As we chill in our heavily patched Suckless DWM build, or QTile, or whatever,
with a nice anime girl wallpaper and some r/unixporn-style transparency effects,
gaps between windows and neofetches, there's plenty of people out there shouting
at their phones because Spotify is playing an ad once again, and complaining to
their friends about it on the ProtzApp.
These people need to be helped, but where could we start? Well, first
things first we have to have some quick way of communicating with this people.
Since normies don't understand these kinda things, IRC might not be a good
option. Maybe we should make them install Signal, Element or
something? Of course, since we're trying to convert them to the Man of Culture
Cult, next thing we're gonna do is tell them that things like the Instapound and
the Snapcrap aren't good.
Now, I am 100% sure that you, Redditor, Discord Mod, GNU/Linux/FOSS
Enthusiast or /g/entooman, that are reading this, have experienced such a
situation, and Normie's answer was something like "WeLl, bUt wHy cAn'T i UsE
the WhAtzApp?" (2 to 4 seconds pause) "AlL mY fRiEnDs UsE iT! Ow'd I cHat
wiTh ThEm?".
This excuse is ridiculous, because Normie can just make his friends can
over to Signal as well, right? Well, it's not that easy.
I've been through all of this in first person, and trust me, it's really not.
When I was trying to make my friends switch to another messaging apps, I often
didn't know how to convince them: it's really a mess. Commonly, people do not
understand the concept behind Free Software and Open Sauce, unless
you literally spend hours trying to explain those things to them. And even
then, you'll hear things like "But if I publish free software I won't be able
to make money!", or "But won't open sourcing my program make it more
vulnerable?".
As you and me already know, both of these statements are
incorrect and false, because it really doesn't work like that. That's what
people, mostly boomers, don't get. It's not always like they think it is.
So yeah, people who say "BuT aLl mY fRIeNdS uSe It" really got a point, and I
understand them. The solution? Make them privacy-caring and Free and Open
Source Software enthusiast.
I'm sorry, but that's really the only way. You
can force them as much as you want to uninstall WhatsApp, but that won't work.
You have to inspire Normie, and, although it's really not tough, it is not
impossible.
This really is the only way to make them understand that
what they are using is defective by design and insecure, all all of their
private conversations are not private at all.
This is the only way to get
them to use more privacy-friendly software and make them, in turn, convert
their friends, too.
To make the long story short, I think that "But all my friends use it" is
really not an excuse if said by a normie when trying to make them use some
better, healthier, FOSSer and privacy-friendlier alternative to some app they
use.
I understand people who say this, since, if people use some app,
they will be convinced that they can't use anything else or even get rid of
that proprietary software, because then they would be unable to communicate
with the world.
So, my advice, is to try and explain people why
they should use an app rather than another one. You always should try to
explain the philosophy behind something and try to get the
interlocutor passionate about what you love, in this case, Element or
Signal, or really anything but ProtzApp (possibly open).
That really, in my opinion, the only way to make the normie make The Switch,
which is very important.
You know what else is important? The sponsor of
this article: my GitLab.
Visit https://gitlab.com/mirk0dex and send a pull request for 50 social
credit.
Bye now, have a great one!