

I think the community subscription model in the article fixes this (imperfectly). Pancakepurists@a.com can have strict rules while pancakeparty@b.com could subscribe to it and pancakepurists could subscribe back with the understanding that the rules are slightly different there. Pancakechaos@nazi.assholes could similarly link to both those without either having to be mutually interactive.
I think the problem comes from some increased moderation loads by allowing a community to follow another. If I were to put on my paranoid hat it could be used to monitor and brigade a community. I think the solution for that is moderation tools. Banning instances, federation etc. I’m not a mod anywhere so I don’t know what is possible.
Businesses are absolutely starting to prepare. I work in a highly regulated industry and the cuts to federal workers has already slowed down our business.
We are actually moving some manufacturing out of the US to avoid tarrifs on subassemblies.
If this chaos continues we are heading straight to a recession, no doubt in my mind.