Comment by mdp2021
21 days ago
> We have to keep defending our own freedoms
As always.
> I'm so
Shake it off, because, see point 1, the struggle is the same as it has been even decades ago. Nothing has changed: we fight for it. Only the battles have changed, not the war.
I'm not the person you replied to, but I am in their shoes. I'm tired, too. Trust me, I used to champion your sentiment, keep fighting/keep moving and all that jazz, but...at my age, this War of Attrition that is the fight for user data rights and privacy has gone on so long, against a foe that has a much large reach and seemingly infinite resources.
Many of us are not only exhausted, but exasperated at the fact that the good majority of the consumer market continues to give permission to the very activities we are all supposed to be denying. In the end, we vote with our dollars, so we, the vocal minority can be as loud as we want but if the majority continues to buy, use and comply with the product, it's really just a lot of yelling for no reason, isn't it? That's how it feels, anyway.
I know, I know; can't start a fire without a spark. But I've been at it for two decades, since the first smartphone dropped, something I resist adopting for nearly a decade. I'm seeing my kid's generation growing up in this world, condition by it from the start despite our best efforts and they simply don't seem to care. From where I'm standing, I feel old, brittle and tired from all this, but there's nobody to pass the torch to.
So understand that when one of us comments "I'm so tired and disillusioned," we do so after years of resisting, and those words are not uttered lightly.
> So understand that when one of us comments "I'm so tired and disillusioned," we do so after years of resisting, and those words are not uttered lightly.
My great-grandfather fled France with his family during the second world war. My grandfather fought in the second world war - essentially after he got to Canada, he enlisted and headed back to fight against fascism. He eventually came back to Canada because the rest of his surviving family was here.
I get tired of fighting for privacy, and standing up for users, and pushing back against some of the most egregious abuses of tech companies, including the tech companies I work for. When I think that it's not worth fighting, or I think that I could probably get a promotion and way more money if I just suck it up and start building ad-tech or surveillance tech, I think about how disappointed my grandfather would be with my decision.
Stoicism isn't the shitty memes that folks post online re-enforcing toxic masculinity, it's getting up in the morning after taking a break from the good fight, and continuing to push back despite being tired. Understand that when you wake up in the morning, or feel the need to comment "I'm so tired and disillusioned", remember that there are many, many other people tired and disillusioned along side you or OP continuing the fight. Take a break if you need to, and come back to keep fighting.
They have trillions of dollars to burn. They have expensive lobbyists which they use to essentially buy laws. Governments want them to succeed because they also want to control people's computers.
It's just a matter of time until we lose everything. It's not really a struggle. Look at what just happened. We made sacrifices for years by using Android because it was open and Google just rendered it all moot by introducing hardware remote attestation to discriminate against anyone who's actually enjoying that openness. What's the point?
"What's the point?"
Right, it's very disheartening when the large majority of smartphone users couldn't give a damn about such matters. As I mentioned elsewhere, the problem has been made much worse by the fact that most smartphone users are addicted to electronic heroin—apps provided by Google, Facebook, et al.
There's no other way of describing the situation other than it's an unmitigated disaster. Tragically, Big Tech hit on a formula that has billions of users glued to their phones many to the point of obsession—it's absurd, nothing like this has ever happened on such a grand scale in all of human history.
When people like us try to fix the problem we're confronted on all sides—we not only have to deal with a money-rich and very hostile Big Tech and also with governments who want to only deal with it (for reasons I mentioned earlier) but also with a large percentage of the world's population who would feel threatened and annoyed at even the mere mention of changes to their phones' ecosystem.
When the enemy goes to the extent of effectively 'parasitizing' those with whom we are trying to help and protect into a zombie-like state of inaction then we've little hope of changing things for the better.
It's all very depressing.