Ab und zu gehe ich echt gern nach draußen in die Natur mit dem Fahrrad oder wandern. Es ist einfach nice, verschiedene Landschaften, verschiedene Pflanzen und Tiere zu sehen und etwas Neues zu entdecken.
Natürlich leben wir auf einem Planeten, der wie einGefängnisist, und viele Menschen sind sehr eingeschränkt, einfach dorthin zu gehen, wo sie hin wollen, weil sie einfach nicht das Geld haben, oder weil sie vielleicht einen Reisepass haben, der es ihnen nicht erlaubt, in einen anderen Stamm einzureisen. In diesem Artikel geht es aber über den Park in deiner Stadt, den öffentlichen Strand, der sich in der Nähe befinden könnte, oder den Wald in deiner Nähe. Diese Dinge sind normalerweise frei zugänglich.
Ich bin zum Beispiel in einem kleinen Dorf imNaturpark Obere Donauaufgewachsen und vor nicht allzu langer Zeit hab ich erkannt, wie erstaunlich diese Gegend wirklich ist. Natürlich spreche ich über den landschaftlichen Aspekt davon – nicht über die Kultur!
Um dir einen Eindruck zu geben, sind hier ein paar Bilder, die ich während ein paar Fahrradtouren in diesem Sommer gemacht hab:
Ich bin sicher, dass es für manche Leute langweilig klingt, mit dem Fahrrad in die Natur zu fahren oder zu wandern, aber es kann nicht nur entspannend und angenehm sein, sondern auch erstaunlich, wenn du an die Komplexität hinter scheinbar einfachen Dingen wie einem Baum denkst. Nimm einen normalen Baum. Er hat einen Stamm, Wurzeln unter der Erde und ein paar Blätter. Das ist nicht gerade beeindruckend, oder?
Aber hast du eine Ahnung von den verborgenen Prozessen, die tagtäglich in den Blättern passieren, wie diePhotosynthese? Der chemische Prozess der Umwandlung von Kohlendioxid und Wasser in Kohlenhydrate mit ‘Hilfe’ des Sonnenlichts? Und wusstest du, dass das Licht von der Sonne, das durchKernfusionentsteht,8 Minuten und 20 Sekundenlang ‘reist’ und dann das Blatt im Baum erreicht?
Und dann gibt es Sauerstoffmoleküle, die zufällig als Nebenprodukt von der Photosynthese freigesetzt werden, und vielleicht werden ein paar dieser Moleküle von dir eingeatmet und in deine Lunge aufgenommen, wo sie in deinen Blutkreislauf gelangen und die Zellen deines Körpers erreichen – und das lässt diese Zellen richtig funktionieren, denn wenn sie keinen Sauerstoff bekommen, sterben sie letztendlich ab, und du auch…
Es ist faszinierend, wenn du darüber nachdenkst.
Dann kannst du darüber nachdenken, wie um alles in der Welt das Wasser in 20 oder 30 Meter Höhe die Blätter erreicht. Den ganzen Weg von den Wurzeln. Und wenn du online danach suchst, wirst du herausfinden, dass es beeindruckender ist als jeder Film mit einer erfundenen Geschichte:
Wenn du es noch genauer wissen willst, dann schau dir diesesVideoan, in dem erklärt wird, dass ein Unterdruck von minus mehreren Atmosphären entsteht.
Erstaunlich, oder?
Und dann denk an dasNetz unter der Erde, das aus Pilzen besteht und ganze Ökosysteme miteinander verbindet:
… Unglaublich!
Du siehst also, die Welt um uns herum ist in Wirklichkeit sehr komplex und erstaunlich. Es gibt so viele verborgene Prozesse und chemische Reaktionen, die sich Tag für Tag entfalten, und doch sind wir uns wahrscheinlich einiger oder der meisten dieser Dinge gar nicht bewusst.
Und dann versuche einfach an andere Planeten, Sterne und Schwarze Löcher zu denken, die weit entfernt sind. Das ist ein Foto, das ich gemacht habe, als ich zelten war und mir die Sterne angeschaut hab, um über das Universum nachzudenken und darüber, was dort draußen alles sein könnte …
Ich weiß noch, als ich jünger war und mit meinen Eltern eigentlich nicht gerne gewandert bin. Damals war es langweilig, und mit etwa 14 Jahren hab ich mehr Fernsehn geschaut und Pokemon auf meinem Nintendo Gameboy oder Fußball Manager auf unserem Computer gespielt. Wenn ich gewusst hätte, wie erstaunlich die Realität wirklich ist…
Es ist bedauerlich, dass die Mehrheit der jungen Menschen in unserer beschissenen Handelskultur aufwächst, in der sie zu Arbeitern und Konsumenten erzogen werden und ihre Neugierde auf die reale Welt erst später oder gar nie geweckt wird.
Vor etwa 2 Wochen hab ich Freunde in Kopenhagen besucht und wir hatten eine so coole Zeit zusammen. Wir haben gezeltet, sind geschwommen, haben gelacht, gespielt, geredet, gelesen und unsere Zeit genossen auf diesem wunderbaren Planeten Erde, der irgendwo im Weltraum ‘schwebt’.
