Apparently in the past day, they’ve removed all the logos from the Microgrants projects and clarified that the grants are unsolicited

  • cecilkorik@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    I think Louis Rossmann’s heart is in the right place, his work for right for repair is genuine, his disdain for New York’s intolerable bureaucracy is completely understandable and justified, but it is leading him in bad directions and has been ever since he linked up with FUTO. Never trust a billionaire and never let them delude you into thinking they care about you or anyone. He is being used for his reputation and his audience and when they are done consuming those things for the billionaire’s cause’s benefit he will be left with neither one and the billionaire will move on without slowing down or shedding a tear.

    • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      What else do you expect him to do that will make an ACTUAL change? You HAVE to make some concessions when collaborating with large entities, and I think we are lucky that Louis can stay true to all of his beliefs with a large backing like FUTO, even if they aren’t perfect.

      I feel like I’ve seen stories like this before, how a popular YouTuber, or advocate isn’t “perfect”. People in the comments provide a “perfect” alternative, they are usually super niche and super underground. Certainly someone that hasn’t yet had the chance to come under the same amount of scrutiny.

      We need to be a little compromising to avoid cannibalizing our movement to achieve “purity” of our ideals, while corps continue to take ground. My two cents. Stop the bleeding first, before you worry about scars.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        Exactly!

        FUTO is a force for good IMO, even though I disagree with their approach. I use:

        • Grayjay - way nicer than NewPipe and works with a bunch of services
        • FUTO Keyboard - best keyboard alternative for swipe typing IMO
        • Polycentric - I’ve posted a bit through Grayjay and want it to catch on

        I wish their software was FOSS, but at least it’s source available and I think they fixed it to allow noncommercial redistribution of modifications. It’s not perfect, but it’s a force for a good.

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      He’s always been more than a little petite bourgeoisie. Among all his spats with the city of New York, I’m sure you can find something where he was at fault, but we generally only get his side of things. Still, I think he’s been mostly a good advocate. FUTO is not the right place to do that.

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        While I can’t say I agree with everything Rossmann, the guy seems very genuine, regardless of where I think he may be wrong or right. Also, I’ve seen him pedal back and retract plenty of times when he is shown (with evidence) that he was wrong.

        Can you name one other personality with a large following that comes even close to Louis Rossmann in bringing stuff to light and fighting back against enshittification?

        As for Futo, yeah, I’m pretty sure that billionaire that owns it is just using Rossmann for his following. But who knows, maybe Rossmann is also taking advantage of him to advance what we all want to see as well.

        • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Can you name one other personality with a large following that comes even close to Louis Rossmann in bringing stuff to light and fighting back against enshittification?

          Well, there’s Corey Doctorow, of course. He literally wrote the book on Enshittification.

          There are definitely more “behind the scenes” folks doing a lot for that particular cause who don’t so much have a following of anywhere near the same size, but nonetheless do fight enshittification in big ways. Bradley Kuhn comes to mind.

          • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zip
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            8 hours ago

            I know about Corey Doctorow and his coining of the term and his book. I appreciate there are people like him, they do make a difference. I’ve never heard of Bradley Kuhn, thanks for pointing him out. I’ll look him up.

            This is exactly what I’m talking about. People like these are doing what they can to further knowledge about how shit is extremely wrong and needs to change.

            Louis Rossmann uses the following he has built up over the years to carry the word on the extreme enshittification we live in, and pushes for changes that will be beneficial for us at the legislative level as much as at the operating level.

            I do believe that Futo and it’s owner are just trying to benefit from him, but that does not remove the fact that Rossmann has also taken advantage of Futo to improve our situation as much as he can without making a penny out of it for himself.

            Honor where honor’s due, that’s my thing.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            19 hours ago

            Are they sitting through hours of legislature meetings just to have a 60 sec chance to speak? Are they meeting with legislators and city councils to discuss causes they care about? Are they making YouTube content going over lengthy legal documents to show people the problem?

            Or are they mostly writing books and speaking at paid conferences?

            IDK about you, but the former sounds a lot less bougie than the latter.