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Written by machiner
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008 01:53 |
I'm really bothered by the term "freetard". It is used to denigrate those of us out there that are too smart to pay for certain glitzy operating systems coming from a couple highly touted but severely anti-citizen operating systems.
In fact, those people that choose to pay for, run, and suffer from said highly touted but convoluted operating systems, have developed sort of seething hate for us that get better for free. It bothers me because it's mob-rules mentality and those espousing the term seem to be the empty-headed and loud ones that others listen to. Oof. Haven't we learned yet that the loudest among us are usually the most fool-hardy?
People like the word because it's catchy, but it's dangerous. "Freeloading Retard". Oof. Words have meaning, they carry a weight. If enough people start to say, or worse yet, believe in such a word, it gets adopted as gospel by the teeming masses. Those too dumb to think for themselves. Then we would actually have a problem. Would you fight your brother because some punk kid in Omaha decided to get pissy at his ex-girlfriend for running Linux and not suffering like he does running Windows? Would you follow that punk by calling others freetards? I know, I know, media mentality - "TELL ME WHAT TO THINK!"
I have a job. Moreover, I have an education. Nobody on this earth could call me dumb or a freeloader. Yet, people would and do because I choose to run an operating system on our computers (paid for, by the way) that works exceedingly well, is more secure by by design and implementation, and can do anything I ask of it. I fail to see where my choice of using a better operating system qualifies me to be branded something so callous. So mean. Calling the open source community "freetards" is a cry out from all those suffering from their bad choices. I know it, they know it. However, people running proprietary software and operating systems are used to feeling pain. They are used to crying foul and they see us, the open source users, as having a better thing. As leaving those others in the dust to fend for themselves. Powerful backlash, this "freetard" designation. It's a powerful word for a powerful pain. However, we all must make our own choices.
Personally, I do not reward companies that treat me badly. Seems kind of dumb to me, nay, "retarded". However, here in America anyway, citizens are expected to pay through the nose where there is not much value. Businesses are expected to rape citizens and to label them as consumers instead. A citizen is too smart to fall for such nonsense, but a consumer is ripe for the picking. A citizen is one that makes wise choices from the available options - or, makes his own options. A consumer takes what is handed to him. Hmmm. If any group should be labeled with a denigrating label as "freetard" I think it more fitting to cast that unto the consumers out there. After all, it is without thought or independence that they happily line up like so many lambs to the slaughter in order to be the first fleeced.
I feel for you, I really do. You are probably a very nice person, other than your seething jealousy and your condemning ways. Beneath that I think that you are just hurt. You're feeling badly about your horrible decisions (or lack thereof) and you desperately need another to blame. Well, look elsewhere, pal. I certainly didn't twist your arm to buy what you did. Hell, I have been trying to help you for years to break away from your mistake and show you something better.
No. You'd rather label me as something contrary because you are stuck in your own mess and you loathe those of us out there with better. All you need to do is to get over your hating, jealous, seething self, suck up your past mistakes, start using your own good sense and you can and will see for yourself that it's all there for you, too. All you have to do is choose it. Break your own chains.
The next time you decide that you can endure your inner turmoil by lashing out at someone else, don't. Try to remember that you have made your own bed. Man-up. You can either sleep in it, or remake it a better way.
So, labeling me a freetard because I make better choices than you is false. Labeling me freetard because my choice of software is vastly superior to yours and free, is a cry for help because you have sunk yourself and you can't, or won't, lift a finger to bail out, or to correct. You can call me (and all of us) other things, though and you would be right. Here is a list for you in case you have forgotten or cannot see:
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independent
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citizen
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smart
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resourceful
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frugal
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insightful
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take charge
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clever
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leader
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trend-setter
Here are some things that open source coders, users and advocates are not:
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suckers
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followers
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codependent
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wasteful
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victims
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consumers
Those of us fighting for and using open source software are the same ones that would line the streets against a rouge government or invader or some other catastrophic national emergency. Not the consumers among us, they are the ones that would need the help. It's us, the insightful and resourceful free-thinkers that would step-up.
It's OK to make bad decisions but it's not OK to stick with them and then blame others for your mistake - or label them out of jealousy. And for an extra smack of smug -- look at what all your spending has done for you, look at where your lack of free-thought has gotten us all.
--machiner
28 roctober 2008
EDIT -- 4 nov 08: Oof. I took this down shortly after putting it up because it's a pensive and whiny bitch session. Lol, but I submitted this somewhere and I saw today that they published it. Crap. This clearly needs a do-over, lol.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:58 |
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