william.maggos

Host of https://culturewar.radio. An open conversation about the news and views that capture our attention every week. Taking calls live on Sundays at 9pm Central.

admin: https://liberal.city
location: Chicagoland
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Last Notes

2025-04-14 22:48:51

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progressives but yea.

2025-03-27 00:55:28

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is there an ongoing list somewhere?
https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos/114231661883765313

2024-11-11 20:48:59

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I remember when NA was concerned about the police state. FEMA camps etc. I'm sure nobody will be incorrectly rounded up in this process. government doesn't make mistakes, courts are fair etc.

2024-11-06 13:27:43

What #Trump has said he wants to do. #uspol
https://pocket.co/share/ad8bdb4d-d6e5-4450-a2ee-35547bdc6206

2024-10-14 17:34:46

I am for radicalism but only the kinds that can be supported with reason, empathy and evidence. The establishment doesn't dismiss ideas and people based on their nonsensical nature nearly as much as it does based on them being a threat to their status and narrative control.

2024-10-14 17:24:58

When Trump and his supporters say don't believe experts, who then should we believe? He is arguing for a world exactly like the one his supposed enemies want. Safe spaces where you only let in the information and ideas you like. It's illiberalism on both sides. It will end this democratic experiment. #LiberalValues
https://cdn.masto.host/liberalcity/media_attachments/files/113/306/927/970/110/528/original/e19c042b3d2d910f.jpg

2024-10-13 15:19:05

I dare say we finally have a modern #NFL offense. #ChicagoBears #LondonUK

2024-10-06 23:16:50

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I don't agree that we see this happening. there are lots of companies with ridiculous profits over long time periods. that shouldn't exist. I guess you're argument would be that they have some unassailable competitive advantage but I do not see it. maybe patents etc need to be shortened. IDK.
I'm politically economically left but I think markets are good. they just seem to be failing us. I'd rather they work better than have more econ support for people or break them up.

2024-10-06 22:33:07

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gotcha I think but there is an incentive for the new business school grad to start a business and be rich. and that somebody else has lots of profit shows there is potential. they just couldn't get the investment.
yet there is public interest in funding these kinds of new businesses to overall lower costs for everyone. that's frustrating.

2024-10-06 22:28:17

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I understand all the other things exist. I am trying to isolate on this one thing, that somebody should be able to look at a company that makes a lot of profit where they don't have any special advantage, and a competitor jump in saying we can have an almost as good business here by charging a little less. that's all. and lots of people should be able and willing to do that.
I think what would stop it (purely this, not built on innovation etc) is the lack of investors.

2024-10-06 22:21:00

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yea I guess it was something I assumed was true because of market theory but when you consider the investment necessary, would never happen at scale.

2024-09-11 14:19:33

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we can get policy from a website. a debate that is more of a discussion can allow us to see how these people reason and their base values. whose concerns are they focused on and how do they incorporate other perspectives? can they compromise? are they too careful because of their donors? this is what we should be looking at to make our decision. the bills they want might not make it to their desk. for an executive, situations are constantly changing. especially with foreign policy.

2024-09-11 13:56:31

Agreed. Could just be audio. Would anybody pay attention? #debate
https://cdn.masto.host/liberalcity/media_attachments/files/113/119/262/871/319/363/original/140fec83c9b0958d.png

2024-09-08 20:09:11

An offense line would be nice but we've got one hell of a defense. #ChicagoBears #NFL

2024-09-05 16:42:42

I kinda understand not wanting to have to trust anybody to live a good life. But you can't live a modern life without doing so. Complex societies require it.
That's what's so dangerous about our division and animosity. Lots of things we rely on, people will do for a paycheck. But other things like counting votes fairly, that's mostly about people being decent. Or expecting mostly decent interactions in public. For whatever reason, what if you don't believe they are anymore? #LiberalValues

2024-09-01 00:38:35

Damn. Is all this #CollegeFootball intended to convince my high school senior to apply there?

2024-08-29 15:18:31

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unnecessary govt is bad. monetary policy that serves elites over the public is bad. debt that isn't used to facilitate future growth is bad.
but all those things can be used well and are needed. taxing middle and low income people over the very wealthy, such that disparity keeps rising, is bad. I don't care what percentage of the total taxes they are paying compared to the rest of us if the disparity keeps rising and they have enough to bribe politicians.