Nicht nur dort hab ich über all den Stress, die Hektik und das unnötige Leiden auf unserem Planeten nachgedacht. Menschen müssen als Sklaven in beschissenen Jobs arbeiten, um in dieser Welt leben zu können, Bürokratie macht das Leben der Menschen unnötig kompliziert, und Regeln und Gesetze versuchen menschliches Verhalten zu kontrollieren, gehen aber eigentlich nicht die Ursache an, die Menschen dazu bringt, sich schlecht zu verhalten.
Die Menschheit sollte nicht auf diese Weise versklavt sein. Ich hab das Gefühl, dass Menschen in einer vernünftigeren Zukunft (falls es je eine geben wird) zurückblicken und über die Dummheit und Primitivität der gegenwärtigen Gesellschaft nachdenken würden.
Manchmal denke ich auch, dass es so ungerecht ist, dass ich das “Glück” hab, alles zu haben was ich brauche, und ich würde mich freuen, wenn jeder Mensch nicht ums Überleben kämpfen müsste. Manchmal macht es mich wütend, verwirrt, traurig, deprimiert und gibt mir ein Gefühl der Ohnmacht, da ich nicht die ganze Welt retten kann. Wenn du das also das hier liest und ab und zu ähnliche Gefühle hast, du bist nicht allein.
Als ich mit meinem guten Freund Rafa darüber geredet hab, hat er mir ein interessantes Video geschickt. Es geht darum, wenn du denkst, dass das, was du tust, keinen Unterschied macht, es nicht bedeutet, dass das auch so ist:
Es ist schwierig, sich in dieser Welt zurechtzufinden, ich weiß. Menschen rutschen leicht in egozentrisches, ignorantes und profitorientiertes Verhalten ab, weil unser weltweites, auf Handel basierendes Umfeld sie zu diesen Verhaltensweisen drängt.
Ich persönlich versuche also, mich so weit wie möglich vom Handel fernzuhalten und mit optimistischem Nihilismus durchs Leben zu gehen:
Wenn du das nächste Mal über das ‘Schlechte’ in dieser Welt nachdenkst, denk immer daran, dass es unsere handelsbasierte Gesellschaft ist, die alles verkackt, und versuche, deine Wut dagegen zu richten, und nicht gegen dich selbst, andere Menschen oder irgendetwas anderes. Vielleicht kannst du deine Gefühle von Wut, Verwirrung, Traurigkeit usw. in etwas Positives/Interessantes umwandeln. Auch wenn du es für unbedeutend hältst.
Und wenn du das nächste Mal in einen Wald gehst, denk an die Komplexität jenseits dessen, was du sehen kannst. Die Augen können einen Teil der Wirklichkeit wahrnehmen, aber um diese Sinnesreize zu verstehen, brauchst du dein Gehirn. Um es inTiosWorten auszudrücken: “Du siehst die Welt nicht, du denkst die Welt”. Und je mehr wir über die Welt wissen, desto mehr kann unser Gehirn mit der Realität synchronisiert sein, damit wir besser verstehen, was es bedeutet, Mensch zu sein und unsere Gedanken und Taten darauf auszurichten.
Based on the last article this article is supposed to be about your own environment. Have you ever dealt with this? What is your environment made of and how does it shape and influence you?
You may have little or no influence on many factors. You may need to work a job because you need the money to buy things you need and want, or you may be in some other life situation that may not be changeable right now.
But what you can influence and change at any time and relatively easily is the media you consume and that is exactly what this article is about.
People reflect on their environment, including the media they consume and from my own experience I've mostly consumed media where I've learned little or nothing, rather I've been made to consume stuff and be unhappy. That is ultimately the goal of advertising, which comes on almost all channels on TV (apart from public channels such as ARD or ZDF (there is also a lot of nonsense there, such as series or talk shows)).
Werbung bring dich auch dazu, die neuesten Klamotten und immer mehr davon zu wollen. Schau dir die Bilder von mir an, als ich etwa 16 oder 17 Jahre alt war und wie “cool” ich war und das neueste von H&M oder Zara an hatte:
I used to watch mostly entertainment shows. It all started with children's series Nickelodeon, Kika and Great RTL, then went on to football to shows and series by ProSieben and movies (action movies, horror movies, comedy movies, sci-fi movies, etc.). Galileo from ProSieben and Earth X from ZDF were probably the only programs in which I learned a bit about the world.
That has changed for some time now, as I only watch documentaries and science channels.
What? Why? Is not that boring?
That's how I would have reacted in the past if someone had said that to me, but now it's the other way around for me.
When you think about it, Hollywood movies, Netflix series, and TV shows are actually just fake. These things are not real, they are made up. The script is made up (okay, sometimes (very rarely) it's based on a true story), actors just pretend, and the scenarios are often exaggerated, misrepresented, or actually not possible at all. Even with “cool shows” such as Joko and Klaas, things are going well gefakedto draw a lot of attention.
And I watched this because... yes why actually?
