Writing – Ann Narkeh Media

Socialist Social Media for the New Days: Long Live TIKKIT! [review]

Posted on September 19, 2018September 19, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

annnarkehmedia.com subscribers will be aware that following the most recent social mediapocalypse, I went dark for a little while on Big Tech’s social media monopolies, while I investigated what alternatives are currently available. I’m still not posting much to the old platforms. Spending a little time away from them has been really good for my mental health. Particularly in terms of getting a better perspective on the state of it all.

This will be my second review of alternative social media platforms.
You can also read about my first week on steemit.com, here.

One of the first new platforms I joined recently was tikkit.co.uk – which was only launched about a month or so ago. If I’m remembering correctly, it’s been endorsed by the great George Galloway on his radio show, the Mother of All Talk Shows. (I’ve not been able to find the link to that endorsement yet, so could be remembering it wrong. Apologies if so. I’ll update this post if and when I find the link).

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

(From tikkit.co.uk‘s ‘about’ section)
“The aim of Tikkit is to become the most used site on the web, replacing Twitter to make mobile social media a truly free experience, no data collection, no location collection, no care for whatever app or site you last visited.

The software is owned by one person and it’s use has been gifted to everyone. The owner, admin and moderators are all left wing socialists based in the UK.

Together we have the power to make this the first socialist media platform based in the UK, created by the left for us all, not just the profiteers

Zero tolerance to fake news.”

The ‘one person’ who owns the software is a chap called ‘Tony X‘, who appears to be a proper old school socialist. Tony has been very responsive to every issue I’ve raised since joining Tikkit and he’s answered every question I’ve asked regarding Tikkit.

For example. When I first joined, the site only had the traditional binary gender designations; male or female. Being a genderless, anarcho-punk emoji, I tagged Tony asking them to add an ‘other’ option, which they did almost immediately. Similarly, when selecting which nation state you belong to, I wanted the option of being a ‘Citizen of the World’ which again, Tony made happen almost instantly. They even took some time to answer a few questions for this review.* (Thanks Tony, much respect)!

*wiixiiw is a new video hosting platform which Tony’s also been developing.

#AdvertisingShitsInYourHead

There’s currently no advertising on Tikkit, which is of course a most welcome and r3V0_|utionary change from the big social media monopolies’ abuse of our data. For me, the advertising industry’s mass manipulation of human thought and behaviour has been one of the most pernicious aspects of Big Tech in recent decades.

Apart from a distinct absence of corporations trying to sell you ideas and material shit you don’t need, Tikkit feels very much like a facebook/twitter hybrid. There’s a top trending hashtags column which displays the current top 5 trending hashtags. Another key distinction, is that the main prolefeed looks like it’s literally just a chronological list of posts. Seemingly no algorithms silently deciding which content you get to see and which you don’t.

ECHO CHAMBERS AREN’T NECESSARILY BAD

Initially, I was concerned that Tikkit would, by definition be a bit of a ‘Leftist’ ideological echo chamber. It is, though I’ve actually come to quite like that about it. It’s been great to have a space which is overtly and deliberately ‘left’ leaning to retreat to when the post truth, post satire world gets too much for my poor little brain. I think because everybody knows it’s a left leaning platform makes it an interesting and useful echo chamber to have.

However, having only launched recently it’s still quite sparsely populated. I decided to just follow everybody who’s joined so far, to get a decent overview of how it’s doing. It looks like there’s only about 330 users there so far but new people have been joining almost every day I’ve been there. As with all the burgeoning new platforms, it seems to be a question now of how many of these new users will start actually using their shiny new accounts or not.

You can create groups and 8 have been set up already; Disability, What About The Workers, BizEpeople, memes, inforapenny, Occupy2018, Philosophy and Jineology.

I didn’t know what Jineology was and had to look it up. So even with a smaller user base, Tikkit is already providing me with a useful social experience, ie: teaching me about stuff I didn’t already know.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OF TIKKIT

At the moment, only a small handful of people seem to be posting regularly. Most of these seem to just be ‘hit and run’ or ‘flash’ posts, or flash floods of posts. (We’ve all done it…) That said, the quality of posts has generally been higher than on the old platforms and the few interactions and discussions I’ve had there have been generally friendlier and more interesting than on the old social media.

There’s scant other information about Tikkit, on the website or elsewhere on the internet. There’s no wikipedia entry about it and no FAQ, yet. I quite like this ‘mystery’ angle about it too. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out but my gut tells me that they’re good people.

I like Tony X and team Tikkit’s style. If enough comrades migrated there (and started using their accounts) it could become a powerful Leftist space, for both networking and possibly also for organising.

Onwards comrades, to the new days!

Long live TIKKIT!

PS: Little toes ARE really weird, but essential.

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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction. Join the Extinction Rebellion.

