The FBI case against the Southern Poverty Law Center basically says that if you donate money to the SPLC, then they use some of it to pay informants to infiltrate white nationalist organizations to uncover stuff like this.
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@mekkaokereke wait. Holy shit, in six years of having a charitable giving account I’ve never had my request refused by Fidelity. But it just happened. Looks like due to government litigation.
@mathowie @mekkaokereke Now it’s not even showing up in the list of charities on Fidelity Charitable.
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@dxzdb @mathowie @mekkaokereke Charitable giving accounts serve two purposes: 1) They allow one to sell highly-appreciated stock and mutual funds without paying tax on the profits. 2) They give a person a tax deduction in the same year that they are funded even if the final destination charity of the funds does not receive it that year. This is achieved because Fidelity Charitable itself is officially a charity even though it is just a conduit.
@Bongolian @dxzdb @mathowie @mekkaokereke Yep, and this is key: Fidelity Charitable is itself a charity, and you aren’t in *control* of the money you give it. That’s why donating to it can give you a tax break.
It’s “donor-advised” so you can *request* how you’d like your giving to be allocated, but legally it’s FC and not you making the grant, so they can apply their own rules.
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@mekkaokereke wait. Holy shit, in six years of having a charitable giving account I’ve never had my request refused by Fidelity. But it just happened. Looks like due to government litigation.
@mathowie @mekkaokereke EDITED: actually I need to test this with Edward Jones & see if they’re still honoring requests to SPLC
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@Bongolian @dxzdb @mathowie @mekkaokereke Yep, and this is key: Fidelity Charitable is itself a charity, and you aren’t in *control* of the money you give it. That’s why donating to it can give you a tax break.
It’s “donor-advised” so you can *request* how you’d like your giving to be allocated, but legally it’s FC and not you making the grant, so they can apply their own rules.
@curtosis @Bongolian @mathowie @mekkaokereke Thanks for the explanations! That all makes sense - but it's a odd/new concept for me to not be able to control where your charity money goes.
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@jhaas @mathowie @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke The evidence for the criminal charges are flimsy. They approach but go short of charging the #SPLC of a terrorist organization, likely because the #DoJ couldn't muster up even a flimsy level of evidence for that charge.
In Trump's America, fighting back against the KKK is now basically an act of "terrorism."
The Justice Department brought charges against a major civil rights organization. This will be Trump's template for prosecuting the entire American left.
(www.defiance.news)
So, the Trump administration now engages in SLAPP against SPLC (and probably others)?
@Bongolian @jhaas @mathowie @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
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So, the Trump administration now engages in SLAPP against SPLC (and probably others)?
@Bongolian @jhaas @mathowie @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
@wonka @Bongolian @jhaas @mathowie @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke That, right there, of course.
What else would we expect white supremacists and white nationalists to do to a nonprofit organization which identifies white supremacist and white nationalist hate groups but defame and de-bank them using SLAPP methods?
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@mekkaokereke wait. Holy shit, in six years of having a charitable giving account I’ve never had my request refused by Fidelity. But it just happened. Looks like due to government litigation.
@mathowie @mekkaokereke Oh wow. Well, it only strengthens our resolve… and there are a lot more of us than there are of them.
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@mekkaokereke wait. Holy shit, in six years of having a charitable giving account I’ve never had my request refused by Fidelity. But it just happened. Looks like due to government litigation.
@mathowie @MissGayle @mekkaokereke And *this* is the kind of bypassing-a-repressive-regime’s-bullshit that the cypherpunks had in mind when they were designing Bitcoin.
The subsequent crypto scamtasia proved to be an extremely effective mechanism for discrediting the idea.
One might be inspired to speculate about which people had what capital / political / intellectual incentives in the drama that we see today.
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@mathowie @MissGayle @mekkaokereke And *this* is the kind of bypassing-a-repressive-regime’s-bullshit that the cypherpunks had in mind when they were designing Bitcoin.
The subsequent crypto scamtasia proved to be an extremely effective mechanism for discrediting the idea.
One might be inspired to speculate about which people had what capital / political / intellectual incentives in the drama that we see today.
@cmdrmoto @mathowie @MissGayle
I wish! But unfortunately, no it's not.
Bitcoin was designed by fashy hyper-capitalist libertarian bros to extract money from vulnerable communities like sex workers, Black people, and refugees fleeing unstable governments, and the financial predators' plan worked.
None of Bitcoin's promises are real. It doesn't hide transactions. It exposes them. It's not less traceable. It's more traceable. It's not separate from the financial system. It's even more tied to it than cash. It's not harder to block than cash or diamond transactions. It's easier. It's not more liquid, it's less. It's not faster, it's slower.
The people that made the most money from Bitcoin, are the exact same hyper capitalist crypto fascist Venture capitalists that made it so that the current financial system doesn't work for sex workers, Black people, or refugees fleeing crisis.
There is no substitute for having a government that actually works for people. There is no viable separate but equal economy at scale. You can't fight nazis by making them all billionaires first, and then using their monkey money and fake banks to try to pay your rent.
I'll stop here, but I could go on.
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@cmdrmoto @mathowie @MissGayle
I wish! But unfortunately, no it's not.
Bitcoin was designed by fashy hyper-capitalist libertarian bros to extract money from vulnerable communities like sex workers, Black people, and refugees fleeing unstable governments, and the financial predators' plan worked.
