Xs and Os (changing my mind)

“ We need the idealism that pushes ordinary people
to make better decisions and stick to them.
Yes, even if that looks like switching email providers.”

--Joan Westerberg, Building a Trump-Proof Tech Stack

I am excited! I found (at the above link) a possible replacement for Google's gmail, and I opened a free email account to try, here:
Proton, out of Switzerland.
Did a little (little) research, and it looks good...

"Proton Mail should ring a bell if you’ve been hanging out a bit in the privacy circles. It’s designed to be as secure and private as possible, it has end to end encryption, and a good part of it is open source."

--"Quitting Gmail — a few secure interesting alternatives" from Medium, 2019, by Nick @ The Linux Experiment,

who also says of Gmail, "good service, bad practices".

I found Proton in a link on Sabine's blog Interim Arrangements in her post yesterday, "To Clarify".
I share the perspective of her post:
I'm not only concerned about a safe internet; I am just as much (or more) motivated to stop supporting the Tech Bros who showed up for Trump's inauguration.

I am (slowly) erasing these moguls from my online life.

1. Zuckerberg: I deleted Facebook & Instagram.

2. Bezos: I boycotted Amazon and deleted my account

3. Google is a hard one because they own this platform, Blogger. Must look into alternatives, or . . . choose to stay anyway. (I always say, I'm not going for purity.)

But I just opened an alternate to Gmail : Proton, to test.
Yay!
(I went for the lightest option on Proton:
free, no auto-transfer from gmail--I will try it out one email at a time.)

4. Never interfaced with Musk's companies, though I had a Twitter account years ago, before he took over.
I was relieved to see Musk sold his shares in PayPal * (to Ebay) in 2002.
(In 2015 eBay spun off PayPal to its shareholders, and PayPal became an independent company again.)
This doesn't make them good, but I want keep using PayPal for its security.

5. Apple (CEO Tim Cook) is the real sticker for me.
I've never owned anything but Apple products--from my first desktop to this airbook I am typing on to iphones (an old iPhone 7 now).
I'm not going to replace them until they wear out.

And so, Apple services (podcasts, apps, etc.) are woven into my digital life, and I'll have to slowly unstitch them.
I did, however, finally make Firefox the default browser on my phone instead of the preloaded Safari.
(I've long used Firefox on my laptop, but was lazy about changing my phone.)

6. Not pictured: NPR calls the CEO of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman "The tech bro who wasn't on Trump's inauguration stage"––he'd supported Kamala Harris.
But I also deleted LinkedIn for security reasons. (I'd listed a ton of personal details there--from college to work associates and workplaces, with links, etc.)

I shut down my personal account on youTube too.
And, you know, I boycotted Target and joined CostCo.

Changes are ongoing...

II. Get Yourself Free, and Give Yourself Time

You can change your mind in an instant. Maybe.
Changing actions might take longer.
I like this quote, below, but it's not always that easy to SIMPLY STOP doing something that's woven tightly into your life. And it can be overwhelming! (I feel that.)
It's okay to go slow.

"I don't wanna do this any more... Then don't." --via
honeyberrydiary.com/2016/03/08/its-ok-to-change-your-mind

> > > Here's the key thing about all of this--the biggest liberation: CHANGing My Mind.

I've long loved the "think different" image of Apple . . . even after I knew it was false.
It is hard to drop an image you've imprinted on, like a baby goose.

Historian Sarah Paine ends a long interview by saying...

"For young and old:
do not be afraid to change your mind.
Reassessment is a virtue not a fault.
Intransigence in the face of opposing evidence is a harbinger of senility." * *

–– "Interview: Sarah C. Paine. A scholar of the 20th century explains the conflicts of the 21st." Noah Smith, Noahpinion blog, Jan. 30, 2024,
www.noahpinion.blog/p/interview-sarah-c-paine
__________________

 *  I don't know much about PayPal and was sorry to see it on Newsweek's "List of Companies Who Have Donated to Donald Trump".
But was glad to see:
"PayPal shuts down its services in Russia citing Ukraine aggression"--Reuters, 2022--and as far as I can see has not rescinded that...

PayPal also owns Venmo.

 * * Sarah Paine's quote on changing your mind  is set in this paragraph:

"For Americans generally, some neglected platitudes:
Be kind to each other.
Encourage others not to be mean.
When others say something nice about someone, let that person know.
Thank those who should be thanked. ¶
Try to forgive the little things and focus on the big things.
For those who are senior, look out for those who are junior.
For young and old: do not be afraid to change your mind. Reassessment is a virtue not a fault. Intransigence in the face of opposing evidence is a harbinger of senility."

Sarah Paine: "You or I cannot change how Russians think about things."

But we can change how we think about things.

¶ I sent a thank-you to Rep Al Green (D-Texas) for STANDING UP, literally, to Trump.