Re: The Imperative of Free Software

[Abe Indoria]

   What does this have to do with libreplanet lol? I'm sure there are
   other mailing lists for this content. You can't just add "We need free
   software now" at the end of a multi-paragraph rant about wealth and
   call it libre software related.

   On Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 1:52 PM Davis Remmel via libreplanet-discuss
   <[1]libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org> wrote:

     Dear all,
     I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I am really tired of the
     ultra-wealthy.
     They are a self-enriching plutocracy, and I mean that in the most
     literal sense. I am not just throwing fancy words around. I mean:
     the
     rich use their riches to woo and shoo ordinary folks to enriching
     them
     even more by stoking fear and influencing the public's collective
     actions through their control of mass media. Our entire country has
     been
     captured by a legitimate plutocracy, a society ruled by the
     wealthiest,
     which is fundamentally an existential threat to the mass' ability to
     democratically govern ourselves.
     I don't know how to fix the mess that's already been created, but I
     do
     know that without free software, the masses are forever captive to
     their
     wealthy overlords. The exchange of information and work, and
     therefore
     the core of society, is totally controlled by the decisions of
     software.
     That software and its control, today, is dominantly proprietary and
     unaccountable.
     Software control is social control. That it, too, was ever thought
     legal
     that one could posses not only a billion dollars of wealth, but a
     billion dollars of sole discretion, was the greatest swindle ever
     pulled. The amplification of the wealthiest's messages through
     proprietary technology, and their ability to censor, quell dissent,
     and
     influence public opinion give them unthinkable power.
     Today, the masses will get fucked by them. Tomorrow, the masses will
     get
     fucked again, forgetting about today's. And this will repeat.
     Some of the population, perhaps, even desire being controlled, and
     feel
     comfortable and cradled, without worry. These people are
     authoritarians;
     if not overt authoritarians, then submissive ones. And this behavior
     is
     anti-social, anti-liberty, and contrary to American values.
     And, I feel so horribly grossed that the wealthiest's schemes keep
     working every goddamn day. I am _exhausted_ of living with the
     richest's
     wooing and shooing, and my constitutional liberties, which I dearly
     treasure and which legions of people died to leave me with,
     discarded
     because nearly everyone else has been intentionally and subliminally
     feared into authoritarian, corporate comfort. The masses don't have
     the
     vocabulary or time to gaze at the power structures that control
     them, or
     if they do then still be helpless and too socially weak to do
     anything
     about it, until they finally reach their limit and either submit or
     bust.
     Free software might be the only thing that can restore our
     republic's
     democratic control. It's cheapness to copy, plus its ratcheting and
     blanketing legal copyleft, catalyzes its propagation and crystalizes
     the
     power of the people. The only way to break authoritarian
     manipulation is
     to choose against using their tools and vocabulary, and to stand up
     for
     what we know to be true, right, and just. Our fears cannot be
     manipulated if we choose against consuming the programming of those
     who
     stoke them. The decisions and future of our technological society
     can
     only be free if we choose free software _now_.
     Be well,
     Davis
     _______________________________________________
     libreplanet-discuss mailing list
     [2]libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
     [3]https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discus
     s

References

   1. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   2. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   3. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss