This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Frankly, hearing this makes me trust the developers less. A solid reason to trust, for example, Signal, is because they have straight bitten the bullet of saying, "Our software may end up helping deplorables at times, but we're still utterly committed to it, and nothing else is as important to this organization as this one thing." It's a commitment that helps me be comfortable that they're not going to roll over and sneak shady shit into the code if, like, I don't know, some Canadian truckers protest, the Canadian gov't declares an emergency, and the narrative is that they are the spawn of Satan and Hitler's gay love, and oh, if we could just peek in to their files, we'll stop the next holocaust.
I don't know that I trust Syncthing to do that anymore. I now really worry that they may be compromised... or at least that the snowball of their personnel is rolling downhill, ejecting anyone not on board with the narrative enough, on its way to being fully compromised.
This leaves me unsettled. I love their software. I use it everywhere. I might not yet be "too committed to pull out", but I'm considering revamping some things that might push me even closer to that line. Yet now, I sort of want to pull out. There's probably not a great alternative yet, I'm guessing. But is there any way for me, as a regular user, to affirmatively signal that I really really want them to make this commitment and cut the other shit out? Anything stronger than just "not donate"? Is there an alternate project that has such a commitment and which is close to being as good that I can donate to (maybe not even use yet if it's not there yet)? Anything?
I mean sure except for how they took the brave stance of deciding that they were going to completely nuke the only thing that made Signal stand out from every other p2p encrypted messaging app out there, thus rendering their software functionally no different from telegram or whatsapp or session.
What was that thing?
They integrated SMS into their app, so it was an all-in-one, and you didn't have to have two different apps. I am also salty about them removing this. I have five days to figure out what I really want to do about it. It absolutely makes their app significantly less valuable in general, but at least it doesn't indicate that they may sneak some fucky code into an update sometime that breaks how the core product is supposed to work.
How long ago was this? Simplest thing to do would be to checkout an old version of the app, and compile it yourself.
The point is not that I can use it to send normal SMS messages, it's that I can convince my less tech-savvy or privacy-conscious friends and family to use it as their primary messaging app. The proverbial bridge-playing Grandma is not going to use an older version of the app, she's just going to use whatever the version on her phone is (the one that is auto-updated by the app store). And if Grandma can't use that to text Janet from her Bridge club then Grandma isn't going to use that app anymore. Which means my messages to Grandma aren't encrypted.
The point was to get users that were not privacy conscious to get onboard by having an incredibly low barrier to entry. Anyone could use it just like a normal texting app, and anyone could therefore have encrypted messaging. This is no longer the case, making Signal functionally identical to every other basic bitch encrypted messaging app, and therefore worthless.
More options
Context Copy link
It's actually happening in five days. I think that's ultimately a self-defeating strategy. It is only a matter of time before some change has to be made to the core functionality, whether due to discovery of a new security vulnerability, compatibility with updating to a new phone, or whatever else. At that time, which is inevitable to come sooner or later, we'll be right back in the same dilemma. In the meantime, rather than being able to just be mostly ignorant about these little details, I'd have to basically become hyper-vigilant about paying attention to every twist and turn, which is a significant cost.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link