1年前

People Want To Use Things But Not Own The Consequences Of Its Use.

[Edit 2: I think anyone commenting should identify how much they use Facebook in their comment lol]

On the list of people I describe in the subject, I place myself first. If you're here to defend yourself by showing me your receipts, congratulations, you win, I just saved us who knows how much time. I'm typing this out in an attempt to describe phenomena, not persuade you of anything in particular, other than, this is a thing I see happening a lot; too much would be my take.

I'm just gonna grab [a] most egregious example, but I would like to talk about this, not as a horrific fail, but as an exemplar; at the moment I believe that most people categorize it as the former.

[edit: there really is no "most" egregious example, and I just thought of a much worse one, and unlike Facebook I am fully guilty of this one: I own and drive a car, a lot, and boy am I ignoring some real world consequences there.]

That example being, Facebook Acted As The Main Propaganda Outlet For A Genocide Of The Rohingya In Myanmar, and therefore, Anyone Who Uses Facebook Is Using A Tool That Has Bloodstains On It And Are Somehow Not Horrified.

To more easily conceptualize this, it's much the same as me needing a shovel, and having a neighbour that I happen to know murdered someone with their shovel, but has not been arrested for it, and right when I need the shovel, they walk over with their bloodstained shovel and offer to let me use it for my non-murder task. And I just go "Wow how convenient that you happened to be here with that bright-red shovel just now, I think I'll use this one one of yours with the little spatters of brain on it, instead of walking over to my shed and getting my own shovel out!"

We are talking about murder here, Facebook was used to foment mass murder and in a world that made sense, Zuckerberg would be handed over to the ICC years ago, along with Henry Kissinger and a number of others who instead hang out at the Nobel Peace Prize club where Barack makes a mean Mai Tai.

The problems that people use Facebook to constructively solve is connections to family and close friends, event and interest group organizing, the marketplace, and for the avid user it constitutes a daily journal.

These problems could each be solved using something else that is also just as gratis. It might be a small amount of effort more, but then you maybe don't ever have to touch the remains of a human life that once existed and now does not, due to this particular device being used to end that life.

But it seems that it's more convenient, easy, zero effort, to simply ignore the gore.

That's what I see on the internet. I don't think anyone has ever accepted a bloodstained shovel and set to digging a ditch with it who didn't also feel that their life was next if they didn't, but as long as there's no visible bloodstains, as long as it's just a few articles and podcasts from known radical leftists, eh, look at little Jimmy's recital, isn't he cute?

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This springs to mind.
Individual choices are constrained. Admonishing people for living in this world that we live in is straight from the Big Carbon playbook.
- true but there is more to it, remember consumption and carbon production is just something everyone needs to do to survive in this world.
  expecting your friends and family to use a billionaire's private network as one of the sole ways of communicating is not really the same thing as being stuck buying your food with too much plastic on it.
  one of these you really do have control over its not a forced choice its just one people think is.
  
  Social media's whole thing is the social aspect - if a community and/or its users are entrenched somewhere, they're not likely to move because a minority has issues with the platform. It's not unreasonable to want people to move away from Facebook/etc., but it's not really true to say that's a choice everyone has, if friends, family, and the communities or activities someone wants to engage with are there; if the options are communicating with loved ones on an 'unethical' platform or not communicating with them at all, it's unreasonable and unfair to expect everyone to choose the latter.
  
  in the past we would drag companies who made such walls in our telecommunications systems to courts and force them to allow open comms, now we have people making excuses for allowing walls.
  
  If you're implying that the belief that companies should be held accountable for their actions and that communication platforms should be democratized is mutually exclusive from not villainizing people for wanting to communicate with their loved ones, I strongly disagree.
  I'm not making excuses for the companies. I'm making excuses for the people at their mercy, who are just trying to survive with the hand they were dealt. People can't be blamed for following the path of least resistance; the blame lies squarely with the path and those who made it, and fighting the people on that path who would gladly follow another is counterproductive.
  
  i see a lot of this injection in these replies, id suggest re-reading my statements and try and disassociate yourself from the anger of previous convos, no one is calling the users out here beyond saying they dont understand beyond maybe some of OPs statements.
  however I do still see a little blame on the users since anytime this topic comes up people come in attacking those discussing it and often being quite rude and frankly overly defensive (common when one suggests to another the wool is over your eyes).
  its important to note that those actions that forced those companies to move was initiated by representatives of the people.
  at some point everyone made a choice here, they arent necessarily bad people for those choices but ignorance for whatever reason is on the menu. Hard to deny when the networks themselves work so hard to distort views for people. Algos you dont own are not made by friends they are made by those looking to monetize.
  this was why we had these cases to begin with, if the incentive of a company providing communications platforms becomes perverted and at a fundamental cross of facilitating those communications its understood to be erosive and dangerous.
  in short, communications are a fundamental public utility and should be treated as such.
  
