The less participation there is the harder it gets to keep the lie.

This is just wildly naive. The less participation the easier you are to manage. Why do you think the GOP goes so hard on voter suppression and gerrymandering?

Collateral damage from drone strikes went up 800% under Trump before his admin stopped reporting that data

Deserving a voice is in no way the same as deserving an audience.

If they come out with one that doesn't use the goofy screen ratio then it's an auto-buy for my next laptop. Even if they don't it's way up on my short list.

Element's an interesting one because it's on the matrix protocol, which is already federated. You could, in theory, simply graft matrix onto any given activitypub instance and run all chat through that, though you'd need to get all the other activitypub instances to agree to do it the same way.

Best term I've heard for this is "Hapsburg AI"

This is more like Don't Inside Open Dead lol