I don't think reddit started out as a for profit company. iirc it started as some dudes sharing links. I knew a site like that back in the day. Link aggregator and forum made by one dude because he liked the community.

Oh they're absolutely tankies, dessalines website is crystal clear on that. To me this is simply a test of the fediverse. If it works as intended, the devs political orientation shouldn't matter. We'll see.

That blue light thing is pseudo-science. Bodily activity though, yup, that's a big one.

While that is true, I anticipate that as a user you can choose to block all of that, just like I could have a reddit experience without r/conservative and without ads. We will always be able to find our niches, the size of which is determined by how many people share your values.

That being said, it's indeed up to us to make sure the largest communities don't end up on some weird fork that has ads.