2024-08-29 13:41:06

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well you are a monarchist. fuck the peasants. of course the guy in the castle shouldn't have to pay more.
and somehow we have less tax exemptions and deductions than they did in the 50s? yes, the rates never translate to that actual level of taxation but they were higher. there are more tricks today. we can do better but not if we disengage which is what you want and will cause with your divisive "blame the people different than you" bs.

2024-08-29 13:24:46

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it fails so hard they never consider getting rid of it. go ahead and run on getting rid of Medicare.
it's expensive. our private system is more expensive. we could pay less by taxing the rich more. like we did in the 50s that conservatives love so much.

2024-08-29 12:56:01

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we get right-wing authoritarians when too many people feel economically left behind and there is nobody seriously offering government fixes for that. you can't seriously argue the Dems are left when we're the only advanced nation without universal health care. and economies with less government involvement (which despite conservative protest we clearly are compared to most other advanced nations) don't become free market, they become corporate oligarchies.

2024-08-27 19:56:24

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I posted and talked about that. funny thing is the college admins didn't apply the same strictness about what's tolerated to pro palestine voices and got strung up by conservatives in congress for endangering jewish students. total hypocrisy on both sides.
in the hearing, they walked the correct line imo which was say anything till it becomes harassment. no blocking people, screaming in faces or graffiti on dorms etc. you can't incite mistreatment against fellow students.

2024-08-27 19:38:36

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I am not advocating censorship. I am advocating civility. it's not an exact parallel but why do we have norms of civility IRL? why don't we say if you want to speak in public anywhere, you should expect to be screamed over and called horrible names etc? because it would lead to less discourse. same thing here. one might say letting that happen IRL would lead to violence, but that's the fault of the responder, not the screamer. yet we try to deter the harassment.

2024-08-27 17:25:00

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please see my other reply. reasonable people can tell the difference between two guys discussing politics at a bar and a third screaming slurs and threats at them. the third guy might get so bad, the two have to move. on the fedi, without server blocks, the third guy can change ID and follow them anywhere. he can tell all his friends to join in. that's not the discourse we want.
and I agree some lefties don't want people to ever disagree. I oppose that too. but it's different.

2024-08-27 16:57:38

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no.
public squares are a democracy technology. they have never required absolute free speech. absolute free speech actually allows them to be made ineffective by bad actors. as someone who supports killing communists, wants monarchy and opposes the mixing of cultures, my determination is that you want to destroy the usefulness of what we are building here.
a universal space w/o server blocks will allow anons to endlessly respawn and make the space inhospital to most.

2024-08-27 12:52:48

Good people can do harm only because they are misinformed, therefore everybody should be concerned about not misleading others. Like voting and unlike the days when mass media dominated, our participation now in social media gives us great collective power and responsibility to decide what information and ideas spread.
Anybody should be able to reach out to anybody about what gets posted anywhere, but nobody should feel threatened. We need clarity on this outreach.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/zuckerberg-white-house-pressured-facebook-covid-19-content-113174781

2024-07-07 18:50:37

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I understand the claim being that the election was stolen. That's a huge claim. If that's not your claim, I guess we're done.
With millions of votes cast, everything was not 100% secure. There was fraud. No human endeavor has ever had that many people participate with zero fuckery or mistakes. Anybody who is saying it was perfect is an idiot or liar, but obviously saying that now because of the number of people saying it was stolen and more broken than ever now.

2024-07-07 13:32:28

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when the Dems made the grand RussiaGate conspiracy claim and we ended up with some Facebook ads and a meeting or two, we agreed that was pathetic, right? we didn't say anything at all proves they were correct.
I'm sorry but that's how I see these stolen election discussions. you guys make huge claims and it ends up in these tiny examples. instances that aren't actually what you claimed you had a ton of proof of and no coordination.
please just use the same skepticism

2024-07-07 01:21:03

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I spent a stupid amount of time following up on these claims. all bs. always another claim. nobody admits they were wrong. name one county.

2024-07-07 01:06:22

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nobody seems to dispute that she was doing what she claimed. the ballots were sent to the home of a MAGA state rep,

2024-07-07 00:45:31

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did you read the whole article?

