If you’re been paying attention to the last several years you’re probably aware of how Silicon Valley and the Left, in general, have been doing what they can to undermine the Internet and freedom as we know it.
But in order to do this, we will have to get realistic about this. No LARP fantasies, no unrealistic conspiracy theories about how Donald Trump or some other stupid boomer will save the day, we have to get real about this.
The first thing that has to happen is that people need to realize that tech companies are not and never will be anyone’s friends. Their main concern is making money and to promote their own ideas (in this case it’s promoting left-wing politics). Most of us are aware how much Big Tech sucks. Youtube being ban happy, promotes social justice crap and has a broken copyright claim system. Tumblr is a dead website filled with loser cat ladies. Twitter is the ‘woke’ capital of the Internet with Jack Dorsey keeps enabling the Twitter userbase’s toxic behaviour. Facebook is a boomer’s platform filled to the brim with MLM scams. Discord is basically Reddit 2.0. Google is the gatekeeper of information. Reddit is the cesspool of pseudo-intellectuals. Patreon thinks they get to dictate what content creators can or can’t make. Even the so-called “Free Speech” websites such as Gab and Minds are nothing but hug boxes for your average boomer conservative and religious nutbags anyway.
So in order to make the Internet truly free and open, the following has to be done:
1. The embrace of private and anonymous cryptocurrencies. I do think it’s a good thing that cryptocurrencies are being adopted as they are becoming more mainstream but to challenge the financial establishment and even governments we need to collectively embrace cryptocurrencies such as Monero to truly challenge the system.
2. The support for open-source software. You’re basically part of the problem if you keep using proprietary junk such as Windows or OSX or anything from Microsoft and Apple because the more you use their products the more control that these companies have. Find a good Linux distro and other open-source software and learn how to use it.
3. The embrace of decentralized and peer-to-peer platforms. They do exist but for now, they’re nowhere near as big as their Big Tech counterparts. The biggest decentralized network is the Fediverse where instances run on Mastodon or Pleroma operate and interact with each other. There’s no Jack Dorseys, no Mark Zuckerbergs, or Susan Wojcikis that can shut you down. You are your own boss on this decentralized peer-to-peer network. If you’re also the owner of a website and you’re reading this (whether it’s a blog, a hentai website, an anime and/or manga website, a chan website just like 8chan, a website for emulators and game ROMS and ISOs, a torrenting website, a porn website, a website for tutorials, a political website, a news website, a tech website, a forum website, an online retailer, whatever the case may) do also be on the lookout for blockchain domains; while this technology is still in its infancy this new technology will make it very difficult for governments, corporations, and moral busybodies to censor the Internet then.
4. Reduce your dependency on online retail platforms such as Amazon. I understand that it may be inconvenient but do try to use smaller online retailers whenever possible.
5. Ditch Gmail. There are plenty of better options such as Protonmail anyway. The alternatives are not fully perfect but it’s best for healthy competition to manifest itself so that these services continue innovating.
6. Do support companies that contribute to open source but don’t fully trust them. For example, Valve has been doing plenty of progress to bring gaming to Linux but they are known to ban and censor video games on Steam then.
7. If you need to use a VPN, get one that accepts crypto and is not based in the nations that are part of the ‘Five Eyes of Surveillance. Some VPN services such as Proton VPN and Mulvad are examples of VPN services that are safer to use.
8. Anonymity is your friend. Don’t do anything stupid for you to lose it. Do what is necessary to make people know less about you.
9. If possible, use alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo. They’re not perfect by any means but they’re better than nothing then.
10. Use a browser that isn’t Chrome, you have to be a total idiot to use a VPN or a DNS Resolver and then think you’re being private on the Internet when you still use Chrome. There are plenty of other browsers out there that are better at protecting your privacy. Use Brave (for beginners), Firefox (I recommend hardening it in the about:config section, Privacytools has a list of modifications that you can do with Firefox for this), and Tor (if you’re that paranoid).
11. If you have the resources, consider mining your own crypto then.
12. Finally, this may sound cringy but be the best memester that you can be. 4chan/8chan culture is what made the Internet as we know it. They brought the concept of the ‘meme’ to pop culture, we made trolling to be an art form, we still influence how the Internet talks to each other (we made the words ‘cuck’ and ‘simp’ be part of everyday speech for crying out loud), we built Internet culture as we know it and these people want to claim something that they never even worked on anyway.