ElDiablo666

There's also such a thing as having a conscience. I agree that organizing and solidarity are necessary for effective political action but let's not discount the power of resistance against the moral turpitude of the day.

You've failed to understand on two levels. One, this is not a question of competing brands. That's a question of technology and not liberty, which is the point of the comment you replied to; if OP choose free software, it doesn't matter which "brand" he chose, there are a number of free application that do the same job.

Two, calling this victim blaming is a bit of a stretch at best and ridiculous nonsense at worst. Yes, what happened to OP is unfortunate but it's just a moderate inconvenience. It's not like someone drove their car over him or smashed his face in with a bat (he'll get over this much easier). The person you replied to therefore is not wishing serious ill will on him. They are simply saying they hope this mild inconvenience is enough to wake him (and others) up to the necessity of free software.

>So your example of not needing economists is unconvincing.

I don't need to convince anyone of needing economists. Economists need to convince the world of their necessity and have never done so, nor could they ever. Human beings don't need economists to tell them how to live their lives and until economists come up with a good argument for their authority, no one ought to do anything other than listen to what they have to say and possibly give it some thought.

Remember, none of this has anything to do with you and your theories and whatever else you think has any bearing on the structure of societies. This is about general human necessity. People don't need economists or any other social scientists. The best we can do is be helpful participants and try to use our knowledge to help those who might lack it.

This is the same alarmist nonsense that's been floating around since forever under one or another banner. This time it's expertise; last time it was "the end of intellectualism" and next time it'll be "Are we heading toward a chasm at full speed because PhDs aren't choosing the president?"

It's mostly intellectually embarrassing foolish nonsense. There's a significant difference between experts like developers, doctors, and engineers, and lawyers, sociologists, and anthropologists. The former group is composed of technical expertise that is necessary for performing the applied functional area of knowledge while the latter group is solely trained in the arena of thoughtfulness.

Want to lament the fact that social science isn't appreciated as it should be? Completely fine. But let's not pretend that understanding how to organize an economy is expertise nor that having such knowledge privileges anyone to make socio-economic decisions for anyone else. If ordinary people weren't the best at understanding how to organize their own lives, traitors wouldn't pay trillions to delude and manipulate them constantly.

The reason you are being downvoted, hopefully, is because you sound like a fool. You use the word unprofessional like it's a bad thing. You talk about how you wouldn't hire someone if they spoke like this CEO. All of those things raise red flags with me. How do you expect to be taken seriously when you care about things that don't matter?

That's not why this guy is an asshole. This guy is an asshole because that story doesn't need him to tell it; there are all the people who are actually oppressed by the terror system, some of whom he met. Tell their story. Help them tell it if no one takes it seriously. This guy is just like the author of "Black Like Me": completely unnecessary and insulting to the folks who actually suffer the tyranny of a system that's designed to hold them down. Also, you are too sympathetic to the thugs who enforce the tyranny.

You really shouldn't recommend a "mental acuity" test since those are complete and utter nonsense. I think it's a better screening criteria in the sense that you wouldn't want anyone working for you who believes that IQ tests are worthwhile.

I would like you to consider GPLv3+. Thanks and congrats on amazing work!

Actually, I think that "better story" is that we cannot and should not entrust proprietary and closed systems with our vital information. Just like how "security through obscurity" has long ago been proven untrue, so too should we stop using non-free software to do our tasks, especially highly important ones with sensitive data.

Me too. Got me to realize that liberty is more important than how cool the "features" be.