[bevekspldnw]

Cool, I’ll send you my land lords banking info so you can pay my rent, the info for my kids childcare, and where to contribute to my retirement account.

Also, for what it’s worth, I’ve forgone millions of dollars in compensation over the years to work on socially beneficial projects, and literally just left $250k on the table last year alone. But yeah, wanting to support my family makes me greedy.

[nurple]

I said money-obsessed, not greedy, not really the same thing, but it is something that's becoming more and more pervasive. Case in point, your whole response was focused purely on money.

I actually find it pretty interesting that there's so much hostility towards my posts when I attempt to start a discussion on alternatives to our present and decaying society. Like, it is a lack of imagination? A resignation to reality? Belief that this is the best we can do?

Personally, I /can/ envision a future without landlords, banking info, and retirement accounts, where we direct the immense productivity of our people away from one that necessitates a focus on money. I guess I'll just need to work on my pitch.

[bevekspldnw]

I’ve been working in digital rights and advocacy for years. High rhetoric isn’t how you change things, it’s long-term commitment to meaningful action that must be sustained or it will falter.

My annoyance is that I’ve had this discussion a hundred times and unless you are in the trenches trying to make change while supporting your family I’m not really interested in musings on what a better world looks like, I’m busy trying to support myself doing the work to make it happen.

And per my comment above, I’ve given up a TON of money, but I still deserve to have money in my pocket.

[nurple]

Now that's something I can work with. I don't intentionally spout high rhetoric as a way to chastise or belittle, though I admit I do let frustration leak into my words. I honestly am looking for how I and more people can be a part of a change, I do _want_ productive discussions.

This week has been an interesting one for me, my perspective has shifted quite drastically. Honestly I was bitter, I found that I was unintentionally on a mission to inflate perceived injustices to create bad people in my mind, ostensibly for the purpose of making myself look "good" in comparison. I let that need leak into my interpersonal interactions in an attempt to push that juxtaposition into other people's minds.

I'm not in the trenches like you because I spent a decade focusing on bootstrapping a company because I wanted money, and I selfishly wanted to just ignore everything that bothered me and focus on what I loved doing. In the end it ruined most of what I actually value, and that changed me in ways I hadn't realized; in the end I burned myself and bridges as those things began to crumble.

I will say that I've thought a lot about our conversation this week as I've been trying to find a path to somewhere better, as I do struggle a lot with what you're saying as I have kids of my own, some adult, who are seriously struggling because of the screwed up money obsessed world we find ourselves in.

A pretty big part of the torment I was laying on myself was because I didn't feel like I deserved the monetary success I had worked so hard to find, I felt like liquidating my value as my co-founder had was tantamount to becoming one of those people I so fervently despised. I've instead been trying to prove to myself that I could do it again on my own, with the expected result.

I decided to call our investor this week and negotiated a buyout of my equity. Now I guess I just need to figure out how I can turn that into some good in the world. I'm incredibly grateful at this point actually, I've experienced having nothing, I've experience true hopelessness, and I've experienced how much even a small gesture by someone who cares can drastically change one's circumstances and frame of mind.

If there's anything you could share with me about your experience in advocacy, I would be humbly thankful.

I apologize for how I treated you.