How Capitalism Destroyed The Internet

[@KatharineOsborne]

As a programmer one major thing you’ve left out is how the software infrastructure is largely built on open source software which only exists because of (mainly) unpaid hours that tens of thousands of programmers have put in to create novel technology that can’t be created within the confines of their day jobs (or they work at universities). This freely shared resource has been used by big tech companies to build their infrastructure on. They are essentially profiting off the digital commons and unpaid labour. Fortunately though, the digital commons is not prone to scarcity as it can be infinitely replicated. I firmly believe the very existence of trillion-dollar companies is wholly predicated on the digital commons. It’s such an irony that software development is basically the most well-realised example of socialism but is co-opted for some of the worst excesses of capitalism.

[@carlosescudero9845]

excellent analysis

[@michaelriverside1139]

The rise of Blockchain & NFT Technology is sought by megacorps to create Digital Scarcity, hence the current "Tests" that we saw earlier this year and the rise of AI Art in these last months... It's rather sad how this companies merely develop the technology and unleash it to create a kind of Wild West where those who can profit them enough shall be rewarded while everyone else gets kicked out after the right patents are signed. Specially when you consider how these technologies could be applied to the concepts of Cybersyn to design a truly meaningful internet beyond the utterly ridiculous Online Mega Mall the tech giants abhorrently push for...

[@Gaswafers]

Human reproduction is also unpaid labor, so the internet is by no means special in this regard. Everything created by human hands is impossible without unpaid labor.

[@jasons5916]

If it's not patented or trademarked, some company will steal it to use for themselves. Often they will do that even if it is patented because they can lawyer up and outspend on court fees.

[@mr.champion7304]

This is why the GNU GPL is so useful. Any software that uses some code that's protected under GNU GPL, must itself be put under the GNU GPL. This means that if a corporation wants to use code that's under the GNU GPL for their product, then their product must also be put under the GNU GPL. The GNU GPL allows for open source that's protected from this kind of exploitation.

[@Turdfergusen382]

The internet used to feel like a futuristic library, but now it feels more like reality television.

[@cosmicbliss9926]

Spot on comparison.

[@MeiinUK]

It is so bad now. You're just another dot in the big ocean. People be mean or be nasty. Or use you and tell lies. No policing. No decencies. Cannot complain. You used to be able to complain to a TV channel. And then it will get shut off. But now... No repercussions.

[@MeiinUK]

@@matthewatwood8641 : Yes, you could. Cos Ofcom controlled that aspect. And it was mostly state media that could be filtered or removed. Whereas now... you have all of these so called global medias... that does not even follow ESG ??? Their own regulatory pieces? And cannot even actually have a hands on person for each jurisdiction to control this? And the police enforcements does nothing ?????? When we brexited... the people who voted... were also non-citizens as well.. who voted. Do you realise what this meant ?

[@savage.4.24]

I miss the futuristic library. Heck i think everyone reading this does.

[@VeteranVandal]

I still use it as a library, but, goddamn, the ads annoy me so much.

[@geoffreycomer6478]

I just laughed at “the US decided to show the world that capitalism was the superior economic system by getting the government involved”. Good stuff!

[@Jorora]

Ie Tesla, SpaceX, Computer hardware companies, Airliners, Car companies, oil companies, fuck.. literally everything requires corporate socialism

[@asdfghyter]

@@Jorora I wouldn't call that socialism, but it's certainly not free market capitalism

[@bramvanduijn8086]

@@asdfghyter Yeah, corporate socialism isn't accurate, corporate wellfare state is better.

[@danko5866]

lol

[@SMGJohn]

@@asdfghyter Its actually free market Capitalism, if you read the works of early laissez faire economists, they all state the government is necessary tools to protect the property owner aka Capitalist, and its important to maintain institution of state in order to give the rich a place to speak their mind. america really is the best example of this as poor people cannot become senate, and it requires a lot of money to run an election, do you really think this is all just a big coincidence? LOL its done for a reason, to keep working class people out of politics, its simple, just make it cost money, a lot, of money. Its unheard off that a person born to a poor farmer family become leader of a country without becoming rich first, you only find people like that, guess what, in Socialist countries, Stalin was born into poverty, and mostly lived through poverty, Khrushchev is the same, even Gorbachev did not have all that much luxuries when he grew up. The poorest president USA probably has had is Harry S. Truman, who funny enough warned about the rise of the military industrial complex and large monopolies in US economy. But even Truman was a middle class, not really living off one piece of bread each week and working the back off a farm like Khrushchev did or being a bandit risking his life for meagre pay like Stalin.

[@Riku-zv5dk]

A story from Australia, in 1997 under John "I'm Australia's Thatcher and Regan" Howard began the process of selling off Australia's publicly owned telecom company. This created Telstra, Australia's largest telecom company and a natural monopoly. Bit by bit Telstra was sold off to private interests, and more and more Australia's telecom infrastructure became obsolete. In 2007 Howard's government was defeated and replace, but the new government didn't stop the privatization of Telstra (this was completed in 2011), instead in 2008 Telstar petitioned the new government to build a National Broadband Network that would connect 80-90% of Australians with reliable internet infrastructure. The two major parties eventually came into a bipartisan agreement to build a fiber optic network across the country that would connect to every business and residential property in the country. The opposition, the conservatives, or specifically, the Nationals of the Liberal-National Coalition, insisted on this, to make sure rural Australians would not be left behind. Tech experts agreed such a project would be good for the future of Australia, that we would have a next gen network that would be suitable for our growing internet needs. So, it was a resounding success, right? No. The Labor Government of the day was defeated in the 2013 election and the LNP government that came to power decided that a fully fiber optic network was too expensive, at least, that is what they said. What really happened was, Australia's media giants were afraid on online competition and so asked the government to sabotage the project. So, the LNP, who had insisted on a Fiber Optic Network so people wouldn't be left behind, abandoned the Fiber Network for a mixed technologies system, which mostly consisted of buying Telstra's old copper network and limiting the Fiber role out. In the end it was more expensive and less reliable with rural areas being the most adversely affected, just as this new network was being completed though two things happened, the Black Summer Bushfires, which showed that the nodes the networked used were vulnerable to disaster damage (these only exist due to the mixed nature of the network and didn't exist in the Fiber Network) and COVID19, which increased out reliance on the internet network which is unreliable at the best of times. A decade long project that was sabotaged on the justifications that the mixed technologies would be cheaper and just as reliable was left obsolete before it was even completed to protect the interests of media moguls. And as soon as it was completed, the government had to announce a massive overhaul to majority of the network to bring fiber to residences, which is going to take even more years. After a decade the government then has to turn around and announce their new network already needs an upgrade to its original specifications (not actually the original specifications, but closer to it) because they sabotaged the initial version. This is what neoliberal economics does. It's not even a joke, it's just depressing.