Is it Just a Coincidence That Steemit.com is Down Today? #OCCUPYSILICONVALLEY

Posted on September 17, 2018September 18, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

Firstly, Happy 7th Birthday Occupy!

Today is September 17th, the 7th Anniversary of Occupy Wall St and Adbusters have launched #OCCUPYSILICONVALLEY – a call to reject the big tech monopolies’ control over us in whichever way is most appropriate to you.

They’ve suggested four online actions you could participate in, or that you could simply take a day off the internet altogether.

I’ve only been on steemit a couple of weeks now but I’ve rapidly become a steemvangelical. I had been plugging steemit to comrades in my various little Occupy circles regarding it’s apparent multiple benefits to our mutual aims. I’d also been plugging #OccupySiliconValley to my fellow steemians, as quite a good day to promote steemit to people who would probably quite appreciate it there.

The Press Release Big Tech Doesn’t Want You To See.

Searching for more information about steemit being down, I found this fragment from a link in an ecosia search result:

“http://Steemit.com is under attack. There is huge DDoS (http://steem.com get hundred thousand requests per second from botnet.… by fbslo”

isitdownorjust.me/steemit-com/* reckons it’s a problem with their servers. (*tip: it’s probably more helpful to check if it’s back yet using isitdownorjustme than directly requesting a page from steemit.com until the attack is over).

If I understand it correctly though steemit.com is decentralised, so that must imply either a very co-ordinated DDoS attack or a massive system error.

Or on the upside, it could also mean an absolutely momentous uptake in terms of new users, or fresh ‘plankton’. Either way, I’m reasonably sure that the good folk at steemit will have it back up and running again soon.

Is it just a coincidence that steemit.com is down today?

I’ve started a 24 hour poll on twitter.

UPDATE – Turns out it was just a bug in the code, apparently.

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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction. Join the Extinction Rebellion.

WTF!!? Brexit Obsessed Idiots Need Slapping About the Face With Wet Fish

Posted on September 15, 2018September 15, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

UK citizens are so hopelessly hypnotised that some (many) of them explicitly care more about Britain’s future trading relationship with the EU than they do about the ongoing extinction level event which is likely to kill them, their friends, family and quite possibly all vertebrate life on planet earth.

The CGI weather report from the Weather Channel, from which the stills in this meme are taken shows the grim reality of flood projections, which sadly most people on earth are too poor to evacuate from.

To the braindead ‘Brexiteers’ and ‘remainers’ though, it was just another opportunity to meme about their favourite all encompassing, divisive, disempowering distraction: Fucking Brexshit.

Whoever made this meme seriously needs a good slap about the face with a wet fish.

That is all.

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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction. Join the Extinction Rebellion.

Is This Post-Capitalism? My First Week on steemit.com [review]

Posted on September 14, 2018September 15, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

annnarkehmedia.com subscribers will be aware that following the most recent social mediapocalypse, I’ve mostly gone dark on the big social media monopolies while I investigate what alternatives are currently available.

This will be the first of several reviews which I’ll be posting.

steemit.com is by far and away the most mindblowing of all the new social media platforms I’ve discovered on my post-social mediapocalypse journey, so far. It’s so much deeper than I had anticipated. I’m realising that it’s potential for positive systemic change on a global scale is incredible. Unprecedented in fact, as far as I’m aware.

I was only looking for new social media platforms but it turns out that steemit could also be part of the solution to the world’s hopelessly corrupt monetary system.

Which is nice.

*CAVEAT/WARNING* these are my personal reflections after just over a week on steemit. It’s been challenging and some of my assumptions, conclusions and advice could yet prove to be wrong. I am fast becoming a steemvangelical but steemit might yet prove not to be the glorious utopia it currently appears to be.

Any corrections, further advice and constructive criticism welcome.

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

Steemit, Inc. is a private company based in New York City, headquartered in Virginia. The company was founded by Ned Scott, and Dan Larimer, creator of BitShares, and EOS. It’s been building STEEM since it launched in March 2016.

There are very few rules on steemit but the context, culture and etiquette are very different to the old social media platforms and I’m still only just starting to figure it all out.

Steemians upvote posts and comments and the authors who get upvoted can receive a monetary reward in a virtual currency token named Steem and in US dollar-pegged tokens called Steem Dollars. People are also rewarded for curating (discovering and sharing) popular content. Vote strength and curation rewards are influenced by the amount of STEEM Power held. Steemians are affectionately referred to as ‘plankton, minnows, dolphins and whales’, representing the scale of their STEEM power, (wealth) and influence.

You don’t have to ‘buy in’ to get started on steemit.com. My account‘s currently got 0.788 STEEM power. At the current market rate, that’s about 50cents for my first day’s activity. Upvotes accumulate for a week at which point you can claim them. My most popular post on STEEMIT so far has reached the current market equivalent of about $1, give or take. My second most popular post has reached the market equivalent of $2. So it’s not about how many people upvote you, it’s about who upvotes you.

