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Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

newyorker.com

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Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#3

Perhaps Peter Thiel is a bigger defector, but too 'eccentric' for the New Yorker's politics.

The New Yorker has written about Thiel more than a few times... https://www.newyorker.com/tag/peter-thiel

I don't see that it would be necessary to include him in this profile of someone else, this is less about the Palantir sort of "surveillance tech" than the Facebook sort.

Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#5
Big defector, my ass. He doesn’t even have the cojones to call out his old pal Zuck. McNamee is merely profiting from the techlash to get his name out there.

Source: went to see him speak at Stanford. Asked him myself during live Q&A, if Facebook is so evil and must be stopped, why doesn’t he call out Zuck for terrible leadership given that Facebook culture and business practice comes straight from the top? His answer, direct quote: “well, he and I are friends.”

If this is our big defector, we’ve got serious problems.

Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#6
post #5

Big defector, my ass. He doesn’t even have the cojones to call out his old pal Zuck. McNamee is merely profiting from the techlash to get his name out there. Source: went to see him speak at Stanford. Asked him myself during live Q&A, if Facebook is so evil and must be stopped, why doesn’t he call out Zuck for terrible leadership given that Facebook culture and business practice comes straight from the top? His answe…

When was that? Large sections of the article are about his being anti-Zuck (by name). (In, granted, a PR-happy way - book, tour... but still.)

Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#7
Roger will need to provide equal if not more fight than exponentially-increasing in power Zuck if he wants to tame the beast. Zuck is not a guy that goes to play in rockshows on weekends. We are dealing with a maniacally focused ceo focused on bringing Facebook to the very last indigenous jungle tribes of our planet. Protect your children

Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#8
His whole deal is about the 2016 election. While it exposed legitimate issues, I suspect a lot of anti-Zuck/'techlash' sentiment will die down if a Dem is elected next year.

In fact I suspect even now the Techlash is overstated. Elizabeth Warren spent the month of October going after Zuckerberg and meanwhile lost her front-runner status in the polls. Anti-Big-Tech talking points may be red meat for journalists, but average Americans don't care all that much. (Based on this survey, Tech is still the most trusted industry sector: https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer)

PS. An article about this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/opinion/tech-backlash.htm...

Re: Big Tech's Big Defector: Roger McNamee

#9
post #5

Big defector, my ass. He doesn’t even have the cojones to call out his old pal Zuck. McNamee is merely profiting from the techlash to get his name out there. Source: went to see him speak at Stanford. Asked him myself during live Q&A, if Facebook is so evil and must be stopped, why doesn’t he call out Zuck for terrible leadership given that Facebook culture and business practice comes straight from the top? His answe…

When was that? Large sections of the article are about his being anti-Zuck (by name). (In, granted, a PR-happy way - book, tour... but still.)

April 2019. See link below for context.

To your point: being anti-Zuck in public is a transparent ploy for attention if you're not anti-Zuck in private.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/roger-mcnamee-facebook...

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