[@DarthVader-sw5yq]

Yep, I'm in a major Australian city right now and watching this vid on data cos the internet connection has been so patchy.

[@petermatthews7826]

The sabotage part of the story is actually as simple as it is infuriating. - The conservative Prime Minister, and the PM who took over after him (Abbott and Turnbull respectively), were both personal proteges and friends of Rupert Murdoch. - Murdoch didn't want online access competing with his sports coverage. - A whole continent cancelled its most important Information Age utility.

[@julianmorrisco]

When I left Oz for the UK in 1997 the Australian internet was faster, cheaper and more reliable than anything in Europe. When I returned for a year in the early 2000s I was shocked at how it hadn’t changed since I left and was way behind the rest of the developed world. I was encouraged when I heard about the NBN but all reports from family and friends about the final delivery are more than depressing.

[@jordanread5829]

@@petermatthews7826 And now because of COVID19, Murdoch wants to get into the streaming service game.

[@averagecitizen4122]

yep im in perth and went from a whole 500kb download speed to 1mb after getting the new network. great job australia, as always finding a way to make a good idea somehow terrible

[@SgtLion]

The golden age of the internet from 2000-2013 will never be forgotten by me, nor experienced by any future generations. An era where every community had its own forum, its own culture, its own lore and memes and relationships and policies and games and lives. A world where you could pop into a random website, start posting about this thing you love, and actually make real friends in a natural and comfortable way. I will forever miss it. Fuck you capitalism.

[@07Flash11MRC]

Nah, that was in the 90s and early 2000s. After 2010 everything went to sh!te.

[@07Flash11MRC]

However, I agree with your sentiment.

[@rdean150]

Yeah I was just saying this same thing in another thread. Up until around 2010ish, the internet was a glorious place of inspiring potential and vast opportunity.

[@yuyuchoo]

including or excluding revenge p*rn sites that led to doxxing and ruined lifes (Is Anyone Up)? not trying to take away from your nostalgia, but it wasn't all roses

[@queefedworm]

@@07Flash11MRC sh!te? Big brother doesn't give a fuck about that word

[@chrisoffersen]

“…some of us…spend more time online than we do touching grass.” That was a gut punch.

[@bakakafka4428]

Grass? Wazzat? Aren't you supposed to smoke it, not touch it?

[@mathieutalbo]

Touching grass can get old quick though :P

[@jeffreyherrera5069]

I would touch grass, but it's either dead, dirt, or artificial at this point in my area.

[@fuglong]

Grass sucks and is irritating to many people's skin lol. And lawns are horrible for the environment if that's the kind of grass anyone is thinking of.

[@123knack]

But also burning grass while browsing.

[@None_the_Spades4902]

I'd love a similar video about capitalism destroyed means of entertainment, like how Disney captured every studios and gaming industry become hyper-consumerism

[@blede8649]

Jim Sterling's entire channel is basically hundreds of "how the gaming industry destroyed gaming" videos. Maybe give that a look.

[@lukesutton4135]

Waa waa I hate capitalism (insert argument about how government backed company is destroying capitalism while being so brain dead as to not see the irony of the argument being presented)

[@ms-fk6eb]

@@lukesutton4135 waa waa it's not real capitalism! look at this stateless society that (with great struggle) existed for ~300yr after which it was *voted* out and overtaken by a kingdom lmao

[@Photom101]

@@lukesutton4135 k

[@ForgotMyPasswd000]

@@lukesutton4135 Socialism isn't when the government does things. Capitalism is just able to adapt to people demanding more, big corporations would rather have no regulations but since they're inevitable they make sure they're not hurt by them. There's also divisions within the capitalist class, such as the small business owners Vs subsidised corporations keeping them down. Those small business owners are still participating in an exploitative system and realistically if they grew as large as those bigger corporations they'll participate in the same corrupt actions just that they have some contrasting interests with the bigger players.

[@aadhavanbalachandran7164]

Here in India, we have a government-run ISP (BSNL), which is one of the largest in the country. That's what I'm using to watch this video, and it works pretty reliably while keeping prices low, despite the fascist government's attempts to destroy it.

[@ratulxy]

Yeah, bsnl is a life saver.

[@diohyuga6737]

You know the news always keep talking about China and Russia but not India. In curious friend how is your country government run, from your experience?

[@ratulxy]

@@thomasjones4570 I think your understanding is a bit lacking here. The fascist government did not set up this ISP, it was already there, they are trying to privatize it like any other good little fascist government.

[@solankijimmy]

They are sabotaging it as we speak. I am also on BSNL. It works really well, but there are murmurs of privatization already.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@timothyrockwell2638]

I miss the Golden Age of the internet, it used to be easy to find really interesting and strange things and communities from around the world, and now it's all compartmentalized and homogenized. The early 00's to about 2012-14 was really the height of the internet when you could find just about anything you wanted.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

@Zaydan Alfariz They sold the public on how everything has to be monetized and we bought it.

[@RaunienTheFirst]

"but we can't keep the stabbing machine turned on" Just an amazing line

[@ColbyWanShinobi]

I remember the early days of the internet, before it became a business. It was SO COOL. It just FELT different. It felt human. Being on the internet then felt like hanging out in the forest at some really cool spot that only you and your friends knew about. It felt open, free, mysterious, and fun. Being on the internet now is like hanging out in the ball pit at the McDonalds tent, at the International Fun Fair in the parking lot of Raymond James Stadium, brought to you by Chrysler, Carls Jr, Taco Bell, and Liberty Mutual. Everything is sponsored and curated and lifeless.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@hannahreese4735]

And no bots, way fewer trolls

[@runningbetweenspaces]

@@badflamer yep I love VRChat for the fact you can meet people and there are worlds that incentivize socialising is nice

[@LordLux]

i still use sites like 4chan but man, i miss old forums and myspace

[@42seven]

Including this video. fun

[@woodlow1676]

This makes me wonder what the internet would look like today if it wasn't privatized.

