cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/55039106
His actual crime was that he was a prominent and talented advocate against the government and surveillance industrial complex's hostile takeover of the internet to be used entirely as method of propaganda and control.
Reddit was distinctly more libertarian (the Penn Jilet kind not the psycho kind) before he died. All the anti government stuff and the positive community vibes that were fostered on the site before all abruptly stopped when he died. It very visibly changed and I can remember the exact point it happened followed by the staff that were half-decent all quitting the company one by one.