I think you are blaming a slightly arcane program for what is essentially laziness of the population. Every time I read a comment on HN stating how PGP isn't usable I cry a little bit inside. GPG in no harder to use than git or many other tools professionals use.
The difference being, its worse to make a mistake using GPG than it is to make a mistake using most other programs. In the end, you are securing confidential information, which will always be hard, unnerving and require concentration and care. And this is just inherent to the task, which is fighting an undefined, super-powerful, ill-meaning enemy.
Encryption is violence. The objective is to violently keep an enemy away from your jewels. Instead of using an armed guard at your door, you use mathematical forces which are impossible for your enemy to overcome. Imagine your enemy needs the cleartext to save his own life, how does he feel when he is denied access and unable to gain access? It doesn't matter if its a steel door or a block-cipher.
What people are essentially demanding when they want "easy to use crypto" is a self-firing and self-aiming rifle with friendly-fire detection. "Keep all my adversaries away but don't bother me about it."
That's not how conflict works. If you attempt to secure your communications from a state actor, you are engaging in a full-blown combat against one of the most deadly forces there can be. That conflict will always be demanding and unpleasant. GPG being "hard to use" will be the least of your problems.
But no, we want everything for free. Protecting yourself against the overlords should be easy and painless, almost automatic. The defendant shouldn't have to learn how his defense works or how to properly use it.
Seriously?
EDIT: And what I find unnerving about your post is, suddenly the people who put in the effort to use GPG are the bad guys? The 0.1% who actually take privacy seriously enough to go through the the trouble? Don't get me wrong, I almost never use GPG, not because it's hard to use (M-x epa-encrypt-region, anyone?), but because I don't want to experience the emotional distress related to struggling with a super-powered state.
The difference being, its worse to make a mistake using GPG than it is to make a mistake using most other programs. In the end, you are securing confidential information, which will always be hard, unnerving and require concentration and care. And this is just inherent to the task, which is fighting an undefined, super-powerful, ill-meaning enemy.
Encryption is violence. The objective is to violently keep an enemy away from your jewels. Instead of using an armed guard at your door, you use mathematical forces which are impossible for your enemy to overcome. Imagine your enemy needs the cleartext to save his own life, how does he feel when he is denied access and unable to gain access? It doesn't matter if its a steel door or a block-cipher.
What people are essentially demanding when they want "easy to use crypto" is a self-firing and self-aiming rifle with friendly-fire detection. "Keep all my adversaries away but don't bother me about it."
That's not how conflict works. If you attempt to secure your communications from a state actor, you are engaging in a full-blown combat against one of the most deadly forces there can be. That conflict will always be demanding and unpleasant. GPG being "hard to use" will be the least of your problems.
But no, we want everything for free. Protecting yourself against the overlords should be easy and painless, almost automatic. The defendant shouldn't have to learn how his defense works or how to properly use it.
Seriously?
EDIT: And what I find unnerving about your post is, suddenly the people who put in the effort to use GPG are the bad guys? The 0.1% who actually take privacy seriously enough to go through the the trouble? Don't get me wrong, I almost never use GPG, not because it's hard to use (M-x epa-encrypt-region, anyone?), but because I don't want to experience the emotional distress related to struggling with a super-powered state.
reply