Are there reasonably okay options to paying digitally without the surveillance part (or at least less of it as compared to credit cards?) Blockchain is a nonstarter due to the practical limitations in sustaining proof of work and stake.

What a great thing it is, to entertain an idea without necessarily accepting it.

Question 1 - yes, ansible is run on your local machine.

I have a very tough time decoupling these lists from their market-led and sponsored base.

As someone who grew up in an African country and spent sometime in North America, I would say there are various reasons one can point to [language, economic conditions, nature of available technology etc]. Most conversations in my growing up were ephemeral + oral. Mobile phones started changing the landscape. Facebook and Messaging apps like Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp changed a lot of conversations from peer-to-peer to ‘mediated’ ones. I would say that most African-based folks are every social and active in discussions. They are just not in the platforms Westerns frequent, and increasingly so with closed-messaging platforms like WhatsApp groups.