That’s exactly what is so nice about FOSS based systems. You can use technology but without the tech bros and the corporate enshittification.
We don’t need to go back to handwritten mail, FOSS is the way to go.
Writing someone a letter is a very personal thing and you’re creating a memory. Something tangible, concrete, also weighs in on reality. Looking at a piece of paper with your handwrite makes you understand you’re commiting to something.
I’m a FOSS loon but the craze of making everything digital is absurd. I’ve listened to people criticizing others for using paper and a pencil to take down a memo, note or even journaling, when they can do it on their phone.
Is existing so dreadful nowadays? Does the notion of leaving proof of existence scares?
Its nothing to do with contempt for the media, or not wanting to leave evidence of my existence or anything like that, its just that I got shit to do.
Yeah, handwriting sucks. I used to type my homework in a mechanical typewriter, holy cow even that sucked. Going from that to an electrical typewriter that could hold a line in memory was amazing, but still nothing compared to a proper word processor. Wordstar in MS-DOS anyone?
I still like to sketch my ideas from time to time, but all my permanent notes are stored in Joplin, encrypted, in local backup, and synced to the cloud. I can’t afford to lose them, and I can’t afford to lug around with me a heavy suitcase of papers.
I’ve seen young people wishing for simpler times, kids using Polaroid cameras, hunting retro consoles that were already ancient when they were born, longing for music that was way before their time, etc. I get they’re disillusioned with the current state of things, but romanticizing the past is not a healthy way to cope with the horrible today.
I don’t doubt you have a busy life. And that is not the subject at hand here.
What should concern us, collectively, is that we are constantly being pushed the notion that we do not have enough time and that tech is always the solution, when it is not.
I’m going to take a risk and say you write faster than you type and reaching for a pencil is quicker than launching a program.
I’m going to take a risk and say you write faster than you type and reaching for a pencil is quicker than launching a program.
Maybe for you, but opening KWrite takes only 5-6 key presses and I type much faster than I write
Not to mention the fact theyd be expecting me to write well enough to be able to reread it later. Even if I wrote it at half my typing speed I still would not be able to make that shit out.
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The comic is bullshit, your bullet points even more so. Except the one second to last. But then again, why the fuck are you driving in the city center? You are part of the problem.
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We’re techy enough nerds to know there’s another way to be free of billionaire influence while still keeping some resemblance of modern communication: self-hosting.
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E-mail is a thing.
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Dude walked face first into that one.
Why self-host messaging when there are so many good options?
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Good luck self hosting something to message
Dude, it’s pretty easy to set up matrix on a docker container
your contacts
Fuck you’re right
My family and immediate friends are all on my Matrix server.
I have my own dedicated public server, so I can selfhost anything I want. And I do selfhost a lot.
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Yeah, but Matrix has bridges for almost anything.
And people still use email.
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This is what using Linux feels like.
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Pre-computer cars sucked. Anyone that’s worked on mechanical fuel injection will tell you so.
Nah, mechanical injection diesel engines are awesome.
I use Jellyfin for music and shows. Jellyfin made it easier for me to sort the ripped CDs by directory instead of all in one shared Dir.
Also, telling people to use an LLM to figure out how to self host is like telling a 16yo to play GTA to learn how to drive.
They might figure it out, they may just kill hookers and rob a bank without ever learning how to drive the car.
There is self hosting and there is self hosting.
I run a proxmox machine with a dozen services but just looking at a guide like you send is overloading.
I will save it as a useful reference but its beyond what people who are less tech inclined then me will need to start.
Most people just need docker and some premade compose files. An llm can absolutely tell you how to install the first and create the second. People will know quickly if they want to learn more on their own or prefer to call a friendly nerd to do it for them.
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“Telling people to use an LLM to figure out how to X is like telling a 16yo to play GTA to learn how to drive” is my new catchphrase, thanks internet person (I presume person, could be mistaken…)
I’m a person yes! and you’re welcome :)
That last panel hit me like a truck because… yeah, that’s what people think happens when they do their little personal choice things to pretend they matter.
They really buy like a paper book once and go “ah, yes, Bezos is fuming right now” while he makes another billion.
We have lost all sense of how to influence society and all ability to gauge scale. For all the folksy traditionalism in this (which includes driving a gas guzzler from the 70s, apparently?) the Internet has created this entirely disproportionate sense of our footprint on the world and this strip is as much a result of the hyperconnected dystopia as everything it’s complaining about.
In my experience this is extra bad for Americans who, frankly, didn’t need that much of a push to go from their individualist, self-centered perception of society to this vision of sitting on a couch listening to a walkman as activism.
Also, it’s getting harder and harder to live without modern devices.
Try living in the modern world without a cell phone. It’s hard to do almost anything without one. If you get a flip phone that can handle text messages you can get a bit further, but it’s a matter of time before that’s not enough.
And sure, you can listen to cassettes on a walkman. And maybe you saved some tapes from 40 years ago, and maybe they still work. But, how do you get more music? Sure, you can probably find a place to order tapes online. But, then they want to verify your account and that means texting a verification code to your phone and…
As for print media. Sure, you can still buy paper books. But, if you want a real newspaper, good luck. There are a few that are still around, AFAIK you can still get the NY Times in print. But, I really doubt you still even have a local newspaper, let alone a newspaper that prints on paper.
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I think the point is that we’re deluded to think that voting with our wallets does anything. You still work. You still buy. You still support the system. The one step you’re taking only gets you partway from the couch to the refrigerator. It doesn’t get you out the door and into a protest that would actually make a difference.
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Indeed, you are thoroughly pacified. Your objections and moral outage quelled and your sense of significance sustained by the illusion that simply buying from a different conglomerate will have any impact.
Any suggestion that your impotent protest is inadequate must surely come from a childish fool.
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It’s so hard for people to agree that we should be doing something. Instead you argue that you are not going to do anything just out of spite all because OP personally may not be doing anything but their words are a bit preachy. If OP was a hypocrite but they still said the right thing why would you deliberately disagree? What would motivate you to act?
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Masturbating, I’m masturbating. And so are you when you think that voting with your wallet does anything.
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Luddites got a bad rap from capitalists. The Luddites were not anti-technology, they were against technology destroying people’s jobs. Their whole thing was destroying industrial machinery and sabotaging factories because they were replacing human labor without any alternative in place for the actual people. Hundreds of thousands of people were turned off the land, unemployed, and starving because of greedy capitalists trying to not pay for labor.
If the same people were around today, they’d be trying to blow up AI server farms.
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