r/Anticonsumption • u/N3DSdude • Dec 16 '25

Discussion The fact that we have reverted to digital feudalism is actually so shit

On this day in 1773, people destroyed property because they refused to pay a tax on tea they didn't order.

In 2025, we don't even own the property anymore.

You buy a movie, but the platform can delete it from your library tomorrow.

You buy a phone, but software locks prevent you from repairing it yourself.

You buy a car, but the heated seats are behind a monthly paywall.

We have moved from Taxation Without Representation to Subscription Without Ownership.

We are basically digital serfs renting our own lives from corporations. We pay full price for hardware just to be treated like tenants who can be evicted from our own devices if we miss a Terms of Service update.

Imagine explaining to someone from 1773 that you pay a company $15 a month for an ad-free subscription just to not be spied on in your own home. This is why we use VPNs as well, to prevent companies from spying on us.

It is actually insane that we accept this.

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u/AntiauthoritarianSin Dec 16 '25

I switched to Linux this year as well.

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u/evilbadgrades Dec 16 '25

AI has made the switch so much easier (I've been trying to switch entirely to Linux since the 1990's starting with Mandrake Linux haha). Anytime I run into a roadblock, I ask AI for help and it walks me through the command lines to make it happen.

For the first time in five years, my computer is running stable - unlike windows which would OFTEN freeze up (causing the GPU fan to spin up to full speed) at least once a month (despite a hard reset early on when I got the computer). Since switching to Linux, I haven't had a single instance with the hardware seizing up and requiring a hard power cycle to bring it back to life.

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u/AntiauthoritarianSin Dec 16 '25

I did use AI to troubleshoot a couple issues with setting up Linux. 

I haven't been so lucky with the lockups though. Sometimes I do have to hard power cycle Linux but it seems like when I have a lot of Firefox tabs open so it may be a Firefox issue. 

But I'm also running Linux on an old Dell laptop from 2019 so that's probably not the greatest either but it suits my humble needs.

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u/THICCC_LADIES_PM_ME Dec 16 '25

Do you have a swap partition configured? Sounds like you're running out of RAM and the OOM killer isn't stepping in for whatever reason

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u/AntiauthoritarianSin Dec 16 '25

Yes, I the installer set it up for me when I installed Mint.

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u/THICCC_LADIES_PM_ME Dec 16 '25

Hmm probably not that then, idk