By justifing Spez's actions as smart.

Where am I justifying what he's done, though.

I'm not saying his actions are smart. I'm saying they're not "dumb". I'm saying they're practically expected.

That's the environment we're working with at the moment.

He made a play that got him what he wanted at the expense of the interests of Reddit's users.

So did Zuckerberg with Facebook. So did Tim Cook with Apple.

This is nothing new - it's the same old, battered story of a CEO fucking over its users for their own gain as well as the gain of their shareholders.

They do not care about long term outcomes. They can afford to not care. They do not give a fuck about anything that you give a fuck about, and they definitely don't play by the rules you play by.

Calling them "dumb" is like throwing a rock at a killer robot who's out to destroy you: not only does it do absolutely fucking nothing, you just spent energy and time that went nowhere.

And then you have the people telling the rock throwers not to do that, but then the rock throwers flip out and throw rocks at them.

The idea that forcing subs to go "dark" is going to reverse anything is also ludicrous.

They can do whatever the fuck they want with Reddit, and they have their reasons (good or bad, for better or worse).

They also don't care what you have to say about it, because at this point, your interests are fundamentally at odds with theirs.

They knew that a certain type of user would leave, they knew that a certain type would stay. They took a calculated risk, knowing that subs would do something like go private.

But they also knew that there were more than enough users who would stay, and that those users, based on countless analytics, would be willing to put up with their changes.

Because that's a large part of how decisions are made these days. Because that's now how the world works.

So, no. They're not dumb. They're acting entirely as expected; they're going to walk away with money, and because so few are so attached to Reddit that they care enough to childishly moan about its fate on the Internet, Reddit will slowly whither, while they continue to profit.

All that can be done by people who are unsatisfied is prevent people like them from gaining control over any alternatives.

Stopping Meta from entering the Fediverse would be a step in the right direction.