A bad economy and uncertain future make people very afraid. It’s tempting to stick your head in the sand, blame all your problems on a specific demographic, then trust dear leader will punish the people that made you scared.

It’s completely divorced from reality, but reality sucks right now. People are scared. They’re taking the blue pill to feel better and pretend the horror all around them isn’t happening. They won’t max out their credit cards and become homeless. Dear Leader will fix things before that happens.

These tech companies have underestimated their utility. They are mostly providing mindless time wasters. If you try to charge money or create inconvenience, people will look for something else to do.

Their attention is your lifeblood, and you’re actively giving them reasons to look elsewhere. The VC grow-at-all-costs business model is fundamentally flawed. It doesn’t scale when profitability becomes a priority.

Always love to hear the deep lore. Lemmy’s early development makes a lot more sense now. Good on them(you) to leave everything open and learn from Reddit’s mistakes.

Still, free and open has a limit. No Facebook and no Nazis. That’s just common sense everyone used to have.