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Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#201

Post by Jesus_Jones »

matt4077 wrote: post #174
fowlerpower wrote: post #17

The thing is that Google has absolutely gone down questionable path from their early days. It is a little unfair to think this problem exists only within Google. Time and time again we are reminded why corporations will evolve to become as greedy and as protective of their turf expansive of their power and monopolistic as they can get, even if good people are running them. It is the system itself that does this, corp…

What? Wait! I can't follow... The article doesn't even say that Schmidt called for the guy's head. It seems to have been the Foundation's decision. That's arguably a spineless move, but then again it's probably in their interest. And what, exactly, would be ethically wrong about stopping funding for an institution you no longer agree with? After all, every single donation to charity is based on the principle that tho…

Are you being oblivious on purpose? It strains credibility to think that Schmidt and Google didn't like a blog post by a think tank they funded generously to criticize them. I'm pretty confident they acted to get it taken down and wanted him gone. Suppose that wasn't the case, what conceivable reason would there before for kicking them out? The tank says: "it was a shared decision to kick them out". The other side: "they kicked us out because of this".

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#202

Post by matt4077 »

seanf wrote: post #87
matt4077 wrote: post #25

90 points in less than an hour. This guy's fight for his right to be wrong is surprisingly energising to this community. I'm even sympathetic to the criticism of Google. But for the life of me I can't figure out why this particular employment dispute gets this sort of billing... Arguably the US government (an entity endowed with something literally called "the monopoly on violence") just pardoned someone who build an…

This article is not about the memo guy.

Indeed. It's yet another poor sob Google tries to silence by getting him onto the New York Times front page :)

I stand corrected, and pledge to actually read the article next time around,

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#203

Post by eighthnate »

corporateslave3 wrote: post #138
eighthnate wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I wrote : "Hillary was probably even more pro-corporations/neo-liberalism than trump. But democrats will argue that hillary cared about the lowly workers." > Second, Trump campaigned on lowering immigration and tariffs, by far the most anti-corporate policies American president supported in the living memory. Sure. If a NY billionaire is the "most anti-corporate" president, then does that prove what I'm sa…

Trump was: Anti globalization in all of its manifestations (immigration, tariffs, taxes, trade) That was what he ran on. How can you say he was pro corporation?

> Anti globalization in all of its manifestations (immigration, tariffs, taxes, trade)

He wasn't anti-globalization. If you listened to what he said, he was anti-"terrible" "free" trade deals which he claimed benefits other nations but not the US.

He was pro-globalization where the US wins - according to his definition.

> That was what he ran on. How can you say he was pro corporation?

Because he is? The guy is a "corporation".

You think a NY billionaire is "anti-corporation"?

The fact that people are even claiming that a NY billionaire is anti-corporations just proves my point. If Trump = "anti-corporation", then "anti-corporation" is meaningless.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#204

Post by astrodust »

ex3xu wrote: post #175

I recently picked up a book called, "No Wall Too High", the translated man who escaped from a Chinese labor camp under Mao Zedong. In this book, during his time in a re-education camp in Lijiang, the author relates seeing the story of Yang Shukang -- a man whose crime was simply writing a letter to the central leadership in Beijing saying that two thousand people had starved to death in his town of Jiuhe during the g…

Was not aware that 2000 people starved to death at Google.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#205

Post by turk183 »

itg wrote: post #42
turk183 wrote: post #39

I just spent the better part of a week getting myself off of GMail. I'm still using Chrome at work for development, but have Brave browser for personal use now. I'm using DuckDuckGo for searches. I have an iPhone, but honestly, I don't trust Apple to not act like total dumbasses and so I am now lamenting the consolidation in the smart phone space. Google and these other companies are blowing themselves up over idioti…

What email service did you switch to? I'm thinking of doing the same.

Protonmail. I can afford the $50/yr. for better email and it's something I should have done a long time ago. I was a GMail user since GMail was a thing, though. It breaks my heart to see Google do this stuff, but I just can't morally stay with them. I don't know what they are, I don't know how compromised they are by the intelligence agencies that run this country, I don't know a lot of things.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#206

Post by ebola1717 »

jcoffland wrote: post #195
ex3xu wrote: post #175

I recently picked up a book called, "No Wall Too High", the translated man who escaped from a Chinese labor camp under Mao Zedong. In this book, during his time in a re-education camp in Lijiang, the author relates seeing the story of Yang Shukang -- a man whose crime was simply writing a letter to the central leadership in Beijing saying that two thousand people had starved to death in his town of Jiuhe during the g…

Great story but I fail to see the connection. This is a case of don't shit where you eat. If you want to speak out against Google then don't belong to an organization funded by Google.

That's exactly how we got to the situation we're in with climate change. The fact that corporate money can hold so much influence over what we research, what we say, and therefore what we know and believe, is and has already proved itself to be dangerous.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#207

Post by guelo »

ex3xu wrote: post #175

I recently picked up a book called, "No Wall Too High", the translated man who escaped from a Chinese labor camp under Mao Zedong. In this book, during his time in a re-education camp in Lijiang, the author relates seeing the story of Yang Shukang -- a man whose crime was simply writing a letter to the central leadership in Beijing saying that two thousand people had starved to death in his town of Jiuhe during the g…

Give me a break. Nobody is even censoring anybody's speech here. The real evil here is the lobbying organization itself. Corporations and billionaires buying our politicians and distorting the public debate is a much bigger threat than some lobbyist's freedom to argue against his boss's interests.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#208

Post by Jesus_Jones »

DannyBee wrote: post #147
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google was never good. They only ever did what they thought fit their strategy at the time, to allow them to grow and make more money.

Whatever may be happening now, this is super-revisionist history. Google fought a large number of very lonely fights in the early dates, all in the name of consumers, the industry, and doing the right thing. It took a very large number of lumps and made a lot of enemies for doing so, but did it anyway. I was there, in the DC office, working next to the policy director (I started the engineering side when he started t…

So if you were there, please explain why google supports ALEC and conservative republican senators like Inhofe?

Google doesn't share anything in common with people like him, other than not wanting to be sued by the govt. When I was at Google, there was a lot of complaining about this support and no explanation.

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#209

Post by [deleted] »

matt4077 wrote: post #169
Chaebixi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alphabet's is "Do the Right Thing" For the shareholders, of course. Does anyone else even matter?

Isn't this, like, cynicism completely decoupled from reality? Google invests a lot of money and time in a myriad of projects with altruistic motivation. Google summer of code, $100 Million per year for non-profits, OSS releases such as tensorflow or Chrome, google.org and on and on. Of course you can say that this is motivated by PR objectives. But then you're creating a situation where they couldn't do anything righ…

[deleted]

Re: Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

#210

Post by turk183 »

fixermark wrote: post #98
turk183 wrote: post #39

I just spent the better part of a week getting myself off of GMail. I'm still using Chrome at work for development, but have Brave browser for personal use now. I'm using DuckDuckGo for searches. I have an iPhone, but honestly, I don't trust Apple to not act like total dumbasses and so I am now lamenting the consolidation in the smart phone space. Google and these other companies are blowing themselves up over idioti…

The original Internet was about connecting military and academic institutions via physically-secured machines and infrastructure decentralization. We're at least two major iterations into "What the Internet is about" now.

Yes, my segue into all of this was 1991 if that helps. SMTP, FTP, Gopher, Usenet--protocols, not platforms controlled by psychotic billionaires.
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