I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante It *is* a pretty important term in political science. Maybe we shouldn't just stop using every word those dumbwits are using? We will run out of words at some point.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante "Digital independence" is a better term(as are several others already mentioned). But when I read "digital sovereignty", I tend to think of it as individuals, organizations, or countries technologically "going their own way" rather than be beholden to someone else.
ditching Microsoft for Linux, and Linux distributions ditching Red Hat software(systemd, GNOME) come to mind as examples of that. -
I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante There might be some promotional potential in "Digital Sovereign Citizens" as a movement, though.
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@jakob As a linguist, I would say you are wrong. It’s not a prescriptivist argument, it’s a descriptive one.
What @tante does is providing arguments for what the connotation for a certain word is. A prescriptivist argument would be that it’s ”wrong” in itself, or that you ”can’t” use it.
A descriptive linguist would probably be more careful not to appear to pass judgement, but I can’t find any explicit judgement even in this post, only implied.
@ahltorp yeah, no. All the Heideggeresk arguments from just-so-etymology about which other German (sic!) words would be more correct to describe the same issue... This is just not it.
Meanwhile the rejection of this particular word obfuscates critiques of dimensions and domains of sovereignty itself, whom it applies to, if it can exist outside of the state and how it intersects with hegemonic practice. The kinds of things I find useful as a linguist and political scientist.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante i thought digital sovereignty was a good thing?! :0
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@ahltorp yeah, no. All the Heideggeresk arguments from just-so-etymology about which other German (sic!) words would be more correct to describe the same issue... This is just not it.
Meanwhile the rejection of this particular word obfuscates critiques of dimensions and domains of sovereignty itself, whom it applies to, if it can exist outside of the state and how it intersects with hegemonic practice. The kinds of things I find useful as a linguist and political scientist.
@jakob So basically, what you're saying is that since the post didn't analyse all aspects of the word, it should never have been posted?
Would I have accepted the post as an article in linguistics? No, but why should you apply those standards to a 450 character Mastodon post?
And where are these "Heideggeresk arguments from just-so-etymology about which other German (sic!) words would be more correct"? Not in the post you replied to, that's for sure.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante I don’t see Resilience in the comments. Whether it is just that word or Regional / EU Resilience, enterprise risk folks often have part of their Resilience (BC/DR) based on geopolitical-risk metrics to avoid having critical supplies or functions reliant on scary places.
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@vintage_pizza @tante imagine thinking a toxified word doesn’t matter.
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@hadon @jwildeboer @tante I would say, autonomy, as the word part "auto" suggests, can apply to people and institutions on their own. You can have autonomy from X.
Sovereignty includes the word "reign". You can not reign without an object, you can have sovereignty over X.
As such, the two words are completely different in the way they describe a power struggle. Focus on autonomy and you describe a situation where you want to be free from something (e.g. Big Tech, or US tech, or whatever). Focus on sovereignty and you (and not someone else) should have power over something, typically via property, law, infrastructure involved.
I think both can still be used from a right-wing perspective of (EU) nationalism, but autonomy is more open to anarchist anti-capitalist principles.
But sovereignty seems appropriate since we are talking about not being dependent on another State. The idea is to not be dependent on American technologies (or defense)
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But sovereignty seems appropriate since we are talking about not being dependent on another State. The idea is to not be dependent on American technologies (or defense)
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Fascists will adopt whatever terms we use.
So, maybe we should always add, to every term, the word: "antifascist"
We want antifascist digital souvereignity.
@nilz @tante @jwildeboer This is why I love projects that use the .gay TLD. Built in antifascist naming scheme there.
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@tante yeah "digital agency" is where i've landed to describe what seems important there -- focusing on each being's ability to choose, understand, and shape their own digital presence (or lack thereof)
agree "digital sovereignty" has always seemed too nationalistic -- is good to work to disentangle from exploitative american tech structures, but "sovereignty" kinda gestures toward "...so we can build our own exploitative tech structures!"
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@larsmb I agree when it comes to terms that are useful/good (think Freedom). I'm not willing to fight for "sovereignty"
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante No, no, we all are sovereign and as we become more and more gloriously sovereign if it just so happens that this is exactly what allows the power-hungry extremists to take full control over everything and harm all the sovereign individuals, well, that is just a coincidence that no sovereign-minded citizen could have possibly foreseen.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante Not everything what is called sovereign is from afd. It would be a good start, if they would be souvereign
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante and so if the AFD says they are proclaiming freedom we also stop using that word? 'Rechtsstaat' is bad, because fascists are 'rechts'? What is the plan here going forward?
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@tante I've, too, been concerned about "sovereignty" being too susceptible to nationalist capture. (Which is probably also why it appeals to certain parties despite often funding more progressive projects?)
I'm also in favor of a different term for the concept that is less so.
However, I also think that it sucks that we yield terms (which actually describes exactly what's intended) to the right-wing national so easily and then are forced to evade
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante would digital self-determination be better? but yeah, why is that term right wing coded? I'm not familiar with this issue
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I insist on calling it "Digital self-determination" for that and other reasons.
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I have been warning about the term "digital sovereignty" and how it is right-wing coded and probably can't be salvaged for non-right-wing politics.
The German fascist party AfD now created a European foundation to push their fascist politics further. The name: "Sovereignty Foundation".
Even though tactically it might feel like it makes sense to use the term to get funding, you are integrating right wing politics into your thinking and speaking.
@tante Did you mean that AfD is co-opting the term or that's the term digital sovereignty itself is originally conceived as a tool of right wing parties? At this point that the term digital sovereignty is pretty well embedded in the policy scene these days judging by my podcast feed.
