But I think that this objection can be refuted. Freedoms always exist in principle, and actual hinderances to make use of them do not reduce their importance. The user of free software can decide to engage in this criticial examination by acquiring the necessary technical expertise. But he can also decide to delegate responsibility for specific questions to trusted experts, and in every community of practice, every member implicitly gives trust to many others. In the case of free software this trust can be a free decision instead of the lock-in that results from closed and proprietary data formats.
Digital knowledge becomes the object of, simultaneously, social debate and individual engagement.
Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns , volume 1. Reason and the Rationalization of Society.