Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job • Hacker News Board

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#291

Post by anonforthis323 » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:28 AM UTC

nugi wrote: post #107

chrischen wrote: post #38

"Dozens of social media accounts were tweeting angry things, including many death threats, at both Roy and Marriott. This seems especially odd considering Twitter itself is officially banned in China, and thus can be accessed only by residents breaking the law or by bot accounts." Not sure why they assume that "dozens of social media accounts" of pro-China supporters is not possible. They're making some weird assumpt…

Everyone outside china sees tibet, tiawan as seperate countries half invaded by qn incompetent and opressive china.

That's not true at all.

A lot of expat Chinese are strongly patriotic.

I would also add that a lot of the pro-independence Taiwanese I know actually see Tibet as a part of China too. It's weird, I know.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#292

Post by lopmotr » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:28 AM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #52

chrischen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea it's weird I feel like liking the tweet should pale in comparison to whoever listed Tibet as its own country. Seems like the mistake was listing tibet as a country on the survey and they fired a guy just because he put attention to it by liking a tweet (and was thus used as a sacrifice). If I were China, I'd probably demand the firing of someone more consequential than a random minimum wage worker who had little…

If you were in China would you really find it insulting that Tibet is considered by some to be its own country? It was invaded, and I can’t really see any other way to characterise what happened.

It's not insulting. It's a threat to their sovereignty. It's comparable to if lots of map makers changed the borders of the US to give Texas to Mexico, and it was acknowledged by international companies operating there and it was taught to kids in school. Eventually, by massive popular belief, it would be nearly impossible to retain it under US control because everyone would think it's obviously part of Mexico, including vtoers. Of course there's no risk of that happening in the US so they don't have to police it. For recently taken territories though, the position is weaker and easier to lose, so the new owners have to control the popular belief about whose it is.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#293

Post by anonforthis323 » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:29 AM UTC

helloindia wrote: post #277

chrischen wrote: post #38

"Dozens of social media accounts were tweeting angry things, including many death threats, at both Roy and Marriott. This seems especially odd considering Twitter itself is officially banned in China, and thus can be accessed only by residents breaking the law or by bot accounts." Not sure why they assume that "dozens of social media accounts" of pro-China supporters is not possible. They're making some weird assumpt…

Have you not heard about China's 50 cent army?

To those that are unfamiliar, the "50 cent army" is China's version of America's "Operation Earnest Voice."

It's basically "an astroturfing campaign by the US government.[1] The aim of the initiative is to use sockpuppets to spread pro-American propaganda on social networking sites based outside of the US. [1]"

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Earnest_Voice

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#294

Post by sdrothrock » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:29 AM UTC

paradite wrote: post #290

Chinese citizen here. A few points that I want to make after reading some comments: 1. I would be personally offended if anyone or any organization lists Tibet as a country. 2. Lots of Chinese people would be offended too by this. Reasons for 1 and 2: - It is a piece of wrong information - The wrong information directly contradicts what is considered basic knowledge in China - That basic knowledge happens to be on th…

For an American perspective, I've thought about this a lot while talking to Chinese friends, and I wonder if the closest thing to this in American culture (while not being at all equivalent, just analogous) would be claiming that Puerto Rico is the 51st state.

Factually, it is not.

Emotionally, some people may want it to be and may very well have valid arguments for it.

People across the US and Puerto Rico would have strong opinions on either side of the argument.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#295

Post by brownbat » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:30 AM UTC

KyeRussell wrote: post #203

banned1 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why many companies don’t hire many people in France http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/knowledge/publications/14...

Proponents of a largely deregulated labour market love talking about France. As someone working in Australia—a country with labour laws that are more sane than France (and definitely the U.S.)—instantly bringing up France just tends to stink of a false dichotomy and a line of rhetoric from people that try to justify the U.S.'s unjustifiably unfair labour laws. I suggest that people who aren't familiar with Australia'…

Agreed we shouldn't cherry pick countries.

One interesting thing about France and Australia is that by the Ease of Doing Business Index over the last decade, France is gaining on but still behind Australia. (FRA: 44 -> 31; AUS: 6 -> 14).

So suppose we agreed France was performing worse economically than Australia over the last decade. Then we might conclude that absolute position matters and liberalization is important. Or we might as likely conclude the complete opposite, that gains on the index don't matter and liberalization isn't important.

