It’s not so much capitalism as it is a weakness of human nature. There are plenty of non-capitalist governments that desire to control, spy and manipulate their citizens.

Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a dark mirror that presents itself to me. And while I detest looking at it, I also find it difficult not to.

(TDLR: Technology (in its infancy) was something new, exciting, fun and enjoyable. Today, it is manifested more as an overlord whose primary capacity is to spy, intrude and take your personal information in order that they might gain from it.)

I grew up in a world before all of the modern day technology took over. They were good times, but when technology did eventually begin to develop, it effects were initially benign. It was initially adopted by those who were considered ‘geeks’ and people who were willing to spend money on it (even IBM clones such as the Tandy 1000 were going for $1,000 back in the day).

I remember when pagers were coming on the scene and allowed people to reach out to each other if they weren’t at home or at work (which were the only places they had access to a reachable phone number). It gave greater freedom for those who were in positions where they were on call 24x7 - it allowed them to go places and still be reachable instead of being stuck at home and waiting for a phone call that might never come.

Of course, things grew from there which provided many other benefits including access to a huge repository of information. Nowadays, that access to information has become a means of harvesting information from the very individual seeking to obtain it. The innocence of what was once revolutionary has been been upended by and ideology that has figured out and embraced how to consume its own consumers.

I spend more time today figuring out how to keep my data and personal information private and secure. Using Linux on my computer, running GrapheneOS on my phone as well as other considerations all in an attempt to keep at bay invasive companies and their ever evolving techniques in order to pry and spy upon me. It’s a shame that what was once fun and exciting is now something to be feared.

I really like them, but depending upon what you are looking for, they may have a wait list (but they do allow you to be notified when a book comes back in stock).

Used book stores are great, and I’ve used Thrift Books online many a times. The problem is that I have a lot of physical books and the wife wants me to scale down. As a result, I had to switch to a Kindle so that I can have more books without cluttering up our space more.

With Thrift Books, I’ve found their ‘book condition’ references to be much better than what you’d expect. For instance, I’ve received books that were labeled as “good” and found them to be in much better condition.

YMMV, but I’ve found them to be a good option.

Conversely, since I’ve had my Kindle, I’ve found a lot of free books through Gutenberg.org.

Nowadays, I have to stay away from physical bookstores or else I’ll pick up something and my wife will not be happy.

Notes from a Dead House by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Very interesting so far. I’m about a third of the way through it.

Avarice and a will to control.

And I’m sure the new mods being installed will have an even stronger alignment with Reddit’s philosophy and direction which will only make life in that place more hellish.

I’m glad I jumped ship when I did.

I just quit Reddit cold turkey. For me, I needed to be rid of it as I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time on it. I went ahead and deleted my account. I feel much better now that I have removed it from my life.

Reddit is not what it ought to be. It’s overwhelming toxic environment just ruins what could have been a great forum. But it is what it is and for that reason, I’m out.

Going back at this point would be like returning to an abusive partner and thinking that the relationship could actually be better this time.