2024-07-06 21:15:04

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538, who posted that graphic, does not. Court challenges do not. The speaker of the house who supported Trump is not looking into it. You were lied to about that by Trump. He doesn't have the evidence. He hasn't spent all his time and money trying to prove it.
Both sides lie but we're fucked if each side is going to believe their own bullshit while demanding the other side doesn't. It's going to tear this country apart.
Trump just said he didn't fuck Stormy during the debate.

2024-07-06 20:11:29

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you still think Trump won in 2020 right?

2024-07-06 02:05:25

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the guy whose post included calling somebody else dumb, called me dumb for saying he might have something to learn from him. shocking.

2024-07-06 01:50:59

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maybe you have more to learn from him.

2024-07-05 22:29:07

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we are too small for them to care about stealing our users. they might now have people from here spending most of their time there now (and never come back) but that couldn't be the goal. just a horrible side effect. pretending to be pursuing the open path might serve some other purpose tho. regulators, cool factor, IDK. they are making forward progress but it seems so slow and I still can't get my head around how full federation could ever make business sense for them.

2024-07-03 21:47:30

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I have hopes. I doubt that if they really wanted to solve this, they couldn't (to the degree it would hurt their business of course). "ideally" makes me think they think it might not happen. that's a change afaik.
(yes, I haven't gotten to it yet. responded to your quote)

2024-07-03 19:14:57

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"Ideally, you should be able to follow accounts from the fediverse in Threads..." WTF. If you can't do this, it's a roach motel. Lock-in remains. Big accounts will know they can't ever leave and have a large audience. All positive feelings about them joining was built on this, that they were bringing a huge audience to us.
What's hard about it? I doubt it's technical. Meta just knows it means they'd be losing out on exposing people to algos and ads and data mining them.

2024-07-01 18:27:17

Waiting to hear libertarians weigh in on this presidential #immunity ruling. Where's the Mises caucus? They've gotta be pissed, right? Right? They must be too busy loading their guns to storm #SCOTUS I assume.

2024-07-01 17:35:36

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quotes are widely considered a vector of abuse and thus not yet available on mastodon. limiting replies is similarly misguided imo. focus on getting better re abuse instead of tech solutions when possible.
people have diff visions for the fedi, but I want it to be part of everything we do on the web. I want every item to be able to go viral via boosts. an "attention democracy" vision. but then I'd also want the (ranked) criticism to go viral with the "misinfo".

2024-07-01 15:08:29

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totally agree. reply limiting shouldn't exist, replies should be ranked ala reddit and the norm should be no admin blocks unless the person is being abusive.

2024-07-01 15:08:29

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totally agree. reply limiting shouldn't exist, replies should be ranked ala reddit and the norm should be no admin blocks unless the person is being abusive.

2024-06-30 18:24:16

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that's the big question. companies have their own websites and email servers. they've seen how these companies can change hands. or change the rules to control their followers' access to their work. everybody is figuring out that the profit incentive means they will always squeeze us further if they can get away with it.

2024-06-30 18:12:04

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so much will open up when/if the fedi garners the largest audience and the value of social media being decentralized becomes widely acknowledged.

2024-06-28 19:18:00

Just got/saw a FAVORITE here on a reply to a #threads user from here. Didn't know that was possible yet. #SocialWeb

2024-06-28 15:50:11

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I get that but they are making progress and are huge with legal teams etc. hard to read at this point. if I had a better sense of the business case for doing so, I'd feel more sure I knew where this was going.

2024-06-28 15:43:41

Hey, now you can ask people who federate but link to accounts that don't, to ask those accounts to also federate. Appropriate and genius cause who else could make the case better, or rude? #SocialWeb

2024-06-28 13:52:44

Replace Biden with #Bernie2024.

2024-06-27 21:23:11

Fedi servers blocked by #threads
https://www.threads.net/moderated_servers

2024-06-24 23:20:30

#Assange might go free. Fantastic news but I can't believe it just yet.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/24/nx-s1-5017953/julian-assange-plea-deal

2024-06-19 03:29:06

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people want different things out of the fedi.

