Waymarks

[poliphilo]

We've cancelled our landline as from today. I don't think I've ever lived without a landline before (or perhaps I did for a while as a student in Cambridge) Anyway it feels like a significant waymark. The world is changing and here I am changing with it...

LJ sent me a virtual gift a few days back to remind me I'd been using the service for 18 years.

I have accounts at LJ and DW. I acquired the DW account during the panic over the servers moving to Russia. I did it not because I mistrust the Russians but because there were people I wanted to stay connected with. Now there's another panic, this time over the possibility that Russia is about to uncouple itself from the World Wide Web. Real news? Fake news? Who knows any longer? Anyway, I'm not dropping LJ unless it's forced to drop me. Russia retreating behind a digital iron curtain would be sad.

The western media, governments, corporations all want us to hate on Russia. I hate the war, I hate the war fever (which is being stoked to keep us angry and frightened now Covid 19 is no longer living up to potential) but I love Russia.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I have Russian acquaintances who base themselves, perhaps ironically, perhaps not, on DW

[poliphilo]

I've got the BBC's old motto running through my head, "Let nation speak peace unto nation."

[cmcmck]

Isaiah!

[poliphilo]

As I should have known being a Biblical scholar and all that....

[shewhomust]

I delayed leaving LJ for very similar reasons - but I think the time has now come, for me ...

[poliphilo]

I mean to maintain a presence on both platforms for as long as I can.

[mallorys_camera]

I love Russia, too.

And I must say, it's so fascinating to read the parallel conversations that evolve from the same words posted respectively on LJ and DW. 😀

[poliphilo]

I hadn't thought to compare and contrast. I must do so.

[qatsi]

I abandoned LJ when it forced users to agree to T&Cs governed by the law of Russia; given the generic "hostile environment" on LGBT issues I wasn't prepared to accept that. It's a shame; DW is quite a sterile platform in comparison, though perhaps because it's the 2020s and we've all moved on.

I'm more ambivalent about the "cancel culture" that has sprung up. I'm not against cancelling individuals (from Russia or elsewhere) who are supportive of the Russian action; but there's something rotten in the state that makes that easier than cancelling all the petro-dollars we continue to pour in to the country's war coffers.

[poliphilo]

When I took up blogging in 2004 it was a cutting edge thing to do- and LJ was buzzing with activity- but- as you say- it's now the 2020s and it has become quaintly old-fashioned.