$2 isn’t a lot but it’s $2 more than big data were sharing with me. And it’s $2 just for posting something that I wanted to post, that had value to me, that others saw value in.

If everybody migrated to steemit the quality of popular discourse and the value of STEEM could both rise significantly.

THIRD PARTY APLICATIONS

Steemit includes a host of third-party applications, such as d.tube, which is a decentralized video platform. It’s similar to YouTube, but instead of advertisements, it uses the built-in STEEM currency which is awarded by people upvoting other people’s vids. #AdvertisingShitsInYourHead

There are LOADS of other third party apps, up and running and in development on steemit, including front ends which I haven’t looked at yet. I’m particularly excited to explore D.live – the steemit livestreaming service. Livestreaming to the blockchain would be really useful.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOURAL MODIFICATION

There are many subtle but profound differences between steemit and the old social media platforms, which I’m still adjusting to. At the moment they almost all seem positive, apart from the inevitable phenomenon of some (a lot) of people literally just unashamedly milking it for the sake of milking it.

So why do I think steemit is so good?

It’s not just that participating in the community is incentivised monetarily.
It’s not just that there are no advertisements constantly shitting in your head.
It’s not just that the preferred etiquette is for less frequent, higher quality posts
It’s not just that there’s no censorship, that you know everything you say and do is indelibly stored in the blockchain forever, so people are further incentivised to be more considerate and thoughtful.
It’s not just that there are no constant ‘notifications’ and other triggers demanding your attention and modifying your behaviour

It’s all of these things and many more which give me real hope in steemit, as a potentially paradigm shifting solution to so many of the micro and macro challenges which humanity currently faces.

THE ANCAP CHALLENGE

There seem to be quite lot of self identifying ancaps involved in and supporting steemit.com. I had always rejected anarcho-capitalism in the past, because I found the concept somewhat oxymoronic but in the context of the steemisphere and it’s relationship to actual social value I have to warmly welcome and applaud their work, and their ostensibly long sighted ethical and moral compass.

If like me you’re primarily interested in steemit as a means of keeping the internet free and escaping big data’s myopic nightmarish filterbubbles, don’t make the mistake of just sacking off all the crypto-guys as hopeless breadheads, as I very nearly did. The crypto-currency side of it is a daunting learning curve which I’m only just now, reluctantly starting. The thing I’ve come to realise though, is that for steemit to deliver on it’s paradigm shifting potential the emerging crypto-markets need to be succesful.

This is quite a challenge to accept and reconcile. It seems to me now like some sort of weird, new, anarcho-crypto, post-capitalist, Max Keiser and Jeff Berwick via Jaron Lanier and David Graeber hybrid, which I’m struggling to get my head around because it’s such a monumental challenge to all my previous assumptions about economics and society.

Dos and Don’ts

I dramatically underestimated just how steep a learning curve steemit would be. While in many ways it’s very similar to the old social media platforms, the differences are deeper and more significant than they first appear. Don’t just dive in at the deep end like I did, don’t rush, take your time, as I’m trying to do now.

Don’t just skim the introductory material and the FAQ!
I just dived straight in and made a lot of ‘plankton’ (n00b) errors…
Again, steemit.com is way deeper than it looks at first.

Do have actual real conversations with people on your posts and on theirs. Check your replies and respond to them. This should just be standard but bears mentioning, as it’s such a cultural shift away from facebook and twitter’s incessant and addictive notifications. Steemit doesn’t send you a notification every time somebody farts, or hassle you to post something if you spend a day or two offline.

Don’t just follow back everybody who follows you, as you might have done on the old social media. I made the mistake of following back 150 odd people who followed me and had to spend a day or two trawling through removing loads of bots, dead accounts and other bods who I found disinteresting. I’ve probably got a fair bit more following and unfollowing to do before I get it right for my personal ‘niche’.

Do check out the people who have followed you and follow them back if they seem interesting and cool to you.

It’s not about how many followers you can acquire anyway, it’s about the quality of the interactions you have and the actual connections you make along the way.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you’re interested in learning more and joining the steemit community, use the time queuing for your account to properly familiarise yourself with the white paper, the blue paper and the FAQs. There’s a lot to digest but don’t be put off and don’t just skim through it all like I did at first. There’s way more exciting information in these documents than I can helpfuly relay here and now.

You don’t need an account to have a look around the platform and its various affiliates like Dtube, Dsound etc.

Say goodbye to being dripfed bullshit by big data’s prolefeeds. You’re responsible for how you use your time on steemit and for what content you create, curate, upvote and share.

