[lukifer]

> starting a business is the only means available for make a positive impact in the world on a reasonable time scale

There is a great deal of validity to what you say, but blanket statements like this are absurd. What capitalist venture is going to make an impact on gay marriage? What was the business model of MLK Jr.'s speeches?

[beatpanda]

I would argue that Khan Academy is doing more to correct disparities in our education system, including of the kind caused by centuries of institutionalized racism, by making high-quality tutoring available for free on the Internet, than any modern-day legislator or activist.

Large companies like Google are able to set standards in their industries around things like health benefits, which, while not providing the social recognition many gay marriage advocates are after, does provide one of the material benefits of marriage without waiting for the government's blessing.

And meanwhile, the systems that our government uses to suppress movements like King's (in his day it was COINTELPRO) have gotten frighteningly more effective. The Occupy movement was subject to a massive, coordinated campaign of extreme police repression before it even started.

Given how bad police repression of the civil rights movement already was, imagine what would have happened if anything as pervasive as the Patriot Act or computer-assisted social network analysis had been available.