Mastodawn

We keep seeing startups who want to replace something valuable (therapy, counseling, tutoring, artistic expression) with some tech bullshit under the banner of democratization. But why do we need to invest so much in bad tech that doesn't work instead of just giving people access to what they need?

This is a sign for how fucking atrophied our mental muscles are. How limited our space for thinking about how things should be.

You want to democratize "going to therapy"? Make it "free" as in paid by socialized healthcare. You want to democratize "making art"? Give people money and free time to express themselves.

None of these things are meaningfully addressed through tech. It's always about the political struggle to give people what they need and deserve.

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Mikko Karvonen Oct 29

@tante In the end it’s about the same things it always is with these people: power, money, control.

The point of these “solutions” is that they can monetise them, and control the content. Art becomes sterilized and loses its political angle: the owning class does not get criticised. Don’t want the therapy to cover certain subjects? Control the service and censor whatever you want.

Of course, some men will also do anything instead of going to therapy, including creating much worse therapy.

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@hiljaisuus

Yes. A free and open service becomes a sign-up-for-access service, becomes a pay-a-subscription service, becomes a pay-more-to-access-new-content service, becomes a pay-more-to-remove-ads service, becomes a pay-more-and-get-ads-anyway service.......

@tante