And that's not even bringing the Economic Freedom Index into things, which has a radically different ranking based on similar criteria.

It's almost as if a lot of of what people believe about economics on both sides is under-determined by the available evidence.

But eh, maybe that's too cynical. That's just two countries. I'd really like to see some data analysis on how much "ease of doing business" (or some similar metric) matters to GDP--and maybe also to surveys of feelings of job security / satisfaction as well. Looking across most countries, maybe hard patterns would emerge. Or maybe economics is all noise unless you're at Weimar levels of malfeasance, who knows.

South Korea, Georgia, and Macedonia have skyrocketed up the EoDB chart, so I guess for any of us who suspect there's a sufficiently strong link, we have an opportunity to put our money down.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#296

Post by ascorbic » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:31 AM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #242

ucarion wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government of the United States does not demand that mainland China relinquish control of Tibet. Nor does the USA insist on censoring mainland controversies or on punishing foreigners who say inconvenient things. This difference is essential. You are free to criticize America. People, including politicians, regularly do so. China, despite claiming to be a strong, ascendant power, is remarkably sensitive when it c…

Marriott didn’t criticize China so much as enacted policy that China didn’t feel served its political interests and policies. As a result they retaliated by denying them the market and money making opportunity that they do not have a entitlement to in the first place. It’s no different from say US enforcing political policies such as the Nixon era drug wars against black and other poor minorities, sanctions against R…

This would all be fine if it weren't based on a false premise that all actions are equivalent. Proportionality matters. I may not agree with it, but if this was based on, say, Marriott issuing a statement calling for a free Tibet, then it would at least be a little more proportionate. However this was a liked tweet and an error in a web form, swiftly corrected.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#297

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:34 AM UTC

paradite wrote: post #290

Chinese citizen here. A few points that I want to make after reading some comments: 1. I would be personally offended if anyone or any organization lists Tibet as a country. 2. Lots of Chinese people would be offended too by this. Reasons for 1 and 2: - It is a piece of wrong information - The wrong information directly contradicts what is considered basic knowledge in China - That basic knowledge happens to be on th…

Quite obviously everyone here knows it's not literally about pedantry of whether Tibet is part of China's defacto legal territory.

And none of us care one bit if you're offended.

Your offense to a sense of nationalism, no matter how historical or ingrained, does not excuse the past and continued injustice of what has been forced on the Tibetan people.

Edit: downvotes to this post were literally instantaneous. This topic is most likely being botted.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#298

Post by anonforthis323 » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:34 AM UTC

coldacid wrote: post #19

Well, I certainly won't be staying at any Marriott hotels any more. That's an abysmal way of handling things.

Is it? It seems like a very standard way of handling things.

Also, Marriott is definitely one of the better mid-range chains.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#299

Post by ascorbic » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:35 AM UTC

gowld wrote: post #84

chrischen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea it's weird I feel like liking the tweet should pale in comparison to whoever listed Tibet as its own country. Seems like the mistake was listing tibet as a country on the survey and they fired a guy just because he put attention to it by liking a tweet (and was thus used as a sacrifice). If I were China, I'd probably demand the firing of someone more consequential than a random minimum wage worker who had little…

The Chinese Communist Party (note: this is not "China") doesn't demand firing of anyone. This is just Marriott's way of sucking up to the Chinese Communist Party and management dissociating themselves from their mistakes

> The Chinese Communist Party (note: this is not "China") doesn't demand firing of anyone.

If you believe the article, that is literally what they did.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#300

Post by charlieflowers » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 6:36 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #294

paradite wrote: post #290

Chinese citizen here. A few points that I want to make after reading some comments: 1. I would be personally offended if anyone or any organization lists Tibet as a country. 2. Lots of Chinese people would be offended too by this. Reasons for 1 and 2: - It is a piece of wrong information - The wrong information directly contradicts what is considered basic knowledge in China - That basic knowledge happens to be on th…

For an American perspective, I've thought about this a lot while talking to Chinese friends, and I wonder if the closest thing to this in American culture (while not being at all equivalent, just analogous) would be claiming that Puerto Rico is the 51st state. Factually, it is not. Emotionally, some people may want it to be and may very well have valid arguments for it. People across the US and Puerto Rico would have…

Anecdotally, I'm an American and that statement would get barely a chuckle out of me. I really wouldn't care and most people I know wouldn't either.

So I don't know if it's the best analogy.