The "broligarchs" don't speak for me

I was preparing to write a supportive and additive comment as I started reading this, but honestly I think the author covered much of what I’d want to say. We have to be intentional about fighting against this growing evil, but we’re not going to stop it. We can only do our best not to add to it. Some thoughts of mine that I think mostly echo the article:

Don’t work for these companies; don’t use their products; use free software on used or open hardware; tell everyone you know to do the same, and why. Be prepared to help those around you. Don’t just tell them to quit Facebook and install Slackware and expect them to figure it out. Give them old laptops with Fedora preinstalled, invite them to chat with you on federated chat networks, and donate as much as you can to the free software projects you use every day.

I typically try to keep my professional and political lives separate but i think at this point in time that is a very weak attempt to keep my head in the sand. I am literally working in an AI/bio science lab I do not have that option any more. I have been thinking these thoughts for several months now but didn’t have the guts to write them down. I really wish I had and will try to be better about being public about my thoughts in this regard in the future.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I hate being stereotyped, and it often comes up when people ask me questions about what I do for a living. “Oh, you work in tech?”

I can only imagine that they think I am friends with people like Elon Musk or support the “tech bro” culture in some way. I remember being blissfully unaware of this culture less than a decade ago. I have been programming since the mid-90s and into my own interests the whole time. Never understood the why to webmail, and later to social media platforms. But how do we get people off the big platforms when it has been made so easy? Not everyone has the technical capabilities or social resources.

In the common vernacular it seems technology = tech = tech bro = neoliberal = male chauvinist. How do we break away from this?

I wish we could champion some form of “simple computing” for the masses.

Does what it says on the tin, no muss or fuss.

It might be controversial to say, but this was Apple from 2010-2020 for me- and they got my patronage for this reason, something has gone awry there very recently and the software quality is falling precipitously, but “does what it says on the tin” and does not force itself are my main requisites- not “simple” as in OpenBSD’s definition.

edit: Removing some stuff. I think basically this is interesting narrative but I stopped reading, not that that should be taken as an insult or something, but I can tell that this isn’t going to be for me. The author has a lot to say, I hope this was cathartic and I hope that whoever this message was intended for receives it well (not me, since I’m basically just like “yeah, makes sense” over and over again as I read this).

Also, an aside, I find the term “tech bro” so dated and obnoxious. I hope we can move past that.