• Amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I wouldn’t say Reddit always has been owned by a malicious entity, Aaron Swartz was a cool guy. And if you’re telling me a man who freely distributed thousands of needlessly paywalled research papers is a some kind of arch capitalist, then there’s no helping you.

    • fox [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Swartz had good beliefs about freedom of information but politically was kind of a weirdo. What happened to him is an unlimited tragedy and outright criminal.

    • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Swartz co-owned reddit for around 1 year, 2006-2007. His influence has overall probably been insignificant.

      • Amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        True true, I just specifically took issue with it always having been run by bastards. (I know it’s a meme template, but I just wanted to point to evidence that there is hope that not everything we use has always been yoked with pure greed. Call it a cope, IDC.)

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          there is hope that not everything we use has always been yoked with pure greed

          If your basis for believing that is Reddit having one co-owner you liked for one year and that’s the best evidence you got, that isn’t a strong basis.

          You can do sophistic tricks like exaggerating other people’s positions to try to make yours seem more tenable so you can mine for supposed exceptions, but the reality remains that capitalism requires increasingly unsustainable profit margins over time for the lifetime of each product and that consequently results in systemic enshittification of things that were previously decent and bearable. That is an inevitable ongoing process in this present system.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      then there’s no helping you

      That smuglord tone isn’t necessary.

      One co-owner being around for one year doesn’t absolve the skullduggery of the other that is still here to the present day, as another poster already mentioned.

    • kingthrillgore
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      1 year ago

      Honestly as a capitalist (I know, blasphemy) Aaron did the world a favor when he dropped those papers. Elsevier Wiley IEEE et al have a cartel and so many of them are NIH or DOD funded papers they should be public domain period.

      The premise of our system depends on controls to avoid instilled entries extorting capital. Capitalism isn’t: it’s feudalism with extra steps

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Honestly as a capitalist (I know, blasphemy)

        Before you congratulate yourself again for internet bravery, do you actually own capital? Do you own the means of production? If not, you’re not a capitalist even if you wave pompoms and otherwise do apologia for capitalism.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            You’re not really a capitalist in a meaningful way. You might cheerlead for it, but that isn’t a means of production no matter what Uber/Lyft might tell you.