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Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: February 26th, 2024

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  • Folks are asking “Why post this here?” I get the question but I think I also get the OP, as a New Yorker who was surprised to see this ad IRL.

    Most of our subway ads are for VC-funded Internet darlings (think: mattresses-by-mail, kitschy underwear, online therapy) or for some aspiring blockbuster movie from an Internet giant.

    Until I saw this ad, I had never in my life seen a subway ad for a company I actually used, let alone respected.

    Seeing this ad in the wild broke my brain. I have advocated for online privacy for over a decade. I have spent so much energy pushing people to use Signal. But I had never before imagined that “online privacy” was a concept that could find an audience in mass marketing.

    I don’t know if Mullvad will take off. But I know that seeing these ads moved me. I felt like maybe, MAYBE, our movement is breaking through.




  • What does “biologically rational” mean?

    Do you mean “This is what’s rational for me, as an organism” ? Seems to me that a lot of self-serving behavior could be classified as “biologically rational.”

    But as Marxists, do we not strive to transcend that kind of short-term, isolationist thinking? Do we not try to take a long view, grounded in compassion and egalitarianism?

    So, too, do the antinatalists. Both groups understand that you can’t have a society if the only people you care about are your kin. That is to say, “biological rationalism”-- whatever that is-- has no place in Marxism




  • That’s not really accurate. What you’re describing is the movement against “overpopulation.” That movement often uses concerns about resource shortages as a backdoor into eugenics and upholding the current liberal order.

    Antinatalists aren’t worried about those concerns, primarily. Their argument is that because all life experiences suffering, creating life is inherently cruel and immoral. IMHO that argument has some overlap with Marxism in that it’s an egalitarian concern for all people in society.