Nostr notes by hex

There is also a racist approach to African and Middle Eastern ...

2026-09-24T04:27:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…rxad
_________________________

There is also a racist approach to African and Middle Eastern politics that paints everything as "ethnic conflict" with the implications that Europe "has evolved past that." But European borders are also just imaginary lines drawn randomly through diverse areas. Europe is far more ethnically diverse than those lines let on, and this still bleeds through all the time. European antisemitism and discrimination against Roma people is a continued manifestation of this.

The rise of the far right in Europe is just one more example of how *nations never solved this problem* and continue to fail to solve it. The entire concept of nations will continue to cause conflict everywhere. They are a new idea, and ultimately a really bad one. The last two centuries of oppression and genocide should be enough, but here we are still trying for some reason.

This racist lens tries to make us believe conflicts like these are a different problem, but it's all the same problem. The rise of AfD in Germany and Abiy's genocide in Tigray are connected at the root of what a nation is as a sociopolitical entity. There are people who want to make this conflict alien, but it couldn't be more familiar to anyone paying attention.

RE: https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/117320888712641893 ...

2026-09-24T04:12:18Z

RE: https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/117320888712641893

There's a bit of context behind this that's worth being aware of, and I'll do my best to explain it second (or third) hand. Abiy Ahmed has been the prime minister of Ethiopia since 2019. He was quite popular initially, but has held on to power for quite a while and has been called out for authoritarian tendencies.

His party, the Prosperity Party, is a liberal party that has privatized parts of the economy and is trying to dismantle ethnic federalism. This type of "modernization" is obviously supported by neoliberal forces around the world, especially since he took over from the ethno nationalist ML TPLF.

The TPLF was also authoritarian, brutal, and anti-democratic, as one would expect from an ML organization. Part of Abiy's popularity came from opposition to the TPLF. But more recently, but his forces also carried out genocide in Tigray during that war in 2022 (after his Nobel Peace Prize).

Part of the opposition to his modernization is that ending ethnic federalism would weaken the power of older ethnic structures. This could be seen as similar in some ways to conflicts across Europe in from 1848 through to the early 1900's and in the Balkans after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The connection between ethnicity and nationality has never really stopped causing problems. Liberalism is usually connected to the domination of one ethnic group into a singular national identity. This flows from the French Revolution, through the Russian revolution, and into both the Ethnic ML exported by Communist Russia as part of their attempts to weaken European capitalism and (via both American Colonial Nationalism and the French Revolution) into the Neoliberalism promoted by the US and European powers as a counter.

Ethiopia is a multiethnic country. Unfortunately the logic of the state (liberal or communist) tends to destroy these ethnic identities through a combination of ethnic cleansing, appropriation, and (often forced) integration.

Some of the conflict here is coming out of the tension between a national identity and ethnic identity, especially in relation to Tigray and Amhara, as well as the continued pressure of economic liberalization, and centralization vs federalization.

The point is that it's actually quite a bit more complicated than it may be presented as, especially outside of the religion. European interests may align with Abiy, and present him as a "modernizing force." Addis is one of the centers of the African Union. Meanwhile, other countries have their own interests in stoking this conflict. China, Turkey, the UAE, and Iran all sell drones to the Federal government. Eretria has an interest in creating a buffer zone to keep Ethiopia from seizing a port city from them. Sudan is involved, and I don't have the local political depth to know why.

Various groups will try to point to one group or another as the "good guy/bad guy" but it's definitely not that simple. It's just kind of tragic for everyone. I hope Ethiopian people find peace and freedom.

My hope is that Ethiopia will develop something like Democratic Confederalism that resolves these conflicts and tensions without wiping out the unique identities of the peoples who make up Ethiopia.

quoting
note1nme…yke8

War breaks out in Ethiopia.

Tigrayan forces attack federal government positions on two fronts & capture the region's airports. There have been minor skirmishes here and there, but this is the most serious outbreak of fighting since the 2022 Pretoria ceasefire ended the Tigray war.

Tragically, shuttle diplomacy efforts by the international community have failed. Ethiopia is on the brink of being plunged back into all out civil war.

It's a disaster.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/23/ethiopian-airlines-suspends-flights-to-three-northern-tigray-airports

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/116890719090826544 Maybe ...

2026-07-09T16:45:15Z

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/116890719090826544

Maybe it's time to build society in a way that doesn't require you use giant, people crushing, mobile surveillance units that require legal documentation to operate, every time you want to go get milk.

quoting
note1jz8…ajf6

Feels like all of us (even people w/out a car) need to pay way more attention to the WTAF new rules affecting EU and US folk, requiring all new cars to include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face.

"Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert," reads a recent post from Allaboutcookies.org.

https://allaboutcookies.org/eu-mandatory-distracted-driver-system

First spotted this story in the Risky Business newsletter yesterday and have been reading as much as I can about it ever since. https://risky.biz/RBNEWS587/

Risky's Catalin Cimpanu (npub1s69…rmen) writes the new regulation has entered into effect in the EU on Monday and will enter into effect next year in the US. In the EU, the new camera requirement is part of the block's second General Safety Regulation (GSR2), a broader swath of new safety rules introduced for the auto industry and designed to improve road safety.

https://www.inkl.com/news/new-eu-car-safety-rules-take-effect-7-july-how-your-car-could-monitor-you

https://www.gadgetreview.com/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-in-new-cars-by-2027

This is some next level Orwellian shit. My dreams of one day replacing one of our cars with an electric vehicle just got much darker.

#NoKings is great. I know there's plenty of room for ...

2026-03-29T11:38:43Z

#NoKings is great. I know there's plenty of room for criticism, but it does present a really good opportunity to network with other people who want to do something.

That said, if your whole plan is "I'm gonna hold a sign until something changes" you're in for some really bad news.

Protesting is symbolic. You are begging people in power to (please, please, please) change things. It literally does not matter how many of you there are, they do no actually have to care. The only way to make them care is to fuck with the money.

America, like all dictatorships, runs on money. Nothing is going to change unless you interrupt the money.

While Trump is doing a pretty good job of that himself (especially with the current war), things will have to get a *lot* worse before they get better unless you are *doing something.*

#BlackOutTheSystem is one group that's trying to do something (https://www.blackoutthesystem.com/).

There are 3 things that are far more important than (almost) any protest, 3 things that force change, 3 types of direct action to that are the types of escalation we need *right now.*

#Boycott
#GeneralStrike
#TaxStrike

If your escalation path is just "let's go walk around more with signs" then it's not enough. They absolutely must include at least one, if not more, of these things...