To amuse me? To distract me from my boring everyday life for a short time so that I forget him and my problems? To waste 90 minutes of my life on a Disney fantasy film that makes the company even richer?
According to this statistic, people in Germany watch an average of 252 minutes of television per day:
Calculated over a year, that's 91,980 minutes and 1,533 hours or just under 64 days of uninterrupted television per year. And most of what's on TV is just crap.
Have you ever zapped through the channels and thought about what's actually on there?
Celebrity dinner, Germany's next top model, soccer, at home, storm of love, Navy CIS, Love Island, Two and a Half Men, The Simpsons, politics, you name it. Kids probably watch the same channels as I did then + maybe still Disney Channel27. January 2022
Sind das Sendungen, die Menschen über die Welt bilden, auf Probleme aufmerksam machen und Lösungen beschreiben? Sendungen, die sich kritisch mit der Welt auseinandersetzen und Dinge, wie Geld, Handel, Religion, Moral & Ethik etc. hinterfragen? Oder Sendungen, die sich mit verschiedenen Bereichen der Wissenschaft auseinandersetzen, über neue Erkenntnisse berichten oder über das, woran gerade geforscht wird?
Add to that the "funny videos" from Facebook and TikTok, the silly videos from Youtube, the "beautiful" pictures from Instagram, and the snaps from your best friends on Snapchat and you're on a planet where most people are mindless consumers with distorted values, who have no idea about science and don't (can't) think critically. They reflect their environment.
What I'm trying to say is that if you spend your whole life watching Hollywood movies, Netflix series, TV shows, Youtube videos about bullshit content, or spend your time on these platforms that promote all sorts of bullshit, they deserve as much attention as possible, then it will influence you and shape your values. Your life will then revolve around the same things.
The same with your friends. Are your friends talking about stocks, football and partying? Your life will probably revolve around the same things or something similar.
alternatives
Honestly, the greatest form of "activism" is to educate yourself properly with science-backed sources.
So with so many people watching irrelevant, unscientific and often over the top news and videos, we need more sane alternatives for that and that's exactly what we offer with our curated tools.
curated news
The news is curated from various sources to remove the clickbait titles and unscientific articles.
On VideoNeat you will find great documentaries and exciting science courses and also some interesting movies. VideoNeat's materials are only in English, but you can use it to improve your English 😉
These 3 tools, along with the curated tools in English, are my main media sources that I read, watch and listen to.
A few bad/unscientific articles/videos may slip through so be aware, however these curated items are constantly being improved to keep them fresh and scientific. If you still know relevant sources yourself, then you can also tell me to write and i can add them.
“Movies and TV shows have so much success in the world, but most of them are based on fiction and gossip, turning their viewers into beings with little or no understanding of the amazing reality around them.
What if movies were about real scientific events? What if TV shows were factual rather than fictional?
If you want endless stories and complex ideas, just look at reality. From quarks to quasars; living cells to black holes; Galileo to Einstein, the story of the real world is far beyond any story, movie, book or idea.
Imagine that instead of watching a fictional drama, we choose a movie about the life of Nikola Tesla, or instead of watching science fiction movies, we choose movies about the discovery of quarks, atoms, and DNA (the building blocks of us and everything around and in us).
The drama Galileo endured to prove the sky wasn't perfect and the curiosity that led him to be the first to observe a "wandering star" through a telescope and realize it was a world like ours ; ancient Greeks like Aristotle trying to understand the world around them; the life and discoveries of Copernicus and Kepler; the stunning discoveries of Darwin that led to the theory of evolution; Einstein's quest to prove that space has a form; the invention of chemistry and biology; the discovery of tectonic plates and how the earth moves beneath our feet, although we don't usually feel it; Edward Hubbles' discovery that our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies out there and that the universe is constantly expanding at an ever increasing rate; the existence of so many creatures in the world, as well as those that have died out (eg, dinosaurs); the revelation of quantum physics; the detection of neutrinos; the development of the many amazing technologies that have contributed to human discovery of the world...
I bet many people don't even have the slightest idea of the fascinating complexity of our world; the drama that lies behind scientific endeavor; the incredible discoveries; or the excitement/enthusiasm of new knowledge.
I'm so curious about how humanity and our environments would evolve if we were exposed to such media as much as the misinformation we receive today."
Such questions are incredibly exciting and important for understanding the world better. And there are some cases that answer such questions.
The following documentary shows that children who grow up under extreme conditions have completely different behavior than “normal” people. Oxana MalayaFor example, the girl who grew up among dogs for 6 years behaved more like a dog than a human. She couldn't speak or walk, but ran on all fours, like a dog.
Also Genie grew up in extreme isolation for more than 10 years, could not speak and showed completely different behavior than children of the same age.
