less_retarded_wiki/how_to.md

How To

WELCOME TRAVELER

{ Don't hesitate to contact me. ~drummyfish }

Are you tired of bloat and can't stand shitty software like Windows anymore? Do you want to kill yourself? Do you hate capitalism? Do you also hate the fascist alternatives you're being offered? Do you just want to create a genuinely good bullshitless technology that would help all people? Do you just want to share knowledge freely without censorship? You have come to the right place.

Firstly let us welcome you, no matter who you are, no matter your political opinions, your past and your skills, color or shape of your genitalia, we are glad to have you here. Remember, you don't have to be a programmer to help and enjoy LRS. LRS is a lifestyle, a philosophy. Whether you are a programmer, artist, educator or just someone passing by, you are welcome, you may enjoy our culture and its fruit and if you want, you can help enrich it.

What This Article Is About

OK, let's say this is a set of general advice, life heuristics, pointers and basics of our philosophy, something to get you started, give you a point of view aligned with what we do, help you make a decision here and there, help you free yourself. Remember that by definition nothing we ever advice is a commandment or a rule you mustn't ever break, that would be wrong in itself. Some things also may be yet a "thought in progress" and change.

Moderacy (middle way) Vs Extremism

An important issue of many ideologies/philosophies/religions/etc. has shown to be striking the right balance between moderacy and extremism. Let's sum up the two stances:

• extremism: Being extreme in applying the ideas and principles, holding to one's ideals extremely strongly, many times resulting in blind orthodoxy, shortcut thinking, blindly following rules and commandments such as "I must never do X", "X implies Y" etc. Extremism is not bad per se, in fact it is many times preferred, advised and necessary, however one has to be aware of the dangers. It may lead to becoming a brainwashed religion follower whose pursuit of perfectionism and purism result in more bad than good.
• moderacy: Being moderate, holding to ideals only loosely, sometimes leading to pragmatism, "ends justify the means", hypocrisy, conveniently modifying rules on the go etc. Moderacy is also not bad as such, but also comes with many dangers. It may lead to becoming an immoral self-centered sheep conformist and even practically abandoning one's ideals, giving up (everyone does it, "Yeah I don't really like capitalism, but that's how it is so I'll just play along for now."), lying to oneself ("I do so much good by setting an Ukrainian flag as my facebook profile picture!").

Where does the balance lie? TBH this is a very hard question and we don't know the correct answer so far, perhaps there is no simple answer. Figuring this out may be one of the most difficult parts of our philosophy. The first good step is definitely to realize the issue, become aware of it, and start considering it in making one's important decisions. Choosing one or another should, as always, be done by ultimately aiming for our ideals, not for one's own benefit, though of course as any mere living being one will never be able to be completely objective and free himself from things such as fear and self-preservation instincts. If you make a bad decision, don't bash yourself, you are just mere mortal, acknowledge your mistake, forgive yourself and move on, there is no use in torturing yourself. One should perhaps not try to stick to either extremism and moderacy as a rule, but rather try to apply a differently balanced mix of both to any important decision that appears before him -- when unsure about the balance, a middle way between is probably safest, but when you strongly feel one way is morally more right, go for it.

Examples from LRS point of view:

• Is it OK to ever use violence? Here LRS takes the extremist way of strongly saying no -- according to us violence is always bad and we definte this as an axiom, something without a need of proof, it is the very foundation of our movement and not acknowledging it would simply mean it's not LRS anymore. However a bit of moderacy may also appear here; if for example someone uses violence in a desperate attempt to protect one's child, though we won't embrace the action we won't condemn the man either -- he committed a "sin", did something wrong, but in his situation there was really no right thing to do, so what should we blame him for, for being a subject of unfortunate situation?
• Is it OK to sometimes use proprietary software? Here for example Richard Stallman/FSF/GNU take the extremist stance and say no, proprietary software is the literal devil and though shalt evade it for all cost (in fact GNU will put effort in purposefully breaking compatibility with proprietary software, which is borderline capitalist behavior similar to artificial obsolescence etc.). While we agree it is a good general rule to avoid software whose purpose is almost exclusively the abuse of its user, we may be more tolerant and allow breaking the rule sometimes, because to us proprietary software is nothing set in any axiom, it is just a symptom resulting from bad society. As a non-axiom it should be a subject to constant reevaluation against the main goal. A simple commandment of "NO TOUCH NOTHING PROPRIETARY" is a good tool for a newcomer, it is a simple to follow rule of thumb that teaches him to find free replacements and alternatives, however once one becomes advanced and eventually a master of the freedom philosophy, he sees things aren't as simple to be solved by one simple rule, just as a master of music knows when to break basic rules of thumb, when to leave the scale, break the rhythm to make excellent music. Here we see it similarly: When touching proprietary software doesn't result in significant harm (such as supporting its developer, becoming addicted to it, getting abused by it, ...) and when it does significant good (e.g. inspires creation of its free clone, reveals the mechanisms by which it abuses its users, ...), it may in fact be good to do so.
• Should you oppose your boss at work, deny to serve him in unethical practice because he is a filthy capitalist and so make trouble for yourself, possibly even get fired for it? Well, this is not so easy again; a strict extremist anticapitalist here would just stay without a job because he couldn't work as any work supports capitalism. On the other hand such a guy would just be homeless, rid of any practical opportunity to create and do good, and would probably die soon anyway. Here it's more or less a question of personal tuning, finding the "least harmful" job, minimizing time spent at it so as to be able to do good in spare time, opposing your boss sometimes but not every single time, not really building a career so that you may quit at any moment etc. Until we have basic income or something, you are more or less doomed to suffer dealing with this on your own sadly.

