[marginalia_nu]

FUTO sent me money for a production server with no strings attached. Seem to be nice people, if possibly a bit inexperienced with charity work. Eron came off as very much the archetype of a Gen-X tech bro what little I spoke with him.

Whether a donor's politics are red or blue, their dollar bills are still green. Turning money down, especially when no strings are attached, is just self sabotage.

Dunno if that puts me on Drew's Pepe Silvia wall but whatever.

[ErroneousBosh]

> Whether a donor's politics are red or blue, their dollar bills are still green.

So morality doesn't factor into it for you? You'd take anyone's money, regardless of how dirty the source?

Where's the line for you? The Irish Republican Army? Hamas?

> Turning money down, especially when no strings are attached, is just self sabotage.

Reputation is the most valuable currency you have, but it's easy to get it dirty and very hard to clean it up again.

[marginalia_nu]

It's ultimately actions that have moral value, and sponsoring projects that do good is a good thing regardless if it's Hannibal Lecter or Mother Theresa that does it. It's a very strange idea that we should try to prevent bad people from doing good deeds. If anything we should encourage and applaud such breaks in character.

What Eron does is ultimately a form of wealth redistribution. Money is flowing from the pockets of a rich guy into the pockets of open source developers who are not independently wealthy. Unless wealth redistribution is only a good thing when money is taken by force, and not given willingly? That doesn't ring true.

Reputation in this game hinges on your ability to get things done. Money is above all what enables that. There is nothing noble or reputable about turning down funding, going broke, and getting nothing of consequence done.

[ErroneousBosh]

So, you'd accept money from any source, regardless of how reprehensible, as long as you got paid? Do you take payment in melted down gold fillings?

See, this is why you shouldn't read Ayn Rand books, or at least take them seriously.

[marginalia_nu]

I can see this is an argument made in bad faith, as I simply don't see any other way a statement made in the context of not looking too closely at the politics of donors has turned into the accusations you are making now.

But still, I happen to quite enjoy pointless sophistry and I am no stranger to hyperbolic comparisons, so: Wouldn't the logical conclusion of your line of argument be that criminals and reprehensible individuals should be tax exempt, in order to avoid making the government evil by association?

[ErroneousBosh]

It's not an advert made in bad faith. It's a simple question.

Where do you draw the line? Whose money would you *not* take?

[zdw]

Just because you're not aware of where the strings are attached yet doesn't mean there aren't any. There very well may be none, or they may be unsaid - one historical example:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/1338390/darpa-pulls-fu...

In any case, the examples of donations being given through unconventional channels, then reusing the name/logos as marketing/endorsement for FUTO without obtaining permission, feels very problematic.

[bogwog]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're simply uniformed about Curtis Yarvin and his politics, and think this is just another culture war slap fight.

Go look him up and then decide whether you want to reconsider your stance on the issue. You have that responsibility if you took their money.

[em-bee]

FUTO is not yarvin. parent poster got sponsored by FUTO not by yarvin. perhaps FUTO was also uninformed about yarvin? all we can see is that they talked once or twice. i don' see them actively working together.

[constantcrying]

Yarvin was always one of the more impressive technologists from the US. Certainly surpassing much of the total slop funded by VCs. His politics are largely a restatement of the Italian elite theorists and people like Schmitt. Definitely one of the more enlightening political thinkers you can read today, especially when it comes to the power of billionaire technologists and how they will seek to reshape the political landscape in the US and elsewhere.