WrittenInRed [any]
Like I said, coming out and saying he supports the forced removal of Palestinians is awful, and neither Biden or Harris would have done that obviously. It seems pretty obvious neither of them are actually happy with Israel. But whether the US president is happy about it or not, lsraels end goal is and always has been ethnic cleansing either way. So while it is worse to express support for that goal than to express disapproval, as long as the US keeps up the supply of weapons - which we will almost assuredly do no matter what, Trump or otherwise - then to all the people being ethnically cleansed it doesn’t mean anything. The Biden administration has been expressing support for this since at least 2023, via its actions rather than words. That’s what people mean by Trump not being meaningfully worse for Palestine. Not that he isn’t worse than Biden or Harris, but that the ways in which he is worse on this specific issue don’t matter to the people who are actively the targets of the genocide. If you’re being bombed by US funded weapons then who gives a shit what the person approving those weapons says about it, they sent them either way.
Worse in general or just in regard to Palestine? Obviously he’s so much worse in general, which is why I did vote for Harris. But specifically on the issue of Palestine no matter what the genocide wasn’t stopping, the Biden admin made it pretty clear there wasn’t actually a red line Israel could cross that would end the supply of weapons, considering every one they did make was blown past with no consequences. And Harris repeatedly signified that wouldn’t have changed.
But it’s also not productive to try and assign blame to people who didn’t vote, or voted 3rd party, though. The problem isn’t that people didn’t want to vote for the conservative party instead of the fascist party, its that we only had those 2 options to pick from. Obviously one of them was less harmful overall, but that doesn’t make them meaningfully better for Palestine, or even a good/appealing choice. Our entire political system was built to represent slaveowners and rich white men, and that’s so deeply ingrained into every aspect of its design that there’s no way to move away from those roots from within the system. Even if Trump lost this time, what’s stopping him from running again? Or the next version of him? Or what about the continued corporate capture of the government and both parties? None of those can just be voted away, and placing responsibility for fixing things entirely on voting just wastes time that would be better spent organizing while they continue to fester and grow.
Pretty much no one thought he’d be better, more like not worse in a meaningful way. Obviously saying the US is going to turn Gaza into a resort is worse than not saying that, but that distinction is pretty unimportant to everyone who would be killed or driven out under a democratic president anyway. The end goal has always been to fully settle Palestine, what exact form that takes or whether the US funds it with a smile or a frown doesn’t change that.
In addition to the other replies, there’s also quite a large difference between the actions of a foreign government doing something our current government already considers human rights abuse and the actions of a foreign government defended by our own, carried out with weapons manufactured and supplied by us, and where any criticism or protest of said support is categorized by nearly every politician as either antisemitism or tacit support of republican extremism. Both are genocide, but trying to protest the actions of the Chinese government as a US citizen in the US is pretty pointless, it’s better to focus efforts where it has a more direct impact. You don’t need to evenly split your attention between every single issue in order to be allowed to talk about any of them.
Personally I switched off of VPN to mullvad at least, and am looking into self hosting bitwarden and using tuta (and now addy.io too thanks to a comment here). Honestly I’d been considering switching for a bit anyway just to be less reliant on a single service for everything, so this kinda validated that since even if this specifically isn’t a dealbreaker something else could definitely end up as one. Even if I don’t fully move off of proton because moving emails is so annoying, it will still be nice to at least have some other options set up.
I mean in that sort of case then the group would defer to the person more knowledgeable in that specialty, same as what happens when after brainstorming people split into small groups or volunteer for individual responsibilities. Crowdsourced decision making is meant to be for the bigger aspects, stuff like what the end goal of a project should be. Smaller, extremely specialized aspects should get handled by those best equipped for it, that’s not a hierarchy. Listening to an expert is just respecting someone’s knowledge, and as long as they don’t have actual authority over you, then there’s much less risk of corruption taking place. There’s a quote from I think Proudhon Bakunin that I can’t remember off the top of my head, I’ll come back and edit this when I find it. But effectively, it boils down to the difference between authority as in power over people, and authority as in knowledge.
And people who help organize and manage jobs also don’t necessarily need to be part of a hierarchy either. If the group agrees that someone is extremely effective at helping resolve conflicts or suggesting the best path to take and that sort of role is desirable for the project then that’s what they should do. The difference is that they aren’t in a position of power over anyone. They don’t have the unilateral ability to fire someone (nor does any individual), or take away their income/ability to live. And since they don’t have that power, they aren’t in a hierarchical position over anyone. If they start trying to force their way without taking feedback then the group will stop listening to them and appoint someone else if they still feel that it’d be useful. Without a position of authority over people no hierarchy exists in the definition used in anarchist theory.
Edit: Thanks @onoira@lemmy.dbzer0.com! Knew I read it somewhere on here recently.
Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism censure. I do not content myself with consulting authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.
— Mikhail Bakunin, God and the state, Chapter 2
But yeah, respecting peoples expertise in topics, splitting up work, or appointing people to give managerial suggestions aren’t hierarchical. A lack of hierarchy is not a lack of structure, it’s just a lack of power and violence being used to oppress or control people. Efficient structures like these tend to naturally fall out of self-organization once the monopolies on violence used to prop up hierarchies are removed.
I think the main rebuttal to that argument is what stops that from happening in a hierarchy? If anything having one makes that more likely, since someone in charge can have a bad idea and no one below them has any real power to stop it. There’s a reason “incompetent boss/manager” is such a common trope. Having a horizontal structure where consensus is prioritized actually helps prevent those sorts of issues, since people who are the most knowledgeable and involved in the process are the ones making those decisions. It’s why group brainstorming sessions are so common, bouncing ideas off of other people involved in a project is extremely useful to help filter or improve bad ideas and build on good ones. Horizontal groups are sort of the natural state that you fall into when collaborating with people when there isn’t an existing rigidly enforced hierarchy between the members.
Yeah like the other comments say, as long as it’s not an issue with the drive itself you should be able to just remove the drive and read it pretty easily. If it’s not a hard drive it’s probably not the actual drive itself that failed, and even if it is a hard drive it’s more likely to be something else imo. Taking it to a computer repair shop might still be a good idea if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, but it should be as easy as taking the drive out and plugging it into another computer via the right adapter.
