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Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by r_lee on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:14AM (#45300756)
Imagine the kind of media attention / clout they'll get for "beating Oracle" etc.

They absolutely do get material gains from this, should they succeed.

It'd be a much more legitimate effort if they were just asking people to raise funds for e.g. OpenJS to file suit etc.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by Sammi on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:23AM (#45300842)
Sure they benefit, but so do a lot of other people. Sound fair to ask everyone else to pitch in. Deno have already bankrolled this themselves for a while.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by Fraaaank on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:43AM (#45301042)
Litigation is not just 'file and forget'. Deno, or any other organisation, needs to contribute in time and effort for several years. In my opinion, "media attention / clout" is a fair compensation.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by nchmy on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:46AM (#45301067)
In other words, no one should ever do anything good for society, because then they might benefit from being viewed as a good person
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by ToucanLoucan on Friday September 19, 2025 @09:48AM (#45301656)
The people with the (specifically American subtype of) Libertarian brain worms cannot conceive of someone doing something good for someone else without having some type of ulterior motive, so they project that forward as suspicion onto anyone doing anything good without a clear gain to be had.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by nchmy on Friday September 19, 2025 @10:07AM (#45301846)
Indeed. I once had a former friend say something to the effect of "I wish there were a candidate who had a healthy balance of libertarian values and compassion". I asked him how he reconciles those to diametrically-opposed concepts and he grumbled and we're no longer friends.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by gspencley on Friday September 19, 2025 @01:26PM (#45304192)
> Indeed. I once had a former friend say something to the effect of "I wish there were a candidate who had a healthy balance of libertarian values and compassion"

What a weird ad hominem.

Since you're clearly ignorant, and since "libertarian" can mean a whole bunch of things, I'm not replying for your benefit. I'm replying for others who might come across this.

I'm an Objectivist, meaning I subscribe to Ayn Rand's philosophy. I don't consider myself to be a "libertarian" because the objectivist world view is not anti-government like many libertarians are. The objectivist view of liberty presupposes that the element of force is removed from civil existence so that all interpersonal relations are consensual.

But objectivists are laissez-faire capitalists. As in, we would like to see a constitutional separation of economy and state just like, and for the exact same reasons, that there is a separation of church and state.

I once asked Leonard Peikoff about the topic of compassion, because it is a very common charge against Ayn Rand and objectivists that objectivism leaves no room for compassion. That Rand was this ruthless "fuck everyone but me" sense of selfish. When, in reality, that's a distortion and gross misrepresentation of objectivism. The context behind that question was that a family friend of ours had lost both her brother and her 12 year-old daughter in a car accident months after her losing her mother to cancer. I felt an insane amount of compassion towards this friend of ours and I wanted to unpack that through an objectivist lens.

You have to understand what objectivists mean by the word "selfish." Rand once asked a talk show host if he would object less to the word "self-esteem." Rand chose "selfish" as a refutation of the major religion-centric world philosophies that espouse altruism as a moral good. In the objectivist view, altruism is synonymous with suicide. With self-sacrifice. In a moral philophical sense, being "good" under an atruisitic moral framework means that anything you do in service of others is good, and anything you do in service of yourself is wrong. Which is why many here are critiquing Deno because they're like "If they benefit AT ALL this is not a moral good. They're assholes." See the problem?

An objectivist view of friendship and interpersonal relations is predicated on shared values, and the mutual exchange of values. I wouldn't want my wife to say "I love you because you are so awful." I want her to recognize my value and worth to her on both an emotional and practical level. I love her because of what she adds to my life, and I want that to be mutual. Happy wife, happy life. But more to the point: shared values bring people together because each party benefits greatly from that shared lived experience grounded on common values and interests.

As Rand once said, paraphrasing: it's not a sacrifice to use your life savings for your child's leukemia treatment. But it is a sacrifice to use your life savings for a complete stranger's leukemia treatment while you let your own child with cancer die.

Humans are complex and have their own individual opinions and beliefs. Not all altruists are going to say that it is morally good, in accordance with their personal values, to sacrifice their child for a stranger... but if you follow an altruistic framework to its logical conclusion, that's where you end up.

To bring this back to the topic of compassion, if you have a child (or even if you don't) and you value life, and you observe that there is an innocent person suffering who did nothing to bring that on themselves, there is a shared value there: life. This is why the car accident hit me so hard emotionally. I have two daughters, I have a brother, I have a mother. I value these people and how they make my life better. I can certainly empathize with others when those same values come under threat. And I want people that I love or care about to be happy. That's the root of compassion. There is no conflict or contradiction there.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by ToucanLoucan on Friday September 19, 2025 @02:33PM (#45304883)
> What a weird ad hominem.

