248 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
248 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
layout: post
|
|
title: "Who is we?"
|
|
category: [english]
|
|
tags: [english, life]
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
*This is a question that has been bothering me for a week or so and now the
|
|
time is ripe for blogging, even if I have no answers.*
|
|
|
|
I am typing and backspacing this line, I don't know how to properly begin
|
|
and format my message, or if my message can be understood. I think I will
|
|
begin by listing what events have lead me to think of the question, who is
|
|
"we".
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
Case redacted
|
|
|
|
I feel anxious returning to thinking about this case which I have removed
|
|
from my blog even if git remembers, I appreciate if you don't start digging
|
|
for more of that story. I don't even remember how it went.
|
|
|
|
There was a project and there was drama. I was "given permission"
|
|
(how exactly?) to talk as "we", I think it's simple to say it went to my
|
|
head and bad things happened.
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
Case matrix-appservice-irc
|
|
|
|
*I am not affiliated with New Vector or Matrix.org and neither are the
|
|
people I am going to describe, it's just easy to pick the name of the
|
|
project based on where this happened. I guess the people may not even
|
|
remember this incident, unless they are harbouring similar thoughts and
|
|
going to write their versions of this post.*
|
|
|
|
I am not sure how to talk about this either, but after having told about
|
|
*redacted* I feel less anxious as this happened after my worst mental health
|
|
problems.
|
|
|
|
There is a group of people. There is someone others don't get along with
|
|
well and another one whom people get along with a bit better.
|
|
|
|
The first person asks whether "we" should do something (funnily I have no
|
|
memory of what, but it's irrelevant to this post as this could have happened
|
|
anywhere) and I think what happened was the second person starting to
|
|
challenge the first one asking who are they to talk about "we". Can you
|
|
guess what happens next?
|
|
|
|
I still don't remember what exactly happened, but within the same
|
|
discussion the second person starts talking similar things as "we". I think
|
|
this time I am the one challenging them, asking how does their "we" differ
|
|
from the "we" of the first person or why are they allowed to say "we" while
|
|
the first one cannot.
|
|
|
|
I think there were hurt feelings and I faintly remember talking about it
|
|
with a third person, who I think agreed that there wasn't difference between
|
|
those "we"s and maybe even said that it was good that I pointed it out? I
|
|
don't remember, but I might regardless be typing this post and I have at
|
|
least two more cases.
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
Cases PrivacyTools.IO
|
|
|
|
This is an interesting case, because I guess I am supposedly part of the
|
|
"we" or at least a team member (unless I have gotten "fired" during the time
|
|
I am typing this) and I have criticized PTIO before finding myself in the
|
|
team. I am not sure or the case being interesting is why I again have
|
|
difficulties finding words while the previous case felt easy to get out. Or
|
|
maybe the problem is that this is actually cases in plural.
|
|
|
|
PTIO attempts to list tools that preferably anyone can use to protect their
|
|
privacy. There are GitHub issues (where I am active), Discourse Forum (which
|
|
I read thanks to mailing list mode) and a subReddit which I see at times
|
|
when Reddit decides to give me a web push notification. PTIO is also hosting
|
|
some services.
|
|
|
|
Now I look at the previous paragraph and wonder... What I am asking is
|
|
"who is we", but I could similarly ask who is PTIO, are they also a person
|
|
who happens to be hosting many services and list tools for privacy? Or is it
|
|
a inanimate website which just happens to have a founder and contributions
|
|
by many people on GitHub? And are the websites hosted by PTIO or Barung and
|
|
Jonah who are the service department?
|
|
|
|
At this point on line 87 this question starts seeming silly, but I am not
|
|
finished yet. Maybe "we" deserves the defence on whether it makes more sense
|
|
to ask whether "we should list X" or whether "X should be listed on PTIO",
|
|
I think I prefer the later form as it doesn't refer to the "we" and thus it
|
|
doesn't bring to existence the others.
|
|
|
|
I have been reading books by [Jaron Lanier](http://jaronlanier.com/) recently, beginning from
|
|
_Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now_,
|
|
_Who Owns The Future_ and currently I am reading _You Are Not a Gadget_.
|
|
I may be using weird books as I read the first and the last in Finnish while
|
|
I am typing in English so I know the English to Finnish translation of
|
|
Kirsimarja Tielinen and am translating it back to English and it wouldn't be
|
|
very surprising if I ended up to a different translation than the original
|
|
word.