What is also interesting is that these people were able to learn “normal behaviors,” such as speaking and walking on two legs, but only to a limited extent. That's obvious, because if you haven't learned to speak properly by the age of 13 years and 7 months, it will be very difficult for you to understand something like that properly. As shown in the documentary, the brains of feral children are smaller and malformed:
Here is the whole documentary:
So people are a product of their environment (their experiences), just like you and me. This is described in more detail in the book “Behaviour: from genes to gender”:
When I think about my own childhood now, it's somehow absurd. Have you ever had conversations about human behavior? About science and how science works? Has my curiosity about the world been awakened? Honestly no…
You come out of school and you can read and write, do some complex math, maybe Latin, maybe French and economics. I had that as a core subject in my Abitur. I was well prepared to become a blue-collar worker or haphazardly study business, like thousands of others do every year, and then sit in a marketing department and sell stuff. Congratulations society!
Luckily, I went traveling and had free time to learn more about the world.
Recently I was talking with a few friends about social media and the online platforms that people use for various things (keeping in touch with friends, educating themselves, entertaining, sharing projects/posts/images, or whatever).
I brought up this topic because I have a cool one Articles about Couchsurfing translated by Sasha, which made me think. Couchsurfing was originally a non-commercial host network that turned into a for-profit one and now cares primarily about its profits rather than its users.
As I thought about Couchsurfing's 'bad' behavior, I asked myself what on earth Facebook, Instagram, Google and other such services are doing and why do I still have an account on some of them?
Of course, we should all know that the business model of these companies is to collect as much data about you as possible and then show you personalized ads (Those). This has many negative effects, as the focus of these so-called “social networks” is no longer social, but rather profit-oriented. This means that they will do everything they can to keep you on their platform, to show you as much advertising as possible, which ultimately turns people into stupid consumers.
And these companies have different methods to get and keep as much of your attention as possible so they can maximize their profits. There are so-called “attention engineers” who design/design these platforms like addictive slot machines. They have implemented various features like pull down, (to refresh the feed) which is like the arm of a slot machine that you have to pull down and then you may or may not get a reward (new posts that might be interested or not). Tristan Harris (former design ethicist at Google) explains this very well (unfortunately the video is in English):
Then there is the endless feed that you can scroll down indefinitely and there might be something interesting or funny that the Facebook or Instagram algorithm presents to you. Or the Like button, which gives you a dopamine rush when people liked your picture or post and you want to constantly check if you got a new like so that you keep coming back to the platform.
I also find the Snapchat Streaks example very interesting because I didn't know that at all (unfortunately the video is also in English):
All of these features are harmful because they absorb your attention to the maximum. And all because Facebook makes huge profits from the advertising it inserts into its platforms. Essentially, you trade your attention and data on Facebook for so-called “free” access to the network. Facebook then sells the space on their network for ads to show you. Based on the data they have received from you, they can personalize (tailor to you) the advertising to increase the likelihood that you will view and click on it. In return, Facebook receives huge amounts of money from companies that pay for this advertising.
So pretty shitty, right?
And in case you didn't know, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp (and many other companies), so it's a huge company with around 2-3 billion users worldwide.
Have you ever looked at the stories in Instagram? There is an ad after almost every other story you watch.
When I thought about it, I felt like we are all basically being exploited (used for profit) by these platforms and we all know it (because of this Cambridge-Analytica-Skandal, this one Ted Talk or that Tedx Talk, this documentary about surveillance capitalism and many other such revelations) and all we do is look at it and accept it?
But it shouldn't be like that, right? Okay, maybe some people aren't aware that companies like this do these things (I'd suggest checking out the Criticism in Facebook or The dilemma with social networks but I'm very aware of it, so what do I do personally?
Will I still be on Facebook in 5 or 10 years? Or Instagram? Or couch surfing and paying money for my kindness in letting people sleep with me for free?
What will Facebook do in the meantime – what is their next business plan?
It turns out that Facebook has its own cryptocurrency (Libra) that will give them even more power in this world. And according to Wikipedia, users will be transparent: “Before using the wallet, you must identify yourself with an official ID. This means Libra users are transparent; every transaction can be assigned to the people involved.” (Those)
So Facebook will know when you gave how many Libra coins to whom. Not only will this be another way for them to collect even more data, but it won't solve any of the problems we have today because cryptocurrencies are just another form of trading that comes with a lot of problems like we see in the book The cause of most problems explain.
That's why I asked myself: What do I actually use these slot machines (Facebook and Instagram) for and is it really worth it?
To stay in touch with people? To share images/videos/projects with others? To educate myself by following some interesting sites about space and science?
There are alternatives for all of these things that are trade-free:
1. Stay in touch with people directly (messenger)
There are really great alternatives to stay in touch with people in different ways (messages, video calls, voice calls), and you can this article Read which explains in detail what types of communication there are (centralized or decentralized) and introduces some great options for staying in touch with your friends.
You can also search in the trade-free directory for “Messenger" or "Communication” and you will find many cool trading-free communication platforms.
I personally have Signal for 1 or 2 years now and even though it's not the perfect messenger (since the phone number is needed) I use Signal as my default messenger. There's an app on the phone and Signal also works on my laptop, which is pretty nice and I don't have to deal with WhatsApp anymore. Also, I'm currently testing Jami, which seems to be a very promising commerce-free messenger.
