The “It’s Inevitable” Mindset Considered Harmful

I really don’t like the mindset of “if X Corp hadn’t gone evil, someone else would have.”

If you want a freer world - in software, hardware, or society in general - you have to act against whoever tries to go down the restricted path. Who did it first, second, or fiftieth, doesn’t matter. Whether someone else would have, doesn’t matter. Your “it’s inevitable” mindset is a self-defeating tactic and self-fulfilling prophecy.

Would you also justify, I don’t know, murder or sexual assault the same way? “If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have”? 🤦‍♀️

Just because “normies” don’t know or care about monopolistic practices (yet), doesn’t make those practices acceptable. If people don’t understand or care, it’s your failure to communicate and convince.

Instead of adopting defeatist ideologies that benefit the capitalists, improve your messaging and community till software/hardware/data freedom becomes a worldwide ideology, and monopolistic practices (like proprietary software, centralized services, etc) are either outlawed, and/or become grounds for mass shunning and boycotts, if not worse.

#contraLibre #FreeSoftware #SoftwareFreedom #FOSS #OpenSource #OpenHardware #Privacy