Don’t be put off by the ‘trending’ ‘new’ and ‘promoted’ feed being mostly drivel, as it is on big data’s platforms. Don’t be put off by the mountains of posts about cryptocurrency and markets if they’re mostly illegible to you, as they are to me.

Go straight to the ‘View all tags’ link (at the bottom of the trending tags bar) and have look for stuff you’re interested in. If what you’re looking for isn’t in the long top trending list, use the searchbar. This takes you to a google search – set that to ‘by date’ to find the most recent posts and discussion about what interests you.

Tags I’ve personally found interesting on steemit.com so far include:

#anarchy #eco-train #earthdeeds #earthtribe #informationwar * #news #nature #science

*Important note: the ‘informationwar’ account and tag is not affiliated with Alex Jones and his hatemongering crew of alt-right wrong uns. Thanks to @sloe for pointing this out and to @informationwar for confirming.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OF STEEMIT

From my perspective, it’s a bit of a shame that so many people on steemit are currently there just for the purpose of making money. At the same time, I fully respect how much effort those same people have put into making this potential utopia a reality. Given all the other benefits of the paradigm shift that steemit represents for the digital space and the material world, I’m prepared to suspend my disbelief and challenge my preconceptions.

One of the only two criticisms on the wikipedia entry about steemit.com, is from Joe Lee, co-founder and CIO of digital currency trading platform Magnr, who told CoinDesk:

“Whether Steem succeeds as a digital currency will be more a reflection of Steemit’s success as a platform as opposed to the economics of the coin itself. This is a good example of a digital currency whose value will be closely affiliated to its utilitarian value as a social networking and sharing platform.”

So, the ‘whales’ and the ‘planktons’ successes on the platform are inextricably intertwined. Community cohesion and monetary value are inextricably and immutably connected. If the steemit community absorb this criticism constructively steemit could save the internet which could help save the world!

A mass migrate to steemit could improve the quality of the steemit platform, the diversity and quality of the content there, the cohesion amongst the community and at the same time raise the living standards for everybody, rapidly.

It could lead to an actually grassroots-led third sector that could be infinitely more effective than the current one, (which rewards it’s CEOs six-figure salaries while leaving the problems themselves unsolved for decades on end)…

A mass migrate to steemit could be just the r3V0_|utionary paradigm shift we need.

Could steemit.com be Post-Capitalism?

It certainly looks promising to me!

Reviews of all the other social media platforms I’ve been investigating will be posted very soon.

ALL Ann Narkeh Media’s stuff is offered to the internet for FREE and WITHOUT ADVERTISING! SUBSCRIBE to get notifications of NEW THINGS.
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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction. Join the Extinction Rebellion.

Update and reblog: CO2nsensus? A Response To @kennyskitchen and @elamental

Posted on September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

Quick social mediapocalypse update:

Despite it’s imperfections, I’m fast becoming a steemvangelical. I’m still also loving tikkit.co.uk. Proper, full reviews will be forthcoming, imminently.

I wrote and published this on steemit.com 4 days ago and it’s been upvoted 74 times, earning the equivalent of $2.07. Already. Despite the market currently being low. It’ll keep accumulating upvotes for another 3 days and at that point, I’ll be able to claim it.

The monetary aspect is a welcome and potentially paradigm shifting bonus, but what’s been more significant for me has been the steemit community; the quality of the interactions and discourse there. It’s been a dramatic change from the tiny little filter bubbles that I had previously been trapped in. I was getting nowhere near this much interaction on my old channels, which supposedly have a greater number of followers and reach. This is particularly striking when you consider that steemit’s user base is significantly smaller than the old channels…and I’ve only been there a week.

It’s not all peachy and utopian of course but I’ll leave the more challenging aspects aside for now. So far, I’ve only met friendly and helpful people on steemit. @elamental has invited me to write about the Extinction Rebellion for their ‘Earth Deeds’ project and that little bit of scribbling has already stimulated some interesting discussions, (including the mandatory token flat earther, who was very nice and reasonable actually). It’s been so refreshing not to be constantly bombarded with adverts and to be able to see and hear some views which I viscerally disagree with. The only channels I’ve had to mute so far (for my own sanity) have been the Alex Jones ones.

A more thorough blog will be forthcoming imminently about all my adventures exploring the new social meda, including tikkit.co.uk and my first week as a steemian and D-tuber, but for now, I thought I’d share this little ramble with you all, to strongly endorse steemit.com as a very promising long term solution to so many of the current problems with the big social media monopolies’ platforms:

NO advertising – #AdvertisingShitsInYourHead
NO censorship – immutable blockchain on the back end
VIRTUAL CURRENCY REWARDS

The fact that you also get paid, not just for creating content but for finding, ‘curating’, liking, sharing and commenting on quality content is still blowing my mind. The implications of a mass migrate to steemit really would be immense, if I’m understanding it correctly.