2. Share images/videos/projects/articles
You can use 2 ways to share images/videos/projects/articles etc. Either you rely on a social network or you have your own digital space in which you can express yourself. I have my own website where I post my thoughts, projects, pictures, etc. and I used Facebook and Instagram just to share these things there. I deleted Facebook and Instagram a long time ago and that's what I mainly use now Friendica as my social network.
Friendica is part of the Fediverse, which consists of many great social network alternatives and in trade-free directory These trade-free alternatives that don't abuse me behind my back are also listed:
The Fediverse includes the Instagram alternative Pixelfed, the Facebook alternatives, such as Friendica or diaspora and the Twitter alternative: Mastodon. What's special about Fediverse is that these platforms can communicate with each other because they share a common platform Protocol use. This means that if you have an account on Mastodon, you can also follow me on Friendica or a PeerTube channel or Pixelfed account. This is super super cool and makes the whole social networking thing more decentralized.
And as a side note, there are even apps for Friendica/Mastodon so you can use it on your phone, like Fedilab or Tusky27. January 2022
What about YouTube?
Ahh, this is a difficult case. I have to talk about YouTube because it is the second most popular website in the world and part of the Google family:
And what YouTube does is this:
So you might want to watch a single video, but wake up 2 hours later and realize you've watched a lot more videos because YouTube's algorithm recommends more videos to you. And these recommendations have a tendency to move from the calm, scientific videos to the crazy stuff, conspiracy theory videos and stupid content because these things keep people on the platform. In fact, 70% of videos viewed on YouTube are recommended by the algorithm. So if you watch a video of the moon landing, you might be suggested a video that claims the moon landing was fake.
And Tristan Harris also explains these methods very well:
The alternative is for example Invidious, which is a commerce-free front-end for YouTube without ads or data collection, and you can find some commerce-free Invidious instances here27. January 2022
Or a completely alternative trading-free video platform PearTube:
However, PeerTube just doesn't have as many videos as YouTube, so it's not easy.
One idea would be to link Invidious with PeerTube so that you could watch YouTube videos via PeerTube - that would be nice 😉
All in all: It's really difficult because there is some great content on YouTube, but also A LOT (an incredibly large amount) of garbage. The TROM project is trying to do something about it. And that brings us to education.
Education
The Internet is a great way to learn about new ideas and educate yourself on pretty much any topic that interests you. That's exactly what they're all about TROMNnews. These are essentially streams of digital media that are selected and collected to be made available to people. The goal is to select scientific, relevant and interesting content and remove the clickbait and bullshit content. In English there are curated news, videos, photos, illustrations and finteresting.
I created some of the tools in German and will work to keep them as scientific, relevant and interesting as possible. Then with the curated things in English and German I have 2 very good options for getting information.
So that’s basically it, but what about Couchsurfing?
BeWelcome and Trust Roots seem to be good alternatives to Couchsurfing, but the two are not that well known and therefore have fewer people using these platforms.
With all of this, I'm not changing anything
We have to be realistic and understand that these attention-seeking networks like Facebook or Instagram are a global thing. And I have to be realistic and admit that switching from Facebook to Friendica won't change the world.
However, I'm wondering if I should keep Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp just because everyone else uses these networks?
So for me personally it makes no sense to continue to stick with these platforms.
And is it really true when you say that these individual actions have no impact on the world at all?
I mean, doesn't everything we see in the world start small?
Didn't Facebook once 2004 Started small at Harvard University? In Mark Zuckerberg's room in a university and then in less than 20 years it became a worldwide thing. What about Apple? Didn't Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start their company in a garage? (Those)
If you think about it, everything in the world starts small and then gets bigger or not (depending on many factors). That's why I think it's not only useful but also important to support alternatives.
Of course I know the situation is different now because of the mechanisms that keep people trapped on these platforms at the moment (so I don't see many people quickly switching from Facebook or Instagram to another network) but I want to ask myself again – should I continue to support these networks now and in the future?
Because it also does something to me and changes me over time. As we know, this change can be negative because of the addictive nature of these networks.
If you look into it, you'll find that the people who thought up these things (the engineers behind the like button, the pull down, the red notifications, the endless feed, etc.) are different from what they have created, distance themselves. In fact, they try to avoid spending time on these platforms as much as possible or completely because they know how they work and how addictive and harmful they are. (Those)
It's not about living completely trade-free
We live in a world based on trade and that is a fact. And we will not live in a trade-free world tomorrow either – unfortunately. But what we can do is take small steps in that direction.
Should Wikipedia start charging people money if they want to use it, just because that's how the whole world works right now? Or should Doctors Without Borders, instead of treating everyone, start discriminating against a certain group of people? Of course not.
That's why I think I prefer to use alternatives, even if everything is new and I don't know any people on Friendica or few/none of my friends have Signal. What I can do is talk to my friends and family, tell them about the questionable things Facebook and Google are doing, and show them how easy it is to use trading-free alternatives.
After all, I created a Facebook account at some point, right? And before that on ICQ? And at studentVZ before that? And I've always managed to switch from one to the other - so why shouldn't I be able to switch to Friendica?
