First, after reading a post from CyberKitsune on the Fediverse about the controversial take of not hating hard on all corporations, I feel compelled. With that, I also agree with that thought process. I feel like there is a lot of mob mentality, and it hurts more than it helps, in my opinion, sometimes, and I feel like people don’t equally enforce their beliefs evenly across things.

Issues With Mob Mentality

I don’t feel like I have to say too much here; at least, I think most people get that mob mentality is terrible. However, I still feel compelled to point out how bad it is and how much I see the furry community often get wrapped up in it without taking the time to vet what they are throwing their weight behind.

I have seen multiple examples, repeatedly, where companies get canceled and individuals for accusations that don’t even pertain to them. It bothers me seeing how many people get hurt by those leading mobs; only for weeks or months later, the internet forgets, and no one bothers to go back and see that what was said about them was utterly inaccurate or just plain smear campaign.

It bothers me because I used to run a small business before the one I operate now. I got lots of hate directed at me and even death threats, and I did nothing wrong. The person who leveraged death threats against me was a former customer upset that they were not the first to have their data restored when our servers got compromised; I was restoring data in the order it was coming down from our backups. Others just targeted me for calling out shady practices in funding that an open-source organization was claiming were their costs. Because, again, I like to look into things myself. I looked at their legally required 501 3(c) released documents and found them funneling costs into private companies they all held that gave nothing back to the broader community. It bothered me greatly… It is one of the reasons I left that community ages ago because it was toxic, and I didn’t want to deal with the drama anymore.

Corporations and My Values

While I can typically agree with the meme “Silence Corporation,” I am less likely to do that entirely. I don’t think ALL companies are out for us, but I agree the vast majority only care about the money in your wallet. It is about finding that balance, researching, and listening to others when they give you feedback on the companies you use. Be willing to look into the companies you use and seek to use, but sometimes I will admit I only occasionally do a good enough job. This is why it is essential to be open to learning when someone brings it to your attention.

Recently it was brought to my attention about the company Brave. I knew little about the CEO actively avoiding apologizing for their views and opinions towards the LGBTQIA+ community. However, doing my research again… I realized that, yeah… I know they are just the CEO, but realizing switching to their Search Engine means that the money it generates through my usage of it would end up in their hands, which they would most likely use to funnel back into anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations as they have been known to do. This is why I was paying for Neeva, but seeing how they shut down, I have my own issues with DuckDuckGo’s search results, their CEO’s stance on censorship, and their ongoing dealings with Microsoft.

Finally, my feelings as a stockholder of Cloudflare on some of their business practices. I bought some stock in them upon their IPO because I had been using them since they started in the early days when they were a nobody. Following their journey, they have done so much for developers and small businesses, and individuals offering so much for free. I was worried about those practices changing upon going public. However, they have just grown their free and low-cost options. Yes, I did worry and moved some of my stuff away from them because they are so big now they can cause the downfall of a chunk of the internet when they have a disruption. Then when they host questionably legal things… they have come out and stated they try to operate as a utility because of the scale of what they are. Similarly, we ask our ISP to behave; we want them to act as dumb pipes and let us use them to get where we are going. Yes, this can lead to morally questionable situations… and in the case of hate groups using them, they used 100% of the profits of that hate group’s bill to fund the charities that the hate group is targetting. I felt that is a good fuck you to that customer… like thank you for helping fund the groups you hate! A way of either nudging them off rather than kicking them off, as they are technically not doing anything illegal and acting like a dumb pipe.

In Closing

I am trying to say that I have made mistakes and feel that viewpoints don’t always align with the broader community. I have my own opinions and look at the world from a realistic point of view. I hope that others will do the same and try to have an outwardly looking opinion back at the situations and do a bit of research before jumping on the bandwagon… and like me, when you make a choice, you are open to realizing you were wrong.