Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant

Post by vonnik » Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 8:51 PM UTC

Post by gaius » Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 8:52 PM UTC

kromem wrote: post #326

gaius wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily choose to avoid Amazon - they aren't seeding the entire internet with sly tracking technologies. They are a logistics business that makes money by moving stuff from warehouses to customers. Similarly Apple wants to sell you an iPhone and a laptop and Microsoft wants to sell you an office suite and a database. Real companies with real products and services. But Google's ONLY business is stealing and selli…

Really? Go ahead and avoid anything hosted on or using AWS. Might be a bit difficult, and you may reconsider Amazon's scale relative to Google.

Post by PaulHoule » Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 9:01 PM UTC

louithethrid wrote: post #308

wfo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By active and loud anti-corporate voices do you mean the pro-corporate liberal party, the pro-corporate conservative party, the corporate-owned TV media or the pro-corporate mainstream newspapers? There are anti corporate voices like e.g. Chomsky, Sanders, and they all have a couple of characteristics in common: they are ignored by the powers that be. They are without platforms, and they are without power.

The trick is to narrow the circle of actually "acceptable, reasonable" opinion down to near nothing,and declaring that inside sane- and all other outside free (aka nuts). Both of the partys even tryied that trick upon one another.

Post by Denzel » Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 9:04 PM UTC

ep103 wrote: post #286

hwillis wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's one anti-corporate idea that I've always thought was interesting but AFAIK isn't discussed by anyone: small-corporation libertarianism. In general libertarians are too concerned with government but almost all of them (plus neoliberals and many financially conservative folks) can agree that competition is at least one of their most important economic tenants. Competition is balanced against economies of scale…

That was the norm up until IIRC reagan, Bush 1. The reason we switched off of it, was around that time, the idea was the allow more consolidation at the expense of competition. The rationale was that the American marketplace was already significantly competitive, to the point that market growth was labor constrained, as opposed to today, where it is capital constrained. So by allowing more merges and decreasing overa…

Post by abawany » Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #123

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…

I've actually found FastMail wholly superior to Gmail, HERE Maps refreshingly good at working without a data connection, which is a lifesaver while traveling, and I use Sandstorm.io over Drive, which is capable of a lot more as well. I started with an attempt to leave Google products for political/moral reasons and ended up finding superior products on the way.