2024-06-16 14:07:48

If my kid was killed at #SandyHook, I would force #AlexJones to dig up my child's grave at gun point. All the while recording and live broadcasting it and promising him that if there is no body, I'd kill myself right there. But if there was, he'd be joining my baby in that hole. #HappyFathersDay

2024-06-14 03:28:41

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boosts are the most important function here imo but some do it too much. IDK

2024-06-06 00:06:59

Never forget that we're dangerous. The potential of the fedi to upend the power of the already wealthy and powerful to control what the public knows, thinks about and considers as solutions to its problems is revolutionary. To no longer have that mediated by corporations, advertisers and a few people that governments can pressure is a serious threat to them. Publishing via the open web was huge, but so much great stuff never got seen. They are fighting the #AttentionDemocracy of the #SocialWeb.

2024-06-05 19:41:33

Still want to replace liberal.city with a server name and network of users that could be much bigger and stand for a fedi culture that wants everyone here, as long as they don't harass people. Unpopular opinions and facts not currently widely accepted welcome. Not otherwise branded with any specific ideology or community. Anybody else interested? #SocialWeb

2024-06-04 01:52:03

Who did/do you follow from #xitter via https://bird.makeup that is now also on #threads and enabling federation, such that you can switch your following method? Not sure I can point to anyone that fits this pattern for me :( #SocialWeb

2024-06-03 16:17:00

right now I love #ActivityPub. but something like a Personal Data Server that I can keep at home or pay somebody to manage, move whenever I want and connect to any new service that somebody develops, seems like the inevitable way forward. a blob with all my stuff as safe as I am willing pay for, where these companies are competing to be the most trustworthy and reliable. instead of having it spread out everywhere or with Google or Apple. and them pushing me to use their services. #SocialWeb

2024-05-29 17:07:13

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but you could have helped grow #ActivityPub instead. it was proven. make an alternative but compatible version of #Mastodon more similar to Twitter with ads if you wanted. I don't get it.

2024-05-24 23:40:08

if you're here but also on #threads, is there a reason you didn't turn on federation? otherwise I might ask you to do so over there. thanks.

2024-05-23 20:43:29

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so that the company can increase profits and stock value makes sense. otherwise inflated CEO incomes are supposed to be costly for business. unless there's a total disconnect between company ownership and managing the business well.

2024-05-23 20:29:56

what is a CEO doing that makes them worth paying millions of dollars per year? don't they usually have lots of other people also paid very well helping them make every decision?

2024-05-23 14:39:47

Altman's best defense is probably that this was inevitable because we live in a simulation. #her

2024-05-22 21:41:15

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I think you meant AT protocol. apparently it's not decentralized. I just don't trust them. they seem so desperate to win. more about the company than the public interest. they're not pulling in the opposite direction but maybe 45° off.

2024-05-15 18:44:30

People have email addresses like me@mydomain.com while also having a website at mydomain.com. What's preventing folks from also having a #SocialWeb account using me@mydomain.com? Would it just be confusing? Then there's all the different fedi services.

2024-05-10 02:51:05

It feels so totally random who on #threads chooses to turn on fedi sharing and who doesn't. #SocialWeb

2024-05-07 15:31:33

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https://youtu.be/2kfIFDX9kE4?si=xWOOJ0luHp2aXwk_

2024-05-07 15:15:14

I've been browsing the "For You" algo on #threads to try to find people to ask to turn on #fediverse sharing, and it's a nightmare. I don't know if they are bots or real people, but they post the dumbest shit. I don't follow anyone there so the algo probably has no idea what to give me. Perhaps nicer than #xitter but I'm not going to check.

2024-05-05 23:59:23

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not that big of an issue. my bigger problem is people just constantly boosting (their stuff and others) all the time. I'll turn off boosting for them sometimes. but boosting (other people's stuff) more here than other places is warranted imo until the fedi is more popular.

2024-05-05 23:49:34

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I wish people wouldn't do this. we're not supposed to see every post. it's a river. if it's awesome, you will see it boosted by somebody else. trust the universe. when you boost your own post, that means your follower will see that instead of something by somebody else they are following, in the limited time they are here. so then we could just have everybody boosting their own stuff constantly. that would suck. same problem as algos, but by your followers instead of the site owner.

2024-05-05 16:36:55

Give me some of your favorite accounts we are now able to follow on #BlueSky. please...

2024-05-05 15:33:16

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we need a way to all share what we saw, how we responded and why. as much transparency as possible without violating other values. better than blocklists imo.
noauthority.social is basically the same people that were on noagendasocial.com (my first server), brought together as fans of the No Agenda podcast, managed by eriner. I don't think it's a server worth blocking cause they aren't a hub for intentional harassers, but they are very edgelord and don't want to police anyone.

