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Comment by cat_plus_plus | Hacker News Reader

I am glad that Richard Stallman and Greta Thunberg live according to their principles and maybe their stances will eventually give me more alternatives to choose from. I am just not personally interested in doing the same. Corporations suck, governments suck, people suck. Constant quest for purity will just mean that I spend all my energy on that and not on doing anything productive myself.

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Both of your examples seem to be pretty productive people, no?

They are famous because they're rare. There's only so much room in the economy for that kind of purity. Try getting a tech job almost anywhere and insist on a pure GNU stack running on hardware that has no nonfree firmware and see how far that gets ya.

I think history shows those who seek a very high level of moral purity have had to forge their own paths, rather than get any old job/occupation which corrupts their beliefs. Rare, but inspiring. Such reaching also involves much sacrifice, it must be lonely.

But equally, I think dismissing their concerns as a pursuit of ideological purity undermines them.

Like, I work for a FAANG, I have for a long time. But I also do good within and outside that FAANG. I do habitat restoration, I get involved with political organizations that align with my views (mutual aid, socialism, etc.)

One doesn't have to care 100% or 0%, one can live with the understanding that we are in a system where you gotta pay your bills and have problematic favorites, while still trying to make things better where you can.

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