updated April 15, 2025
Away from Big Tech even more – goodbye Facebook!
Here at Paperclip Agency we try to work with Open Source, Indie, Sustainable products and services as much as possible.
That’s why, for example, we run Linux on our second-hand PC’s (not Windows, not Apple), use EGroupware for emails and file-server, and have FairPhone smartphones with operating system /e/OS.
Using the so-called ‘social’ media is a challenge. To help with publicity for our artists and their shows, and also to find colleagues, we need ‘social’ media with a wide reach. But the big ones abuse their users and cannot really be called ‘social’.
Still, we did use Facebook. However, enough is enough. Meta is now clearly siding with the orange clown and his racist sidekick, both supported by the fascists in America. The threat is real.
So we’re now moving away from Meta/Facebook (we’ve never used Threads, Instagram, or WhatsApp). One of us was on Twitter, but left when Musk took over.
We will now focus on Bluesky and have just opened accounts there. Find us, follow us: @hildespille, @roboberends, and @paperclip.agency . Bluesky is growing fast, and is built on the open-source AT Protocol.
festivals
We have amazing artists available for festivals. Via this link you will find a selection of our artists. Maybe some of them will find their way to your festival!
THOUGHTS WE SHARE
Rob Berends writes:
Killing Joke made me cry
Killing Joke never made me cry, although I did love them back then.
But last week they did.
A live recording from 1985 (‘The Wait‘ (click to watch), Rockpalast/Loreley Fest, Germany) brought me to tears.
It was a combination of the band’s appearance and sound, and the current development of the world towards fascism, that made me so emotional.
I was part of the squatters movement and the broad progressive movement in those days. My home town Nijmegen was an important one in those movements, both in The Netherlands and internationally.
We were also a tight-knit movement, within each section, and between those sections. We were militant but against militarism, we were powerful and welcoming, we were pro-peace but steadfast, we were radical democratic and pro-freedom, and against capitalism and the restrictive parliamentary ‘democracy’, we were against fascism and stalinism, we were against nationalism and pro international solidarity.
We had many successes, but these days it all seems to have been in vain: the current world politics can make you feel powerless. ‘Bully boys out fighting, it’s just the same old game’.
Seeing Killing Joke on stage, with their (at the time) militant stance, their powerful dance movements, their overwhelming music, their mesmerized audience, made me feel nostalgic. This combined with the current threats to freedom and solidarity, I could not help myself and started to cry.
But a few minutes later I was able to turn it around: I realized that there ARE things we can do. We can listen to and promote music-that-matters, that we can relate to, that is uplifting and inspiring. And we can, also at my age, support local solidarity initiatives even more.
I was able to turn my negative emotions into (more) positive action. And so can you. It helps others and it helps you. Find your local solidarity initiatives and community centers, for voluntary work there. Or check what actions and demonstrations you can join nearby (in The Netherlands there’s the website watkanikdoen.nl (what can I do) with an overview).
I have to admit that one thing in that Killing Joke video did put me off: the guitarist’s pleated trousers … oh well, you can’t have it all! I’ve forgiven him!