2024-05-04 16:38:43

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unless they know someone here, without seeing our responses and boosts, they aren't getting any benefit from it. you'd think they'd do it just to try it out tho since it's so easy. people are afraid of shit they don't understand.

2024-05-03 02:56:05

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I think Mastodon wants to do it better, to make it harder to use for harassment. I think we have better moderation so that this isn't really necessary, but I appreciate the effort.
I'd like it to work more like a normal boost but where you also see the comment from the booster. I think that's the spirit behind the thing, not to create another thread that's essentially separate from the original post. That's what a normal QT did.

2024-05-02 18:34:45

I feel like the decentralization of media is happening but it's so fucking slow and confused. The public interest perspective is like the last reason anybody considers. Routing around government, corporate and billionaire control over what we think and pay attention to is why this all really matters. #LiberalValues #AttentionDemocracy

2024-05-02 17:45:59

We can now connect to #BlueSky accounts from here, but both sides need to enable it.
We're supposed to be opt-out folks, but too many "safety" advocates are stopping the #SocialWeb from ever becoming ubiquitous. Imagine being so scared of "bad" speech that you demand users and server admins add each other's domain to their settings before they could communicate or even browse to those sites. We'd all still be on AOL.
Thank you [@snarfed.org](https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://snarfed.org/).
https://fed.brid.gy/docs

2024-05-02 17:34:38

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do you know how we follow bluesky accounts here?

2024-04-27 23:42:38

If you're worried about the direction of #Mastodon, fork it and do it better. I am not concerned but I'd love to see more competition that's compatible. Otherwise, give them money.

2024-04-27 01:06:09

If every article, podcast episode and video was natively an #ActivityPub post, we'd need quote posts but want them to operate differently. They should count as a boost but with a clear indication that the person you are following also wants you to see their comment. How should that look? Maybe they wouldn't themselves be boostable... #SocialWeb

2024-04-24 20:13:03

Do #threads users see anything when we follow them here? I know they see likes, right?

2024-04-23 19:03:18

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yea IDK. I doubted they'd even do what they have so far. we just keep plugging along. on the whole, they've helped more than they hurt us imo.

2024-04-23 18:47:32

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agreed, so far. it's the least evil reason I can come up with for them federating. they feel govts demanding they be more open, but also think that their embrace might make it impossible for their big corporate competitors not to. I can't see how we're big enough to care about destroying. first mover advantage basically.

2024-04-23 18:39:06

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I assume that's what #threads wants to be.

2024-04-04 16:55:01

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FYI [@RepCasten](https://mastodon.social/@RepCasten) [@SeanCasten](https://mastodon.social/@SeanCasten)

2024-04-04 16:52:58

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imo the magic here is that we can make everything natively able to go viral. there aren't separate episodes, articles and videos we link to from here, but the item itself is an #ActivityPub post. creators stay in control. that's our killer app and how we sell creators on the #SocialWeb.

2024-04-03 23:28:44

This is why we will win (if #threads ever fully federates). Over time, people will recognize that algos and ads serve the interests of the platform owners (and maybe the top .0001% of most popular accounts) over those of the users. Your time on social media can be spent seeing stuff from the people you follow (and what they boost), or what the platform owner decides you should see. What you want is not what they want. Given the choice, people will avoid ads and algos.
https://mstdn.social/@renwillis/112209102930667255

2024-04-03 13:51:54

Can #podcasting be made to work with #ActivityPub as well as #RSS? Then podcatchers could work like a #Mastodon client, allowing us to interact directly via comments, favorites and spreading around the best episodes via boosts. #podcasts
update: it exists but no podcatcher fully supports it yet.
https://cosocial.ca/@evan/112106150061260659

2024-03-21 00:36:28

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am I right that nostr does have these different services and has a similar model?

2024-03-21 00:30:48

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they are supposedly decentralized now but I haven't seen other servers (but I haven't looked hard).

2024-03-20 22:07:30

Today is the first day I thought that the #nostr #bluesky model might be a better way to build a decentralized social network. Because seemingly smart and honest people told me those protocols make using one profile for lots of different services much simpler and automatic than #ActivityPub. I still have serious questions re how they seem more likely to remain more centralized via relays and unlikely to do moderation well enough, but we haven't really solved those here yet either. #fediforum