I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV – focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection
Amen
Seriously bugs me to think how there’s an aging generation that didn’t grow up with all this commercialized internet and they built it on principals like open source and to eliminate things like data scarcity. But now there’s a generation that knows nothing but commercialization and seems to support putting everything behind paywalls and hopes to one day commercialize themselves if they’re lucky.
But what is really scary is watching guys like Richard Stallman get sick without any replacement.
Stallman has done his part and more.
It’s up to us to carry on his legacy.
Here’s the point, he probably should not be replaced as-is. His trademark stubbornness has gotten the free software community in trouble before, and while admittedly that same stubbornness is what has allowed the FSF to persist in the face of corporate attacks over the years, that same stubbornness has also prevented the FSF from having a firmer standing in the software community, due to its own ideological purism and reluctance to collaborate with less strict actors like the Open Source Foundation. During the time where Stallman was temporarily banned from the FSF, I could see an ideological move towards leniency. Before Stallman left, they kept complaining about users that didn’t quit the entirety of proprietary software cold-turkey (and socially isolated themselves as a direct result). After Stallman left, though, they started to go for an approach they call the “freedom ladder”, where they request people to start using as much free software as they viably can.
But if he absolutely has to be replaced as-is, it’s incredibly difficult to find somebody with the same degree of insistence. Eben Moglen was, in my opinion, the most viable candidate, but sadly he was recently outed as an abusive employer.
Youtube pranksters in shambles
Edit: Wow, after reading the page, this is way worse than I thought. Omegle founder was an actual hero, and the reason for shutdown is incredibly unfortunate
Yeah, there was a fuckton of paedophiles on it sadly and there was a lot of illegal shit on there.
I hope more people read this article than just the headline. I mean, I always do, but people should hear the details on this one. I’m not even a user.
Not just pranksters. A lot of musicians too. The Dooo, Marcus Veltri, Rob Landes, etc. sad day…
Great quote!
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis
Odd to read that C.S. Lewis doesn’t want to live under an omnipotent moral busybody.
Lewis gets pulled under the “Christian” umbrella far too often. I mean yes he was a Christian but wasn’t a far-right nincompoop either.
Both he and JR Tolkien were contemporaries who shared a faith. The main difference between the two was Tolkien specifically didn’t write allegorically while Lewis did.
Incidentally, Lewis’s book Mere Christianity is what started my journey out of Christianity.
That’s what I love about his writings. He simply let people decide for themselves, which is how it should be.
edit – his book ‘A Grief Observed’ is his best imo.
Can you explain that last sentence? Maybe I don’t know what allegory really is.
contemporaries (noun) - All the people living at the same time or of approximately the same age. (Similar: coevals generation) contemporary (adjective) - Belonging to the same period of time. - Of about the same age. - Current; modern.
Allegory (noun) - As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance.
-
What is an allegory?-- An allegory is a narrative story used to convey an abstract, complex, or dangerous message.
-
How does an allegory work?-- Allegory works by giving characters and events in the story symbolic meanings. As readers, our attention remains on the surface story while a symbolic story plays out beneath.
-
What are the different kinds of allegories?- - When divided by tradition, allegories are either biblical, classical, or modern. When divided by literary device, allegories are personification allegories or symbolic allegories.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/allegory/
The C.S. Lewis And J.R.R. Tolkien Relationship Explained
- J.R.R. Tolkien led C.S. Lewis to Christianity
- C.S. Lewis encouraged J.R.R. Tolkien to write ‘The Lord of the Rings’
- They bonded over their experiences in WWI
- C.S. Lewis wanted to ‘smack’ J.R.R. Tolkien
- C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien helped bridge the gap between literature and linguistics
- They both lost their parents as children
- J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis pursued escapism through their writings
- Both men enjoyed legendary love affairs
- C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien received different receptions during their lifetimes
- C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien held ‘Beowulf and Beer’ sessions
- Their friendship hit lows over writing difference and religion
- A fellowship of writers never broken
Despite the blemish at the end of their relationship, the shock waves of their friendship still resound today. After all, it’s no exaggeration to attribute their greatest literary works to the encouragement they showed one another (via Newsweek). And their friendship would transcend time. How? Through their many literary works where camaraderie remains a fundamental theme.
https://www.grunge.com/596312/the-c-s-lewis-and-j-r-r-tolkien-relationship-explained/
-
An interesting concept that unfortunately exposed awful people. I never let my kids on there because every 4th visitor was a penis. It had the potential to connect people. A shame it was abused.
I never used the video chat for that reason, but I did have a few interesting discussions about philosophy and mathematics, when you were able to enter your interests and it matched you with people who’d entered the same.
Another piece of the olden-days internet died today. Buonanima.
For the longest time, having never been there myself, I thought that it was just an open video chat where that was its purpose. Then the viral joke videos came out and I was kinda confused why kids were on the jerkoff site.
Aye that sucks. I never felt the desire to use it but it’s a shame something like that can’t make it. Founder’s message seemed sincere.
I forgot that it existed. I thought it disappeared years ago.
Hurrah!
