Join EFF to Celebrate the Life of Aaron Swartz
(www.eff.org)
Blaze to 
Opensource
cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/opensource@programming.dev/p/1974365/join-eff-to-celebrate-the-life-of-aaron-swartz
It irks me to no end that he basically faced life in prison for something that the AI bros are doing every day and everyone just shrugs.
Also open access science journals are a MUCH bigger thing now because we realized Aaron Swartz was right after we killed him.
The contrasting stories of Aaron Swartz and Spez is the perfect example of how US society punishes those that do the right things and rewards malicious actors.
He was on the right side of history. The best kind of activist.
He would've only been 39 this year..
Aaron would've ditched Reddit and been here chilling with us, his People
A person worth celebrating and emulating. It is incredibly unfortunate that since his death, the world has moved further and further away from his dreams.
the world has moved further and further away from his dreams.
Not here it hasn't!
Also open access science publishing has exploded in the years since his death.
It is so radicalizing to me that AI companies are socially and economically doing way worse than Aaron and facing zero repercussions for it.
As much as many of us want and share that dream, he was so exceptionally gifted, and had such strong moral values, and the balls to stand for what’s right, that it seems as though that combo is almost impossible to replicate. People like him only come once in eternity.
I'm not sure of the kindest way to put this. Anyone can do what Aaron did. Each moment is a choice. Externalizing that kind of heroism is disempowering. The main thing stopping people is a brutally enforced lack of hope. That is exactly what eventually stopped him. His legacy has been built on, the work is nowhere near complete, and there is so much room for each and every one of us to continue making impactful contributions. He made reddit, we're on lemmy, who knows what's next? It's only with time that these actions seem larger than life. In the moment, to follow your morality is all that's necessary to keep moving towards a better world.
People like him are only given support and trust once in an eternity.
There are plenty of people with similar potential, the problem is we crush, reject, obliterate and kill them all 99% of the time before we can witness their gift.
