells me the USA is a monster and a snake. Does not seem to at all criticize Putin and Russia's actions. They do however present criticism (as quotes) coming from some politicians and such. But not criticism from their editors. They say that the other media is full of propaganda and lies.
So that's what it is...a bunch of things.
ADB: NATO good, USA good, EU good, sanctions good. Russia and Putin bad. Putin crazy, a criminal. Russia needs to be destroyed via sanctions.
RM: NATO bad, USA bad, EU a puppet of those, sanctions don't matter much. Putin has reasonable motives to do the "special operation" and all is going to plan.
My thoughts?
Very likely RM is full of shit. They may post some truths about NATO and the USA, but to not report much on the war itself and not even call it a war? The dead? The refugees? The crisis? Unacceptable. Where are the horror photos of the injured and destruction? So fuck off RM. You are a prostitute.
ADB should also be a lot more balanced and less emotional. Aljazeera seems to be doing better. But they seem to not address much the reasons why the invasion has happened and make it seem like Ukraine and the people there are saints and heroes and woke up one day with Putin and his army in their country.
Overall it can become a confusing mess if you want to stay up to date with the current situation.
What I am sure of is that:
Currently millions of people are suffering because of Russia's invasion. Some dead, some scared, some have no home, or food, and so forth. That's awful
Media is biased but the level of it makes the big difference; picking your sides should be a variety of a few from different parts of the world. I still think RM is a lot more biased to the point of fully propaganda. But they do point towards some things that the others do not talk much about and are true: how USA invaded other countries under a false pretext and killed and destroyed a lot without being sanctioned and such; but I feel they use these as distractions from whatever Russia is doing.
Speaking of that, Russia is doing awful things, but is nothing that unique; USA and EU tribes, and others, have done atrocities too in the past and all are snakes and charlatans.
Ukraine is not a saint.
Ukraine does not deserve to be destroyed.
It is all politicized and tribes + politicians take advantage of this. USA is like "OMG Russia is doing war crimes!". Fuck off USA, you are still doing these and more. And Russia pointing to that....Fuck off Russia, don't divert the attention from the crimes you are doing!
Lots of money are made by arms dealers nowadays.
Ordinary people who did not start this or fuel this, are going to suffer more than the ones who started and fuel this conflict.
What else? I don't know...but these are my thoughts for now.
We are thinking to do a TROMcast and invite some people from Russia and Ukraine to discuss the situation. Will see....
It’s a nice video with a positive message in the end. The only thing it’s missing, I’d say, is a mention of some alternative couchsurfing platforms like trustroots.org/ and bewelcome.org/ – those that haven’t morphed into an evil profit-driven company :D
I explained the whole Couchsurfing story in more detail here- bigworldsmallsasha.com/2020/05… That’s why I’m in this mini-doc :)
haha :) It was a really nice project for a few years, and a really great idea that allowed people to connect all over the world. Hopefully it will still live on through different projects in a more decentralized way :)
Rokosun
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Sasha
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