Today’s comic is attempting to make a political statement about the superiority of using open source software and technology. It uses a narrative involving two stick figures to make a comparison between the turn-of-the-century debates over an open document format, and the current debates and concern over the closed nature of Facebook.
The disheveled, open-source loving stick figure is shown in 2003 suggesting to a colleague that he use an open document format, rather than the proprietary format of Microsoft Word. The “strait-man” quickly interrupts him with one of the counter-arguments to an open format - a suggestion that any debates over format are for “nerds” and ultimately hurt the everyday user’s productivity. As a retort, the Richard Stallman fan begins an argument about good infrastructure, hoping to explain its importance for the future, only to be cut off with claims that he is autistic (a reasonable claim, as he isn’t making eye-contact at the time).
Fast-forward to modern-day, and the strait-man is now (literally) running to the open-source loving “nerd,” in a panic over the recent “news” that Facebook may be using the data that their users give to them to generate profits. The bearded man then makes a joke that combines a cliché (world’s smallest violin) with geek culture.
The hidden joke in this punchline is that the strait-man actually has no reason to panic, as the hysteria over Facebook’s “evil” behavior was caused by the bearded man himself! The bearded man was able to fool the strait-man by regularly placing irrational fears about Facebook in his head over the course of the last three years. Fears such as: “if you click that button, it will tell people you did so!” and “when you put information about yourself online, it is possible for people and companies to see that information - but that is only bad in the case of Facebook.”
This comic strip was made to elicit desk-shakingly violent nods of approval from the audience, who will primarily agree with this anti-corporate sentiment. It is meant to give a small self-esteem boost to those who, due to reading Chomsky and dystopian cyberpunk novels, automatically support open alternatives to any service, project or piece of software - alternatives that inevitably fail to gain any traction due to their poor design, lack of direction or needless complexity.
