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godwinson__4-8today at 5:00 AM3 repliesview on HN

Who uses Zuckerbergs products? Why is he a billionaire?

He's so evil but the vast majority of Americans can't give up his products?

Is he forcing people to login to Instagram or Facebook?

The same populace is going to suddenly do what? Inaugurate in some utopia that somehow eliminates the global nature of our economy and way of life? What elections have you been following? The American electorate cares more about inflation than "democracy and self-determination".

Did you actually read Adams speech? It's just overt, 19th century propaganda. Is this the fortune cookie you were speaking of? I'd love for you to actually go through paragraph by paragraph and attempt a robust defense of any of it.

Maybe start with this section:

Fellow-Citizens, it was in the heat of this war of moral elements, which brought one Stuart to the block, and hurled another from his throne, that our forefathers sought refuge from its fury, in the then wilderness of this Western World.

They were willing exiles from a country dearer to them than life.—But they were the exiles of liberty and of conscience, dearer to them even than their country. They came too with Charters from their kings: for even in removing to another hemisphere, they “cast longing, lingering, looks behind,” and were anxiously desirous of retaining ties of connexion with their country, which, in the solemn compact of a charter, they hoped by the corresponding links of allegiance and protection to preserve.

But to their sense of right, the charter was only the ligament between them, their country, and their king. Transported to a new world, they had relations with one another, and relations with the aboriginal inhabitants of the country to which they came, for which no royal charter could provide. The first settlers of the Plymouth colony, at the eve of landing from their ship, therefore, bound themselves together by a written covenant; and, immediately after landing, purchased from the Indian natives the right of settlement upon the soil.

Thus was a social compact formed upon the elementary principles of civil society, in which conquest and servitude had no part. The slough of brutal force was entirely cast off: all was voluntary; all was unbiassed consent; all was the agreement of soul with soul.


Replies

GolfPoppertoday at 6:04 AM

>Is he forcing people to login to Instagram or Facebook?

Yes. The "no one is putting a gun to users' heads" argument is irrelevant when it comes a trillion-dollar company invested in behavioral modeling deliberately driving engagement.

"Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users" (2018)

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959

"Addicted by Design: The Hidden Psychology Behind Social Media’s Hold on Us" (2025)

https://information-warfare.com/addicted-by-design-the-hidde...

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Barrin92today at 6:08 AM

>He's so evil but the vast majority of Americans can't give up his products? Is he forcing people to login to Instagram or Facebook?

People are perfectly fine with him making products, what they aren't fine with is he (and his peers) starting to think they're kings and trying to overrule the citizens of a state he doesn't live in. If it comes down to a chatbot and the latter they'll chose the latter. The datacenter opposition, of which there are by the way hundreds at this point across the country generally attract 70/30 if not higher majorities.

I'm also not sure what I'm not supposed to support in those paragraphs because, as to your point about inflation, that is currently the consequence of America's ongoing military action in the world, as unpopular as the datacenters, and as the founders were fond to point out the reason for ever more higher levels of taxation, increased state size and lower prosperity. As true today as it was back then.

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watwuttoday at 7:21 AM

> He's so evil but the vast majority of Americans can't give up his products?

Hello maynmar genocide. Hello selling weight loss products to teenagers algorithms determined as having low self esteem.

Yes, in winner takes all economy, one person can be prettt evil and have all tge economic power.

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