Tech

Here are some extremely basic steps to take regarding technology and the technological aspect of LRS:

• Learn about the most essential topics and concepts, mainly free software, "open-source", bloat, kiss, capitalism, capitalist_software, suckless, LRS, less retarded society, anacho pacifism and type A/B fail. You will also need to open up your mind and re-learn some toxic concepts you've been taught by the system, e.g. we do NOT fight anything, we do NOT create any heroes or "leaders" (we follow ideas, not people), work is bad, older is better than "modern" etc.
• Install GNU/Linux operating system to free yourself from shit like Windows and Mac (you can also consider BSD but you're probably too noob for that). Do NOT try to switch to "Linux" right away if it's your first time, it's almost impossible, you want to just install "Linux" as dual boot (alongside your main OS) or on another computer (easier). This way you'll be using both operating systems, slowly getting more comfortable with "Linux" and eventually you'll find yourself uninstalling Windows altogether. You can also just try "Linux" in a virtual machine, from a live CD/flash drive or you can buy something with "Linux" preinstalled like Raspberry Pi. Which "Linux" to install? There are many options and as a noob you don't have to go hardcore right away, just install any distro that just werks (don't listen to people who tell you to install Gentoo tho). You can try these:
  • Devuan: Nice, LRS approved distro that respects your freedom that just works, is easy to install and is actually nice. Good for any skill level.
  • Debian: Like Devuan but uses the evil systemd which doesn't have to bother you at this point. Try Debian if Devuan doesn't work for any reason.
  • Mint: More noob, bloated and mainstream distro that only mildly cares about freedom, but is extremely easy and works almost everywhere. Try this if Debian didn't work for you.
  • Ubuntu: Kind of like Mint, try it if Mint didn't work.
• Learn a bit of command line (Unix utils, bash etc.). No need to become a hacker right away, just get familiar with this essential Unix tool.
• Free yourself technologically, i.e. make yourself depend as little as possible on capitalist technology; this step if crucial, you can't really live well or achieve anything while being a slave. This includes firstly leaving proprietary platforms such as Facebook, Google's platforms such as YouTube, reddit etc. Also stop being dependent on proprietary programs (MS office, photoshop etc.), and proprietary consumer devices such as a smartphone. Again, it's impossible to free yourself 100% immediately, go slowly and try to get more freedom even if you can't achieve 100% freedom. This means either stop using harmful software/services/devices and engaging in bad habits (social media etc.) or at least minimize their use, and/or use more freedom-friendly alternatives such as different search engines (e.g. searx, ...), a dumbphone or at least free OS smartphone rather than capitalist smartphone, freedom friendly laptop (e.g. an old thinkpad) rather than iShit or consumerist gayming PC, start using FOSS programs, e.g. GIMP instead of Photoshop, LibreOffice instead of MS Office etc, invidious or Peertube instead of YouTube etc. Remember, it is best if you can stop using something altogether, the second best thing is to stop being dependent on a single entity, try to use a decentralized and/or suckless FOSS alternative but do not try to just mimic your old habits in the FOSS world, you have to learn new ways of computing (for example start using multiple search engines instead of relying on one, it's not good to just drop-in replace one search engine for another). Avoid falling to traps of shit like distrohopping, this just enslaves you in a different way.
• If you want to program LRS, learn C (see the tutorial). Also learn a bit of POSIX shell and maybe some mainstream scripting language (can be even a bloated one like Python). Learn about licensing and version control (git). As you advance, start studying deeper topics such as history or hacker culture etc.
• Optionally make your own minimal website (or even a gopherhole) to help reshare ideas you like (static HTML site without JavaScript). This is very easy, and the site can be hosted for free e.g. on git hosting sites like Codeberg or GitLab. Get in touch with us.
• Start creating something: either programs or other stuff like free art, educational materials etc.
• profit???

Would you like to create LRS but don't have enough spare time/money to make this possible? You can check out making living with LRS.