Caveat: I’ve only been there for a week and am still figuring it all out.

There’s a 1-3 week queue for new accounts at the moment, so I’d strongly encourage everybody to apply for one NOW! I know some of you have applied already, I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

Anyway, here’s that blog what I wrote. If you’re interested, you can read the full context and the comments on the original post, here.

CO2nsensus? – A Response To @kennyskitchen and @elamental

It’s my fourth day on steemit and I’ve encountered my first serious intellectual challenge here. @elamental of Earth Deeds fame has shared with me a thorough 2-part article by @kennyskitchen debunking the mainstream ‘consensus’ on climate change science, specifically the human-made, CO2 analysis. I’ll admit, my instinctive reaction was to roll my eyes. “Oh great. Another mindless conspiraloon out to sabotage the deep green movement…”

Determined to rise to the challenge though, I read Kenny’s articles and was pleasantly surprised, not just by how thorough they were but also by how much I agreed with their analysis.

Here are Kenny’s two articles;

GLOBAL COOLING! No, wait… GLOBAL WARMING!! Ah, um… CLIMATE CHANGE!!! Just be afraid & give us more power!

So, we’ve seen that most #ClimateChange “science” is complete BS… Why is the agenda being pushed? And by whom?

No Platforming?

Before I begin, it bears mentioning that there have been calls recently to ‘no-platform’ all climate science deniers, refusing to debate with them at all. Some of my personal heroes and sheroes, including the incredible Dr Caroline Lucas MP have signed an open letter in which they explain why they are refusing to lend their credibility to debating climate change skeptics. I can understand where they’re coming from. In my lifetime the debates around climate change have been unbearably frustrating; biased in favour of the skeptic perspective against all reason. The signatories to the letter claim that there is nothing substantive to debate with the skeptics, whose position is funded by the fossil fuel lobby.

I’ve never supported no-platforming and don’t think I ever will. The only circumstances in which it’s appropriate are to prevent the incitement of violence and hatred. There is the argument that climate change denial does incite violence to the planet, by advocating more burning of CO2. What is problematic about this argument is that the perceived violence is now so widespread and normalised that it requires no incitement. Indeed, the only way to stop it is to ‘win’, (or resolve) the debate.

No-platforming stinks of intellectual cowardice and prevents learning, so when I received this challenge today, I knew I had a responsibility to respond to it as fully as I possibly could.

‘Scientific’ Consensus

One of the most significant points from Kenny’s first article is how the focus on ‘scientific consensus’ is absurd, given that consensus is not by itself a scientific method. “the scientific consensus used to be that the earth was flat”. Pretty much every scientific breakthrough ever has, by definition, required a rejection of consensus by an individual, or a small minority of rebels. Furthermore, the #CimateGate emails, the doctoring of data, and the ‘hockey stick’ graph do all lend themselves to the notion that the ‘consensus’ might be illusory and that some sort of conspiracy is probably at play.

The second article was the most compelling. It details some of the many other ways in which humanity is destroying the biosphere, some of the individuals, corporations and mobs responsible for this destruction and ends with a list of Kenny’s conclusions, which I’ll cut and paste here;

-begins-

CO2 is not a pollutant
Most “climate science” is complete fraud
The biggest polluters on the planet are the military, animal agriculture, and companies like Monsanto
No matter the problem, more government is NEVER the solution
a. Government is simply the use of violence & coercion against others instead of taking responsibility to change your own life
The Earth is not warming (at least not linearly, different regions are all warming & cooling separately)
The Earth is not overpopulated, we can easily feed everyone a well-balanced diet, and eugenics is ALWAYS immoral (not just when the Nazis did it)
For the first time in history, we have the ability to share the truth faster & wider than the system can spread its lies
EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DO CHANGES THE WORLD! Here are some big things you can do to make the world better
a. Stop paying taxes
b. Eat a organic, non-GMO, vegan diet (growing it yourself is best)
c. Stop taking in corporate media of any kind
d. Begin practicing radical personal responsibility, stop acting like a victim or outsourcing responsibility for your actions
e. If someone is trying to convince you to be afraid, chances are they are planning to take advantage of you somehow

-ends-

CO2nsensus?

The only really significant bone of contention I have with this list (and with Kenny’s general analysis) is their first point, regarding the effect of CO2 on the atmosphere. From ‘my side’ of the debate, this question has been pretty much ‘settled’ since the Exxon papers leaked. #ExxonKnew #ShellKnew

Exxon Knew

I’ve been tracking fossil fuel industry (military industrial complex) propaganda for years now. Exxon publicly pioneered climate science back in the day but stopped publishing their findings in the 70s, once it became clear (to them at least) that the industrial scale of CO2 emissions would likely lead to the abrupt and dramatic changes to Earth’s climate which we are witnessing today. They deployed the same PR firm and the same tactics as Big Tobacco had done, namely sowing seeds of doubt in consumer’s minds about the certainty of the science. A recent analysis conducted by Carbon Brief investigated 900 recently published scientific papers, all of which cast doubts on climate change or speak against it. They found 9/10 of the most prolific authors were in some way connected with Exxon Mobil.

