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Strypey

@drq
Ae, there were a one or two points where I rolled my eyes while reading it. Eg the false equivalence between the boogyman caricature of democratic governments, and the statement of obvious fact that a standard corporation...

"...belches smoke and poisons water and enslaves humanity."

A better example for his needs would be the way people blame this on particular CEOs or investors, rather than the structures and baked-in incentives that drive corporations towards doing such things.

4 comments
Dr. Quadragon ❌

@strypey
> way people blame this on particular CEOs or investors

Also important to note on that: when people say, for example "Mark Zuckerberg/Steve Jobs/Elon Musk/Vladimir Putin/George Bush/(name any powerful person) is a psychopath" - what they often mean is using the name of the person in a collective sense, as a stand-in for the systems they represent. AND IT'S OKAY! They don't personally know the guy. But they see the harm that those systems (maybe even inadvertently) cause, so there you go.

Dr. Quadragon ❌

@strypey Still, the main point stands: the Dunbar number is a thing, empathy has limits, and if you find yourself not caring about everyone everywhere all at once, it's okay: you're not really designed to. No one is, so also don't expect everybody to do so. If you can - good, but don't act all high and mighty if someone doesn't. It's a valuable lesson, in my opinion.

Strypey

@drq
> Still, the main point stands: the Dunbar number is a thing, empathy has limits

Exactly. We may quibble with some details of the reference implementation, but the protocol is sound (I've been spending *way* too much time in the 'verse this week ;)

Strypey

@drq
> But they see the harm that those systems (maybe even inadvertently) cause

In some cases. But both conservatives and liberals have a tendency to think that inherently destructive entities would magically become benign with a change of leadership. You can see this in reverse with Melon Husk and Titter. The entity is not fundamentally any better or worse than it was before (worse for some users, better for other), but that's not how the Husk fanboys or the diaspora who are leaving see it.

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