This post was initially written as a Mastodon thread. I decided to make it a post as I didn’t want to butcher it between platforms.
-Marcus “MajorLinux” Summers
On the way to work this morning, I saw a bumper sticker saying that someone bought a Tesla after they found out “Elon was awesome.”
Clearly, some conservative trying to get a rise out of people.
That, however, got me to thinking yet again about hero worship but CEO hero worship specifically.
Yesterday, I saw a post commemorating Steve Jobs yet again.
That along with Bluesky and ActivityPub users going into fits about the Jay situation and how Eugene isn’t much better (the latter in charge of Mastodon, not AP).
We really need to stop putting these people on pedestals. They’d be nothing without the engineers building the tools. They’d be nothing without the consumers and users.
At what point will we collectively understand that we hold the power?
We don’t have to let these assholes dictate our lives!
Now, I’m acutely aware that I may be reducing the issues faced by people using these platforms and products.
For some, it is a means of survival and may not have much of a choice.
But we do have some leeway here.
There are talented people all over who can help us build the tools we need and want.
Unfortunately, it does come down to money as we live in a capitalist hellscape.
But, as a collective, we could plan and organize on what we want to see.
We don’t need CEOs!
We just need us!
