Live data from Hacker News

Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

techcrunch.com

381–390 of 573 posts

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#381
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, Godwin's Law. I hope when you reflect back on these times in a year or so you realize how childish it was to compare stopping some Muslims from some unstable countries (not even the big Muslim countries) with literally exterminating Jewish people and blaming them for all of the country's problems.

If you did pay attention at school then you'd know that extermination was final step of pretty long process of de-humanizing Jewish people. Its not like they put them into prison camps overnight. First they couldn't attend university, then they couldn't own a shop later they couldn't get a passport. Propaganda people had much work to do to allow it happen. We do not know if it is first step of many but direction is c…

A very big stretch. Restricting immigration from a narrowly defined list of unstable countries (a list that was created by Obama with regards to the visa-waiver program) is very different than imposing restrictions on Muslims. Muslims from every other country aren't affected and Muslim citizens in the US are also not affected.

This isn't a Muslim ban. This is a 90 day ban on people from specific countries with the goal of improving the vetting process. It's neither permanent or specific to Muslims. Obama did a 180 day ban on Iraqis for the exact same reasons.

The effectiveness of this policy can be debated, but comparing this to Hitler -- that's just nonsense.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#382
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a real double plus good game he's playing at then, since Uber broke the strike and Kalanick is directly aiding Trump. I guess we're lucky that Uber is so consistently shitty that people saw through them, unlike what happened with Lyft.

What about the million dollar donation to the ACLU Lyft made? Does that count for anything?

What about the three million dollar donation Uber made? Does that count for anything?

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#383
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"there is no ethical consumption under capitailism." Imagine there was a competitor to Uber and Lyft that was owned by the drivers themselves in the form of a cooperative, so that any new drivers would have equal say in the direction the service took. Would that not be more ethical than Uber and Lyft?

But that wouldn't be organized as a capitalist company then.

Who cares? John Lewis is a partnership of all 90,000 employees and they are probably the most successful supermarket and department store chain in Britain. They dominate high end food and homeware sales.

http://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/information-about...

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#384
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, a serious question wouldn't presuppose a particular answer. I think you've made up your mind long before you asked it. But I'll oblige anyway. Virtue signaling in this context means that actions of individuals are directed mostly at people within their political and social group, not outside it. Their main purpose is similar to that of a Facebook "like", to communicate adherence to a shared set of beliefs, not t…

One thing I don't understand is why America seems to have developed a sense of us vs them within their own country. Like "coastal elites", wtf? Your biggest and most populous and useful cities are on the coast, they are also where all the immigrants are. It's almost as if one group of people, that has no clue about anything to do with immigration are saying they are massively against it, whilst those that live with t…

It's always been with us, since independence.

One of the most important and difficult debates during the drafting of our Constitution was whether representation in the national government should be equal for all states, or proportional based on their populations. The makeup of our Congress (one house where every state is equal, one where they're proportionally represented), and the manner of electing the President are compromises introduced in the 1780s to assuage fears from smaller states that larger, more populous states would be able to tyrannize them.

There are also historical roots here in slavery: many southern states actually had large populations, but only when slaves were counted as part of the population. So those states wanted slaves to count at least partially, even though slaves were of course not allowed to vote (which is how we get the infamous compromise where a slave was counted as 3/5 of a person for proportional-representation purposes).

And the economies of the northern and southern states diverged very early on; northern states' economies were based more on trade and manufacture, southern states on agriculture and resource extraction (supported by slave labor until slavery was abolished, then by things which emulated slavery as closely as was legal, like exploitative sharecropping and debt slavery).

This naturally leads to a divide and a conflict of lifestyles and values, wherein there are basically two countries existing within the same set of borders. One of those countries has always had a larger (free) population and always been more urban, dense and globally connected. The other has always had a smaller (free) population and always been more rural, sparse and isolationist. The southern and now midwestern rural/sparse/isolationist faction has also consistently used the compromises of the 1780s to their advantage, since they are represented and wield power in the national government disproportionate to their percentage of the population, and can at times effectively reverse the original fear and tyrannize the majority northern and coastal urban/dense/globalist faction.

But so long as the Constitution of the United States continues to be based on those two-hundred-year-old compromises, this tension will continue to exist.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the echo chambers that were (and still are being) ruthlessly exploited by Bannon-backed Cambridge Analytica and Macedonian-registered ad-laden fake news sites? There is an intense echo chamber on the far right that you've failed to mention, with similar barriers to entry. They've gone as far as to create a walled-off invite-only social network called gab.ai. They brigade similarly on Twitter, and aggressively bl…

I didn't imply echo chambers were limited to my description of the "alt-left". "These views" Can you list another? I started that list with the calling the opponent Hitler example. I would appreciate a cite on "change the definition of per-capita", not because I don't think some "expert" made that assertion... it looks very similar to the similarly meaningless def of "unemployed" some use. Couldn't agree more with yo…

Yes. I've seen recent allegations that this weekend's airport protests are "terror-tied", which is obviously false and politically-motivated on its face. There was a neverending sea of false anti-Obama material throughout the election, asserting everything from "he's a secret Muslim" to "he wants all Americans under Sharia Law", to even older widely-discredited "birther" claims. These allegations IIRC mostly originated from Breitbart News, a site still under the control of Steven Bannon (who now has the IMO dangerous conflict of sitting on the National Security Committee while running a supposed news organization). They were widely shared in multiple closed groups on Facebook with memberships in the 20-50k range.