Not ad hominem. Not a personal attack, it's an attack on an ideology, and more to the point, this isn't a debate, it's a discussion between random people and fallacies are concepts used to explore the intellectual errors present in formal arguments, not conversational trap cards. You can't just say "Aha! A fallacy!" that's not a rebuttal, you have to go on to explain why it's fallacious thinking. But again, neither is appropriate outside a debate.

If you wanted to make it a debate, you could reckon with the assertion at play: that Libertarianism as described is incompatible with compassion, and make that argument.

> I'm an Objectivist,

Your defenses of Objectivism are at least better constructed, however you're hinging the lot of it on an extremely narrow definition of compassion where it only "counts" if it is rooted in personal benefit, the same claim that spawned the discussion you arrived in in the first place. However you don't explain why this is and in so not doing, omit that doing nice things for people is also done for solidarity, for moral or ethical duty, basic decency, or again, nothing more complicated than the release of dopamine in the brain. We're social animals; it feels good, physically, to help one another. This is wired in our brains and not really optional, so much so we also see it in our more ape-like cousins, like chimpanzees and bonobos. And Libertarians. Sorry couldn't resist.

In any case, people generally and in this thread particularly critique ideologies like Objectivism because like many hyper-individualist frameworks, it treats interconnectedness, cooperation and intimacy as suspect unless a transaction can be defined to explain it. Not simply because Rand said "fuck everyone" (although I would certainly make an argument on how the politics she and those like her have fucked everyone in the United States and Britain especially) but because the framework struggles to account for basic tenets of society like collective responsibility, systemic biases and injustices, or, again, the simple notion that doing things for your fellow man makes one feel good, even if that good feeling is the only gain you have.

And yeah, all of that said, it's fucking gross that people film TikToks of themselves giving food to the homeless. Shitheads are shitheads and they've been with us since our ancestors left the caves, and critique of them has followed. That doesn't however mean there aren't countless acts of genuine charity happening every day that go undocumented, because the vast majority of people are not those kinds of people. Nor does it detract from our existence as social animals who benefit one another all the time, through simple acts all the way up to moments of genuine heroism and care that is simply not explainable in the Randian model.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by bigstrat2003 on Friday September 19, 2025 @03:13PM (#45305290)
I somehow suspect that the reason you aren't friends any more is because you as much as said he lacks compassion. If I had a friend who said that about me, and then refused to apologize for insulting me in that way, I don't know if I would stay friends with them either. It's especially ironic that you are acting in a very uncompassionate way here, while accusing others of not having compassion.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by sokoloff on Friday September 19, 2025 @03:19PM (#45305352)
Libertarian values are 0.0% in conflict with compassionate acts. They are in conflict with compelled compassionate acts.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by koakuma-chan on Friday September 19, 2025 @10:26AM (#45302045)
And why would anyone do something good for someone else without an ulterior motive? Do you think people donate to charity because they are good or because they want to seem good? I met people IRL who acted "nice" except they were also aware they were being perceived as "nice" and explicitly called themselves "nice," wouldn't you agree this is hypocritical?
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by nchmy on Friday September 19, 2025 @10:40AM (#45302200)
What an absolutely tragic worldview you have... There's no doubt that there are disingenuous people (let alone complete grifters). But the fact that you can't conceive of anyone doing anything good just for the sake of it - let alone making genuine self-sacrifices, which happens ALL the time - is utterly shameful.

Moreover, if you are properly-aligned in life, whats good for others/the world is ALSO good for you. Even those who make genuine self-sacrifices would say so - at the very least, NOT having done it would be the real, unbearable, sacrifice.

I really hope you'll reflect deeply on this, and perhaps that it even haunts you - even if just out of pure self-centeredness, since the only people who you would ever have in your life with a mentality like this would necessarily be completely self-centered as well.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by koakuma-chan on Friday September 19, 2025 @11:24AM (#45302672)
I am only making conclusions based on what I see, and I comment hoping people can tell me how I am wrong. I am still trying to figure this out, but all evidence points to what I said.

People never "do good" "just for the sake of it" - there is always a reason, whether or not the person realizes it. The reason could be, e.g., as I said, the desire to seem good, some kind of religious belief, etc. Ultimately, it is never "just for the sake of it"

I am also disappointed, and I don't know what to do with this, but I am not willing to become some kind of ignorant, delusional lunatic.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by nchmy on Friday September 19, 2025 @11:49AM (#45302980)
You're a very sad, very confused person. I genuinely mean this: seek help. Or at least a hug.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by imiric on Friday September 19, 2025 @06:32PM (#45307539)
Everyone's life experiences and the way we process them are different, which builds our understanding of the world around us in very unique ways. It's not unimaginable for someone to have a worldview as GP's.