The net effect of this decades long PR campaign has been to keep industrial society dependent on the oil wells pumping and the coal fires burning, while preventing the growth of sustainable, renewable energy technology and markets.

For these reasons and many more, I believe that CO2 is most likely a pollutant, which is not only accelerating climate chaos but which is also ruining people’s health by making the air so toxic that it’s causing instances of respiratory disease to rise and life expectancy to fall, dramatically, in all the world’s major industrialised cities.

Apart from this though, I thought the rest of Kenny’s analysis was pretty much spot on. In spite of disagreeing with their conclusion on CO2 emissions I found the reasoning behind it very interesting, if not entirely persuasive.

Summary/Conclusions

If the scientific consensus on CO2 is correct, (as I believe it probably is) it doesn’t make any of the rest of Kenny’s observations any less correct. Particularly prescient is their research on methane, which is one of a great number of factors which could yet prove more significant in the long term. Some of the projections regarding the potential release of methane that had until recently been trapped in arctic permafrost are particularly dire.

I can agree to disagree with Kenny regarding CO2 emissions, given that I agree with so much of the rest of their analysis. I find it extremely interesting that we should have so much parity on green issues, yet fall into opposing camps because we generally disagree on this one aspect. It makes me wonder if the CO2 angle has been deliberately exploited to create unnecessary disagreements and schisms amongst greenies who might otherwise have been natural allies.

Whether or not these schisms are deliberate, I feel both our camps are left weaker for it.

Ultimately, the ‘human-made’, CO2 causality aspect is just one of so many causal factors behind the 6th Mass Extinction that it would be foolish not to talk to each other because we disagree on one analysis. While I’m currently inclined to believe the CO2 human-made hypothesis, none of my positions are fixed. To quote Caroline Lucas, “none of us have the monopoly on wisdom”…

I’m glad I took the time to read @kennyskitchen ‘s articles. I hope this response to them was useful.

Here’s a short documentary I made last year, articulating the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, A Second Notice. CO2 emissions are just one of many aspects covered in it.

https://d.tube/#!/v/ann-narkeh/ajo2trn4

annnarkehmedia.com is quite good.
Join the #ExtinctionRebellion

GONE DARK

Posted on September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

Since the latest Social Media Apocalypse, I’ve been limiting my public use of the big social media monopolies, (namely facebook, twitter and youtube) even more than I previously had done.

I’m now officially ‘going dark’ on these platforms.

Going dark is military lingo for the termination of communication. It is used to describe a scenario in which communication appears to have ceased, but in reality has just moved from public communication channels to more private communication channels to prevent eavesdropping,…or in this case, data abuse and behavioral manipulation.

It’s been really good to spend some time away from the big platforms and generally away from the internet. I was becoming extremely vexxed by the state of it all. I displaced the stress onto some comrades who didn’t deserve it. I really regret falling out with them and will be properly apologising as soon as I find the right words.

New Platforms

I got my shiny new steemit beta account today. I’m looking forward to figuring it out and how to use d.tube, which seems to be some sort of affiliated partner. I’ve never used a block chain enabled platform before, it’s exciting!

steemit.com/@ann-narkeh

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I’ve been enjoying the new socialist social media platform, tikkit. it’s still quite sparsely populated at the moment but feels good so far. Obviously a bit of an echo chamber but nice to find a space that’s explicitly for ‘left minded’ people.

tikkit.co.uk/AnnNarkeh

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And I’m also on minds.com which seems to have become a refuge for all the racists, sexists, islamaphobes, Trump supporters, Alex Jones fans and far-right wingnuts who’ve been booted from the rest of the internet. Interestingly, virtually the entire nation of Vietnam have also recently migrated from facebook to minds.com.

I haven’t spent a lot of time there yet but there’s certainly a really interesting and challenging blend of different folk, compared with the myopic filter bubbles I had become used to.

minds.com/AnnNarkeh

More thorough reviews of these platforms will be forthcoming as soon as I’ve finished setting them up and figured them out. Any more recommendations would be most gratefully received, of course.

Decision Dilemma

One of the dilemmas I’m currently considering (again) is whether or not to just delete the monopolistic platforms altogether. ‘Going dark’ is a temporary compromise while I reflect, investigate alternatives and theorise the best plan of action.

Though also fairly monopolistic, google and wordpress have never banned me overtly, and as far as I can tell they haven’t censored, or ghostbanned me yet either, so this website will continue to be my principle outlet for new things and stuff.