  It seems like we're having two different conversations; I reread your comments as you suggested and it seems as if you're responding to someone else. You're talking about things completely unrelated from what I'm saying, and then implying I'm being unreasonable for being angry over something I'm not even angry about.
  communications are a fundamental public utility and should be treated as such.
  I agree completely. This was never in question and it feels like you're implying I think otherwise when you keep reinforcing this point.
  expecting your friends and family to use a billionaire’s private network as one of the sole ways of communicating is not really the same thing as being stuck buying your food with too much plastic on it.
  one of these you really do have control over its not a forced choice its just one people think is.
  at some point everyone made a choice here, they arent necessarily bad people for those choices but ignorance for whatever reason is on the menu.
  This is what I take issue with. As a personal example, my grandpa knows how to make phone calls and use facebook; he doesn't use technology much more than that, and he's not in a state to learn how to use anything else right now.
  So I use Facebook to talk with him. Not because I support Facebook, I just want to talk to my grandpa. I find it offensive when you imply those who use closed and/or 'unethical' platforms inherently do it out of ignorance, and that there's always a choice; my only other choice is to not talk to my dying grandfather, and I won't feel guilty for not taking that.
  To be clear, in terms of big picture I'm with you on everything else you said.
  communications are a fundamental public utility and should be treated as such.
  That sums up my thoughts nicely.
  I don't feel this discussion has been in good faith; your last comment has some gaslighting (whether intentional or not) that I don't think has a place in respectful conversation, so I won't be responding further.
  
  so wait, its better to say these people are knowingly choosing to be on these platforms and requiring others to do so communicate with them as well? im not even sure what you are saying but it does seem we may be at cross purposes
  we have come a long way since breaking up the bells, wow
  is your instance seeing everything?
  im not supporting OPs post, if you look at the thread this is a reply to someone trying to equate these choices people are making to the lack of choice people have in the carbon argument https://lemmy.intai.tech/comment/632241
  which to me is a watering down of the carbon argument where people truly have no choice vs having put themselves in a mental box for whatever the reason.
  
  And yet, here you are on Lemmy, rather than on Reddit. Why is that?
  
  The thing about it, though, is that we are all already on a universal network; the internet. We all have email, give or take a few weirdos. We are perfectly capable of reaching our loved ones that way.
  It is a question of convenience in this case, not necessity.
  In my car example, I can argue - or rather, I used to be able to argue, because I work fully remote now - that I had no choice but to commute, and since I moved to the country with not even a bus service into the city, it was quite arguable on the basis of your comic.
  But I left facebook and my friends and family did not change; they had less of me, perhaps, but I had just as much of them.
  
  I believe you responded to the wrong comment, as I didn't post that comic. Either way-
  It isn't always a matter of convenience over necessity. For a personal example, my grandfather knows how to use Facebook and basically no other communication technology; he isn't really able to learn new things now, so my options are to use Facebook or to not talk to him. If you're saying I'm acting unethically unless I do the latter I don't think much more needs to be said; if not, well, that's my point.
  
  He can't operate a telephone?
  
  Time zones and limited schedules are the issue there. Smartphones for texting are difficult for him. But either way, that's beside the point; what I'm trying to get at is that an inconvenience to you might be more than that to someone else. Learning a new platform might be easy for you, but it's basically impossible for someone with dementia. Leaving a job that requires you to use unethical tools might be fine if you can get another one easily, but some people can't. Not talking with friends on unethical social platforms might be fine if you have more social opportunities, but to someone with social issues, finding a group of people that you can be comfortable around isn't trivial.
  The comment I originally responded to was saying it's unfair to compare oil/plastics industry with social media, because you have a choice with the latter but not the former; while that's the case more often than not, it's far from universal, and applying the same standards to someone for whom the opposite is true is unreasonable. You never know how much someone has to sacrifice to do things that might seem easy, and you never know how easy the things that seem hard might be.
  