[@maceuniverse4125]

That is a very good question to ponder about

[@maceuniverse4125]

I'd also like to add: "What steps can we take to achieve/improve a better version of the internet?"

[@SR-kd4wi]

You wouldn't get 10 thousands ads before a 5 min video.

[@ananas_fin161]

Way less ads

[@Kingzzxepic]

@@ananas_fin161 No websites would have ads. You just wouldn't have to pay an ISP to get your internet

[@chilanya]

i been online since 1997 when i was 17 and saw the net develop in so many ways. apart from obvious progress, in many areas things have deteriorated - mostly your privacy (and thus safety when discussing or researching sensitive issues), your independence from evil companies to keep in touch online with your network, ways to be anonymous, and a fair way of searching the internet without the clutter of sponsored search results. sometimes i long back to the days where i didn't need an email address to even make an entire website. and if you learnt some html you could MAKE an entire website by yourself with no other tools than notepad.

[@genericsomething]

I ditched my AOL account in the spring of '95 for a $19.95/month dial-up account. I used the computer and fax line after hours at my dad's print shop. By '96 I quit working at the print shop and was working the support lines. Remember cup holders and foot pedals?

[@dudono1744]

you can still make a website with notepad alone, the problem is making it availible on the internet

[@playerone7663]

To people growing up with/during the rise of the internet what it has become now is a deformed monster.... there was so much potential, and there still is, but capitalism totally transformed its purpose.

[@Rattus-Norvegicus]

Anybody that wants to spy on me is gonna see some seriously messed up stuff lol.

[@JustSomeDinosaurPerson]

You can definitely still make a website with HTML. The problem generally stems from making it available, which is a major hassle or vulnerability if done wrong. And the fact that HTML is so rigid as a markup language that's seen very little updates, makes it all the worse. So many amazing small, generally open source projects have made proposals for elegant solutions to HTML's clutter from Markdown to HAML, but it is never gonna happen because everything is entirely dependent on a small handful of browsers who have no interest in offering any kind of support that would require expenditure on their part. Genuinely one of the things that steered me away from web dev after reviewing so many sites with nauseatingly cluttered code.

[@calliope6623]

All of this, and then we are sold the idea of managing our "iPhone addictions" and "screen time," the same way that we are sold the idea of managing our personal "carbon footprints" as well as our weight. Brought to you, as always, by whoever is profiting from the fact that these things are a widespread problem in the first place.

[@iunderscoream]

And managing our personal finances, but with individual sacrifices, not raising wages.

[@dennismiller5725]

Probably the most important topic in my 79 years, thanks for a good history lesson that most younger generations wouldn't know.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@T-2856]

He still missed out a massive chunk of the history of the internet. There were many technological contributions from Cern and scientists around the world that are completely ignored in favour of the Americans here. The World Wide Web itself was the invention of a Brit working at CERN, but this gives the impression it was only people working for the US government that achieved it.

[@game_boyd1644]

@@T-2856 You make a good point. I think in his usual tendency to streamline topics in a way that is easily comprehensible and digestible for his target audience (Americans), he often leaves things out and comes off America centric

[@PrettyPrincess9609]

I was online since 2011. Before 2011, I didn’t have my own computer and I had to share the family computer with my brothers. We were only allowed to play online games and watch educational videos on the shared computer. In the past decade, I saw the Internet go downhill. It started with them adding ads on KZbin and it just got worst from there. I have seen people get doxed and lose everything over what they posted online. It’s scary how we don’t have any privacy at all anymore. Our every move is being watched.

[@DarkHorseDigitalPerformance]

I've been a follower of Second Thought for a while now. I am a full stack developer and have built a suite of web apps from scratch with intent to democratize web applications and make users and creators first priority. No tracking, no privacy invasion, no selling your data to anyone with solid, intuitive and constant UI and no unfair algorithms. No Google or Amazon dependencies or CDN's either. Its in Beta testing and I am slated to take it production in Q2 of 2023. I'm thinking of crowdfunding it and after I get some ROI, I plan to open source the code. I won't put links to my websites in the comments but they are on my YT profile. I just want the community aware that there are those of us putting in the effort to effect change in this space.

[@acaciagirl]

❤❤❤

[@l4l755]

Love this, as a programmer who will start learning full stack from January. Good luck to you! Keep going and get organized so that the project can have a flying start, with the needed backup (financial, legal, organizational, strength in numbers (people etc) ) in case of turmoil. Hope you can earn a living off what you are making though, since we all need to eat ;)

[@yoriex3577]

Please share when it's public

[@jinkschuvisko8772]

Honestly, what doesn't capitalism destroy?

[@heidibenner1577]

I had some idiot say that capitalism is responsible for our modern society, like computers, technology, etc.

[@MiserableMuon]

@@heidibenner1577 an idiot he was indeed

[@archvaldor]

@@heidibenner1577 "I had some idiot say that capitalism is responsible for our modern society, like computers" The first computer was generally considered to have been created by Alan Turing for the British military during WWII....essentially a state socialist project with no private capital involved. Much like the internet itself.

[@TheGlobalfrog12]

It'll actually destroy itself soon ...

[@pelolemon2687]

Socialism, at least not completely

[@seanw6323]

The internet used to be filled with tens and thousands of personal website that was unique and interesting. Now there's nothing but social media giants and for profit blogs. The Internet now is no longer a space for creativity and connections. It's just a product for us to consume.

[@tteqhu]

More disturbing fact is.. That's easier than ever (hosting your own sites) yet, it's hard to do when there are social medias that get pretty much all the traffic. And people are rather generally comfortable

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

Ditto for KZbin, too much professionalism now.

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

@@tteqhu Damn algorithms to hell!

[@The_Broddha]

Holy hell this video couldn't have been uploaded at a better moment for me. I've been wrestling with the idea of a handful of companies dominating industries and was thinking "polyopoly". But to learn about oligopoly and that there's so much info regarding it has me so grateful. This video was phenomenal, especially in closing with consideration to possible solutions. It's disheartening to see that a freer internet would demand even those who supposedly want it without surveillance and favor decentralization can't see the inherent shortcomings that capitalism proves to always have crop up.

