If (and it is!) the internet is used by the (nicest^max + smartest^max) people whose careers and lives owe so much to the web
Why isn’t The Internet Archive fully funded for a few lifetimes?
Think of all the people you respect who are wealthy and love being able to pull up stuff on TIA & are convinced generally they should be people who pay their fair share. Some of you MUST know plenty I figure… where are the donations?
(I would’ve thought we’d be to the point of the big thing being how to prevent archives of your content with also dozens of GhostArchive.org -like alternatives all also well funded who all devise workarounds of blocking schemes, & how to prevent content watermarking from getting archiver accounts/IPs banned. Instead it’s “hey remember us please send $10 to the Archive.org “ meanwhile we are literally all here, on the web)
If everyone lets these structures develop and does nothing, things will get worse. Wait how the suppression will be if Musk, Thiel, Altman and Amodei are your feudal lords that control your job.
(If you say you cannot do anything because your manager orders you to, watch Yes Minister and learn how it is done. In software all you need to say is that you are trying, but you constantly have to revert bugs introduced by the clankers, which is true anyway. Yes, and you need to do it in a team.)
The world order we knew is upended and it's likely to stay that way. Better to spend energy shaping that into something that is acceptable, then hoping it will all go away once DT is gone.
Just closed a trade zone deal with South America that was 20 years in the making. Now in deep discussions with Canada that itself is desperate to reduce the bonds with the US.
In a few decades, US will be at the same spot as Great Britain has been before. They will realize they lost a lot of their standing in the world and are now just one of many countries.
The only good thing about Trump is that he is stupid. If he had been clever, Europe would have ended up in a much worse position.
However, he was super transparent from the beginning and even started a war, giving Europe the opportunity for an easy united (non-) response. The war even showed the reliance of the US on Europe bases for their power projection. Making the reducing of man power that followed even more dysfunctional.
Only thing he could have done to destroy all bonds with the western world faster is to actually annex Greenland. However, there's still plenty of time for that.
We'll only return to normalcy after Trump upon implementing our own Nuremburg-style trials for members of his administration and enacting a number of constitutional amendments to fix the structural failures which allowed it to come this far. Even then, it would take at least a generation before the rest of the world will consider treating the US as a sane, good-faith member of the global community.
Unfortunately, the chances of either reform occurring are near zero right now.
The only way to get enough support for such reforms requires the bulk of the MAGA cult wake from their delirium, which won't happen unless/until things get a lot worse. Loyalists have a pretty large capacity to compartmentalize their dislike of actions taken by Trump separate from their support of Trump the person, even when you can get past the "fake news" mantra that lets them dismiss anything negative which doesn't affect them directly.
I think it is for something worse: it is for rewarding those who participate in the next insurrection. If you look at how dictators such as Kim Jong Un operate, a wannabe dictator needs two things. (1) A compliant military that is willing to punish people who oppose the dictator, and (2) a slush fund for rewarding people who support the dictator.
For (1): The gathering of generals and top military leaders on September 30, 2025 was to make it clear to them what is expected of them (be willing to attack democrat-controlled cities when called to, and quit if they aren't willing to do that). For (2): that's what the 1.8B slush fund is for.