How To Make A Website

Making your own tiny independent website is pretty simple and a very good thing to do for being able to share opinions and files relatively freely -- using "social networks" for sharing non-mainstream stuff will not work as these get hardcore censored (yes, even the "FOSS" ones like Mastodon etc.). By making your own website you also help decentralize the web again, take a bit of control from the corporations, and you can greatly help others by sharing useful information with them.

Here we will quickly sum up how to make a static single page plain HTML website, which should suffice for most things (sharing opinions, contacts, files, multimedia, simple blogging, ...). Once you get more advanced you can do fancy stuff such as a multi-page wiki written in Markdown and compiled to HTML with a shell script, but that can wait for now.

Firstly do NOT follow mainstream tutorials on making website -- these are absolute horseshit and just follow ugly capitalist ways, you will just get brain cancer. Also do NOT use any frameworks; do NOT even use static site generators -- these are not needed at all! All you really need for making a small website is:

• Plain text editor (gedit, geany, vim, ...). This is easy, just download it. Just don't use a rich text editor, ok?
• Static site hosting to store your site on, which will server the site to clients. You have several options here:
  • There exist free static site hosting services, e.g. those on many git hosting platforms like GitLab or Codeberg (even GitHub, but avoid that one if possible), on pubnix servers such as tildetown or sites like neocities. Here you may still encounter some censorship, but it can be a good start. Just search their site for details on how to host a site there.
  • You may host your site at home, typically using Raspberry Pi. This doesn't really cost anything as the weaker Raspberrys (e.g. 3B) consume negligible amount of electricity, and for non-extreme traffic you won't even need a super high speed connection (especially considering you will make a very tiny, efficient website). This is a very good option as practically no one will be able to censor you (only police and ISP), but it's also a tiny bit more difficult to set up because firstly you need to set up a webserver (Apache is usually installed on any GNU/Linux distro though, it's really easy to do) and secondly you NEED A PUBLIC IP ADDRESS (as typically you will be behind a NAT so that computers from outside can't reach your server): you will probably have to ask your internet provider for it (maybe you already have it, maybe they will give it to you for free, maybe you'll have to pay some small fee; just ask). Then you will also need to set up port forwarding on your router so that the requests from the outside are redirected to your web server computer (Raspberry Pi) -- this is just done in router settings by entering the IP address of the webserver computer somewhere.
  • You may also pay for a VPS (i.e. a server computer a company runs for you and which you access remotely) which has the same advantages as having your own home server (i.e. being able to host game servers, dynamic websites, gopher sites etc.), but we won't cover this here. Renting a VPS in some obscure country may be a good option to host a very controversial site.
• Optionally buy a domain name (search web for domain registrars), for example mycoolsite.party. If you are using a free hosting service, you will get a subdomain for free and don't have to care about this (but can still also use your own domain if you have it and want to). If you have your own home server, you probably want to buy a domain because otherwise people would have to connect to your site by literally typing an IP address to the browser. Once you have the domain, you want to edit the DNS records of your domain to point to the IP address of your server (i.e. you want to add an "A record"): how exactly to do this depends on the registrar (they will have some kinda online system to edit the records).

For starters try to go the easiest way: use some free static site hosting without a domain name. Later, once you get comfortable, you may transition to self-hosting with your custom domain.

Now you have to make the actual website in HTML. For that create a new file and name it index.html (the name has to be such as this is the default page name for websites). In it copy-paste the following:

<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>

<h1> My Awesome Website </h1>

</body>
</html>

This is really a bare-minimum testing website -- to expand it see the article on HTML.

Now you have to upload this html file to the hosting server -- check out the details of your hosting server on how to do this (you may e.g. need to use git or ftp to upload the file). And that's basically it, the rest is just expanding your site, making scripts to automatize uploading etc.

How To Live, Dos and Don'ts

This is a summary of some main guidelines on how an LRS supporter should behave in general so as to stay consistent with LRS philosophy, however it is important that this is shouldn't be taken as rules to be blindly followed -- the last thing we want is a religion of brainwashed NPCs who blindly follow orders. One has to understand why these principles are in place and even potentially modify them.