[@seeyoutube1377]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmbXd6t5oM2ph6s💓

[@seeyoutube1377]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYXFe32Fn76spM0

[@hexdepixel1165]

nice pfp

[@danko5866]

Same, I had been thinking about it lately because cellular ISP (big 3) here bundle streaming subs (Disney+ etc) with plans e.g. 3GB/day for 56 days can't be bought without them. I don't get why goverment doesn't make them give more options to consumers. Also, these ISPs get their spectrum fee waived off sometimes and people also can't refuse if they want to install a tower on their building. If this special treatment is being given to these companies, then they have to show that in data plans too by not being anti consumer

[@fordprefect859]

We don't need to get rid of capitalism for stuff to not suck, we just need anti-monopoly laws to be enforced for once. The dark web has a kind of natural anti monopoly law built in; once an illegal market gets too big, it gets targeted by hackers and/or shut down by law enforcement. I propose we do this to Comcast, in particular.

[@werbnaright5012]

Ads ruined neopets. Algorithms ruined reddit. My whole early internet life is but a dream now.

[@Rosemorgana1312]

r/collapse and r/latestagecapitalism are fire ngl

[@Thecultofwrestling]

Anything good gets ruined by capitalism

[@Rosemorgana1312]

@@krasky okay dont browse them then 👍

[@leonardo9259]

Reddit has always sucked

[@Laeshen]

@Bonka real people aren't saying this

[@peternyc]

You make a very important point at the end: the remedy isn't regulation of privately owned internet infrastructure. The remedy is public ownership.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@peternyc]

@@smrtchnnlold Your videos are brilliantly done. They provide quick understanding of political-economic reality. The viewer is able to use your information in a practical manner. I subscribed and the bell is "on"!

[@dallassegno]

public ownership means government ownership. congratulations another dumb leftie

[@coolioso808]

Remedy is building a new system that makes the current inefficient one obsolete. Like going from a monetary-market economy to a natural law resource based economy. It’s very possible to do. Most people don’t even know about it, which is part of the problem.

[@peternyc]

@@coolioso808 I wish it were as easy as you say. The fact is that we all live under a false consciousness that replaces the cause and effect of political economy. People are infantilized, believing society is determined by culture and identity. When you try to introduce the multi-faceted subject of political economy to a person who can only see things in black and white, they immediately lose focus, and their eyes glaze over in a bovine manner. I almost expect flies to land on their eyeballs as they do with cows. This is why Lenin believed a vanguard was absolutely necessary. The masses are incapable of looking for cause and effect. I wish Lenin were wrong, but I talk to regular people about political economy on a regular basis, and no matter how well meaning they are, it's impossible to get through. It's like trying to explain engineering ideas to a drug addict. Not going to happen.

[@KekmanForTheRestOfTheWorld]

imagine how non profit internet would end the internet addiction of most societies on this planet

[@tteqhu]

because it wouldn't exist? funny one :^

[@rickb3650]

We tried so hard, for so very long to warn you (and it's still not as bad as it's going to get). The only real regret I have in my life is seeing literally every mistake, scam, and literal evil we warned about, become the very basis of the internet. This could easily be a series of 20, hour long videos, of the who, how, and why it works like it does. One important thing he didn't touch on is the deliberate and potentially disastrous brain drain that has severely crippled societies ability to ever fix it. Mine was the second generation of experts that were dumped in order to place total control over what should be humanity's fourth revolution of communication in corporate hands.

[@maudley]

We're starting to recover, but it's still going to take time

[@rickb3650]

@@maudley I hope you're right.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Ryadic]

As a Chattanoogan and EPB customer, I'm happy to see the shout out. I had Comcast so I know the pain most people deal with.

[@TreeHairedGingerAle]

To be fair, most grass has been paved over or has a "no trespassing" sign hung over it (or otherwise gets you harassed by cops or some HOA person if you try to hang around too long).

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Zalis116]

Not if you live in a house in a postwar, car-centric North American suburb with single-family zoning and mandatory setbacks from the street!

[@Namkify]

Its the commercialisation of all that holds personal value, that rots everything it touches

[@thegrowl2210]

Never thought Amazon out of all companies would sponsor content like this!

[@curiodyssey3867]

Lmao I know, fucking hilarious 😂

[@doodle3984]

@Mack Oody-Patterson capitalists will sell you the rope to kill it with

[@ericb.4313]

​@Mack Oody-Patterson I imagine they feel kind of dirty, but money is money and joke's on Amazon they didn't do their research.

[@maya07_11]

tbh Amazon doesn't care if the thing they support will eventually destroy them, they just want the money lol

[@crediblesalamander8056]

It's like The Boys being on Amazon Prime, even anti-capitalism is capitalist!

[@skyler8460]

Just recently watched the social dilemma for a marketing class that I have to take (begrudgingly). I hated it. This video is exactly why. No matter how much they talked about problems and mentioned how profit guided the bad decisions, they wouldn’t make the final conclusion that the problem is capitalism, they said it was just bad people. It ticked me off so much. The movie began with people saying what the problem is and they’re all like oh idk if I can name one and I’m like oh I fucking can. Capitalism.

[@tteqhu]

Try to listen to it from other perspective if you have to attend again. I think they probably tried to present issues with reasoning that lead to wrong conclusions, and decisions. It wasn't about capitalism, or whatever. But it's just my assumption. I wasn't there.

[@veiserexab1428]

It's not really about capitalism, but the people who are in full control with it And I could care less about it

[@Слышьты-ф4ю]

​@@veiserexab1428 and how could those "bad people" get in the control of capitalism if capitalism simply wasn't in the very beginning?

[@Texelion]

This is the perfect rebutal for people saying "without capitalism we wouldn't have the internet" ( or any other thing ).

[@someguy3508]

You realize that you are commenting on a website that was built thanks to capitalism right? The guy that made this video is going to get paid thanks to capitalism for his efforts while shitting on it. That's some top tier hypocrisy.

[@yes-vy6bn]

capitalism works for things that require A LOT of capital to work. e.g. elon musk had to spend all of his $200m to make his first working rocket, and even having all that money, he almost went bankrupt doing it software is different because all you need is one person's time. software requires essentially no resources, let alone very expensive ones. software would work better under something like a UBI, bc currently most software engineers are stuck making brainwashing machines to make people click ads; i.e. a zero sum game rather than a positive sum game really, it's less about capitalism good/bad or socialism good/bad, but about underlying incentives in each context. to build a rocket (at least during our current time), the incentives of capitalism seems to work better, whereas to build software, or to get rid of scummy rent extracting hedge funders, socialism seems to work better

[@definitlynotbenlente7671]

So true

[@tteqhu]

We would not have the internet as we know it. constraints money gave, lead to it scaling up as effectively as it did.

