Lizzie: Juan, for what it is worth, I'm happy to talk further with you about this here or elsewhere. I do think this has somewhere to go (ie, I wouldn't junk it!). I think you raise a very serious issue worthy of consideration - if I have it correctly: why do people act against their own interests in relation to how they interact with the internet? Undeniably, free software is cheaper and it is safer and more transparent for the user. But people seem to like convenience, and choose that instead. And they pay a price for it. But more troubling than this, in the example you raise in the Philippines, under our current system, the choice may be no such thing at all. Proprietary interests in the internet 'bargain' with people by offering them subsistence in exchange for co-optation into their system.

Basically, the privatised internet is expensive, dangerous and mean. Doesn't seem worth it for convenience but how do we convince people of this?

The problem as I see it with your piece at this point is that you attribute the objective of convincing/understanding/remedying this to the free software movement. I think the free software movement facilitates people asking this question, and it is essential to any answer, but I don't think its objective it to ask the question itself.

I think it's reasonable to just ask the question in the name of humanity (indeed, it's essential). Couldn't you re-draft it as a general question facing us all, rather than the free software movement?

So don't give up, I say, just have another go.