Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 153 posts

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#11

Post by protomyth »

kyrra wrote: post #10
protomyth wrote: post #3

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

Google as a company gives equally between the 2 parties[0] (via it's PAC(s)). Google employees that donated to candidates or various government entities definitely leans towards the democrat side[1]. So the company knows to hedge its bets and give equally both ways. (Most large companies do this, like Comcast[2]). [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pac2pac.php?cycle=2016&cmte... [1] https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs…

"The total of contributions to candidates from Alphabet Inc individuals is 2 times larger than contributions from PACs"

I'm pretty sure they can do the sums and figure it out. Plus, they already have had a lot of news about claims of unfairness of searches. That employee number is going to influence things.

I would be a bit more worried if I was Apple though http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/apple-wont-aid-gop-con...

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#12

Post by r00fus »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #8

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

You're blaming tech giants for the rise in inequality, authoritarianism and intolerance?

It's like blaming Apple or Spotify that your favorite artists aren't as good as they used to be.

Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians to see the worst.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#13

Post by dgfgfdagasdfgfa »

r00fus wrote: post #12
alphonsegaston wrote: post #8

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

You're blaming tech giants for the rise in inequality, authoritarianism and intolerance? It's like blaming Apple or Spotify that your favorite artists aren't as good as they used to be. Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians t…

> Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians to see the worst.

I must admit, the difference is hard for me to see. Though the tech companies may not be getting rich directly off the backs of the poor, they are just as destructive in funneling large sums of money to a subset of society.

Guess who actually clicks on ads? Guess who allows for advertising loans up to 35% APR? That definitely falls within usury/payday/predatory loan range. The 36% restriction would only exist because people actively fall for those scams, and it also indicates Google is ok with people falling for the 35% rate.

I also remember them recommending a payday loan company, but I can't find the link.

TL;DR Google is rich off people who can't tell they're being scammed.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#14

Post by hackuser »

r00fus wrote: post #12
alphonsegaston wrote: post #8

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

You're blaming tech giants for the rise in inequality, authoritarianism and intolerance? It's like blaming Apple or Spotify that your favorite artists aren't as good as they used to be. Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians t…

> look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians to see the worst.

Why would the tech industry be any better? The industries you name are somewhat more dependent on government, but Google and 'big tech' are still heavily dependent.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#15

Post by rudolf0 »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #8

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

How is Google to blame for the rise of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, intolerance, or Trump?

They didn't "ride" anything.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#17

Post by rudolf0 »

wmeredith wrote: post #4

Gross. I thought a Google in bed with the Obama administration was unsettling. One in bed with the GOP and Trump is terrifying. Google has the keys to the muslim registry, and every other kind of registry you could imagine in every country it operates.

I doubt Google or any other SV corporation would ever agree to help with a Muslim registry. Even if somehow the top leadership of such a company were to agree (which I doubt), you'd see defections, sabotage, and heavy leaks almost immediately.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#18

Post by alphonsegaston »

r00fus wrote: post #12
alphonsegaston wrote: post #8

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

You're blaming tech giants for the rise in inequality, authoritarianism and intolerance? It's like blaming Apple or Spotify that your favorite artists aren't as good as they used to be. Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians t…

I literally said, "they may not be the origin of these trends," so no, I'm not blaming them.

Of course the stranglehold the companies you mention have on American society is far more extensive and corrosive. But I grew up in an era where we were constantly proselytized that "these corporations are different." I was always skeptical, but that wasn't the zeitgeist. Now, I hope that my generation (millennials) will see the error in this judgement, but again, not terribly optimistic. In the pursuit of self-indulgence, we saw the Baby Boomers turn into Wall St Reaganites and still seemed not to learn. We just invented a "cooler" version of this story.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#19

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

The internet as we know it was born in a very unique time in history. Two ideologies feuded for most of a century, and one collapsed at the same time that the other created the internet. The side that created the internet believed that their way of life, government, business, and so on would become the standard around the world, the "end of history." We believed that the world would stitch itself together and become gradually more liberal and tolerant of the many cultures on this planet. The internet and the collapse of the Soviet Union made that narrative believable, even perhaps inevitable.

As a result, we have a very skewed idea of what the internet is or should be. It is no coincidence that the domain for 99% of sites we use is ".com."

The truth is, corporations for decades have become more powerful and detached from their geopolitical circumstances. The subtleties of how the world works is of little relevance to McDonald's as long as they can sell more hamburgers. Corporations want to protect themselves from risk so they can continue to amass profits.

Therefore, the newfound genuflecting to the GOP should be of no surprise. Google ultimately has a mission to itself and its shareholders first. For a company whose product is its ability to amass information, there is little to be gained in promoting social or economic causes that do not benefit the corporation.

Yes, it does suck that the utopian dreams of Silicon Valley have divorced themselves from the liberal idealism of Northern California's Vietnam-era glory days, but that is why I left.

If you consider yourself liberal and you work for any of these companies that are aggressively courting Republicans, I would be very interested in hearing your perspective.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#20

Post by abraves10001 »

leesalminen wrote: post #7
protomyth wrote: post #3

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

> The typical hire former government workers to lobby current government might also be in danger if the President goes through with his anti-lobbyist rule changes. This is one thing that I'm really looking forward to.

I mean I understand that we don't want stagnation of ideas and certain sects continuously ruling government. However, the reason that they are lobbyists is because they are generally experts on the subjects, in no small part due to their government experience. Removing all former government workers as lobbyists a blanket move is heavy-handed and poorly thought out.
Post reply on HN