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Comment by RockyMcNuts | Hacker News Reader

If moderators are feudal 'landed gentry' then what does that make 'spez'?

What does it make owners of platforms who decide with more or less absolute authority what is acceptable on their platforms?

As software platforms 'eat the world?'

<cough>Elon "The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters."</cough> https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elon-musk-woke-mind-virus/

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It makes Spez the King, that is obvious. The landed gentry were trying to lead a popular rebellion against the King, so the King reminded the commoners that the landed gentry are not their democratic representatives. This doesn't mean the King is suggesting himself to be democratic, of course he isn't and he wouldn't agree to an election for himself. But since the mods claim to be representatives of the commoners in a popular uprising, they framed themselves as democratically legitimate and in doing so, set themselves up to be threatened with elections they know they wouldn't win.

The mods aren’t even the nobles… they are just serfs with skills like the village miller or blacksmith.

A mod is characterized by their power to moderate. They may also have useful trades, they might also be content creators or blacksmiths who hammer iron, but that isn't what makes them a mod. What makes them a mod is the authority and power, given to them by the King, to strike down any commoner they please.

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