In fact, even the #WIIFM mindset being mostly contrasted to some assumed sense of self-sacrifice for the greater good of everybody (else) is essentially a propaganda strategy to empower WIIFM. And yes, this is done on purpose to distract from the fact that overcoming WIIFM doesn't mean self-sacrifice, but rather the inquisitive question: «what's in it for you?» (#WIIFY)
There's a reason why #WIIFM is so eagerly cultivated in modern capitalist societies: it makes people easier to manipulate. It's the cornerstone of the divide et impera that defuses corporatism among the less fortunate, and trains people to prioritize short-term gains for longer-term security.
(And yes, you'll notice that it's the opposite of many cautionary tales of old.)
Libertoloids like to think that the #WIIFM mindset on which the modern individualistic society is founded is the path to freedom, only obstructed by the evil “communist” State (or government; they're very confused on everything, including the difference between the two, or what communism even means) with its monopoly of violence.
They're useful idiots to those leveraging everybody else's #WIIFM mindset for their own personal gain —State or no State.
But this isn't just a rehashing of the good old Latin phrase «cui prodest?» (or «cui bono?» as some of you may know it). This isn't just a matter of asking who benefits from the proposal, because it will always be sold to you as something you can or will benefit from, and generally as something that both (or all) parties will benefit from. #cuiProdest, #cuiBono are always good questions to ask, but #WIIFY is really the game changer.
To see the difference, consider the case of social networks. «cui prodest?» can always be spun into a #WIIFM, something about you benefiting from having a place where you can communicate with your friends without paying anything, and be shown additional content that may be relevant to your interest».
Now try asking «what's in it for you?» to your instance admin versus any “Big Social” and the difference is quite clear.
On the one hand you have someone who gets all kinds of personal data that they can (and do!) use and abuse in all possible ways, from bombarding you with advertisement to selling you off to the highest (and possibly most maliciously interested) bidder.
On the other hand you have people who at worst might be enjoying the ego and power trip of being the administrators of a large instance —or something. I seriously wonder where #mastoAdmin people get their motivation. (Maybe some will let me know)
#cuiProdest is still useful for more roundabout proposals. For example, post.news used a #pyramidScheme for onboarding to pump up the numbers when it had barely just launched and create noise to divert from the attention #Mastodon and the #Fediverse were getting on the first #TwitterExodus. People were sharing their referrals to invite others to join post.news hoping to move faster in the queue (#WIIFY), but this was all to the benefit of the post.news' owners.
One of the best examples of how damaging and schizophrenic the #WIIFM mindset concerns #freeSoftware and #openSource. One of the strongest reactions against #FLOSS, before it became well-established, was the skepticism about the possibility that people may be giving their work away for free —there must have been a trick somewhere, for it would be unsustainable for software to be given away this way: there would be nothing in it for the developer. Why would they do it?
I'm not going to delve into the quagmire of the motivations for people to write and distribute #FLOSS, but often, especially in the beginning, it was mostly developers scratching their own itch, and then allowing others to benefit from what they had written, not because there was something in it for them, but because there was nothing much to lose in it either. And of course, the more restrictive licenses also provided opportunities for improvements that could be merged back.
Now that #FLOSS is taken for granted, and users don't ask anymore #WIIFY of the developers, but only care about their own #WIIFM, #FLOSS development has become a stressful, negative experience for the authors of projects that reach any amount of success and notoriety, as they get flooded by entitled demands for assistance and feature requests, with no expectation of compensation for the work they would have to put in beyond their own personal interest.
My enduring problem has always been that I believe there is something in it for both/all. Unfortunately the proportions of the portions are not always equitable in practice. Still I try to approach the concept with win-win in mind.
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