Instead of labeling or patronizing them, a bit of tact and compassion go a long way. Otherwise you're just confirming what they're predisposed to think.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by ToucanLoucan on Friday September 19, 2025 @11:37AM (#45302821)
> And why would anyone do something good for someone else without an ulterior motive?

It feels nice. You should try it sometime.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by nchmy on Friday September 19, 2025 @11:52AM (#45303028)
YeAh bUt fe3lin g0od is n ulTerIor m0t!ve!! A st0!c s4g3 flz nutHing
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by koakuma-chan on Friday September 19, 2025 @12:10PM (#45303302)
I'm not going to argue that feeling good is an "ulterior" motive, but it can be a malicious one. People can convince themselves, with varying degree of consciousness, that what they are doing is good, and ignorantly feel good about doing that, whereas for other parties what the person did can be the opposite, bad.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by danenania on Friday September 19, 2025 @11:39AM (#45302854)
Does it matter? If people are kind and generous for the sake of recognition, the positive effects of their actions are just as real.

Not to mention that wanting approval and recognition is not really “ulterior”. It’s a natural human desire. The people to watch out for are those who claim not to want it.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by jamesnorden on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:54AM (#45301155)
The parent poster is just countering the argument that Deno gains nothing from this, no need to strawman.
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by SOLAR_FIELDS on Friday September 19, 2025 @08:46AM (#45301071)
I want Deno to succeed. They already have enough challenges between bun and Node taking all of their good ideas and incorporating them. I want the ecosystem to have more options.

This is Oracle we are talking about here. I would cut off my nose to spite Oracle’s face if necessary, they are some of the worst corporate actors in the history of the world. And that is not an exaggeration.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by chamomeal on Friday September 19, 2025 @09:02AM (#45301227)
I also desperately want deno to succeed cause it’s just the best way to work with typescript. I have a strong personal interest in working with deno instead of node in the future.

At my company a lot of internal stuff is built with deno. Nothing mission critical but lots of utilities and stuff. But new services are still node, which is basically fine cause all of the complex config is handled already. But all of that complexity still leaks through (whoops can’t use this package because jest can’t find it!)

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by petesergeant on Friday September 19, 2025 @02:09PM (#45304648)
> because jest

My life is much better for having switched to vitest

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by typpilol on Friday September 19, 2025 @03:56PM (#45305819)
Same. Vitest is beautiful
Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by homebrewer on Friday September 19, 2025 @10:47AM (#45302263)
Nobody forced them into this, they poked the bear thinking it will get them an easy win and good publicity, and are now slowly falling into the abyss.

You're wasting your money. I honestly can't believe the number of people here thinking this is anything but a marketing stunt gone too far. We just had a series of major packages being infected with malware, how about putting $200k towards solving that?

Now that, if successful, would bring real immense benefits to all JS users.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by sarchertech on Friday September 19, 2025 @09:30AM (#45301478)
> they are some of the worst corporate actors in the history of the world. And that is not an exaggeration.

I think that’s an exaggeration. The bar is pretty high (low). The history of the world has The East India Company, The Dutch East India Company, other companies transporting and selling slaves, the various companies that helped carry out The Holocaust, companies directly involved in other genocides, companies directly benefiting from and helping to enforce apartheid, companies pushing opioids, cigarette companies, mining companies etc…

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by Imustaskforhelp on Friday September 19, 2025 @09:53AM (#45301697)
The nightmares of east india company can't be understated.

I can talk to even indian kids, Heck we learnt about east india company in 6th grade so like 10-11 years old & they can tell how they really really exploited india with their indigo plantations etc.

I have nothing against britishers but the fact that they kind of never really paid or literally anyone paid for the amount of exploitation that was carried is absolutely wild, and seem to glorify it from what I see is absolutely ridiculous.

Really shows you that the winners of wars write histories as I can't see how people just shrug off this as if eh yeah it happened ,when lets say the same couldn't be compared to lets say the nazi invasion of poland lets say y'know?

Just as how germany has almost learnt from its nazi history / remembering the pains to not do them again, yet from what I know, britain seems to have glorified it.

Literally millions died due to churchill in the bengal famine. Yet he's celebrated as a war hero which I can understand but why do I feel like critizing that millions of people died because of some guy who did wrong is gonna get me downvotes or get resentment, surely we can all agree that churchill was wrong in that context

I really feel as if the world is a large hypocritical machine.

Re:Help Us Raise $200k to Free JavaScript from Oracle by r_lee on Monday September 22, 2025 @06:05AM (#45331243)
Yeah, and I don't see how this necessarily helps Deno succeed? It may turn into a painful money sink.. Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see why Deno should go and do this now that they should be focused on their product