Europe is not inevitable.

That was the past. Today, no other world power agrees, or pretends to agree. Russia, China, and the US, are all opposed to European ideals. Even inside Europe, a growing number of citizens support far-right parties that are more sympathetic to Europe’s adversaries than to Europe itself.

Europe is a minority opinion in the world. Without defenders, it is going to slowly transform into something else. Look at the USA for a concrete example of what happens to democracy without defenders.

How can we defend democracy? What real actions are possible?

The most obvious step is to stop supporting democracy’s enemies.

First and foremost, we are talking about billionaires. Why? Not all billionaires are hostile to democracy.

The class of billionaire, or the structural possibility of billionaires, is the problem, regardless of what opinions any one of them might have.

Billionaires do not need civilisation. There is nothing that civilisation provides that they cannot provide themselves. They send their children to private schools, they use private hospitals, they maintain private security forces. They do not even need roads because they can use helicopters. The only thing they get from civilisation which they cannot provide themselves are laws, regulations, and fines.

Fighting Democracy is Profitable

If a billionaire is facing a new law that is going to cost him 200 million euros in profit, he has 200 million to spend to fight that law. He is going to lose the money one way or another. The only question is whether he can get it back next year. In other words, there comes a point in the accumulation of wealth, at which it becomes self-preserving. It defends itself because it has nothing better to do, and it if does not defend itself, it is replaced by wealth that does. The idea that so much wealth should be accumulated that it threatens the well-being of citizens is a problem. When a toxic bank becomes “too big to fail,” that is a problem. These are signs that a civilisation is coming to the end of its life-cycle.

Fascism is the Fashion

Billionaires, as a class, are attracted to fascism. They see it as a cure for democracies that beleaguer them. There are just a few officials that a billionaire need negotiate with. In a democracy, one must negotiate with parliaments.

Fascists are attracted to billionaires because billionaires are a source for easy money. The reason is that the laws that billionaires want changed largely have nothing to do with fascism.

This is not a theoretical relationship. Remember, the NSDAP was originally a workers’ party. In 1933, Hitler switched allegiance to industrialists, promising to crush the unions. In modern times, the AfD has formed an alliance with the richest man in the world, a man who personally has dismantled large parts of the US government.

Billionaire Propaganda Platforms

The defense of democracy begins with withdrawing support from billionaires. Most importantly, do not support their propaganda platforms.

It is not the purpose of billionaire social media platforms to make ordinary people believe that billionaires are hard-working people who bring economic opportunity where none existed. The purpose has nothing to do with even the political agenda of billionaires. The purpose is to make more billions. Because this money comes from advertising, and because advertising is dependent on attention, billionaire-controlled social media promotes outrage. Whether the source of outrage is true is not as important as the quality of the outrage. Accordingly, Twitter has fired much of its moderation staff and Meta has stopped fact-checking.

This has a side-effect that billionaires do not find problematic: the polarisation of civil society. For example, reports in September 2024 of foreigners eating pets served to promote the idea that politicians who do not hate foreigners must be voted out of office. This elicited an immediate response. The claims were investigated and debunked. There were discussions and debates. Every minute discussing such claims is a minute not spent discussing real problems. In other words, it is possible to create so much distraction that democracy cannot function properly. Democracy cannot function without debate, and if most of the debate bandwidth is taken up by false or irrelevant information, then relevant information cannot be properly discussed. Stupid and or inconsistent decisions get made. This increases the frustration that people have with democracy — to the point that they begin considering alternatives. Again, this is not hypothetical. It has already happened in the US.

No Way Home

Writing under the influence of alcohol is dangerous.

Posts exceeding 0.3 per billionaire adulation content (BAC) may lead to the loss of democracy.

Leipzig Calling

During WWII, the BBC ran a program called “London Calling Europe.” This program provided information that was not available in occupied countries. It provided Europeans moral support and encouraged them to resist.

What You Can Do

Withdraw your support from billionaire social media platforms.

• Platforms get legitimacy by having non crazy members. Unsubscribe. Or at least side-post (see below)
• Some rage-bait is fabricated simply because there is a financial incentive to post rage-bait. Fewer members means less advertising dollars, meaning fewer dollars incentivising rage-bait.
• Fewer members means less reach. Crazy or conspiratorial posts are ignored by mainstream media when they are made on platforms with relatively few members.

Other easy steps to take:

• Talk to your friends about the small window of opportunity we have.
  There are things we can talk about in 2025 that shall be forbidden in 2030. US universities have already been silenced; that is just Year One.
• Side-post.
  For every post you make on Facebook or X-twitter, post the same content in the Fediverse. This fixes the perception that the Fediverse isn’t as lively.
• Order flyers and posters from the Activersity at no charge.
  Distribute them or hang them up where you think they’ll be most effective
• Organise an install-fest (if you want, with our support)
  Show friends and family how to install free social media clients
• Promote and support billionaire boycotts
• If you cannot operate on your own, join an organisation and follow their instructions

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