Post B67pSHE73Kt8VgVw7U by jcnotwit@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by jcnotwit@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B66QQqWw8EnXPXa1MO by eff@mastodon.social
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       Transaction Denied, a new book by former EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman from Beacon Press, asks the question: Is it ever OK for financial intermediaries to act as the arbiters of online expression? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/former-eff-activism-directors-new-book-transaction-denied-explores-what-happens
       
 (DIR) Post #B66m8vfkTNXH8cYzKa by Hammerwell@troet.cafe
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       @eff Not only deny they transactions. They deny banking services at all for political reasons. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/01/05/deba-j05.html
       
 (DIR) Post #B67gDdxDN56t4CYdEG by gardiner_bryant@mastodon.online
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       @eff another good and reasonable question is "is it ever okay to use financial intermediaries?" Cash or bust imo.
       
 (DIR) Post #B67gqzxFVWwWatL72W by jcnotwit@mastodon.social
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       @gardiner_bryant @eff Sadly, yes. I've been in the unfortunate position where my child required a $300 prescription for an antibiotic for a drug-resistant ear infection and I didn't have it. It was a choice between credit card debt or my eight-year-old's hearing. I'm not going to "stand on principle" in that situation.
       
 (DIR) Post #B67nsk1GQOaZQizn3g by gardiner_bryant@mastodon.online
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       @jcnotwit @eff that's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying that payment processors are criminals and shouldn't exist.
       
 (DIR) Post #B67pSHE73Kt8VgVw7U by jcnotwit@mastodon.social
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       @gardiner_bryant @eff Your question was: "Is it ever okay to use financial intermediaries?"My answer is that without one, my daughter would be deaf today.I believe this situation should not exist, and that my government should provide healthcare for its citizens.Until then? "No payment processors" is an argument from *extreme* privilege. It ignores the fundamental reality that many people are barely holding on. That is reality today. Fix the fucking system before you pull the rug.
       
 (DIR) Post #B67zkzd9hKXyyqn60m by gardiner_bryant@mastodon.online
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       @jcnotwit @eff  my guy, we're in the same boat. This isn't coming from a place of privilege. The problem *is* the payment processors, their lobbyists, and all the corpocrats who are enshittifying everything to entrench themselves as oligarchs and chiefs of their wide, stable fiefdoms.Imo, money shouldn't move fast. It should be slow and physical. When it moves fast it gives those who arbitrate transactions and those who break things on purpose too much control over our society. That's my point