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Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

nytimes.com

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

#61

Post by mtgx »

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 problem is this shouldn't even be a thing.

It shouldn't be "Google" that gives money to politicians. It should be individuals. And the sums should be capped at $200 (local/Congress elections) to $500 (presidential elections).

Even "lobbying" shouldn't exist. There should only be public hearings. I don't want some other party to whisper secret stuff to my politician. I want it all on the record.

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

#62

Post by jfoutz »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #19

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…

> It is no coincidence that the domain for 99% of sites we use is ".com."

I sort of agree. Actually getting a .gov, .mil, .edu was pretty tough. I vaguely remember people being quite prickly about .net, and a little fussy about.org

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

#63

Post by HarryHirsch »

r00fus wrote: post #58
hackuser wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Deepwater Horizon, Bhopal, CIA black sites, the list is long. The level of either incompetence or pure indifference to human and environmental cost is just incomparable. Name one such for the tech industry.

The communications industry has a long history of enabling government to spy on the people.

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

#64

Post by danenania »

r00fus wrote: post #58
hackuser wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Deepwater Horizon, Bhopal, CIA black sites, the list is long. The level of either incompetence or pure indifference to human and environmental cost is just incomparable. Name one such for the tech industry.

Assisting in mass surveillance seems similarly heinous to me.

Ux that deliberately encourages addiction and compulsive behavior is also pretty bad, and is highly pervasive.

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

#65

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

twblalock wrote: post #54
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…

> 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. I hope so too. Even if corporations really were sincerely pursuing social progress, that would be bad. In a democratic society, social progress should not be determined by a small group of unaccountable organizations. Say what you will about governments pursuing socia…

The shareholders control the board, who is actually in charge of the business. Officers are appointed managers acting on behalf of the board.

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

#66

Post by Crito »

mahyarm wrote: post #44
dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

That is like blaming commercial landlords for letting payday loan companies / rent space to these people or letting telecoms let criminals communicate on their networks. When your infrastructure, the good and the bad will use it and you don't want to be in the job of determining who is good or bad.

Doing it for profit is hardly a better excuse than following orders. Should we not hold it against Trump that he ran casinos which preyed on the intellectually and financially disadvantaged?

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

#67

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

elastic_church wrote: post #25
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…

Well if its any consolation, there's a 10 years younger version of you that will be duped into the same illusion. Maybe all those people that are fawning over "B-corporations"

What's wrong with b-corps?

Im not saying they're a silver bullet, but they do seem to provide shareholders and boards tools to resist being sued for putting concerns besides short term profits at the forefront.

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

#68

Post by 551199 »

rudolf0 wrote: post #17
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.

You mean the Nseers registry that was in place, probably build by the same SV companies, and Obama just dismantled it to make Trump look bad? Yeah..

Registry used to track Arabs and Muslims dismantled by Obama administration:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/22/nseers-arab-...

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

#69

Post by wavefunction »

gukov wrote: post #37
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…

Can't expect companies based in SF to be anywhere near politically neutral.

Silicon Valley isn't SF. Even SF isn't the SF you're referring to, as far as liberal politics go.

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

#70

Post by wsh91 »

danjoc wrote: post #55
wsh91 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://neveragain.tech/ has a ton of Googlers on there. I'm among them.

Your replacement won't care. You even gave Alphabet mgmt a nice list of who to downsize.

I can't speak to anyone else's experiences here, but your cynicism seems unwarranted based on mine.
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