|
|
|
|
Anyway especially in the first book he mentions a "pack switch" in peoples
|
|
heads and how social media (I wish I knew what was the original name of
|
|
"SUMUTIN") attempts to turn it into the pack position instead of the
|
|
individual postition. I think this and references to it in the other books
|
|
are inspiration for me to be typing this (on line 106 in Neovim) as I have
|
|
been seeing examples of this.
|
|
|
|
* A Finnish article on how a [YLE reporter met a man who wished for death of his family](https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2019/05/30/nettivihaa-tyossaan-kohtaava-sami-koivisto-tapasi-miehen-joka-toivoi-hanen).
|
|
* The reporter had written request [From reporter: don't do a favour to terrorists - don't distribute hate on social media](https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9786940)
|
|
which apparently wasn't very liked on a certain imageboard where
|
|
horrible things were said and this person was sued and met in
|
|
arbitration and I see this as a case of us-vs-them.
|
|
* Another recent case happened after I had already left Facebook\*, it goes
|
|
too close to people I know and associations I have responsibility in so I
|
|
am afraid of bringing the subject up again, so I will just say that there
|
|
was kind of a manhunt on Facebook and I was afraid that the next day I
|
|
would be hearing about how the situation escalated into a manhunt and a
|
|
murder. Luckily that didn't happen and the last I heard was that the
|
|
police got involved and the situation ended well.
|
|
|
|
Within this text editor I have gotten sidetracked for one screenful of text,
|
|
I have said that being "we" went badly for me in the past and that there is
|
|
ambiguosity between "PTIO"/"we", referred to books and Finnish events, so
|
|
I should be getting back to the subject.
|
|
|
|
While PTIO is not a imageboard, I still wonder who is that "we", because if
|
|
there is a "we", there must be those "others" and if there are "others",
|
|
doesn't pack mentality require "them" to be hated and maybe also feared? Who
|
|
are those others? Is it perhaps another privacy site like [PRISM BREAK](https://prism-break.org/en/)
|
|
or people who aren't as privacy concious? Who are privacy concious if I use
|
|
GMail and have Google Play Services on my phone, am I not part of us then? I
|
|
keep removing this sentence as the obvious continuation would be stereotypes
|
|
making me the target.
|
|
|
|
Recently there was another specific case on PTIO Reddit, someone asked about
|
|
DNS over HTTPS which is one of the issues I have thought the most about:
|
|
|
|
> [Should we add these settings as recommended hardening on the firefox about:config hardening page?](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/c9s7qz/adding_dns_over_https_firefox_config_settigs_to/)
|
|
|
|
There we (haha) have the "we" again, I felt a bit annoyed when Reddit web
|
|
push notification sent me to that page as I was hungry and tired and the
|
|
discussion was had in Reddit instead of at GitHub in [ 💬 Discussion | Firefox eSNI / DoH/TRR #785 ](https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/785) where I and four other people had discussed it
|
|
previously. There was one nice question on [why everyone just doesn't run their own DNS server](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/c9s7qz/adding_dns_over_https_firefox_config_settigs_to/et3g7cu) which
|
|
indeed would resolve at least my concerns, but... OK, now I am actually
|
|
getting beside the point.
|
|
|
|
I think the point is that I wish to provoke you, whoever is reading this,
|
|
into thinking who is that "we" in these scenarios that could happen anywhere.
|
|
|
|
If I finish up talking about PTIO, I don't know how many people there are
|
|
commenting at GitHub, Discourse, Reddit, Matrix, and whether they are the
|
|
same people everywhere or different and at the risk of sounding stupid or
|
|
elitist, I will say that I have no idea who the person opening the Reddit
|
|
thread is, they are not a member of the GitHub organization nor a moderator
|
|
at Reddit. As I have said previously, I am not active at Reddit, so I don't
|
|
know if they were e.g. the most active poster/commenter there. Who is we?
|
|
Maybe it was the PTIO Reddit users?
|
|
|
|
I don't like how the previous paragraph turned out, I am bad with words. I
|
|
do hope everyone keeps doing what they like and is welcoming to everyone, I
|
|
hope I made it clear earlier that my argument (if you can get it) undermines
|
|
itself while I said that there probably isn't that much difference in
|
|
"should we do X" or "should PTIO do X". PTIO can only be a sum of everyone
|
|
who contributes into it and if no one contributes, there can be no PTIO.
|
|
|
|
I still have two cases I intent to touch.