I’ll still be logging back in to kafkabook, twatter and yootoob occasionally, to post new content from this site, to support twitterstorms, to share any urgent information and to check messages. Incidentally, I’ve noticed some really strange stuff with my personal inbox and the inboxes of other pages I administrate on facebook. I no longer rely on that as a secure method of communication, at all.

If you want to get hold of me try one of these new platforms, or email;
annnarkeh (at) gmail (dot) com

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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction. Join the Extinction Rebellion.

Regarding the ‘Social Mediapocalypse’…

Posted on August 21, 2018September 6, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

TL:DR and trigger warning. This post is for my own sanity and for people who are trying to pay attention to the collapsing everything. It asks more questions than it answers.

Since the recent spate of bannings on social media, I feel I should write a little more on the subject. Digital censorship is something I’ve written about at some length in the past and most of my conclusions about the issue remain the same as they were last time round. I don’t want to dwell on it too much now but ICYMI, the digital hammer is coming down again, repeatedly. All over the place. Like cyber whack-a-mole.

Simultaneously, the right wing, billionaire owned corporate media and their chums in parliament have inadvertently revealed the most problematic elephant in the room.

The ~~Palestine~~ anti-semitism ~~debate~~ flame war has been fueled by the anti-Corbyn, pro-Israel lobby to epic proportions now. As absurd as it is, this #WreathGate mullarkey seems to have been a significant watershed moment. Corbyn’s graceful, powerful riposte to Netanyahu on twitter seems to have galvanised pro-Corbyn and pro-palestinian supporters, who have been speaking up louder than ever. The way people are thinking and talking about the world is finally, dramatically changing, on Israel/Palestine and an overwhelming number of other significant things that really matter, materially and ‘spiritually’ for want of a better word.

In this context, the social media crackdown looks like an inevitable overreaction by the status quo against the internet’s rising consciousness, which is once again threatening to disrupt business as usual. Whether it’s ‘top down’ collusion and censorship, co-ordinated campaigns by third parties to get certain channels suspended, or both is largely irrelevant at this point. (It looks like a bit of both to me).

Between all this and the chaos of Trump and Brexshit, most people’s attention has been diverted away from grappling with the painful reality of the actual apocalypse, the 6th Mass Extinction event which is escalating, rapidly. Here too, an awful lot more people are engaging with it than ever before though.

The ‘digital commons’ still represents one of our best hopes for developing, discovering, sharing and implementing positive global solutions to the greatest challenge in history: Survival.

Ironically, the carbon footprint of this digital activity now needs to be factored into our calculations too. We need to be more efficient than ever.

Continue reading Regarding the ‘Social Mediapocalypse’…

Posted on August 19, 2018August 19, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

After a lifetime of not understanding how ‘centrism’ could possibly be a helpful idea for a healthy, functioning democracy, I’ve finally seen the light. Having heard that there is a serious prospect of one Mr Chuka Ummuna MP forming a new, radically regressive ‘centrist’ political party, undermining the huge gains Corbyn has made for Labour and for the quality of public awareness fills me with delight*.

The fact that it’s apparently called ‘Back Together’ leaves it wide open for this obvious pun, and probably much more hilarity.

So I’ve started designing some concept art for ‘inertia™©®’, an imaginary new centrist activist group, to spread the good word about Backwards Together! and why we should keep things how they’ve been going for the last three decades or so. If you think I should keep going with this, let me know.

*This entire post is just satire.

If you loved Neo-Liberalism, Thatcherism, Blairism, Centrism and want to keep Britain going the way it had been for the last three decades or so, join us, Backwards Together! to fight against the progressive politics that is threatening to redistribute our wealth and power.

National Funeral for the Unknown Cyclist, London, 13th October 2018

Posted on August 13, 2018August 13, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

I’m very proud to have collaborated with my mate, Donnachadh McCarthy again, helping to put together the posters, flyers and social media materials for the National Funeral for the Unknown Cyclist, organised by Stop Killing Cyclists and supported by a broad coalition of campaign groups.

The event will honour and mark the deaths of:

over a thousand cyclists killed on our roads in the last decade
the thousands of cyclists killed by traffic pollution
the hundreds of thousands of people who wanted to cycle but were afraid to, due to the lack of protected cycle lanes and who thus died from horrific lung & heart diseases, asthma, diabetes and a plethora of other diseases brought on by the sedentary, petrochemical lifestyle.

UK Gov. Plc has invested almost nothing on safer cycling but tens of £billions on ever more roads for the car-lobby. £billions more is given in annual tax-cuts to the toxic diesel/petrol lobby, which is accelerating the 6th Mass Extinction.

The excellent photograph in the poster captures the scale of Stop Killing Cyclists’ first mass die-in, at Tfl headquarters, 5 years ago. 1500 people came together to protest, after 6 people were killed while cycling in one month.

