this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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Thank you! So many I talk to seem to argue that they're related.
related rant
There is a libertarian -> fascist pipeline, but it's mostly because both are fringe and fascists seem to start of thinking they're merely fringe, but then quickly realize their true colors when they disagree so much with libertarians. This mostly seems to be from anarcho-capitalists who believe their socially conservative views should be enforced, moving them up the authoritarian spectrum.Case in point, Trump was booed at the Libertarian Party convention, Penn Jillette was outspoken against Trump on Bill Maher in the first term, and "libertarian" conservatives Rand Paul and Thomas Massie criticizing Trump.
Isn't part of their mission that the reputation shouldn't matter?
FUTO is all about disrupting centralization. You can dislike FUTO but like the work they do and the projects they support. The goal isn't to make good versions of existing apps, but to make credible alternatives to existing apps, thus helping break the monopoly.
Not at all, at least when it comes to their organization and its investments. Their donations to OSS are one thing, but FUTO controls the name and brand of their direct investments like GrayJay and Immich. This makes FUTO a brand and separating a brand from its reputation isn’t something that can be done. FUTO is a company and companies aren’t your friends. They can promise whatever they want, but they are accountable to what they do.
They themselves have put a huge emphasis on their reputation in terms of their OSS donations as well, often at the expense of transparency and the sovereignty of the projects they’re “supporting”, which is actually what the original post we’re commenting on is about. They were caught slipping donations to individual maintainers of projects and not the projects themselves in order to avoid project rules about institutional donors, and then they plastered the name and logo of these projects on their website without permission. They did this to improve their reputation and instill a sense of trust in the community. Doing so in such a shady, under the table way actively undermines trust.
FUTO is an investment company like any other, only with a mission statement of “Don’t worry, we’re one of the good ones, primarily due to INSERT BELIEFS”. Then they act in a way in flagrant contradiction of those beliefs.
Anybody who feels uneasy over this behavior is 100% justified. Anyone’s who’s lived through Apple’s “Monopoly busting underdog” or Google’s “free and open internet for all, don’t be evil” eras doubly so.
That's fair.
I guess my point is that they're easily replaceable. Immich is easy to fork, Grayjay is simply a client for existing services, etc. Nothing they have built or supported really locks you in, and they've been explicit about not wanting to have a server component.
So to me, the impact of FUTO being or becoming evil is incredibly low, unlike Apple or Google, who have a much higher ability to lock in users. The whole mission is about removing people from those types of ecosystems into one where users can more easily switch to alternatives. The software should be preferred on its own merits, not the merits of the ecosystem it's part of.
So I guess that's why I'm more comfortable giving FUTO a pass: I can easily change my position tomorrow if they "go evil."