So um, as a sociology student, there [i]is indeed no such thing as neutral technology or tool[/i]. Everything is created within systems of power, and its production will always require externalisation of some costs. Artefacts do have politics, because we live in a social world, use social language, etc.
[b]However[/b], this does not mean that it is a moral failing, cuz otherwise everybody existing in society would be evil. We live in an imperfect world, and our own position in it, legible through the symbolic order, is continually accepted, rejected, naturalised, de-naturalised, interpreted, re-interpreted, and negotiated.
Call out harm where you can, accept some difficulties to avoid stuff you find especially egregious if you can, but ultimately, don’t moralise it against yourself if you can’t.
TL;DR There is no neutral tool or technology, but that doesn’t mean you’re morally complicit by not resisting everything. Try to minimise harm where you can, but don’t beat yourself up if you can’t either.
Huh, kinda like “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism”, acknowledging that the only way to abstain from perpetuating it is to starve to death, but principled corpses–even MOUNTAINS of Principled Corpses–seldom result in changes of policy.
Quiet isolated suicide will not improve the world, especially if immoral and exploitative systems WANT (colloquially speaking) their opposition to die. Maybe don’t play right into the hands of people who want us dead by giving them what they want, right? Better to survive and maybe also scavenge the resources needed to build something less destructive…
Quite. I think that’s also why we’re on the Fediverse, right? While so many of our tech is captured by corporates, we still have room to not accept it all laying down. That’s what negotiation means, drawing your own boundaries, and as much as I hate saying it, picking your own battles, while realising not many will be willing or able to fight the same ones you do.
that’s like declaring electric light racism and keep using light bulbs…
Like all people that see racism everywhere, they will fail…
It’s a tool, use it where it works well.
I agree with you…
But be prepared to be labelled a facist on lemmy
apparently there’s no such thing as a neutral technology or tool
So um, as a sociology student, there [i]is indeed no such thing as neutral technology or tool[/i]. Everything is created within systems of power, and its production will always require externalisation of some costs. Artefacts do have politics, because we live in a social world, use social language, etc.
[b]However[/b], this does not mean that it is a moral failing, cuz otherwise everybody existing in society would be evil. We live in an imperfect world, and our own position in it, legible through the symbolic order, is continually accepted, rejected, naturalised, de-naturalised, interpreted, re-interpreted, and negotiated.
Call out harm where you can, accept some difficulties to avoid stuff you find especially egregious if you can, but ultimately, don’t moralise it against yourself if you can’t.
TL;DR There is no neutral tool or technology, but that doesn’t mean you’re morally complicit by not resisting everything. Try to minimise harm where you can, but don’t beat yourself up if you can’t either.
Huh, kinda like “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism”, acknowledging that the only way to abstain from perpetuating it is to starve to death, but principled corpses–even MOUNTAINS of Principled Corpses–seldom result in changes of policy.
Quiet isolated suicide will not improve the world, especially if immoral and exploitative systems WANT (colloquially speaking) their opposition to die. Maybe don’t play right into the hands of people who want us dead by giving them what they want, right? Better to survive and maybe also scavenge the resources needed to build something less destructive…
Quite. I think that’s also why we’re on the Fediverse, right? While so many of our tech is captured by corporates, we still have room to not accept it all laying down. That’s what negotiation means, drawing your own boundaries, and as much as I hate saying it, picking your own battles, while realising not many will be willing or able to fight the same ones you do.