  I know, everyone in the world who is not on the Fediverse is an evil, lazy scumbag and the absolute best way to get them to switch is to sneer and scold. No matter what communities they have built, what access to information they need, how difficult it is to rebuild that elsewhere, they're all just terrible people compared to you, polishing your halo in the corner.
  This line of argument is bogus and self-defeating. Quit it.
  
  im not suggesting judgement, you are injecting that from a perspective I don't have.
  this is what people do, suggesting its the same as the carbon problem is a bit disingenuous as its entirely mental rather than systemic.
  i get there are similarities but they are not the same thing.
  i have seen sites with millions fold and other sites grow in its place in extremely short time spans. The idea of the current immutability of the internets services is a fallacy and the tools to communicate are open to all, there are no blocks beyond what is truly easiest and most understood.
  It is not surprise that there is an embedded profit in making sure people think its so immutable, wouldn't want to bleed users from the garden after all.
  In this particular story, most users are both unaware and are actually served a version of the internet that is designed to make them want to stay in the gardens.
  
  Stoopid sheeple. They should listen to you, sneering at them.
  
  Lot's of anger at a straw-person there it seems. I'm suggesting they are unaware at a level that takes an understanding that there is an option and a desire to do so.
  Whats interesting is that in the last year I see more angry people like you rather than clueless ones.
  this tells me awareness is growing and thats good.
  be as angry as you want. ive been pissed since these people starting trying to take away the internet we paid to build.
  
  FFS. There is no point lecturing people from on high. Talk about it, sure. Information is good. But moralising will do nothing useful. Point your fingers at bad systems, not the people who are just trying to live their lives under mostly quite difficult circumstances. Improve the environment in which people are forced to make difficult trade-offs. Don't bully them for facing difficult trade-offs and not being obsessed about exactly the same things you are. It will not do you, or anyone else, any good. The problems are structural, fight the structures.
  
  Isn’t it difficult to initiate change to big companies without user pushback? What impetus do they have to change when their user base accepts what they are given? Sure, regulators and legislators should do something, but they aren’t going to do it on their own. People need to do their part, and mass exodus is something the media reports on. I’m not asking anyone to abandon these places entirely, especially if their communication with certain people relies on it, but anyone can move away from them to some extent. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not with doing. Also, in no way am I saying that it is the users sole responsibility to bring down or hold these companies accountable, but it usually takes some grassroots to get something started.
  
  People need to do a lot of things. Very few people have the time to do everything they'd like to do, let alone everything you'd like them to do.
  Attack the systems that trap us, not the people who are trapped by them. This is not hard.
  
  How do you think we should attack the system? Isn’t boycotting exactly that?
  
  Of course it is. But attacking other people for not joining your boycott is attacking other people, not the system. Like I said, talk about why you boycott X but don't sneer at or lecture anyone who is not also boycotting X.
  This is not hard.
  
  im not sure where you are seeing this, unless you are speaking generally.
  if this is directed at me, I would say its this tone I get from people that would inspire me to look down and potentially lecture.
  as i am often told, its not what you are saying, its how you are saying it.
  
  Yeah, they really come off as an angry jerk when they’re telling us not to be jerks.
  
  ive projected my online anger before too. on lemmy there are going to be a lot of
  "i dont like this about the internet"
  wit replies that say
  "well dont use the billionaires toy, drive your own internet instead"
  which regardless of how its presented i expect can feel like an onslaught if you are trying to understand and still feel connected in some way to those networks.
  Ive never really depended on them for connection and have always considered it extremely rude to expect me to communicate with you using systems like these. Its not just a game of "come talk to me here" its "you can only talk to me if you click 3 agreements, hand over your personal info to a large corp and accept multiple trackers on your browser"
  thats quite an ask for messages I can send via email if its REALLY that important.
- I have trouble believing that humans can't get by without Facebook. Even in the absence of viable replacements, we got along fine for millenia... arguably, we got along with each other better.
  
  I have trouble believing that humans can't get by without meat, or cars, or carbon fuel, or mass-produced clothes, or supermarkets, or .
  It does not matter what you believe, or what you prioritise. Other people have different beliefs and have made different choices. If you want them to think and choose differently, don't start off by telling them that they're scum while you polish your imaginary halo.
  And for fucks sake don't fill the Fediverse up with so much narcissistic, whiny crap that everyone who isn't you fucks off somewhere else.
  This is not hard.
  
  You're going to great lengths to not read certain parts of my OP lol
  
  Read it yourself, but think it through this time.
  
  And having seen your edit of the OP, I quit Facebook something like 15 years ago and only ever had fake name accounts.
  I quit Twitter the day Musk took over. I quit Reddit the night before it went dark. I've been boycotting Google as much as is possible for well over a decade.
  Have I polished my halo enough for you to stop sneering and start growing up?
  FFS

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