None of Bitcoin's promises are real. It doesn't hide transactions. It exposes them. It's not less traceable. It's more traceable. It's not separate from the financial system. It's even more tied to it than cash. It's not harder to block than cash or diamond transactions. It's easier. It's not more liquid, it's less. It's not faster, it's slower.
The people that made the most money from Bitcoin, are the exact same hyper capitalist crypto fascist Venture capitalists that made it so that the current financial system doesn't work for sex workers, Black people, or refugees fleeing crisis.
There is no substitute for having a government that actually works for people. There is no viable separate but equal economy at scale. You can't fight nazis by making them all billionaires first, and then using their monkey money and fake banks to try to pay your rent.
I'll stop here, but I could go on.
@mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle Yes, I was there and watched the same sequence of events. We came to different conclusions about the motives of the characters involved, with me believing at least a few of them were honestly trying to do something good.
And yes: the moment BTC became something that could be converted to [USD|fiat], all remaining idealism was smothered by the profit motive.
The end result is indisputable - whether or not it was conceived as a tool of liberation, it was rapidly co-opted into the toolbox of our oppressors.
I was among the idealists and yes I am still salty as fuck about it.
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@cmdrmoto @mathowie @MissGayle
I wish! But unfortunately, no it's not.
Bitcoin was designed by fashy hyper-capitalist libertarian bros to extract money from vulnerable communities like sex workers, Black people, and refugees fleeing unstable governments, and the financial predators' plan worked.
None of Bitcoin's promises are real. It doesn't hide transactions. It exposes them. It's not less traceable. It's more traceable. It's not separate from the financial system. It's even more tied to it than cash. It's not harder to block than cash or diamond transactions. It's easier. It's not more liquid, it's less. It's not faster, it's slower.
The people that made the most money from Bitcoin, are the exact same hyper capitalist crypto fascist Venture capitalists that made it so that the current financial system doesn't work for sex workers, Black people, or refugees fleeing crisis.
There is no substitute for having a government that actually works for people. There is no viable separate but equal economy at scale. You can't fight nazis by making them all billionaires first, and then using their monkey money and fake banks to try to pay your rent.
I'll stop here, but I could go on.
@mekkaokereke @cmdrmoto @mathowie @MissGayle true in my experience. There is no practical not-highly-crime-or-gambling adjacent use for cryptocurrency that I have ever seen to date. And the user experience is beyond abysmal
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@mekkaokereke @cmdrmoto @mathowie @MissGayle true in my experience. There is no practical not-highly-crime-or-gambling adjacent use for cryptocurrency that I have ever seen to date. And the user experience is beyond abysmal
@codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle Yes, the theoretical was so terrifying to incumbents in power that the practical had to be discredited and disabled as quickly as possible.
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@codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle Yes, the theoretical was so terrifying to incumbents in power that the practical had to be discredited and disabled as quickly as possible.
@cmdrmoto @codinghorror @mathowie @MissGayle
There never was a practical.
There was just the "I promise, it's just around the corner!
" dangling carrot of a practical. -
@codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle Yes, the theoretical was so terrifying to incumbents in power that the practical had to be discredited and disabled as quickly as possible.
@cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle the truly practical inventions are indestructible, inevitable, and unavoidable. What does this tell us after a decade plus of cryptocurrency?
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@cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle the truly practical inventions are indestructible, inevitable, and unavoidable. What does this tell us after a decade plus of cryptocurrency?
@mekkaokereke @codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle My take? That the story is far from complete.
But it’s definitely going through one of those Dark Forest Of The Soul things.
I don’t trade in cryptocurrencies right now and most likely neither should you.
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@mekkaokereke @codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle My take? That the story is far from complete.
But it’s definitely going through one of those Dark Forest Of The Soul things.
I don’t trade in cryptocurrencies right now and most likely neither should you.
@mekkaokereke @codinghorror @mathowie @MissGayle Heh. Dark forest is cosmology, dark night of the soul is what should’ve been said, and yet somehow dark forest of the soul still feels like it works
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@mekkaokereke wait. Holy shit, in six years of having a charitable giving account I’ve never had my request refused by Fidelity. But it just happened. Looks like due to government litigation.
@mathowie @mekkaokereke I have submitted a grant request to SPLC from my donor advised fund. Morgan Stanley runs it. It normally takes them a week to process it and I haven't heard anything yet. They have never rejected anything before. So we will see if this is just Fidelity.
Edit: Morgan Stanley paid SPLC today. So this is just Fidelity.
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@cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle the truly practical inventions are indestructible, inevitable, and unavoidable. What does this tell us after a decade plus of cryptocurrency?
@codinghorror @cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle did anyone already quote Stafford Beer? am I the first in this thread?
POSIWID!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does -
@codinghorror @cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle did anyone already quote Stafford Beer? am I the first in this thread?
POSIWID!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does@joe_vinegar @codinghorror @mekkaokereke @mathowie @MissGayle Yeah, it’s significant in my version of bitcoin history that the first place you could exchange the digital asset for fiat currency was MtGOX
Magic the Gathering Online Xchange was founded to global-financialize a game that geeks had been griping about the money component of all through the 1990s.
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@mekkaokereke @codinghorror @mathowie @MissGayle Heh. Dark forest is cosmology, dark night of the soul is what should’ve been said, and yet somehow dark forest of the soul still feels like it works
@cmdrmoto @mekkaokereke @codinghorror @mathowie
Actually, Dark Forests are a different thing - they are closed online communities. Beyond "invitation only," mostly only pre-vetted people who were originally part of some real life project or community.
One example: https://blog.metalabel.com/dark-forest-theory-six-years-in/
