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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

#251

Post by WillPostForFood »

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…

Since you were there, what are some examples of lonely fights that Google fought for consumers, that weren't in their own business interests?

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

#252

Post by bagacrap »

redm wrote: post #93

The key point of the article is this: “Google is very aggressive in throwing its money around Washington and Brussels, and then pulling the strings,” Mr. Lynn said. “People are so afraid of Google now.” Honestly, the only thing shocking about any of this is that people thought Google was "special". The reality is, when its revenues are threatened, it's going to reach like any other corporation, which it should. Googl…

In what way are you locked into maps? Are you using that phrase to mean you're unable to switch or just that you like the product too much to switch?

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

#253

Post by quickben »

Tistel wrote: post #110

Google might want to look at the history of Standard Oil and the old US wide singular Bell Telephone. If you get so big that you can abuse your power, you will probably start to do so (power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely ...). They tend to get broken up into less powerful pieces. How you break up Google, I don't know. They are an ad tech company with the best search engine and a bunch of money loosing…

These are different times.

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

#254

Post by rhizome »

jerf wrote: post #71
jackmott wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then don't pretend you are a think tank. you are a pr firm, paid to say whatever benefits your clients.

Well, as others have pointed out, it's not hard to read "think tank" as "pr firm". You ought to love the amount of money the $POLITICAL_ALIGNMENT_YOU_HATE spends on "think tanks"; they consume vast piles of money and to a first approximation accomplish absolutely nothing. (A bit closer look and I wouldn't say they are completely achievement-free, but it's still a terrible way to spend money.)

Well, as others have pointed out, it's not hard to read "think tank" as "pr firm".

Sure, but it raises the question why there's a separate "think tank" term, even more why think tanks refer to themselves as such.

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

#255

Post by drewbuschhorn »

xienze wrote: post #165
otakucode wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schmidt was pretty clear in his book that he believes his business success is an indicator of virtue, and that he believes he should use Google and his wealth to intentionally seek to manipulate modern culture. It's a disturbing notion and I've never understood why people weren't more concerned about it. If every significant avenue of communication used by people is controlled and censored by a group, no matter who i…

> and that he believes he should use Google and his wealth to intentionally seek to manipulate modern culture. It's a disturbing notion and I've never understood why people weren't more concerned about it. Because they're pushing the progressive agenda, so who in the media, government, or academia is going to stand in their way? As far as those parties are concerned, Google is doing what corporations "should" do.

Where are these praise Google for its liberalism stories? Prior to Trumpism and the breakdown of modern politics, the only time I really heard people talking about how wonderful it was that Google was liberal was the occasional fluff piece about their solar programs.

So where are the stories of senators saying, "those guys at Google, they're what we should be striving for." As opposed to senators raking them over the coals (rightly) for tax avoidance.

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

#256

Post by root_axis »

kobeya wrote: post #219
guelo wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The real evil is people willing to pivot any discussion to whatever topic they think is more important, destroying a platform for open discourse.

Castigating someone else's opinions as the destruction of open discussion is the height of irony.

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

#257

Post by ryanx435 »

astrodust wrote: post #204
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.

Way to miss the forest for the trees in the analogy.

Google is removing people that have views that differ from the progressive narrative.

It's not just about Google, it's about people who hold progressive beliefs seem to think that it is ok to remove people who express differing opinions.

There is a large number of politicians who hold progressive beliefs. The Google incident can be interpreted as a warning that progressive politicians would remove citizens that express differing opinions if they could.

The ops anecdote about China is a reminder that humans are shit and have the capacity to murder people for expressing differ in views.

It's a warning that progressive are only tolerant to surface characteristics such as skin color and extremely intolerant to anything, even the truth, that contradicts their utopian world view.

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

#258

Post by root_axis »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #240
sangnoir wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because they're pushing the progressive agenda I would say Shmidt's agenda is more neo-liberal than progressive. Not that I endorse it, but corporations pushing an agenda is not new[1] and not limited to the left[2][3], so not even conservative media will stand in their way either since that has been happening for a long time on the right. 1. http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/12/12338/shilling-profit-ca... 2. http:/…

Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A aren't out sending hundreds of millions financing think tanks and lobbyists in Washington, they are just trying to run their own business with their own agenda. And the scale of the companies are orders of magnitude smaller than Google, both are medium sized family owned businesses.

> Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A aren't out sending hundreds of millions financing think tanks and lobbyists in Washington

Why would they? Washington is already controlled by people who share their ideology.

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

#259

Post by mmirate »

kobeya wrote: post #218
notliketherest wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could just as easily be restated: If you don't want to speak out against China then don't live in China. Increasingly these transnational corporations have become in some cases more powerful than states, recording our every movement online and offline, curating what news we read and pushing their agendas and biases.

I didn't have any trouble choosing not to buy Echo/Alexis/whatever.

Yet. First it will be extra features and conveniences to miss; after some time (cheaper hardware etc etc) it will become feasible that all nontrivial Amazon interactions must go through Alexa.

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

#260

Post by Grustaf »

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…

This is exactly the opposite of the lesson here.

Communist repression (and fascist for that matter) WAS of the brute force variety, like in 1984, but what we are seeing now is something completely different. Not quite Brave new world, but definitely with aspects of that. Giants like google don't use violence, very likely they never will. They don't need to. They can nudge leaders and populations in the direction they want, and achieve their goals, through entirely legal and voluntary means.

Looking back at what abuse of power looked like in the past is very dangerous, we will miss the signs of the novel ways that the powerful move their positions forward.

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