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Oh my gosh I just figured it out.
Okay, all you open source evangelist people: your knee-jerk reaction to come at people who are talking about a problem with whatever commercial software they use and suggest Your Favorite Alternatives™ is exactly like saying "why don't you just buy a house?" to someone complaining about their landlord.
EDIT: There's more than one post here. Pick apart the analogy if you will but... beware you'll be proving the point.
Actually, to borrow from @DoubleA, it's worse than that.
It's like talking to someone who is in a crappy apartment as though they have the agency and skills to stake out a plot of land and build their own home.
You have to be at peace with the fact that some people just want to exist and not worry about so many things. And they still have a right to complain about their situation.
Respectfully, the whole point of advocacy is to cause others to be aware of something they wouldn't otherwise give a rip about.
You're basically saying *Why are you recommending such crappy solutions all the time?"
And I'm saying, "It was never about the solutions, it was about freedom and your own human rights which you don't realize are being taken away from you slowly but surely."
If FOSS enthusiasts have pitched their ideas as (theoretically) crappy solutions to complex problems then that's their fault. But the real issue isn't solutions, it's freedom.
@rl_dane @TechConnectify @DoubleA
How successful are you?
@jztusk @TechConnectify @DoubleA
Not. I can do a lot to encourage people already on their journey to freedom, but I haven't convinced anyone to start it.
I mean, I live in a state where lots of people (and almost all businesses) don't recycle at all. The level of community-consciousness just isn't there.
@rl_dane @TechConnectify @DoubleA
You could consider changing the way you approach people so that you are more successful.
There are a lot of people out there, and I don't expect them all to be motivated by what motivates me. And if I repeatedly fail to get them to do the right thing for the right reason, I have learned to be satisfied with getting them to do the right thing for the "wrong" reason. That alone can be hard enough to be a worthy undertaking.
@jztusk @TechConnectify @DoubleA
What's the wrong reason?
At this point, people are almost hopelessly entrenched in a system where they are the unwitting victim.
They now think it toally normal for their devices to be actively working against them, and controlling them.
They're in a deep sleep, and I have no idea how I can wake them up.
@rl_dane @TechConnectify @DoubleA
My sister doesn't want to be free, she wants to be better able to share cat videos. I would like her to be able to move off Insta onto Mastodon for this. I'm guessing you would consider this a "wrong reason".
@jztusk @TechConnectify @DoubleA
It's not a bad reason. The problem with the pragmatic appeal is that it's so easily reversed. Look at the crowd that left #BirdSite to land on Mastodon, and then so soon flee to Threads. Someone said, "Twitter is crazy, mastodon is BETTER," and people went for it. But then when they had the least growing pains and learning curve, Zuccy boi offered them a "better" deal.
Dunno. Ideally, you would tell people how they're not free, how they can become free, and that would be enough.
Yet, somehow, it's not.
:'/
If I may, I think the disconnect you are experiencing comes from a disconnect in values.
For one, some folks are not going to interpret "freedom" the way you are projecting it here. I'm honestly not even sure that I do.
And, when there is a misalignment there, the proselytizing that you're doing feels judgmental from the other side. That pushes people away, it does not bring them in.
To be clear, I'm doing very little proselytizing of those who are completely outside of the FOSS world. I'll try to put in a good word here and there as people are able to hear it. I generally don't tell people what to do. If it's someone already in this "world," then I'm a little more open to encouragement or even a wee bit of chiding. But I'm not into being judgy.
So then I have a real problem with a clash of values. What do I make of that? Am I being a judgy prick for looking down on how people compute?
I'm not so sure of that. I've been around this wond'rous tech for a decent number of decades, and when you see some things change so much for the worse right under your nose, your (or at least MY) reaction is to want to grab someone by the lapels, and maybe shout from a rooftop (and perhaps acquire a taste for locusts and wild honey, but that's besides the point).
I feel the same consternation in the sociopolitical realm (which I won't get into here). Having grown up in a time of such stability and relative prosperity to see what I see around me right now is incredibly alarming.
So... do I clam up? Scream? Get aggressive? Or give up? Or none of the above?
@rl_dane @jztusk Don't give up - but also maybe change your framework, here.
Let me ask you this: how much interrogation have you done into the *why* of the latest uncomfortable trends? Why is the world getting fashy all of a sudden?
My answer would be that those behind the fash have figured out how to manipulate people. They are able to identify extremely powerful arguments and implement them with precision.
You and I know they're not being honest when they do this. Their audience doesn't.
@rl_dane @jztusk To be honest, the last 15 years of so of "these evil people are being manipulative: let's fight them by throwing charts and facts in front of people!" have been exhausting.
You can lead a horse to water, and all that.
The problem as I see it is that people who believe themselves to be righteous are hesitant to engage in tactical behavior. But that's what you need to be doing: identifying arguments that work and leaning into those. You need to help others see it your way.
@rl_dane @jztusk And you can do this honestly!
That's what I think gets missed a lot: terrible people craft arguments which are based on lies. They are /tricking/ people into voting for them by leveraging fear.
You can apply those same kinds of leverage with truthful, earnest arguments aligned with your beliefs without being deceitful. And you should!
> To be honest, the last 15 years of so of "these evil people are being manipulative: let's fight them by throwing charts and facts in front of people!" have been exhausting.
SO MUCH THIS. I'm amazed at how people think analyzing evil is the solution. To a certain degree, it's valuable, but it doesn't LEAD to anything.
@TechConnectify @rl_dane @jztusk I’m not looking forward to the generation-long battle replacing dry data analysis with Arthur Schopenhauer’s “Eristic Dialectic: The Art of Winning an Argument”
@josephholsten @TechConnectify @jztusk
I'm seeing a lot of that kind of "tit-for-tat" and "own the libs" mentality already. :'(