It's almost impossible to escape
Let's be honest. This is what a typical smartphone screen probably looks like these days:
Chock-full of trading-based apps, and I can tell you a story about it:
I have a little sister and she is completely caught up in Tiktok and YouTube loops (stupid videos that the algorithm recommends to her based on what she watched). It's hard to reach such small children, especially when there are such cool videos from them Lisa and Lena There are...but maybe they'll understand these things as they get older. But maybe not. I don't know it.
But that is not the point. It's about talking about these problems and showing alternatives.
last words
For me personally: If I can't find a host in a city I want to visit with BeWelcome or Trustroots, then so be it. 50 years ago I couldn't send a message from Germany to Australia over the Internet. I also had the experience of not being able to find a host in a city through Couchsurfing, even though I contacted many.
But if I and others and more and more people use these better (trade-free) networks that don't want to make a profit from us, then it's all the better for all of us.
Finally, I would like to give you the book “The cause of most problems” that explains data and attention trading in detail, and I want to ask you:
Where do you draw the line?
What else can these trading-based platforms afford? How far can they go with their methods to make a profit from you?
I recently discovered the German YouTube channel of VPRO, a Dutch broadcaster. I've seen a couple of VPRO documentaries before that that were really good too, but they were in English. Even if vpro dock only has subtitles in German and is not completely spoken over into German, I can still recommend the channel because there are some great documentaries. For example, about surveillance capitalism with Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff.
She has written a monumental book about the new economic order that is alarming. “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” shows how the biggest tech companies are handling our data.
How do we regain control of our data? What is surveillance capitalism anyway?
In this documentary, Zuboff takes a close look at Google and Facebook and reveals a merciless form of capitalism in which the citizen himself, rather than natural resources, serves as the raw material.
It's great how these companies present themselves as cool, privacy-safe and just want to connect people ("connect the world" - "the future is private"), but at the end of the day, they're huge profit-making corporations that collect everything about everyone and make a profit out of it.
The examples are also very interesting, such as pokemon go players being lured into stores to increase the likelihood that they will buy something, or monitoring people's buying behavior and when a woman buys a different shampoo, her father Offering baby products because she might be pregnant.
It's about building predictive models to sell you as much stuff as possible. The more data they have about you, the better the prediction models could be and the better they can sell you targeted stuff.
It's very, very terrible what's happening right now and it's not just happening recently, it's been happening for about 20 years, as Zuboff explains. And most seem to be totally unaware of it...
Of course, the video is primarily about one form of trading, namely data and attention trading. I trade my data and attention (via ads) for access to Facebook or Google services.
You could see problems that arise from this very well in the documentary, because, for example, people are made to become dull (brainless) consumers. Google will show you personalized ads and make you buy a shoe or whatever. And of course you're happy that Google knows what kind of shoes you like 😉 But of course you don't know what else Google knows about you because Google keeps that secret - Google seems to be a good friend who cares about you seems interested and caring about you, but he uses you completely for his own purposes...
If you want to learn more about this and other forms of trading, read our book, The Cause of Most Problems:
Addendum 05/23/2021:
I happened to come across a document from Apple in which the company explains very well how data trading works and that it happens on a daily basis: Link (Original)
Companies like Apple are now promoting themselves as "the good guys" as they pretend to protect your data. However, Apple doesn't really care about user privacy or your data, even though that's how the company sells itself. There are whistleblowers who say that Apple devices have their microphones on all the time and people are being spied on. There is more about this in the documentation “Invisibles – exploitation in the digital world of work” from DW from minute 29:29. Of course I can recommend the whole documentary.
The trade in data will only get worse with the Internet of Things as more devices become “smart” and can collect data and people don't seem to care too much about their privacy.
As long as people like Greta Thunberg or Luisa Neubauer and other "activists" don't fight against such big corporations as Google, Apple and Amazon, we won't get anywhere. “Every day, every hour, users see billions of digital ads online” (Link) These advertisements suck people's attention and shift people's focus to constant consumption.
We published the trade-free directory and you can contribute!
This directory currently provides hundreds of examples of organizations/projects that offer something trade-free, meaning they don't ask for anything in return - neither data, nor attention, money or anything else.
The Idea
Tio had the idea for a long time to make a directory in which trade-free goods and services are collected.
I texted him a few weeks ago that I would like to do the directory and we started the project. We both knew it should be simple and clear and I just started working with WordPress. Tio has years of experience with WordPress and that's why he helped with the design of the website - actually he did all of the design and structure of the website haha but that's great because I couldn't have done it that cool and clever.
The Submit page, where anyone can submit more trade-free items, looks just like a finished entry.
This is awesome because we only have to “publish” the entry.
Wir haben verschiedene Kategorien gemacht: Gemeinschaft, Bildung, Unterhaltung, Humanitär, Medien, Software & Hardware und Anderes, in denen wir die handelsfreien Güter und Dienstleistungen sammeln. Kategorien bieten eine grobe Übersicht über verschiedene Bereiche.