• Do NOT fight, do NOT say you fight something. Fighting and rhetoric centered around "fighting something" is part of harmful fight culture, most people don't even realize they take part in it. It is important to unlearn this. We do not want to defeat anyone, we want to convince by means of rationality, nonviolence and love. However note that what is unacceptable to do to a living being may be completely acceptable to do to non living object (for example destroying a corporation is OK, in fact it is very desirable). We often take actions that common people would call a "fight" (for example we may organize a strike), however it is important that we don't call it a fight -- a point of view is sometimes as important as the action itself as it will determine our future direction. Remember that naming is important.
• Do NOT worship or create heroes, don't become one. Watch out for cult of personality. It is another common mistake to for example call Richard Stallman a "hero of free software" and to even worship him as a celebrity. The concept of a hero is harmful, rightist concept that is connected to war mentality, it goes against anarchist principles, it creates social hierarchy and given some people a power to deceive. People are imperfect and make mistake -- only ideas can be perfect. Respect people but don't make anyone your moral compass, you should rather subscribe to specific ideas, i.e. rather than worshipping Stallman subscribe to and promote his idea of free software.
• CREATE, Do NOT waste your life on bullshit, do NOT get too obsessed with tools and hopping such as distrohopping, githopping audiophilia, hardware consumerism, 100% minimalist perfectionism etc. Remember, the goal of your life is to create something new and better; too many people just get stuck doing nothing but switch distros, rant about which editor is best, making sure their OS has zero bloat and zero proprietary code etc. This is completely useless, your life is completely wasted. Dedicate time to creating art that will last, e.g. programming LRS (creating source code text) or making free cultural art -- it doesn't matter whether you create it with Ubuntu or Gentoo.
• Lead an example, this is the best way to spread our values, however be also extremely careful not to become a worshipped authority. Know the difference between a humble intellectual authority and an authoritative self-centered celebrity who uses his fame for deception. The more famous you are, the more humble you should become.
• Be loving, even towards opposition -- remember: hate and revenge towards people perpetuates the endless circle. Love leads to more love, understanding, good deeds, friendship, happiness, collaboration and all the other positive things. Do not confuse love with political correctness.
• Try to do selfless things -- TRULY selfless ones. Help those in need without expecting any kind of repay, do not even seek attention or gratitude for it, only your good feeling. Create selfless art, whatever it is you enjoy doing -- computer programs, 3D models, music, videos, ... put them in the public domain and let others enjoy them :) Try to make doing good things a habit -- some people smoke, drink, overeat and do other kinds of things harmful to themselves and their environment as means for relieving stress. If you exploit this natural human tendency and rather develop GOOD habits, such as writing free software or helping charities as a means of relaxing and relieving stress, you have won at life; doing good and feeling good will be natural and effortless. The thing you dedicate your life to should be the thing you love, not the thing that earns you money or benefits you in similar ways -- try to maximize doing what you love (which may and probably should be more than one thing) and also try to love doing what is good so that you can do it a lot. If you love something, never do it for money; then it becomes business and as we know, business spoils everything.
• Protest in non-violent ways -- this doesn't mean you should be passive; you should be exposing the truth, propaganda, corruption, boycotting corporations and state, promoting your values and expressing disagreement with certain ideas, but do not aim for destruction of those who stand in opposition -- if you're attacked, it is best if you do not fight back; not only is this the morally ideal thing to do, it also sends a very powerful message and makes the aggressor himself think.
• Do NOT support pseudoleft (LGBT, feminism, Antifa, soyence ...), don't become type A fail. Of course you should equally reject rightism, but that goes without saying.
• Do NOT engage in political correctness. Remember that staying silent often means supporting status quo, so the more deceit you see in society, the more you should try to not stay silent and the more you should try to tell the truth.
• Free yourself from the system -- similarly to how you free yourself technologically, free yourself also socially, live frugally and minimize your expenses. Stop consuming, stop living in luxury, stop spending money for shit (gyms, sports, clothes, car, streaming services, games, cigarettes, ...), use free things that people throw away and enjoy hobbies that are cheap (programming, reading books, going for walks, playing chess, ...). Stop watching news (it's just brainwashing and distraction, what's really important will get to you anyway), stop engaging in fashion, stop talking to retards. You need very little to live, you don't even need internet connection; with good computing you can hack offline and only connect to the internet once in a while on some public wifi to download emails and upload your programs. Make yourself self sufficient, prepare for the collapse. If you can live somewhere in the woods and would enjoy it, go for it.
• Search for truth. You won't find it easily, real truth is always censored and hidden (though often in plain sight), but you can train yourself to spot propaganda and see the red flags. You won't find truth through Google, use different sources, read old books and different points of view (e.g. contrast articles on Wikipedia with those on Infogalactic). Question EVERYTHING (absolutely everything, even this). Do not fall into traps such as pseudoskepticism. Train your mind to think critically, avoid shortcut thinking, question your own biased beliefs and wishes.
• Reject harmful things like proprietary software, capitalism, copyright, bloat, work etc. Use and promote the ethical equivalents, i.e. free software, free culture, frugality, anarchism etc.
• Be a generalist, see the big picture, study the whole world, do not become overspecialized in the capitalist way. Sure you may become an expert at something, but it shouldn't make your view of the world too narrow. You may spend most of your time studying and programming computer compilers for example, but still do (and enjoy) other things, for example reading fiction, studying religions, languages, psychology, playing go, making music, building houses, painting, doing sports, ...
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