If (and it is!) the internet is used by the (nicest^max + smartest^max) people whose careers and lives owe so much to the web
Why isn’t The Internet Archive fully funded for a few lifetimes?
Think of all the people you respect who are wealthy and love being able to pull up stuff on TIA & are convinced generally they should be people who pay their fair share. Some of you MUST know plenty I figure… where are the donations?
(I would’ve thought we’d be to the point of the big thing being how to prevent archives of your content with also dozens of GhostArchive.org -like alternatives all also well funded who all devise workarounds of blocking schemes, & how to prevent content watermarking from getting archiver accounts/IPs banned. Instead it’s “hey remember us please send $10 to the Archive.org “ meanwhile we are literally all here, on the web)
We'll only return to normalcy after Trump upon implementing our own Nuremburg-style trials for members of his administration and enacting a number of constitutional amendments to fix the structural failures which allowed it to come this far. Even then, it would take at least a generation before the rest of the world will consider treating the US as a sane, good-faith member of the global community.
Unfortunately, the chances of either reform occurring are near zero right now.
The only way to get enough support for such reforms requires the bulk of the MAGA cult wake from their delirium, which won't happen unless/until things get a lot worse. Loyalists have a pretty large capacity to compartmentalize their dislike of actions taken by Trump separate from their support of Trump the person, even when you can get past the "fake news" mantra that lets them dismiss anything negative which doesn't affect them directly.
If everyone lets these structures develop and does nothing, things will get worse. Wait how the suppression will be if Musk, Thiel, Altman and Amodei are your feudal lords that control your job.
(If you say you cannot do anything because your manager orders you to, watch Yes Minister and learn how it is done. In software all you need to say is that you are trying, but you constantly have to revert bugs introduced by the clankers, which is true anyway. Yes, and you need to do it in a team.)
I think it is for something worse: it is for rewarding those who participate in the next insurrection. If you look at how dictators such as Kim Jong Un operate, a wannabe dictator needs two things. (1) A compliant military that is willing to punish people who oppose the dictator, and (2) a slush fund for rewarding people who support the dictator.
For (1): The gathering of generals and top military leaders on September 30, 2025 was to make it clear to them what is expected of them (be willing to attack democrat-controlled cities when called to, and quit if they aren't willing to do that). For (2): that's what the 1.8B slush fund is for.
I peripherally knew some people who went. They weren't criminals, and weren't interested in overthrowing the US government. They were going because they had concerns about the integrity of the 2020 election. I didn't know them well enough to find out whether or not they were arrested or prosecuted, but it's likely that some were.
So for these first-time offenders, who walked through the open doors of the capitol who spent months or years in prison awaiting trial, and lost their homes, jobs, and more, and who have now been pardoned, the fund will provide some compensation for the weaponization of the DOJ against them.
Other more serious "attacks" on the Capitol that also resulted in presidential pardons: (Google AI lied, and corrected itself when I called it out. Where is this training data coming from?)