Autocratic city-states.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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Okay. I think I disagree because autocrats let others work. It would be rule of the workers I think because those who build and maintain the instances and communities are in charge of maintaining them while the other "workers" who produce the content for everyones benefit are not in charge of the rules but are free to access the content at any time. I think as a word I would probably use socialist-syndicalism.
Some instances let others work as mods, or even with some admin privileges. However, at the end of the day, each instance is beholden to the head admin unless they were set up differently. The only instance I can think of with an organizational structure beyond autocracy is beehaw.
You're also trying to insert economic descriptions to a political system without economics.
interesting! Thanks for pointing that out. I did not mean to insert anything.
My point was that the mutual benefit imo is kinda economic, no? Making content is a job, content is a commodity. Just because no money flows does not mean there is no economy, or?
Well, the admin has to work, the moderators have to work. Thats a fact. i know that because i am both. its a lot of work if you want to do it right. yes, both make rules, hence hierarchy.
Part of the reason why I'm arguing against economic terms is because it doesn't really give context into the power dynamics in how an instance is run. At the core of most instances on Lemmy, a head admin dictates the rules of their instance and it is take it or leave it for everyone else that wants to participate.
Think of it like this, if the head admin wanted to make a decision against all other admins and mods, what would happen? Likely, which has happened previously to other instances on Lemmy, the head admin wins out and everyone else either conforms or has to leave. Labor doesn't become ownership.
Unless an instance has a corporate structure which distributes power, it is an autocracy by definition.
The big difference here is freedom of association. In the real world, your life depends on being accepted into that group or migrating to another place while having huge losses and problems due to it later on.
I'm not sure i agree because an admin can also be protested against and they can share ownership (i did that as well). Its not as black and white imo.
In the real world, your life depends on being accepted into that group or migrating to another place while having huge losses and problems due to it later on.
Just because the punishment isn't as strong doesn't mean that the system functions differently. You are also going to run into issues where established communities may have issues moving.
I'm not sure i agree because an admin can also be protested against and they can share ownership
But that isn't baked into Lemmy. That is a decision you made outside of Lemmy. Even then, is there a case where your instance could run without you? If not, you are still acting as an enlightened dictator.
I would say a... federation? ;)
A federation of absolute dictatorships. Some are more enlightened than others but if an instance bans you there is no independent appeal process.
Which I would argue matters less when it's so easy to move to a different "country" and still participate in everything with little meaningful difference.
Exactly.
Yes of course. In the broadest sense. Thanks for pointing it out though. :)
I am more interested in which aspects of the broader system resemble which systems we know of.
For example, lemmy has countless instances, some are part of the fedipact, others arent, others again are part of fediseer, joinlemmy.org, etc.
Well, federations are a broad political system ranging from say, Switzerland (or even Germany) to much larger collections like the USA, the Federation of Russia, or the EU itself (which Germany is also part of). It can also be considered in variety of forms, say the UK is not officially a federation (not that I'm aware of at least) but it's also a collection of various and at time very diverging populations and countries/states/regions, not all of them subject of to the exact same exact laws.
say the UK is not officially a federation (not that I’m aware of at least) but it’s also a collection of various and at time very diverging populations and countries/states/regions
Sorry for being that kind of nerd but I have to somehow, the UK is a unitary state, pretty much the opposite of a federation. Meaning regional powers are granted by the central government not inherited from its component parts.
Don't apologize for correcting my mistakes. I was not sure about that, and was indeed wrong. Thx for pointing it out :)
thats a pretty awesome explanation. Thanks. :)
You're welcome ;)
A decentralised conglomerate of independent city states, which have internally variable governmental systems
Pretty convincing. Thanks for answering. The city states' infrastructure is built and maintainer by a small faction who also controls the police (by default, not unchangeably so).
The larger group is kinda syndicalist in nature, no? Because members build things like the fediseer and adoption is bottom up, not top down.
The situation of international anarchy in which individual states exist. Except there's nobody dying in wars on Lemmy. And not even anyone dying indirectly yet, as far as I can tell, although any time you let people talk to each other there's a continual risk of it happening.
The kid who blew up a fertility clinic (and himself) in Palm Springs was a moderator of !antinatalism@lemmy.world, for what that's worth. Not a war, and the only fatality ended up being himself, but definitely an act of violence with an intent to kill that was connected to a specific community on this platform.
Oh really? I didn't know that. Okay, never mind. But, like I said, it was inevitable.
Yep, giving it a quick look, that definitely does look like the account of a deeply miserable person.
Confederation of Independent Chiefdom States
Formally, it's the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Mon Mothma is the Alliance's Chancellor, which is a sort of association of rebel cells spread across the galaxy. So she's sort of elected by the leadership of each rebel cell.
Then on the starship side, it basically seems like anyone with a ship gets promoted to general and promised back pay once the Republic is restored. It's sort of a gamble, but it beats smuggling spice and contraband.
its kinda awesome and exactly what I expected from lemmy folks! Thank you very much.
I don't think you can apply that here as each Lemmy instance is its own independent system with no reliability on others Lemmy systems.
An admin of LW has no bearing on the operation of ml and any disagreement turns in one side sticking their fingers in their ears saying "I don't hear you"
I declare myself Huey Tlatoani. I expect tribute from y'all by the end of the day.
Please link a source to your title's explanation so we can address you accordingly. :D
Aztec Emperor. Tlatoani translates to "he who speaks" when you add Huey/Hueyi it means "grand/great".
I covet the turquoise diadem and a cloak of quetzal feathers.
Claims to be Emperor, doesn't have the turquoise diadem? Pff.
You try finding a qualified lapidarist in 2025. You can't Fiver that. Nobody wants to work anymore. I'm good for the cacao beans needed to pay the bill.
Love it! I swear my fealty to you then. Have a nice day oh grand Mister Neon!