Remote attestation is the true enemy of your freedom. The power of the authoritarian corporatocracy to force you to use only the (entire) systems they control. It's worth reading https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html again just to see how prescient Stallman was.
These people won't respect you until you start taking their money. Become one of their techno-corporate overloads. Demonstrate how you're controlling/profiting off them, why it's bad. Maybe then they'll start listening. Or not. At least you'll have made a nice profit.
Think about how many devices in a typical users home are incompatible for business reasons - for example that Chromecast that refuses to play Amazon prime movies. Or the iPhone charger cable that won't fit into an android. Users just live with it.
"My weird laptop doesn't support the school WiFi" is the same.
People have become aware and angry that tech monopolies are exploitative. The winning strategy will involve focusing this fuzzy, ambient anger at a concrete target.
Once Pluton outs itself as an exercise in naked monopolistic power covered by a fig leaf of security -- and it will, as all hustles must eventually involve monetization -- the bad optics will be our opportunity to act. Any strategy on our side that involves putting down TikTok is doomed to failure, but if we put the bad optics in front of people, make the connection, and get them to briefly agree "yeeah, f** the monopolies! F** Pluton!" then a political solution becomes possible. Not easy, but possible.
It's a pity that this dialog has to be so reactive and simplistic, but communication at scale cannot function any other way.
The real problem is continued deference to old ownership memes; that a minority must be empowered due to past contract none of us were even alive to see signed. How do we know in real terms the truth given a past we can never experience?
Historical trends are one thing; that Bezos specifically is that special is another. This is the first period in history where the elders could hold power this long. It’s tacit ageism and everyone is too scared to say that to old people who would collapse in shock at the slightest whiff of real pushback, they’re so used to being coddled; they’re hardly a real threat.
Start telling your elders their past success does not give them ownership of the future.
The absolute worst thing we could do is go to Apple or anyone else and say "You need to use this x or y, because someone else does". That isn't going to breed innovation, ever.
Do I wish Apple used USB-C on phones? Definitely. Does it actually change anything for me day to day except I need a specfic cable if my phone runs dead? Not really because my chances aren't a ton better running into a USB-C on demand. I want Apple to. I would buy an Apple phone with it if given the option. I would never sign-on to force Apple to do it.
Exactly! We saw precisely this thing with cell phone chargers. Not enough people recognize this.
A healthy dose of market realism is in order - if the market doesn't deliver what people want, it's not the market, it's the people who are wrong.