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Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

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11–20 of 64 posts

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#11
That is a such an emblematic, iconic, fantastic image - the carcass of the car and all it represents, surrounded by humans somewhat curious but also somewhat satisfied, much as the first woolly mammoth kill must have been.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#12
The whole article reads like what I don't like is immoral and what is immoral justifies my action (to a certain degree, at least). So, I really don't understand: why do techies still even go to the city? Just leave it alone and come back to the south bay.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#13
>We don’t yet know exactly why a group of people very publicly graffitied, smashed, and torched a Waymo car in San Francisco.

Viewed through the lens of Broken Window Theory, perhaps people are more brazen given the current state of SF.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#15

People are reading way too much into the Waymo incident. It was Chinese new year. There was a bunch of drunk people in the street. Somebody messed with the car, and then somebody else did, and so on. Until somebody threw a firework in there out of memetic one upmanship and it caught the thing on fire. You can see this in the videos. This was not ideological, it was just mob revelry gone awry.

I was there walking through a little over an hour before and didn't see anyone drinking. Police had shown up and tried stopping some of the fireworks in the middle of the intersection.

I think it's important to consider why of all the cars passing through and parked on the street it was the Waymo car that got vandalized.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#16
Yeah, when I saw this the other day I figured most people are simply going to dismiss it — anarchists, ne'er-do-wells.

But it struck a kind chord with me that there is more to it then cowardly vandalism. I don't think all of the vented angst is toward Big Tech specifically but I think that is part of it. I think big tech have come to represent wealthy corporations that serve only themselves and their uber-rich patrons.

Society is in an upheaval, and in no small part due to changes brought on by the internet and now mobile (and soon AI). But in all the other ways the world is also changing for the worse I think people will quickly turn to scapegoating and rich tech is an easy target.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#17
post #9

> We don’t yet know exactly why a group of people very publicly graffitied, smashed, and torched a Waymo car in San Francisco Having been to San Francisco lately, I would not be surprised to see all cars and houses smashed and burned. The city is basically that CHAZ thing in Seattle.

I, for one, would be surprised to arrive in SF and find all cars and houses smashed and burned.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#18
post #9

> We don’t yet know exactly why a group of people very publicly graffitied, smashed, and torched a Waymo car in San Francisco Having been to San Francisco lately, I would not be surprised to see all cars and houses smashed and burned. The city is basically that CHAZ thing in Seattle.

No it isn't? I live in SF and it is not a war zone or anything resembling anarchy.

Re: Torching the Google car: Why the growing revolt against big tech just escalated

#19
post #9

> We don’t yet know exactly why a group of people very publicly graffitied, smashed, and torched a Waymo car in San Francisco Having been to San Francisco lately, I would not be surprised to see all cars and houses smashed and burned. The city is basically that CHAZ thing in Seattle.

You're reciting a meme, informed by a moderate crime wave in and slightly after the pandemic, and amplified by partisan media and echo chambers like the one here on HN. In fact SF crime rates in virtually all categories are at 12+ year lows: https://sfgov.org/scorecards/public-safety/violent-crime-rat...
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