[@veiserexab1428]

Hell half of the lifestyle would be gone

[@pulcherius]

I really miss the internet of the late 90's/ early 2000's.

[@07Flash11MRC]

Same. Good old days without adds, no being excluded from a website / service for beingnin the wrong location, ...

[@j0e3o77]

I miss that time as a whole. Everything was better then.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Ailasher]

Yep. Came from the Army in 2007, about a year of work and bought my first PC to help with my studies. It cost then something about 25 thousand rubles. Subscribed to a local ISP with a not-so-good external channel but a great internal P2P network and online portal, where there was almost everything, from education to entertainment. I miss these days: there was no need to subscribe to various murky servers that suck out your data like a vacuum, with a bunch of holes through which your important personal information can leak into the hands of criminals. The "copyright" nuts have not yet been tightened and the only obstacle was not blocking but a crappy connect.

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

yeah. i love looking at a buffering screen for 20 minutes to watch a 5 minutes of a video

[@NRobbi42]

Fascinating to see Twitter dissolve in real time.

[@hashansampath4066]

@Guy Whose opinions will offend you you will neither have sose nor the goose to do the BBQ. Just wait in line for you bread and stipend rations given to you by the state

[@lukesutton4135]

Dissolve into a solution than a problem? Interesting. I've never thought about using Twitter until the announcement free speech would be protected over people's opinions and lack of self control. Rather live in a society where I know my neighbor than them trying to hide their anti-freedom rhetoric while using free speech.

[@philipm3173]

@@hashansampath4066 only twitter tards want state capitalism UBI.

[@guy-sl3kr]

@@hashansampath4066 Whoa I'm getting bread and stipend rations?!? The future sounds way brighter than the present I'm all in

[@MajorBaker-vz9go]

​@@guy-sl3kr best comeback ever lol

[@hdufort]

I clearly remember when I received my first spam e-mail in 1993. I was at university and part of a few research groups, so I thought maybe this strange e-mail has been sent to the wrong person. So I replied, and received dozens of similar e-mails over the next few days. I discussed with fellow students and we didn't know what to do. About at the same time, we started seeing the first spam posts in Usenet online forums. These were among the ancestors of modern social media services. It felt really strange, that invasion of personal space, academic space, thematic communities. Then the next year, in 1994, we started seeing commercial banners on websites. It started with just a few, but then over the course of just a few weeks, it reached ridiculous proportions. With the limited speed and bandwidth we had, especially on dialup, this was extremely annoying. Today we are still overwhelmed with banners and animated publicities and embedded videos. These types of publicities are extremely inefficient. Who ever clicks on ad banners. Seriously. If only the businesses creating this promotion contents were paying according to the bandwidth and page load time they make us lose, maybe they would become less invasive.

[@ShionWinkler]

When guiding the hand of the market If it’s holding a cheque or a gun The fingers go deep in your pockets And you can live under the thumb You seem so surprised What did you expect? We’re thinking outside of that box that you checked The terms were presented in full to inspect You scrolled to the end just to get to ‘Accept’

[@julianmorrisco]

I loved the internet in the early 90s when I worked at a university. I had some concerns when it was opened to consumers (six million AOL users joining! The horror! :D) but at first, the worst that happened was a lot of mistakes and annoying questions from non technical types. The explosive growth from 1996 to about 2000 was mostly positive but the real darkness came with social media, the algorithms and the attention economy.

[@toxyl3915]

... and we, at first, thought social media was a cool idea, eh?

[@atticstattic]

I'm sorry, in between 'attention' and 'economy', I had to check my email...

[@rdean150]

Social media didn't even seem that bad until sometime around maybe 2010 or so. Around the time we first started realizing how much our inline activity was being tracked, or at least when the tracking that had been occurring the whole time started actually being effective. The days of MySpace weren't bad though. But yeah, the algorithm and attention economy really caused serious, deeply impactful problems.

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

@@toxyl3915 Plenty of us hated social media from the start. It always attracted the least knowledgable, newest users. It was a haven for people who couldn't manage even a basic wysiwyg editor, the type who would get on irc via a browser literally without knowing what irc even was and then get mad about it. It was obvious that things were headed in a bad way when social media got popular.

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

I despise algorithms!

[@wcjerky]

Capitalism, or Feudalism with extra steps.

[@07Flash11MRC]

... and euphemisms.

[@iantaakalla8180]

And larger scopes than even countries

[@JoeBauers8]

Rick and morty reference?

[@23trekkie]

Internet back then: content Internet now: ads, ads, ads, paywall, ads ads and more ads. With some content in between.

[@combatdoc]

Back about 96, 97, I had a programmer friend tell me that the biggest mistake they made was opening the web to commerce.

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

Commercialism ruins everything!

[@jeffs4483]

So glad people are wising up and asking questions about this Capitalist prison system.

[@rodylermglez]

You couldn't have picked a better day to post this. On the same day, Telegram deploys it's blockchain thing that auctions usernames in a very NFT way, forcing everyone in their platform to become a brand, or face impersonation. And then DeviantArt opens the floodgates with their own AI image generator after ingesting all the art in its repository with the weakest, not turned on by default "do not use my art to train AI" option; DA has everyone opted in by default.

[@K0lyanich]

I studied computer programming in the late 90th early 2000. It was something. The Internet felt like a new dimension of freedom. Now it's a big advertisement platform that studies user behavior so more products can be sold.

[@annikafrankenstein]

Remember when Jeremy Corbyn offered to nationalise the internet and provide free wifi to everyone?

[@steamnamebbderinvade__]

even the US is doing something similar, w/o the nationalization: www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

no.

[@playerone7663]

Im not someone who sucks up to or idolizes people online but your content is very well thought out and always interesting. So keep doing what youre doing dude. It's very much appreciated.

[@renaigh]

Capitalism isn't just wrong, it avoids being correct for profit.

