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Quote by Astra Taylor

“As an individual navigating this reality, you have to make choices to survive. Sometimes you happily work for free if it's something you love and believe in. I'm not categorically saying that working for free is bad. I'm just looking at the broader implications of it, and also challenge this idea - and again, this is an argument made by certain people in the tech world - that amateurs are automatically more pure and will triumph over stodgy professionals.”

Quote by Astra Taylor

Author

Astra Taylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and writer, known for her in-depth exploration of social and political issues. Born in 1979, she has been producing documentaries since the 2000s, and her work has received international recognition. more

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“One thing that's important to point out is that this kind of populism has a long and mixed history. It's part of this tradition of problematic anti-elitism where the elites are always the liberal class - the intellectuals, the professors, the artists - and not the economic elites. Why are we so mad and aggrieved at newspaper editors but not at corporate executives? I think we need to look more at the latter, at economic elites.”

Thinking Needs Looks Kind Long Important Artist Class One Thing Economic Tradition Mad Newspapers Corporate Latter Executives Editors Professors Elites Elitism Populism Newspaper Editors

Author:Astra Taylor

“I was shocked when I tried to articulate this to someone who had posted the film and asked them to remove it for a few months, and I actually told them that after that they could put it back up and they were just completely unwilling to compromise - you'd think I was Rupert Murdoch or something.”

Thinking Film Months Compromise Remove Shocked Unwilling

Author:Astra Taylor

“It's very complicated. There's been this broader mechanism, an industry, which wants people to use free services, from the old days of advertising-supported papers and magazines, to ad-supported free television.”

People Want Use Television Industry Paper Complicated Advertising Magazines Ads Mechanism Papers Old Days

Author:Astra Taylor

“It wasn't that people wanted things for free and asked for advertising to fund it - it's that these companies wanted to amass an audience whose "eyeballs" they could sell, and they gave people things for free to do that. Free services and content has been foisted upon us because there wasn't the will power to explore other options.”

People Has Beens Wanted Company Audience Sells Advertising Fund Will Power Eyeballs

Author:Astra Taylor

“I would like people to be more aware of the fact that ultimately we are paying for things, and it's not just as privacy advocates point out that we're paying with our time and our data. We're also paying with money, because the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on advertising is just factored into the cost of the goods that we buy. It's all coming out of our pocket, just in a really roundabout way.”

People Way Facts Cost Dollars Billions Advertising Data Our Time Privacy Pockets Goods Coming Out

Author:Astra Taylor

“First we need to rethink the terms and recognize that we've imported this language from the technocratic class, from Silicon Valley, that talks about openness and transparency.”

Needs Firsts Language Term Class Openness Valleys Transparency Silicon Silicon Valley

Author:Astra Taylor

“We haven't developed a progressive vocabulary. We say something is "public," but we just mean it's viewable online. Or we say it's "open," but we just mean it's accessible. I would like for us to think about terms critically and maybe change our vocabulary a bit. What if pubic actually meant publicly-funded, or social meant socialized.”

Ifs Thinking Mean Social Bits Term Havens Online What If Progressive Vocabulary

Author:Astra Taylor

“The law limits anyone from serving as president of the United States for more than eight years. And in my opinion, eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific congressional district.”

Years Wells Long States Enough Law Individual President United Opinion United States Limits Eight Serving Representatives

Author:Michele Bachmann

“We like to say the Internet is the ultimate library. But libraries are libraries because people come together and fund them through taxes. Libraries actually exist, all over the country, so why is it such a reach to imagine and to someday build a public institution that has a digital aspect to it? Of course the problem is that libraries and other public services are being defunded and are under attack, so there's a bigger progressive struggle this plays into.”

People Country Play Problem Together Courses Struggle Imagine Internet Taxes Aspect Ultimate Bigger Institutions Library Someday Digital Fund Progressive Public Service

Author:Astra Taylor

“All the utopianism of the early days of the Internet seems to have dissipated. But I don't want us to lose that utopianism altogether, even if it was naïve and ill-informed and sometimes silly. Rather I want us to ask about the obstacles that are preventing the good stuff from coming to fruition. Let's investigate and think about creating something worthwhile instead of assuming that there is an inevitable track of increased centralization, consolidation, and commercialization that we can't do anything about.”