alt Hacker NewsI think when making the claim a company is a net negative, it's necessary to explore what would have happened if the company hadn't been founded.
I find it unlikely, for example that there would not be a dominant centralized forum platform. People would have certainly started problematic communities on the dominant platform, and it's unlikely a platform with strict moderation would have gained dominance before 2015 or so. I do think a dominant player would have been established by 2015.
Do you think whatever you see as harmful about Reddit would not have occurred if the company didn't exist?
Replies
This is like saying “that guy would have died eventually if I didn’t murder him.”
The corporate shield for accountability is so annoying in this way. Nobody’s ever responsible for things that they did as human beings.
It would have happened more slowly at least, delaying the increase in populism, nihilism and depression in the Western world, the anglosphere in particular.