[@ChadAV69]

The internet was so fun until Google bought KZbin. As soon as they bought KZbin, they started changing things and literally every time they changed something, people bitched but nothing got resolved. That was a major turning point in turning the internet into a business. Now that literally everyone is on the internet, the internet cannot be separated from real life. Due to this, the internet is just as depressing and enraging as real life. That's why it sucks. I remember just 10 or so years ago, the internet's biggest problem was that the FineBros wanted to trademark the term "react". Nowadays stuff like that doesn't even make the rounds because everyone's kind of forced to take part in things like Ukraine Vs Russia, the election, Andrew Tate, etc. There is no room for fun anymore. The internet used to be for weirdos like me. Now it's for normal people just like everywhere else, and it sucks.

[@MrManBuzz]

TL;DR The normies ruined it.

[@veiserexab1428]

Like a wise man says don't focus on things we can't control otherwise it will be more miserable to live with

[@exploshaun]

This video explains why web 3.0 would be a disaster. The internet would turn into hypercapitalist overdrive where every single user tries to maximize profits.

[@zeon_zaku]

I work in tech, and a lot of people just don't understand, what these companies are trying to do. "Cloud" services are not truly new for example, but people are buying into it, because companies sell it as convenience. It's not. If you have ever looked into the history of networking, then you would know that these companies are actually trying to take us backwards a step. They are trying to turn our "personal computers" into "personal internet terminals." This is basically the same way that old research networks worked in the past, before personal computers became prevalent. There was a network of terminals linked to one central computer or set of computers.

[@mehdihassan8316]

Video Idea: How to teach socialism to grade schoolers. Something easy to digest. Having KZbin shorts too will make it easier for people to get to know how socialism. That would be great if you can do it! 😊

[@MiserableMuon]

That is great. Plus it would bring more people into the project.

[@ericb.4313]

I'm not a parent, but I imagine the first thing you'd teach is sharing. Then maybe teaching to ask of someone's done with something so they can use it.

[@maya07_11]

yep, younger people need to get there and find these videos

[@RebekkaHay]

Better idea: teach children that societies and political systems are like tool boxes, use what you like, discard what you don’t like and don’t get so hung up on the labels.

[@bookbook9495]

@@saturationstation1446 I figured it out by 5, or have you never wanted a 20 dollar item and been told you aren’t allowed to have it?

[@pgleason99]

I remember way back in the early 90's (or late 80s) having a discussion with a buddy regarding the internet. He had a BBS and was doing a small local web tv show (about technology). I was saying how soon you would see advertising on the web. He took the position that no the users and owners of BBS and such would not allow it. My counter was yes they would for the right amount of money... And here we are now.

[@otisserie.chicken]

the irony of “this episode is brought to u by audible”

[@human_hummus6175]

It's great to see you mentioned open source! I think free & open source software is awesome!

[@Atlas-yh6vg]

me too!

[@MedievalWerewolf]

I have this sneaking suspicion that what's meant by "the singularity" is just one behemoth tech company dominating the entire landscape.

[@purplehaze2358]

"And for many of us, we've even gotten to the point where we spend more time online than we do touching grass" As someone who lives in a desert, where grass is very sparce, that is only partially my fault.

[@ribstogo12]

My friends and I talk about this all the time. The internet used to be a grassroots forum frequented by individuals who had a desire to speak to others around the world. It very quickly turned into something resembling a shopping mall, peppered with adverts like times square in NYC. Perhaps our only hope to subvert techs hold on our private communication is to create new layers on top of the internet, such as the fediverse.

[@thob]

Exactly this. It's not state control of existing platforms, it's the creation of structurally different platforms that will move the internet to a truly free and open paradigm.

[@kasbee3512]

"And given the lack of innovation from the private sector to compete with what the USSR was getting up to, America decided it was time to prove capitalism was the superior economic model by getting the government involved." 🤣😭

[@girlofanimation]

16:40 Imagine if this happened everywhere. My grandparents lived in a rural area far from the city and their phone bill was really cheap because of something like this. I also read somewhere that worker co-ops are actually more successful on average than private corporations. My favorite grocery store is a co-op; it's affordable and has a good selection of healthy food. Collective/public ownership seems better all-around bc it has community support and the community directly benefits.

[@retro6575]

I think one of the best points was made by the fact this video was sponsored.

[@sspectre8217]

In Costa Rica at first the internet infrastructure was public only, then it was opened up to the private sector but unlike the US the government didn’t abandon the internet, instead it was forced to become competitive which had a couple of good side effects: 1) the service improved a lot in pretty much every metric 2) predatory practices are much less attractive for the private sector since there’s always another option It’s stuff like these why I’m a centrist, there’s great ideas throughout the entire spectrum

[@mjg_____]

Thanks so much for covering this topic!! I'm the co-founder of one of those alternative social networks 😅 Connecting it back to privatizing the internet is a genius point, and one that we hadn't considered. Also find it hilarious that twitter charging for use will *lose* them money… shows how lucrative the ads business has become. Any tips on what you'd need from a democratized social network? We're building it as best we know how, learning from videos like this. We're pending b-corp status and everything 😃 (which is like, the lowest bar ever for trust, but still. ever heard of a b-corp social network before? we thought not!)

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Faldwin]

Do you have a link, or way to find out more about this?

[@tbxvividos]

Having been an early adopter of the Internet (anyone else remember downloading shareware via DOS?) and watched it change over the decades - this video title and topic is something that I think about and notice often.

[@KatharineOsborne]

Yeah same. Shareware and freeware ftw, precursors to the open source to follow. If you haven’t, check out The Cathedral vs the Bazaar.

[@toxyl3915]

.. or getting the shareware CDs together with magazines you never read but just bought for the CD :D

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

I remember using a computer at the library whose display was simply orange text against a grayish-black screen to search for the book I needed. I saw some other computers with color and graphics but stuck to the one with only a text display.

[@GREENACEx009]

As a kid I always asked myself “who exactly owns the internet?” As an adult i realized no one should and im paying an arm and a leg for wifi just to get data mined as social media makes me depressed. If only Nikola Tesla made wifi a free public good for everyone.

[@philipm3173]

This is my favorite video of yours yet. Keep it up you're churning out gold my man!

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Quader417]

Getting multiple, personalized ads while watching videos like these is such a surreal meta moment. Its like being in a cartoon when they say: “this day just couldn’t get any worse” cue thunder crack. Our whole reality is a joke and no one can convince me otherwise

[@almazkharrasov]

The Audible ad at the end is just hilarious given the context of the video.

