The "idea" that was executed on here was a non-starter to begin with. You don't get anywhere by lighting everything that seems like waste on fire and burning it to the ground, learning its effects later. A modern government is not something that is riddled with waste so much that it does nothing. Their first target, USAID, as far as I could tell had no idea what was coming. They didn't even seem to bother to look into what they did, just the cashflows. Which of course will seem wasteful if you don't have a human heart with feelings, it's called U-S-A-I-D. Saying the idea was good here is like giving them the benefit of the doubt that sure maybe they can't read or understand anything, but let them axe these things without a second thought? Come on, you shouldn't let Elon off that easy.

Ah, and there it is. Why shouldn't Y-Combinator be a force for evil like the rest of them? Paul Graham has been off his rocker for about as long as I can remember now, unfortunately my memories of people like this doing anything good for the world are so far in the past, they're fading. What a shame.

You should always be doing this on a regular basis if there's any question marks around your current solution, with Telegram I have a few of those.

EDIT: just had another thought. You mentioned the FSF and the Free Software Conservancy, you should email them if you haven't already and ask them for some ideas about what you can do or how you can help their organizations. They may have something specific ideas for your area too, there are people like us everywhere. Get in touch with those folks for sure!

My wife works in non-profit consulting and has mostly worked with people who have great ideas but need help learning how to get funding and structure their non-profit for success. I asked her if there is a website to share with you that has good info, and she said your local library should have people who can help you with anything related to getting a non-profit rolling (try the next library over if not). I had no idea they have these resources either, but public libraries are amazing places and here's further proof.

Here's a page from a library where we used to live: https://poudrelibraries.org/business/

Scroll down to the section for "Nonprofit Success" and maybe you can find some ideas that will help you. I think you're on the right track about open source education and evangelizing (the tech world used to call its influencers stuff like "open source evangelist" or ".NET evangelist"... not sure if it's still that culty or not).

Best of luck with everything, and if you have any questions or want to chat I just followed you on Github. You can email me at my-github-username at protonmail dot com anytime, if you have non-profit questions I can ask my wife for her thoughts, she's been doing this for years and seems to have it pretty well mastered from what I can tell. She's built a business by herself from scratch and does so well she's the bigger earner of the family. So anyway, she just helps non-profits and makes a living from it, so you can definitely do something with open source! Work on making your writing and communication more effective and I think you will find the people to help you reach your dreams along the way.

Don't lose hope if you can help it, things like the news and politics are discouraging right now but I find that times like this light a fire in me to make sure I'm doing the right things and help keep us from getting in deeper problems. I get complacent more during less chaotic times, so I try to make the best of it and it usually works out. Take care, friend!

edit: I just realized that from the local times you mention, you are likely not in the United States. I'm not sure if libraries in Europe and elsewhere have this information or not. Maybe it can give you an idea of what kind of information to look for in your local resources.

There were lots of excerpts from your comment that I highlighted and hit Ctrl+C, then thinking "well this would be better to comment on or this would be better or now maybe the other way....". It's not important how I would pick apart your comment (and in a really nice way, I don't mean "pick apart" like criticize down to the last detail... but right there's something that would get lost in communication normally, I expect). This was my favorite part of your comment though, and I was going to say something like, Reagan thought we needed trickle-down economics but what we really need is growth with love, all the way down to the roots:

"Yes we are human but dear reader, I feel like corruption only goes to top if it reeks from bottom too as well. Its messed up but maybe we can all try to acknowledge it and try to just know that we are all gonna die anyway and well, giving a other unique human smile and happiness might be the most precious thing."

Make sure you have a nice day yourself, dear reader.

For a very long time, Apple didn't allow installing custom keyboards. And I would still bet a bit of money that they are more restrictive than the keyboards Android allows.

I had a feeling about what you described with GrapheneOS would be the case, and that's what kept me from really considering it as a replacement for my iPhone until talking with some folks in this thread. I really don't see myself getting out of using an iPhone as my "main phone" tied to my phone number since my wife is neck-deep in the whole Apple ecosystem (and I truly believe that being flexible in this regard is worth it and makes our lives a whole lot better, even when the issue in question is what I would consider a simple moral non-negotiable, securely protecting my and my family's personal data. just means that I have more solving to do before the solution).

My solution for now is to always run everything through a trusted VPN and NextDNS on the iPhone, or as much as iOS will let me I guess, and using this as my new Pixel's gateway to the internet when I'm away from a trusted connection. I will also be running everything through the VPN when I'm using GrapheneOS, so when I am out and about I'm not treating my not-entirely-trustworthy iPhone any differently than a Starbucks hotspot. Sometimes the convenience really makes a difference, not all the time but it does matter occasionally.

I think those types of people like your MIL represent a very concerning bulk of Android users. So people are walking around with god knows what in their pockets, doing every single thing in their life through them these days. I thought others who had arrived at this thought would be alarmed too, but I'm not sure what to think anymore I guess.

This morning I ordered a Pixel phone after realizing they are available in my price range after all (thanks to this discussion, specifically one of the few who didn't try to argue with me) so GrapheneOS is what I would personally recommend if anyone was thinking I was trying to say "iOS is better, prove me wrong". I was more looking for others to share similar thoughts, not attempt to shut me down, but such is life.

I am very, very concerned about our ability to communicate with each other as human beings these days. Maybe this thread was meant to be an example of that, I don't know. I didn't realize everyone was trying to prove me wrong with this. sheesh.

further, I am seeing why some folks decided to close themselves off completely to stuff like this. I enjoy intellectual curiosity and try to find others who do, but I realize many people don't enjoy it and many even hate it. it's not because it's a lack of intelligence. It's that everyone seems uninterested in the thoughts that made me type that initial comment, they're more concerned with proving me wrong. Am I accurate in this assessment, or can I trust you to not treat this question as an argument, if that is a better way to put it?

edit: Pixel ordered and GrapheneOS incoming, goodbye iOS.