"Love the people, hate the government"

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      wouldn’t you say that throughout the history of personal computing there have been tons of technologies that served to align the interests of the hobbyist with those of the bourgeoisie?

      Not any more than any other technology. If I was going to put my finger on the most capital-friendly appliance, it would land squarely on the automobile.

      For the hobbyist, in particular, the PC moves you away from bourgeoisie monopoly interests. There tends to be a lot more DIY development, a lot less of a reliance on private licensing and privatized infrastructure, more open sourcing, more piracy, and a general social component to the hobby that rejects authoritarian tendency in favor of collaborative community-lead projects.

      surely an interlocking series of tools causing a person who just wants to get paid for their cfl bulb adapter plates or tabletop miniatures to curse the perfidious han could be said to align their interests with those of the national bourgeoisie.

      I think the "perfidious han" is doing what Americans wish they could be doing instead. All we're really seeing here is Americans venting frustration at being crabs in a bucket who cannot drag others down with them. But hobbyists generally are doing what Chinese hackers and developers are doing, just on a smaller and less sophisticated scale. The adoption of the PC and all the tech hobbies surrounding it does not appear to be slowing down Chinese residents or forcing them into well-defined IP-regulated silos of creation and distribution.