[@watchingforvibes]

This was super informative. I love how you deconstruct a concept.

[@Yogachara]

The irony that Audible (Amazon) sponsored this video, and the author is taking their money.

[@TheTroutyness]

Still has to exist in this paradigm, unfortunately

[@floppa9415]

The internet or IT industry at the same time is also a great showcase on how collectivism can achieve amazing results. The posterchild of course being the Linux Kernel Apache Web-server and the entire FOSS Movement. Its is amazing what can be achieved if people work together, even without a profit motive.

[@ramosman0469]

That's right! I switched from windows to Fedora Linux a year ago. I couldn't be happier!

[@linuxpropaganda]

beautiful video as always. Free (as in freedom) software would not only instantly democratize social media, but also remove much of the data driven profit possibilities.

[@angeldude101]

Unfortunately, without strategic restriction of freedoms, businesses are as free to use that software as anyone else, and so can, and _do,_ use it for profit. The only way to prevent this is to actually convince people to use such software directly or to restrict the freedoms of using the software such that it can't be used for non-free purposes. (Essentially the kind of censorship designed to silence those trying to silence others.)

[@Danibrahh]

Does no one else see the irony of this video about capitalisms detrimental effects on the internet being sponsored by audible… a company wholly owned by Amazon, arguably the worst of the internet. I understand videos need sponsors but it’s also important to ensure those sponsors and partnerships are with companies and products that have a similar mission or values as you are preaching.

[@mhypersonic]

After watching this video I'm starting to think that intentional disinformation is a feature of the current capitalistic Internet rather than an error

[@TheItalianTrash]

You got it. Fake news is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

[@07Flash11MRC]

As long as the plebs are busy fighting each other they won't go after capitalist corporations, the elite and our management overlords.

[@chazdomingo475]

It keeps a healthy populist movement from existing, so yes. Fascism is much more preferable. They know the fascists can't and won't touch them.

[@3PuTeJlb]

Капиталисты дурят массы чтобы не допустить их сплочения везде и всегда интернет пресса телевиденье и т д

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

I hate youtube for surpressing some of the comments unless you change the filter to "Newest". It always reverts back to "Top Chat" even when you go to a different video or refresh the page. 4 effing replies won't show up.

[@davidbouchard2499]

Man! I've been saying this since the mid 2000s when the capital started to seriousky colonize the internet.

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@Hypocrite_]

finally got to a video early. Love your content!

[@aviefern]

I still find it hilarious that Audible, owned by Amazon, sponsors this channel.

[@dustman96]

I remember the days when the first 20 results weren't ads and "articles" trying to sell you something. Thank goodness we still have wikipedia and forums.

[@yesreneau]

Man I love these videos-so glad you exist

[@SecondThought]

Thanks so much!

[@valm9462]

"It was time to prove Capitalism was the superior economic model by getting the government involved" lmao NOTED

[@enderlord5347]

You could have mentioned open source projects like Matrix or Mastadon

[@SecondThought]

Could have, chose not to

[@ThaJay]

@Gwthwi Gotho Open source decentralized alternatives for current commercial platforms. There are many out there but I get not mentioning specific ones because they still all fall into the band-aid category. For these alternatives to work you need a massive network effect like what drew all these people to the current platforms. This video is about systemic change, effort towards this would automatically help band-aid solutions but effort towards improving band-aid solutions would actually detract from and delay the original end goal. It's a tactic that has seen widespread use amongst some of the biggest capitalist conglomerates so it should not be promoted by ones who seek systemic change. We can make every activist against oppression think about socialism, but we can't make socialists think bout every form of oppression possible. Solidarity.

[@ThaJay]

@Zaydan Naufal I believe breaking with big tech is beneficial in most places, you just need huge leverage to do it at scale.

[@physiqueamateur]

JT: Amazon Web Services have captured the British Department of Justice and other websites, making them completely beholden to their terms of service. Amazon: Yeah, let’s sponsor him why da fuck not?

[@dearyvettetn4489]

Greetings from the People’s Republic of Chattanooga! I loved hearing my home town get a positive mention in this video while watching at 311 Mbps DL. My current residential upload speed is 295 Mbps. Forgive me if it seems like l’m bragging but we pay comparable prices for our electric utility provided fiber optic internet to what we paid in the past for Comcast and for AT&T, who still has sales people lurking about our neighborhood trying to convince us that they can do better. I plan on moving out of state in a few years and our internet service will be painfully missed. ‘Point is, if you can get a co-op going or your local utility is willing to take on providing you better intern, do everything you can to help get that off the ground. Having choices is nice. You wont regret it 😊

[@riccriccardoricc]

I know you need money... But having Amazon sponsoring this video, out of all the others, maybe wasn't the best idea.

[@filthyshoggoth]

You wouldn't have a video to comment on, then. Creators don't pick ads, and Amazon literally owns the infrastructure KZbin is hosted on anyway.

[@BeachBrah247]

I've literally been complaining about the lack of competition technical wise this whole week, this video showed up just in time :)

[@smrtchnnlold]

see my profile. i told about capitalism

[@istankimjong-unbutcantstan3398]

Your complaints got tracked and the algorithms suggested the video. I watched one video denouncing "Waves" that just happened to show up and then got hit with waves of similar ones the next day.

[@andreylebedenko1260]

In order for this to happen the number of people who hate being greed-driven must be greater than the number of ones feeling the opposite. Much greater. It is an especially unlikely scenario considering the fact of constant pro-greed propaganda poured onto people's brains day and night by capitalists' cultural hegemony. Remember "Greed is good, greed works"?

[@randomguy4781]

I loved the early internet. was on it since 2005. I loved the trolling, no one being offended by anything, no corporations advertising their garbage products, also the forum pages for literally anything

[@luciusblackwood2640]

Now when you go to almost any website that is not a big social media site you get bombed by so many ads that the website is almost unuseable.

[@elinope4745]

I like the idea of a ground up decentralized public network that is designed to be uncontrollable and owned by the public. I don't mind containment categorization so long as it is voluntary.

[@TheHomeman]

This is crazy, I always thought that the internet should be a public utility. I started using the internet in 95

[@_Jaybefaunt]

As a content creator, those of us on the left are heavily suppressed and throttled on top of not having the same amount of revenue that the right-wingers have.

