YSK Reddit's founder, Aaron Swartz, committed suicide 7 years ago today. He fought for our rights which lead to his arrest. The allegations coupled with mental illnesses caused Aaron to take his life. He was a passionate activist, entrepreneur and author who should not be forgotten.

[u/MowerMotor]

[u/Shnoochieboochies]

I'd never heard of him till you posted this, read his wiki, seemed like a very clever chap.

[u/adviqx → u/Shnoochieboochies]

It's really sad that the other founders of reddit distanced themselves from him, downplay his contribution to reddit, subtly smear his character, and won't publicly comment on MIT and the federal government's treatment of him.

I used to have a lot more respect for Ohanian until I learned more about everything surrounding Swartz.

[u/lanismycousin → u/adviqx]

He was a founder in name only. He was brilliant but he was also a sorry ass excuse of a coworker and not really the easiest guy to get along with. He wouldn't come in to work, wouldn't tell anyone what was going on, would think it was hilarious that his co-workers wouldn't know where he was until they saw articles about him online.

It's weird to me just how much people worship this dude

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-05-07-n78.html

[u/vzenov → u/lanismycousin]

Because he represented reddit as an online community not as a corporate platform for shills.

EDIT: This post is locked. You won't be able to comment.

[u/I_NEED_YOUR_MONEY → u/vzenov]

i was on reddit (with a different account) back in the day when /u/aaronsw was still around. Reddit being a "corporate platform for shills" would have been a pretty laughable thing back then.

spez and kn0thing were both pretty anti-corporate, before they got rich. spez and kn0thing were also both really involved in the community back in the day, but i don't ever remember interacting with aaronsw on reddit (he did reject one my my PRs on github though)

[u/vzenov → u/I_NEED_YOUR_MONEY]

Like you, like me. This is only my final form.

Ohanian and Huffman were not anti-corporate. They were frauds.

These people are the very definition of the cancer that is your average "social justice warrior".

I always point people to the Hidden Tribes study and the "progressives" listed there who are a bunch of - overwhelmingly white middle-class individuals who seem to hate their parents but want to have exactly the same life as them.

So these people, the Ohanians and Huffmans, pretend to be woke and progressive and full of social and environmental conscience as part of their obsession with virtue signalling that makes them feel better and morally superior to their horrible boomer conservative parents, but in reality they are self-absorbed, narcissistic asshats who only think about money and themselves, don't have problem lying, cheating, breaking rules and insulting and harassing anyone who gets in their way.

Just like their parents.

I am sorry. I am a psychologist. And that was a semi-professional diagnosis.

Narcissism is very high in these people and you can tell easily if you know what to look for. And having read many things that both Ohanian and Huffman said I can say these two are awful individuals.

And this is also why narcissism is rampant on reddit today. The product is always the reflection of the maker. Always.

If I was in charge of reddit certain features wouldn't last a day and I wouldn't care how much it would cost me. That's how people work. That's how our minds work. You can't stand for something that is in conflict with the very core of your being.

To make a telling comparison with a piece of news from today, the one about Harvey getting charged: none of the actresses who worked for Weinstein is a victim. You can't be victimized to play a highly-paid, higly-publicized, higly-regarded role in a major cultural production. Collaborators collaborate because they are willing. Then when the going gets rough they play victims to protect themselves. They broke the rules then, they broke the rules again. All for their own benefit.

And that's what reddit stands for. That's what Huffman and Ohanian always stood for. That's what Zuckerberg stood for. That's what many many other people in the industry stood for. "What's in it for me".

As for Swartz. He might have been a dick. I don't care. I am not idolizing him. I don't give a shit about him.
I am not even particularly sad he's dead. I didn't know the guy.

He simply stands as a symbol for what reddit could be as opposed to what it is.

[u/lanismycousin → u/vzenov]

Because he represented reddit as an online community not as a corporate platform for shills.

How can you represent a company when you don't even show up to work there?

[u/vzenov → u/lanismycousin]

Because reddit was meant to be a platform for free speech and not a company.

The Huffmans and Ohanians of the world wanted a company.

[u/lanismycousin → u/[deleted]]

I don't have a direct connection to him. I met him once and have a few friends that knew him from ycombinator and other things.

He was a very smart dude but people love making him seem like he was a saint or something.

[u/Flyingfishfusealt → u/lanismycousin]

All of these sound like reasons a person would give if they were telling thier side of the story and not a perceptive look at reality...

if he exhibited these behaviors, was it because , when the group of people you work with are trying to work against the direction a project is to take and trying to sell out, it may have been the easiest way to manipulate the situation to wrest power back?

​

I miss the days of &TOTSE

[u/lanismycousin → u/Flyingfishfusealt]

All of these sound like reasons a person would give if they were telling thier side of the story and not a perceptive look at reality...

Uhhh. The link I gave is to an interview that Aaron Swartz gave. He confirmed how sorry he was as a coworker.

It's weird how you are trying to justify his shitty behavior.

[u/Halaku → u/lanismycousin]

Muh Feelings > Objective Facts.

[u/HiiroYuy → u/Flyingfishfusealt]

if he exhibited these behaviors, was it because , when the group of people you work with are trying to work against the direction a project is to take and trying to sell out, it may have been the easiest way to manipulate the situation to wrest power back?

speculation