Be The Change You Want To See

The firing of James Damore. Political commentators being stripped of their income; both algorithmically and directly. Free-speech social networks being taken down from the duopolistic mobile marketplace. Discord's willingness to take down any and all forms of hate. The coordinated attack on the daily stormer's right to speak. Antifa taking down dissenters by violent means. Need I continue? All of these occurances are indicative of a large authoritarian push across the country to take down the right of speech and press for anyone who dares to speak out against such regimes and their evil ways. Expose a flaw in a big tech firm, government, or ideology, and you are public enemy number one in the eyes of the giants who control the general flow of information. Instead of letting what you have to say stand the test of discourse in the open marketplace of ideas, they'd rather shut you down, and by any means necessary in the case of Antifa and the murder of Seth Rich. It's a state of affairs that is more sinister than some may be willing to realize. But I'm not here to piss and moan about the current political and technological climate of the world, as much as I could do so all day. I'm here to provide what I think is the best solution to this problem, atleast on the front of technology. You see, what Twitter, Facebook, and Google/YouTube have in common is that they're big tech giants that maintain a monopoly on our social presence here on the world-wide web. I think it's a fair assessment to say that the majority of Americans have some sort of presence on atleast one of these services, and it very much ties all of us together. To paraphrase Bryan Lunduke, people use Facebook because people use Facebook. I would go on to say that its initial adopters jumped on because it provided them something that was unique at the time, but most people have stayed on for the ride because of the massive network that has emerged out of it. There's nothing compelling or unique about the services that these mainstream social media platforms offer nowadays, but none of the alternatives have ammassed quite the same userbase. It's a situation that sets itself up for anticompetitive practices: Most people don't want to leave the big-three simply because everyone they know is on it. And by the nature of that statement, everyone who sets up shop on these services is at the whim of every nasty move they pull on their users.

What do I have to say about this? Be the change you want to see. Over the course of several months last spring, I completely abandoned my presence and following on Twitter and Google/YouTube by having those accounts deleted, and I only exist on alternative social networks, namely Minds, Mastodon, Gab, Vidme, and Diaspora. I didn't want to be at the whim of the aforementioned big-three, so I left them. No fanbase, friendship, or family member is worth putting yourself on a platform that disrepsects your freedom and privacy, and if these people value you in any capacity, then they will find other ways to stay in contact with you. And I think it is critical for more people to draw this line in the sand. Tell everyone you know why the major flaws of Facebook, Twitter, and Google have pushed you to alternative platforms. Let them hear why alternative, open, and/or decentralized platforms are better in the long term. Use the connections you've made on the big-three to make your network of connections independent of the triopoly that hosts them. Be a leader. Take the plunge. I can not stress this enough, but if you believe in a privacy-respecting, freedom-endorsing internet, then get onto the websites that can make this possible, and don't give an inch to the people who won't. The fate of our technological liberties rests on the choices of its users. All you have to do is click the right button.