cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24727109
The right to be analog is a critical enabler to the power to boycott.
Suppose you boycott Microsoft and Google. If you need to reach a gov office who uses MS or Google for email, then you are writing a snail mail letter. Denmark has eliminated the national postal service. The loss of an important analog option forces Danes to use the digital mechanism. No one in Denmark can say: “hold on, I am boycotting Microsoft, so I cannot be obligated to correspond with your office”.
No country gives its people either rights. That is, there is no country that gives you a right to boycott or the right be analog. In principle, we could loosely claim to derive those rights through the human rights to autonomy, dignity, and self-determination. But that won’t hold up in court, as human rights are generally disregarded in court. Abstract human rights like that are really a long-shot as well. Even if a court were to concede to human rights, you’ve already lost if you have to go to court because in Europe you cannot generally recover all damages even if the judge takes your side.
I believe a window of opportunity is passing us by. If we do not establish a right to be analog hard and fast, it will be too late once mechanisms supporting our analog refuge are gone.
Europe is quietly removing the cash option. Europeans are boiling frogs. They don’t see that they have already lost the option to be free from banks. Forced banking is already in force. This enables banks to gradually force you onto their enshitified digital platforms.
What I find most disturbing is how a vast majority are blind to this.
You can still boycott Microsoft and Google, you can use a Linux based OS and FOSS browser and email client software. The analog world is basically over.
You can still boycott Microsoft and Google, you can use a Linux based OS and FOSS browser and email client software.
No, that does not work. I can run all the FOSS I want, and I can register for email service wherever I like. But I cannot reach a Microsoft-hosted recipient without feeding Microsoft.
Exceptionally, if I have an analog option like snail-mail, then I can use that to reach the recipient without feeding Microsoft.
You can cut off your nose to spite your face as well and it will get you as far as trying to control what the other end of a service you need is running on. You only get to boycott with your dollar ( or whatever currency you use). Ludditeism only hurts you. Join the 21st century or just give up, but there aren’t enough of you to make what you want to happen.
You only get to boycott with your dollar ( or whatever currency you use).
That’s 1970s boycotting. It’s not like that anymore.
Some people believe data is worth more than oil. It’s debatable whether that’s true, but I know for absolute certain that data is worth money. So if you are feeding data to a company that profits from it, you are certainly not boycotting that company (despite them not seeing a dime of direct money from you).
In the very least, if you are willing to send email to a MS email recipient, you are lying to yourself and others if you claim to be boycotting MS.
I don’t have an argument against what you’re saying, but I’m afraid you’re gonna find you’ve chosen an impossible path. Good luck. Enjoy your chosen struggles.
Your rights end where the important people’s money start.
In Europe the situation is still fixable; in the US, apparently, the idea of “rights” never was in the mind in the first place.
We’re not “blind”. We just don’t know what to do. We don’t have any uniting force.
In Europe the situation is still fixable; in the US, apparently, the idea of “rights” never was in the mind in the first place.
You have no more of an explicit right to be analog in Europe than you do in the US.
But Europe is far worse in giving powers or abilities to use analog mechanisms.
Consider cash:
- Paying debts in “legal tender” (cash) is nearly absolute in the US. The only notable compromise AFAIK is in situations where a creditor has no physical presence that gives a practical way to securely pay cash. But I cannot think of any circumstances where that is a barrier. You can always buy a cashiers check or money order to send money from a distance without having a bank account.
- Forced-banking is already in force in Europe. Tax is one transaction you cannot avoid, and there are already many tax regimes in Europe that refuse cash payment. Forced-banking is a gateway to many additional secondary forms of digital oppression. Some banks refuse you for not having a mobile phone. And then having a mobile phone obligates you to register an ID to the GSM chip. Some banks force you to use an app, which can only be obtained from Google playstore. (The US likely has such banks as well, but the US also has 6,000 banks to choose from, so the pressure to use them is negligable)
- Cash transactions above €10k are banned EU-wide, and parts of western Europe have lowered that to €1-3k. Some EU countries have banned cash in real estate transactions, despite housing being a human right.
I see nothing stopping someone from living unbanked in the US. Even getting a paycheck is possible, because you can receive a paper paycheck and cash it without having a bank acct. Try that in Europe. I dare you.
Apart from cash:
- snail mail is discontinued in Denmark. You will not be able to claw back a meaningful or effective right to be analog after that.
- snail mail service is being downgraded in other parts of Europe. E.g. Belgium has reduced delivery of non-priority mail to like 3 times/week now.
- public administrations /force/ the use of digital platforms in many situations.
