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And this is why you need ad blockers and privacy protection plugins for your web browser. If you can't stop Facebook snooping on you at least make it hard for t

And this is why you need ad blockers and privacy protection plugins for your web browser. If you can't stop Facebook snooping on you at least make it hard for them. As my grandfather taught me, "if you can't win then make it hard for the other guy to win."

kelseyfrog 5y ago
I don't like this pattern in calls to action. The pattern starts with an implicit hopelessness of affecting any external change and results in all responsibility being assumed by the individual. This is an antipattern of change. It does not need to be perpetuated because it reproduces the permanence of the constructs we want to dismantle. Even more importantly, these entities are fully aware of this and craftily guide the masses toward individual responsibility as a default, knowing that it won't affect real change. The antidote to this is critical collective action which realizes the impossibly of change as itself an impossible stance to take.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Change isn't caused by strength of belief; it's magic that only works based on how hard you believe in it. Collective action doesn't do itself, and the words "collective action" don't constitute a plan. Individual evasions at least make things more expensive to do. Also, individual action doesn't crowd out collective action. Not protecting yourself doesn't create collective action. A concrete plan with concrete individual actions to take creates collective action. Individual sacrifice to create institutions creates collective action. IMO you should be ready to tell people where to show up before you tell them not to help themselves.
  - kelseyfrog 5y ago
    Of course not. We both agree that organizing doesn't appear out of nowhere and that it takes real work to mobilize people. The call to action of installing adblockers in this particular case makes people feel like they are taking real action, but it's equivalent to "hope and prayers" and that doesn't work either. My point is that "If you can't stop Facebook snooping" is a self-limiting assumption. Of course we can stop Facebook from snooping. Facebook's ability to snoop relies on the social, political, legal, and economic assumptions all of which are constructed by people and therefore aren't immutable constants. Our progress toward changing that is realizing that all of these things are things we made and therefore can change.

kelseyfrog 5y ago

I don't like this pattern in calls to action. The pattern starts with an implicit hopelessness of affecting any external change and results in all responsibility being assumed by the individual. This is an antipattern of change. It does not need to be perpetuated because it reproduces the permanence of the constructs we want to dismantle. Even more importantly, these entities are fully aware of this and craftily guide the masses toward individual responsibility as a default, knowing that it won't affect real change. The antidote to this is critical collective action which realizes the impossibly of change as itself an impossible stance to take.

pessimizer 5y ago
Change isn't caused by strength of belief; it's magic that only works based on how hard you believe in it. Collective action doesn't do itself, and the words "collective action" don't constitute a plan. Individual evasions at least make things more expensive to do. Also, individual action doesn't crowd out collective action. Not protecting yourself doesn't create collective action. A concrete plan with concrete individual actions to take creates collective action. Individual sacrifice to create institutions creates collective action. IMO you should be ready to tell people where to show up before you tell them not to help themselves.
- kelseyfrog 5y ago
  Of course not. We both agree that organizing doesn't appear out of nowhere and that it takes real work to mobilize people. The call to action of installing adblockers in this particular case makes people feel like they are taking real action, but it's equivalent to "hope and prayers" and that doesn't work either. My point is that "If you can't stop Facebook snooping" is a self-limiting assumption. Of course we can stop Facebook from snooping. Facebook's ability to snoop relies on the social, political, legal, and economic assumptions all of which are constructed by people and therefore aren't immutable constants. Our progress toward changing that is realizing that all of these things are things we made and therefore can change.