Each entry that is added is then tagged with tags that describe what exactly is being offered, such as books, videos, search engine, food, transportation, accommodation, medical care, photo editor, whatever.
Some of these tags are collected in a cloud so you have an overview and a search bar lets you search for what you want.
This is what the keyword cloud looks like.
So if you click on an entry, you will see a screenshot, the official link, a description and the tag, i.e. what is offered.
Above the screenshot you can see 5 blocks that reflect how the entry is rated by others. If something has 5 blocks it will likely be trade free, if something has 1 block it will likely not be trade free. At the bottom you can see the rating system, where you can also give your opinion - without having to create an account. You just click on the blocks you would give the entry and write in a comment why you rate it that way. Below you will see the comments of other people who have rated before you.
What we have decided for now is that we will review the comments because we have found that if we don't, there will be spam comments.
And what happens to the listings that are submitted but are not trade-free?
We publish these entries in the category “Rejected', with a reason why we rejected the entry. Maybe there were ads or a lot of trackers on the site, or the site wanted something else from you. Whatever it was - we write below why the entry is not trade-free. So we are 100% transparent. And you can also object to this - just like with a normal entry.
join us
As you may have noticed, the directory is based on the help of volunteers. You can add entries and rate entries. You don't need an account for any of this - you can just get started with it 🙂
So start and always ask yourself:
Wait - What am I trading?
Data (tracker), attention (because of advertising), money or something else?
A VPN encrypts all your traffic so no one can spy on you. The VPN stays between your device and the internet. When you visit a site, talk to someone, no matter what you do, everything is tunneled across different servers as encrypted information. If you visit a website and watch a documentary, a VPN can only be seen like this: a computer from South Korea (or another part of the world different from yours) sends and receives encrypted information from the website. There's no way to track that it's you, no way to track what that information is about. Great!
We recommend Private Internet Access (PIA) as the best VPN – they are experienced, they are secure, have lots of servers, great speeds, a very simple app and are very cheap. Free VPNs are slow and limited, so you'll have to pay for either option, but it's a worthwhile investment to protect all your internet activity. PIA also blocks ads and trackers. One license ($40/year - around €35/year) corresponds to 5 devices - so you can use the same license on 5 devices. Don't let their cheap footage on their website put you off, they are the best in the world.
Tracker and ad blocker
Privacy Badger is a tracker protection that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. You can easily use it as Firefox Addon Add it and it will block trackers for you. There are also many many free ad blockers, but we recommend uBlock Origin, as it has all the features you need. We recommend for smartphones Blockade, which works without needing to be rooted. These 3 things are all trading free and if you install them you will rarely, if ever, see ads.
Peer to Peer (p2p)
When you watch a video from YouTube or another website, that video is streamed from a server. The server may be shut down, the owner of the video or the company hosting the server may remove the video, and so on. Very insecure. However, with p2p, a video is stored on multiple computers, so essentially no one can delete it. When you watch a video, the video is divided into many parts, and you will take some parts from one computer, some from others, and so on, which combine to form the entire video file. This is the best way to share things.
P2P clients are simple apps that put all these pieces of files together and allow you to enjoy (download/watch/read) them. Although there are many P2P clients, we recommend the free and open-source one WebTorrent (available for every desktop operating system). The way it works is that you simply download a “.torrent” file and open it with WebTorrent and the file(s) will automatically download. You can do the same with “magnet” links (just click on them – that’s all). WebTorrent also allows streaming the content before downloading it. For cell phones you can AceStream (does the same thing – downloads p2p files and enables streaming).
Tio once told me that people who try to change the world are like ambulances.
Ambulances are great, respond very quickly and will save lives. But we need a health system, research centers and so on to be able to study why people get sick and prevent it, rather than intervening to quickly save them without understanding what made them sick.
In my experience, there are many people who are like ambulances.
There is plastic in the sea, so let's form an organization to fish out the plastic.
Rainforest is being cut down or cleared? Then we found an organization that works to protect the rainforest and place areas under conservation or produce/buy “sustainable products”.
The federal government is voting on an economic stimulus program involving many billions? Then let's make a petition so that the money is invested sustainably.
The world's governments are doing nothing about climate change? Then take to the streets every Friday and demonstrate against it.
No question, these are all well-intentioned projects/actions by people who seem to care about problems.
But it seems to me that few seem to wonder why or where these problems come from. And if there are those who do that, how many question the economic system, or even trade itself?
Where are these highly trained scientists who are steering the world in a more sensible direction?
Why isn't there a “team of experts” that sits down and says: “Now we're going to put the world in order. This is all ridiculous with all the tribes on planet Earth, their governments and ridiculous presidents, with all the corporations that keep people enslaved and only give them access to things they need if they give something in return (money, data , attention etc.), with all the people who needlessly suffer and die from these conditions... Let's stop this. We can do better than we do now – much better.”
But that doesn't seem to exist...
Or at least I wouldn't rely on it.
Whatever happens is real. What you think should happen isn't real. And that's what disappoints people.
So if you want a world in which there is no war, poverty, famine, environmental destruction, climate change, etc., then you have to do something about it.
