> I never pay for anything on the Web, because I cannot pay anonymously.
Wow. My first thought upon reading that is that seems quite extreme. Having said that, it just shows you how normalized it's become to track all transactions.
Right, the fact we transitioned into this new model, and it was really just him and a few others screaming about it is a little sad. It really doesn't seem easy to go back (to a more anonymous society) at this point either.
I ask myself how he pays for his servers. Does it count if another person does it? Apparently, he connects to the internet over an other person.
I think that's a real issue. If you have enough power that other persons do the stuff for you, it doesn't mean it's a way in which other persons can do it as well.
I'm very much not a fan of RMS, but here's one way you can square that circle:
He and you could both live by the principle that you do as much to fit your principles as you feasibly can.
If you have someone to help you get online anonymously for free, you do that. If you need to pay to be online, you do that instead.
If you can get by in life without buying things and being tracked, you do that. If you can't do that, because it's not the life you can imagine living, you don't.
The more important the principle (to you), the more you sacrifice to implement it.
Low-to-no military spending is important enough to me that I won't work for a defense contractor. It's honestly not important enough for me to purposefully earn less than the taxable minimum (and thus pay no taxes, and thus pay no military money).
And of course by evidence, "Anonymous internet" is important enough to RMS to live an ultra-hippie life, but not important enough to use no internet at all.
I completely agree with you except that I think that politics is important and not working for a defense contractor is insufficient. Everything I am pointing out is that there are shortcomings in RMS' model that can't be applied to everyone. I am not a "fan" of RMS, either. I am not a "fan" of anyone.
"I never pay for anything on the Web, because I cannot pay anonymously. Anything on the net that requires payment that would identify me, I don't do. (I made an exception for the fees for the stallman.org domain, since that is connected with me anyway.)"
Personally, I really hate all the tracking. But I also really need to advance some aspects of my life because time grows short and I ended up raising my granddaughter.
(She will either kill me off, or I get a lot stronger! Lol)
So, I pay. But will also contribute time and money to good causes. Not happy about all that, but I need what I need too, so does the fam.
Tons of people struggle like this. It has to be important to have the conversations sans the judgement.
Wow. My first thought upon reading that is that seems quite extreme. Having said that, it just shows you how normalized it's become to track all transactions.