The idea that we can even DO anything about capitalism at this point is a forgone fantasy. Not to say we shouldn’t keep trying to push for a better, more equitable world until the time becomes more ripe to do away with personal gain above others, but we don’t get there all at once. There will be no revolution, nobody is coming.

But if we were to work together and firmly, decisively push actual, selected representatives into power who are committed to getting MOTHERFUCKING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS, that would bring a thousand miles closer to that ideal world we all want. Other countries have done it, but our problem in America is we have a population way too comfortable and atomized to ever band together and do this critically important thing.

I don’t have a way to reach enough people without some kind of massive disaster that forces people off their couches and makes food out of reach.

I have. Nothing happened.

Try to exist in any kind of life above “hippy with hemp clothes living in a yurt on their parent’s property and a trust fund” without things like a smartphone, a car and a computer.

Who needs an iPod clone when you can literally buy an iPod, drop 1Tb of storage in it, and sync it to your library like you always could.

It’s stupidly easy to do, and those things are still rock solid. And you can put Rockbox on too, if you don’t want iTunes anywhere near your computer. Or you use Linux and can’t have iTunes.

The junk products are not the problem, they will be phased out in a few years anyway, like all the ones before them.

The problem is the political system that is completely subservient to corporations that allows them to create accepted social standards like “you have to have the newest phone and a computer to even dream of getting a job interview” or the manufactured consent that much of America adheres to that things like social programs, welfare and universal basic income are tools of the devil.

Or the epidemic of planned-obsolescence that every last democrat and republican representative profits from as much as the tech-barons they work for. Other countries have laws about making products that last so citizens don’t have to spend their every last dime to just to keep having basic appliances and connection to the world.

If we made a unified push to install representatives that also want a better world and aren’t blithering morons who want to get rich, it would go a long ways to healing the system, but I don’t know how that’s going to happen since we all allowed our population to also become blithering morons.

With the recent destruction of PBS and their associated programs, this is going to get even worse. But don’t worry, kids will be able to ask Grok for history facts.

Cutting out the middle man does not involve technologically regressing.

But then how can you performatively sit in Starbucks with a mechanical typewriter and then post it on social media so everyone knows how progressive and anti-establishment you are???

They are too lazy for that.

does not involve technologically regressing.

The fallacy that technological progress is inherently good is simply flawed. You could say “instead of relying on Spotify, and instead of “technologically regressing”, learn open source alternatives and host your own Jellyfin server!”

But what was wrong with “technologically regressing” exactly? A MP3, CD or even tape recording player will: always work, sound great, require zero user friction, never receive updates or security flaws, not depend on a convoluted self hosted setup.

Do you want to listen to music or impress Lemmy? There’s absolutely no argument to be made that requires accepting all tech simply because it’s tech.

They’re not defining “middleman” in the traditional sense of an intermediary in an economic exchange. The first panel introduces a new definition of the term as a tech bro attempting to insinuate himself into the process of communicating with others. The remedies offered would indeed seem to preclude this type of middleman from interfering with the process.

The morality of a technology is determined by those in control of it, and look who’s in control today.

I was with you until 4:3. You should be locked up.

On a more serious note: Framework laptops. More repairable than the laptops of yore, minus the soldered CPUs which seem unavoidable in laptops now.

That’s just false, and is also not the message of the article you linked.

The articles point is not that avoiding enshittification won’t make a difference in the amount of enshittification you experience: To the contrary, it affirms that it likely will! The articles point is that personally avoiding enshittification isn’t an effective way of combatting the ubiquity of enshittification in society, ie “consumer activism” and “voting with your dollars” cannot create system change.

Most everyone here already knows this, and I imagine you also understood the article just fine and don’t need me explaining it to you, but you botched the paraphrase in your link thus seeding a lot of potential confusion and frustration absent some clarification. This is intentionally a thread about personally avoiding enshittification, and that does not imply a rejection of the desire to also end it oestebsibly by other means.

Did you read it till the end?

What a fantastic post, thank you for linking it!

Seriously though, I do think that it’s interesting that this comic and that essay seem to take up opposite positions*, but in each case they attract more contrary comments than ones that agree. I suppose no matter what you post, any given person is more likely to comment on it if it pisses them off than if it confirms their beliefs. It’s a good thing Lemmy doesn’t reward engagement, or else we’d be up to our eyeballs in ragebait, eh?

*Unless you read the whole thing instead of bouncing off the first paragraph.

This is what I see whenever I see an apple device. There’s very little control that the user can exert that Apple hasn’t blessed to be something within your control.

All computers are general purpose logic machines and they’re intentionally making them not do things that they absolutely could otherwise do, just because.

Not saying iPhones are bad, or that Mac’s are bad… I’ve just noticed that if you do things in a way that is compatible with how Apple thinks you should do them, then Apple works very well for you. If you have foolish notions to do things differently (or, “think different”… If you will), then you’re going to have a bad time.

It is really weird, isn’t it. I’ve always been a major enthusiast for Tech. Always wanted to get in on VR when it was first evolving, as I could see how else could use VR. I bought oneof the first iPods cause I messed with one and realized it was a game changer for what we had at that time. Now, I find myself cautioning people on the use of AI and home automation. I feel like I’m turning into a Luddite.

Technology can develop in various directions. This is exactly what it looks like when technology is developed for consumerism. Buy more now, it doesn’t need to last, stimulate the economy. Rent what you can, everything else as a service.

Writing someone a letter is a very personal thing and you’re creating a memory. Something tangible, concrete, also weighs in on reality. Looking at a piece of paper with your handwrite makes you understand you’re commiting to something.

I’m a FOSS loon but the craze of making everything digital is absurd. I’ve listened to people criticizing others for using paper and a pencil to take down a memo, note or even journaling, when they can do it on their phone.

Is existing so dreadful nowadays? Does the notion of leaving proof of existence scares?

They’re also less safe and efficient. They’re fun, but objectively worse cars to run nowadays that parts can also be hard to come by.

For email, I recommend purelymail. It’s ran by one guy I believe, but it’s a solid cheap service. It’s also pretty easy to setup your own email domains. I’m probably just a nerd, but I love custom email domains.

Good luck self hosting something to message your contacts.

Also, food delivery has always involved middlemen. Instead of food delivered through an app, it was food delivered after a phone call. But, it was a human middleman delivery driver doing the delivery.

Usually those middlemen don’t open up your mail, read what you wrote, then serve you ads based on that.

Everything you do relies on some middlemen, it’s just about cutting out layers.

You won’t grow your own food, but you can buy it from a farmer, instead of a store who bought it from a franchise center who bought it from a supply network who bought it from a risk management futures buyer who bought it from a farming company who bought it from a farm.