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
Case *Notes on privacy and data collection of Matrix.org*
|
|
|
|
*If you ask Maxidorius or other The Grid protocol community members about
|
|
this, they likely have no idea what I talk about as as with case
|
|
matrix-appservice-irc it's easier to take the name of where or what caused
|
|
the discussion, especially in this case as I don't want to promote the
|
|
quiet channel where this happened.*
|
|
|
|
The setting is a bit quiet IRC channel where many users happen to be from
|
|
Matrix. Due to the [Notes on privacy and data collection of Matrix.org](Notes on privacy and data collection of Matrix.org)
|
|
and me being a founder, I was asked if "we should ban Matrix so the users will
|
|
be more safe".
|
|
|
|
I haven't yet addressed the question who is "I", which my original question
|
|
"who is we" begs, I originally planned to not involve it, but it seems like
|
|
I have to at least in a few words. I think it should be enough to say that
|
|
I am not perfect or handle everything well (I have decided to throw this
|
|
post into the drafts directory after I reach the end so I can ask at least
|
|
some PTIO people to comment and why not people from this case too)...
|
|
|
|
I wasn't my best self at that time either and as this post had been
|
|
demanding to be written for days I started asking who that "we" is. And
|
|
whether everyone who cannot prove running a IRC client at home should be
|
|
banned as while I agree that Matrix is bad in this regard, I at least have
|
|
some sort of idea what it is doing, while I cannot know what are IRCCloud
|
|
and big shells doing (legally secrecy of correspondence would at least
|
|
prevent them from reading what happens in the channel and same applies to
|
|
Matrix, but I cannot know how long anything else is storing data).
|
|
|
|
Skipping several lines I asked the most active Matrix users (and everyone
|
|
else) what would they do if "the mysterious 'we' decided to ban Matrix users"
|
|
and one response was that they wouldn't bother just for one channel. I also
|
|
said that I wouldn't want to lose anyone.
|
|
|
|
No one told me who is the "we". I guess having undermined my argument that
|
|
the "we" is people on the channel or at least the most active chatters and
|
|
the not-operator asking the question wishes that the op/user distinction
|
|
to not be that big and the users may also take part on running the channel,
|
|
which I do think is a good idea, but as I said before, the "we" brings the
|
|
idea that there are also the "others" and I don't know who are the others
|
|
either. Are they the Matrix users other than the most active ones? Are they
|
|
those who don't say anything often? Are they those who chat when I am sleeping
|
|
and whom I never chat with directly for that reason?
|
|
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
|
|
Case I
|
|
|
|
LGBT\* circles have the right of self-definition and the right to not define
|
|
self. I wonder if I should take the later right to get out of that difficult
|
|
question, but it doesn't feel right to me, even if I originally didn't plan
|
|
to type this.
|
|
|
|
I am myself and many things, I may seem to be a different person in a group
|
|
where I feel safe or in a large group of people where I don't know the
|
|
people around. My communication can be very different when I am happy or
|
|
hungry. I am getting sidetracked, am I not?
|
|
|
|
For the purpose of this post, I am someone who has recovered from mental
|
|
health problems and started attempting to communicate nonviolently. I try
|
|
to be myself, "I", instead of "we" (whoever that was again). I try to make
|
|
clear what are my thoughts and feelings instead of communicating them as
|
|
thoughts/feelings of someone else, be that the mysterious "we" or a project
|
|
that has no life in itself.
|
|
|
|
I admit that I fail often, I guess that is to be a human, and if you and me
|
|
meet somewhere either in the internet or offline, I am going to fail
|
|
regardless of the language. I wonder if trying can also be thought as the
|
|
learning progress which is part of the journey and the journey is as
|
|
important as the destination.
|
|
|
|
With these words it's good time to end typing this post and commit this in
|
|
the drafts directory for spamming around for feedback on whether this is
|
|
ready for release in the blog or if there are suggestions how I should change
|
|
specific paragraphs or anything.
|
|
|
|
Would you mind commenting at: https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/issues/147 ?
|