But further than that: I've seen persistent allegations and slurs against the Jewish faith (many in pre-prepared image form), advocation of literal genocide, celebration of alleged bills that would make it legal for people to use motor vehicles to strike and kill protestors, and calls for those protesting legally and peacefully to literally be rounded up and imprisoned by police because a small group of unrelated individuals committed acts of vandalism or violence. The excuse? "If they're not stopping them, they're supporting them". These were not isolated incidents. I personally witnessed hundreds of voices repeating the latter talking point on a single local news station's Facebook page, in a single night.

The current US National Security advisor Michael Flynn allegedly accidentally retweeted one of these. According to news reports, it read "Not anymore, Jews".

Further down the abyss, speaking more to rhetorical depravity: I've watched pro-Trump posters in private Facebook groups post pictures of themselves pointing firearms at the camera in response to disagreements over fact. There was also a disturbing pattern of posters sifting through the public profiles of others for pictures – essentially peoples' family photos – altering them to appear pornographic or otherwise offensive, and then reposting them in public. One even literally offered to sell a stranger's child in to slavery, on their personal Facebook page, using a picture of them, "because that's what the Muslims would do". I saw attempts to get people fired from their job due to a Facebook political disagreement.

I really believe that there are intrinsic issues with social media that are feeding this crisis: a demand for instantaneous engagement often at the expense of even a few minutes of thought, a "real names" policy on Facebook that sabotages efforts to deflect/prohibit personal attacks in discussion groups, a comically understaffed/underresourced reporting system that I've seen people on all sides try to weaponize against those that disagree with them, algorithmic news feeds that people have voluntarily handed over their information-seeking ability to, and notifications that allow asynchronous debate to escalate into what people perceive as intrusive interruptions. Many unfortunately don't know how to turn these off, and react in anger.

It's no way to communicate and no way to live.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the echo chambers that were (and still are being) ruthlessly exploited by Bannon-backed Cambridge Analytica and Macedonian-registered ad-laden fake news sites? There is an intense echo chamber on the far right that you've failed to mention, with similar barriers to entry. They've gone as far as to create a walled-off invite-only social network called gab.ai. They brigade similarly on Twitter, and aggressively bl…

I didn't imply echo chambers were limited to my description of the "alt-left". "These views" Can you list another? I started that list with the calling the opponent Hitler example. I would appreciate a cite on "change the definition of per-capita", not because I don't think some "expert" made that assertion... it looks very similar to the similarly meaningless def of "unemployed" some use. Couldn't agree more with yo…

It's definitely not experts making these claims, and that's part of the problem. These are just masses of mindless reshares of unsourced "facts" from strangers. But people bite. People appear to comment by the hundreds indicating belief in them. Check out "Donald Trump American President" administered by "Jimmy Johnson" on Facebook if you really want to see the garbage first hand.

The echo chamber comments were prompted by the statement that "the neo-left is an [order of magnitude] worse". There is, in fact, staggering depravity on the right if you look in the right (cough) places.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#387
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sole point I'll argue in this thread is "so did Lyft". If you're boycotting all ridesharing apps in favour of licensed taxis, that's one thing. But deleting Uber and installing Lyft is misguided.

"I'm #deletingUber to show how anti-Trump I am!" uses Peter Thiel backed Lyft instead funny thing is, Trump supporters are now deleting Lyft in favor of uber. nobody does an ounce of research anymore.

that makes The divided states of America (D.S.A.)

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#388
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand protest. Sure, one thing you can do is disrupt the specific people doing something bad. But that's pretty rare. As MLK explains, the point is to create a more general disruption so that everyone has to take notice of an issue they might otherwise ignore: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is…

> As MLK explains, the point is to create a more general disruption so that everyone has to take notice of an issue they might otherwise ignore The problem with this approach is that unless you do it in a way that's relevant to the original issue, you're just dragging innocent people into your fight and victimizing them. Depending on how much of an asshat you are to them (like, say, stranding them for several hours a…

To the extent that that's true, I'm not sure what the standard for "relevant to the original issue" should be. Taxi drivers are disproportionally Muslim and Sikh and disproportionally immigrants. (noted here: http://democracynow.org/stories/17050 ) Does that count as relevant enough? If not, what would? If so, what else would?

I think that protestors should be careful about their tactics, but I don't think they should have to invent ways to tie a protest's theme to its objective. We protest when our moral values are offended, and that's enough of a reason.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#389
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't about "messaging" or "optics". Kalanick is playing a double game, collaborating with the Trump administration on the one hand, while simultaneously trying to be seen as moral. This is too transparent and Kalanick got caught trying to play both sides. If he believes the Muslim ban and other policies of hate are immoral, he should loudly and publicly resign his position on the president's economic advisory g…

That is how a child would behave. You can't quit and ignore the person in charge. When have you ever heard the advice, "you get what you want by refusing to engage the only people who can do something about it?"

Or it's a child in charge, and it's time the parents assert control.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#390
post #236
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This doesn't make scabbing any less vile, however... Friends don't let friends scab. "If you don't actively participate in my exact form of political activism, you're a bad person!" This is the kind of rhetoric that pushed a ton of people on the fence towards Trump. For some reason, it's a common leftist tactic right now to insist that if you aren't actively engaged in whatever form of extremism the speaker is advo…

> This is the kind of rhetoric that pushed a ton of people on the fence towards Trump. I hate to pick on this quote (I appreciate and suggest people read the rest of your post) but I don't agree with this. A common rightist tactic is to suggest either 1) I was okay with X policy when Obama did something so I have no moral authority to judge it now, or 2) I'm just a liberal whiner, too young, or too weak to appreciate…

Or they're following a newsfeed algorithm that's determining their information-seeking proclivities for them. I honestly find that much more subtly disturbing and manipulatable than willful ignorance – people have ceded control over their information seeking behavior entirely.
Post reply on HN