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Jonas Santoso
(he/him (opens in a new tab))I am the label head of 20kbps (opens in a new tab), one of the internet's oldest living netlabels, and have been active as a netlabel artist myself for about as long as 20kbps has existed.
I'm a software engineer, not a very good one, but good enough to stay employed. Not too passionate about any technology in particular. Sometimes I code off the job, doing weird things such as retrocoding or exploring internals of the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Used to do quite a bit of binary analysis / reverse code engineering ages ago.
My languages are German, English, Indonesian, and French. I am Indonesian on my father's side, that's how I know the language and have my last name. I know a few things about 1965, have seen Joshua Oppenheimer's films, and have read Melvin, Roosa, and Bevins.
I have a degree in musicology from the University of Graz, Austria, and some credit towards a mathematics degree, so I actually know how to count, not all, but some things.
Some people seemed to think I was their culture war homie. I'm not sure why. Maybe something about the way I talk. English is not my first language, and I am a little bit latinate owing to my weird education. But the fact that they thought I was made me think it necessary to make explicit on which side of some important dividing lines I stand. I'm a garden variety social democrat who believes that some of the world's prominent social democratic parties have betrayed their ideals, and therefore favours smaller and more explicitly socialist parties. I want parliamentary democracy to be kept in place, while I think that infusing it with strong Marxist-Luxemburgist currents is a good thing. I don't support any authoritarian regime of any kind. I believe that every individual should have the right to legally declare their gender identity, and that they should be afforded protection from discrimination when they choose to express their gender identity or form families that transcend the traditional father-mother-child schema. I believe that every pregnant individual should have the right to end their pregnancy, and have access to Mifepristone and Misoprostol or similar. Seeing Roe v. Wade being overturned was one of the low points of my life as someone who keeps track of political developments. I believe that the country that has been my home for a few years now should treat China as an ally, and shouldn't be a vassal state to an empire in decline that's flailing to assert its exceptionalism. AUKUS and the nuclear subs are a deplorable gesture of deference to an empire that has inflicted great damage on the world while perversely flaunting the words freedom and democracy to justify pursuing its own interests at the expense of other nations. Like I said, I don't support any authoritarian regime. Asking for some attention to what the US has been doing is not whataboutism, it's simply not applying double standards.
People change, but some things have remained fairly constant through all the years. I'm still a fan of Todd Solondz's films, every one of them from Fear, Anxiety & Depression to Wiener-Dog, and I still count Werner Herzog and Stanley Kubrick among my greats. I still listen to old The Smiths and Morrissey songs occasionally, even though I think the man's political statements have been nothing short of deplorable. And I still don't wish to be invited to church, or to join a church, be that explicitly or implicitly.
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which I work and dream, and I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging.