* Far-right attempts to storm parliaments and government offices have happened in Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands in recent years.*

The mainstream right-wing politicians think they can use the fanatics to boost their strength, but once that happens, they find that the fanatics have become their masters.

Right-wing manipulators have bullied Facebook by accusing it of bias against them, even as its real bias was in favor of them.

Making Facebook adjust its bias would be an improvement, but would continue to be an arbitrary choice by a business. I have proposed imposing public control over Facebook's algorithm for showing things to its useds. However, I think we need to make Facebook less powerful by making it smaller.

Nonfree software establishes "manorial computing" — a local aristocrat (nowadays a corporation, not a person) offers to take care of you and protect you in your computing, and you in return submit helplessly to its dominion.

Doctorow's "Ulysses Pact" refers to a point I've made in many speeches condemning Apple's eagerness to spy for China. It is applicable to you as well. If you erase Windows, MacOS, or Android, and get rid of an iMonster, people will understand it is futile to ask you to use it.

Making people serfs on a manor is as evil now as it was a thousand years ago. Medieval Europe experienced many revolts of the people against aristocrats; one of them created a free country that still exists: Switzerland. The Swiss revolt spread from valley by valley over a period of hundreds of years. I've cited this inspiring example in my speeches in Switzerland.

So pick up your digital pitchforks and chase those aristos out of your computer!

Alas, the story of William Tell appears to be a myth, though the context it is set in is real.

*Civil Society Groups Warn Against Anti-Protest Legislation Following Siege of US Capital.*

I agree. The right to protest is nothing if we don't respect it for those we oppose.

But when protest gives way to intimidation, we need to keep it in check so that it doesn't grow into domination.

A study predicts that due to global heating and deforestation the Amazon rain forest will pass a tipping point before 2064 that will convert it into a dry plain with shrubs. The forest would become too little to cause enough rain for it to survive.

That would be a global disaster, since it would release a lot of greenhouse gases and the transformed land would no longer store carbon.