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Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

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Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#22
post #18

Throwaway on this one for obvious reasons. Everyone makes mistakes and it is clearly a mistake to take money from repressive regimes. The #metoo movement should take a look at some of these companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

> Everyone makes mistakes and it is clearly a mistake to take money from repressive regimes. Is it clearly a mistake to take money from the CIA? The DoD? A couple of current Silicon Valley giants have been seeded by that money.

You are comparing the CIA/DOD with the Saudi Kingdom?

Really? One still answers to a democratically, elected president and Congress. One does not.

This isn't comparable.

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#23
post #18

Throwaway on this one for obvious reasons. Everyone makes mistakes and it is clearly a mistake to take money from repressive regimes. The #metoo movement should take a look at some of these companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

> Everyone makes mistakes and it is clearly a mistake to take money from repressive regimes. Is it clearly a mistake to take money from the CIA? The DoD? A couple of current Silicon Valley giants have been seeded by that money.

That involves a completely different set of moral questions and decision making.

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#24
post #5

I doubt this will be a popular opinion on HN, but...this is what comes of libertarianism. What is a government other than a group of people who agree to work together toward certain goals and hold each other accountable to certain moral and ethical standards? Yet somehow, "government" has become the enemy, a thing to be done away with or reduced in scope. When you do that, and replace government with "voted for with…

not a libertarian, but what do the alleged actions of of a theocratic monarchy have to do with the potential excesses of free market capitalism?

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#25
Caring about the politics of who you do business with is a two way street. Other people will care about your politics. Not wanting do do business with people who you don't like is perfectly reasonable but it's also a luxury. There's a lot of shitty people and organizations in the world and you can't not do business with all of them. The world needs oil and money a lot more than it needs Uber for goldfish.

Unless there's some actual backlash I think this will blow over and thus far I don't see any "actual backlash". The Google censorship thing barely touched the evening news so I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#26
I hope everyone who condemns the Saudis and those doing business w/them are doing the same with those doing so with China.

China regularly disappears its citizens, and now openly is sending them by the hundreds of thousands to re-education camps.

Xi and Prince Salman are two sides of the same coin and if you're comfortable with one and not the other, you're just virtue signaling.

I'm just a IT guy at a business that doesn't have to do business with either regime, so I don't care where people come down on this per se, other than being tired of rampant hypocrisy.

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#27
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone makes mistakes and it is clearly a mistake to take money from repressive regimes. Is it clearly a mistake to take money from the CIA? The DoD? A couple of current Silicon Valley giants have been seeded by that money.

You are comparing the CIA/DOD with the Saudi Kingdom? Really? One still answers to a democratically, elected president and Congress. One does not. This isn't comparable.

I don't care who they answer to, I care about what they do. The CIA has a history of torture and terrorism. The DOD has most recently, caused the deaths of a couple hundred thousand people in the Middle East.

Just because you live in a democracy doesn't mean you can wash your hands of it. The British empire was a parliamentary democracy, and it has done a lot of truly abhorrent stuff over the 18th and 19th centures.

I mean, I would prefer ethical sources of funding, but drawing the line at "Sadui bad, China bad, Russia bad, American agencies/companies/individuals good" is tribalism.

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#28
I can see no problem in the very fact of taking money from whatever bad people. The problem can only be in what do they want you to give in exchange. As long as they can't force you to support their evil policies or do anything to fulfill them, what's the problem with the money?

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#29
post #26

I hope everyone who condemns the Saudis and those doing business w/them are doing the same with those doing so with China. China regularly disappears its citizens, and now openly is sending them by the hundreds of thousands to re-education camps. Xi and Prince Salman are two sides of the same coin and if you're comfortable with one and not the other, you're just virtue signaling. I'm just a IT guy at a business that…

Isn't your attitude basically. "whataboutism" [1].

The journey to change starts with a single action... don't disagree with the hypocrisy, but change can't happen if it's prevented from operating in some circumstances in a silo.

[1] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Re: Saudi Backlash Threatens U.S. Startups

#30

I can see no problem in the very fact of taking money from whatever bad people. The problem can only be in what do they want you to give in exchange. As long as they can't force you to support their evil policies or do anything to fulfill them, what's the problem with the money?

Here’s one example: Because eventually they expect you to multiply that money and then they can use that multiplied money to commit more crimes.
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