This is an important thing that you need to understand.
At TROM we try to give people an opportunity to get involved. Not just one, but many options.
We want to make trade obsolete in order to leave all the ridiculousness of the world behind us and what we need for this are 2 ingredients: education and infrastructure. Education so that people become more sensible (e.g. I don't need the latest Audi Q5 with four-wheel drive) and infrastructure so that people no longer have to spend so much time working and have more time for, for example, volunteer work (trade-free access to things they need and want). We're working on it, but we can't do it alone (it's a constant process anyway with no goal within reach).
That's why you're in demand.
The most important thing is to create awareness about trade as the cause of most problems and along the way create/promote trade-free goods and services. The more people who work on the problem of trade, the better for all of us.
There are many lists about sustainable tips and tricks, but they don't go far enough. Because I have always asked myself what I can do as an individual, here is a list of ideas that I have:
Lerne über die Welt, wie sie funktioniert, über menschliches Verhalten, über Technologie, Kulturen, das Handelssystem etc. –> Auf tromsite.de haben wirBooks about many different topics.
Share what you have learned: talk to other people about it, write articles, make videos, lectures, songs, events, etc. - create awareness of relevant topics.
Help directly TROM-Project: e.g. proofread my translations, share our materials and tools (the documentation, books, videos, curated news/videos/podcasts, Videoneat, Musikwave, etc.), help us financially and/or ideally, write a book/article yourself, etc ..
Be creative and think of how you can spread this idea.
Infrastructure
Join ours trade-free directory. Submit additional trade-free goods and services and evaluate those that already exist.
Try switching to trade-free goods and services. You don't necessarily need Microsoft and Apple? Then use our trading-free operating system TROM-Jaro and share it with other people or use other trade-free things from the directory.
Create trade-free goods and services yourself: from blogs to music, from providing food to providing aid, from clothing to furniture, from this to that. If you do something trade-free, call it trade-free so other people are aware of it. Use #tradefree and you can too www.handelsfrei.org to link.
Help other organizations that offer something trade-free or start one yourself – do whatever you feel like 🙂
Start changing society here and now! No need to wait for anyone, no need to be part of a particular organization, no need for any of that.
Don't get me wrong, it's great to advocate for renewable energy, reduce plastic waste, sign petitions, etc. But that's just not enough.
Example: In Germany it seems to me that more and more people are following a vegan diet and I know some who perhaps think that they can change the world by doing so.
There are more and more vegan restaurants, recipes, blogs, vegan clothing, etc. But when I looked at the scientific facts, I found that meat production is actually increasing worldwide - and increasing! (Those)
This can be very demeaning if you think that all people should eat vegan so that we live in a better world. Maybe that's not the case. Maybe we should tackle the trading system itself that created all of these problems. From the book "Eating the world and ourselves„:
“It is much smarter, more civilized and more efficient to create a global society in which no one feels the need to rely on others to, for example, turn off the lights to save energy, but to create a comprehensive system in which lights turn on and off automatically when they detect presence or not, using infrastructure based on renewable energy, so energy loss is not as important.
The same applies to eating habits, where I think the solution is to create a different kind of society where no one feels the need to sell unhealthy foods or influence food choices through advertising and try to pass on to research to influence the safety of products through the power of money.
This system would provide all relevant information about what a healthy human diet is, unaffected by any 'forces' as is the case in today's world; a system where no one would be interested in setting up such expensive and energy/resource inefficient means of food production.
I would say that you can never rely on people to change their habits, but instead you should invent better systems and methods that produce the desired result.”
I was thinking about continuing the series that Tio started with. So here are 4 things that amaze me:
1. The world
In times of Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, our attention is drawn to what sells best. We grow up through all kinds of media in realities that are anything but real. Think of the Marvel films, think of Netflix series and think of all the click-bait videos on Facebook that promote the greatest nonsense.
It's crazy to realize that the world itself is more exciting than any Hollywood film, Netflix series or Saturday night blockbuster. By this I mean the planet Earth, which is in this gigantic universe in which we live. The planet that formed as it is today through various factors.
How does the world work? is probably one of the most exciting questions there is.
2. Computer
I'm typing on my keyboard and the letters appear on the screen - wow. Imagine people 200 years ago - they couldn't have imagined that we now have computers and the Internet.
Even my grandparents don't understand how to use a computer or how it works and I think most of them don't. I grew up with it and would say I understand the basic principle (this video helped me a lot) but it's still so incredible.
I have now also realized that a computer is a powerful tool. You can do so much with a computer: create videos, edit images, build websites, develop games and so much more - I never really realized that.
3. To live
The fact that I'm thinking about how to write this right now is incredible. I live - whatever that means. I sit here in front of my laptop and marvel at the fact of existing.
At the same time, that also means that at some point I won't be there anymore. At least in the way it is at this moment. Should I like that or not? I don't know it. In any case, it's a fact.
4. People
There are more than 7.5 billion people. I can not imagine that. Every single person has a story, has had experiences and is doing something at this moment. So many people - and I'm one of them. One in 7.5 billion people. Incomprehensible...