[@RickSigma]

cry

[@wrenkozlowski8362]

But it's the right who's being censored, right? Right?? RIGHT!!??????!??!?

[@CrimsonWatch]

Great video!

[@cloudcity4194]

Imagining a different internet is only difficult if you've grown up WITH the internet vs. actually seeing it unfold before your very eyes.

[@assalamel1996]

For the past few days, I was waiting for this particular video... perfectly done✔️

[@artemius130]

Hi!) Thank you very much for the video . I heard about your channel after watching your interview with Konstantin Syomin. The topic of the Internet really is very extensive. And I agree that now the Internet is increasingly kapitaliserede . It's a shame really , because it turns out that the average user pays money for getting the information he wanted to know . For me the Internet is primarily a source of information , books, literature, and various cognitive or video transmission. And still can't shake the idea that each month I give money to the provider to be on the Internet and get information . Well let's say we pay the providers in order to support Internet equipment is in proper condition to the Internet worked flawlessly . But when the Internet requires additional subscription to view a particular resource it seems even offensive . I want to say , Hey , but I've already paid the provider for the Internet , why should I pay more for something more ? And here a very helpful free software . Recently, I became a user Linux. No it's not that I blamed Windows . I was just a little surprised that most of the programs for which Microsoft takes big money, completely free and can be found as an alternative on the Linux system . And because these programs make enthusiasts from around the world . I just gave Linux as possible alternatives.

[@ThaJay]

Yes we have all the technology we need. All we have to do is get everyone else on board and make it so we help each other.

[@artemius130]

@@ThaJay I believe that the world is a really big number of technologies that can really help humanity . And these technologies must be available to all, without exception. Free vaccines , medicines against various diseases, the Internet . All of this should be free of capital. Imagine how many people would be in Africa, Asia, India could develop , with free Internet available and free medicine. On television we always tried to say that the governments of the different countries of the world each time helping children and people of Africa. But now the news is saying that these countries risk being left without water, food. That medicine there are very bad . But it's obvious . Capital is not profitable when any individual country starts to progress in development . And that's bad. Because suffering a huge number of people. Given the recent events happening in the world, I realized that all the countries of the world somehow independent of each other . And the capital is focused exclusively on the enrichment of their own resources at the expense of other resources . I absolutely agree that the earth's resources will really be enough for everyone. Just need to not concentrated around a handful of companies . Elon Musk came out with the initiative to create free Internet in the world. It would seem that hope. And now he bought Twitter and dismisses virtually all of its employees. And about free Internet for people around the world, he immediately forgot. And I'm sure he never thought about the fact that those employees have families and children that need to be fed . I agree that people should help each other. To be United, and shares his knowledge and skills . Rather than trying to sell my knowledge for money , then they could only use a large capitalist companies .

[@Ailasher]

@Zaydan Naufal Not everyone in Russia supports what is happening in Ukraine. The basic rule: the older the person, the more he approves of what is happening. It comes to the ridiculous: those who broke the Soviet Union with their own hands when they were something like 20 years old, and now having zero chances, due to age restrictions, to get mobilized to the front are huge supporters Putin's policy. We actually have a common Russian-speaking segment of the Internet with the Ukrainians, despite all the efforts of the Ukrainian (and Russian, which is ironic) government. And what started in February 2022 did not and does not depend on their users. So, you can figure it out. If they want to find a common ground somewhere, where instead of being interested in common activities, they "fight from the couch" with each other - they do it. But I see more than enough people, with Ukrainian and Russian flags under their userpics, who continue to communicate normally with each other, for a variety of reasons.

[@tteqhu]

That's analogy I have: You are paying for personal carrier. He can go pick up stuff from any adress you ask him. He is not sharing his "wage" with anyone. The fact that so many people share their informations for free is bit crazy. More proffesional sites having set up subscriptions to sustain their network equipment, and team, allows them to allocate more time into content of the site. Afterall, time is money, and it does go both ways.

[@constantinbarbu]

Man, you’re here talking about how capitalism destroyed the internet in a video sponsored by Bezos (Audible), this is 100% content we can trust, for sure.

[@OverloadedOrama]

How does the sponsor affect the content at all? Unless they had a say in it, which I highly doubt.

[@bunnybreaker]

This should be required viewing for everyone that uses the Internet or supports capitalism.

[@nimabanaie2171]

Internet as a public service? That is common sense, but very rare to see. De-privatizing the internet sounds like a good idea.

[@pelinalwhitestrake3367]

Remember: There were no TV ads is USSR.

[@alov1859]

Отличное видео. Честно говоря, я раньше об этом не задумывался, поэтому было очень интересно узнать, как капитализм ухудшает Интернет.

[@TheBenLemonade]

I knew it was particularly bad in the US when I moved to a (relatively poorer) European country. I pay $15 per month for 1000mbps internet (includes a premium TV package I dont use), and $22 per month for 50GB of 5G mobile. And generally, I have an option of which provider I want because they all service most parts of the city with 500mbps+, so I can generally choose which providers I prefer (with some exceptions). It really crystalizes how much the telecom providers (and service providers in general) in the US can get away with.

[@ilyatsukanov8707]

Although the Soviet Union was no more when the internet became a thing, internet in Russia has some Soviet-style features baked into it to this day, namely: laxness on IP laws. Hundreds of thousands of books and magazines (including old, obscure Soviet ones) have been digitized and uploaded by both enthusiasts and educational institutions, and are available for free, without JSTOR-style fees. The KZbin pages of major film studios have uploaded thousands of classic movies, miniseries and documentaries. For many years, our analogue of Facebook, VKontakte, had free music and movies. The internet may be the ONLY thing post-Soviet Russia got right. I read on a forum once that the internet is basically like a real-life version of the replicator from Star Trek - it can endlessly replicate and distribute for free a commodity -in this case whatever can be put on the internet, to anyone who wants it. The fact that companies (and especially universities/academic journals, etc) are trying to monetize this commodity and keep it behind a paywall is infuriating, and to me that the biggest issue with the modern-day internet.

[@CalAndAly]

MORE SECOND THOUGHT??? INCREDIBLE!!!!

[@SecondThought]

Every Friday at 9am central 😁

[@DirtWolfReads]

“this episode is brought to you by: Amazon” 💀💀💀