Using the term “normies” paints you as having a superiority complex, which isn’t the best look.
Really? I just interpreted the use of normie here as “layperson” or “average user” and thought it was completely harmless.
Have someone refer to you as a normie and lmk if it feels neutral or derogatory.
I can’t imagine normies getting worked up over what some internet nerd calls them
That’s neither here nor there and sidesteps the point. Also, depending on how you define normies and nerds, it’s a bit silly. You can’t imagine a random person being worked up by being called names online. I mean, okay, if you say so.
‘There’s no point fighting it’ or ‘Privacy is already dead’
The arguments that make my eye twitch, It’s such a defeatist outlook but seems like the most common nowadays.
There is a 3rd argument which I think is a bit more valid in “I value the service I receive in exchange for my personal data”
Using the internet without an adblocker, noscript, and whatever else is really nasty. But even if you aren’t on these platforms, marketers are still building profiles on you. Honestly we need data privacy legislation and some real talk about marketing and the costs of using the internet as a society.
That argument pisses me off.
“I don’t mind so fuck you.”
If you want to use those services, that’s your business. But I don’t use those services; they still keep my data.
Much of the obsession internet people have over ““privacy”” is just a feel-good-about-themselves thing, rather than actually protecting themselves from their data being collected and used. If you’re posting on the internet, yes that includes Lemmy, there’s almost no doubt that any government and world-destroying corporation would have easy access to everything about you in an instant, even if you go out of your way to try to use services “focused on privacy”. You aren’t protecting yourself from anything by not using Google/Microsoft/etc. products.
There is no “chipping away bit-by-bit” when it comes to this, it’s pretty much meaningless unless you’re nearly completely off the grid, to the point where you don’t even use modern technology. The worst you’re gonna do otherwise is fuck up targetted ads, but that’s not very hard to do considering Google apparently thought I was a pregnant woman looking for leather boots and beauty products when I still had ads on YouTube.
I wish people would admit it’s really not about their privacy. Say it’s because FOSS services are better (because they are), say it’s so you don’t get spam from shitty sites you gave your email to, say it’s so you can fit in in your niche online communities, whatever. But 99.99% of people in “privacy” communities haven’t even put a dent in the data being collected from them by large entities, hell most people in these communities think VPNs will protect them from anything at all other than their parents or boss not noticing them being on porn sites (VPNs can help with privacy, but only under specific conditions that most people aren’t meeting)…
That’s just demonstrably false