This year’s National Funeral for the Unknown Cyclist hopes to be the largest ever Die-In in UK history, to ensure the Chancer of Death, Phillip Hammond, the incumbent PM, Jeremy Corbyn and his incumbent Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell hear two clear demands for the Autumn budget:

£3 Billion per year investment in cycling

A reversal of tax cuts on toxic diesel and petrol

#3Billion4Cycling

Donnachadh explained how they had arrived at the £3 Billion per year figure based on doubling the Dutch model, which invests the equivalent of £30 per person per year on cycling. The UK needs to catch up with 50 years of failure to invest in safer cycling.

The Dutch have the safest cycling infrastructure in the world. Despite some hotspots, they also enjoy some of the cleanest air in Europe.

More Dutch Cycling = Safer Cycling + Less Pollution + Cleaner Air

#Divest

The second demand, a reversal of the year on year tax-cuts on toxic fuel should be a no-brainer, given the calamitous state of our collapsing climate. If we are to survive the 6th Mass Extinction, we must create a cleaner, safer world. Electric vehicles alone aren’t going to cut it, especially if the electricity which powers them is still produced by burning toxic fossil fuels and distributed across an ancient, inefficient power grid. Electric vehicles still have a massive embedded carbon footprint.

The UK, and the world must fully divest from fossil fuels as Ireland has done and properly invest in safe cycling infrastructure.

NFUC Flyers – Front

NFUC Flyers – Back

Righteous Rage to Peaceful Action.

Channel your anger at all these injustices into peaceful direct action and demand better from UK Gov. Plc.

If you’re not able to attend, please share this event with your networks.

Cheers.

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The Extinction Symbol represents extinction. It is quite important to raise awareness of the 6th Mass Extinction, particularly as corporate power invests so much pretending that it isn’t really happening…

EXTINCTION OR SURVIVAL? Imagining a Future for our Scorched Planet.

Posted on August 7, 2018August 8, 2018 by Ann Narkeh

In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a lot of batshit crazy. I suppose I should feel privileged to live in a time of such unprecedented global challenges.

We were taught about global warming in school. It was all a bit flakey back then because the fossil fuel corporations had just started distorting and disputing the climate science. A school of science which incidentally they had pioneered. The basic principles were understood long before I was born. #ExxonKnew

When I started primary school, we were being taught that the apocalyptic climate collapse we’re witnessing now might happen in a few hundred years but if we recycled more and changed our light bulbs and used catalytic converters and stopped using CFCs everything would probably be OK.

By the time I started secondary school, they were saying this cataclysmic tragedy might unfold in about a hundred years and we should probably all recycle more to be on the safe side. By the time I finished, they were saying maybe 50 years, if we didn’t take more meaningful action.

As I got older, they revised it down further, saying probably within our lifetimes. Then the IPCC report. The World Scientists’ Warnings to Humanity. TWENTY THREE years of annual international climate conferences (COP24 will be in December this year). All too little too late and still held back by an industry determined to protect it’s short term shareholder interest.

Now, everything’s collapsing around our ears and it has become difficult to imagine a future in which organised human life on planet Earth is viable. Or life at all for that matter. It turns out most of the recycling we’ve been diligently doing has been going to landfill and incinerators all these years. Increasing numbers of people believe that we’ve already passed the tipping point. An uninhabitable planet is now baked in to the mix.

Corporate media have starting to make the most monumental U-turn in history: We should now accept that an increasingly chaotic climate is the ‘new normal’. We should be preparing for more heatwaves and sea level rise of 60m. (normally I wouldn’t link to sky news but it’s interesting that even they are now starting to accept the stark reality). It has become undeniable. Much of humanity’s minds are being blown. Like frogs in boiling water, slowly realising our shared fate too late.

The Global heatwave is symptom of early stage cycle of civilisational collapse

The world’s ‘leaders’ (such as they are) have procrastinated and lied and squabbled and squandered decades that could have made a difference. The farcical folly of the greenwashing industry; recyling going to landfill and incinerators, ‘catalytic converters’, ‘carbon trading schemes’ and so on tell us all we need to know about their ‘leadership’ on the issue.

You need only look at the brutal corporate policing of protests from Standing Rock to Preston New Rd to understand how intractable the problem is.

The fact that at least FIVE pacific islands have already been lost to rising sea levels is not yet commonly known or understood. I had hoped that this news might have woken up more people when it happened. Two years ago.

Imagining Hope

I’m suppose I’m lucky to have been engaged with the problem of catastrophic climate collapse and human extinction for quite a long time. I’m not as panicked by it as people who are just coming round to the concept now, so I can at least offer a relatively calm perspective. Continue reading EXTINCTION OR SURVIVAL? Imagining a Future for our Scorched Planet.