Mutantis Quits Facebook/Instagram

I have deleted the Mutantis facebook & Instagram accounts, as well as my own personal accounts, and I urge everyone else to do the same. Amazon.com accounts as well, and I will no longer be purchasing anything on Amazon for any reason. I am also about 75% of the way from switching away from all Google platforms and services (and have a plan to get to 100% shortly).

If you watched Donald Trump’s inauguration, or even looked at pictures of it, you surely noticed that along with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg and Jeff Bezos stood directly behind him, sending a very clear message even to the most out-of-touch viewers: the richest people in the U.S.A. support the Trump regime and everything it stands for.

If you’ve paid a bit more attention, you’ve noticed that Meta (the parent company of facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp) immediately eliminated their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed trans people on these platforms and watched them be throttled, demonetized, shadowbanned, or suspended for speaking out against hate speech, while site admins take no action against transphobic hate speech or brigade groups that organize targeted harassment campaigns. You’ve probably also noticed that the algorithms on these platforms strongly push right-wing content.

However, there is something much worse about these companies that even very attentive users may not be aware of.

D.O.G.E., Yarvin, and the Neo-Reactionaries

The owners and leaders of all of these companies, along with vice president JD Vance, are all ardent supports of authoritarian/neo-reactionary “philosopher” Curtis Yarvin. In his essay titled “The Butterfly Revolution“, Yarvin lays out a plan for dismantling the U.S. federal government and replacing it with an authoritarian single-branch government. The end goal of this authoritarianism is to create (and then cede power to) autonomous corporate-governed city-states. The plan laid out in his essay matches nearly perfectly with the role and actions of Elon Musk in the Trump regime, and these parallels have been extensively documented on the Nerd Reich.*

Simply put, the billionaire oligarchs that own the most popular media (and social media) platforms are literally orchestrating the end of U.S. democracy. Continuing to use these platforms directly enriches these people, and keeps us trapped in communication infrastructure that is subject to their control, manipulation, and censorship.

I have no illusions that simply getting ourselves off of these platforms will be enough to stop them, but that is beside the point. In order to mount an effective resistance, we must be willing to make permanent changes to how we live, what businesses we support, and how we communicate and build community. It is absolutely paramount to build alternative online platforms that are more resilient against control/censorship and give as little money as possible to the oligarchs destroying our democracy.

I understand it’s impossible to use the internet at all without giving at least some money to a company like Amazon (whose Amazon Web Services servers host a majority of data on the internet). That does not mean it’s not worthwhile to reduce their revenue streams by using alternative products and platforms! The more of us who adopt these sorts of changes, the more momentum we will build for our resistance, and the less vulnerable we will become. It’s impossible to develop a critical mass overnight, so even if these changes feel insignificant to you as an individual, they are still important and necessary!

Handy Non-Oligarch Alternatives

Google Search -> Qwant
Google Maps -> MapQuest (on computer), Magic Earth (mobile)
Google Mail -> TutaMail
Google Drive -> Shadow Drive
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Threads -> BlueSky, Mastodon, DreamWidth, Friendica
Amazon -> shop local or buy direct from manufacturers (ideally paying in cash!)

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*Some examples of Trump/Musk enacting Yarvin’s ideas: Yarvin talks about Trump being ineffective on his own, so the U.S. government needs a CEO to enact his butterfly revolution. Enter Elon Musk! Yarvin also uses the acronym “RAGE”–Retire All Government Employees, which Musk’s DOGE is clearly enacting with mass and unending layoffs of federal employees. Another pillar of Yarvin’s plan is to enact the Unitary Executive theory, wherein the Executive branch openly defies the authority of the Executive and Judiciary branches, on the basis that these branches have no ability to actually enforce any laws. Trump’s flurry of executive orders on funding and budgets contradict Congress’s “power of the purse”, and his defiance of judicial rulings is setting up a full-blown constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court rules against him.